Christian Waldemar "Wally" Roker (April 14, 1937 – December 2, 2015) was an American vocal group singer, best known as a member of The Heartbeats and sometimes called "The Godfather of Doo-Wop".
He was the son of Danish-born Frederik Waldemar Frederiksen, and Edna Hennemann, born in the Virgin Islands, who took the name Roker from a later marriage.
He started singing in a vocal group, the Hearts, with Vernon Sievers, Albert Crump and Robbie Tatum, in Jamaica, Queens, in 1953.
With Roker handling bass vocals, they added lead singer James Sheppard (later of Shep and the Limelites), and changed their name to the Heartbeats when they found out there was another group of the same name.
[1] The Heartbeats released a succession of singles through the late 1950s on various labels, including Hull, Rama, Gee and Roulette, before splitting up in 1960.