(JULY 1998)

Last week, when "Why Not" (the rarest doo wop song ever, recorded in 1959 by Little Tony & the Due Whoppers) was featured as our Record of the Week, we claimed that: only one copy of this 78 r.p.m. record still exists today, and that even the original tape was lost years ago. As far as we know the first statement is still true. According to the manager of our bank in Switzerland, where the record that you see spinning on the left is kept safely behind lock and key, "zair are really keine little Raccoon Bears in zee Schwiss Alps," so we figure that our $75,000 investment is still safe.

LISTEN AGAIN TO THE 78-RPM RECORD (Windows Media Player): "Why Not" - Little Tony & The Due Whoppers - Rallo 4711 - 1959 But what about that original master tape? We have to recall that second statement however, because last Saturday we received a mysterious parcel in the mail, that contained nothing but an old reel with some tape on it... but boy oh boy, what a tape!!! What we have here is what appears to be the original 1959 studio master tape of "Why Not" by Little Tony & the Due Whoppers in Hi-Fi stereo!!! Without the surface noise of the scratched 78 r.p.m. record, we can now finally hear Tony like we've never heard him before. Listen to how this teenager is desperately trying to keep his breaking voice under control! Hear those finger-poppin' (!) Due Whoppers singing and swinging in the back! Listen to their beautiful harmonies and "bell sounds"! Hear that piano player making just that one tiny little mistake! And, last but not least, hear that crazy bass givin' it all he's got! But wait, there's more! This tape also reveals some amazing facts that we never knew before. At the beginning of the tape, just before the actual song starts, there is about twenty seconds of what seems to be a rehearsal, in which we can hear the bass loosening up his voice with his own version of "Why Not", that he seems to be making up on the spot, and which seems to be inspired by Tony Allen & the Champs' hit "Here Comes The Night Owl". (Remember that one? "Oohw! Oohw!") But even more striking and astonishing are the words of the recording technician, that we can hear over the loudspeaker: "Rallo four seven eleven... take one..."

Take #1! This shows us how incredibly talented these boys really were: they only needed one take to record this beautiful song!!! But get ready for this one: Now you can hear all of this yourself, when you listen to the Hi-Fi stereo version of "Why Not", right from the start, all the way to the recording engineer's final "Cut!" LISTEN TO THE ORIGINAL TAPE (Windows Media Player): "Why Not" - Little Tony & The Due Whoppers - Master Tape In Stereo - 1959

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.)