(Week of 7/18/98 - 7/24/98) 


"Why Not"
Little Tony & the Due Whoppers
on Rallo 4711
released in 1959

Above: Little Tony & the Due Whoppers in 1959, just before the group split up. The group consisted of Richard "Dick" Header (bass), Abraham Nixon (1st tenor), Montgomery B. Lafayette, and Washington "D.C." Schwarzkopff (2nd tenors), formerly known as the Four Roses, and (in the back), "Little" Tony Fournier (lead). "Little" Tony came from Texas, and got his stage name because he was actually the tallest member of the group.

During the historic recording session in which the group recorded their only claim to fame, "Why Not", there was an argument between Tony and the Due Whoppers, as a result of which Tony was expelled from the group. Without their lead singer and songwriter, the group had no other option than to record a song that was already done by another group. That song was "Darling Dear", originally written and recorded by The Counts.

Without their lead singer, the Due Whoppers recorded several versions of "Darling Dear". Eventually, the version in which Washington "D.C." was the lead wound up on the flip side of "Why Not", but there is also an acetate of the version that was sung by Montgomery B. Lafayette. This outtake is a moving tear jerker. (Eat your heart out, Jackie LaRue!!!)


Above: Even after almost forty years, "Little" Tony Fournier, former lead singer of the Due Whoppers, still can't get enough of playing the only song that he was ever allowed to record. Friends and relatives have often asked him not to do that, because it makes even the dog sick, but Tony is persistent, and his only reaction to this has always been a silly smile and a teasing: "Why Not?"


Only one copy of this 78 R.P.M. record still exists today. (The Rallo label went bankrupt shortly after releasing this record.) The record is now a unique collector's item, with an estimated value of at least $75,000 ... and we're not just showing it off ... you can listen to it, too!!!


Above: Little Tony & the Due Whoppers' only record, "Why Not", released on Rallo 4711 in 1959. Notice that besides Fournier, also Lou Rallo and Wayne Stierle are mentioned as co-writers of the song. In reality this was a publicity stunt. Rallo and Stierle never met.

LISTEN (Windows Media Player): "Why Not" - Little Tony & The Due Whoppers - Rallo 4711 - 1959

On the flip side: "Darling Dear" (originally written and recorded by The Counts in 1954)


The Due Whoppers (lead: Washington "D.C." Schwarzkopff) - Rallo 4711 - 1959

LISTEN (Windows Media Player): "Darling Dear" - The Due Whoppers - Rallo 4711 - 1959



The version with Montgomery B. Lafayette as lead - Unreleased acetate

LISTEN (Windows Media Player): "Darling Dear" - The Due Whoppers - Rallo Unreleased Outtake - 1959



NEW! Added 7/26/98

When this unique record was first published here in this web site, we claimed that the original tape of Little Tony & the Due Woppers' historic recording session was lost forever years ago... Why... NOT!

Last Saturday we received a mysterious parcel in the mail, that contained nothing less than the ORIGINAL MASTER TAPE...!!!


Back

This site is not real. This page is featured by "The Shady Pages". Any comments about this page can be sent to "Shady". All information displayed is provided to further the general public's knowledge of the fact that there is a very interesting web site for those who are interested in vocal group harmony and doo wop music: Tony Fournier's Vocal Group Harmony & Doo Wop Web Site.

The (real) "Due Whoppers" in the picture on this page are actually the Solitaires. Their names have been changed to protect the innocent. The song "Why Not" was written, played, sung, and recorded on Friday 7/24/98, between 19:00 and 22:00 P.M. by "Shady". (It's an original!) "The Original Master Tape" of this song was recorded on a Fostex X-28H High Speed Multitracker. The piano, wooden bass, and drums were created with a Casio CTK-500.

"Darling Dear" was originally written and recorded in 1954 by the Counts, and released on the Dot label. The "flip side" and the "unissued acetate" featured on this page are cover versions, recorded by "Shady" on the evening of Wednesday 7/29/98. The surface noise on all of these 78 r.p.m. records is authentic!

Wayne Stierle (the one and only) wrote: "Hey! That was very funny. Very well done. (I'm speaking only for myself, as I can't speak for Lou). Funny concept, and well done artwork. (I can't play the sound byte, but that's the fault of my computer)." (The real) Lou Rallo is a disk-jockey from New Jersey, where he hosts a vocal group radio show, "The Big Beat Show." Lou didn't know that he owned a record company, and is probably "still shaking his head..."

The "Lou Rallo Record Company" doesn't exist (yet). The record labels on this page are based on the original label of Red Robin Records from New York City. Most images on this page were created and/or modified by "Shady," using unregistered evaluation versions of Paint Shop Pro 5.0, and Animation Shop 1.00 by JASC. The Seeburg jukebox came from Marv's Oldies Online.

All songs by the "Due Whoppers" were converted to wave audio, and electronically enhanced with an unregistered shareware version of GoldWave 3.24, and subsequently encoded to RealAudio using RealAudio Encoder (32-bit) 3.1.0.1, and RealMedia Tools (32-bit) 5.0. The video images in same of the RealAudio files were created with ULead MediaStudio Video Editor Version 3.5, converted from AVI to RM using RealEncoder (32-bit) 5.1.0.32 Version 5.1, and merged into the RealAudio files using RealMedia Tools (RMTools). All RealŪ products, including RealPlayer 5.0, can be downloaded from http://www.real.com. Several unreal products can be downloaded from these pages, which were created with Microsoft FrontPage Editor 2.0.2.1112.

This web site is hosted by the Digitale Stad Vlaardingen en Schiedam (i.e. the Digitale Regio Rijnmond), based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands... Credit where credit is Due, Whoppers!

(NOTE: The only change to this web page since it appeared in 1998 is that RealAudio has been replaced by Windows Media Player.)