The melancholy of The Ink Spots.
Today, four ushers from the New York Paramount Theatre, who used to sing while working, caught the attention of an artist manager with their beautiful harmonies, which led to a new career.
The Ink Spots became an extremely successful vocal quartet, known for their “Top & Bottom” sound. Bill Kenny’s high tenor would start a song, and at a certain point, the deep, velvety voice of Hoppy Jones would take over with a spoken word interlude.
Initially, they mostly sang hot numbers with not much success. That changed drastically when they switched to melancholic ballads – which happened somewhat accidentally when they needed a slow song for a B-side and the budding songwriter Jack Lawrence offered them “If I didn’t care” in the studio.
They scored hits such as “Into each life some rain must fall” (with Ella Fitzgerald), “Time out for tears”, “The gypsy”, “Bless you”, and “Address unknown”.
