INK SPOTS

Between 1939, the year of the Ink Spots’ break-through hit “If I Didn’t Care,” and 1952, when the group split into two far less successful factions, this vocal quartet’s popularity and influence was rivalled by only one other African-American vocal group—the Mills Brothers. Though first making their mark in the mid-1930s by specialising in jive, the Ink Spots are best-remembered for their distinctive ballads. Their smooth, effortless singing style, reminiscent of a gospel quartet, was the precursor of the doo-wop vocal groups of the 1950s, such as the Ravens, the Marcels, and the Flamingos.

At the end of the 1920s in Indianapolis, Indiana, a group called King, Jack and the Jesters was formed by four singers: Jerry Daniels, Charles Fuqua, Orville “Hoppy” Jones, and Ivory Watson. Changing the group’s name to the Ink Spots after moving to New York City in the early 1930s, the quartet recorded briefly for RCA Victor, but signed with Decca in 1936, when lead singer Daniels was replaced by Bill Kenny (1915–78). Lively numbers like “Stompin' at the Savoy,” “Christopher Columbus” (both 1936), and “That Cat Is High” (1938) gained the Ink Spots a good following among the jitterbug crowd.

ROMANTIC BALLADEERS

The Ink Spots’ early success with jivey, jazz- and blues-influenced songs was eclipsed by the massive popularity of their romantic recordings. “If I Didn’t Care” (1939), the first of several million-selling hits by the group, established the pattern: yearning love lyrics sent soaring by the sweetly sensitive voice of Kenny and then slowly spoken by Jones, whose manner was far more down-to-earth and laced with slyly witty touches. (After Jones’ death from a brain haemorrhage in 1944, Herb Kenny, Bill’s brother, was hired to supply these talking choruses. Around the same time, Billy Bowen replaced Watson.)

Throughout the 1940s, the Ink Spots’ tightly controlled trademark sound resulted in a string of hit ballads, including several that remain treasured classics—most notably “My Prayer” (1939), “Do I Worry?” and “We Three (My Echo, My Shadow, and Me)” (both 1940), “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” (1941), “Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall” (with Ella Fitzgerald, 1944), and “The Gypsy” and “To Each His Own” (both 1946).

THE SPOTS SPLIT

In 1951 Kenny began to record solo, as well as with the Ink Spots, charting in the Top 20 with the gospel song “It Is No Secret.” The next year, the Ink Spots split into two distinct units—one led by Kenny, the other by Fuqua, and both using the group’s name. Fuqua’s Ink Spots consisted of himself, Watson, Harold Jackson, and high-tenor Jimmy Holmes. Later members included Leon Antoine, Isaac Royal, and Joseph Boatner. (Watson later formed the Brown Dots.) In the early 1950s, the Ink Spots enjoyed further chart success with “Echoes,” “Sometime,” and “If.”

In one form or another, groups bearing the Ink Spots’ name continued to perform, tour, and record well into the late 1990s. In 1988, the original group’s “If I Didn’t Care” was awarded a Grammy, and the Ink Spots were elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Ink Spots’ legacy lies in their hits and their influence on doo-wop—which, ironically, was taking off just as the quartet was falling out of favour. The Ink Spots also inspired more pop-oriented ensembles like the Platters (whose 1956 hit “My Prayer” was only one of several Ink Spots songs the group performed themselves) and even rocker Elvis PRESLEY, who followed the Kenny-Jones style to perfection in his 1959 rendition of “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”— just one indication of the strong and lasting impression left by the Ink Spots.

Terry Atkinson