Glenn Yarbrough - The Limeliters
Born January 12, 1930. Died August 11, 2016.
Glenn Yarbrough was one of the original Limeliters. He performed on his own both before and after joining the group. His voice was recognized as perhaps the most lyrical in the world. Born in Milwaukee, he started his music career as a boy during the Great Depression as he helped support his family through his work as a boy soprano in the choir of Grace Church, the historic Episcopal church in Manhattan.
As Margalit Fox of the The New York Times explains, "By all critical accounts, Mr. Yarbrough’s silvery lyric tenor — a voice whose lightness belied his stocky appearance — was the group’s acoustic linchpin, soaring memorably in traditional tunes including “John Henry” and contemporary numbers like “Charlie, the Midnight Marauder,” about a hapless suburbanite who one night mistakenly enters the wrong house."Reviewing a 1961 concert by the Limeliters at Town Hall in Manhattan, Robert Shelton wrote in The New York Times, “Mr. Yarbrough’s fine lyric voice had body, warmth and a lush vibrato that made ‘Lass From the Low Country,’ ‘When I First Came to This Land’ and ‘Zhankoye’ touching.” He added: “Mr. Yarbrough is a top-flight vocalist.”
Glenn attended St. John’s College in Annapolis, Md., where he studied pre-Socratic philosophy. (His roommate, Jac Holzman, would become a founder, in 1950, of Elektra Records, which early on recorded Mr. Yarbrough singly and the Limeliters collectively.) One day in the early 1950s, Woody Guthrie came to St. John’s, an event that for the young Mr. Yarbrough proved transformative.
“I never liked the pop songs of the day; I always thought it was real stupid stuff — ‘moon, June, spoon,’” Mr. Yarbrough told The Los Angeles Times in 1996. “So I went to this Woody Guthrie concert, and I was just overwhelmed — everything he sang was real. I was just a shy kid, but I walked up to him afterward with tears in my eyes and told him how much I loved what he had done. The very next day I went out and bought a guitar, and that was that.”
After Army service during the Korean War, where he performed with entertainment units in Korea and Japan, Mr. Yarbrough embarked on a solo career, playing the coffeehouse circuit. He became an owner of the Limelite, an Aspen, Colo., nightclub from which the singing group would take its name.
In mid-1959, Yarbrough and Alex Hassilev, performing with Theodore Bikel at Cosmo Alley, a Los Angeles club, were introduced to Lou Gottlieb, and The Limeliters were born. The group made its debut at the Hungry i, the storied San Francisco nightclub, later that year.
Amid the folk revival of the 1960s, The Limeliters appeared often on television and in live performance, sold records by the hundreds of thousands and the trio became millionaires in the bargain. The Limeliters were wildly successful due to the trio's use of harmony that could make them sound like a 10-person group, and with the sophisticated non-traditional arrangements. Lou Gottlieb's witty onstage banter sometimes made Glenn the butt of jokes, to which he could return just as well in kind.
In 1963, Glenn left The Limeliters, and the group disbanded. An ardent sailor, he intended to spend the next decade at sea but was persuaded by his record label, RCA Victor, to record solo albums instead.
He made a string of them, toured for some years as a solo act and had a hit single with “Baby the Rain Must Fall,” the title song of the 1965 film starring Steve McQueen and Lee Remick. That song was written by Glenn's successor as tenor in The Limeliters, Ernie Sheldon.
In the mid-1960s Mr. Yarbrough began a collaboration with the poet and songwriter Rod McKuen that resulted in several albums, among them “The Lonely Things” and “Glenn Yarbrough Sings the Rod McKuen Songbook.”
By the late 1960s Mr. Yarbrough had sold his Rolls-Royce, his Porsche, his Bentley and his two Ferraris along with, Mr. Lamb reported, his house in New Zealand, his banana plantation in Jamaica and an apartment building he owned in Beverly Hills, Calif. With the proceeds, he established a school for disadvantaged children, most of them African-American, in the mountains outside Los Angeles.
