You're missing the point, Marty. It was the teeny-boppers whose purchases of whatever happened to be the current rage (which often changed from week to week) who subsidized everything from classical music to most pop music, including Frank Sinatra. Yes, the millions of 45s bought every week by girls in their early adolescence amounted to one helluva lot of money. Much more than most people imagine. These kids had power!

As I said, I didn't make that figure up. I see no point in debating verifiable facts.

The first recordings the Weavers made, the ones first heard on radios and juke boxes, containing their first hit songs like Wimoweh and Goodnight Irene, were pretty crappy because of the orchestral (Gordon Jenkins' arrangements) backing, but they were something new and different to a lot of people. That's why they became hits. This was before they were blacklisted. But when they did the "Weavers at Carnegie Hall" live concert album, they'd shed the orchestra and its slicked-up arrangements, and were self-accompanied. That was one fantastic album, showed what they could really do, and turned a lot of people on. And at the risk of repeating myself, the Kingston Trio was surfing a wave that was generated by previous singers and groups such as the Weavers and their clone, the Gateway Singers.

Now, I liked the Kingston Trio. And I have seen them in live performance. But I have no delusions about their position in the whole grand scheme of things. Nor am I so ego-involved that I have to keep beating a dead horse. I'm just saying it like it was.   [End of debate.]

Read a book!

Don Firth