The Rooftop Singers
Biography
The Rooftop Singers were a progressive folk singing trio in the early 1960s, best known for the hit "Walk Right In".
The group was composed of Erik Darling and Bill Svanoe (vocals, guitar) with former jazz singer Lynne Taylor (vocals). Darling put the group together in 1962 specifically to record an updated and uptempo version of a 1920s Gus Cannon folk blues song, "Walk Right In". The trio recorded the song for Vanguard Records, with updated lyrics and an arrangement featuring paired 12-string acoustic guitars. The record became the most successful in Vanguards history, reaching # 1 on the US pop charts in January 1963, and # 10 in the UK.
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The group released several further singles including the minor hit "Tom Cat", played at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963, and released two albums, but their popularity was relatively short-lived and they split up in 1967. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.
