Robbins works overtime to keep doo-wop alive

By Rich Fahey

Harvey Robbins is the first to admit that the genre of music he has been tirelessly promoting for 30 years pretty much ended 60 years ago.

“Doo-wop died with the arrival of the Beatles in 1963,” said Robbins, a Boston native who lives in Foxboro.

The first Beatles song to be released in the U.S. was “Please, Please Me” in February 1963, and the band cemented its status as the leaders of the British Invasion with their  tour of the U.S. in 1964.

Robbins believes the last of the great doo-wop groups was the late Eugene Pitt and his Jive Five, who had several hits after the Beatles invaded and continued to show up on the charts as they gradually made the transition away from being strictly doo-wop artists.

“The Jive Five at that time was the only (doo-wop) group that survived through the British invasion,” Mr. Pitt said in an interview for the website Soul Express Online in 2009.

Stil, Robbins has attempted to keep the memories of the era and its artists, who thrived in the 1950s and early 1960’s, alive any way he can. One of the ways is as president and founder of the Doo-Wop Hall of Fame of America, which began honoring artists with annual concerts in 1996.

Each year Robbins honors several with a concert and induction ceremony for the Hall of Fame, with this year’s event to be held Sunday, Oct. 15 at the North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly.

Robbins has been a performer himself, ever since the early days while attending Roxbury Memorial High School in Boston in the 1950’s and singing with his group The Interludes, which began his lifelong love affair with the genre.

He continues to emcee his doo-wop shows and occasionally fills in as a background singer if one is needed.

Robbins has been promoting doo-wop shows since 1985 and they have been presented in such prestigious venues as Symphony Hall in Boston, the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut, and venues in Florida, and now have a home at the North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly.  

It’s hard to find original singers from the groups still performing, but Robbins spends much of his time tracking down long-forgotten artists and giving them one more taste of the limelight. Some of them can still channel hits they made more than 60 years ago.

In the upcoming show in Beverly, Robbins will present Al “Little Fats” Jackson from New Orleans performing all of the hits of the late Fats Domino; a tribute to Ritchie Valens by his cousin Ernie Reyes; and Margaret Ross and The Cookies.

They will be joined by Back in Time, featuring recording lead singers of Hall of Fame inductees The Flamingos and The Dubs, singing the hits “Could This Be Magic,” “Chapel of Dreams,” and “Don’t Ask Me to be Lonely.”

Robbins does not reveal his inductees, who are voted on by a nationwide panel,  for the Hall of Fame before the concert.

Doo-wop is not the only area where Robbins has left his mark. He is a noted environmentalist, currently president and curator of the Prowse Farm Museum in Canton.

In earlier times, Robbins was an award-winning sportswriter for the Patriot Ledger of Quincy, specializing in coverage of the Boston Celtics. It was there he met Celtic star Dave Cowens, who joined him in the quest to successfully preserve Prowse Farm as open space,

Robbins has also been a longtime member of the Friends of Prowse Farm, a volunteer organization that has raised more than $30 million for charities. It has hosted events such as the Avon Breast Cancer Walk, the Susan B. Komen Walk For The Cure, Life Is Good Festivals, and an annual pow-wow to honor Native American culture on the land.

Robbins also received a Massachusetts Audubon Award “on behalf of the living environment.”

Bill Hanney, owner of the North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly and Theater by the Sea in South Kingstown, R.I, has hosted Robbins’ shows at both venues and has known him for manty years.  He described him as an “American original.”

“He could probably make life easier for himself by including more 60’s acts, but he’s very true to the artists he grew up with,” said Hanney. “He draws a pretty good crowd of people and the people he brings in are very loyal.”

Robbins also was the manager of the late burlesque star Tempest Storm and was featured in the 2016 documentary Tempest Storm, about the last of the burlesque icons from “the golden age.”

Robbins says his audience may be aging, “But there is still an audience of people who love and cherish this music. We’ll continue to provide it to the fans who specifically love this era.”

Harvey Robbins’ Doo-wop Hall of Fame of America Annual Concert and Induction Ceremony. October 15, 2023, at 2 p.m. Tickets:  $59- $64 For tickets and information visit www.nsmt.org, call (978) 232-7200, or visit the North Shore Music Theatre box office in person at 54 Dunham Rd., Beverly, MA.