The Flamingos • I Only Have Eyes For You / Golden Teardrops
It’s time again - “Fab Fifties Friday Night:”
On Friday nights we pick a different 50s artist to spotlight. Because the 1950s was such a fun era of music, we’re trying to keep it from being lost in time, like the hula hoop or ice cream trucks or roller rinks. So here is this week’s featured artist: The Flamingos
The Flamingos are a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted doo-woo group from the U.S. most popular in the mid-to late 1950s and best known for their 1959 cover version of “I Only Have Eyes For You,” Billboard magazine wrote: "Universally hailed as one of the finest and most influential vocal groups in pop music history, the Flamingos defined doo wop at its most elegant and sophisticated."
The fifties: a time of musical change.
The place: Chicago, home of the blues, gospel, jazz. Pulsating with rhythm and nightlife. No other city except perhaps New Orleans has that rhythm. The sounds from the independent labels - Chess, Checker, Chance, Parrot, United, Vee-Jay - are setting the pace.
The groups - the Dells, the Spaniels, the El Dorados, the Moonglows - are creating the Chicago sound. Enter into this mix a group called the Swallows, who must change their name because of an existing group. They call themselves El Flamingos and then the Flamingos.
Claims to fame:
Created a cover of the standard "I Only Have Eyes For You" which some consider one of the finest doo-wop songs ever recorded
Were a constant presence on the R&B vocal scene from its earliest postwar days up through the early Sixties
Helped bring doo-wop into respectability by moving from raw R&B to pop standards
One of the first vocal groups to play their own instruments on stage, if not on record
Major players in the history of Chicago R&B and rock and roll, and the single biggest influence on the Temptations
Surviving members successfully sued Pepsi for $250,000 when the company used "Eyes" in an ad without permission
Though they’ve had only one national top 20 hit and only 11 national charters all told, the artists they’ve influenced (including THE TEMPTATIONS, Diana Ross and THE SUPREMES, THE JACKSON FIVE, SMOKEY ROBINSON AND THE MIRACLES, HAROLD MELVIN AND THE BLUE NOTES, and GLADYS KNIGHT AND THE PIPS to name just a few) testify to their significance.
When Dick Clark wanted the best for his “Rock & Roll: The First Twenty-Five Years on TV,” the Flamingos were there. When the 1988 Grammy Awards wanted the best of the ‘50s, the Flamingos were there.
Elegant vocals, musical pioneers, living legends, all terms used by legions of music lovers to describe the Flamingos. The simplest and most direct accolade would be that they were the best vocal group in history. Not the most successful, not having the most outstanding lead or deepest bass, but for breathtakingly beautiful harmonies enveloping and supporting a lead there were none better.
Check them out for yourself to brighten up your Friday night:
“I Only Have Eyes For You” on Spotify
The Best of The Flamingos
Here is a video of The Flamingos, with a live performance of “I Only Have Eyes For You”
