1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die - 1959

And voted Flamingos. Beautiful song, and way superior to all other doo-wop ever made.

The Flamingos are indeed great. But What'd I Say is untouchable.

Beautiful song, and way superior to all other doo-wop ever made.

fixed that for you.

I can see "What'd I Say" receiving a lot of votes here. Although personally I like "Georgia On My Mind" a lot more.

I voted for Mack the Knife for strictly personal like reasons, and way superior to all other Bobby Darin songs ever made.

quite impossible to choose between What'd I Say, I Only Have Eyes For You and Ne Me Quitte Pas

The Flamingos, pretty easily for me. I like "Mack the Knife" well enough but prefer the original ramshackle brass band waltz version to Bobby's swing.

One of my first records I ever owned was:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T64CgXT5p-I/S_QUV3LdvcI/AAAAAAAAF1k/FPpGB3MVRnU/s1600/IMG_0011.jpg

.. this one.

Beautiful song, and way superior to all other doo-wop ever made.

I'm voting for it too. But again, you need to append phrases like "for me" into such grand sweeping pronouncements; speaking as a doo-wop fan, that's (to be charitable) patently untrue.

(A long long time ago, Geir did say that any pronouncements he makes like this has an implicit "in my opinion", which isn't really good enough but will have to do, I guess)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBMDX2sR27U

Ray Charles

Beautiful song, and way superior to all other doo-wop music ever made.

Flamingos.

flamingos, because it's a great song but also because of the fugees track that samples it and that episode of buffy

Personally, I am more fond of Art Garfunkel's version. :) But when I heard the original, I was impressed how smooth and "modern" it sounded as well, considering it was from 1959 at all. Sounding almost like a Chi-Lites effort from the early 70s.

can't believe "Shout" came out in 1959

flamingos for sure

The Flamingos gonna take this with a landslide...

ray charles, because his music never makes me feel like killing myself.

Pretty sure no Flamingos landslide. Ray Charles will probably be strong competition. Don't see any of the other options up there, although "Shout" and "Mack The Knife" will probably have their share too.

But again, you need to append phrases like "for me" into such grand sweeping pronouncements;

Don't listen to them. Everybody in the world loves grand sweeping pronouncements.

Voted Flamingos.

Flamingos.

I thought it'd be a Flamingos landslide when I saw them on here, but just as quickly I realized "What I'd Say" would get a lot of votes too. I'm guessing the Flamingos draw somewhere between 50% more votes and twice as many.

Grand sweeping pronouncement: grand sweeping pronouncements need context. But Mark G. explained Geir's "m.o.," and that's fine. I agree that if you're constantly saying "for me, for me," something I'm guilty of, it becomes repetitive before long. I think it depends on how eye-opening the pronouncement is. If you say, "'Ticket to Ride''s the greatest pop song ever," no "for me" necessary--most people won't agree, but very few would consider it an odd statement. Saying the Flamingos song is way superior to all other doo-wop ever made--like it stands apart from a largely mediocre genre--is an odd statement. For me. (I also think it's the kind of statement that would only be made by someone who's heard relatively little doo-wop--i.e., not much beyond the staple hits. In terms of Geir, maybe I'm wrong.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrSOuj1CNM0

Saying the Flamingos song is way superior to all other doo-wop ever made--like it stands apart from a largely mediocre genre--is an odd statement.

It does stand apart as a great song from an otherwise quite mediocre genre though. Doo-wop is still a better genre than rock'n'roll to me, but suffers a bit from maybe a bit too repetitive songs. The best music at this time was made in Brill Building pop, and in some Brill Building/Tin Pan Alley-influenced early soul (like Sam Cooke, for instance).

As I suspected. Enough said.

That song was written in the '30s. Does it really even qualify as doo wop? I know the Flamingos were a doo wop group.

I know what you mean, but I think the Flamingos more or less tranform it into doo-wop, just like the Beatles transformed whatever they did into pop music ("Act Naturally," "A Taste of Honey," etc.).

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Came here to express the agony of picking between "I Only Have Eyes For You" and "What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?", and then found that the latter wasn't even here. (No, I haven't read the book.)

So, very much the Flamingos, then.

There are glaring omissions in every year here. But then, also some interesting picks, not least from the 80s.

For me its Jaques Brel or The Flamingos.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Kind of shocked; not at the Flamingos' win, but I thought "What'd I Say" and "Shout" would be neck-and-neck.

A little closer than I thought for the top two, but yes, I would have thought "Shout" would get a number of votes too.

The next couple years are going to be a bit rough.

Results looking pretty much as expected I'd say. I thought maybe it'd be even tighter between the first two.

yeah..

Righto, 1960!