The Rooftop Singers

They were an ad hoc group initially, brought together by folk singer/guitarist and ex-Weaver Erik Darling in 1962 to record an old tune, Gus Cannon's 1929 "Walk Right In," that Darling shrewdly sensed might have a certain contemporary resonance. And how - it became a mega-hit. And so the Rooftop Singers, consisting of Darling, Bill Svanoe, and Lynne Taylor, started to perform live and kept recording. Taylor backed out relatively quickly and was replaced by Mindy Stuart, who herself was later replaced by Patricia Street. I gather from a YouTube commenter that there was romantic competition between Darling and Svanoe which can't have been good for the health of the operation. The group disbanded after five years and is today more or less thought of as a one-hit wonder.

But Erik Darling was quite a guy. Long-time readers of PMD will know exactly the sort of man who makes my heart flutter, and after looking at the videos below will correctly surmise that I think the compact, clean-cut Darling is a darling. His friend and acolyte Don McLean called Darling, who also recorded several solo albums that I must get my hands on, "a genuine philosopher and perfectionist...Undivided mental attention to every aspect of music making and performing is a hallmark of Erik's work." He died in 2008 at age 74.

Here is "Walk Right In," with Darling on the right:



A couple more classic tunes from a live gig: