Ferguson
Ferguson, NC · Arts & Culture
focusnewspaper.com
iredellfreenews.com
lakenormanpublications.com
The Mount Airy News
lakenormanpublications.com
iredellfreenews.com
The Mount Airy News
takemetotn.com
Raleigh News & Observer
Doo-wop legend who sang ‘Money Honey,' other R&B hits, to get NC marker
Clyde McPhatter, a falsetto-voiced pioneer of early rock-and-roll, who launched his highly influential but short career in the churches of Durham, will soon grace an North Carolina historic marker on the streets where he first learned to sing. Born in 1932, McPhatter grew up in a Baptist family in Durham’s Hayti neighborhood, where he sang solos in the choir at his preacher father’s church, Mount Cavalry Baptist, but he soon moved to New York, formed a gospel group based in Harlem — The Mount Lebanon Singers. Like many crooners of his era, McPhatter followed the powerful draw of secular music, and he lent his voice to the early 1950s blend of rhythm and blues. This combination of gospel soulfulness and free-spirited, sexually charged energy led the country into a new rock and roll era. A young Ernie Barnes would recall sneaking into the segregated Durham Armory to get a glimpse of McPhatter with his doo-wop Dominoes, describing the scene he saw on the dance floor, so bold for the era it seemed sinful, but not so audacious he didn’t move along. “What I observed was the no inhibition, no self-consciousness or rigidity, just fluid movement while the music punctuated every