The Chords. 1) ""Sh-Boom" (sometimes referred to as "Life Could Be a Dream") is widely considered to be the first popular Doo-Wop song. It was written by James Keyes, Claude Feaster & Carl Feaster, Floyd F. McRae, and James Edwards and published in 1954. Although both versions of the song (by The Chords and by The Crew-Cuts) were huge hits, it is the song "Gee", released by the Crows in June 1953, that is credited with the honor of being the first Rock n’ Roll hit by a rock and roll group. History: It was first recorded on Atlantic Records' subsidiary label Cat Records by a rhythm and blues group, The Chords, and would be their only hit song. Placed on the B-Side of a cover of "Cross over the Bridge" a Patti Page hit, Sh-Boom reached number 3 on the R&B charts, and topped at number 9 on the Pop charts, making it the first doo-wop or rock 'n' roll record to reach the Top Ten on the mainstream pop charts (as opposed to the R&B charts). Sh-Boom was #1 on the Cash Box Magazine chars for 7 weeks (Aug 7th through September 24th). This version was ranked #215 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and is the group's only song on the list. A more traditional style version was made by The Crew-Cuts for Mercury Records, and this version reached #1 on the Billboard charts in for seven weeks during August and September 1954. On the Cash Box magazine best-selling record charts, where both versions were combined, the song reached #1." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Could_Be_A_Dream 2) "The Chords were a 1950s American doo wop group, whose lone hit was "Sh-Boom". They are sometimes mistakenly cited as the first R&B group of the 1950s to reach the pop charts. Although both versions of the song Sh-Boom (by The Chords and by The Crew-Cuts) were huge hits, it is the song Gee, released by The Crows in June 1953, that is properly credited with the honor of being the first Rock n’ Roll hit by a rock and roll group." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chords_(US_band%29 Warning: there was also a 1970s British pop music group with that name: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chords The music can be found here: http://www.last.fm/music/The+Chords/_/Sh-Boom Further information (search the pages for "the Chords"): http://aceterrier.com/?page_id=4 http://home.att.net/~uncamarvy/Chords/chords.html http://www.tarleton.edu/~boucher/PopMusicLectureRock.htm http://faculty.smu.edu/dsimon/Change-Music.html http://frankp316.blogspot.com/2009/02/yahoo-launchcast-song-of-day-chords.html http://alexaugustine.com/MoreRarePhotos.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crew-Cuts