Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers – Why Do Fools Fall in Love – 1956 [DES STEREO]

"Why Do Fools Fall in Love" was recorded in November 1955 was released January 10, 1956 on Gee Records in the US, Columbia [EMI] in the UK and on Phillips Records Mexico and South America. It reached #1 on the US R&B chart, #6 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and #1 on the UK Singles Chart in July 1956.Enjoy my DES [Digitally Extracted STEREO] conversion of this historic doo-wop/rock and roll mega-hit from the mid-50’s.

Written by Frankie Lymon, Herman Santiago and Jimmy Merchant

Franklin Joseph Lymon (September 30, 1942 – February 27, 1968) [Aged 25 years] was an American rock and roll/rhythm and blues singer and songwriter, best known as the boy soprano lead singer of the New York City-based early rock and roll group The Teenagers. The group was composed of five boys, all in their early to mid-teens. The original lineup of the Teenagers, an integrated group, included three African-American members, Frankie Lymon, Jimmy Merchant, and Sherman Garnes; and two Puerto Rican members, Joe Negroni and Herman Santiago. The Teenagers' first single, 1956's "Why Do Fools Fall in Love", was also their biggest hit. After Lymon went solo in mid-1957, both his career and that of the Teenagers fell into decline. He was found dead at the age of 25 on the floor of his grandmother's bathroom from a heroin overdose. His life was dramatized in the 1998 film Why Do Fools Fall In Love.

About the original MONO mix:
The track was from a 1989 mastering of “The Very Best of Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers”. The instrumentation was very sparse, just sax, guitar bass & drums. Not much to stereoize. The bass was overpowering, which I fixed in the final mix.

About my DES STEREO mix:
For the Vocals, I removed added a short, crisp stereo reverb to give continuity to the stereo image and a brighter EQ to bring out the highs a bit more. For the Instruments, I gave them a wide surround-sound stereo effect. For the Sax solo, I centered it, added a bit of stereo reverb and raised it 1.5 DB. For the Drums, I panned them Right and made it reverb into the Left. I left the Bass centered and cooled it by 1.5DB.

Technical Information:
I used iZotope RX-8 to isolate the Vocals, Instruments, Drums and Bass into 4 separate tracks. I used SprectraLayers PRO-7 to isolate the Sax from the Instruments as the 5th track. Adobe Audition 2020 was used for Dynamic Range recovery, Reverb, Delay, EQ, and final mixdown. Sonic Studio’s Amarra Luxe Sound Processor was used for post EQ and upsampling. NERO 2019 Platinum used to generate the final video.

For more information on spectral editing and sound source separation, visit https://www.monotostereo.info/

Enjoy my MONO-to-STEREO conversion of this historic mid-50’s doo-wop hit.

This video is strictly for entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement is intended.