“I wonder who’s loving you,” harmonized The Shades of Soul, one of four quintessential doo wop groups performing at Northampton Community College’s annual Doo Wop Live concert on February 9 in Lipkin Theatre.

There was no doubt, however, about the love the audience displayed for the evening’s artists and for the music, a harmony and rhythm-based genre invented by African-Americans, beginning in the 1940s. The concert, in honor of Black History Month, featured the multi-dimensional talents of Shades of Soul, Little Isidore and the Inquisitors, Baby Washington and the Enchanters, and The Solitaires.

Concert-goers showed even deeper affection for emcee Ronnie I (Ronnie Italiano, pictured left), the founder and president of the United in Group Harmony Association, an organization whose members meet regularly and have developed a near-familial relationship with him and each other.

Ronnie’s strong and personal connection to his NCC audience, many of whom he knows by name, and with the musicians, some of whom rehearse in his home, radiated warmth throughout the evening. Recognizing Ronnie for his singular promotion of doo wop and R&B, history professor Earl Page said that “greatness comes in all kinds of ways, and this is a great man.”

Ronnie called the February 9 concert, the latest in a 15-year NCC tradition, a “tribute to R&B pioneers and Black History Month” and praised NCC for “preserving the music we started.”

The music truly did connect to the doo wop years, with Baby Washington (pictured right) and The Solitaires singing hits they recorded in the late 1950s.

Heading the evening, the a cappella group, The Shades of Soul, created their own percussive accompaniment to crescendos of harmony, with their finger-snapping and clapping. Among their songs, the ever-popular “Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone,” voiced mellow wistfulness.

Little Isidore (pictured left) and the Inquisitors raised shouts of “Isidore, we love you!” with melodies leaping with energy. “Let’s Go for a Ride” virtually resurrected those sharp-“finned” autos of the era and their duck-tailed drivers.

Backed by The Enchanters, Baby (Justine) Washington drew appreciative applause with her 1959 chart-topping ballads “The Bells” and “The Time.” Her strong voice and her back-up singers’ delicious harmonies delivered powerful songs about love, fidelity and yearning.

The Solitaires’ (pictured right)familiar 1950s hit, “The Angels Sang,” seemed to sum up an era. Master vocalists and entertainers, their set sparkled with showmanship and humor. Their well-known tune, “Walking Along,” sent the audience home with a bounce in their steps.