Flashback with me to the 1950s. June Cleaver made the perfect housewife, Dennis was the only menace to society, and Ed Sullivan tucked TV Land in at night.
But beyond that whitewashed suburban dream, the very real Civil Rights Movement was changing the country. African-Americans refused to give up their seats on buses, Brown v. the Board of Education desegregated public schools, and at 13-years-old, little Frankie Lymon became the first black teenage pop/rock sensation fronting… The Teenagers.
“Why Do Fools Fall In Love?” skyrocketed the boys to fame as mainstream music’s first all-teenage act, too. And although many, many other artists of all races covered the song, for one of the first times in American music history, no one could steal the shine from these people of color. They were just that good. Here, the Teenagers perform on “The Frankie Laine Show” in 1956 with a cheeky introduction beforehand. On the few occasions people of color did appear on TV in this era, their portrayals were usually terribly racist stereotypes, and though I bristled a bit at a couple of the jokes written for Frankie & the Teenagers, being able to see these young men as living, breathing people with real personalities and voices is so refreshing and endearing. Especially when you consider that these three African-American and two Puerto Rican adolescents integrated music and variety television before any of them could vote.
Well. Sort of. Because when Frankie danced with a white girl on one of those variety shows, the show was abruptly cancelled altogether. Racism was just one more obstacle to dodge in the constant tight-walking act thrust upon him by his early introduction to and integration of the music industry. Ultimately, Frankie left the Teenagers, then music altogether, and on the morning he was due to record again, was found dead at 25.
But Frankie’s work didn’t go in vain. Audiences and TV producers now craved the sound and sight of something that was brand new to them, and black girl groups in particular like The Supremes, The Shirelles, and The Marvelettes with their tight harmonies and bright costumes reaped the benefits. Not to mention all of the successful boy and girl groups in a genre that wouldn’t even exist without Frankie & the Teenagers. Still, like everyone else who performed “Why Do Fools Fall In Love?” learned, there’s just something about the original.
𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗘𝗦 𝗧𝗢 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘:
“Love is a losing game
Love can be a shame
I know of a fool, you see
For that fool is me!”