THE TRUTH ABOUT DON'T FENCE ME IN

Originally written in 1934 for Adios, Argentina, an unproduced 20th Century Fox film musical, "Don't Fence Me In" was based on text by Robert (Bob) Fletcher, a poet and engineer with the Department of Highways in Helena, Montana. Cole Porter, who had been asked to write a cowboy song for the 20th Century Fox musical, bought the poem from Fletcher for $250. Porter reworked Fletcher's poem, and when the song was first published, Porter was credited with sole authorship. Porter had wanted to give Fletcher co-authorship credit, but his publishers did not allow it. The original copyright publication notice dated October 10, 1944 and the copyright card dated and filed on October 12, 1944 in the U.S. Copyright Office solely lists words and music by Cole Porter. After the song became popular, however, Fletcher hired attorneys who negotiated his co-authorship credit in subsequent publications. Although it was one of the most popular songs of its time, Porter claimed it was his least favorite of his compositions.

Porter's revision of the song retained quite a few portions of Fletcher's lyrics, such as “Give me land, lots of land”, “... breeze ... cottonwood trees”, “turn me loose, let me straddle my old saddle,” “mountains rise ... western skies”, “cayuse”, “where the west commences,” and “... hobbles ... can’t stand fences,” but in some places modified them to give them “the smart Porter touch”. Porter replaced some lines, rearranged lyric phrases, and added two verses. (Porter's verses about Wildcat Kelly are not included in any of the hit recordings of the song but are used in the Roy Rogers film of the same title. Roy Rogers sings the first verse with the lyric "Wildcat Willy" when he performed it in 1944's Hollywood Canteen. Both verses are included in the Ella Fitzgerald and Harry Connick Jr. versions of the song.).

Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters with Vic Schoen and his Orchestra recorded it in 1944, without having seen or heard the song. Crosby entered the studio on July 25, 1944. Within 30 minutes, he and the Andrews Sisters had completed the recording, which sold more than a million copies and topped the Billboard charts for eight weeks in 1944–45. This version also went to number nine on the Harlem Hit Parade chart. Reportedly, Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters didn't care for the song as well...

THE ANDREWS SISTERS AND BEI MIR BIST DU SCHOEN

For six years during the 1930s, Patty, Maxene and LaVerne Andrews toured the United States, first with a vaudeville show and then with their chaperoning parents, singing in any club, dive or theater that would hire them. In late 1937, their father was becoming increasingly disgruntled with their struggling career and gave them a deadline for breaking into the big time. If they didn’t make it by the end of the year, they would leave New York, return home to Minneapolis and attend secretarial school. 

The deadline was approaching when Dave Kapp, head of Decca Records, happened to hear the Andrews Sisters singing on a New York radio station. Impressed by the young sisters, he asked them to audition for a contract with his record company. They did so and were hired. The contract they signed was a flat fee of $50 without royalties for each two-sided record they made, a common arrangement at that time. Their first record went nowhere on the charts, but Kapp liked the trio and called them in for a second recording session on November 24, 1937. The Aside of the new record was “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” a Gershwin song from the popular Fred Astaire film “A Damsel in Distress.” The B-side, or throw-away side, was an obscure Yiddish love song called “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen,” often translated as “To Me, You Are Beautiful.” 

The song was composed by Sholom Secunda with lyrics by Jacob Jacobs for a short-lived 1932 Yiddish musical comedy called “I Would If I Could.” Accounts vary as to how the song ended up in the Decca recording studio. Sammy Cahn, who wrote the English lyrics with Saul Chaplin, claimed that he first heard the song performed by an African-American act at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, and later found the sheet music in a store in the Jewish Lower East Side of Manhattan. At that time he shared an apartment with Lou Levy, who was managing the Andrews Sisters. Cahn played the song for the sisters; they liked it and would eventually record it. Vic Schoen, the sisters’ arranger, said he discovered the song in a little shop in the lobby of a Yiddish theater on Second Avenue. He gave it to Lou Levy who in turn gave it to Sammy Cahn who with Saul Chaplin wrote English lyrics for it. Levy, however, claimed that he bought the song for fifteen cents in the Lower East Side and passed it on to the sisters to sing in Yiddish at various Jewish clubs and functions in New York City. 

