boo ... great stuff, great talent, no doubt about it ...
BUT we are not comparing apples to apples when we compare The Four Aces and The Four Freshman to the Doo Wop groups ... As far as the Freshman are concerned, two of them got together while studying at Jordan Conservatory - the music school of Butler University ... they then were taken under the wing of Stan Kenton !!! ... do you think they had some harmony and theory training under him?!? ... I don't know where the Four Aces may have studied, but they were all musicians before they became vocalists ... think that helped with them developing harmonies that other groups might not have been familiar with? ... and as for the vid clip of the Four Aces, I won't even go into the seven back up singers they have - which admittedly, they did NOT have during their popular days ...

Now, how many of the Doo Wop groups of the 50s do you think had the kind of schooling and musical background of the Four Aces or Four Freshman? - I would venture to say, let's see ... about NONE ... most of these groups were kids off the streets who made one recording and done ...

I understand what you are saying about the fact that the Aces and Freshman were 'bumped' by lesser talented groups, but I think we were at a time when 'simple' was better ...

BTW, when our band did doo wop, I actually would interject some M7 or M6 harmonies where possible, just to give it a little better sound ...

As for that 'lick' ... are you telling me that all jazz players do is play the same notes over and over ???

Just some 'food' for YOU to chew on ...