BOOK REVIEW - by Andrea Siegel
[This appeared in the Winter/Spring 2001 issue of
Oldies Forever]
"More Than Words Can Say: The Ink Spots and Their Music"
By Marv Goldberg
Published by Scarecrow Press (ISBN 0-8108-3568-1)
(It's amazing the things you find out by accident. When we ran the biography of
Marv Goldberg in our last issue, I didn't even know that he'd written a book.
But I do now and it's one that belongs on every bookshelf.)
If you're a fan of Doo-Wop music (sorry, Marv!), you're a fan of the Ink Spots,
whether you realize it or not. There's a clear evolution from the Ink Spots of
the early 1940s to the "granddaddy" Rhythm & Blues groups of the mid-
to late 40s, to the "classic" R&B groups of the early 50s, to the
Rock 'n' Roll groups of the mid-50s, to the Doo-Wop groups of the late 50s and
early 60s (and even to the soul groups of the mid-60s and today's R&B
performers).
Therefore, in order to fully appreciate the music you love, you owe it to
yourself to find out about its roots in the Ink Spots. They weren't the first
group to sing an R&B ballad (the Charioteers released "Along Tobacco
Road" several years before the Ink Spots' "If I Didn't Care"),
nor were they necessarily the best, but they
were
the most successful. What's more, they made that all-important crossover to
the Pop charts in the days when those were almost completely white. Only the
Mills Brothers, Louis Jordan, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, and Fats Waller
were consistently on the Pop charts in the 40s. The Mills Brothers (as the only
other group) went in a different vocal direction, and, although influential,
weren't really the ancestors of "our" music.
With the exception of a slim, disjointed, long-out-of-print Deek Watson
"autobiography," there has been precious little written about the Ink
Spots. Marv Goldberg has changed all that with his heavily-researched
biography. You've all seen ads for Ink Spots groups featuring "original
members" and obituaries for "the last of the original Ink
Spots." Marv demolishes these, by focusing on the nineteen men who were
the true and only "originals" (the members of the Victor and Decca
groups from 1935 to 1953). The only known survivor, by the way, is Huey Long,
who was with them in 1945 and is now about 96 years old. (Some mention is made
of the Charlie Fuqua offshoot group which recorded for King and Verve in the
50s, but the subsequent history of the literally dozens of Ink Spots groups
that sprang up in the 50s and 60s is, unfortunately, left to another
historian.) Luckily, Marv was able to interview many of the originals back in
the 70s (including "the" original, Jerry Daniels, who
left
the group in 1936, to be replaced by the most famous Spot of all, Bill Kenny).
From the "coffee-pot band" of 1920s Indianapolis street corners to
the immaculate white tuxes at the Paramount Theater, their whole history is
here.
More Than Words Can Say, written in Marv's usual lighthearted style, not only features the biographies
of the singers, but presents trade paper reviews for most of their recordings
(both pro and con), as well as reviews of the group's live performances. In
addition, Marv wanders through important events in Pop music and the recording
industry (the ASCAP-BMI Wars, recording bans, the War of the Record Speeds,
shellac, and lawsuits), as well as more far-reaching world events that
influenced the music. There's also a full discography of all the Ink Spots'
singles and LPs on Victor and Decca. Additionally, there are about 100 photos
and record ads, fully documenting the long history of the Ink Spots.
Most of the chapters are devoted to a specific year in the career of the Ink
Spots. Each begins with a summary of what was going on in the world at the
time, as well as the musical hits that the Spots were competing with. Each
chapter ends with a list of the songs they recorded that year, the records that
were released that year, record reviews, and performance reviews. In between,
there's the meat of the book: the ups and downs, the fast and furious personnel
changes, the animosities and friendships that lie behind any vocal group.
It really didn't take the Ink Spots long to turn into parodies of themselves,
and, unfortunately, this is the way we tend to remember them. But they were in
the forefront of American music in the 40s, and it's really impossible to
understand the origins of Doo-Wop music without understanding the contributions
of the Ink Spots, the single most influential black group of the 40s.
You need to own the book about which
Disc Reviews
gushed, "This book belongs on the shelf of every R&B enthusiast."
Pantagraph
said, "Goldberg wraps up his part of the story around 1953, having taken
time along the way for lovely little side trips into matters like the shellac
shortage of World War II and the various headaches caused to the music business
by union boss James Petrillo."
Blues & Rhythm:
"He treats his subject as a journalist should. He tells the story and
lets it speak for itself." Here's what our own Kate Karp had to say:
"More Than Words Can Say is exactly that - more than the Ink Spots, more than the music. Marv
Goldberg, a musicologist without parallel, has written not only a complete
biography of the Ink Spots, from the various embryonic stages of the individual
members to the demises of both the career and the members themselves, but also
a history of the music business - union control, imitator groups, even the
incipience of group harmony acappella recordings (read to find out how union
control caused
that
to happen!)." An unsigned review on the Scarecrow site (who knows, Marv
might have written it himself!) says, "With record reviews, critiques of
in-person performances, contemporary ads and photos, this is an enjoyable
package.... Goldberg is a shrewd and artful detective and an astute music
analyst."
Now that the holidays are over, why not buy yourself a gift you
really
want?
More Than Words Can Say: The Ink Spots and Their Music
by Marv Goldberg (published by Scarecrow Press; ISBN 0-8108-3568-1) is
available for under $40. You can purchase it directly from the publisher at
(800) 462-6420, or, online, from barnesandnoble.com, amazon.com, or borders.com
(the easiest way is to just go to Marv's web site - www.uncamarvy.com
- and follow the links to any of these). Don't wait for the Easter Bunny
to bring you a copy; go get yourself one today!