However the song got there, it was chosen for the B-side of “Nice Work If You Can Get It.” The recording session was piped into Jack Kapp’s office and when he heard the song being recorded in Yiddish, he interrupted the session and said he wanted it in English. Conflicting stories relate how the English translation came about. Cahn claimed he didn’t want to do a translation, but eventually did so after a couple of days. Levy maintained the song was translated within a few minutes in the recording studio. In another interview, he said the translation was made over the telephone. Vic Schoen created a swing arrangement for the song and directed the studio musicians for the recording. Schoen and Bobby Hackett played trumpet, Al Philburn was on trombone, Don Watt on clarinet, Frank Froeba on piano, Dave Barbour on guitar and Stan King on drums. All were unknown at the time, but several would go on to illustrious careers. 

The record was released in December 1937 and to the surprise of all involved, it was “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen” that drove sales. Word spread rapidly about the new song and record stores were flooded with requests for “Buy a Beer, Monsieur Shane,” “Mr. Barney McShane,” “My Dear Mr. Shane” and “My Mere Bits of Shame.” The customers may not have known how to pronounce the title, but they bought the record. According to one story at the time, a woman’s leg was broken when she was knocked down by a crowd that mobbed a record store to buy copies. The song became such a national sensation that “Life,” the leading photo-news magazine of the day, published a photo essay giving its version of the song’s history. “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen” reached the Navajo Indian reservation in Utah where it was chanted by Navajo and Ute Indians to aid polio victims in a ceremony celebrating President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s birthday. Some sources claim the song was a hit in several European countries, including Germany until the Nazi Party banned it after learning its composer was Jewish and the song’s title was Yiddish and not a southern German dialect. 

“Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen” sold 100,000 copies in its initial release and by the end of January had sold a quarter million copies, an enormous number in those days. Bing Crosby was the only other Decca artist at the time with records surpassing the 100,000 sales mark. The song became a hit before it was published as sheet music, a rare phenomenon back then. Twelve other artists, including Ella Fitzgerald and Kate Smith, recorded the song in hopes of cashing in on its popularity. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) named “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen” the most popular song of 1938.

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BORN ON THIS DAY: MAXENE ANDREWS

On this day of January 3rd, Maxene Andrews of the Andrews Sisters fame was born in 1916. Andrews was the second daughter of Peter Andrews and Olga Sollie, café owners in Minneapolis. She was four and a half years younger than her sister La Verne Sophie and two years older than her sister Patricia Marie. The sisters began singing together at talent contests, and after winning a contest at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis in April 1931, they were hired by the bandleader Larry Rich. They toured with Rich from the summer of 1931 to the summer of 1932, after which they sang with big bands. While working with Leon Belasco’s Orchestra, they made their first recordings in March 1937, but when Belasco disbanded his group, the sisters were stranded in New York City. They planned to give up show business and return to Minnesota, but a one-night job singing over the radio earned them a contract with Decca Records. Their first Decca single flopped, but their second, a novelty recording of an English-language version of the Yiddish show tune “Bei Mir Bist du Schoen,” became a surprise hit, topping the charts in January 1938. The sisters would remain one of the most popular recording stars of the 1940s, and were a favorite of soldiers that they entertained during World War II with the USO.

In March 1941 Maxene married Lou Levy, the group’s personal manager. She and Levy adopted two children and divorced in 1951. After Laverne died in 1967 and the group finally broke up Maxene stayed in music, launching a solo career. In 1985 she released her debut solo album, Maxene: An Andrews Sister. With Bill Gilbert she wrote a memoir, Over Here, Over There: The Andrews Sisters and the USO Stars in World War II, which was published in 1993. She returned to musical theater with the off-Broadway musical Swingtime Canteen, which opened on 14 March 1995, but while on vacation from the show she died of a heart attack. She is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Maxene Andrews’s accomplishments are inevitably combined with those of her sisters. Employing a distinctive vocal harmony style that drew upon the exuberant, dance-oriented arrangements of swing music, and with a frisky sense of humor, the Andrews Sisters helped popularize a variety of musical genres within popular music, including many ethnic forms as well as boogie-woogie. As entertainers, they defined the exuberant 1940s style that maintained morale and helped win World War II. Though she never achieved widespread popularity apart from the group, Maxene, the most articulate and personable of the sisters, successfully forged a career as a singer, musical-comedy performer, and author long after the group’s heyday....

