The Dream Weavers was an American

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

vocal group A vocal group is a performing ensemble of vocalists who sing and harmonize together. The first well-known vocals groups emerged in the 19th century, and the style had reached widespread popularity by the 1940s. Types Vocal groups can come in se ...

, famous in the 1950s, formed at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

by Gene Adkinson (

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

and

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

) and Wade Buff (lead

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

Career

The Dream Weavers consisted primarily of Gene Adkinson and Wade Buff. Other members included Lee Turner, Eddie Newson, Sally Sanborn, Mary Carr and Mary Rude at various times. The two met as

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. In ...

s in their respective

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

s (Adkinson at Miami Edison Senior High School, Buff at Coral Gables Senior High School) when both were members of The Greater

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Boys' Drum and Bugle Corps, a 100-piece band and drill team. They became friends and composed a number of

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...

s while still in high school. They both went on to attend the

in Gainesville, where they performed in a freshman talent show before 5,000 students and won. As a result, they were given a twice-weekly half-hour program slot,

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

, WRUF in 1955. With the program ending at 10:30pm, they felt it appropriate to sign off with a song they had

composed Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

in high school in 1953, "

It's Almost Tomorrow "It's Almost Tomorrow" is a 1955 popular song with music by Gene Adkinson and lyrics by Wade Buff. The song was actually written in 1953, when Adkinson and Buff were in high school. Hit versions were released in 1955 by The Dream Weavers, Jo St ...

" ( words by Buff,

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

by Adkinson). Buff served as the lead singer, and the third part was sung by various female singers (Sally Sanborn, Mary Carr, Mary Rude, and others). The announcer of the show, Chuck Murdock, thought of running a contest on the show to name the group, and the contest winner stated that because the song they wrote was dreamy, they were weavers of dreams, thus "The Dream Weavers." After making a recording of "It's Almost Tomorrow" in Jacksonville, the song got played on the

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

, and this led to recognition by

Milt Gabler Milton Gabler (May 20, 1911 – July 20, 2001) was an American record producer, responsible for many innovations in the recording industry of the 20th century. These included being the first person to deal in record reissues, the first to sel ...

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...

. As a result, Decca cut a new recording of the song. It charted in 1956, reaching the Top Ten in the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. It entered the

Billboard 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming in ...

on November 12, 1955, having a chart life of 21 weeks and a top placing of #8. It sold over one million copies. It was released by Brunswick Records in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, where it hit the

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

on February 10, 1956 and reached number one on March 16, holding the top spot for 2 weeks, before being displaced by "

The Rock And Roll Waltz "(The) Rock and Roll Waltz" is a popular song with music by Shorty Allen and lyrics by Roy Alfred in 1955, although the identity of the lyricist is in dispute. Other sources cite a Dick Ware, Dick Wise, or Dick Wine. As the title suggests this no ...

" by

Kay Starr Katherine Laverne Starks (July 21, 1922 – November 3, 2016), known professionally as Kay Starr, was an American singer who enjoyed considerable success in the late 1940s and 1950s. She was of Iroquois and Irish heritage. Starr performed multip ...

, only to return the following week for a further one week stay at the top. In total the song was in the UK charts for 18 weeks. However, it was the only chart appearance by the group in the UK, thus condemning The Dream Weavers to the

one hit wonder A one-hit wonder or viral hit is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music p ...

tag. The group had one subsequent minor hit in America. "A Little Love Can Go A Long Way", taken from the TV play "Joey", made the Billboard 100 at #33 for just one week on May 19, 1956. The Dream Weavers recorded two further singles, but neither charted. Unless one counts the one week at #33 for "A Little Love Can Go A Long Way" they remain to this day, archetypal

one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder or viral hit is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music p ...

s. In March 1956, Buff married Mary Rude, who was a fellow 1952 graduate of Edison High and had sung with the group. After their

honeymoon A honeymoon is a vacation taken by newlyweds immediately after their wedding, to celebrate their marriage. Today, honeymoons are often celebrated in destinations considered exotic or romantic. In a similar context, it may also refer to the phase ...

, he rejoined the group to travel, but after a short while decided that travelling on the road was not compatible with a good marriage. He let Adkinson have full control of the group, and as a result of auditions in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, Lee Raymond replaced Buff. When Adkinson got drafted into the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

however, the duo ended its short existence. Wade Buff (born on July 7, 1934 in Miami, Florida) died on April 8, 2022 at age 87. He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Mary Buff.

References

External links

The Dream Weavers homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dream Weavers, The American vocal groups American musical duos Decca Records artists