The same year, his interest in music was further stimulated when his father brought home a collection of American 45s by artists including Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, The Platters, Fats Domino, Elvis Presley and Little Richard.

In 1956, an R & B " Top Stars of ' 56 " tour took place, with headliners Al Hibbler, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, and Carl Perkins, whose " Blue Suede Shoes " was very popular with R & B music buyers.

In 1956 Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers appeared on the Frankie Laine show in New York, which was televised nationally, performing their hit " Why Do Fools Fall in Love ?".

The group was originally based on Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers, but by the 1960s had developed a unique sound based on emerging styles of soul and funk music, with a notable penchant for bizarre lyrics.

Franklin Joseph " Frankie " Lymon ( September 30, 1942 – February 27, 1968 ) was an American rock and roll / rhythm and blues singer and songwriter, best known as the boy soprano lead singer of a New York City-based early rock and roll group, The Teenagers.

Frankie Lymon was born in Harlem to a truck driver father and a mother who worked as a maid.

Lymon's father, Howard Lymon, also sang in a gospel group known as the Harlemaires ; Frankie Lymon and his brothers Lewis and Howie sang with the Harlemaire Juniors ( a fourth Lymon brother, Timmy, was a singer, though not with the Harlemaire Juniors ).

The Lymon family struggled to make ends meet, and Lymon began working as a grocery boy at age ten, augmenting his legitimate income with proceeds gained from hustling prostitutes and was known for having relationships with women twice his age.

An album, The Teenagers Featuring Frankie Lymon, was issued in December 1956.

Lymon had officially departed from the group by September 1957 ; an in-progress studio album called Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers at the London Palladium was instead issued as a Lymon solo release.

As a solo artist, Lymon was not nearly as successful as he had been with the Teenagers.

According to Lymon in an interview with Ebony magazine in 1967, he said that at the age of 15 he was first introduced to heroin by a woman twice his age.

After losing Lymon, the Teenagers went through a string of replacement singers, the first of whom was Billy Lobrano.

Lymon, however, had been known to say that their marriage was a publicity stunt and Taylor could produce no legal documentation of their marriage.

The same year, Lymon was drafted into the United States Army, and reported to Fort Gordon, Georgia, near Augusta, Georgia, for training.

Traveling to New York in 1968, Lymon was signed by manager Sam Bray to his Big Apple label, and the singer returned to recording.

On February 28, 1968, Lymon was found dead of a heroin overdose at age 25 in his grandmother's bathroom.

Lymon, a Baptist, was buried at Catholic Saint Raymond's Cemetery in the Throggs Neck section of The Bronx, New York City, New York.

Trying to determine who was indeed the lawful Mrs. Frankie Lymon was complicated by more issues.

Zola Taylor, Elizabeth Waters, and Emira Eagle each approached Morris Levy, the music impressario who retained possession of Lymon's copyrights and his royalties, claiming to be Lymon's rightful widow ; Lymon had neglected to divorce both Taylor and Waters.

In December 1992, the U. S. federal court ruled that the rights to the song belonged to Herman Santiago and that Jimmy Merchant and Emira Lymon ( the true widow ) were also entitled to receive royalties dating back to 1969.

Altogether, the family members and Lymon celebrate the drowning of Sutter ( the family who owned the Charles family during slavery ) in the well.

In the early development of doo-wop, especially in U. S. East Coast cities, Puerto Ricans were the lead singers in some groups with black and white members ; such groups included The Crests, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, the Five Discs and the Tune Weavers.

Lymon, staying at his grandmother's house in Harlem where he had grown up, celebrated his good fortune by taking heroin ; he had remained clean ever since entering the Army three years prior.

Waters was already married when she married Lymon ; she had separated from her first husband, but their divorce was finalized in 1965, after she had married Lymon.

Doo wop diversified considerably later in the decade, with groups like The Crows (" Gee "), creating a style of uptempo doo wop and the ballad style via The Penguins (" Earth Angel "), while singers like Frankie Lymon became sensations ; Lymon became the first black teen idol in the country's history after the release of the Top 40 pop hit " Why Do Fools Fall in Love " ( 1956 ).

George Grant, lead singer of the Castelles, is often thought to be one of the first examples of the very young high tenor sound, that would culminate with Frankie Lymon and his hundreds of imitators.

While in the Augusta area, Lymon met and fell in love with Emira Eagle, a schoolteacher at Hornsby Elementary in Augusta.

Taylor claimed to have married Lymon in Mexico in 1965, although their relationship ended several months later purportedly because of Lymon's drug habits.

The song Harlem Roulette by The Mountain Goats off their 2012 album Transcendental Youth contains reference to Frankie Lymon and has been stated by frontman John Darnielle to be about the last night of Lymon's life.

* February 27 – Ex-Teenagers singer Frankie Lymon is found dead from a heroin overdose in Harlem.

Lymon began performing with backing from pre-recorded tapes.

Dishonorably discharged from the Army, Lymon moved into his wife's home and continued to perform sporadically.

On January 27, 2003, WWKB returned to music, playing oldies from the 1950s and 1960s, featuring artists such as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Frankie Lymon, The Four Seasons, The Four Tops, The Everly Brothers, Fats Domino, Ricky Nelson, Lovin Spoonful, and many others.

* Frankie Lymon was a famous treble singer from the time he recorded " Why Do Fools Fall In Love " with 1950s boy band quintet The Teenagers and into his solo years after 1957.

Lymon and Willie both gather different perspectives from their experiences.

They were motivated to sing after seeing a performance from Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers.

Groups like The Crows (" Gee "), The Orioles (" It's Too Soon to Know ") and Brooklyn's Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers (" Why Do Fools Fall in Love ") had a string of hit songs that brought the genre to chart domination by 1958 ( see 1958 in music ).

In 1957, Lymon left " the Teenagers " and went solo, turning in a pop direction with the hit " Goody Goody.

The Crows ' hit " Gee " on Rama inspired another record label, Gee Records, whose most successful act was Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers.

The Teenagers briefly reunited with Lymon in 1965, without success.

Although their period of success was brief, Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers ' string of hits were highly influential on the rock and R & B performers who followed them.