MUSIC BREAK: BUDDY CLARK & THE ANDREWS SISTERS - BABY FACE

PAST OBITS: LAVERNE ANDREWS

In my opinion the Andrews Sisters were the greatest singing trio of all-time. Laverne Andrews was the most quiet of the sisters, but I believe she was the most beautiful. Here is her sad obituary from the Desert Sun of May 9, 1967. It's hard to be it was 41 years ago...

Laverne Andrews Dies After Lengthy Illness

HOLLYWOOD (UPI)- Death! | broke up the Andrews Sisters! for the last time Monday.

Laverne, 51, died, apparently of cancer complicated by pneumonia. Louis A. Rogers, her husband of 19 years, was at her bedside in their West Los Angeles home when death claimed the eldest member of the renowned vocal trio. Patti and Maxene interrupted their Lake Tahoe engagement to fly home for the funeral which was being arranged today. 

Laverne’s illness forced her out of the trio about a year ago. The career of the Andrews Sisters was long and stormy. The trio got its first professional booking in the late 1920s in a Chicago vaudeville show. They rose to the top of the music world with a succession of hits during the 1930s and 1940s but their business harmony was out of tune much of the time. The sisters formed a corporation from which they drew equal salaries but after several sisterly squabbles they dissolved the corporation and broke up the act several times. But each time they patched things up and began singing again. Their first hit record was “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen.” Other popular favorites among the 900 records that sold fiO million copies were “Rum and , Coca Cola,” “Beer Barrel ; Polka,” “Patience and Forti tude,” “Don’t Sit Under the  Apple Tree.” “I Can Dream, Can’t I?” and “Pennsylvania i Polka.” The Andrews Sisters appeared  in 17 motion pictures, including!; “Buck Privates,” “In the : Navy,” “Swingtime Johnny,” : and “Follow the Boys.” 

 The act broke up in 1953 over money and other causes; Patti complained that Maxene and Laverne treated her like a baby. They feuded among (themselves for two and one-half years, then announced in 1955 the Andrews Sisters were back in business. They cut new albums of some of their old hits and some new songs.)

They made several television appearances, one of the most memorable of which featured the Andrews Sisters singing the hits of The Supremes and the modern trio returning the compliment by vocalizing in their own rock style the standards of Patti, Maxene and Laverne. “It wasn’t just wanting to sing together again,” Laverne said in explaining the reuniting of the trio again, “the public never wanted us to break up.” She said they received 2.000 letters after one of their television appearances. Patti, Maxene and Laverne had come a long way from Minneapolis, where they were born...

MUSIC BREAK: THE ANDREWS SISTERS - HEARTBREAKER

WORLD WAR II, THE US, AND CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD

Here is a great article I discovered to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. It is much better than anything I could ever write...

World War II, the US, and Classical Hollywood
by Charles Livingston

Wartime U.S.A. 1941-1945; the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor, Uncle Sam recruits his troops, and nonetheless, Hollywood manages to sustain its dominant prowess. Certainly Hollywood experiences its much anticipated, yet seemingly nominal setbacks at the box office (following the U.S.’s involvement in WWII), but by 1943, Hollywood is undoubtedly recognized as “the worlds cinema.” This is courtesy of Humphrey Bogart,Casablanca, and most of all: The Second World War.

The catastrophic destruction of Pearl Harbor ultimately led to the United States participation in the war. Our contribution to the Worlds War effort s inevitably led to the deaths of countless valiant American men. This also meant America would become unified by way of Immense Patriotism, and no media outlet of the era triggered a more severe emotional response than the cinema. While Pearl Harbor and the War loomed over seas, an abundant of proud yet weary Americans elected to visit the movies on a weekly, sometimes daily basis. Several modes/ styles of cinema may have been accessible at the time, but no variation of film remained more paramount to Hollywood cinema (Post the U.S. joining the war) than the incessant method of Realism, Classical Hollywood’s proudest accomplishment.

