Frankie Lymon

AS ROCK'N'ROLL GROUPS PROLIFERATED, the age at which they turned professional took a nosedive. With names such as the Classmates, the Juniors or the Sixteens, they established an immediate solidarity with their adolescent audience; a million-seller or a string of dismal failures could follow. Either way, the group was soon back among the ghetto pool-halls and decaying tenements from which they came. Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers made a greater impact than most and, although Lymon’s precocious talent was exceptional, his origins were not unusual and his history was typical.