The Au Go Go Singers were a nine-member

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

group formed in New York City in 1964, and best remembered for featuring

Stephen Stills Stephen Arthur Stills (born January 3, 1945) is an American musician, singer and songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. As both a solo act and member of two successful bands, Stills has com ...

and

Richie Furay Paul Richard Furay (born May 9, 1944) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member (with Buffalo Springfield). He is best known for forming the bands Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Bruc ...

two years before they formed

Buffalo Springfield Buffalo Springfield was a rock band formed in Los Angeles by Canadian musicians Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin and American musicians Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. The group, widely known for the song "For What It's Worth", relea ...

Career

Stills and Furay met while performing in

folk club A folk club is a regular event, permanent venue, or section of a venue devoted to folk music and traditional music. Folk clubs were primarily an urban phenomenon of 1960s and 1970s Great Britain and Ireland, and vital to the second British folk r ...

s in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

, alongside Furay's former college classmates Bob Harmelink and Nels Gustafson. They were seen by songwriter Ed E. Miller, the credited co-writer of the

Serendipity Singers The Serendipity Singers were a 1960s American folk group, similar to The New Christy Minstrels. Their debut single " Don't Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man)" was a Top Ten hit and received the group's only Grammy nomination in 1965. The ...

' hit "

Don't Let the Rain Come Down "Don't Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man)" was a folk music single, the debut recording of the Serendipity Singers in 1964. The song was based on the English nursery rhyme "There Was a Crooked Man". The song was first recorded as "Crook ...

". In early 1964, Miller was preparing a revue, ''America Sings'', which chronicled the history of folk music in America, and suggested that the four, together with an existing group, the Bay Singers – Roy Michaels, Mike Scott, Fred Geiger and Jean Gurney – and Kathy King (Kathrin King Segal), provide the music in the show. Although the show only ran for two weeks, Miller secured a contract with

Roulette Records Roulette Records was an American record company and label founded in 1957 by George Goldner, Joe Kolsky, Morris Levy and Phil Kahl, with creative control given to producers and songwriters Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore. Levy was appointed direc ...

for the nine-strong group to record an album, which they did with producers

Hugo Peretti Hugo E. Peretti (December 6, 1916 – May 1, 1986) was an American songwriter, trumpeter, and record producer. Born in New York City to an Italian American family, Peretti began his music career as a teenager, playing the trumpet in the Bors ...

and

Luigi Creatore Luigi Federico Creatore (December 21, 1921 – December 13, 2015) was an American songwriter and record producer. Creatore was born in New York City in 1921, the son of noted Italian-born bandleader and composer Giuseppe Creatore. After serving w ...

. After seeing the show, club owner Howard Solomon signed the group for a residency at his

Cafe au Go Go The Cafe Au Go Go was a Greenwich Village night club located in the basement of the New Andy Warhol Garrick Theatre building in the late 1960s, and located at 152 Bleecker Street in Manhattan, New York City. The club featured many musical groups, ...

nightclub on

Bleecker Street Bleecker Street is an east–west street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightclub district. The street connects a neighborhood today popular for music venues and comedy, but which was ...

. By the time the LP was released in late 1964, the ensemble had become known as the Au Go Go Singers. As well as appearing at the club, they also made TV appearances, and performed at other venues. Their album, ''They Call Us Au Go-Go Singers'', featured Stills' lead vocals on

Billy Edd Wheeler Billy Edward "Edd" Wheeler (born December 9, 1932, Boone County, West Virginia, United States) is an American songwriter, performer, writer, and visual artist. His songs include "Jackson" (Grammy award winner for Johnny Cash and June Carter) ...

's song "

High Flying Bird ''High Flying Bird'' is a 2019 American sports film, sports drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh, from a story suggested by André Holland, with the screenplay by Tarell Alvin McCraney. The film stars Holland, Zazie Beetz, Melvin Gregg, Sonj ...

", and Furay singing

Tom Paxton Thomas Richard Paxton (born October 31, 1937) is an American folk singer-songwriter who has had a music career spanning more than fifty years. In 2009, Paxton received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

's "Where I'm Bound". The album overall is described at

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

as "predictably bland, professional and well executed group

hootenanny A hootenanny is a party involving music in the United States. It is particularly associated with folk music. Etymology Placeholder Hootenanny is an Appalachian colloquialism that was used in the early twentieth century U.S. as a placeholder name ...

folk music". The album also included songs by

Jesse Fuller Jesse Fuller (March 12, 1896 – January 29, 1976) was an American one-man band musician, best known for his song "San Francisco Bay Blues". Early life Fuller was born in Jonesboro, Georgia, near Atlanta. He was sent by his mother to live with ...

