Gaynel Hodge is one of the great doo-wop voices from Los Angeles.
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Born there on January 4, 1937, and raised in a musical family--his brother Alex (1935-1982) was a founder of The Platters--Gaynel began singing professionally with a vocal group at Jefferson High School. In 1953 he and baritone singer Curtis Williams joined The Hollywood Flames, with whom Gaynel wrote and sang several songs, including "I Know," which later evolved into the doo-wop classic, "Earth Angel" (whose listed composers are Gaynel Hodge, Curtis Williams and Jesse Belvin). |
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In 1954 Curtis Williams went off to form The Penguins and Gaynel left to put together The Turks. "We called ourselves The Turks because we were cocky, we thought of ourselves as young Turks," he says. "During my time with The Turks we started wearing fezzes as a joke, but Muslims started coming up to us and the fezzes became a political issue."
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Gaynel Hodge left The Turks in 1956, but he and Jesse Belvin briefly put together new personnel in 1958 for several recordings. In the 1960s he worked primarily as a pianist and arranger for The Olympics, Preston Epps and others. He played on The Hollywood Argyles' 1960 hit, "Alley-Oop," as well as on The Rivingtons' 1962 classic, "Pappa-Oom-Mow-Mow."
These days Gaynel Hodge lives and performs regularly in Phoenix. He has appeared at several Doo-Wop Society shows, the latest being Show #29 on February 20, 1999. He never fails to charm the audience with both his amazing singing talent and his quirky personality.