Some of these films consisted of Casablanca, Once upon a Honeymoon, and The Best Years of Our Lives. A.O. Scott states, alluding to Casablanca, “The basic storyline would become the staple of wartime American Cinema.” All of these films would fervently communicate to, and connect American film viewers to the war that was physically distant, yet emotionally imbedded within them.

Another way, in which Hollywood managed to maintain its corporate dominance over any other media outlet, was due to the halt in production and mass distribution of the Television. The period between 1941 and 1945 could have very well witnessed the birth of TV; a legitimate form of competition meant to combat Hollywood and the studio system. Logically, resources during wartime should focus predominately on the war effort (Man power, materials, etc.), this proved to be one of the principal reasons behind Hollywood’s continued prominence during that specific period.

1946 proved to be Hollywood’s most successful year at the box office. This was not a coincidental occurrence by any stretch of the imagination. 1946 marked the end of World War II, therefore soldiers had come home from battle, the United Stated rejoiced as they recalled their countless military exploits, and families began to emerge. This also marked the era of the baby boomer (child born after World War II’s end). Americans were visiting their local cinema 5-6 time a week, sometimes merely a day off from the movies would seem foreign to the average American man and woman during 1946.

Hollywood has thrived throughout its vast existence, but no era is more indicative of its success than within the studio era, or most of all, throughout the four years before and four years following WWII. Weather it was the propaganda film, military drama, or gangster film, Americans seemed to visit the theaters not as a means of escape, but as a way of subconsciously connecting themselves with the realities of war...

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NEW BETTE MIDLER CD: IT'S THE GIRLS

For her first studio album in eight years, Bette Midler is revisiting some of the vocalists who shaped her the most -- girl groups -- on It’s The Girls, due Nov. 4 via Warner Bros. Records (Nov. 17 in the UK via East West Records/Warner Music UK.)

The album spans seven decades of famous girl groups, from ‘30s trios The Boswell Sisters (the title track) and The Andrews Sisters (“Bei Mir Bist Du Schön”) to ‘90s R&B legends TLC (wait til you hear Midler’s cabaret take on “Waterfalls.”)

Midler’s longtime collaborator Marc Shaiman (Hairspray) handles production.

“I have loved the sound of females harmonizing since I was a kid; I always sang along. Didn't we all?” Midler tells Billboard. “I think the idea that you could become part of the group was the thing that endeared me to the girl groups. You weren't just singing along, you were THERE!”

As fashions in music have changed, Midler says, some of the songs had to evolve -- hence the country-fied take on The Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love” that appears on It’s The Girls. “Since this is a kind of overview of girl groups, I wanted to re-arrange some of the really popular songs and put a new spin on them; 'Can't Hurry Love" being the most extreme example,” Midler says.

“The Boswell Sisters was the first girl group record I ever owned,” she continues. “A friend of my parents gave it to them, and I played it to death. They killed. They are nearly forgotten today. The '60s were the height of girl-group frenzy, so there were a lot of songs to chose from, but from the '90s on, my favorites were TLC and Destiny's Child. ‘Waterfalls’ was a heartbreaker, especially if you were a mom, and it had a big effect on me. I never thought I would have the nerve to sing it, but we had an idea for it that works, and I am so glad I took the chance.”

Though she’s teased retirement from the road over the years, a new tour is in the works, too, a spokeswoman for Midler teases.

Adds Midler of revisiting the many eras of girl groups, “All in all, there is such a rich and emotional history to this music, it's a joy to dust it off and take another listen...So Bette Midler!”

