Remembering Patty Andrews, Stanley Karnow, Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner

• Report rights infringement
• published: 21 Feb 2013
• views: 1105

THE GREATEST FEMALE SINGING GROUP, A VIETNAM LEGEND, AND 1970's FUNK The End Of The 1940's Patty Andrews was the de facto leader of the Andrews Sisters and the last surviving member. The Andrews Sisters - LaVerne, Patty and Maxene - were the greatest female singing group of the 20th Century, and they represented the 1940's more than any other entertainers. Their performance of Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy Of Company B, in the 1941 movie Buck Privates, is one of the iconic performances in show business history. Stanley Karnow was one of the best American reporters during the Vietnam War and his book on the war is a classic. Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner was the lead singer of the 1970's funk group, The Ohio Players, whose big hit was Love Rollercoaster. The Andrews Sisters were a American close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia (July 6, 1911 -- May 8, 1967), soprano Maxine Angelyn "Maxene" (January 3, 1916 -- October 21, 1995), and mezzo-soprano Patricia Marie "Patty" (February 16, 1918 -- January 30, 2013).[1] Throughout their long career, the sisters sold well over 75 million records (the last official count released by MCA Records in the mid-1970s). Their 1941 hit "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" can be considered an early example of rhythm and blues[2][3] or jump blues. The Andrews Sisters' harmonies and songs are still influential today, and have been covered by entertainers such as Bette Midler, The Puppini Sisters, Christina Aguilera, and The Three Belles. The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1998.[4] Writing for Bloomberg, Mark Schoifet said the sisters became the most popular female vocal group of the first half of the 20th century. Until the advent of the Supremes, the sisters were the most imitated of all female singing groups and influenced many artists, including Mel Tormé, Les Paul and Mary Ford, The Four Freshmen, The McGuire Sisters, The Manhattan Dolls, The Lennon Sisters, The Pointer Sisters, The Manhattan Transfer, The Puppini Sisters, Barry Manilow, and Bette Midler. Even Elvis Presley was a fan. Most of the Andrews Sisters' music has been restored and released in compact disc form, yet over 300 of their original Decca recordings, a good portion of which was hit material, has yet to be released by MCA/Decca in over 50 years. Many of these Decca recordings have been used in such television shows and Hollywood movies as Homefront, ER, The Brink's Job, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Swing Shift, Raggedy Man, Summer of '42, Slaughterhouse-Five, Maria's Lovers, Harlem Nights, In Dreams, Murder in the First, L.A. Confidential, American Horror Story, Just Shoot Me, Gilmore Girls, Mama's Family, War and Remembrance, Jakob the Liar, Lolita, The Polar Express, The Chronicles of Narnia, Molly: An American Girl on the Home Front, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!!). Comical references to the trio in television sitcoms can be found as early as I Love Lucy and as recently as Everybody Loves Raymond. In 2007, their version of "Bei Mir Bist Du Schön" was included in the game BioShock, a first-person shooter that takes place in an alternate history 1960, and later in 2008, their song "Civilization" (with Danny Kaye) was included in the Atomic Age-inspired video game Fallout 3. The 2010 video game Mafia II features numerous Andrews Sisters songs, with 'Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy', 'Strip Polka' and 'Rum And Coca-Cola'. The 2011 video game L.A. Noire features the song Pistol Packin' Mama, where the sisters perform a duet with Bing Crosby.[citation needed] Christina Aguilera used the Andrews Sisters' "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" to inspire her song "Candyman" (released as a single in 2007) from her hit album Back to Basics. The song was co-written by Linda Perry. The London based trio the Puppini Sisters uses their style harmonies on several Andrews Sisters and other hits of the 1940s and 1950s as well as later rock and disco hits. The trio has said their name is a tribute to The Andrews Sisters. The Manhattan Dolls, a New York City-based touring group, performs both the popular tunes sung by the Andrews Sisters and some of the more obscure tunes such as "