The Fleetwoods: Runaround (1960)

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The Fleetwoods: Runaround (1960)

It was disappointing to see a blurb on the top of an article about Dudley Benson repeat the hoary line that he "bridges the gap between the pop music of Kylie Minogue" and  . . . in this case . . . the waiata of Hirini Melbourne. The Kylie reference -- something I suspect Benson made some years ago -- was utterly irrelevant with regard to his exceptional new project Forest (see here).

But by coincidence I recently picked up a Greatest Hits by the late Fifties a cappella outfit the Fleetwoods from Washington state ($5) who topped the charts with the delightful Come Softly in '59.

They were clean cut types and were finished when Gary Troxel was called up for military service, and then of course the Beatles arrived and . . .

They were one of those polite, family-friendly groups who filled the gap betwen the death of Buddy Holly and the British Invasion, and they probably don't have much to recommend them to people today -- other than admiring their wonderful mesh of Troxel's light vocals with those of Gretchen Christopher and Barbara Ellis.

But on this track this sounds a whole lot closer as a reference to Dudley Benson than Kylie Minogue.

And it's kinda nice in its own sweet way too. Imagine it in te reo/Maori.

For more one-off or unusual songs with an interesting backstory see From the Vaults

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