John Stewart John Stewart may refer to: Business * John Aikman Stewart (1822–1926), American banker * John Killough Stewart (1867–1938), businessman and philanthropist in Queensland, Australia * John K. Stewart (1870–1916), American entrepreneur and inve ...

, and

Lee Hays Lee Elhardt Hays (March 14, 1914 – August 26, 1981) was an American folksinger and songwriter, best known for singing bass with the Weavers. Throughout his life, he was concerned with overcoming racism, inequality, and violence in soci ...

.They Call Us Au Go-Go Singers, ''Discogs.com''
Retrieved 18 March 2018 A single, "

San Francisco Bay Blues "San Francisco Bay Blues" is an American folk song and is generally considered to be the most famous composition by Jesse Fuller. Fuller first recorded the song in 1954, which was released by the World Song label in 1955. A "one-man band" renditio ...

"/ "Pink Polemoniums", was released from the album. Following a dispute with Solomon, the group's management was taken over by Jim Friedman and they continued to perform, but found that their contract with

Morris Levy Morris Levy (born Moishe Levy; August 27, 1927 – May 21, 1990) was an American entrepreneur in the fields of jazz clubs, music publishing, and the independent record industry. Levy was cofounder and owner of Roulette Records, founding partner ...

at Roulette meant that some venues were unwilling to book them, and they also found that, after the

British Invasion The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" on b ...

, their style of music was rapidly becoming unfashionable. A second album never appeared; some members received

draft notice In the United States, military conscription, commonly known as the draft, has been employed by the U.S. federal government in six conflicts: the American Revolutionary War, the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, an ...

s; and Kathy King, who suffered from

stage fright Stage fright or performance anxiety is the anxiety, fear, or persistent phobia which may be aroused in an individual by the requirement to perform in front of an audience, real or imagined, whether actually or potentially (for example, when perf ...

, decided to leave. In 1965, the group disbanded. Stills then joined the four members of the Bay Singers – Michaels, Scott, Geiger, and Gurney – and, renamed The Company, toured in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. During the tour, Stills met

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...

, when the Company were on the same bill as Young's band,

the Squires The Squires or Neil Young & The Squires were a Canadian band formed in 1963 in Winnipeg. It was one of the first bands of singer-songwriter Neil Young. Recordings Young formed the Squires in 1963, and the group played at community clubs, high ...

. The following year, Stills, Young and Furay formed Buffalo Springfield in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. Of the other members of the Au Go Go Singers, Roy Michaels later formed

Cat Mother & the All Night Newsboys Cat Mother and The All Night Newsboys was an American musical group, originally formed in New York and later based in Mendocino, California, most active in the late 1960s and early 1970s. History Cat Mother and The All Night Newsboys was co-foun ...

, whose first album was produced by

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

. Kathy King worked as a

backing singer A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are used ...

with

Bobby Vinton Stanley Robert "Bobby" Vinton (born April 16, 1935) is a American former singer and occasional actor, who also hosted his own self-titled TV show in the late 1970s. As a teen idol, he became known as "The Polish Prince", as his music paid trib ...

before working in the

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

show ''

Oh! Calcutta! ''Oh! Calcutta!'' is an avant-garde, risque theatrical revue created by British drama critic Kenneth Tynan. The show, consisting of sketches on sex-related topics, debuted Off-Broadway in 1969 and then in the West End in 1970. It ran in London ...

'' and other theatre and

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...

shows under the name Kathrin King Segal. The album ''They Call Us Au Go-Go Singers'' was issued on CD by

Rhino Records A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species o ...

in 1999.

Discography

''They Call Us Au Go-Go Singers''

''They Call Us Au Go-Go Singers'' is the only studio album by the group. The album was released in November 1964 on Roulette records, and was released in the UK on Columbia records. The album features some of the earliest recordings of future Buffalo Springfield members, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay, two years before they formed Buffalo Springfield.Bruce Eder, "The Au Go Go Singers", ''Allmusic.com''
Retrieved 18 March 2018Richie Furay, Michael Roberts, ''Pickin' Up the Pieces: The Heart and Soul of Country Rock Pioneer Richie Furay''
Crown Publishing Group, 2012, , pp.43-47Matthew Greenwald, Review of ''They Call Us Au Go-Go Singers'', ''Allmusic.com''
Retrieved 18 March 2018 The album overall is described at

as "predictably bland, professional and well executed group

folk music".

Track listing

Personnel

- Guitar, Vocals, Lead Vocals on "

" *

- Guitar, Vocals, Lead Vocals on "Where I'm Bound" *Kathy King - Vocals *Jean Gurney - Vocals *Fred Geiger - Guitar, Vocals *Bob Harmelink - Vocals *Roy Michaels - Guitar, Vocals *Mike Scott - Double bass, Vocals *Nels Gustafson - Guitar, Vocals

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Au Go Go Singers, The American folk musical groups Roulette Records artists