There is a huge Italian popular music tradition full of great crooners, of whom Caruso is the paradigm, and the softer side of doo-wop is definitely in the croonertradition plowed by him, Perry Como and scores of others of Italian descent. That's the romantic side of the doo-wop house. The other side, which bleeds on down into Motown, is a mixture of black shuffling, Baptist hallelujah and broken-hearted Creole love songs. With, perhaps, a tiny twist of Germanic oompah thrown in just to confuse things!

That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it, if I can find it again...


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