This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2010) |
Joe and Eddie | |
---|---|
![]() Joe and Eddie in 1965 | |
Background information | |
Genres | Gospel, folk |
Years active | 1956 | –1966
Past members | Joe Gilbert Eddie Brown |
Joe and Eddie was an American gospel folk group. During their careers, the African-American duo composed of Joe Gilbert and Eddie Brown toured the United States and Canada, appeared on more than 20 major television shows, and recorded eight albums. [1] [2]
Both born in 1941 and raised in the South, Joe Gilbert and Eddie Brown had much in common before they even met. Gilbert was raised in New Orleans, Louisiana while Brown grew up in Norfolk, Virginia. [3] Around the same time, the two migrated to Berkeley, California, with their respective families, and met in the mid-1950s at Willard Middle School in the a cappella choir. Their first performance together was in the Berkeley High School Talent Show in 1956, where they sang a duet and won first place.
With the help of their high-school choir professor, Dr. Earle Blakeslee, the two young men formed a partnership and strove to go professional. Their first gigs were at college fraternity and sorority parties, where they performed a variety of numbers. Blakeslee advised them to audition for the Don Sherwood television show in San Francisco. [3] They earned their spot and were asked back to the show several times. This led to engagements at the Purple Onion and the Hungry i nightclubs in San Francisco. [3]
Through their television appearances, Joe and Eddie were introduced to Gene Norman, president of GNP Crescendo Records, and then co-owner of the Crescendo and Interlude nightclubs, who assisted in launching their career. It was through Norman that Joe and Eddie recorded their first single and, by 1962, their first album, Exciting Folk Duo: Joe & Eddie (re-released after Gilbert's death as Down to Earth). They began touring and for four years continued to record more albums with GNP/Crescendo Records.
After the release of their first album, Joe and Eddie appeared on more television shows, including The Tonight Show, The Lively Ones, Hootenanny , and The Jackie Gleason Show . During this time, they recorded their second album, There's a Meetin' Here Tonite, which peaked at No. 119 on the Billboard 200 and No. 68 on the Cash Box's Top 100 Albums. [4] [5] The title song, which is an adaptation of a Negro spiritual, became their signature tune. [3] They performed this song in the film Hootenanny Hoot (1963). Their third album, Coast to Coast, charted at No. 140 on the Billboard 200 in 1964. [5]
Along with recording their harmonies, the two took turns in recording solos ("The Work Song," and "The Things I've Saved"). Bill Munday accompanied them on his guitar, while in other songs, the Les Baxter Chorus sang back up.
On August 6, 1966, Gilbert was killed in an automobile accident while driving home after a performance in the Cosmos Club in Seal Beach, California. [6] He was survived by a wife, Judy, and two sons. [7] Eddie Brown continued to record as a solo act. As of 2007, Brown was continuing to work as a record producer and music arranger, most recently with the musical group Gravity 180. [8] [9]
The musical duo's focus was creating harmony with Joe Gilbert singing tenor and Eddie Brown singing baritone. Their style incorporated gospel, folk tunes, and blues with a little jazz flavor. Their songs contained a minimum of background instrumentals, since the "main objective was to focus on Joe & Eddie's singing..." [1] The duo was known for their rapid-fire delivery and vocal improvisations, as heard in the songs "Green Grass" and "Children Go".
Sam & Dave were an American soul and R&B duo who performed together from 1961 until 1981. The tenor (higher) voice was Sam Moore and the baritone/tenor (lower) voice was Dave Prater (1937–1988).
The Clancy Brothers were an influential Irish folk music group that developed initially as a part of the American folk music revival. Most popular during the 1960s, they were famed for their Aran jumper sweaters and are widely credited with popularising Irish traditional music in the United States and revitalising it in Ireland, contributing to an Irish folk boom with groups like the Dubliners and the Wolfe Tones.
The Brothers Four is an American folk singing group, founded in 1957 in Seattle, Washington, and known for their 1960 hit song "Greenfields."
A hootenanny is a party involving music in the United States. It is particularly associated with folk music.
Archie Macdonald Fisher is a Scottish folk singer and songwriter. He has released several solo albums since his first, eponymous album, in 1968. Fisher composed the song "The Final Trawl", recorded on the album Windward Away, that several other groups and singers, including The Clancy Brothers, have also recorded. Starting in the mid-1970s, he produced four folk albums with Makem and Clancy. He also performed with them and other groups as a backup singer and guitarist. He hosted his own radio show on BBC Radio Scotland for almost three decades.
