The Bosstones

The Bosstones were an African American musical group in the 1950s who performed in the instrumentally-sparse, a cappella-based harmonic style known as "Philadelphia doo-wop."

The best-known song by the Bosstones is "Mope-Itty Mope" which was released as a 45 rpm single in 1959. In describing one of the many compilation CDs on which this song appears, Allmusic writes:

it's a treat to have access to songs by...the Bosstones [and other groups] that received regional attention but never achieved the national success initially hoped for.

The b-side of "Mope-ity" was a song called "Wings of an Angel".

In 1962 the Dovells remade "Mope-itty Mope" as "The Mope-itty Mope Stomp."

After their existence was called to the attention of the Boston-based skacore band formed in 1985 and also called the Bosstones, the latter group changed its name to The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. As this earlier use of the name is not well-known, contemporary references to "The Bosstones" generally refer to The Mighty Mighty Bosstones rather than the Bosstones discussed in this article.

In the mid-1980s, there was also an a capella group of local Boston college kids who called themselves "the Bosstones." They mainly performed covers at coffee houses and local shows.