Vocal Trios: The Fleetwoods

Welcome to Rock and Roll Flashback!  I'm Bill Price, and in this episode of Rock and Roll Flashback we’ll take a look back at the history of The Fleetwoods, one of the vocal trios from the late 1950's.

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Transcript

In this episode of Rock and Roll Flashback we’ll take a look back at the history of The Fleetwoods, one of the vocal trios from the late 1950's.

The Fleetwoods hailed from Olympia, Washington and consisted of Gary Troxel, Barbara Ellis and Gretchen Christopher. As high school students Gretchen and Barbara formed a vocal duo and began singing together. They performed a cover version of “In The Still of the Night” and a blues version of “Stormy Weather”. Later they began writing lyrics to a song that was titled “Softly, Softly”, however at the time the song was not complete. After meeting Gary Troxel, they started singing “Softly, Softly” to him. Gary then added additional lyrics to the song, which then became “Come Softly To Me” and would later become the group’s first number one hit.

Gary then joined the group, which turned the duo into a vocal trio. Later they recorded “Come Softly To Me” at Gretchen’s home using a tape recorder. After graduating from high school, Gretchen worked at the Norm Bobrow’s Colony Club in Seattle, Washington. After leaving the Colony Club, she provided the tape recording of “Come Softly To Me” to Bob Bobrow, who was a former disc jockey. At luncheon meeting with Bob Reisdorff who was in the process of forming record label, which he intended on calling Dolphin Records, Bobrow auditioned the recording. Both men liked the recording and believed the song could become a radio hit. Since there was already a record label called Dolphin Records, the name was changed to Dolton.

Country singing star Bonnie Guitar, who worked at Dolton, recognized the group’s
potential. She took the trio to Joe Boles’ basement studio in Seattle, where almost one hundred takes of “Come Softly To Me” were recorded. However soon  controversy began when Gretchen and Barbara resisted in sharing the writing credit with Gary. Despite the disagreement, Bob Reisdorff insisted that all three should be credited. This only contributed to further discord with in the group. Bob then took the recording to Los Angeles where an instrumental track was added. At the time the group went by the name of “ Two Girls and A Guy”, a name that Bob disliked. He then paged through a telephone book and picked Fleetwood, thus becoming the new name for the group. However, feeling something was still missing, Bonnie decided to add acoustic guitar, bass and percussion. After the final additions, a demo was provided to Los Angeles radio station KFWB. After playing the demo just once, the station’s phones lit up.

On February 16,1959, “Come Softly To Me” was released and soon was also played on Seattle radio station KJR, where it became a Pacific Northwest hit. By spring of 1959, The Fleetwoods had rocketed to becoming the hottest group on US radio. The single rose to number one and earned a gold record. As a result of the song’s popularity, it was covered in the UK by Frankie Vaughan and The Kaye Sisters, who scored a top ten hit. Here is The Fleetwoods’ first number one hit “Come Softly To Me”.

The group’s second hit written by Barbara and Gretchen was “Graduation’s Here”,
which reached the number 39 position on the Hot 100. Gary also contributed by adding a line to the lyrics. The next release was a song written by Dewayne Blackwell titled “Mr. Blue”. Just like “Come Softly To Me”, it also climbed to number one on the Hot 100 in 1959. With the success of “Mr. Blue”, The Fleetwoods appeared on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand and on the Ed Sullivan television show. The song was also featured in the 1978 film “American Hot Wax”.

As the 1950's ended, The Fleetwoods continued recording and releasing new material. In 1961 they had a Top 10 hit with a cover of “Tragedy”. The group continued to record and release new material that resulted in eleven hits on the Hot 100 chart. The last release titled “Goodnight My Love” with Barbara singing the lead vocal, charted at number 32 in 1963. By 1964, the British Invasion started to change the direction of the music and the record buying preferences. This also contributed to further conflicts within the group. Barbara did not like touring, however she did so grudgingly. Eventually the disagreements over the direction of the music resulted in the group breaking up. Gretchen later began touring with a replacement lead vocalist. Barbara retired and married several times. Gary then hired Bonnie Hannukaine and Cheryl Huggins and continued performing, maintaining the Fleetwoods’ original sound.

Here is The Fleetwoods’ second number one hit from 1959, “Mr. Blue”.

This has been a look back at one of the vocal trios from the late 1950's, The Fleetwoods. Until next time, I’m your host Bill Price.