Murray the K and the Swingin’ Soiree

In the mid-1960s, New York’s AM radio dial was a high-stakes battleground.

While Cousin Brucie held court at 77 WABC, Murray the K was the frantic, mile-a-minute pulse of 1010 WINS. Born Murray Kaufman on Valentine’s Day, he was the supreme salesman of his own brand — a man who didn’t just play the Hot 100, but turned the radio into an exclusive club with its own language. Before he became the self-anointed “Fifth Beatle” during the 1964 British Invasion, Murray was the king of the Doo Wop era. He understood that street-corner harmonies belonged to the night, and he gave us the ultimate alibi: “Watching the Submarine Races.”

As my original 12-inch sleeve artwork playfully suggests, the “races” were a perfectly innocent lie. We’d tell our parents we were headed to Sheepshead Bay or Rockaway Beach to imagine watching submarines race in the moonlight. In reality, together with our romantic partner, we parked in those dark, deserted shoreline lots, breathlessly fogging up the car windows to the music of the Drifters, The Platters or maybe Elvis. The submarine race-watching: a fantasy hiding our budding backseat love affairs.

Every year, we were mesmerized by Murray’s annual year-end countdowns, hanging on every word of a man who promised to make the list of the year’s best as exciting as watching a Miss America Pageant. Plus, those racy submarines were always out there somewhere, so we could even cover up our nocturnal activities if our parents asked us how we knew who the winners were. Looking at the vintage cover of Murray the K’s Gassers for Submarine RaceWatchers, you see the man himself: straw hat and that restless energy of a DJ who knew that on the radio, the hustle was just as important as the hook.

I began curating the Submarine Race Watching, “Doo Woppers” playlist during several sleepless nights after “Harbour Lights” by the Platters played in a Port Washington Harbor restaurant. Listening to the often heartbreakingly simple lyrics is strangely comforting. It’s a rewarding look back at the pre-British Invasion harmonies that made “race watching” worth revisiting. 

So far, we listened to and listed about 200 of the countless songs that fueled those Brooklyn nights. Find the Playlist here:

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Carey Allan

Carey Allan is a songwriter whose work has appeared on recordings by The Cowsills and others. His writing on culture has appeared in the Albany Times Union Sunday Magazine and the Hartford Advocate.

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