Oak Ridge Boys
Their name was changed to the Oak Ridge Boys in the early 1960s, and they remained a gospel-oriented group until the mid 1970s, when they changed their image and concentrated more on country and pop music. The band's current lineup consists of lead singer and second tenor Duane Allen, baritone 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 back 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 with the understanding from Hess that when he was ready to start a group, he would recruit McSpadden.
They then recorded another album on Skylite, and then two groundbreaking albums on Warner Brothers after which McSpadden quit when Jake Hess followed through on his promise to hire McSpadden and 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.
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 January 1965.
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 (and more recently baritone of the Prophets), was hired to replace him. 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 1968 to join the Don Light Talent before starting his own company, The Harper Agency, which remains one of the most highly-reputable booking agencies in gospel music. Noel Fox, formerly of the Tennesseans 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.
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 in 1973 to the Columbia label, for whom they made three albums and several singles.
Columbia complied with the request, and the band immediately made 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. Two songs from that album reached the top five on the country charts, and their next album, Room Service, in 1978, gave them two more, including their first #1 hit, "I'll Be True to You".
The Oak Ridge Boys Have Arrived was released in 1979, and Together followed in 1980. 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".
Their version of the song was a #1 country hit, and in July 1981 reached #5 on the pop charts.
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. That 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.) The group also recorded The Oak Ridge Boys Christmas album in 1982.
Their album American Made, released in January 1983, created 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.
The late-1983 album Deliver provided 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". It was the first with new producer Jimmy Bowen and 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 as well as his cutting solo material. 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 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.
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. 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.
The album is a return to mainstream country music with modern arrangements and song selection.
In 2007 the group appeared on Shooter Jennings' album The Wolf.
In mid-2008, lead singer Duane Allen announced that the group would be releasing a new project in mid-2009 currently being produced by Dave Cobb, who produced Shooter Jennings' (son of the late Waylon Jennings) album, "The Wolf." The Boys Are Back was released on May 19, 2009, named for the title song written by Shooter Jennings. Cat Freeman, tenor who replaced Allred, succumbed to a fatal heart attack in 1989 at 67.
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. Lon "Deacon" Freeman, the last surviving original member of the Oak Ridge, died at the age of 82 on July 20, 2003.