The Sentimentalists

The Sentimentalists

The Sentimentalists, also known as the "Clark Sisters" (and also as the "Original" Clark Sisters; so-called to distinguish them from the current gospel music group of the same name), were an American close harmony singing group, consisting of sisters Mary Clark, Peggy Clark Schwartz, Ann Clark, and Jean Clark. Hailing from Grand Forks, North Dakota, they were a mere seventeen to twenty-three years of age, when they signed with the Tommy Dorsey Band, in 1944, to replace the popular Pied Pipers, after the Pipers had quit Dorsey's band to go out on their own.

Although they never achieved the fame and fortune of some of their contemporaries (like the Andrews Sisters and the McGuire Sisters), the Clark Sisters' recordings are today actually more highly-prized by jazz aficionados, for their unique vocal stylings, in which they often emulate (and in fact sing the actual charts for) instrumental sections. By contrast, neither the Andrews Sisters, nor the McGuire Sisters are today considered to be part of the jazz lexicon, despite their chart success.

Early history

The Clark Sisters were born and raised in Grand Forks, North Dakota. They began singing together as young children, and by the late 1930s they were all performing together in civic events and church services. After achieving some local fame, the sisters were taken by their mother to New York, where they appeared on Major Bowes Amateur Hour. Although they did not win, they did receive a contract to appear for several months in a USO show.

Following their USO tour, they returned to New York, where, by good fortune, Tommy Dorsey was looking for a vocal quartet to replace one of his band's most popular features, the Pied Pipers. Dorsey, (who was prone to incidents of bad temper) became angry at one of the Pipers for sending him in the wrong direction at the train station in Portland, Oregon, and fired him. The Pipers, out of "team loyalty," resigned en masse. At that moment, the #1 record on the charts was "There Are Such Things" sung by Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers; the last RCA record they did with Dorsey.

The sisters auditioned for Dorsey in their west Forty-Fifth Street apartment, where he offered them a job on the spot.

Emerging Popularity

Following their initial few appearances on Dorsey's radio program (during which, they remained uncredited), he began to receive mail from listeners, wondering about the identities of the new vocalists. Realizing that he had a potential threat to the vocal domination of The Andrew Sisters, he made plans to build them into more regular and featured appearances on his show.

However, Dorsey, still feeling as though he had been betrayed by the Pied Pipers' departure, after he had made them into stars, vowed not to be similarly burned a second time. Since the Pipers had utilized their name, long before signing with Dorsey, he was determined that his new proteges would not able to capitalize in the same way.

To that end, rather than allowing the Sisters to be billed under their own names, he re-christened them as "The Sentimentalists"; a name which he had previously utilized for a small instrumental combo. Since he "owned" the name, he was confident that he would, in this way, be able to avoid a repeat of the incident with the Pied Pipers.

The Sisters' mid-western good looks and bubbly personalities, endeared them to the members of Dorsey's band, who became their good friends, and acted very protectively towards them.

Although the Sisters had to begin by learning all of the Pipers' songs with the band, they were soon able to grow into their own artistic voice as well. This was helped along by the willingness of Dorsey's band members (particularly lead alto saxophonist and arranger Sid Cooper, as well as Nelson Riddle, guitarist Bob Bain, Sy Oliver and Buddy Defranco) to write and arrange musical numbers which featured the Sisters' talents to their fullest.

Peggy Clark Schwartz (the widow of clarinetist Willie Schwartz of the Glenn Miller Orchestra), later recalled, in the Tommy Dorsey biography, authored by Peter J. Levinson, that she and her sisters might have been a little naive, when they originally went to work for Dorsey: "In those days, you had to be young and stupid. You also had to be pretty needy ... it was almost comical when you look at it; it was part of the growing-up process!"

While with Dorsey's Band, the Sisters had several hit records, including "I Should Care", "On the Atcheson, Topeka and the Santa Fe", "On the Sunny Side of the Street", a version of "Chicago" (with Sy Oliver) and "Why Do I Love You?", from the musical Show Boat.

Later Years

In 1953, the Clark Sisters made the decision to leave the Dorsey organization, primarily due to Dorsey's failure to pay them what they felt they were worth, as well as their desires to leave the road life, and devote themselves to family and to recording. True to his original intentions, Dorsey refused to allow them to continue to use the "Sentamentalists" name, and would not even allow them to reference in their publicity information that they had ever been known under that name.

Despite Dorsey's pettiness however, the Sisters persisted, and in addition to continuing to perform well into the 1960s, they recorded three LP albums under their own name (although none of the albums are still available commercially). In 1990 however, Jasmine Dream Records acquired the rights to the master tapes, and re-released the three albums, compiled into a single CD, titled, "The Clark Sisters Swing Again".

References

1. "Tommy Dorsey: Livin' In A Great Big Way" by Peter J. Levinson (Da Capo Press)