The Kingston Trio

The Kingston Trio is an American folk group that was probably the most popular such group ever to record. They helped launch the folk revival of the 1960s and continued to thrive despite the emergence of rock and roll.

History

The Kingston Trio was formed in 1957 in the Palo Alto, California area by Bob Shane, Nick Reynolds, and Dave Guard, who were just out of college. Greatly influenced by the sound of The Weavers and other semi-popular folk artists, the were discovered playing at a college club called the Cracked Pot by Frank Werber, a local publicist who became their manager.

Related Topics:
1957 - Palo Alto, California - Bob Shane - Nick Reynolds - Dave Guard - The Weavers

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Their first hit was a catchy rendition of an old-time folk song, Tom Dooley, which went gold in 1958. It was so popular that it entered the popular culture as a catchphrase: Ella Fitzgerald, for example, parodies it during her recorded version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.. It won them the first Grammy award for Best Country & Western Performance in 1959. The next year, they won the first Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording category for the album The Kingston Trio at Large.

Related Topics:
Tom Dooley - 1958 - Ella Fitzgerald - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - Grammy award - Best Country & Western Performance - 1959 - Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording

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At one point in the early 1960s the Kingston Trio had 4 albums at the same time among the top-10 selling albums, a record unmatched for nearly 40 years . In spite of this, they had a relatively small number of hit singles.

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The group's music is simple and accessible, with much use of tight vocal harmony. It has been written that Werber was the inventor of the process by which their songs were tape-recorded in the studio, then overlaid above a playback of the tape with a time gap of a fraction of a second, to give the impression that a richer, more powerful group of people was singing.

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Guard left the band in 1961 as part of a disagreement over its direction. He formed the group Whiskey Hill Singers, and was replaced by John Stewart, who led it through several more years of popularity until the arrival of the Beatles and British invasion rock bands pushed it from the charts.

Related Topics:
John Stewart - Beatles - British invasion

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In 1967 the Trio disbanded, but was reformed the next year. For a number of years Nick Reynolds, one of the original three members, returned to rejoin Shane.

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In 2004, Shane retired from the group due to health problems. He was replaced by Bill Zorn, who had been with Shane in an iteration of the group called the New Kingston Trio; Zorn also has been a member of The Limeliters.

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In 2005 Bobby Haworth (a one-time member of the Brothers Four) left the group to be replaced by Rick Dougherty, who also had been a member of The Limeliters.

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As of 2005, The Kingston Trio consists of George Grove, Bill Zorn and Rick Dougherty.

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