From: Gino A. 
Date: Sun Jan 9, 2005 0:37am
Subject: Scan Do - The Charioteers

By Peter A. Grendysa & George Moonoogian 

from Record Exchanger Vol. 3, No. 5, Fall 1973 

The typical vocal group of the '50s can be said to have been 
composed of high-school age or slightly older members, who had met 
and harmonized on the street corners around their neighborhood. In 
contrast, the vocal group of the '40s is characterized by members of 
college age and background. Many of these groups got their start 
doing "jubilee" style gospel singing at their churches or colleges. 

Professor Howard Daniel of the music faculty at Wilberforce College 
in Ohio in the early 1930's was very impressed with the soaring, 
almost unreal, falsetto voice of one of his students - Billy 
Williams. So impressed that he built a vocal group around Williams, 
handpicked from the best singers in the music department. He tutored 
the group in the then very popular "jubilee" singing and gave them 
the name "Charioteers" for one of their featured songs - Swing Low, 
Sweet Chariot. 

The hard work of Professor Daniel and the extraordinary talent of 
the group soon paid off as the group entered and won First Prize in 
the All-Ohio State Quartet Contest. This success brought them their 
first professional gig and they spent the next two years at radio 
WLW in Cincinnati. They gradually altered their style to include 
music of a more popular slant and relegated the "jubilee" image to a 
minor role, and, bigger things were in store for the group. 

An offer of a radio series spot in New York was snapped up eagerly 
and Howard Daniel left his teaching position and went with the group 
as arranger and director. A recording contract followed soon after 
their arrival in New York and the Charioteers began an association 
with Columbia Records that lasted over ten years. 

Besides their recordings. Charioteers' credits include six years as 
featured guests on the Bing Crosby Radio Show and one motion picture 
appearance, possibly two., They can be seen in Road Show, a United 
Artists picture released January 24, 1941, starring Adolphe Menjou 
and Carole Landis. And, although not credited, they very likely are 
the quartet which appears, singing, for a few seconds in Louisiana 
Purchase, a 1941 Columbia film starring Bob Hope. 

Records by the Charioteers on Columbia usually featured the 
remarkable tenor gymnastics of Billy Williams backed by close 
harmony from the group. Williams' tenor style was totally unlike 
that of his contemporary - Bill Kenny of the Ink Spots, with 
Williams showing off a more diverse "bag of tricks" (for example: So 
Long #35424, 37399). The rest of the group is heard frequently and 
they show their expertise on the jump sides such as No Soup (#36903) 
and the hard swinging Ride Red Ride (#37399). 

Vocal group collectors are most familiar with the Charioteers 
version of A Kiss And A Rose (#38438), which was released shortly 
after the original by the Ink Spots and before the well-known 
Orioles rendition. Typically, the Charioteers sound on this disc 
lies between the Ink Spots and the Orioles in degree of "blackness". 

Williams left the group and Columbia in January, 1950 and formed 
another quartet. Besides him, the Billy Williams Quartet contained 
Eugene Dixon, Claude Riddick, and John Ball, and was a familiar 
sight to television viewers of the early 1950's - particularly on 
Sid Caesar's Show Of Shows. This group recorded for MGM, Mercury, 
and Coral well into the Rock & Roll Years. 

The Charioteers, temporarily leaderless, also left Columbia in 1950 
but never regained their popularity. With a sucession of new 
personnel, they recorded for a variety of labels including National, 
Keystone, Tuxedo, and Josie.