Jo Stafford - The Pied Pipers

The Pied Pipers

By 1938, the Staffords were involved in the Twentieth Century Fox production of Alexander's Ragtime Band. The studio brought in many vocal groups to work on the film, among them were The Four Esquires, The Rhythm Kings and The King Sisters. With plenty of time between takes, the various groups sang and socialized while waiting to be called to the set. The Four Esquires and The Rhythm Kings became a new vocal group, The Pied Pipers, which Stafford became part of. Stafford later recalled, "We started singing together just for fun, and these sessions led to the formation of an eight-voice singing group that we christened The Pied Pipers." The group consisted of eight members including Stafford: John Huddleston, who was married to Stafford from 1941 to 1943, Hal Hooper, Chuck Lowry, Bud Hervey, George Tait, Woody Newbury, and Dick Whittinghill. As The Pied Pipers, they worked on local radio and movie soundtracks. When Alyce and Yvonne King had a party for their boyfriends' visit to Los Angeles, The Pied Pipers were invited, speedily cleaning out the refrigerator. The King Sisters' boyfriends were Tommy Dorsey's arrangers Axel Stordahl and Paul Weston, who became interested in the group after meeting them there. Weston described the vocals of the group as unique for its time; his assessment was that their vocal arrangements were much like those for orchestral instruments.

After Weston persuaded Dorsey to audition the group in 1938, the eight drove cross-country to New York City together for the chance. Dorsey liked them enough to sign them for ten weeks. After the second broadcast, the sponsor, visiting from overseas, heard them sing "Hold Tight (Want Some Seafood Mama)". Until this point, the sponsor knew only that he was paying for Dorsey's program and that the program's rating were very good; transcription discs mailed to him by his advertising agency always arrived broken. His opinion was that the performance was off-color, and prevailed on the advertising agency representing his brand to fire the group. They stayed in New York for several months, but landed a single job that paid them $3.60 each, though they did record four sides for RCA Victor Records. Paul Weston later said that he and Axel Stordahl felt a type of responsibility for the group, since it was Weston who had made the arrangements for their audition with Tommy Dorsey. The two men also felt some embarrassment when running into The Pied Pipers in New York because of this and also because they both were still employed by Dorsey, so they tried avoiding the group.

With no work in New York, The Pied Pipers returned to Los Angeles. Soon after arriving home, Stafford received a phone call from Dorsey, saying he could use the group, but four members of it only. Half of the group, including their only female vocalist, arrived in Chicago in 1939; this led to success, especially for Stafford, who was also featured in solo performances. The group also backed Frank Sinatra in some of his early recordings.

In 1942, the group had an argument with Dorsey and left; when the singers and Dorsey parted company, the number one song in the United States was "There Are Such Things" by Frank Sinatra and The Pied Pipers. By this time, it was successful enough in its own right; The Pied Pipers appeared on the radio shows of Sinatra, Bob Crosby and Johnny Mercer. It became one of the first groups signed to Johnny Mercer's new label, Capitol Records. Paul Weston was now Capitol's music director; he left Tommy Dorsey's band to work with Dinah Shore shortly after Dorsey rehired the smaller version of The Pied Pipers.