Search - Pied Pipers :: Good Deal Macneal

A pleasant listening experience

Bruce R. Gilson | Wheaton, MD United States | 10/16/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Pied Pipers were an unusual, nearly unique, vocal group. While most groups from the 1930s to the 1950s were either all-male or all female (the Dream Weavers and the Fleetwoods being about the only exceptions that occur to me), the Pipers were for most of their existence a quartet of three male and one female singers. (Earlier, they had been an even larger group, seven male and one female. But long before the 1945-47 period covered by this CD, they had become a quartet.)



Originally, the female singer of the group was Jo Stafford, but by the time these recordings were made, she had left to become a soloist and June Hutton had replaced her. Hutton's voice, however, is enough like Stafford's that the difference is hard to notice. The group was still characterized by the same smooth harmonies and occasional solo passages that they were known for when Stafford was a member.



The CD is not produced from 78s that had been released to the public, but is exclusively composed of airchecks and transcription discs, and contains songs that were not at the time associated with the Pipers; some were old standards even then ("My Gal Sal" goes back to before 1910!) while others were current hits that charted for other artists in the mid-`40s and a few are not well-known songs at all. Nearly all sound very good, though.



I am happy to have this CD in my collection.

"

I have looked for these recordings for 40 years!

Frank M. Benton Jr. | Arlington, Tx USA | 02/04/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Pipers did these originally on Standard Transcriptions for radio stations only. THEY are at their best and Skip Martin's orchestra is so freaking cool! Better than any songs they did on Capitol, If thats possible!"

Upbeat Swing at Uptempo

Frank M. Benton Jr. | 05/05/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was not familiar with the Pied Pipers except for a few of their slower ballads (I prefer uptempo swing). However, I took a chance on this disc based upon the comments of the previous reviewer. He is right, the backing band swings nicely. This is an unusual collection in that it is basically midtempo to uptempo material that really shows what the term "harmonized voices" really means. If you like more upbeat material and would like to have a true vocal group in that setting, this is the collection."