I've been a member of the Barbershop Harmony Society since 1988, although I recently let my membership expire because I do not have time right now to be an active member. I decided to start this blog to keep an archive of my thoughts regarding barbershop harmony.
The Barbershop Harmony Society posted a video from the mic test set of the Rural Route 4 in Minneapolis in 1984. I had never seen this before and it's really neat to watch. The tag rings like heck and the beginning of the song provides some of the great comedy that they were known for.
A fun fact about this song.... We had a Heart of America Chorus retreat in the early 1990s and the Rural Route 4 was there. There was a guy in the chorus who claimed he had never heard an overtone before. During one of our breaks, Calvin Yoder grabbed him and the rest of the Rural Route 4 and had him stand in the middle of the quartet as they sang this song. During the "false tag" where Calvin holds the note while the other three cut off and come back in, he stops singing and sneaks a breath. The other three are creating the overtone, (Calvin's note), which allowed him to sneak that breath. If you REALLY listen to the tag in this video you can tell the exact moment Calvin drops out to breathe and then come back in right on the note. When they did this at the retreat, during the tag of this song Calvin stopped singing, turned to the guy, and said "you hear my note is still there? That's an overtone!" Funny thing is, the guy claimed he still couldn't hear it!
This one brought back some memories for me. RIP, Calvin.
Surprisingly, I didn't have a lot of push back when I selected the "Mount Rushmore" of barbershop quartet basses. It appears I may have overlooked Wally Singleton of the Confederates, but they were well before my time and I've only heard them on recordings, so it was very hard for me to add Wally to the list. It was also suggested that I state my criteria for choosing the four individuals on each part. I am strictly choosing the best singing voice. If I have trouble choosing between two individuals, I may consider overall impact on barbershopping, longevity, and performance. This exercise is meant to be fun and to showcase some of the greatest barbershop quartet singers of all time. It's my blog and my opinion, but that doesn't mean we can't discuss it if you disagree with me! I was born in 1973 and the first barbershop quartet champion was crowned in 1939, so when I make the list sometimes I'm relying on recordings of quartets that I haven't seen live in person.
I thought selecting the four "Mount Rushmore" of barbershop leads would be a lot easier than it turned out to be. I found it to be very difficult. I went back and forth on a couple of them and I wrote a draft of my blog and kept coming back to change it. I'm sure these choices will be obvious to some, while some may find that their favorites are left out. Without further ado, let's dive right in.
Joe Connelly, Interstate Rivals (1987), Keepsake (1992), Platinum (2000), and Old School (2011)
Putting Joe Connelly on this list is the most obvious choice for me. He's the only man to win four gold medals on lead. Nobody else has won three or more singing lead and only a couple have won twice singing lead.
Here's a video of Joe's first quartet, the Interstate Rivals, singing "What A Wonderful World."
Here's Joe's second gold medal quartet, Keepsake, singing "Once Upon A Time."
Here'sJoe's third gold medal quartet, Platinum, singing "What'll I do" on contest stage in Kansas City when they won in July of 2000.
And finally, here's Joe's fourth gold medal, winning with Old School in 2011 in Kansas City at the Sprint Center. 24 years after winning his first gold medal in 1987!
Bob Franklin, Suntones (1961)
The Suntones are widely considered one of the best barbershop quartets of all time and there is little debate about this. I bought their Masterworks album when I first joined the Society and listened to it all the time. There is also little debate among barbershoppers that lead Bob Franklin is one of the greatest of all time.
There aren't many "old school" videos out there of the Suntones, however there is some pretty good audio out there. Here are a couple recordings that I found:
Drayton Justice, Gentlemen's Agreement (1971)
I'm going with prevailing wisdom on this pick. Most older barbershoppers agree that Drayton is one of the best leads to ever do it. Check out the video of Gentlemen's Agreement below. Around the 10 minute mark, Drayton is featured on "My Way."
Drayton also filled in for Bob Franklin with the Suntones when Bob left the group. Here he is on the 1988 AIC show singing with the Suntones:
Kenny Hatton, Bluegrass Student Union
The Bluegrass Student Union is one of the best quartets of all time and lead Kenny Hatton was a big part of it. Not to mention they had one of the best basses of all time, but I've already covered that! The great part of writing a blog about this is that I don't have to tell you why, I can show you with videos!
Here he is doing a famous Bluegrass Student Union tune, "The Auctioneer."
One of the things I remember most about the Bluegrass Student Union was their "Music Man" set and Kenny playing the part of Harold Hill. Below is "Trouble."
How do I limit Kenny Hatton to three videos? It's very difficult. Here he is singing "Minnie The Moocher."
It killed me to leave some of my favorite leads off of Mount Rushmore, like Mike Slamka, David Harrington, Rick Knight, Chris Vaughn, Eric Dalby and Tony DeRosa to name a few. I've got to limit it to four though! Hope you had fun reading and watching/listening.
