IM: WHUSDJ
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Off the Beaten Track
Tune into "Dark Side of the Highway" this Sunday (Dec. 2) from 2-6 AM for a special memorial tribute to Earl "Speedo" Carroll, lead vocalist of the 1950's doo-wop group The Cadillacs...
Earl "Speedo" Carroll (November 2, 1937 - November 25, 2012)
Earl "Speedo" Carroll (November 2, 1937 – November 25, 2012) was the lead vocalist for the doo-wop group The Cadillacs. The group's biggest hit was "Speedo", Carroll's subsequent nickname. It was released in 1955. He later joined The Coasters. Carroll left The Coasters in the early 1990s to permanently reform The Cadillacs.
In the 1990s, a newspaper feature discovered that Carroll had made a successful life for himself as a custodian at PS 87, a New York elementary school, where according to the later book, he was a beloved figure whom the children called "Speedo". Earl was chosen to be the subject of a children's book, That's Our Custodian, by Ann Morris (Brookfield, Connecticut): Millbrook Press). The publicity helped him to revive his career. He became a mainstay of the PBS series honoring doo wop, hosted by Jerry Butler.
Carroll died in a nursing home in New York following a stroke and a battle with diabetes just twenty-three days after his 75th birthday.