The Teenagers had their origins in the Earth Angels, a group founded at Edward W. Stitt Junior High School in the
Washington Heights section of
Manhattan by second tenor
Jimmy Merchant and bass
Sherman Garnes. Eventually, Garnes and Merchant had added lead singer
Herman Santiago and baritone
Joe Negroni to their lineup and evolved into The Coupe De Villes. "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" was the Teenagers' first and biggest hit. The group, known for both their harmony and choreography, also had hits with "
I'm Not a Juvenile Delinquent" and "
The ABC's of Love". By 1957, the group was being billed as "
Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers". This caused in-fighting, and by September, Goldner had pulled Lymon out of the group to record solo. Lymon had little success as a solo artist. He became a heroin addict at the age of 15 and his sales dropped quickly in the early 1960s. In 1966, he stopped using heroin after being forced to go to the army, but on February 27, 1968, he decided to celebrate his good fortune by taking heroin (he was planning to launch a comeback) and died of a heroin overdose at the age of 25 on the floor of his grandmother's bathroom. He had been clean since entering the army two years earlier. The Teenagers continued recording, bringing in a new lead. Billy Lobrano, as the group's first non-Hispanic white member, made them more ethnically mixed, now with two non-Hispanic black, one non-Hispanic white, and two Hispanic members. The group had little success with Lobrano, and he left. Sherman Garnes died of a heart attack in 1977, The group is no longer performing. ==Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers discography==