The Singers Unlimited

The Singers Unlimited is a 1967 by Eugene Thomas (Gene ) Puerling founded in Chicago American vocal group with Gene Puerling (baritone and arranger ), Len Dresslar ( bass), Don Shelton (Tenor) and Bonnie Herman (soprano ) was occupied. The professional quartet of soloists initially worked primarily for the musical advertising business. For a Christmas gift to their advertising agencies the Singers Unlimited produced the famous Beatles song The Fool on the Hill from the Beatles album Magical Mystery Tour in an arrangement of genes Puerling that the beginning of their collaboration with the jazz label music production Schwarzwald ( MPS) in Villingen marked and where the typical sound of the group have already indicated.

Through the mediation of the Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson came in 1971 with the first meeting of vocal quartet with the music producer and owner of MPS, Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer. Peterson stood by him under the contract and also knew the demo tape with the Puerling arrangement of McCartney songs. Then arose with the Singers Unlimited in the MPS studios from 1971 to 1980 a total of 15 records productions, in 1972 her first a cappella album was awarded the German Record Prize, founded in 1963.

The distinctive style of the Singers Unlimited was marked both by the interspersed with complex harmonies and intricate vocal line vocal arrangements of genes Puerling and their vocally realized at the highest level studio production, on the other hand by a consistent exploitation of various electro-acoustic manipulation opportunities offered by MPS with one of the most modern recording studios of the time had to offer. In the elaborate studio productions came a time extremely rare 16-track tape machine used, which provided the necessary perfection in the additive assembly of orchestral vocal sound. A live performance of the vocal quartet was therefore completely excluded.

Gene Puerling (1929-2008) was self-taught musician and gained extensive experience as a singer and arranger in which he founded in 1953 close-harmony vocal group The Hi- Lo's, a stylistically innovative and very well known in the U.S. a cappella male vocal quartet, to the from 1959 the tenor Don Shelton belonged and which disintegrated around 1964. Puerling later worked in the recording studios of the Chicago Jingle industry, where he met the two Studiovokalisten Dresslar Len and Bonnie Hermann. For his vocal arrangement of the song A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, which he created for The Manhattan Transfer, Puerling won a Grammy, for 14 more, he was nominated in the course of his career.

Together with the new musical possibilities of the soprano voice of Bonnie Herman, an extensive use of based on the playback processing technology, with the higher two male voices of Don Shelton and Gene Puerling often the four-part extended to the six-part choral writing, the multiple overdubbing with the multi-track recorder and a complicated, then still fully analogue recording technique evolved from the quartet of soloists a completely new, more typical of the Singers Unlimited, extremely voluminous and highly artificial a cappella choral sound, which was in later productions complemented by the participation of several well-known instrumentalists.

Discography

  • In Tune ( with Oscar Peterson Trio, 1971)
  • A Cappella I ( 1971)
  • Christmas (a cappella, 1972)
  • Invitation ( with Art Van Damme, 1973)
  • Sentimental Journey ( with Robert Farnon Orchestra, 1974)
  • A Special Blend ( with Clare Fischer Orchestra, 1975)
  • A Cappella II ( 1975)
  • Feeling Free ( with Clare Fischer Orchestra, 1975)
  • Eventide ( with Robert Farnon Orchestra, 1976)
  • Friends ( with Pat Williams Orchestra, 1976)
  • Just In Time ( with Roger Kellaway Quintet, 1977)
  • The Singers Unlimited ( with Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass, 1979)
  • A Cappella III (1980 )
  • Easy To Love ( with Les Hooper Orchestra, 1980)
Bass (voice type) Multitrack recording Grammy Award Analogsignal
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