The Chordettes were an American female vocal quartet, specializing in

traditional pop music Traditional pop (also known as classic pop and pre-rock and roll pop) is Western pop music that generally pre-dates the advent of rock and roll in the mid-1950s. The most popular and enduring songs from this era of music are known as pop standards ...

. They are best known for their 1950s hit songs " Mr. Sandman" and "

Lollipop A lollipop is a type of sugar candy usually consisting of hard candy mounted on a stick and intended for sucking or licking. Different informal terms are used in different places, including lolly, sucker, sticky-pop, etc. Lollipops are availa ...

Career

The group organized in

Sheboygan, Wisconsin Sheboygan () is a city in and the county seat of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 49,929 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Sheboygan, Wisconsin Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a populatio ...

, in 1946. The original members of the group were Janet Ertel (''née'' Buschmann; September 21, 1913 – November 22, 1988), Alice Mae ''Buschmann'' Spielvogel (July 31, 1925 – January 6, 1981), Dorothy "Dottie" (Hummitzsch) Schwartz, and

Jinny Osborn Jinny Osborn (born Virginia Cole; April 25, 1927 – May 19, 2003) was an American popular music singer. She founded the group The Chordettes with three friends in 1946, which became one of the longest-lasting American vocal groups of the m ...

/Lockard (April 25, 1927 – May 19, 2003). Alice Spielvogel was replaced by Carol Buschmann, her sister-in-law, in 1947. In 1952, Lynn Evans (''née'' Hargate; May 2, 1924 – February 6, 2020) replaced Schwartz, as Evans described in a 2015 interview. And in 1953, Margie Needham replaced Osborn (who was having a baby), though Osborn later returned to the group.

Nancy Overton Nancy Swain Overton (born Anne Swain; February 6, 1926 – April 5, 2009) was an American pop singer and songwriter. Biography Overton first formed a singing group with her sister Jean Swain and two college friends, Bix Brent and Pauli Skind ...

joined the group for live performances in 1957 after Janet Ertel, who was more than a decade older than the other members of the group, decided to retire from touring, although Ertel continued to perform on recorded material. Originally they sang

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 ...

in the style of

The Weavers The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City originally consisting of Lee Hays, Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, and Fred Hellerman. Founded in 1948, the group sang traditional folk songs fro ...

, but eventually changed to a harmonizing style of the type known as barbershop harmony or

close harmony A chord is in close harmony (also called close position or close structure) if its notes are arranged within a narrow range, usually with no more than an octave between the top and bottom notes. In contrast, a chord is in open harmony (also c ...

. Part of this change seems to be influenced by Osborn's father. Jinny Osborn was born in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. She was born ''Virginia Cole'', the daughter of O. H. "King" Cole, who was president (1948-1949) of the

Barbershop Harmony Society The Barbershop Harmony Society, legally and historically named the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. (SPEBSQSA), is the first of several organizations to promote and preserve barbershop ...

(then known as ''SPEBSQSA''), and Katherine Flack. After performing locally in Sheboygan, they won on

Arthur Godfrey Arthur Morton Godfrey (August 31, 1903 – March 16, 1983) was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer who was sometimes introduced by his nickname The Old Redhead. At the peak of his success, in the early-to-mid 1950s, Godf ...

's radio program ''

Talent Scouts Artists and repertoire (colloquially abbreviated to A&R) is the division of a record label or music publishing company that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists (singers, instrumentalist ...

'' in 1949. They held feature status on Godfrey's daily program, and in 1950 cut their first LP, a collection of standards titled ''Harmony Time'' for Columbia Records. Three more LPs followed. In 1953, Godfrey's music director and orchestra leader,

Archie Bleyer Archibald Martin Bleyer (June 12, 1909 – March 20, 1989) was an American song arranger, bandleader, and record company executive. Early life Bleyer was born in the Corona section of the New York City borough of Queens. His father was a well-kn ...

, founded

Cadence Records Cadence Records was an American record company based in New York City whose labels had a picture of a metronome. It was founded by Archie Bleyer, who had been the musical director and orchestra leader for Arthur Godfrey in 1952. Cadence also lau ...

. He signed a number of Godfrey regulars and former regulars, including the Chordettes, who had a number of hit records for Cadence. Beginning in January 1954, the group sang on the '' Robert Q. Lewis Show'', a weekday afternoon program on CBS-TV. The Chordettes had released a couple of singles with Arthur Godfrey on Columbia in 1950-51 but didn't cut a solo single until their breakout hit ''Mr. Sandman'', released in late 1954 and which went on to become a #1 1955 hit. Archie Bleyer himself is on that record along with the group; Bleyer stripped down the sound to highlight the girls' voices. They also hit #2 with 1958's "

" and also charted with a vocal version of the themes from Disney's ''

Zorro Zorro (Spanish language, Spanish for 'fox') is a fictional character created in 1919 by American pulp magazine, pulp writer Johnston McCulley, appearing in works set in the Pueblo of Los Angeles in Alta California. He is typically portrayed a ...

