| PLEASE NOTE: I divided my uploads between multiple channels, Bookmark this link in your browser for instant access to an index with links to all of John1948's oldies classics. LINK: tinyurl.com The Chordettes were one of the longest-lived vocal groups with roots in the mainstream pop and vocal harmonies of the 1940s and early 1950s. Although the four women's arrangements owed more to the Andrews Sisters than doo wop, they did, unlike many of their peers, prove fairly adaptable to the rock era. First establishing themselves with the huge (and non-rock) pop hit "Mr. Sandman" in 1954, they continued to chart in the last half of the 1950s and the early 1960s, often with covers of rock and R&B songs. The #2 1958 hit "Lollipop" was the biggest of these. Although the group sound (at least in retrospect) among the Whitest and squarest of rock artists, they introduced enough rock into their repertoire and production to sound more contemporary than they had on discs such as "Mr. Sandman." Jinny Osborn was exposed to harmony singing via her father, who was president of "The Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America Inc." She formed the quartet with three college friends, and they became regulars on Arthur Godfrey's television show for four years in 1949, singing a cappella in the barbershop style, and recording for Columbia. Godfrey's musical director, Archie Bleyer, married the Chordettes' bass singer, Janet Ertel, around the same time ... |
