This story is the first in a series on groups that have been inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame and Museum, Sharon.

Fifty years ago this month, the Harptones released their first single, a reworking of "A Sunday Kind of Love," which had been a hit for Jo Stafford and Frank Sinatra.

The song was an immediate hit and is probably the group's best known song.

The continued success of that song and the longevity of the Harptones' career is a source of pride to Raoul J. Cita, who is credited in some corners with founding the group.

"It's an amazing feeling to me, because a lot of styles of music have come and gone," Cita said.

Doo wop music in general is buoyed by a rabid class of loyalists who hunt down obscure 45s and consider a group by its entire output, not just what was a hit back in the '50s or gets played on oldies radio stations now.

"We have a lot of people making sure that our music stays forever," said Cita, the Harptones' arranger and pianist, and sometime songwriter and singer. "They have organizations called Oldies Forever and Golden Oldies Forever, and they're trying to make it last. It's really nice, soothing music, so it will."

The quintet formed in Harlem out of two groups, the Skylarks and the Winfield Brothers. Both groups were part of the street-corner community of singers who fought in musical turf battles for harmonizing supremacy.

"There were different groups singing on corners in Harlem in the lower east side -- one group against the other," said Cita, who still lives in the house that became a center of his neighborhood's nascent singing movement. "Just like in the '60s and '70s, when they had break dances against each other."

William "Dempsey" James was a member of the Skylarks.

"We started out in about '52 just singing on the corners, the subways of New York," he said. "As we started singing, people stopped to listen to us. That's when we thought we had something going. Sure enough, other groups started hearing us and they started coming to listen to us, and we started challenging one another, and we got better and better -- that's how it all started."

Undeterred by being booed off the stage at the Apollo Theatre's amateur night, James was one of the Skylarks who joined the Harptones.

"A group came to my house one day because they knew I was a piano player," Cita said. "I liked the way they sounded. I decided all of a sudden I was going to be a vocal coach."

The group, then called the Harps, fared better at the Apollo than the Skylarks had -- winning first prize.

The group's singing started attracting the attention of the New York music establishment, and they scored a studio deal with the newly founded Bruce Records.

Renamed the Harptones to separate them from a gospel group called the Harps, tenors Winfield, James and Nicky Clark, baritone William "Dicey" Galloway and bass Bill Brown recorded "A Sunday Kind of Love" and "I'll Never Tell."

"We got lucky," Cita said, noting the group only knew a handful of songs at the time. "We got really lucky."

James, who was 17 at the time, said he was surprised by the immediate impact of "A Sunday Kind of Love," but was confident in the group's ability.

"We saw the reaction people gave us at the Apollo Theatre," he said of singing the song there. "We kept rehearsing it and rehearsing and rehearsing, until a studio heard us and recorded it for us."

The Harptones, who sing Sunday in Pittsburgh, did not fare as well on the charts as other doo wop groups, but forged a long, varied career and their reputation has aged better than some of the groups that sold more records.

To the casual listener, the Harptones are known for their ballads, a reputation Cita and James said they don't mind.

"We could do either," Cita said of ballads and jump tunes, "but once you become popular in a certain field, that's what you have to do. If it's not broken, don't fix it. We specialize in love ballads but we love to do different tunes."

"We knew we could do fast numbers, but we prefer to do ballads and make the fast numbers the B side," said James, who now sings baritone. "We seem to have the audience that likes the ballads that we do."

Winfield is considered one of the best doo wop leads ever, and his voice is showcased on the slower songs.

"Willie's voice is something unique," said Cita, who sang on the recorded version of "Since I Fell For You" and now sings bass with the group. "It's nice to hear on anything."

The Harptones went through many personnel changes and jumped labels frequently, but kept a presence on the pop charts through 1957 with songs such as "My Memories of You," "Life is But a Dream," "On a Sunday Afternoon" and "The Shrine of St. Cecelia."

The group was equally at home in front of a small band, or singing a cappella, evoking images of their early days on Harlem street corners.

The revolving door of members eventually included women, and Vickie Burgess sustains a feminine presence in the group's sound.

A touring member for five or six years, Ms. Burgess's association goes back to the group's early days.

Ms. Burgess, who handles one of the group's tenor parts, recorded with the Charmers ("The Beating of My Heart," "Tony, My Darling.") and the Joytones ("My Foolish Heart," "Gee, What A Boy"), which she called a sister group to the Harptones.

"We all sang with each other," she said. "We were all on a lot of their records, and they're on a lot of ours. We were always a big family."

The current group is rounded out by 30-year member Marlowe Murray, a tenor formerly with the Fi-Tones ("Foolish Dreams," "My Faith.")

Cita, 75, who wrote "My Memories of You," "Life is But a Dream" and "You Know You're Doin' Me Wrong," said the continuing strong fan reaction makes him "want to sing forever."

James said the group members challenge themselves to try to sound better each time they sing. Age has given them a better understanding of the songs, which he thinks improves how they present a chestnut such as "A Sunday Kind of Love."

"We put a little more groove into it," James said.

Time also has granted the singers the ability to pick and choose when and where they want to perform.

"We do about two or three engagements a month," James said. "That's enough for us old oldies. We don't need much. We still have our pensions coming in, so we don't have to make a living at it anymore. We're enjoying ourselves now."

Sunday's concert at Mellon Arena, Pittsburgh, starts at 8 p.m. Also performing will be Bo Diddley, Harold Melvin's Bluenotes, the Cleftones, Speedo and the Cadillacs, Kenny Vance and the Planotones, Eugene Pitt and the Jive Five and Johnny of Santo and Johnny. Tickets: 1-330-747-1212, Kaufmann's or Iggle Entertainment, both in Hermitage, and www.ticketmaster.com Information: 1-412-642-1800 and www.mellonarena.com

030509