Chrysa Kerr

Having made an enormous contribution to the establishment of the Nashville Sound and the modernisation of country music, Anita Kerr felt the need to expand her artistic horizons and in 1965, made the move from Nashville to Hollywood. She wanted to work with different people, to get her own songs recorded, to play jazz, to conduct an orchestra, to take on more ambitious and more varied projects musically, and to form a vocal group which, rather than be confined to studio sessions, might also appear in club and concert settings. Her arrival on the West Coast was well timed. She had just fought off The Beatles to win a Grammy for the album We Dig Mancini and she was quickly able to assemble a stellar Anita Kerr Singers (B.J Baker: alto, Gene Merlino: tenor; Bob Tebow: bass, with Anita herself as soprano and soloist) and secure a contract more tailored to her needs with Warner Brothers. The result over the next two years, were these five superbly fashioned albums.

"We Dig Mancini!" has a measure of notoriety unrelated to its musical merits because it won the Grammy for Best Performance by a Vocal Group over the Beatles' "Help!" in 1965, making it a target of derision for those who see it as a symbol of the industry's eagerness to embrace a square vocal group over an adventurous rock & roll act.

Anita Kerr is easily the most remarkable and accomplished female musician of the Space Age Pop era, yet she barely rates a mention in most pop music reference books. In the mid-1950s and '60s, the Anita Kerr Singers were one of the most popular group of backup vocalists in all of country music, appearing on countless recordings by renowned Nashville artists. Along with the Jordanaires, her group, the Anita Kerr Singers, were the seminal backing vocal unit of the era, and it is estimated that at their early-'60s peak, they graced fully one-quarter of all of the records coming out of Nashville's studios.

Anita Jean Grilli, known professionally as Anita Kerr, is an American singer, arranger, composer, conductor, pianist, and music producer. She recorded and performed successfully with her vocal harmony groups in Nashville, Los Angeles, and Europe. On this release, the beautiful pop sound of the Anita Kerr Quarter ventures into the gospel field with tremendously pleasant versions of "God Put a Rainbow in the Cloud", "Just a Closer Walk With Thee", "The Wayfaring Stranger" and others. All of these deserved the heavy air play on easy listening radio stations.

"We Dig Mancini!" has a measure of notoriety unrelated to its musical merits because it won the Grammy for Best Performance by a Vocal Group over the Beatles' "Help!" in 1965, making it a target of derision for those who see it as a symbol of the industry's eagerness to embrace a square vocal group over an adventurous rock & roll act.