It’s The Girls Track List: 

1. BE MY BABY
Originally performed by The Ronettes

2. ONE FINE DAY
Originally performed by The Chiffons

3. BEI MIR BIST DU SCHÖN
Originally performed by The Andrews Sisters
All Vocals by Bette Midler

4. BABY IT'S YOU
Originally performed by The Shirelles
All Vocals by Bette Midler

5. TELL HIM
Originally performed by The Exciters

6. HE'S SURE THE BOY I LOVE (duet with Darlene Love)
Originally performed by The Crystals

7. MR. SANDMAN
Originally performed by The Chordettes

8. COME AND GET THESE MEMORIES
Originally performed by Martha & The Vandellas

9. TOO MANY FISH IN THE SEA
Originally performed by The Marvelettes

10. TEACH ME TONIGHT
Originally performed by The DeCastro Sisters

11. WATERFALLS
Originally performed by TLC

12. YOU CAN'T HURRY LOVE
Originally performed by The Supremes

13. GIVE HIM A GREAT BIG KISS
Originally performed by The Shangri-Las

14. WILL YOU STILL LOVE ME TOMORROW
Originally performed by The Shirelles

15. IT'S THE GIRL
Originally performed by The Boswell Sisters
All Vocals by Bette Midler

The Andrews Sisters

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GUY LOMBARDO AND FRIENDS

Guy Lombardo gets a bad rap for being corny and outdated. He was getting jokes made about him back as early as the 1940s that he was cheesy. However, he was one of the best loved bandleaders of all time, and was popular until his death in 1977. Despite his fame in the music industry, Guy Lombardo rarely enjoyed the company of guest stars in the recording studio. This is doubling puzzling when you consider Jack Kapp, the head of Lombardo's label, pioneered the practice of twinning his talent pool in the 1930s. (Note: This list only covers Lombardo's commercial recordings. It does not included parings on radio, film or television)...

Weston Vaughan - Who? This deservedly forgotten singer provided the vocal on the Royal Canadian's first hit record, Charmaine. There lies one of his few claims to fame. Incredibly, Vaughan's mewly whining didn't prevent him from making records well into the 1930s. Maybe he worked cheap.

The Two Black Crows - Oh, I am so glad these sides were never issued. The Crows were George Moran and Charles Mack, two white guys who recorded a series of droll but hopelessly racist comedy routines in a heavy southern Negro drawl. In March of 1928 they were accompanied by the Royal Canadians on four rejected numbers. To quote the Crows: "Even if that was good I wouldn't like it!"

Kate Smith - Two sides recorded in 1931: River, Stay 'Way From My Door and Too Late. Kate was a pretty moral young lady - she once refused to have sex siren Mae West in the same room with her. Chances are the sweet sounds Royal Canadians made them one of the few suitable accompanists for her singing.

Al Jolson - In December of 1932 Jolson had not made a record in over two years when he walked into the studios of the American Recording Corp. to wax five sides - two of them with Lombardo: Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With a Dixie Melody and April Showers. Unfortunately, Jolson's bravura signing style was at odds with the band's bleating sax section. The result produced what critic Will Friedwald calls "the most unintentionally hilarious record of all time." Jolson would not make another record for 13 years when he was signed by Decca. We can be grateful the company did not rejoin Jolie with label mate Lombardo.

Bing Crosby - Oddly enough, Crosby and Lombardo worked together at the beginning and end of their superstar years. In 1933 Crosby was paired with Lombardo for three sides: You're Getting to Be a Habit With Me, Young and Healthy and You're Beautiful Tonight Dear. When these selections were first released on LP in 1978 producer/annotater Michael Brooks noted how the listener is "engulfed by that sax section which is like being smothered by a giant placenta." How would he know? Twenty one years later both men enjoyed one of their last chartings with a Frank Sinatra cover: Young at Heart. Save for reissues of White Christmas and Auld Lang Syne, neither man would attain the heights of pop music they had scaled in the 1930s and 1940s.

The Andrews Sisters - Patty, Maxene and La Verne helped Guy cruise to another million seller with Christmas Island, proving that the Royal Canadians weren't just for New Year's Eve. In a possible reference to Lombardo's Canuck roots, the chorus of the song goes "Aloha - eh!" The disc's flip side was Winter Wonderland - which became a seasonal standard. Prior to this 1946 hit, Guy and the sisters had first recorded a year earlier and would reunite in 1951 for Play Me a Hurtin' Tune. Lombardo did.

