Snapshot: The Serendipitous Serendipity Singers
Folk music’s time in the mainstream was brief — so brief, in fact, that some jokingly refer to this short period as the “folk scare.” Between late 1958 and early 1963 only three folk acts hit the #1 position on the Billboard chart: the Kingston Trio with “Tom Dooley,” the Highwaymen with “Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore,” and the Rooftop Singers with “Walk Right In.” Peter, Paul, and Mary, most notably, reached the Top Ten several times during the sixties — twice reaching the #2 spot — before finally scoring a #1 hit with “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane” in late 1969. A handful of other folk artists also reached the Top Ten during this period, one of which was Boulder’s Serendipity Singers.
Formed at the University of Colorado at Boulder in the early sixties, the seven-member group worked throughout the Denver-Boulder area as the Newport Singers. After moving to New York in 1963, Fred Weintraub, who owned the Bitter End in Greenwich Village, agreed to manage the group. He convinced the Newports to add two singers and change their name to Serendipity Singers. In the fall of 1963, this “new” group performed at the Bitter End and appeared several times on Hootenanny, a popular television show. Philips signed the Serendipity Singers to a record deal and quickly recorded and released the group’s eponymous debut album (“Serendipity”). “Don’t Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man),” the first single from the album, reached #6 on the Billboard chart in May of 1964 and earned a Grammy nomination. “Beans in My Ears,” the group’s follow-up single, was banned in some east coast markets after doctors complained that the song was making children actually put beans in their ears (“Beans”). (The song, written by Len Chandler, simply spoke of adults not listening to children.) “Beans” reached #30 in June of 1964, but the Serendipity Singers never reached the Hot 100 again.
In 2013, the Serendipity Singers were inexplicably elected to the Colorado Music Hall of Fame. Inexplicably? Yes, because if having one major hit — one that could even be considered a novelty record — is enough to earn an artist entry into the Hall, then Colorado artists like Michael Johnson and Randy Vanwarmer, to name just two, should also be there. Johnson, who was born in Alamosa, raised in Denver, and spent time in the Chad Mitchell Trio alongside John Denver, reached the Top 40 twice in 1978 with “Bluer Than Blue” (#12) and “Almost Like Being in Love” (#32) and once in 1979 with “This Night Won’t Last Forever” (#19). Likewise, the late Vanwarmer, who was born in Indian Hills, reached #4 in 1979 with “Just When I Needed You Most,” a major national hit; he also placed two songs on the country chart in 1988. If the Serendipity Singers are deserving of Hall of Fame recognition, then Johnson and Vanwarmer are as well — perhaps even more so.
Above piece excerpted from the forthcoming It’s Only Music: A Musical and Historical Memoir.
