Rooftop Singers

The Rooftop Singers were the most successful of the folk revival's one-hit wonders -- their single major chart entry, "Walk Right In," was a number one record and also the biggest-selling single in the history of their label, Vanguard Records. The group was a trio consisting of Erik Darling, Bill Svanoe, and Lynne Taylor, formed in late 1962. Darling had been Pete Seeger's successor in the Weavers from 1958 through 1962, and had previously worked as a member of a jazz-folk influenced trio, the Tarriers, who had a modest hit with "Banana Boat Song." He had also appeared on dozens of recordings (mostly on Vanguard, to which the Weavers were signed) by other artists during the late '50s and early '60s as a guitar accompanist, and had released his own solo album. It was sometime after exiting the Weavers in June of 1962 that Darling chanced to hear "Walk Right In," a ragtime-style number originally recorded by Gus Cannon & His Jug Stompers in 1929. In a move that was more akin to the pop music industry than to the folk revival -- but which paid commensurately huge dividends -- Darling decided to put together a group to record the song; knowing what he needed to make the song work, and what he visualized as potential follow-up material, Darling was able to put together exactly the group that he wanted. He brought in Bill Svanoe, a former fine arts major and economics student who had turned to playing guitar and singing full-time. And Lynne Taylor was a veteran jazz singer who had been working in East Coast nightclubs since her teens. She had appeared on bills with Frank Sinatra, Sophie Tucker, and Martin & Lewis, and had played the Village Vanguard in New York for 28 weeks, later singing with Benny Goodman and Buddy Rich's band. The trio cut "Walk Right In" for Vanguard in...