R&B

New York-based Laurie Records was looking for an answer to The Drifters. They found it in the soulful sound of The Jarmels. They were five high school students who met while singing at Mount Olivet Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia, and first called themselves The Cherokees. Group members were Nathaniel Ruff, Paul Burnett, Ray Smith, Earl Christian, and Tom Eldridge. When Ben E. King came to town, they waited backstage and sang for him. King invited them to come to New York where he got them an audition for Laurie Records, and they sang King’s signature song “Stand By Me.” Laurie Records like them, and they changed their name to The Jarmels. Their first single “Little Lonely One”  did not have national success. However, The Jarmels’ second single, “A Little Bit Of Soap,” which features some hot and distinctive percussion and beautiful vocals, went to #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961. It turned out to be their only big hit, but that’s hard enough to accomplish.

Here are the lyrics to “A Little Bit of Soap” by The Jarmels:

“A little bit of soap will wash away your lipstick on my face
But a little bit of soap will never never never ever erase
The pain in my heart and my eyes as I go through the lonely years
A little bit of soap will never wash away my tears

Mmm, a little bit of soap will wash away your powder from my chin
A little bit of soap will never never never ever begin
To take away the hurt that I feel as I go through the lonely years
A little bit of soap will never wash away my tears, mmm, mmm, mmm

Have you heard when love begins to die it leaves someone to cry night and Day?
Like a bird, you left your robins nest and-a just like all the rest you flew away

Mmm, a little bit of soap will take away your perfume eventually
But a little bit of soap will never wash away the memory
Of your name in the night that I call through the lonely years
A little bit of soap will never wash away my tears

I’ll never lose the memory of your name in the night that I call through the lonely years
A little bit of soap will never wash away my tears
Mmm, a little bit of soap-a will never wash away my tears
Mmm, it’s gonna never, never, never, uh-huh, wash away my tears”

If you are interested in the music of The Jarmels, you might consider this from amazon: Golden Classics

For More Golden Oldies Music

The Daily Doo Wop Rec Room has daily featured doo wop, rock and roll, R&B, or rockabilly songs that were hits during the first era of rock and roll (that is, from about 1952 until the British invasion in 1964). After a song is featured, it then goes into the juke box. You are welcome to listen to any of the 40+ selections there. Every weekend, there is a Juke Box Saturday, and the juke box is full of song requests from the 1950s and 1960s.

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