Doo Wop Duo
What’s your name? Well, that line might work. Don and Juan, a vocal duo from Brooklyn, were Roland “Don” Trone and Claude “Juan” Johnson. (Johnson had sung with The Genies, who charted with “Who’s that Knockin” in 1959. Trone had not been with The Genies.) “What’s Your Name,” which was written by Johnson, went to #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1962. The song was featured as the closing song in the 1982 movie It Came from Hollywood. The story goes that the duo was discovered singing while painting a house. (The Genies had been discovered while singing on the boardwalk.) You never know…
Don and Juan were an R&B vocal duo from Brooklyn, NY, consisting of Roland "Don" Trone and Claude "Juan" Johnson. Johnson had previously sung with a doo-wop group called the Genies, who reached #71 on the Billboard pop charts in 1959 with "Who's That Knockin'" on the Shad label. (Contrary to doo-wop lore, Trone was never with the Genies.) Their one hit was "What's Your Name".
Don & Juan's sole top 40 hit was "What's Your Name" on Big Top Records, which climbed to #7 on the Billboard pop charts in 1962.
Roland Trone died in May 1982 at age 45; Claude Johnson died on October 31, 2002, at age 67.
Their hit "What's Your Name" was featured on the soundtrack of It Came from Hollywood in 1982. It is considered one of the signature classics of the doo-wop vocal style. This song was recently nominated to the Doo-Wop Hall of Fame. "What's Your Name" was also mentioned in the film "Flipped" 2010 by fictional characters portraying "Don and Juan".
In the 1998 film Slam, there is a brief scene where two police officers are driving while arguing over the lyrics to "What's Your Name".
Responses