I love doo wop.

I do love my doo wop music.

Come on, you know the groups - Danny and the Juniors. The Crests. The Danleers. The Diamonds. The Capris. The Tokens. Dion & the Belmonts. Little Anthony & the Imperials. Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers.

Wanna start - oh...that's Dion (above) from Dion and the Belmonts. I'll get back to him in a second. Wanna start a DW group? The name's easy. Pick something and put "The" in front of it. Here, I'll look around my room - The Clocks. The Shags. The Calendars. The Knick Knacks. The Oldsmobiles. The Coasters (I know that's a group but there's a coaster setting in front of me). The Hearts. The Radios. The Tams. It's easy.

And the songs...THOSE SONGS! Dammit - the harmonies. And the notes. My falsetto is almost perfect, which may be one of the reasons I love DW so much. "Little Darling". "At the Hop". "Juvenile Delinquent". "One Summer Night". "Remember Then". "Teenager in Love". My head is spinning and I can't type fast enough - so you'll just have to check out this website. I just added this to my "favorite sites" on the right panel, toward the bottom - but here it is: Brian's Doo Wop Fixxx. There are hundreds of DW songs on it - shit I never heard of. You'll recognize some of them.

Back to Dion. Dion DiMucci - The King of Cool. Oh my God - my favorite DW artist of all time. With hits like, "Teenager In Love" (Belmonts), "Runaround Sue" (solo), "I Wonder Why" (Belmonts), "Where Or When" (Belmonts), "Drip Drop" (solo), "Donna the Prima Donna" (solo - my favorite), "The Wanderer" (solo - my other favorite), "Ruby Baby" (solo), "Abraham, Martin and John" (solo) - want me to stop? That's the Belmonts with Dion below.

Anyway, this Italian-American, Bronx boy (Francis is his middle name - it's my confirmation name) by the age of 21 was a millionarie a couple times over, was almost the 4th guy to die in the plane with Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper (didn't wanna pay the $36 fare and drove there instead), later kicked a heroin addiction, became a born-again Christian, and a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and has continued to make critically-acclaimed music since. Take a listen -

1) the 45 rpm recording of Donna the Prima Donna
2) Dion singing "The Wanderer"
3) Dion & the Belmonts singing Teenager In Love
4) and finally, Dion and Company at the 1988 Grammy's

I love him. How can you not? He was there in '57 when it was all just a baby - R&R, man.

"Ohhhhh, well I'm the type a guy, that likes to roam around. I'm never in one place, I roam from town to town..."

You know - my dad and Dion look an awful lot alike. That's dad's navy picture from around 1960-61 ( I doctored it up a bit). I've seen pictures of my dad that really do look like Dion. Dad played lead guitar and sang lead in a group, The Glenn Mar Trio, from about 1957-1961. That's how he met my mom - playing at a nightclub. Chicks flocked - according to more than one person, dad not included. Dad thought he was cool then and still thinks he's cool. That's a whole nuther post though. He's 70 now and still plays the electric guitar.

My dad and Dion. Too cool for school, baby.

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The Ventures. The DC5, Madonna, John Cougar and Leonard Cohen on their way to the R&R Hall of Fame

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pop star Madonna, folk singer Leonard Cohen, rocker John Mellencamp, British pop band The Dave Clark Five and instrumental group The Ventures will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Monday.

Artists become eligible for the Hall of Fame 25 years after the release of their first single or album and are represented in an exhibition at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum in Cleveland, Ohio. "The 2008 inductees are trailblazers -- all unique and influential in their genres," said Joel Peresman, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation president. "From poetry to pop, these five acts demonstrate the rich diversity of rock and roll."

For '60s British band The Dave Clark Five -- Dave Clark, Lenny Davidson, Rick Huxley, Denis Payton and Mike Smith -- the induction will be bittersweet after lead singer Smith, 64, died late last month from pneumonia. He had been paralyzed from the waist down after suffering a spinal cord injury in 2003.

(Wait! There's more...)

He was extremely excited and honoured to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and I am glad that he will be remembered as a Hall of Famer because he was in so many ways," Smith's agent, Margo Lewis, said when he died.

The Dave Clark Five topped the British charts in 1965 with "Glad All Over" and were described by the foundation as "an enormous pop phenomenon" before disbanding in 1970. The group has sold more than 50 million albums to date. The band will be inducted by actor Tom Hanks and there will be a special performance in its honour.

While The Dave Clark Five and Mellencamp had been nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before, this was the first year Madonna was eligible. She will be inducted by pop star Justin Timberlake and Iggy & The Stooges will perform on her behalf.

Madonna, 49, made her debut in 1982 and her first album "Madonna" included hits such as "Holiday," "Borderline" and "Lucky Star" which helped her become one of the best-selling pop artists, with more then 200 million albums sold worldwide. She chose not to perform at the ceremony.

Mellencamp released his first album in 1976 and has often sung about the flawed American dream, which led the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation to dub him a "symbol of the hopes, struggles and passions of America's heartland."

"I'm very honoured and pleased to be recognized this way, especially among people whom I greatly admire," Mellencamp said on his Web site, www.mellencamp.com. He will be inducted by entertainer Billy Joel and will perform at the ceremony.

Cohen, a gravel-voiced Canadian whose songs tell of love and sex, faith and betrayal, is among the most literary of songwriters. He published four books of poetry and two novels before trying music, partly to escape life as a starving artist. The foundation described him as "folk rock icon of the singer songwriter movement." He will be inducted by Lou Reed and Irish folk singer Damien Rice will perform for him.

Hits by the Ventures -- Bob Bogle, Nokie Edwards, Gerry McGee, Mel Taylor, Don Wilson -- include "Walk Don't Run" and "Hawaii Five-O" and the foundation credits the band with defining instrumental guitar rock in the 1960s.

The group will be inducted by John Fogerty and will perform at the New York City ceremony. Along with the five performers, the song writing and producing team of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff will be inducted in the non-performer category and the late Little Walter in the "sideman" category for his "pioneering use of the microphone (that) helped establish the modern blues harmonica."

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