A Look Back at ‘Forgotten Angel’ and a Teenager

“Great” and “tragic” are words that are invariably used when pop historians refer to ‘50s R&B; singers Clyde McPhatter and Frankie Lymon.

If such hits as McPhatter’s “Money Honey” and Lymon’s “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” point to the glory and influence of these Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members, the dark side of their careers is underscored by substance abuse and early deaths.

McPhatter was 39 when he died in 1972 of a heart attack that was believed to have been caused by years of drinking.

Lymon, whose life story was outlined in the recent film “Why Do Fools Fall in Love,” was only 25 when he was found dead in 1968 in the bathroom of his grandmother’s apartment in New York, a syringe by his side.

Understandably, it’s the happier side of McPhatter’s and Lymon’s lives that are saluted in a pair of just-released CDs.

*** 1/2 Clyde McPhatter, “The Forgotten Angel,” 32 Records. From the album title to the passionate liner notes, there’s a strong sense of crusade about this album, which was compiled by Grammy-winning record producer Joel Dorn and singer Aaron Neville.

The goal: to draw attention to McPhatter, who has never enjoyed the fame or critical recognition of such peers as Ray Charles, Sam Cooke and Otis Redding.

“Like a breath of fresh and emancipating air, McPhatter brought his soaring, gospel-drenched vocal approach to a buttoned-down era when such thrilling cross-pollinations were only beginning to be undertaken,” Bill Dahl, in his somewhat breathless liner notes, declares of McPhatter’s impact on R&B.; “When Clyde first surfaced with Billy Ward’s Dominoes in 1950, his delivery was fresh, daring and exciting, forever refuting the precise impeccably-modulated lead tenors of the Ink Spots’ Bill Kenny and the Orioles’s Sonny Til. . . .”

Oddly, given this description of the Dominoes period, the album doesn’t pick up McPhatter’s career until after he left the group in the early ‘50s and formed his own group, the Drifters, at Atlantic Records--a gap that costs the collection half a star in the ratings.

Though the Drifters would enjoy their greatest popularity after McPhatter left the group for a solo career, his records with the Drifters were hugely influential.

Elvis Presley recorded two of the group’s biggest hits, “Money Honey” and “Such a Night,” and the Drifters’ recordings of “The Bells of St. Mary’s” and “White Christmas” surely helped shape the musical vision that Phil Spector brought to his own legendary Christmas album in the ‘60s.

McPhatter’s falsetto-edged vocal style lost some of its rawness after he left the Drifters and began aiming for more of a pop audience. Still, he continued to come up with some spectacular hits, including “A Lover’s Question,” at Atlantic before he moved on to other labels and saw his career sputter. The only Top 10 hit he had after leaving Atlantic was “Lover Please” for Mercury in 1962.

In his liner notes, Dahl chronicles McPhatter’s post-Atlantic career, pointing to a “respectable comeback effort” in 1970 for Decca Records. But the only post-Atlantic track we hear on the album (aside from some welcome live recordings) is “Lover Please.”

Despite the omissions, “The Forgotten Angel” is an extraordinary two-disc collection that achieves its goal of showing that McPhatter deserves to be on any list of America’s great R&B; singers.

*** 1/2 Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, “The Very Best of Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers,” Rhino. Lymon didn’t leave as impressive a body of work as McPhatter, but he was an even more electric presence on the ‘50s pop scene, chiefly because of his age.

Lymon was only 13 when “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” broke into the national Top 10. The record’s spirited vocal defined youthful R&B; so fully that it was only natural that Michael Jackson was frequently called the new Frankie Lymon when he surfaced with the Jackson 5 in 1969. In “Fools,” Lymon put into a single song a sense of youthful exuberance that remains captivating today.

After a series of hits with the Teenagers, he was persuaded by his managers to try a solo career, but it never took hold. In this single-disc album’s liner notes, Bob Hyde points to various problems, both professional and personal. But, as in the case of “The Forgotten Angel,” we don’t get a chance to hear Lymon’s subsequent efforts here.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).