The Kodaks

In a different, fairer reality, the Kodaks might be remembered at least as rivals to Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. True, they never performed in any movies and only made one national television appearance, and they never wrote a song like "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" -- but they had the sound, and the beat, and a lead singer with a voice as powerful as Lymon's. Formed in Newark, New Jersey during the middle and late 1950s, the Kodaks' sound was driven by Pearl McKinnon's powerful lead vocals, and as a mixed male/female singing group, they stood out from the pack. They cut four singles, none of which made the national charts, but all of which are prized by collectors and enthusiasts. The Kodaks were originally a quartet: Jimmy Patrick (lead, first tenor), William Franklin (second tenor), Larry Davis (baritone), and William Miller (bass). They were good, but they sounded a lot like every other singing group coming out of Newark's Central Ward in the middle of the 1950s. Enter Pearl McKinnon, a 15-year-old friend of Jimmy Patrick's sister, who sang with Marian Patrick and William Miller's future wife Jean in a trio of their own at school. Her voice had a slightly, deeper, richer tone than most teenage girls, but also a fresh innocence and clear articulation that one more often associated with preteen boys -- the resemblance to Frankie Lymon's singing was unmistakable, and joining the male quartet, she made them unique. The group auditioned for Harlem-based impresario Bobby Robinson. He had, until the end of 1957, recorded Louie Lymon & the Teenchords, and heard in the Kodaks a sound uncannily similar to that of Louie's more successful brother Frankie and his group, the Teenagers. He signed the group (changing the spelling of their name on record labels to the Kodoks,...