Obit: Patty Andrews (last Andrews Sister)

Subject: RE: Obit: Patty Andrews (last Andrews Sister)
From: Genie
Date: 05 Feb 13 - 12:46 AM

One of my favorite Steve Goodmans songs, Spaw. But I thought it was David Allen (sp?) Coe who co-wrote "You Never Even Called Me By My Name" with Steve.

I, too, preferred the McGuire Sisters' very tight, jazzy harmonies maybe more than the Andrewses' but I really appreciated both, as well as the Fontaine Sisters and, in the country/folk vein, The Carter Sisters. Great harmonies all around.

Subject: RE: Obit: Patty Andrews (last Andrews Sister)
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 Feb 13 - 07:12 PM

Well that type thing was right in Steve Goodman's wheelhouse if you recall he co-wrote with writing buddy John Prine the great, "You Never Even Called Me By My Name." CLICK HERE to play

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Patty Andrews (last Andrews Sister)
From: pdq
Date: 02 Feb 13 - 06:57 PM

It's the least I could do.

BTW, the great Steve Goodman did what I suppose was an improvised bit in response to an audience request for "Tell Laura I Love Her". He goes to "Teen Angel" and "Lorie" or "Strange Things Happen" (I think that's the name). It's listed as "Dead Girl Medly". Really.

Subject: RE: Obit: Patty Andrews (last Andrews Sister)
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 Feb 13 - 06:36 PM

Well thanks to pdq and the damn Dinning sisters reference since I am now stuck with that gawdawful "Teen Angel" squirreling around in my head..............

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Patty Andrews (last Andrews Sister)
From: fat B****rd
Date: 02 Feb 13 - 03:47 PM

Thank you, Steve. Loved it.
Mention of the Dinning Sisters sent me to check out a childhood memory. My parents had a 78 rpm with "Oh, Monah" and "Once In A while" They, my parents, also had The Andrews sisters and Bing Crosby singing "Quicksilver". I shall get a little misty-eyed.
PS Misty-eyed, because mu mother gave all our 78s to my sister's kids to play with including my unplayed copy of "Beautiful Delilah" by Chuck Berry !

Subject: RE: Obit: Patty Andrews (last Andrews Sister)
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 02 Feb 13 - 01:40 PM

I've got several of their records on shellac, some of which I've recorded & cleaned up. While I'm sorting out the rest, here's Saber Dance (with The Harmonica Gentlemen).

Subject: RE: Obit: Patty Andrews (last Andrews Sister)
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 Feb 13 - 01:10 PM

In an era of sappy love songs I have to admit that Teen Angel pretty much nailed the genre. A lot of us grew up with the 50's rock but only a few will not admit to ske serious turkeys.

I do have a fond spot for Teen Angel as I oncwe fell off a couch laughing at it to the point of having a hard time breathing. Back in the '70s Gary Muledeer and Denny Flannagan formed the "Muledeer and Moondog Medicine Show. I saw them do Teen Angel on some program or another in the style of their act.......which was Denny playing piano and singing along at times while Gary "interpreted" at the mike with aactions and spoken sections. They applied this tto Teen Angel and Gary dressed the mikestand as a girl, felt her up, etc......You had to see it to appreciate it.

I looked on YouTube but no joy although there is one of their acts on their about credit cards. I'd love to see it again. Gary Muledeer still does much of the same style as a single but once again I never saw Teen Angel. Trust me, it was hilarious.


Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Patty Andrews (last Andrews Sister)
From: pdq
Date: 02 Feb 13 - 12:43 PM

An honest oversight.

A better list would incude the McGuire Sisters, perhaps drop the Lennon Sisters who are really syrupy.

Again, I want to alert people to the Brox and Dinning Sister of whom most people are unaware.

Odd note: one of the Dinning Sisters wrote the absolute worst song of the Rock'n'Roll era. It was sung by their kid brother Max (aka Mark).

Subject: RE: Obit: Patty Andrews (last Andrews Sister)
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 Feb 13 - 12:20 PM

I was a bigger fan of the McGuire Sisters or were they too pop to make the list here? As this whole list was pop for their times I can't see why they aren't on it. There harmonies certainly do make the list! Frankly I always liked them a bit better than the rest and I recall reading once that Steve Allen was a huge fan of theirs. I'd go with Steverino on that one for sure!


Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Patty Andrews (last Andrews Sister)
From: pdq
Date: 02 Feb 13 - 11:55 AM

My statement was intended to promote the Brox Sisters who started the "sisters acts" which went from the Brox Sisters, Boswell Sisters, Andrews Sisters, Dinning Sisters and Lennon Sisters.

