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A Barbershop Treasure!
Fred King has moved us with his music for five decades. He has made us laugh, applaud, and cry. He has made us better Barbershoppers. Parents shudder to think of their youngsters having "Mr. King" as a music teacher in school? Those "lucky ones" were taught by someone with a keen sense of humor and a true dedication to music.
In 1970, at the Atlantic City International SPEBSQSA Convention, the Oriole Four sang "Danny Boy" as their final song. When they finished, there was no doubt, that 10,000 Barbershoppers had just witnessed something truly extraordinary. The gold was their's and the rest is history.
One year later, with about 160 of his friends (Chorus of the Chesapeake), Fred won another gold medal, this time, as a chorus director. Fred has served/entertained Barbershoppers for a long, long, time. He is a brilliant Barbershop role model, chorus director, woodshedder, arranger, coach, and a clinician. He is also a "fair" storyteller and comedian.
It was a very special honor having Fred as a "Special Guest" on a recent TLC Tour to Ireland. The three guys he currently sings with (Sage Quartet) represent many golden memories of "the good old days." When you mention the names of Dick Webber, Tom Felgin, and Dave Middelstadt, you remember... Oriole Four, Chorus of the Chesapeake, Four Renegades, Presevation Quartet, Chicago News, Playtonics, Easternaires, and the Dapper Dans of Harmony from Livingston, NJ. Fred King has been my hero for as long as I can remember. By the way, in the video clip above, Fred King is the soloist, backed up by the Dundalk Sweet Adelines Chorus, Directed by... Fred King, of course.
Leo Larivee
President of TLC Tours
Update #1:
At the 2004 SPEBSQSA International Competition held in Louisville, KY, Fred King was honored as one of only 20 men in Barbershop History to be enshrined into the Barbershop Hall of Fame.Update #2:
If you haven't seen the latest DVD from the Society called: "Inside the Musician's Studio" with Bill Rashliegh interviewing both Freddie King and Jim Miller, Director of the great Louisville "Thoroughbred" Chorus, you are missing something special. The first such DVD, produced by the Society, has Bill Rashleigh interviewing both Jim and Greg Clancy of the "Vocal Majority". Another "must" for every Chorus Director and Barbershopper on the planet!
Six Decades on the International Stage and still King
Get to know Freddie King in this heartwarming interview
JEFF SELANO: Thanks Freddie for agreeing to participate in this interview. Thousands of Barbershoppers have followed the story of your health following Kansas City this year. How are you doing?
FRED KING: I feel better at this moment than I have over the last year. In Kansas City, I was bleeding internally ... I could hardly walk to the car from the hotel. Somehow, divine intervention gave me the strength to direct the AIC and Father/Son/Grandson choruses. As you witnessed, I missed enough notes in my quartet experience to write a new arrangement. When I came home, I went to the hospital, and the doctors corrected my problems. The prayers from my many barbershopping friends did not go unheeded.
JEFF: Roughly how many shows have you sung on in your barbershop career?
FRED: Directing the Chorus of the Chesapeake , and the Dundalk Sweet Adelines , and singing with The Oriole Four, Pros ‘N' Cons, The Entertainers , and Premiere , with an average of 47 performances a year for 40 years, the total is around 1880. This does not include local banquets, nursing homes, and church festivals too many to mention. This also does not include the number of shows that I emceed. It's safe to say I was performing somewhere at least once a week.
JEFF: What's your greatest story about singing on a barbershop show?
FRED: The Oriole Four's career lasted from February 25, 1958 through March 1, 1975, 17 years, the same four men. On March 1, 1975 we were singing our final chapter show in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The crowd was wild -- we could do no wrong. When we were coming back for our third encore, I saw Jim Hackman, the voice of the Chorus of the Chesapeake, at the center mic. I even said to him, "Jim, what are you doing here?" He said, "You'll see." With that, he raised his hands, and it appeared as if half the audience rose to their feet. The entire Chorus of the Chesapeake dressed in their class-A uniforms paraded to the stage singing "Tee Idle Dum-Dum." My associate director, Joe Pollio, directed them in the song "That's What I Call A Pal." I couldn't stop crying. Then Dick Ellenberger, Society president, took the rostrum, and he presented each of us with a hand-illumined proclamation detailing our contributions to the Society. It hangs prominently in my dining room. Our final show afforded the biggest surprise.
JEFF: From all the travelling you have done, what is your favorite story about being "on the road"?
FRED: The Orioles used to play a game called "Toy Car." When I was a kid, I had little lithographed toy cars where people were always looking out the windows with both hands on the doors, including the driver. Well, one day, I convinced the guys to just assume those positions and look out the windows as we passed cars on the highway. One time, while I was driving, I convinced Welzenbach to steer the car from the passenger seat .so that the viewer would see both of my hands on the window as I looked out the side window. One time we laid it on a carload of matronly ladies. Their car nearly swerved off the road. About five minutes later, we heard a toot, and there on the right-hand side of the car was the carload of ladies giving us a "Toy Car." We almost wrecked our car.
JEFF: There are so many great champ quartets. Do you have a favorite?
FRED: I respect each and every champion because I know what it takes to rise to the occasion, but my all-time heroes are The Buffalo Bills, The Vikings, and The Renegades .
JEFF: Who would be your choices for the greatest tenor, lead, bari and bass to ever walk the boards?
FRED: Naturally, I would say Jim Grant, lead, Don Stratton, bass, and Bob Welzenbach, tenor. That being said, I would have to say that Danny Heyburn of The Easternaires was the greatest tenor, Joe Connelly, the greatest lead, Brian Beck, bari, and Tom Felgen, bass. That leaves out 245 of my greatest heroes, The AIC, not to mention the many uncrowned champions like The Four Rascals and The Nighthawks .
