Customer Reviews

Best of Decca Years

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For the Weavers lover, this is a must have. For someone wanting to discover the Weavers, the concert recordings are much better. On this album 1950s production met a small folk group and the result is very much a 50s sound. Big orchestra backing, instrumental choices that reflected the taste of the day rather than a folk approach. I prefer the Weavers as they stood on stage with their voices, their instruments, and their hearts out there for everyone to enjoy.

Most of The Weavers' albums, recorded from 1955 forward, faithfully preserve the foursome's folk-music instrumentation and repertoire. This intelligent compilation, however, revives the group's pop hits recorded by Decca from 1950 to 1953. It's easy to see why The Weavers became "America's favorite folk singers;" the performances are tops, the tunes retain their folk origins, and Gordon Jenkins's arrangements for orchestra and chorus are admirable. The monster hit "Goodnight Irene" is here, and this writer thinks the B-side, "Tzena Tzena Tzena," is even better. Other great tunes include "Wimoweh," "The Midnight Special," and "So Long," and "Hard, Ain't It Hard" has a rousing vocal by Ronnie Gilbert. If you've heard The Weavers' albums on the Vanguard label, these big-band Decca sessions will impress you.

Prior to purchasing this CD, I had heard one or two Weavers sides and hadn't formed any impression of the group. Now I can hear that they were remarkably ahead of their time when these sides were made (1950-1953), at least insomuch as 1960s groups like The Seekers were presenting almost exactly the same sound years later, with or without an orchestra and chorus. And the songs themselves are not out of keeping with other tunes of the early 1950s--for example, Terry Gilkyson's "Christopher Columbus," recorded by Guy Mitchell, or the novelty songs of Bob Merrill. It's true that The Weavers were rather rough-cut compared to the smooth pop sound listeners were used to hearing right after World War II. However, they were Vegas-smooth compared to quartets like The Chuck Wagon Gang, even if Pete Seeger, vocally, makes Wayne Newton sound like Placido Domingo. In a mass-mediated world, authenticity is one of the most relative of concepts.

At any rate, these are tremendously enjoyable sides made no less enjoyable by the Lawrence Welk feel provided on several sides by arranger Gordon Jenkins, whose Basie-style introduction to "Wimoweh" is both anachronistic and quite effective. (Listen for Pete Seeger's favorite chord throughout, the dominant 11th.) The Jenkins orchestra and chorus also greatly enhance the CD's best track, "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena," one of the shortest songs ever created, and here featuring a delightful mid-arrangement round. "(The Wreck of the) John B." predates The Beach Boys' "Sloop John B." by many years and is typical of pre-"Pet Sounds" renderings of the tune. All of the tracks are exceptional, and the sound is astonishing. The Weavers may not have started pop-folk (think Burl Ives, for example), but they appear to have established its conventions for a number of years to come.

This CD represents one of the most important collections of contemporary (post WWII) folk music. The Weavers created a style - combining high artistic standards with personal social justice commitments - which set the stage for nearly every other folk and acoustic musician who followed them. Whatever one's politics, if you play or listen or enjoy folk music, this is a must record for your collection

The Weavers were very good folk singers who changed their style to have mass appeal when the got the right manager & the right big band backing, They kept the mass appeal for about a year & a half. After thtat they went back to being folk singers. This record is the genuine original right stuff & has been hard to find.

In the early 1950s, Decca tried to make the folksy Weavers into a pop group. Until Decca dropped them in 1953 due to left wing political affiliations, the Kapp organization was very successful. Much of this success was due to the iconic orchestral arrangements by Gordon Jenkins. Jenkins has never swung so hard before or since. "Wimeweh" is, in my opinion, the most swinging chart Jenkins ever wrote. This proves that Jenkins was indeed capable of writing charts that swing more than his lame attempt to swing on "Jingle Bells" on the Sinatra Christmas album. Normally, Jenkins' string-laden, chromatic arrangements backed ballads by the best jazz influenced singers from Nat Cole and Frank Sinatra to Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. While these arrangements for the Weavers are truly at odds with the music Pete Seeger, Lee Hayes, Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman are trying to make, they are very well written and inventive. However, folkies interested in authenticity have got to hate them. Jenkins' individual style is easy to identify and often, his charts are the stars of the recordings. If the Weavers had to record with a large Hollywood orchestra, Jenkins is definitely the best choice of arranger. Other Decca staff arrangers like Sy Oliver, Buster Harding, or Vic Schoen would have been much too jazz oriented for the Weavers. But I wonder -- what did Pete Seeger dislike more, Jenkins' Hollywood arrangements or Bob Dylan's electric guitar?

You either love it .... or you can't stand it. And it's been that way since the days of Huddie Leadbetter (Leadbelly) and Woody Guthrie and their songs protesting war, economic hardships, civil rights, and labor. As earnest and as honest as they were with their lyrics and, for the most part, simple melodies, working on the conscience of the richer elements of the masses, they were also decried as "pinko, commie sympathizers" by the more idiotic fringe of society.

