The Ink Spots were a hugely-influential
jazz vocal group that forms a direct link from the jazz and popular music of the
Thirties to the R&B music of the Forties and rock and roll of the Fifties.
The group consisted of various members during a lengthy 20-year run, but the
vocal lead was usually handled by singer Bill Kenny on most of the group’s
recordings.
The original Ink Spots came together in Indianapolis , Indiana
The group made their first recordings for
Victor, in 1935, with versions of “Swingin’ on Strings” and “You’re Feets Too
Big,” the Fats Waller song.
The early singles of the Ink Spots sold
surprisingly poorly, but the group scored a huge hit in 1939 with the song, “If
I Didn’t Care.” The single sold 19 million copies and featured the Ink Spots
signature “top and bottom” style in which Bill Kenny sang the lead and Orville
Jones performed the “talking bass” below the lead vocal.
During the Forties, the Ink Spots scored a
slew of hits including many that hit the top position on the pop charts. Of
these hits, “Gypsy” proved to be the biggest, remaining at the top of the
charts for 13 weeks.
The original Ink Spots disbanded in 1953,
just before the dawn of the rock and roll era. Many groups adopted the name, “Ink
Spots,” and claimed kinship to the original group.
The original Ink Spots recordings are best
heard via the following collections: “The Best of the Ink Spots” (1955), “The
Best of the Ink Spots” (1965), “The Ink Spots in Hi-Fi” (1967), and “The
Anthology” (1998).
