The Oak Ridge Boys

The Oak Ridge Boys are a country and gospel band that is based in the United States. The group was founded in 1945 as the Oak Ridge Quartet. They became popular during the 1950s. Their name was changed to the Oak Ridge Boys in the early 1960s, and they remained a gospel-oriented group until the late 1970s, when they changed their image and concentrated more on country and pop music. The band's current lineup consists of baritones Duane Allen and William Lee Golden, tenor Joe Bonsall, and bass Richard Sterban.

The Oak Ridge Quartet

The core group that would eventually lead to the Oak Ridge Boys first recorded together in 1943 as Wally Fowler and the Georgia Clodhoppers. When Wally Fowler decided to focus on gospel music, he formed the Oak Ridge Quartet with himself, Lon "Deacon" Freeman, Curly Kinsey, and Johnny New. In 1949 the other three men split from Fowler to form a new group and Fowler hired an existing group, the Calvary Quartet, to re-form the Oak Ridge Quartet. In 1957, Fowler sold the rights to the "Oak Ridge Quartet" name to group member Smitty Gatlin in exchange for forgiveness of a debt. As a result of more personnel changes, the group lost its tenor, so they lowered their arrangements and had Gatlin sing tenor while the pianist, Tommy Fairchild, sang lead. They recorded an album for Cadence Records, then in 1958 they hired Willie Wynn to sing the tenor part, Fairchild moved exclusively to the piano. At this point the group consisted of Fairchild at the piano, Wynn, Gatlin (singing lead), baritone Ron Page, and bass Herman Harper. They recorded an album on the Checker Records label, one on Starday, and three on Skylite. In 1961, Gatlin changed the group's name to "the Oak Ridge Boys" because their producer, Bud Praeger, thought "Oak Ridge Quartet" sounded too old-fashioned for their contemporary sound.

1962-1973

In 1962, Ron Page quit, and the group hired Gary McSpadden (who had filled in for Jake Hess in the Statesmen quartet) as baritone. They recorded another album on Skylite, and then two groundbreaking albums on Warner Brothers. After three albums with Warner Brothers, McSpadden quit when Jake Hess invited him to join a new group he was forming, the Imperials. Jim Hammill (later a mainstay in the Kingsmen Quartet) was chosen to be his replacement. They made one album for Festival Records, one for Stateswood (Skylite's budget label), and two more for Skylite. Hammill did not get along with the rest of the group, and William Lee Golden, a fan, thought that Hammill was hurting the group and recommended himself as baritone. Golden joined the group in 1964.

The group recorded another album for Starday and another on Skylite in 1965. In 1966, Gatlin left the group to become a minister of music and, on Golden's recommendation, Duane Allen, formerly of the Southernairs, was hired to replace him. With Willie Wynn still singing tenor and Herman Harper as bass, the group made another album for Skylite, one for United Artists, and then began recording on the Heart Warming label. Between 1966 and 1973 they made 12 albums with Heart Warming, and the company also released several compilation albums on which they were included during those years. The group also had an album on Vista (Heart Warming's budget label) that included unreleased songs from previous sessions. Harper left the group in 1969 to join the Don Light Talent before starting this own company, The Harper Agency, which remains one of the most highly-reputable booking agencies in gospel music. Noel Fox, formerly of the Tennesseeans and the Harvesters, took over the bass part. In 1970, the Oak Ridge Boys earned their first Grammy for "Talk About the Good Times".

In late 1972 (possibly October), Richard Sterban, the bass with J.D. Sumner and the Stamps Quartet left that group and joined the Oak Ridge Boys. This closely followed what was possibly the Stamps Quartet's most famous moment, backing Elvis Presley in his 4 June 1972 concert at Madison Square Garden. Joe Bonsall, a Philadelphia native who was a member of the Keystone Quartet and recording on Duane Allen's Superior label, joined in October of 1973 (coincidentally, both Sterban and Bonsall had been members of the Keystones during the late 60's, recording much of the ORB's material). That same year the Oak Ridge Boys recorded a single with Johnny Cash and the Carter Family, "Praise the Lord and Pass the Soup", that put them on the country charts for the first time. The group's lineup would remain consistent for the next 15 years.