And through it all there was was one glaring constant: folk music was not for those seeking to make a buck because, until The Weavers came along in 1950, it was simply never a commercial success. Prior to forming the group, Pete Seeger and Lee Hays had been part of the post-WW II Almanac Singers with Guthrie, Millard Lampell Bess Hawes, Arthur Stern, and Sis Cunningham, and a repertoire of typical protean topicality ranging from sod-busting laments to anti-Fascist barbs. None of it memorable or long-lasting.

Seeger and Hays then combined with female lead Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman to form The Weavers and, after securing a recording contract with Decca, saw their version of old friend Leadbelly's song, Goodnight Irene, surge to # 1 and remain there for THIRTEEN weeks, spending 25 weeks in all on the charts with the backing of the Gordon Jenkins orchestra. In fact, in short order it was covered by all the major labels and their own artists, as Frank Sinatra (# 5 for Columbia), Jo Stafford (# 9 for Capitol), Red Foley & Ernest Tubb (# 1 C&W/# 10 Pop also for Decca), Dennis Day (# 17 for RCA Victor), The Alexander Brothers (# 26 for Mercury), and Moon Mullican (# 5 C&W for King) all took a stab at it.

The B-side, an adaptation of an Israeli song called Tzena, Tzena, Tzena, didn't fare too badly either as it went to # 2 late that summer of 1950, again with the Jenkins orchestra, and also spawned several covers (Mitch Miller & His Orchestra - # 3 for Columbia, Vic Damone - # 6 for Mercury, and Ralph Flanagan & His Orchestra - # 16 for RCA Victor). Folk, it seems, had arrived.

This pattern continued late in 1950 when an adaptation of the English folk song, The Pirate Ship, reached # 11 early in 1951 with the backing of the Leroy Holmes orchestra as The Roving Kind. Once more, rival labels rushed out covers and this time the Columbia version, with Guy Mitchell doing the honors, scored highest at # 4, while the Rex Allen version for Mercury made it to # 20. The flip, (The Wreck Of The) John B, didn't chart, but in 1960 Jimmie Rodgers would have a # 64 with it, and in 1966 The Beach Boys would take it to # 3, both as The Sloop John B.

Their next hit was a Woody Guthrie tune about the Oklahoma "Dust Bowl" as So Long (It's Been Good To Know Ya), again with the Jenkins orchestra, topped out at # 4 in February/March 1951 b/w Lonesome Traveler, written by Lee Hays. And, once more, others covered the genre so long ignored as Paul Weston & His Orchestra, with vocal by Norman Luboff Choir, saw their rendition of So Long reach # 21 for Columbia, while Ralph Marterie & His Orchestra had theirs reach # 26 for Mercury.

Nor did things change when On Top Of Old Smoky, an adaptation of an old Southern Highlands tune, Little Mohee, reached # 2 in the spring of 1951 with the backing of The Terry Gilkyson Chorus and Vic Schoen's orchestra. Covers soon came out by Vaughn Monroe & His Orchestra (# 8 with The Moon Maids and The Moon Men doing the vocals on RCA Victor), and Percy Faith & His Orchestra with Burl Ives (# 10 for Columbia). They did, however, have the field to themselves with their own composition (in conjunction with Leadbelly), Kisses Sweeter Than Wine, taking it to # 19 in August 1951 b/w the group's adaptation of When The Saints Go Marching In (# 27), both backed by the Leo Diamond orchestra. Jimmie Rodgers would have a # 3 hit with Kisses in 1957.

In early 1952 the group combined with Linda Solomon to adapt the old South African song Mbube and, once more with the Jenkins orchestra, had Wimoweh reach # 14 b/w Old Paint (Ride Around, Little Dogies), written by the group as well. In 1961 The Tokens would take the A-side to # 1 as The Lion Sleep Tonight, and in 1972 Robert John would have a # 3 with it under the same title. In April it was their turn to cover someone else's hit as their version of Around The Corner (Beneath The Berry Tree) peaked at # 19, while Jo Stafford's original won out at # 9. A few months later another Leadbelly composition, Midnight Special, settled at # 30. Both were backed by the Jenkins orchestra.

After being off the charts for all of 1953, while suffering political blacklisting, they returned with another tune written with Leadbelly, Sylvie (Bring Me Li'l Water, Silvy), taking it to # 27 with the backing of the Larry Clinton orchestra. That would be their last, although their legacy would later be revived and carried on by the likes of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, The Kingston Trio, Harry Belafonte, The Limeliters, Jim Croce, and Cat Stevens.

The sound quality is excellent and in the insert you get The Story Of The Weavers, written by Joseph F. Laredo and a partial discography of the contents (no chart details).

Think of this album as The Weavers meet Mitch Miller and Lawrence Welk. I love The Weavers as a folk group.This recording,complete with its chorus,violins and big band backup is to folk music what Brittany Spears is to Joan Baez.