In Celebration of the Human Voice - The Essential Musical Instrument
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It's just not cool to like your parents' music, right? Well, actually, yes, it really is. At least it is if the kind of stuff your parents tried to introduce you to is anything like these terrific vintage vocal harmony groups! The groups you'll find here are the ones who inspired the groups who inspired the ones we love today. Making their music between the Depression and the '50s, these are the greats who made modern, popular harmony, well, popular. This is the music of the golden age of harmony! |
They sounded great 50 years ago and they sound great now! Arrangements of songs sung by the great vintage harmony groups.
In the pre- and post-WWII era, the term “popular” music took on a whole new meaning. Performing groups of that age were some of the first to have the mass commercial appeal the current generation is so accustomed to their stars having. And these vintage harmony groups deserved their status! They inspired generations of close harmony groups to emulate their sound, and current groups owe much of their history to these exquisite, talented singers who paved the way for them. Explore the history, and enjoy it, too. Consider these recordings museums on CD!
Vintage never goes out of fashion. These recordings are a period of history – inA Cappella Recordings many cases, they are from the artists who made these songs so ubiquitous to the vocal music world. We’ve all heard many modern groups sing tunes like “Under the Boardwalk” – but in these vintage recordings, you can hear some of the first groups ever to sing these songs. They don’t make recordings like this anymore. If you enjoy the origins of the modern a cappella world, you’ll love these albums.
Now this was a memorable era of music! The original girl-group era featured some of the most talented siblings ever heard on popular radio. In many of these recordings can be found the precursor of women's barbershop, and the inspiration for many of today's female vocal jazz groups. Genetic blend is a wonderful, all-too-rare thing, and many of these recordings feature talented family groups with some of the sweetest blending chords you'll hear. Even the groups that aren't all sisters just ooze the sound of talent and skill. You may not have been around when this music was new, but it's never too late to discover it.
We dare you not to know the words to most of the songs in this category. You know these songs. It doesn’t matter what generation you’re from, you grew up with these songs. And you hear groups doing them all the time. But you don’t hear them all that often sung the way these masters do them… These are some of the finest vocal harmony groups ever to grace the stage, and even in some cases 50 or more years since the albums were recorded, you can hear why. It’s a peek into the way the music world worked before computers allowed engineers to correct the singers’ voices – when it was all talent, and what talent it was!
Nope. As it turns out, popular groups recording holiday albums really is not just a modern trend. Whether it's the movie & music stars of the '40s and '50s, or the family on which one of the most popular holiday movies of all time was based, these golden age Christmas recordings (and modern recordings in the golden age style) are not just celebrations of the Christmas holiday season, but they evoke an earlier, more simple time. For cozy, comforting December music, these familiar groups and their great recordings are where you want to go
So much of the modern a cappella sound is influenced by the wonderful harmonies of the 1940's and 50's. Here we showcase some of the mixed voice vintage harmony groups including Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, Les Double Six, Modernaires, Pied Pipers, Platters and others.
Here we showcase videos of the female vintage harmony groups including many of the sisters groups such as The Andrews Sisters, Boswell Sisters, DeMarco Sisters, Dinning Sisters, King Sisters, Lennon Sisters, McGuire Sisters, The Chordettes and others.
Here we showcase videos of the male vintage harmony groups including The Hi-Lo's, Four Freshman, Ames Brothers, Buffalo Bills, Comedian Harmonists, Delta Rhythm Boys, Mills Brothers, Ink Spots, Coasters and others.
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