The Brox Sisters essentially retired when they got married and started families, about 1930-32, just as the Boswells got popular.

BTW, there is a great CD out right now with the Dinning Sisters backed by the great Gearge Barnes on electric guitar, mostly unrealeased material from 1947. It is traditional and Country themed material but, like the Sons of the Pioneers, is heavily influenced by Jazz.

Subject: RE: Obit: Patty Andrews (last Andrews Sister)
From: Will Fly
Date: 02 Feb 13 - 05:22 AM

The Andrews Sisters were very influential. I personally prefer the slightly softer and sweeter sound of the Boswell Sisters with Connee in the lead - particularly when they had Eddie Lang driving them along - but the Andrews were very good as well.

Subject: RE: Obit: Patty Andrews (last Andrews Sister)
From: GUEST,Iona sans cookie
Date: 02 Feb 13 - 04:59 AM

Man, those gals were talented, though. It's just sick the way that generation has been forgotten..........so many people Patty's age, still alive, still brimming with stories of a bygone era. *shakes head* Music was music back then!

Subject: RE: Obit: Patty Andrews (last Andrews Sister)
From: alanabit
Date: 02 Feb 13 - 04:45 AM

Quite a life. The stunning jazz harmonies will live on forever. I still listen to their recordings from time to time.

Subject: RE: Obit: Patty Andrews (last Andrews Sister)
From: Genie
Date: 02 Feb 13 - 01:41 AM

pdq, did you mean to say the Boswells were essentially retired by the time the Andrewses came along?
If so, that may be so, but that hardly prevents Patty, LaVerne and Maxene from being strongly influenced by the Boswells.

Subject: RE: Obit: Patty Andrews (last Andrews Sister)
From: pdq
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 06:54 PM

The obit suggests that the "sisters act" style was started by the Boswell Sisters, but the Brox Sisters were popular throughout the 1920s and were essentially retired by the time the Boswell Sisters came along.

Subject: RE: Obit: Patty Andrews (last Andrews Sister)
From: Janie
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 06:40 PM

Mom and Dad had loads of their vinyl - just them, and also with Bing Crosby. I didn't remember them being in movies, but who among us over age 60 doesn't remember seeing them on all the great variety shows of the 50's and 60's?

She lived long and I truly hope she died happy.

Condolences to her family and friends.

Subject: RE: Obit: Patty Andrews (last Andrews Sister)
From: fat B****rd
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 02:56 AM

Guest Eddie said it all.
RIP Patty

Subject: RE: Obit: Patty Andrews (last Andrews Sister)
From: GUEST,Eddie1
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 02:31 AM

I guess these girls were pin-ups for a whole generation of GIs and their music brought a memory of home. RIP Patty and, with your sisters, make some great harmonies in Heaven!

Eddie

Subject: Obit: Patty Andrews (last Andrews Sister)
From: Genie
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 02:21 AM

I just heard yesterday that the last surviving member of the '40s pop trio The Andrews Sisters had died, at age 94.

NY Times obituary and blurb about the Andrews Sisters.

From the NY Times article:

"Patty, the youngest, was a soprano and sang lead; Maxene handled the high harmony; and LaVerne, the oldest, took the low notes. They began singing together as children; by the time they were teenagers they made up an accomplished vocal group. Modeling their act on the commercially successful Boswell Sisters, they joined a traveling revue and sang at county fairs and in vaudeville shows. Their big break came in 1937 when they were signed by Decca Records, but their first recording went nowhere.

Their second effort featured the popular standard "Nice Work If You Can Get It," but it was the flip side that turned out to be pure gold. The song was a Yiddish show tune, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schön (Means That You're Grand)," with new English lyrics by Sammy Cahn, and the Andrews Sisters' version, recorded in 1937, became the top-selling record in the country.

"... in [the 1940s] they ... appeared in more than a dozen films ... — sometimes just singing, sometimes also acting. They made their film debut in "Argentine Nights," a 1940 comedy that starred the Ritz Brothers, and the next year appeared in three films with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello: "Buck Privates,"* "In the Navy"and "Hold That Ghost." Their film credits also include "Swingtime Johnny" (1943), "Hollywood Canteen"** (1944) and the Bob Hope-Bing Crosby comedy "Road to Rio" (1947).

...

The Andrews Sisters re-entered the limelight in the early 1970s when Bette Midler released her own recording of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," modeled closely on theirs. It reached the Top 10, and its success led to several new compilations of the Andrews Sisters' own hits.
... :

*which featured their "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy"
** which featured the song "Don't Fence Me In"