The title might be a little misleading. In order to have a revival, one must be inactive for a while. However, The Oak Ridge Boys have never really stopped, or slowed down for that matter in many years. Believe it or not, this group has been active since their founding in the 1940’s. You read it right, the 1940’s! The group was founded in the 1940’s as the Oak Ridge Quartet. They became popular in southern gospel during the 1950’s. Their name was changed to the Oak Ridge Boys in the early 1960’s, and they remained a gospel group until the mid-1970’s, when they changed their image and concentrated on country music. There is a brief history of one of the best vocal groups of this century. Why did I use the word revival in the title of this article? Allow me to explain.
The Oak Ridge Boys released a new album, 17th Street Revival in March of this year. Recorded at Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A and produced by acclaimed pop/rock producer Dave Cobb, 17th Avenue Revival finds The Oak Ridge Boys returning to their gospel roots. But a different kind of gospel. One that took a hard look at the early days of rock and roll, which was influenced by spiritual, or black gospel. Would fans appreciate what the Oaks were doing? I’m sure they will, and perhaps some music fans new to The Oak Ridge Boys music as well.
For the large number of us familiar with The Oak Ridge Boys, the music started somewhere in the early 1970’s. That’s when the most successful alignment of the group came together. The lineup which produced their most world-famous and most well-known country and crossover hits (such as “Elvira”, “Bobbie Sue”, and “American Made”) consists of Duane Allen (lead), Joe Bonsall (tenor), William Lee Golden (baritone), and Richard Sterban (bass). This is the lineup that continues to tour and record today.
As I prepared for this post, my thoughts went to my mother. She always liked The Oak Ridge Boys perhaps because they were an extremely talented vocal group. Even though she is not a huge country music fan, she enjoys their presentation like many of us. It just shows the diversity of their fan base. There has been a lot of music for over seventy years, meaning more than four generations of people have listened as The Oak Ridge Boys have provided a lot of hits.
The Oak Ridge Boys have sold over 41 million units worldwide. In addition to their awards and accolades in the country and pop music fields, they have garnered five GRAMMY® Awards and nine GMA DOVE Awards as well as the Mainstream Artist of the Year Award at the ICM Awards. The group have earned prestigious membership in the Country Music Hall of Fame (2015 Inductees) and Grand Ole Opry, and are known worldwide as one of recording history’s most extraordinary musical successes.
How did The Oak Ridge Boys move from gospel music to country? After opening a series of shows for Roy Clark, the Oak Ridge Boys moved in 1973 to the Columbia label, for whom they made three albums and several singles. In early 1976, they toured Russia for three weeks with Roy Clark. They went from being one of the top acts on the Heart Warming record label to nearly the bottom on Columbia in terms of promotion. Columbia did not service the gospel radio stations like Heart Warming did, leaving the impression that the Oak Ridge Boys were leaving gospel music, which hurt the group’s popularity among its core fan demographic. While promoting the single “Heaven Bound”, the Oak Ridge Boys made appearances on The Mike Douglas Show and The Merv Griffin Show, both nationally syndicated in the United States and Canada. In 1976, despite having been picked by Paul Simon to sing backup on “Slip Slidin’ Away”, the group asked to be released from its contract with Columbia after its single, “Family Reunion”, was only a lukewarm success. Columbia complied with the request, and the band immediately made a live album that was a mix of gospel and country on their own label.
In 1977 the Oak Ridge Boys fully switched from gospel to country with the release of their first ABC Records (later absorbed by MCA) album, Y’all Come Back Saloon. The group went on to record three more albums that finally gave them their first number one hit, I’ll Be True To You. The group’s album, Fancy Free, released early in 1981, contained the Dallas Frazier-penned song “Elvira”. This remains the group’s most widely known song, and Fancy Free is their best-selling album. “Elvira” had been recorded by other artists, including Frazier himself in the late 1960’s and The First Edition in 1970, but the Oak Ridge Boys were the first to have a hit with it. Their version of the song was a number-one country hit, and in July 1981 reached No. 5 on the pop charts.
Elvira was the hit that propelled The Oak Ridge Boys to a crossover audience and immediately made them more successful than ever. I remember speaking with artists and songwriters who worked for years to have a hit like Elvira. Some have enjoyed successful careers without that huge hit. However, most in the music industry understand that the big crossover hit opens an artist to possible iconic success. Making them a household name forever.
Now, after all the hit music and success enjoyed over many years, The Oak Ridge Boys decided to go back to where they started artistically. Spill Magazine stated that “17th Avenue Revival is one brilliant album full of the famous harmonies fans have grown to love, but there is much more to this album, a lot more. This is a brilliant and an important album. The Oak Ridge Boys have a lot to say and they use the medium of the album to say it. 17th Avenue Revival is a revival. It is a stunning album that should not be ignored, and much like Cash’s work in his later years, this will be seen as a classic in years to come.”
Could it be that The Oak Ridge Boys have saved their best work after so many years? Only time will answer that question.