Hildegarde - Comedian Jimmy Durante once joked he wanted to marry this popular chanteuse - just to give her a last name. She waxed five titles with the Royal Canadians in 1945 and 1946 including such standards as June is Bustin' Out All Over and The Gypsy.

Mary Martin - The future star of South Pacific and Peter Pan cut two unremarkable sides with the band in 1947: Come to the Mardi Gras and Almost Like Being in Love.

Louis Armstrong - Despite their mutual admiration, Armstrong and Lombardo recorded just two sides: Mumbo Jumbo and Come Along Down - both penned by Carmen Lombardo. The numbers are from the 1966 Jones Beach musical Mardi Gras which featured Armstrong.

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RIP: PATTY ANDREWS

Patty Andrews, the last surviving member of the singing Andrews Sisters trio whose hits such as the rollicking "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B" and the poignant "I Can Dream, Can't I?" captured the home-front spirit of World War II, died Wednesday. She was 94.

Andrews died of natural causes at her home in the Los Angeles suburb of Northridge, said family spokesman Alan Eichler in a statement.

Patty was the Andrews in the middle, the lead singer and chief clown, whose raucous jitterbugging delighted American servicemen abroad and audiences at home.

She could also deliver sentimental ballads like "I'll Be with You in Apple Blossom Time" with a sincerity that caused hardened GIs far from home to weep.

From the late 1930s through the 1940s, the Andrews Sisters produced one hit record after another, beginning with "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" in 1937 and continuing with "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar," "Rum and Coca-Cola" and more. They recorded more than 400 songs and sold over 80 million records, several of them going gold (over a million copies).

Other sisters, notably the Boswells, had become famous as singing acts, but mostly they huddled before a microphone in close harmony. The Andrews Sisters _ LaVerne, Maxene and Patty _ added a new dimension. During breaks in their singing, they cavorted about the stage in rhythm to the music.

Their voices combined with perfect synergy. As Patty remarked in 1971: "There were just three girls in the family. LaVerne had a very low voice. Maxene's was kind of high, and I was between. It was like God had given us voices to fit our parts."

The Andrews Sisters' rise coincided with the advent of swing music, and their style fit perfectly into the new craze. They aimed at reproducing the sound of three harmonizing trumpets.

"I was listening to Benny Goodman and to all the bands," Patty once remarked. "I was into the feel, so that would go into my own musical ability. I was into swing. I loved the brass section."

Unlike other singing acts, the sisters recorded with popular bands of the `40s, fitting neatly into the styles of Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey, Bob Crosby, Woody Herman, Guy Lombardo, Desi Arnaz and Russ Morgan. They sang dozens of songs on records with Bing Crosby, including the million-seller "Don't Fence Me In." They also recorded with Dick Haymes, Carmen Miranda, Danny Kaye, Al Jolson, Jimmy Durante and Red Foley.

The Andrews' popularity led to a contract with Universal Pictures, where they made a dozen low-budget musical comedies between 1940 and 1944. In 1947, they appeared in "The Road to Rio" with Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour.

The trio continued until LaVerne's death in 1967. By that time the close harmony had turned to discord, and the sisters had been openly feuding.

Bette Midler's 1973 cover of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" revived interest in the trio. The two survivors joined in 1974 for a Broadway show, "Over Here!" It ran for more than a year, but disputes with the producers led to the cancellation of the national tour of the show, and the sisters did not perform together again.

Patty continued on her own, finding success in Las Vegas and on TV variety shows. Her sister also toured solo until her death in 1995.

Her father, Peter Andrews, was a Greek immigrant who anglicized his name of Andreus when he arrived in America; his wife, Olga, was a Norwegian with a love of music. LaVerne was born in 1911, Maxine (later Maxene) in 1916, Patricia (later Patty, sometimes Patti) in 1918.

All three sisters were born and raised in the Minneapolis area, spending summers in Mound, Minn., on the western shores of Lake Minnetonka, about 20 miles west of Minneapolis.

