Randy Sparks had been a solo performer, mixing folk music with pop standards and playing club dates on the West Coast and in Manhattan. Twice the winner of a Navy talent competition, he landed high-profile television appearances and a recording contract with Verve Records. In 1960, at the suggestion of Verve founder Norman Granz, Sparks formed the Randy Sparks Three with his wife, Jackie Miller, and singer/arranger Nick Woods.
Folk music was popular, and choral groups such as the Norman Luboff Choir were incorporating folk classics in their repertoires. Sparks felt that the seemingly perfect sound of such groups lacked the rustic character of actual folk performance. Throughout 1961 and 1962, he created a 14-voice ensemble, the New Christy Minstrels, by combining his trio with the Oregon quartet the Fairmount Singers,[4] the Inn Group (singers John Forsha, Karol Dugan and Jerry Yester), banjo player Billy Cudmore, folk-blues singer Terry Wadsworth, folk singer Dolan Ellis, and singer/guitarist Art Podell.[2][5] Large commercial folk groups did not yet exist, and the New Christy Minstrels delivered a robust new sound. Sparks named his group after Christy's Minstrels, a blackface group formed by Philadelphia-born showman Edwin Pearce Christy in 1842 and known for introducing Stephen Foster's compositions. Sparks also saw his group as a means of attracting attention to his own original songs and adaptations of folk classics.
1962–1964
The group was meant to be a recording act exclusively, and several members joined with the assumption that their commitment would be for occasional studio work. In April 1962, the group, reduced to ten members after the departure of the Fairmount Singers, recorded their debut album, Presenting the New Christy Minstrels (also known as Exciting New Folk Chorus), for Columbia Records.[6][5] In 1963, the album won a Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Chorus[2] and remained on the Billboard 200 chart for two years, peaking at number 19.[2] The album included Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land", which entered the pop-singles charts in December 1962.[7][8]
Prior to the album's release, Columbia Records West Coast A&R head Irving Townsend demanded as a precondition for the album's release that Sparks convert the group into a performing ensemble that could make live appearances. Also at Townsend's request, Sparks hired business managers George Greif and Sid Garris[9] to help his large, unproven group secure bookings. Some of band's members had no interest in committing full-time to what they saw as a high-risk project, and others had obligations elsewhere. Yester, Dugan, Forsha, Wadsworth and Cudmore all left the group after the recording sessions. Sparks had lost half of his roster when the group was booked as regulars on The Andy Williams Show, a weekly variety show set to debut in the fall of 1962. Among the new members quickly found were the folk duo Barry & Barry (folksingers Barry McGuire and Barry Kane), vocalist Peggy Connelly, singer/banjoist Larry Ramos and tenor Clarence Treat (upright bass and mandolin). The new lineup debuted their act at the Troubadour in Los Angeles in July–August 1962, which included a mix of folk Americana, vaudevillian humor and solos, duos and trios.[10] They were a smash success and garnered rave reviews from both The Hollywood Reporter and Variety.
When The Andy Williams Show debuted in October, the New Christy Minstrels became one of its most popular features. Connelly was replaced by vocalist Gayle Caldwell. In early December, the group appeared at the Cocoanut Grove with comedian George Gobel and then at Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl with singer/comedian Allan Sherman. Sherman released the performance on the album My Son, the Celebrity in 1963.[11]
The group's second album, The New Christy Minstrels in Person, was released in February 1963.[12] In January 1963, the group recorded The New Christy Minstrels Tell Tall Tales! (Legends and Nonsense), which was released that May.[13] The group's fame had grown considerably, and they received "a raft of enthusiastic reviews."[3] In April 1963, following a successful appearance at the Latin Quarter in New York, the group recorded another studio album, Ramblin'.[14] This album included the song "Green, Green", a McGuire/Sparks composition that became the group's first hit single, peaking at number three on the Adult Contemporary Charts.[7] "Green, Green" sold more than one million copies in 1963 and was awarded gold status.[15][16]
In May 1963, Sparks stopped touring to focus on developing material and opening a night club in Los Angeles called Ledbetter's, which he intended as a training ground for future group members. By the end of the year, he had formed the Back Porch Majority[17] for this purpose. He passed the role of front man on the concert trail to McGuire. Shortly thereafter, Dolan Ellis left and was replaced by Gene Clark. Clark quit in 1964 and joined Jim McGuinn and David Crosby in the Jet Set,[18] later to become the Byrds. Clark was replaced by Paul Potash, formerly of the folk duo Art and Paul.[19] At the same time, the group's two female singers Jackie Miller and Gayle Caldwell left, citing the group's grueling concert schedule.[citation needed] They were replaced by Karen Gunderson, formerly of the Sherwood Singers, and soprano Ann White.[3] All three began with the Back Porch Majority and were promoted to the New Christy Minstrels in February 1964. Miller and Caldwell later launched a successful career as the pop/folk duo Jackie and Gayle, which had a recording contract with Capitol Records and a spot as semi-regulars on ABC's Shindig! in the fall of 1964.[20]
In 1963, Sparks was contracted to create a film score for Advance to the Rear, featuring Glenn Ford and Stella Stevens. The soundtrack, performed by the New Christy Minstrels, was released in May 1964 as Today and Other Songs from 'Advance to the Rear'.[21] It was the first complete soundtrack to be recorded in the folk music style. The score is notable for the hit standard "Today", which [22] reached No. 4 on the Adult Contemporary Charts and No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100,[7] The album reached the top ten of the Billboard 200 chart.
