The Forum was a vocal group organized by

Les Baxter Leslie Thompson "Les" Baxter (March 14, 1922 – January 15, 1996) was a best-selling American musician and composer. After working as an arranger and composer for swing bands, he developed his own style of easy listening music, known as exotica a ...

whose members were Phil Campos, Riselle Bain and Rene Nole who would marry Campos. The group evolved from an earlier

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

group called Les Baxter's Balladeers. Campos, Bain and Nole split off into The Forum in 1966 as part of the

folk rock Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers s ...

craze. They had one hit record in 1967 on Mira Records with " The River Is Wide".

Background

Their debut release was with "The River Is Wide", released in 1966 on the

Penthouse Penthouse most often refers to: *Penthouse apartment, a special apartment on the top floor of a building *Penthouse (magazine), ''Penthouse'' (magazine), a British-founded men's magazine *Mechanical penthouse, a floor, typically located directly u ...

label. It didn't make any significant progress. It was later re-mastered and re-edited, and was released a second time in early 1967 on the

Mira Mira (), designation Omicron Ceti (ο Ceti, abbreviated Omicron Cet, ο Cet), is a red-giant star estimated to be 200–400 light-years from the Sun in the constellation Cetus. ο Ceti is a binary stellar system, consisting of a vari ...

label. Nothing happened the second time around either. Then

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, a record label * Decca Gold, a classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, a musical theater record label * Decca Studios, a recording facility in W ...

issued it in the UK on their London label. After that, the record began to make some progress in the UK. This got the attention of a DJ in Seattle. He started playing it and it attracted some attention in the Seattle area. By July 1967, the record was at no. 88 in the ''Billboard'' charts. It finally got to no. 45. In 1967, they released an album called ''The River Is Wide''. The group eventually folded, and Campos and his wife formed a duo. In December 1968, a group billed as Phil Campos & the Forum were in Nevada, appearing at the Carson City Nugget. Around April 1969, Campos and the Forum were appearing at the Theatre Lounge of the Carson City Nugget six nights a week. The '' Reno Gazette-Journal'' in their April 26, 1969 issue reported on the group's performance at the Carson Nugget. Campos's handling of songs such as "

He's Got the Whole World in His Hands "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" is a traditional African-American spiritual, first published in 1927. It became an international pop hit in 1957–58 in a recording by English singer Laurie London, and has been recorded by many other si ...

" and "Sailor Man, Where You Gonna Run To?" were noted. Phil Campos died in 1987.Phil Campos website
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Discography

References

External links

"The River is Wide" by The Forum from Archive.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forum (vocal group), The American folk rock groups Mira Records artists