“I’ve always wanted to teach,” Yarbrough told The Sunday Examiner & Chronicle of San Francisco in 1966. “I got into entertainment by accident. The idea for the school actually came to me when I was sailing to Hawaii. I got to thinking about why I was still doing something I didn’t want to do very much, and about what I could do to make it meaningful.”
The school endured until the early 1970s, when it closed for lack of funds. Mr. Yarbrough rented his home in the Hollywood Hills to the comedian Marty Feldman and, with his second wife, the former Annie Graves, and baby Holly, took to sea aboard the Jubilee, the 57-foot sailboat he had helped build. He did not return for the better part of five years. Throughout the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, Mr. Yarbrough spent much of his time at sea, traversing many of the world’s oceans. He returned to land periodically, when his finances were at ebb tide, appearing as a soloist snd once again with The Limeliters and making many solo and group records.
He reunited with the Limeliters in 1973, remaining with the group this time until 1981, going on tour and recording with the group one of their best albums, including The Limeliters Reunion Volumes 1 and 2, and Joy Across the Land.
He collaborated with his daughter Holly on several albums, a 1994 effort called Family Portrait, a 1997 collaboration of Annie Get Your Gun, and a 2006 album No One is Alone.
In 2000, he recorded an album of seafaring songs with The Shaw Brothers, "The Day the Tall Ships Came;" he had already recorded several solo albums with the seafaring theme.
Even his solo albums often bore some kind of imprimatur from The Limeliters. For example, on his 1969 solo concert album Jubilee, he performed "A Hundred Men," a powerful anti-war song that had been written by Alex Hassilev.
We provide more photos and a short biography about his early career on the 1963 Souvenir Program - Glenn Yarbrough page.
Here's some off-site web links for more about Glenn Yarbrough:
Glenn Yarbrough was one of the original Limeliters. He performed on his own both before and after joining the group. His voice was recognized as perhaps the most lyrical in the world. Born in Milwaukee, he started his music career as a boy during the Great Depression as he helped support his family through his work as a boy soprano in the choir of Grace Church, the historic Episcopal church in Manhattan.
As Margalit Fox of the The New York Times explains, "By all critical accounts, Mr. Yarbrough’s silvery lyric tenor — a voice whose lightness belied his stocky appearance — was the group’s acoustic linchpin, soaring memorably in traditional tunes including “John Henry” and contemporary numbers like “Charlie, the Midnight Marauder,” about a hapless suburbanite who one night mistakenly enters the wrong house."Reviewing a 1961 concert by the Limeliters at Town Hall in Manhattan, Robert Shelton wrote in The New York Times, “Mr. Yarbrough’s fine lyric voice had body, warmth and a lush vibrato that made ‘Lass From the Low Country,’ ‘When I First Came to This Land’ and ‘Zhankoye’ touching.” He added: “Mr. Yarbrough is a top-flight vocalist.”
Glenn attended St. John’s College in Annapolis, Md., where he studied pre-Socratic philosophy. (His roommate, Jac Holzman, would become a founder, in 1950, of Elektra Records, which early on recorded Mr. Yarbrough singly and the Limeliters collectively.) One day in the early 1950s, Woody Guthrie came to St. John’s, an event that for the young Mr. Yarbrough proved transformative.
“I never liked the pop songs of the day; I always thought it was real stupid stuff — ‘moon, June, spoon,’” Mr. Yarbrough told The Los Angeles Times in 1996. “So I went to this Woody Guthrie concert, and I was just overwhelmed — everything he sang was real. I was just a shy kid, but I walked up to him afterward with tears in my eyes and told him how much I loved what he had done. The very next day I went out and bought a guitar, and that was that.”