Listening to the Boswell Sisters on radio, LaVerne played the piano and taught her sisters to sing in harmony; neither Maxene nor Patty ever learned to read music. All three studied singers at the vaudeville house near their father's restaurant. As their skills developed, they moved from amateur shows to vaudeville and singing with bands.

After Peter Andrews moved the family to New York in 1937, his wife, Olga, sought singing dates for the girls. They were often turned down with comments such as: "They sing too loud and they move too much." Olga persisted, and the sisters sang on radio with a hotel band at $15 a week. The broadcasts landed them a contract with Decca Records.

They recorded a few songs, and then came "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen," an old Yiddish song for which Sammy Cahn and Saul Kaplan wrote English lyrics. (The title means, "To Me You Are Beautiful.") It was a smash hit, and the Andrews Sisters were launched into the bigtime.

Their only disappointment was the movies. Universal was a penny-pinching studio that ground out product to fit the lower half of a double bill. The sisters were seldom involved in the plots, being used for musical interludes in film with titles such as "Private Buckaroo," "Swingtime Johnny" and "Moonlight and Cactus."

Their only hit was "Buck Privates," which made stars of Abbott and Costello and included the trio's blockbuster "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy from Company B." In 1947, Patty married Martin Melcher, an agent who represented the sisters as well as Doris Day, then at the beginning of her film career. Patty divorced Melcher in 1949 and soon he became Day's husband, manager and producer.

Patty married Walter Weschler, pianist for the sisters, in 1952. He became their manager and demanded more pay for himself and for Patty. The two other sisters rebelled, and their differences with Patty became public. Lawsuits were filed between the two camps.

"We had been together nearly all our lives," Patty explained in 1971. "Then in one year our dream world ended. Our mother died and then our father. All three of us were upset, and we were at each other's throats all the time."

Patty Andrews is survived by her foster daughter, Pam DuBois, a niece and several cousins. Weschler died in 2010. Here is the last picture of Patty Andrews from around Christmastime 2012...

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MUSIC REVIEW: MAXENE ANDREWS - AN ANDREWS SISTER

Maxene Andrews had the extraordinary good fortune to be one third of the "Andrews Sisters" singing act. She also had the distinct misfortune to be in the shadow of that "Andrews Sisters" act and her sister Patty's splendid center-stage persona and showbiz brilliance. However, Maxene emerged in the later years of her career as a vibrant singer in her own right.

The Andrews Sisters broke up in the late 1960s after Laverne Andrews died in 1967. In 1970 Maxene became dean of women at Tahoe Paradise College of Fine Arts, Lake Tahoe, Nev., and she eventually became its vice president.Following the reunion of Patty and Maxene in the 1974 Broadway musical, "Over Here!", Maxene blossomed into a terrific solo performer as she aged with grace and beauty and made many appearances as a solo performer to the end of her life in 1995. I had the pleasure of seeing Maxene perform in person around 1988, and she truly had the voice to be a great solo artist.

This studio album contains recordings from her solo concert material that she recorded in 1985.  I enjoyed many of the tracks on the CD, but a few of them I listened to and began to miss the other two sisters. The Andrews Sisters medley was too short, and the echo that was used with Maxene's voice made it sound like they were trying to recapture the trio's sound. I have to be honest that I did not care for it much. However, a full version of Ïn Apple Blossom Time" was truly beautiful. One great song from "Over Here!" is revived: "Where Did the Good Times Go?" The finest moments are probably the exquisite versions of two Irving Berlin songs, "Remember" and "How Deep is the Ocean?" The ballads Maxene sang the best. In my opinion though the recording that I looked foward to hearing most, "Fascinating Rhythm" was probably the worst arranged of the whole album, and the biggest letdown.

All in all, this was a very good album for someone who lived in the shadows of a singing group for close to forty years. I would have liked to have heard Maxene as a solo artist in the 1950s and 1960s, but her voice was surprisingly vibrant on the recordings. With hindsight, this is a poignant farewell of twelve solo tracks from this Andrews Sister.

