The Ember label was founded in 1952 by Mercer Ellington, song of Duke Ellington, and Jack Angel, but was acquired in 1953 by Al Silver, who turned it into a creative hub for R&B recording and most particularly becoming renowned for its output of doowop recordings by a string of different groups during the late ‘50s and into the 1960s. Most notable among those groups were The Five Satins and The Sihouettes, who both had multiple hits on the label during this era.

Best known for their 1956 million-selling song, In The Still Of The Night, The Five Satins formed in New Haven, Connecticut, and recorded the hit as a B-side to The Jones Girl. The single was initially issued on the tiny local Standord label and before it was released the following year on Ember when it ended up charting at No.3 on the R&B chart and number 25 on the pop chart. In early 1960 it garnered renewed interest and became a Top 10 hit in all three listed markets.

The Silhouettes were formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1956, at first using the name The Thunderbirds.  Their classic hit Get A Job – originally the B-side to I Am Lonely – was issued by their manager Kae Williams on his own Junior Records label, before being sold to the nationally distributed Ember label in late 1957. It reached No.1 on both the R&B and pop charts in US and has sold more than one million copies.

This 60-track 2CD set brings together most of the label’s releases by artists whose work falls broadly into the category of doowop, although this is obviously not a definition which can be slavishly or precisely applied. It’s a feast of classic doowop from a label which was at the heart of the genre.

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