Frankie Lymon 1957

 Frankie Lymon 1957

by Pete Clemons

During July 1956 a singing group from New York, The Teenagers featuring Frankie Lymon, were riding high at number 1 on the UK singles chart with their hit single 'Why Do Fools Fall In Love'. The song also became a No.6 hit in the US. At 13, Lymon became the youngest performer to hit the top.

Less than a year later The Teenagers, namely Herman Santiago, Joe Negroni, Jimmy Merchant and Sherman Garnes began a tour of the UK. The tour was a mix of one nighters, that involved two performances per evening, and week long residencies with one of those being held at Coventry Theatre.

Despite the obvious commercial success the music press were not quite so impressed. It seems, that the Teenagers didn't really have a stage act. And things just didn't go right for them during their tour. At times the group were simply bundled onto the stage to an ecstatic reception from their teenage fans.

One report mentioned that Frankie Lymon did most of the on stage announcing and, almost without fail, this went 'Now we would like to do a tune which we had the pleasure of doing in the States'. More than once Frankie announced the wrong title. Another time he missed his introduction, stopped the orchestra, and had to begin for a second time. He encouraged the kids to clap along, several times on the 'on beat' instead of the 'off beat'.

Frankie had his own microphone, while the other four performers had to share two mike's. Additionally the backing group did very little other than to provide harmonies to Frankie's lead and join him in a couple of dance routines which 'would require a lot more polish before they were any help to the presentation'.

Even the final curtain was a fiasco – play off music from the pit, a stage hands fist clearly visible on the curtains, all in preparation for a final bow that never came.

When asked for a photograph on his own Frankie refused point blank. We work as a group, said one of the Teenagers, its a picture of all of us together or non at all.

The highlight of the tour however was even a two week booking at the London Palladium. But even that was not without controversy. Fourteen year old Teenagers' singing star Frankie Lyman was barred from making a 'live' television appearance with the Teenagers' on ATV's Sunday Night at the Palladium.

This had been because, the then, London County Council regulations forbid performers under the age of 16 from appearing on commercial television on Sunday's. Instead viewers saw a recording of Frankie and the Teenagers made at the Palladium earlier in the same week.

Had the programme been shown on the BBC then the performance would have been legal. The singing group had been appearing at the venue for two weeks. The controversy brought the BBC and ATV in line as to live performances.

Selections for the tour included Love is a Clown, Am I Fooling Myself Again, Teenage Love, Paper Castles, The ABC's of Love, I'm Not a Juvenile Delinquent, I Promise to Remember and the massive 'Why Do Fools Fall in Love?