Cover Story’s Doo Wop Does It
If you’ve ever seen a movie that takes place in the 1950s, you’ve heard doo wop. Doo wop started in NY in the 40s and 50s, boiling rhythm and blues down to its essence, then adding some silk. Its defining characteristics are heartfelt lyrics about love, heavy harmonies, a spoken section of the song, and a shooby doo bee doo or two. It paved the way for many vocal styles, and without it, hip hop and modern pop wouldn’t sound the same. (Even today’s rapper adlibs pay homage to the made-up syllables of doo-wop.)
Cover Story came up in the 60s and 70s listening to doo wop and everything else that reached them in Brooklyn, from Curtis Mayfield to the Beatles. They each sang in separate soul groups and musical projects until they met each other. When they combined their voices, they knew they had found something special. When we first heard them, we knew we had found something special, too.
We recorded Cover Story in Brooklyn at Aura. We used a Beyerdynamic MC930, Avedis MA5 preamps, and a Bock 47 through a Great River preamp. The resulting pack is full of loops and one-shots of their velvet voices. Use it for any productions that need vocals with that feeling from a different time.
