Lost Danbury CT Doo Wop EP CD Will Anderson and similar items

Artist: The Sherwoods, Dan the Dantones, Will Anderson Title: Lost Danbury Doo Wop Label: Self-Released Format: Extended Play (EP) compact disc (Contains three full-length songs and a short aircheck by DJ Will Anderson and the WINE Radio jingle.) Disc condition: Like New Container condition: New UPC: 799218007320 Comments: (From the Danbury, CT News-Times, November 30, 2008) It was called "doo-wop" and by the early 1970s, when former Newtown resident Will Anderson was doing "The Rock 'n' Roll Revival Party" on WINE-FM, it had long since been pushed off the charts by the British Invasion and psychedelic rock 'n' roll. But for Anderson, now 68 and living in Maine, there has never been anything that sounded as sweet. Doo-wop, a rhythm and blues-based style of music that developed in African-American communities in the 1940s, had achieved mainstream popularity by the mid-1950s. "I loved that music. I grew up with it. It was very exciting, and that excitement never left me," he said. Most of the oldies the part-time disc jockey played every Thursday for an audience that extended from the greater Danbury area to Long Island, Albany, and on a clear night, parts of New Jersey, was by established artists such as Fats Domino , the Five Satins, or Dion and the Belmonts. But one tune that never made it onto the national charts is also on his personal Top 10 list. Anderson, who's full-time job was as the marketing director for Better Homes and Gardens magazine, never heard "The Search is Over" until he received a telephone call one night in 1974 as he was wrapping up his radio show. Was he interested in hearing the demonstration record that four Danbury-area singers, who called themselves The Sherwoods, cut in New York City nine years earlier? The group, Norm Marcioch , Bob Benton , Chuck Spaulding and Harry Hawkes , had appeared at shows and dances in Danbury, Newtown, Bethel, Ridgefield and New Milford during the early 1960s. "We'd basically sing for a burger and a beer," recalled Marcioch, now a Realtor in Long Island. The Sherwoods recorded the song, co-written by Marcioch and Spaulding, in 1965, just before Spaulding went into the Air Force . But they'd never been able to find a record company to release it. Anderson listened, and was captivated by the up-tempo sound. "The Search is Over," and the B side of the record, the doo-wop standard "That's My Desire," became regular features on his program until he left WINE in 1975. Even after he moved to Bath, Maine, in 1987, where he lives with his wife, Catherine, Anderson continued to play the record on " Big Daddy 's Rock and Rollin' Party" on WXLG-FM from 1995-97. "By 1965, doo-wop was fading rapidly. Everybody was listening to the Beatles ," Anderson said. "I think if they had done it 10 years earlier it would have been a pretty good seller." But about a year ago, Anderson, who's written 21 books on pop culture, including "When Rock 'n Roll Rocked Maine," "Lost Diners Roadside Restaurants," and "The Great State of Maine Beer Book," decided to bring doo-wop back. "Emotionally, I wanted to do a record," Anderson said. "But everybody told me I was crazy, nobody listens to records anymore." He tracked down Marcioch, who still had a copy of the demo, and suggested they have some copies made and try to sell them. Both Benton, who died recently, and Hawkes, who still lives in the Danbury area, were excited to hear their old record was being brought back, Marcioch said. They eventually decided on a CD, and Anderson had 1,000 copies made. The discs also include "My Desire," a mystery doo-wop song that Anderson found in 1978 on a unlabeled demo record in a Route 7 antiques shop, and an old WINE jingle. They called it "Lost Danbury Doo Wop." "It may sound corny, but I wanted to share the song with the world, or at least the world around Danbury," Anderson said.