i love the del vikings, frankie lymon and ruben and the jets. on the tube of you, recorded by the bbc, there’s a song by frank zappa and the mothers of invention called “oh in the sky”, sung by roy estrada. the pictures of those guys inside the gatefold of we’re only in it for the money, haunted me as a kid, in a good way. fascinating looking people/ artists and intensely doo wop. it often seems like parody and maybe partly it is, but they share so much detail to their structure, melodic sensibility and design of background vocals – there is a scholarly degree of doo wopinology. not a surprise for people born in the forties. back to “oh in the sky”, it is pretty unbelievable because it’s roy estrada, the bass player, singing throughout instead of ray collins. on first listen i thought it was intentionally incoherent. improvising with voice, very high pitched and unexpected and funny/ avant garde both his register and lack of anyone smiling. plus, you know people watching for real in 1960something would be shocked/ freaked out/ angry. maybe most people today too. favourite comment left by consumers of youtube “rip headphone users”.  however, on second listen i realized what i took to be intentionally incoherent was actually roy estrada singing simply the four words of the title: oh in the sky. he sings as though it is a linear story, as though each time it means something else. this was remarkable and as awesome and enjoyable as it was horrible and shocking to read he is now 80ish, living out a jail sentence in texas, scheduled for release in his 90s if by that time he is still alive. the other member of the mothers, who seemed to really own the doo wop mantle was ray collins. one lone youtube clip is all i could find to make us kneel down and salute the greatness of that voice. i bet he is the ruben of ruben and the jets. awesome voice. frank had a knack for curating the best of everything. the guy who sings lucille on joe’s garage – awesome. back to ray, who started the soul giants and hired frank zappa who turned it around and morphed into the mothers of invention. ray, left the band, didn’t like the satirical direction. he was a serious doo wopinologist. then he lived for a long time in a van. so it goes. it’s a beautiful youtube video of him singing.