Follow TV Tropes

Following

Music / The Andrews Sisters

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Andrew_Sisters_5067.jpg
From left to right: LaVerne, Patty, and Maxene.

The Andrews Sisters were a big band singing trio from the late 1930s through the early 1950s, although their biggest years undeniably came during World War II, when they pretty much set the template for Glamorous Wartime Singers in the USA. According to The Other Wiki, they're the bestselling Girl Group of all time.

Prolific and a household name for years, they consisted of Patty (blonde, and the leader, 1918–2013), LaVerne (redhead, 1911–67) and Maxene (brunette, 1916–95). They worked with the famous Big Bands of the era, although the bands often resented that with the Andrews Sisters up front, their recordings put the emphasis on vocals.

The sisters became one of the most popular female close harmony groups of the first half of the 20th century and released a number of famous tunes that have ended up in a number of video games and movies. They inspired many artists that followed them, and are possibly the Trope Makers for Blonde, Brunette, Redhead.

The trio performed together from 1925, when they were children, until LaVerne's death in 1967. Patty and Maxene briefly continued with a replacement, Joyce DeYoung, before dissolving the act in 1968. The two then embarked upon solo careers, mostly on the nostalgia circuit, reuniting only for the 1974 Broadway musical Over Here!.

Many mp3 websites fail to differentiate them from the Fontane Sisters or the McGuire Sisters. They're also sometimes mistaken for the Boswell Sisters, an earlier jazz trio with some very strong stylistic similarities — the Andrews started their career as imitators of the Boswells, so that might explain a lot.


Some hit songs:

  • "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen" (1938). Their first major hit song.
  • "Nice Work If You Can Get It" (1938)
  • "Hold Tight, Hold Tight" (1939)
  • "Beer Barrel Polka" (1939)
  • "Yodelin' Jive" (1939). The first of their many collaborations with Bing Crosby.
  • "Say 'Si Si'" (1940)
  • "The Woodpecker Song" (1940)
  • "Rhumboogie" (1940)
  • "Beat Me, Daddy, Eight to the Bar" (1940). Note that the title is a request to a pianist to play an "eight beat to the bar" boogie-woogie rhythm, not a reference to Domestic Abuse.
  • "Scrub Me, Mama, with a Boogie Beat" (1941)
  • "Aurora" (1941)
  • "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" (1941). Probably the song they're best remembered for nowadays.
  • "In Apple Blossom Time" (1941)
  • "The Shrine of St. Cecilia" (1942)
  • "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" (1942)
  • "Strip Polka" (1942)
  • "Pistol-Packin' Momma" (1943). With Bing Crosby.
  • "Victory Polka" (1943). With Bing Crosby. One of five songs (along with "A Hot Time in the Town of Berlin", "Straighten Up and Fly Right", "Strip Polka" and "Rum and Coca-Cola") to appear in Mafia II.
  • "Jingle Bells" (1943). With Bing Crosby.
  • "Shoo-Shoo Baby" (1943)
  • "Straighten Up and Fly Right" (1944)
  • "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby?" (1944). With Bing Crosby.
  • "A Hot Time in the Town of Berlin" (1944). With Bing Crosby.
  • "Don't Fence Me In" (1944). With Bing Crosby.
  • "Rum and Coca-Cola" (1945). This version was scrapped of most of its Protest Song tone.
  • "Accentuate the Positive" (1945). With Bing Crosby.
  • "The Three Caballeros" (1945). With Bing Crosby.
  • "One Meat Ball" (1945)
  • "Along the Navajo Trail" (1945). With Bing Crosby.
  • "Money Is the Root of All Evil" (1946)
  • "South America, Take It Away" (1946). With Bing Crosby.
  • "Rumors Are Flying" (1946)
  • "Winter Wonderland" (1946)
  • "Near You" (1947)
  • "The Lady from 29 Palms" (1947)
  • "Civilization" (1947). With Danny Kaye. Appears in Fallout 3.
  • "Woody Woodpecker" (1948). With Danny Kaye.
  • "Underneath the Arches" (1948)
  • "You Call Everybody Darling" (1948)
  • "I Can Dream, Can't I?" (1949)
  • "I Wanna Be Loved" (1950)
  • "A Bushel and a Peck" (1950)
  • "Sparrow in the Tree Top" (1951). With Bing Crosby.


Film appearances with TV Tropes pages:

Contains examples of:


Top