One Sunday each month it’s time for great acappella Doo Wop and R&B harmony at Roxy & Dukes in Dunellen, NJ. This past May 21, 2017, we were again treated to two spectacular vocal groups. This time both groups were New Jersey based – Re-Memberthen from Piscataway and Choice from Jersey City.
Re-MemberThen got things going with the up tempo “Acappella With My Friends,” a song written by the Earls’ Larry Chance. Re-MemberThen took their name from the famous Earls’ song and Larry Chance is a close friend of theirs. In fact, Re-MemberThen backed Larry singing acappella at our Doo Wop Explosion I and right here at Roxy & Dukes (both in 2016). It’s only natural, then, that Re-MemberThen treated us to several Earls’ tunes, including “Life Is But A Dream,” “Never” and “Remember Then”. Frank Cicerale was in fine voice leading “Crying In The Chapel” (dedicated to the memory of Bobby Thomas), “Made Up My Mind” (Royal Counts), “You Are” (Cadillacs) and “You’re Mine” (Robert & Johnny). Marty Geliebter led “I Never will Forget,” dedicated to the late Ron Taylor of the Del Larks, along with “Traveling Stranger”. Mike Del Franco took the lead on “Please tell The Angels” (Teenchords) and “Two Kinds Of People (Imperials). Sal Contrino gave us his show stopping rendition of “For Your Precious Love”. Bill Butkowski supplied the bass rhythm for all the songs. Re-MemberThen was a last minute addition to this show and, as always, did a fabulous job. Our sincere thanks to Frank, Bill, Sal, Marty and Mike.
What can we say about Choice that hasn’t already been said. Jersey City’s “Bad Boys of Acappella” returned to Roxy & Dukes for the second time. In between appearances some of the members had a street corner video of “Love Is Here” (Futures) go viral with more than 13 million views! We were thrilled to be treated to a rendition of the song this night by the full group. We’ve known Choice since the early 1980’s and this night at Roxy & Dukes was classic Choice. They opened with the Spaniels’ “I Like It Like That,” followed by a couple temptations’ songs, “I Wish It Would rain” and “The Girl’s Alright With Me”. Choice’s rendition of “Lucy Brown” is always a masterpiece and tonight was no exception. We’ve included it as a video, below. Another Choice favorite is the Spaniels’ “Everyone’s Laughing”. The group concluded the show with a soulful version of Dion’s “The Wanderer”. Great job, guys! Many thanks, E-Z, Malek, Rahim, Ira and Tony.
Here are some photos and a few YouTube videos of the event. Click on any photo to enlarge and then use the side arrows to see others.