I joined the Barbershop Harmony Society in 1987 and I've been a huge barbershop music fan since that time. I dropped my membership a few years ago, but still follow it very closely. I thought it would be fun to do a blog series on the greatest singers of all time on each of the four voice parts! There are four voice parts in barbershop: the tenor, lead, baritone and bass.
The first barbershop quartet champions were crowned in 1939 and there has been a champion quartet crowned every year since then until Covid struck in 2020, cancelling the annual convention and contests. There are recordings of the early champs that I have listened to over the years and you can now find recordings and videos of most of these champions on YouTube. Granted, I haven't heard all of the quartets in person, but I've heard enough recordings and have heard enough of the groups in person to I think I'm somewhat qualified to come up with a "Mount Rushmore" of the barbershop quartet voice parts. So without further ado, let's start with what barbershoppers call "God's Chosen People," the basses. It's quite a difficult chore to narrow this down to just four, but I tried to do just that...
Rick Staab, Bluegrass Student Union, 1978 Champions
Bluegrass Student Union won the barbershop quartet gold medals in 1978 and they still remain one of my favorite quartets. Rick Staab sang bass and I consider him one of the most accurate and resonant bass singers I've ever heard. Here's a video of Bluegrass singing "Erie Canal." Rick has a small solo about halfway through....
Here's Rick on one of their signature songs "Slap That Bass."
And their song "Swanee" features another solo from Rick about halfway through.
Jeff Oxley, The Rapscallions, 1985 Champions, Acoustix, 1990 Champions, and Max Q, 2007 Champions
Jeff is the bass singer with the most gold medals in the Barbershop Harmony Society, winning the gold in three quartets. When I first joined the society, Jeff was known as the premier bass singer in the society. Here's a clip of his quartet Acoustix singing "Stars and Stripes Forever."
And here they are singing "Tonight, Tonight."
Here's another of Jeff's champion quartets, Max Q, in the finals of the year they won the gold, singing "Here's To The Losers." They had finished 2nd three years in a row and sang a parody making fun of themselves. They finally won the gold medals this time out!
Jim Henry, Gas House Gang, 1993 Champions and Crossroads, 2009 Champions
When you ask almost any barbershopper who the best bass of all time is, most will mention Jim Henry in the conversation. The Gas House Gang is one of the most popular quartets of all time and Crossroads is one of the most popular quartets of the current time. Here are a few tunes showing why Jim is one of the best, starting with "Sixteen Tons" from the Gas House Gang.
Here's the Gas House Gang singing the National Anthem before a St. Louis Rams football game.
Here is a clip of Jim's other champion quartet, Crossroads, singing "Lucky Old Son" when they won in 2009. Jim is known for his small solo line at the very end of the song for the intensity and emotion that he brought to the end of the performance.
Kevin Miles, Platinum, 2000 Champions
Before I ever heard Platinum, Joe Connelly, the lead of Platinum and already a two time gold medalist, coached my quartet in Kansas City. Joe was telling us he was getting a new quartet together and that his new bass was unbelievably amazing. This was high praise coming from Joe. He just raved and raved about the guy. He was talking about Kevin Miles. Kevin was the "voice of Disney World." The narration you hear when you get on the monorail at Disney parks used to be Kevin's voice and he also narrated a lot of the rides in the theme parks. Anyway, when Joe told us about Kevin, you can bet I couldn't wait to hear them. He didn't disappoint. Kevin might be the most powerful barbershop bass voice I've ever heard. He could shake an auditorium. Check out this tag on "Bye Bye Blues" as an example.
Here they are singing "Be Our Guest."
And finally, here is Platinum singing "Cuddle Up A Little Closer" in Kansas City in 2000 when they won the gold medals. I was in the audience and when they cut off the tag on this song the place went nuts. They were the clear winners and Kevin's monstrous hanger on this tag was a big reason why.
What do you think of the top four barbershop bass singers of all time? I'm sure some barbershoppers will argue with my picks and that's ok. It's fun to talk about.
Hope you enjoyed part one of this series. Now someone with better Photoshop skills than me needs to put their faces on Mount Rushmore!
Main Street won the Barbershop Harmony Society International Quartet Championship in 2017. This was lead Tony Derosa's fourth gold medal and tenor Roger Ross' second gold medal. They have the most watched barbershop video in history when their "Pop Songs Medley" performance from International in 2015 went viral. It has over 3.1 million views right now.
They followed up that performance in 2016 with their "Evolution of Dance Medley:"
They finally won the gold in 2017 in part because of their strong performance of "Smile:"
After Hours, a quartet based in central Illinois, won the 2018 international quartet championship in Orlando with the highest score ever posted by a quartet! Here's a video of them singing at an afterglow after they were announced as champions:
Here is a video of them performing "The Next Ten Minutes" on stage during contest:
