Crew Cuts - Sing!

Tracks

Side 1

		Track Name	Length
	1	Moments to Remember	02:33
	2	Show Me the Way to Go Home	01:28
	3	My Melancholy Baby	02:22
	4	Down by the Old Mill Stream	02:27
	5	Kentucky Babe	02:07
	6	My Gal Sal	02:23

Side 2

		Track Name	Length
	1	That Old Gang of Mine	02:03
	2	When You Were Sweet Sixteen	02:15
	3	Cruising Down the River	02:12
	4	Sweet Adeline	01:59
	5	By the Sea	01:58
	6	Auld Lang Syne	01:54

Photos

Videos

No Video

Information/Write-up

The Crew-Cuts were one of the most commercially successful and culturally emblematic vocal groups to emerge from Canada during the first wave of postwar popular music. Formed in Toronto in the early 1950s, the quartet—Pat Barrett, Rudi Maugeri, Johnnie Perkins, and Jay Perkins—combined collegiate polish, tight harmony singing, and a keen instinct for contemporary pop trends, allowing them to cross national borders at a time when few Canadian acts could do so consistently.

Their rise coincided with a pivotal moment in North American music history, when traditional pop, novelty songs, and early rhythm-and-blues influences were beginning to merge into a new youth-driven marketplace. The Crew-Cuts positioned themselves squarely at that intersection. Clean-cut in appearance yet rhythmically alert, they adapted material from Broadway, Tin Pan Alley, jazz, and early R&B into accessible, radio-ready performances that appealed to both teenage listeners and adult audiences.

Signed to RCA Victor, the group quickly became a fixture on charts in both Canada and the United States. Their recordings were marked by buoyant tempos, precise vocal blend, and an unforced sense of swing—qualities that made songs such as “Sh-Boom,” “I’ve Got a Crush on You,” “Ain’t She Sweet,” and “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby” enduring staples of mid-1950s pop culture. Unlike many contemporaries, the Crew-Cuts sustained momentum across multiple releases, establishing themselves not as a novelty act but as reliable interpreters of the era’s evolving songbook.

Beyond record sales, the Crew-Cuts were central to the sound of early television and radio variety programming. Their music captured a moment when vocal groups functioned as cultural translators—bridging jazz, pre-rock pop, and emerging youth sensibilities—while maintaining a distinctly professional, pan-North-American appeal. Though their success unfolded largely within the U.S. market, their roots and identity remained firmly Canadian, making them one of the earliest examples of a Canadian vocal group achieving sustained international visibility.

Today, the Crew-Cuts are remembered not only for their chart hits but for their role in establishing a pathway for Canadian artists in the pre-CanCon era. Their recordings document a formative chapter in Canada’s recorded-music history, when ambition, adaptability, and vocal craftsmanship allowed a Toronto quartet to leave a lasting imprint on the sound of 1950s popular music.
-Robert Williston

Musicians
Pat Barrett: vocals
Rudi Maugeri: vocals
Johnnie Perkins: vocals
Jay Perkins: vocals

Production
Produced by Herman Diaz, Jr.
Engineered by Ray Hall
Conducted by Morty Jay
Recorded February–March 1959 at RCA Victor Studio A, New York City, NY, USA

Artwork
Cover illustration: uncredited

Notes
True stereophonic recording
Playable in stereo or monaural with appropriate cartridge

Liner notes
The Crew-Cuts’ versatility and facility to adapt themselves to mass and class audiences runs the gamut from their distinction as “America’s Top Ballroom Attraction” according to one intrade popular poll and the ability to draw huge turnouts at State Fair midways to being in top demand at such posh Yank hostelries as the Empire Room of Chicago’s Palmer House or the famed Coconut Grove of Los Angeles’ Hotel Ambassador. This is not to mention such high-powered pubs, clubs and bistros as Chicago’s Chez Paree, the Florida plusheries and the Nevada casinos.

The tremendous impact of their discs eventually carried them to the stately Show Biz halls of England’s Palladium in London, and an eight-week tour of the world-renowned Moss Empire Theatres, including those in Liverpool, Glasgow, Manchester, Nottingham, New Castle, Edinburgh and Birmingham.

On previous albums the Crew-Cuts have gone ramps, rock ’n’ roll, longhair and have capered in a variegated pot-pourri of vocalisticism. The galaxy on this LP, again balanced by their favorite personal maestro, Morty Jay, is another sampling of their versatility: a blend of the mauve decade, American traditional, Prohibition era torchants, nostalgic Tin Pan Alley, and ultra-modern balladering with a beat. Quite a switch from Sh-Boom, Oop-Shoop, Gum Drop and Chop Chop Boom.

The Crew-Cuts, slept Pat Barrett, Rudi Maugeri, and the Perkins freres (Johnnie, the second tenor, treasurer and spokesman for the foursome; and the no-profundos-basso Ray) have traveled far indeed, professionally and geographically, since their Toronto Cathedral choir cradling and the non-decis switch from the Canadiaries, as they first billed. As the Crew-Cuts they’ve cut a strictly pro niche in the Show Biz annals. This album proves it anew.

Mr. Green Notes by ARTHUR GREEN
Critic and Editor of Variety

IMPORTANT NOTICE
This is a TRUE STEREOPHONIC RECORD specially designed to be played only on phonographs equipped for stereophonic reproduction. This record will also give outstanding monaural performance on many conventional high fidelity phonographs by a replacement of the cartridge. See your local dealer or serviceman.

Comments