In the summer of 1964, the New Christy Minstrels, now nine musicians, were featured in the television series Ford Presents the New Christy Minstrels, a weekly variety show sponsored by the Ford Motor Company and broadcast as a summer replacement for Hazel.[23][24] Each episode had an outdoor setting, with two filmed at the 1964 New York World's Fair and three in the Los Angeles area: Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and Pacific Ocean Park. Ford Presents the New Christy Minstrels ran from August 6 to September 10, 1964, airing on NBC from 9:30 to 10:00 p.m. ET on Thursdays.[25][26]
Also in the summer of 1964, Sparks sold his interest in the group to Greif and Garris for $2,500,000.[27] He shifted his focus to Ledbetter's, reviving his solo career and launching the careers of other groups. Ledbetter's became a showcase for performers who later enjoyed great fame, including John Denver, Carpenters, the Hager Twins, Gary Mule Deer, and Steve Martin.[28][29] The Back Porch Majority launched a successful career of their own.[30]
1965–1969
In January 1965, the New Christy Minstrels, now under the leadership of Greif and Garris, embarked on their first European tour, appearing in London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Amsterdam, and Italy, where they performed the two winning songs at the Sanremo Music Festival 1965. One of these songs, "Le colline sono in fiore," which featured a romantic duet by Nick Woods and Karen Gunderson,[31] became a No. 1 hit in Italy.[32] Upon the group's return to the U.S., McGuire left to embark on a solo career. Greif and Garris were rooted in the Big Band era and had little interest in the fading folk music genre, so they transitioned the group to more of a variety act with novelty and pop tunes mixed with some comedy. They reached No. 81 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1965 with a cover of the Sherman Brothers' "Chim Chim Cher-ee" from the Disney film Mary Poppins.[33][7][34] In April 1965, they performed the song on the 37th Academy Awards telecast, where it won the Oscar for Best Original Song. The group would later reach No. 114 in 1969 with a version of another Sherman Brothers title song from a Disney film, "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang".[34]
Turnover in the group's roster began to accelerate through 1965 and at an even faster rate in the years that followed. Potash had left at the same time as did McGuire, and they were replaced by pop/folk singers Bob Buchanan and Michael Whalen. In April 1965, Barry Kane quit and was replaced by Will Teague; in July, Clarence Treat was replaced by Skiles and Henderson, a comedy duo that broadened the group's stage act. In September, Woods was replaced by Rusty Evans. In January 1966, Larry Ramos left and joined the Association; he was replaced by folksinger/songwriter Mike Settle. In late February, Art Podell, Karen Gunderson and Michael Whalen left. Among their replacements were singer/songwriter Michael McGinnis and pop/folk singer Ede Mae Kellogg. In July 1966, Ann White left and was replaced by Kim Carnes. Other new members were folksinger Mark Holly, former Fairmount singer Dave Ellingson, tenor Terry Williams and Texas-born singer Kenny Rogers. In 1967, Williams and Settle left to form a folk/rock group for which they recruited Rogers and another group member, Thelma Camacho, debuting as the First Edition on the Ledbetter's stage. In 1969, the band became Kenny Rogers and the First Edition.
The turnover may have had an effect on the group's sound, which had become quite different from that of The Andy Williams Show period when the group worked with musical director George Wyle on choral arrangements for Williams and his guest stars.
1970–1995
The New Christy Minstrels continued to perform across the country under the management of Greif and Garris, and released several more albums. In 1970, they performed during Super Bowl IV at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, where they were introduced as "young Americans who demonstrate—with guitars."[35][36]
In 1972, Greif-Garris Management was faced with a revolt when group members demanded more creative control and equitable treatment. In response, Greif-Garris fired the entire group and started rebuilding from scratch, leading to incorrect media reports that the group had disbanded.
In the late 1980s and into the early 1990s, the group's concert activity declined steadily before stopping completely.[when?]
Present
Sparks, who had registered a trademark for the New Christy Minstrels name, again became the leader of the group, which continues to perform. The lineup, as of 2021, consists of Sparks, Becky Jo Benson, Greg O'Haver, Dave Deutschendorf, Dave Rainwater, Julie Theroux, Ed Stockton, and Tholow Chan.[37]
In 2009, a Golden Palm Star on the Walk of Stars was dedicated to Sparks and the New Christy Minstrels.[38]
References in popular culture
In the 2003 comedic mockumentary film A Mighty Wind about a folk-music reunion, the Main Street Singers and New Main Street Singers were based on the New Christy Minstrels.
Alumni
(Partial list)
1961
Hal Ayotte, joined 1961 with The Fairmount Singers[4]