After Army service during the Korean War, where he performed with entertainment units in Korea and Japan, Mr. Yarbrough embarked on a solo career, playing the coffeehouse circuit. He became an owner of the Limelite, an Aspen, Colo., nightclub from which the singing group would take its name.
In mid-1959, Yarbrough and Alex Hassilev, performing with Theodore Bikel at Cosmo Alley, a Los Angeles club, were introduced to Lou Gottlieb, and The Limeliters were born. The group made its debut at the Hungry i, the storied San Francisco nightclub, later that year.
Amid the folk revival of the 1960s, The Limeliters appeared often on television and in live performance, sold records by the hundreds of thousands and the trio became millionaires in the bargain. The Limeliters were wildly successful due to the trio's use of harmony that could make them sound like a 10-person group, and with the sophisticated non-traditional arrangements. Lou Gottlieb's witty onstage banter sometimes made Glenn the butt of jokes, to which he could return just as well in kind.
In 1963, Glenn left The Limeliters, and the group disbanded. An ardent sailor, he intended to spend the next decade at sea but was persuaded by his record label, RCA Victor, to record solo albums instead.
He made a string of them, toured for some years as a solo act and had a hit single with “Baby the Rain Must Fall,” the title song of the 1965 film starring Steve McQueen and Lee Remick. That song was written by Glenn's successor as tenor in The Limeliters, Ernie Sheldon.
In the mid-1960s Mr. Yarbrough began a collaboration with the poet and songwriter Rod McKuen that resulted in several albums, among them “The Lonely Things” and “Glenn Yarbrough Sings the Rod McKuen Songbook.”
By the late 1960s Mr. Yarbrough had sold his Rolls-Royce, his Porsche, his Bentley and his two Ferraris along with, Mr. Lamb reported, his house in New Zealand, his banana plantation in Jamaica and an apartment building he owned in Beverly Hills, Calif. With the proceeds, he established a school for disadvantaged children, most of them African-American, in the mountains outside Los Angeles.
“I’ve always wanted to teach,” Yarbrough told The Sunday Examiner & Chronicle of San Francisco in 1966. “I got into entertainment by accident. The idea for the school actually came to me when I was sailing to Hawaii. I got to thinking about why I was still doing something I didn’t want to do very much, and about what I could do to make it meaningful.”
The school endured until the early 1970s, when it closed for lack of funds. Mr. Yarbrough rented his home in the Hollywood Hills to the comedian Marty Feldman and, with his second wife, the former Annie Graves, and baby Holly, took to sea aboard the Jubilee, the 57-foot sailboat he had helped build. He did not return for the better part of five years. Throughout the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, Mr. Yarbrough spent much of his time at sea, traversing many of the world’s oceans. He returned to land periodically, when his finances were at ebb tide, appearing as a soloist snd once again with The Limeliters and making many solo and group records.
He reunited with the Limeliters in 1973, remaining with the group this time until 1981, going on tour and recording with the group one of their best albums, including The Limeliters Reunion Volumes 1 and 2, and Joy Across the Land.
He collaborated with his daughter Holly on several albums, a 1994 effort called Family Portrait, a 1997 collaboration of Annie Get Your Gun, and a 2006 album No One is Alone.
In 2000, he recorded an album of seafaring songs with The Shaw Brothers, "The Day the Tall Ships Came;" he had already recorded several solo albums with the seafaring theme.
Even his solo albums often bore some kind of imprimatur from The Limeliters. For example, on his 1969 solo concert album Jubilee, he performed "A Hundred Men," a powerful anti-war song that had been written by Alex Hassilev.
We provide more photos and a short biography about his early career on the 1963 Souvenir Program - Glenn Yarbrough page.
Here's some off-site web links for more about Glenn Yarbrough:
- Glenn Yarborough - Official Home Page
- Glenn Yarbrough on Allmusic.com
- Glenn Yarbrough on discogs.com
- Glenn Yarbrough on Wikipedia
- Glenn Yarbrough Obituary - New York Times