Customer Reviews

Rooftop Singers (Vanguard Visionaries)

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This helps to showcase Erik Darling, a standout folk artist from the 50s on, who passed away recently. Enjoyable listening for those who enjoy music from the heyday of folk singing in America. Walk Right In climbed the pop music charts in the early 60s.

The Rooftop Singers were organized to record one specific song, "Walk Right In," which became an instant hit. The three members of the group had impeccable roots in folk music, blues and jazz, and all three influences are blended in the work they recorded during their short period together. You get 10 songs here, including "Walk Right In" (1930s blues), "Tom Cat" (my favorite, an original), "You Don't Know" and the very bleak "Somebody Came Home" (blues style), "Momma Don't Allow"(lively arrangement of a standard), "Houston Special" (another bluesy number that one can picture Peter Paul and Mary also recording), "Ha Ha Thisaway" (traditional folk song depicting the end of girlhood and beginning of wedded life), "San Francisco Bay Blues" (also recorded by PP&M, allowing a direct comparison if one wants to make one), Duke Ellington's "It Don't Mean a Thing," and finally the group's venture into rock and roll, "Project X," aka "Got No Reason to Cry." The musicianship is excellent and the songs are rousing and moving. One thing the Rooftoppers never did was protest songs. Otherwise they "covered the waterfront," particularly in terms of revival of jazz and blues standards done in a then more modern "folk" style. Two male and one female voices, very nicely blended, with the two males expertly playing guitar all the while. Sound familiar?

Here's an excellent and inexpensive introduction to this unjustly forgotten trio and their work.

The Rooftop Singers / Vanguard Visionaries: I got this just for "Walk Right In" and discovered that a very fine set of songs came along with it. This isn't an indispensible CD for your music collection, but you'll have a very good experience listening to it.