1974-1986

After opening a series of shows for Roy Clark, the Oak Ridge Boys moved to the Columbia label in 1975 and made three albums and some singles there. They went from being one of the top acts on Heart Warming to nearly the bottom on Columbia in terms of promotion. They cut some good material there, but Columbia did not service the gospel radio stations like Heart Warming did. This made many people think the group was leaving gospel music, which hurt the group's popularity among their core fan demographic. Promoting their single, "Heaven Bound," the Oak Ridge Boys made appearances on The Mike Douglas Show and The Merv Griffin Show, both nationally syndicated in the United States and Canada. Despite being picked by Paul Simon to sing backup on "Slip Slidin' Away", Columbia dropped them in 1976 when their album Family Reunion was only a lukewarm success. Their next move was to make a live album that was a mix of gospel and country on their own label.

In 1977, the Oak Ridge Boys fully switched from gospel to country with the release of their first ABC Records (later absorbed by MCA) album, Y'all Come Back Saloon. That album gave them two songs that reached the top five on the charts, and their next album, Room Service gave them two more, in addition to their first #1 hit, "I'll Be True to You". They released two more albums by the spring of 1980, and a compilation album simply titled Greatest Hits, containing 10 singles from the previous four albums, was released in the fall of 1980.

The group's sixth album, Fancy Free, released early in 1981, contained the Dallas Frazier-penned song "Elvira". As of 2007 it remains the group's most widely known song and Fancy Free remains their best selling album to date. The song had been recorded by other artists, including Frazier himself in the late 1960s and Kenny Rogers in 1970, but the Oak Ridge Boys were the first ones to have a hit with it. Their version of the song would become a #1 country hit, and reach #5 on the pop charts as well, in July 1981.

The doo-wop-style title track from Bobbie Sue, their seventh album, was another crossover hit, reaching #1 on the country charts and #12 on the pop charts. The album also spawned the group's first U.S.-released music video, for the song "So Fine". (A video was made for "Easy", from the Y'All Come Back Saloon album, but was never released in the U.S.) In addition to Bobbie Sue, the group also recorded a Christmas album and their American Made album in 1982.

The American Made album, released in January 1983, created a bit of controversy when the title track became the source of a TV ad for Miller Beer. Its opening lines say:

My baby is American made

Born and bred in the USA

Miller's ads used slightly different words:

Miller's made the American way

Born and brewed in the USA

When the song was recut, the Oak Ridge Boys would not sing it and did not want it used, but had no part in the decision.

The group made three albums over the next three years, one of which was a second Greatest Hits album with only two new cuts on it. The late 1983 album Deliver, contained two #1 singles, one of which, "I Guess It Never Hurts To Hurt Sometimes", was written by Randy VanWarmer, who had a hit in 1979 with "Just When I Needed You Most". The group recorded two albums in 1986, one of which was a second Christmas album, and in 1987 they recorded a single called "Take Pride in America", which was used in television public service announcements about recycling.

1987-1996

In 1987 Where The Fast Lane Ends was released. It was the group's last album before the 1987 departure of William Lee Golden. Golden's departure was preceded by much discussion, both by the public and other members of the group, about his "mountain man" appearance and lifestyle after he stopped cutting his hair and beard altogether. Golden complained that he felt like the "odd man out". When he was replaced by the band's guitarist, Steve Sanders, he sued the group but eventually settled out of court.

The group released four more albums for MCA, including a third Greatest Hits album that contained a previously unreleased single they had recorded for the Take Pride In America campaign. They then switched labels to RCA and made three albums there, including Best Of The Oak Ridge Boys which included a single they had made for the My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys movie soundtrack. Unfortunately, the move to RCA did not work out because the person who had signed them there moved to another label shortly thereafter, and his replacement wanted to promote Alabama more than the Oak Ridge Boys. They switched again and signed with Liberty Records (which later became Capitol). They made their third Christmas album there.

Baritone Steve Sanders had been dealing with personal problems (including serious issues with his ex-wife) for some time, and they were increasingly becoming problems for the rest of the group as well. He gave notice in late 1995, but then walked out before fulfilling it and left the group mere hours before a concert without a baritone. The group called Duane Allen's son, Dee, to fly there and fill in; he did so for the remainder of the year, with occasional help from his brother-in-law Paul Martin (who replaced J.P. Pennington as lead singer of Exile in the early 1990s). At midnight on New Year's Day 1996, in Indiana, Golden returned to the group. That year they made a two disc gospel set, "Revival" (their first full gospel album since 1976) with Leon Russell producing. This was sold on TV and later by the Oak Ridge Boys themselves at concerts and through the mail.

