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“I never was a child, although I was billed in every theater and auditorium where I appeared as a child star,” Lymon told Art Peters, a reporter for Ebony magazine, in 1967. Truth is, Frankie Lymon grew up too fast in every way imaginable. Berry Gordy may not have modeled the Jackson 5 on Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, as is often said, but it sure sounded as if he had. Even Diana Ross charted a cover of “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?” 25 years after its release. The high, clear countertenor, like something out of Renaissance church music, found its way from the Temptations to the Beach Boys to Earth, Wind & Fire. That voice and that style influenced two generations of rock, soul and R&B giants. He was a founding father of rock ’n’ roll even before his voice had changed. That made him the first black teenage pop star, a gap-toothed, baby-faced, angel-voiced paragon of show business ambition, and a camera-ready avatar of America’s new postwar youth movement. Overnight, Frankie Lymon was the hottest singer in America, off on a world tour. A few months later their first record, “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?” made it to the top of the national charts.
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They were discovered by the Valentines’ lead singer Richie Barrett while the kids were rehearsing in an apartment house. They sang doo-wop under the streetlight on the corner of 165th and Amsterdam. And it was a great story, too: Up from nothing! A shooting star! So when they found Frankie Lymon dead at the age of 25 one February morning in 1968, in the same apartment building where he’d grown up, it was the end of something and the beginning of something, but no one was quite sure what.įrankie Lymon and the Teenagers were five kids from Washington Heights, just north of Harlem. That beautiful soprano flying high, talent and presence and just enough ham to sell it all. That voice! Those apple cheeks! Arms wide, head back, he radiates joy, even in antique black and white. In December 1957, Lymon appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” to sing “Goody Goody,” nearly two years after “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?” was a hit debut single.