TRACKS:

1. I Suppose

2. Mama Llama

3. Where Did The Good Times Go?

4. Medley: Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen/Don't Sit Under The Apple Tree/Pennsylvania Polka /Beer Barrel Polka
5. How Deep Is The Ocean?
6. Show Me The Way To Go Home
7. In Apple Blossom Time
8. You're My Everything 
9. Sweet And Slow
10. Nature's Toys
11. Remember
12. Fascinating Rhythm

my rating: 7 out of 10

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: PATTY ANDREWS

The Andrews Sisters not only represented the voice of World War II, but they were the voice of a generation. They were one of the most successful singing groups of all time, and sadly there is only one Andrew Sister left - Patty Andrews, now 94, who was the main sister in the successful trio.

After being a group since the 1930s, the act broke up in 1951 when Patty wanted to be a solo artist. With the change in music, it did not work out and the trio reunited in 1956. They signed a new recording contract with Capitol Records (for whom Patty had become a featured soloist) and released a dozen singles through 1959, some rock-and-roll flavored and not very well received, and three hi-fi albums, including a vibrant LP of songs from the dancing 1920s with Billy May's orchestra. In 1962, they signed with Dot Records and recorded a series of stereo albums over five years, both re-recordings of earlier hits, as well as new material, including "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" and "Puff the Magic Dragon".

The act came to an abrupt end in 1967 when eldest sister LaVerne died of cancer after a year-long bout with the illness, during which she was replaced by singer Joyce DeYoung. LaVerne had founded the original group, and often acted as the peacemaker among the three during the sisters' lives, more often siding with her parents, to whom the girls were extremely devoted, than with either of her sisters. Once LaVerne was dead, Maxene saw no need to continue as a duo (she taught acting, drama, and speech at a Lake Tahoe college and worked with troubled teens), and Patty was once again eager to be a soloist.

Maxene and Patty reunited for a short lived broadway show called "Over There" in 1974, and they were seen together in 1987 when they got a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. In the inner circle of the Andrews Sisters, it was widely known that Patty Andrews' husband Wally Weschler, who was also her manager, caused much of the rift between the sisters. He alienated Patty from many close friends and family members throughout their marriage.

Maxene Andrews died on October 21, 1995. Patty continued to give interviews, but her appearances were less and less. Wally Weschler, her husband of 60 years, died on August 28, 2010, at the age of 88. After his death, Patty was reunited with many of her friends. However, at the age of 94, her health is not that good anymore. It got so poor that earlier this year she was placed in hospice care. Her memory is fading so she does not remember many of the moments in her life that brought her joy like singing and entertaining. However, hopefully Patty Andrews has realized the millions of people her and her sisters gave joy to throughout the years from soldiers going over seas to families enjoying great music. The Andrews Sisters and Patty Andrews are not just a part of entertainment history, they were/are three icons who gave their all in everything they did...

    UPDATE: JANUARY 2013 - Despite being confined to be a bed and suffering from the effects of dimentia, Patti Andrews still looks relatively good. She will be 95 this year...  

  UPDATE: SADLY PATTY ANDREWS PASSED AWAY ON JANUARY 30, 2013. YOU CAN READ MORE ABOUT THE SAD NEWS HERE:  

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: THE ANDREWS SISTERS

The Andrews Sisters were not just popular in the 1940s...they WERE popular music in the 1940s. The Andrews Sisters were a prolific and highly successful close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras, consisting of three actual sisters: LaVerne, Maxene and Patty – LaVerne Sophia, contralto and redhead (July 6, 1911 – May 8, 1967); Maxene Angelyn, soprano and brunette (January 3, 1916 – October 21, 1995); and Patricia Marie "Patty" Andrews, mezzo-soprano, lead singer, and blonde (born February 16, 1918). Their harmonies and songs are still influential today, and these unusual and different pictures of the Andrews Sisters showcase not only their talents but their beauty as well...

UNUSUAL DUETS: DEAN MARTIN AND THE ANDREWS SISTERS

The Andrews Sisters were closely associated with Bing Crosby, but they did appear with another great crooner Dean Martin. This duet is from Dino's variety show. Sadly it also marked the last time the Andrews Sisters would appear together. Sister Laverne would pass away soon after this appearance...