Fred Waring & The Pennsylvanians

Fred Waring (June 9, 1900 – July 29, 1984) was a popular musician, bandleader and radio-television personality, sometimes referred to as "America's Singing Master" and "The Man Who Taught America How to Sing." He was also a promoter, financial backer and namesake of the Waring Blender, the first modern electric blender on the market. Raised in his father's Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, music store, Waring studied violin as a youth and was a member of his high school glee club. He formed his first professional band around 1916, a six-man string outfit called [b]Waring's Banjazztra[/b]. After graduating from college, he took the group to Detroit, where it began to attract the attention of the local music crowd. He later dropped banjo from the line-up and changed the name of the group to the [b]Pennsylvanians[/b]. The newly-named orchestra soon became a favorite on the collegiate circuit. Their first recording, ''Sleep,'' on the Victor label in 1923, was a tremendous success. Waring's orchestra supposedly has the distinction of being the first to record a George Gershwin tune, the first to record a rumba, and the first dance band to record with a vocal chorus. Aside from [l=Victor], the group also released material on the [l=Columbia] label. Vocalists included Stuart Churchill, Waring's own brother, Tom, and drummer Poley McClintock (the froggy voice on “I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream”).