#42: I Promise To Remember by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers

City: Edmonton, AB
Radio Station: CFRN
Peak Month: September 1956
Peak Position in Edmonton: #5
Peak position in Vancouver: #6
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100: #57
YouTube: “I Promise To Remember”
Lyrics: “I Promise To Remember”

In 1942 Franklin Joseph “Frankie” Lymon was born in New York City. Frankie and his brothers grew up in a musical home in Harlem. Their mother, Jeanette, was a domestic maid. Their dad, Howard Lymon Sr., had a job as a truck driver and was a member of a gospel group called the Harlemaires. Frankie and his brothers, Howard and Lewis, all attended the Harlemaires rehearsals and concerts from an early age. From the age of ten Frankie worked at a grocery store to help the family pay the rent. He also had a sideline hustling prostitutes. When Frankie’s voice developed into a beautiful boy soprano lead singer he joined a group called The Teenagers. The doo-wop groups original lineup consisted of three African Americans: Frankie Lymon, Jimmy Merchant and Sherman Garnes, and two Puerto Ricans: Herman Santiago and Joe Negroni.

Jimmy Merchant was born in the Bronx in 1940. As he grew into a teenager, Merchant sang 2nd tenor. In September 1954, while attending Edward W. Stitt Junior High School, he met Sherman Garnes and formed The Earth Angels. then they formed The Coupe De Villes and Herman Santiago and Joe Negroni joined the group, Frankie Lymon watched the show before joining the group. Once Frankie Lymon joined the group they changed their name to The Ermines, then to The Premiers before renaming themselves The Teenagers. Sherman Garnes was born in 1940 in New York City. Herman Santiago was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1941, and raised in Manhattan. At the time the group was called The Ermines and then The Premiers, Santiago was the lead singer. Joe Negroni was born in New York City in 1940. He sang baritone and in the early 50’s, Negroni, Santiago and Merchant would gather at Santiago’s building stairs and sing doo-wop tunes. Before Frankie Lymon joined the group, they did concerts with other groups, notably the Cadillacs of “Speedoo” fame.

One day in 1955, a neighbor to one of the members of The Premiers handed over a number of love letters he had received from his girlfriend. He gave these letters he’d received hopeful that it would inspire the doo-wop group to write a hit song. From one of the letters Merchant and Santiago wrote a song titled “Why Do Birds Sing So Gay?” Frankie Lymon changed the song a bit and retitled it “Why Do Fools Fall in Love”. It became The Teenagers’ first single, climbing to #2 on the Cashbox Best Selling Singles chart for two weeks nationally in April ’56. The song spent twelve weeks in the Top Ten, and topped the Billboard and Cashbox R&B charts, with the latter for eight weeks. A second hit in the spring of 1956, “I Want You To Be My Girl”, also made the Top Ten in the USA, and #3 on the Cashbox Rhythm &Blues Top 15 chart. It was sampled in the novelty hit, “Flying Saucer” by Buchanan and Goodman.

The third single release for Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers was “I Promise To Remember”.

“I Promise To Remember” was co-written by Jimmy Castor and an obscure songwriter named Jimmy Smith. James Walter Castor was born in 1940 in Manhattan. In 1956 he formed the group Jimmy and the Juniors (which did not include Jimmy Smith), who recorded the original version of “I Promise To Remember”. In 1966, Castor released a solo effort titled “Hey Leroy, Your Mama’s Callin’ You”. In the early 70s, he formed The Jimmy Castor Bunch. The group had a Top Ten hit in 1972 titled “Troglodyte (Cave Man)”. Castor played saxophone, as well as lead vocals. Over the following decades he released more soul and funk recordings, which included 14 studio albums into the mid-1990s. Jimmy Castor died at the age of 71 in 2012 of heart failure.

In the lyrics, the suitor declares “I want you, I need you…” “I Promise To Remember” was released in June 1956. On May 4, 1956, Elvis Presley’s Top Ten hit “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You” was released. It’s certainly possible that “I Promise To Remember”, which was written in May 1956, found the Jimmy Castor and Jimmy Smith with the ear worm of Elvis’ new hit single. In any event, the singer declares “I promise to love you no matter what you do…I promise to be true.” It seems the romance has been rocky. He appeals to his sweetheart “give me one more chance,” suggesting she’s either dumped him, or has been on the verge of ending the romance. He also wonders “if I’ve done something wrong.” He knows he’s not “a king.” Nonetheless, he makes an appeal that his heart is in the right place.

“I Promise To Remember” peaked at #5 in Edmonton, #6 in Vancouver (BC), #8 in Ottawa and New Haven (CT), #11 in Freeport (IL), #15 in Memphis, #17 in Chicago, #20 in Minneapolis/St. Paul, and #24 in New York City.

Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers had several more singles that were hits in the USA and UK. From the rock ‘n roll film, Rock, Rock, Rock, their single “I’m Not A Juvenile Delinquent” made it to #12 in the UK. And “The ABC’s Of Love” climbed to #8 on the Billboard R&B charts. In 1957, another film, Mister Rock and Roll, featured Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. Also, in 1957, while on tour with the Platters, Frankie Lymon developed a romantic relationship with the Platters only  female singer, Zola Taylor.

Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers had their fifth and final Top Ten hit on the R&B charts in 1957 titled “Out in the Cold Again”.

After Lymon went solo in mid-1957, both his career and those of the Teenagers fell into decline. They released several more singles between 1957 and 1960, while touring until they dissolved in 1961. A final release in 1963, (recorded in 1961 during the Twist craze) was “The Lemon-Twist Dance”.

Frankie Lymon’s first solo single was credited to Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, though it was only Frankie Lymon singing in the studio. The song was “Goody Goody” which reached #20 on the Billboard pop chart, and #7 on the Cashbox Rhythm & Blues Top 25 chart in September 1957.

From 1957 to 1961, Frankie Lymon released 13 more singles. Only two of these made the Top 30 on the R&B charts, with his cover of “Little Bitty Pretty One” reaching #18 on the R&B chart and #58 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1960. Lymon has two more minor single releases in 1964, and a final one in 1968.

In 1964, at age 22, Frankie Lymon got his draft notice. He joined the U.S. Army and began training at Fort Gordon, Georgia, in 1965. While he was in Fort Gordon he fell in love with a teacher named Emira Eagle. They were wed in 1967 and Lymon began to appear in concert occasionally. But one day he decided to return to New York, where he hoped to regain fame. Frankie died on February 27, 1968, in his grandmother’s bathroom from a heroin overdose while on weekend leave from the Army. He was 25 years old. The following day he was to spend time in the studio of Big Apple Records working on two songs he’d recorded for the label, “I’m Sorry” and “Seabreeze”. Big Apple released the single later in the year.

In the aftermath of his death there were legal battles concerning royalties from his recordings. All three of his wives sued for the right to receive benefits from Frankie Lymon’s estate. A judge determined that Elizabeth Waters would be awarded the royalties due from Lymon’s estate. A countersuit followed and a second verdict awarded Emira Eagle with income from Lymon’s estate.

Frankie Lymon’s life inspired the 1998 film, Why Do Fools Fall in Love? directed by Gregory Nava.

Sherman Garnes was married and his wife gave birth to a girl. He died at the age of 36 in February 1977 of a heart attack. In 1978, Joe Negroni died at the age of 37 of a cerebral hemorrhage.

After the Teenagers split up in 1961, Jimmy Merchant lapsed into heroin addiction for several decades. By the early 80s, he was in a reformed Teenagers band that included Frankie Lymon’s brother, Lewis Lymon, as well as Jimmy Castor (for several years). In 1997, Jimmy Merchant joined The Royal All Stars (also known as the Doo Wop All Stars). He took the place of BJ Jones, from the Dubs. Other members of the Royal All Stars were Vito Balsamo from Vito and the Salutations, Artie Loria from The Earls, Randy Silverman from The Impalas and Eugene Pitt from The Jive Five. They became a mainstay in the “doo wop” circuit and toured continuously in the following years. Merchant retired in 2005, but teamed up again with Herman Santiago in 2008. They were known as Frankie Lymon’s Teenagers or The Legendary Teenagers. In 2023, Jimmy Merchant published the memoir A Teenager’s Dream: Why Do Fools Fall in Love.

References:
Peter Stack, “The Fast Life of Frankie Lymon – a Fool for Love at Just 14,” SFGate, San Francisco, CA, September 2, 1998.
“Frankie Lymon: A Musical Biography,” Pan-African News Wire, May 26, 2007.
“Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers,” Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.com, 1993.
“Soul musician Jimmy Castor dies at the age of 71,” BBC, January 18, 2012.
David Hinckley, “All These Years Later, a Teenagers’ Fool-ish Dream Pays Off: Jimmy Merchant, 55, has valuable lessons to share,” Daily News, New York, February 3, 1995.
David Hinckley, “Original Teenager Sold on Fools: Jimmy Merchant says Film shows how Lymon and the Band were Victims of the System ,” Daily News, New York, September 3, 1998.
Peter Besel, “Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers (1954-1957),” Blackpast, December 2, 2018.
Mark Voger, “Teenagers singer bound for New Brunswick,” (NJ), Jersey Retro, November 5, 2016.
“Herman Santiago and Jimmy Merchant at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,” January 13, 1993.
Jimmy Merchant, A Teenager’s Dream: Why Do Fools Fall in Love, (Pearly Gates Pub., 2023).
David Hinckley, “Lewis Lymon of the Teenchords dead at 69,” New York Daily News, July 11, 2013.

CFRN 1260-AM Edmonton (AB) Top Ten | September 8, 1956