Background
The Dominoes were a black vocal group consisting of Clyde McPhatter (1932–1972), who later left the group to form the Drifters;[4] Bill Brown (1926-1956);[5] Charlie White (1930-2005);[6][7] and Joe Lamont (1920-1991),[7] led by their pianist, manager and songwriter, Billy Ward (1921–2002). Ward was a black, classically trained vocal coach who had formed a business partnership with a white New York talent agent, Rose Marks.
The pair decided to put together a smooth vocal group to rival The Ink Spots, the Orioles, and similar groups who were beginning to win acceptance with white audiences. In 1950, the Dominoes were signed to Federal Records and held a series of recording sessions at the National Studios in New York in November and December of that year.
Their initial release, "Do Something For Me", was the first record on which McPhatter sang lead. The song was musically a gospel song with gospel-style melismas but was lyrically secular.[8] A success, the song entered the R&B chart at the beginning of February 1951. Less successful was its follow-up, the pop standard "Harbor Lights", recorded on December 30, 1950.
The record company then turned to the other sharply contrasting, straight R&B song which the group had recorded on the same day, "Sixty Minute Man", written by Ward and Marks. It was issued in May 1951 (on Federal 12022), and by the end of the month had reached number one on the R&B chart, a position it held for an almost unprecedented 14 weeks. The single also made it to number 17 on the pop singles chart and was voted "Song of the year" for 1951.[9]
The recording features René Hall on guitar, and used Bill Brown's bass voice, rather than McPhatter's tenor, as the lead. It features the singer's boasts of his sexual prowess,[4] of being able to satisfy his girls with fifteen minutes each of kissing, teasing, and squeezing, before his climactic fifteen minutes of "blowing [his] top".
The chorus was specific:
- There'll be fifteen minutes of kissin'
- Then you'll holler "Please don't stop" (Don't stop!)
- There'll be fifteen minutes of teasin'
- Fifteen minutes of squeezin'
- And fifteen minutes of blowin' my top[2]
Lyrics of this type already had a long history. The reference to "Dan" (alternatively, "Jim Dandy") dates back at least to minstrel shows in the nineteenth century, and double-entendre had been used in blues lyrics for decades before the song was written. A common reference was to "Dan, the Back Door Man"—the lover of a married woman who would leave her house by the back door—as in a song of that title recorded by Georgia White in 1937.[10] Among the many precedents, but with a different perspective, is "One Hour Mama" by Ida Cox.[11] Consequently, "Sixty Minute Man" is also listed as an example of a dirty blues song.[4][12]
"Sixty Minute Man" was banned by many radio stations and was seen as a novelty record at the time. However, in hindsight it was an important record in several respects: it crossed the boundaries between gospel singing and blues, its lyrics pushed the limits of what was deemed acceptable, and it appealed to many white as well as black listeners, peaking at number 17 on the pop chart. Cover versions were made by several white artists including Hardrock Gunter. Bill Haley & His Comets sang the song in the mid-1950s during their live shows. In later years, the Dominoes' record became a contender for the title of "the first rock and roll record".[3]
One source summarized the song's appeal: it "contains "rebelliousness, unsubtle sexuality, and a steady rhythm. It arguably coined the very name of this new type of music: rock and roll". Its success on the pop chart indicated that R&B crossover was certainly possible. The recording "opened the door for other sexually forthright records, planting the seed for Etta James' "Roll with Me Henry" and other future hits".[13] On the other hand, The Drifters' explicit "Honey Love" and "Such a Night" and The Midnighters' "Sexy Ways" were banned in 1954.[14]
The Dominoes became one of the more popular vocal groups of the 1950s. However, Bill Brown, lead singer of "Sixty Minute Man", left in 1952 to form The Checkers. In 1954, Brown and The Checkers cut a follow-up to "Sixty Minute Man" titled "Don't Stop Dan,"[15] in which the original song's Lovin' Dan seems to meet his match. Clyde McPhatter was replaced by Jackie Wilson in 1953, and went on to form The Drifters, before embarking on a solo career in 1955.
In 1955 with a new lineup, the Dominoes recorded their own answer song "Can't Do Sixty No More" with the same melody (the flip side "If I Never Get to Heaven"), which included the line "Please excuse my blown-out fuse, because I can't do sixty no more."[16] Coincidentally, Prentice Moreland recorded with the group in this lineup as well as with The Du-Droppers who had recorded an earlier version of "Can't Do Sixty No More" in 1952.[17] Though they share the same title, the earlier version was written by The Du Droppers' lead tenor, J. C. Ginyard.