'' (U.S. #17) (1958) and the film ''

Never on Sunday ''Never on Sunday'' ( el, Ποτέ την Κυριακή, ) is a 1960 Greek romantic comedy film starring, written by and directed by Jules Dassin. The film tells the story of Ilya, a Greek prostitute (Melina Mercouri), and Homer (Dassin), an Am ...

'' (U.S. #13) (1961). Other hits for the group included "Eddie My Love" (U.S. #14) (a cover of a song by doo-wop group The Teen Queens), "Born to Be With You" (U.S. #5), "Lay Down Your Arms" in 1956, and "Just Between You and Me" (U.S. #8) in 1957. Their cover of "The White Rose Of Athens" hit the Australian Top 15 in May, 1962. The US single "In The Deep Blue Sea" was a one-week Music Vendor entry four months later (#128). Janet Ertel married Bleyer in 1954. Her daughter Jackie married another Cadence recording star, Phil Everly of

The Everly Brothers The Everly Brothers were an American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly (February 1, 1937 – August 21, 2021) and Phillip "Phil" Everly (January 19, 1939 ...

. The Chordettes appeared on ''

American Bandstand ''American Bandstand'', abbreviated ''AB'', is an American music-performance and dance television program that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989, and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as the pro ...

'' on August 5, 1957, the first episode of that show to be broadcast nationally on the

ABC Television Network The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Califor ...

. The Chordettes also appeared on ''American Bandstand'' on February 22, 1958, and again on April 26, 1958. In 1961, Jinny Osborn again left the group. Unable to find a satisfactory replacement, the group disbanded in 1963.

Recent events

The group was inducted into the

Vocal Group Hall of Fame The Vocal Group Hall of Fame (VGHF) is an American-based hall of fame that honors vocal groups throughout the world in every genre of music. Headquartered in the Columbia Theatre in Sharon, Pennsylvania, it includes a theater and a museum. It was ...

in 2001. The longest living member of the Chordettes who has sung on all the group's recordings, on both Columbia and Cadence recordings, is Carol Buschmann. Lynn Evans Mand sang on all the Chordettes'

Cadence In Western musical theory, a cadence (Latin ''cadentia'', "a falling") is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don Michael Randel (199 ...

Recordings. In 2004, Mand appeared on a

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

television special ''Magic Moments: The Best of 50s Pop'', with other 1950s pop icons, singing "Lollipop". Margie Needham Latzko and Carol Buschmann are the only surviving singers who recorded both "Mr. Sandman" and “Lollipop”.

Deaths

Alice Mae Buschmann Spielvogel died in 1981. Janet Ertel Bleyer died on November 22, 1988, at the age of 75.

(later known as Jinny Janis) died in 2003.

died on April 5, 2009, after a long battle with

esophageal cancer Esophageal cancer is cancer arising from the esophagus—the food pipe that runs between the throat and the stomach. Symptoms often include difficulty in swallowing and weight loss. Other symptoms may include pain when swallowing, a hoarse voice ...

. Dorothy "Dottie" (Hummitzsch) Schwartz died on April 4, 2016. Lynn Evans Mand died on February 6, 2020, at the age of 95.

Discography

Singles

Albums

* ''Harmony Time'' (1950) * ''Harmony Time Volume II'' (1951) * '' Harmony Encores'' (1952) * '' The Chordettes Sing Your Requests'' (1953) * ''The Chordettes'' (1955) * ''Listen'' (1955) * ''Close Harmony'' (1955) * ''The Chordettes'' (1957) CLP 3001 * ''Drifting and Dreaming'' (1959) * ''Never On Sunday'' (1959) * ''Never On Sunday'' (1962)

Notes

References

External links

Picture and names of The Chordettes
* * The Chordettes' page on th

site

The Chordettes : Official Covers Discography

Carol Buschmann Interview
NAMM Oral History Library (2010)
Dorothy Schwartz Interview
NAMM Oral History Library (2010)
Chordettes collection of musical arrangements, 1938-1995
at th
Library of Congress
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chordettes, The Apex Records artists Cadence Records artists Vocal quartets Barbershop quartets Doo-wop musicians Traditional pop music singers American pop music groups American girl groups Sheboygan, Wisconsin Musical groups from Wisconsin Musical groups established in 1946 Musical groups disestablished in 1961 Columbia Records artists