The Bosstones (also known as The Boss-Tones) were an American musical group who performed in the instrumentally-sparse,

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

-based

harmonic A harmonic is a wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the ''fundamental frequency'', the frequency of the original periodic signal, such as a sinusoidal wave. The original signal is also called the ''1st harmonic'', the ...

style known as

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

doo-wop Doo-wop (also spelled doowop and doo wop) is a genre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chica ...

. The Bosstones apparently released only one record in their history: "Mope-Itty Mope" b/w "Wings of an Angel" in 1959 on the Boss Records label. The record was a not a national or regional hit (although it did manage to scrape into the playlists of a few stations, such as

KIMN KIMN (100.3 FM) is a commercial radio station in Denver, Colorado. The station is owned by Stan Kroenke's KSE Radio Ventures and airs a Hot AC radio format. Studios and offices are located on Colorado Boulevard in Glendale, and the transmitter ...

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

in May of that year). "Mope-Itty Mope" would probably have fallen into complete obscurity except for fact that Mexican

border blaster A border blaster is a broadcast station that, though not licensed as an external service, is, in practice, used to target another country. The term "border blaster" is of North American origin, and usually associated with Mexican AM station ...

XEAK decided to play it in 1961 -- in fact, they played it over and over for ''72 straight hours'', stunting its new format: "Extra News", the first 24-hour all-news station in Southern California (and one of the first in the United States). In 1962,

The Dovells The Dovells were an American doo-wop band (music), group, formed at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1957, under the name 'The Brooktones'. The original members were Arnie Silver, Len Barry, Len Borisoff, Jerry Gross (alias ...

remade "Mope-itty Mope" as "The Mope-itty Mope Stomp". In 1983, a

ska punk Ska punk (also spelled ska-punk) is a fusion genre that mixes ska music and punk rock music together. (sometimes spelled skacore) is a subgenre of ska punk that mixes ska with hardcore punk. Early ska punk mixed both 2 tone and ska with hardc ...

band, calling themselves The Bosstones, was formed in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Massachusetts. After finding out about the long-defunct group of the same name, the newer band changed its name to

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (informally referred to as The Bosstones and often stylized as The Mighty Mighty BossToneS) were an American ska punk band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1983. From the band's inception, lead vocalist Dicky ...

, at the suggestion of a bartender friend, in order to avoid any possible legal hassles.

Notes

American rhythm and blues musical groups {{US-R&B-band-stub