The Limeliters are an American folk music group, formed in July 1959 by Lou Gottlieb, Alex Hassilev (banjo/baritone), and Glenn Yarbrough (guitar/tenor). The group was active from 1959 until 1965, and then after a hiatus of sixteen years, Yarbrough, Hassilev, and Gottlieb reunited and began performing again as The Limeliters in reunion tours. On a regular basis a continuation of The Limeliters group is still active and performing. Gottlieb died in 1996, Yarbrough died in 2016, and Hassilev, the last founding member, who had remained active in the group, retired in 2006, leaving the group to carry on without any of the original members.
Frances Faye was an American cabaret and show tune singer and pianist. Born to a working-class Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York City, she was a second cousin of actor Danny Kaye.
Hootenanny was an American musical variety television show broadcast on ABC from April 1963 to September 1964. The program was hosted by Jack Linkletter. It primarily featured pop-oriented folk music acts, including The Journeymen, The Limeliters, the Chad Mitchell Trio, The New Christy Minstrels, The Brothers Four, Ian & Sylvia, The Big 3, Hoyt Axton, Judy Collins, Johnny Cash, The Carter Family, Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, The Tarriers, Bud & Travis, and the Smothers Brothers. Although both popular and influential, the program is primarily remembered today for the controversy created when the producers blacklisted certain folk music acts, which then led to a boycott by others.
The Raes were the British-Canadian husband-and-wife singing duo of Robbie Rae and Cherrill Rae, who had a handful of disco-inflected pop hits in the late 1970s.
Judith Anne "Judy" Henske was an American singer and songwriter, dubbed "the Queen of the Beatniks" by producer Jack Nitzsche. Initially performing in folk clubs in the early 1960s, her performances and recordings embraced blues, jazz, show tunes, and humorous material. Her 1963 recording of "High Flying Bird" was influential on folk-rock, and her 1969 album Farewell Aldebaran, with husband Jerry Yester, was an eclectic "fusion of folk music, psychedelia, and arty pop".
The Simon Sisters was a folk music sister duo consisting of Carly Simon and Lucy Simon. They released three albums between 1964–1969 before Lucy left to get married. Lucy had a minor solo career and released two albums in the 1970s before finding greater success writing music for Broadway plays, including a Tony Award nomination for her music on The Secret Garden in 1991. Beginning in 1971, Carly began a very successful solo career, releasing over 23 studio albums that produced multiple Top 40 hits across the U.S. Billboard charts, as well as winning two Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award, among numerous other competitive and honorary accolades.
Dudley "Big Tiny" Little, Jr. was an American musician who appeared on The Lawrence Welk Show from 1955 to 1959. His primary instrument was the piano.
GNP Crescendo Record Co. is an independent record label founded in 1954 by Gene Norman (né Eugene Abraham Nabatoff; 1922–2015). It started as a producer of jazz, then expanded into many other genres, including comedy, rock, and Star Trek soundtracks. Currently GNP Cresendo is run by Gene Norman's son, Neil Norman.
Alvin Wayne Casey was an American guitarist. He was mainly known for his work as a session musician, but also released his own records and scored three Billboard Hot 100 hits in the United States. His contribution to the rockabilly genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.
The Serendipity Singers were a 1960s American folk group, similar to The New Christy Minstrels. Their debut single "Don't Let the Rain Come Down " was a Top Ten hit and received the group's only Grammy nomination in 1965. The majority of the group's recording sales took place in a two-year period of 1964 and 1965. The group's name was sold in the 1970s resulting in entirely new lineups of group members performing under the name The Serendipity Singers into the early 21st Century.
Bud & Travis was an American folk music duo from San Francisco, California, consisting of Bud Dashiell and Travis Edmonson.
Travis Edmonson was an American folk singer, who performed both as a soloist and in the duo Bud & Travis.
Jo Mapes was an American folk singer, songwriter, critic and writer. She was prominent in the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s and later became an advertising copywriter and nightclub critic for the Sun-Times in Chicago.
The Crescendo was a West Hollywood jazz venue located at 8572 Sunset Boulevard. It opened in 1954, along with the Interlude upstairs, and ran until 1964.
Phil Campos was a singer who recorded a couple of albums and singles during the 1960s. He was a member of folk groups, Les Baxter's Balladeers in the early 1960s and later the group leader of The Forum which had a hit in the late 1960s. He was also an actor who appeared in some well-known television shows.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: url-status (link)