1997 to the present

Over the next few years, the group collaborated on an album with polka instrumentalist Jimmy Sturr and then made an album for Platinum Records called Voices.

After spending many years dealing with problems such as labels that did not seem to want to promote them, studio breakdowns, and record companies going out of business, their fortunes changed when they signed with Spring Hill Records in 2000. In the first four years of teaming with Dove Award-winning producer Michael Sykes, they made a full length gospel album (From The Heart), another Christmas album (Inconvenient Christmas), a patriotic album (Colors), a bluegrass album (The Journey), and recorded gospel songs to be added to a special edition version of From The Heart that was available only from Feed The Children. Later, to recoup some of the costs of making the album for Feed the Children, the label took those new songs, two from The Journey, and freshly cut versions of some of their previous gospel hits to make up their 2005 Common Thread album. They then made another Christmas album and had plans to record Fresh Cuts, which would have contained some new songs and some newly recorded versions of some of their hits. These plans were stalled by MCA releasing some of their country hits on a new compilation.

In 2006 the group completed a new album, Front Row Seats, on Spring Hill Records. The album is a return to mainstream country music with modern arrangements and song selection. The first single from the project, "Hard To Be Cool (In A Minivan)" was released and reached the top 40 on the Music Row Magazine Singles Chart.

Deaths of former members

Herman Harper, the bass from the group's early years, died in December 1993. Steve Sanders, baritone from 1987 through 1995, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on 10 June, 1998. Noel Fox, bass singer from 1969 through 1972, died at age 63 on 10 April, 2003 in Nashville, Tennessee, after surgery following a series of strokes.

Discography

Personnel

• Curly Kinsey [Bass] 1945-1947
• Lon "Deacon" Freeman [Baritone / Guitar] 1945-1949
• Wally Fowler [Lead] 1945-1952
• Little Johnny New [Tenor] 1945-1949; 1952
• Curley Blaylock [Bass] 1947-1949
• Boyce Hawkins [Piano] 1949
• Bob Weber [Bass] 1949-1956
• Pat Patterson [Baritone] 1949-1952 / [Lead] 1952-1953
• Joe Allred [Tenor] 1949-1954 (Left briefly in 1952)
• Bobby Whitfield [Piano] 1950-1952; 1954-1956
• Glen Allred [Guitar / Vocals] 1951-1952
• Carlos Cook [Lead] 1952-1953 / [Baritone] 1953-1954
• Calvin Newton [Lead] 1953-1956
• Cat Freeman [Tenor] 1954-1956
• Les Roberson [Baritone] 1955-56
• Bill Smith [Bass] 1957
• Ronnie Page [Baritone] 1957-1962
• Smitty Gatlin [Lead] 1957-1958; 1959-1966 / [Tenor] 1958-1959
• Hobert Evans [Tenor] 1957-1958
• Powell Hassell [Piano] 1957-1958
• Herman Harper [Bass] 1957-1969
• Tommy Fairchild [Lead] 1958-1959 / [Piano] 1959-1960; 1961-1972
• Little Willie Wynn [Tenor] 1959-1973
• Gary Trusler [Piano] 1960
• James Goss [Piano] 1960
• Gary McSpadden [Baritone] 1962-1964
• Big Jim Hamill [Baritone] 1964-1965
• William Lee Golden [Baritone] 1965-1987; 1995-Present
• Duane Allen [Lead] 1966-Present
• Noel Fox [Bass] 1969-1972
• Richard Sterban [Bass] 1972-Present
• Tony Brown [Piano] 1972-1975
• Joe Bonsall [Tenor] 1973-Present
• Steve Sanders [Baritone] 1987-1995

External links

• Oak Ridge Boys.com - Official website
• 'The Oak Ridge Boys' Vocal Group Hall of Fame Page
• Oak Ridge Boys biography at the Country Music Television website
• Interview with The Oak Ridge Boys

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