The 70s: Them schoolboy pops pull out all the stops on a Friday night

Proof that I am a child of the 70s is that my favorite doo-wop album was released in 1971. Maybe it took me that long to get it.

Doo-wop, ostensibly deeply rooted in the 50s and 60s, was the sound of teenagers harmonizing on the street corner when singers actually had to be able to sing. The sound of an innocent age: teenagers in love in the still of the night.

And it sadly sort of died when the British Invasion arrived.

When I lived in the Bronx in the early 90s, I wandered over to Little Italy and Belmont Avenue and tried to imagine these sounds flowing through the streets. What a time that must have been. 

Dion's backup group, a decade after their heyday, provided a deeply satisfying and moving compendium of the music that brims with heart and more than a little soul. 

"Cigars. Acappella, Candy" is a record is full of purity, spirit and humor, as evidenced by their version of "My Sweet Lord" that includes "He's So Fine." Yes, of course the tunes meld beautifully. "Street Corner Symphony," the medley that ends the album, summarizes doo-wop and provides a fitting epitaph for the music itself.

This was doo-wop's last gasp. But what it glorious one it was.

Did I forget to mention that the entire record is acappella, except for one instrument? 

A kazoo.