JEFF: You do a very funny routine with your false teeth. Share with folks your story about scaring people in airports with them!
FRED: Bill Windsor made me several pairs of the ugliest, most outrageous dentures you've ever seen. I wear them in public, and I cause a furor wherever I go. Once, Everett Nau picked me up at Midway airport in Chicago. What I didn't know was that he had procured a set of bad-looking false teeth at the novelty store. From a distance he watched me making people walk into water coolers, and he kept his mouth shut. When I approached him, he opened his mouth on a set of terrible-looking teeth and shouted, "Dad!" The whole airport collapsed.
JEFF: There has been a lot of discussion going on regarding the barbershop style. Where do you think we'll be in 50 years as a Society?
FRED: Some of the harmonic and rhythmic practices of today are in direct opposition to what I came to know was barbershop when I joined 50 years ago. I dare say that O.C. Cash would have disqualified The Oriole Four for being too modern. My personal feeling is that as long as it continues to evolve, we someday won't have an art form. When the madrigal continued to evolve, it became something else. The same goes for motets, masses, and other art forms. A solution would be to hold an international convention whereupon the first day would have a late 19th century quartet contest, the second day a 20th century quartet contest, and on the third day have a 21st century quartet contest. On the fourth day, take the top five of each of the other contests, and go for the championship. A quartet could possibly win every flight. Fifty years from now, I want some 16-year-old to feel what I felt when I was exposed to the joy of singing. I know, at the time of my baptism, I didn't care where the Society had been or where it was going. I just wanted to ring those chords. If that happens in 2050 to someone, then we will have done our job.
JEFF: If there was anything you would like to see changed or improved with the hobby, what would that be?
FRED: The musical community at large is truly just beginning to take us seriously. Each time we relate to the music educators, we convert more and more "legitimate" backers to our cause. Bob Johnson, The Oriole Four, and the Bourne Publishing Company succeeded in opening the doors of the MENC. We've been on the rise in the eyes of the musical world ever since.
JEFF: You have written hundreds of barbershop arrangements. Do you think the "modernization" of our style is helping or hurting us as an original American art form?
FRED: Inherently, Barbershoppers are traditionalist, loathe to change. I'm one of them. Some of my arrangements raised the eyebrows of my predecessors. Now I'm in the boat they were in during my halcyon days. I feel that we are in a "cerebral" era of our existence. I truly believe a more emotional approach will prevail in the future, that is to say a more simplistic approach will return. You ask an arranger today, "Why did you make the contrapuntal effects so dominant in your arrangement?" He responds, "Because I can." Hopefully, that will wear thin soon.
JEFF: What's the best barbershop arrangement you have ever heard? Why?
FRED: Emotionally speaking, I would choose Renee Craig's arrangement of "Danny Boy." It was the first time I heard the melody line of that song entirely in the second tenor or lead. It was the signature song of The Oriole Four from its inception until our retirement.
JEFF: You are the only man to have sung on the International stage in six different decades. What has been the biggest change you have witnessed in our hobby over all those years?
FRED: The athletic prowess of the performers has brought new energy with each generation. The length of phrases, the dynamic contrasts, the rapid fire delivery of up-tune lyrics, all demand more from the performer each year. The main constant has been that "Lead is the ball game." No quartet is any better than--and half aren't as good as--their lead.
JEFF: Any words of wisdom you would like to share?
FRED: Just remember, each of us is the product of those around us. Without our fellow man, we would be worth nothing! The athletic prowess of the performers has brought new energy with each generation. The length of phrases, the dynamic contrasts, the rapid fire delivery of up-tune lyrics, all demand more from the performer each year. The main constant has been that "Lead is the ball game." No quartet is any better than--and half aren't as good as--their lead.
JEFF: Any words of wisdom you would like to share?
FRED: Just remember, each of us is the product of those around us. Without our fellow man, we would be worth nothing!Andy Warhol never met this guy.
Forget that business about 15 minutes of fame! Fred King's walk across the boards at Kansas City marked his 17th appearance with a quartet at the International level--and his sixth decade in International quartet competition. The gait may be just a tad slower now, but as lead Fred Womer says, Fred can still "bring it to the table."
It all began with some impromptu harmonizing with Jim Grant outside a Baltimore high school in 1950. The two teenagers soon found Fred Geisler and Bob Doster and formed the Deacon Four quartet. At one time, all of them had hoped to be ministers. In a few years, the quartet name was changed to the Oriole Four . The personnel changed when Don Stratton and Bob Welzenbach joined Jim and Fred, and the four young men joined the Dundalk, Maryland chapter.
Fred first led them onto an international stage in Chicago in 1959. The quartet competed at that level 10 times, excluding a two-year hiatus for military duty. On a summer day in Atlantic City, all of the stars and chords came together, and the quartet was crowned the 1970 International quartet champion.
Fred King's legion of barbershopping friends will be looking on with a mixture of nostalgia, awe, appreciation and most of all--love and admiration--as this barbershopping legend adds to an incredible barbershopping resume. Salute!
-- Roger Snyder, Dundalk, Maryland chapter
An illustrious Fred-i-gree
Bari of 1970 Champion Oriole Four
International quartet competitor in six different decades
31 years as director of Dundalk's Chorus of the Chesapeake (including 1971 International championship)
With son Kevin in 1986, first father/son quartet finalist
Composer of more than 300 songs
Arranger of more than 500 songs
Quartet coach
Contest judge
Beloved emcee
AIC chorus director
Song leader at internationals
38-year director of the elite Dundalk Sweet Adelines chorus
HEP school teacher
Harmony College Faculty
Co-director of 2000 Father/Son/Grandson Chorus
31-year career teaching vocal music in Baltimore
Legendary prankster and storyteller
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