Four Freshmen Day By Day

Day by Day consists of 15 tracks recorded in 1962 for broadcast on a public-service program sponsored by the Navy. Though these cuts aren't as polished as the album versions, most of the Four Freshmen's best-known songs are here: "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring," the title track, "Route 66," and "Lulu's Back in Town." The arrangements are loose, and the solos are a bit more sprightly than their original versions. "Once in Love with Amy," recorded with Russ Barbour doing his best Donald Duck impersonation, will strike listeners as either hilarious or abrasive.

The Four Freshmen were one of the top vocal groups of the 1950s, and formed the bridge between '40s ensembles like the Mel-Tones and harmony-based rock & roll bands such as the Beach Boys as well as groups like Spanky & Our Gang and the Manhattan Transfer. The group's roots go back to the end of the 1940s and a barbershop quartet-influenced outfit called Hal's Harmonizers, organized at the Arthur Jordan Conservatory of Butler University in Indiana by two brothers, Ross and Don Barbour.

A vintage and influential vocal group formed in the 1950s, the Four Freshmen's harmonic-drenched vocal style would set the stage for the Beach Boys and many others in the decades that followed, and to hear the quartet in full flight backed by jazz horns and arrangements is indeed something special, particularly since the Freshmen stack their vocals like a horn chart anyway. It makes for fun stuff, and it's heartbreakingly gorgeous more often than not. Highlights here include the breezy opening track, "Laura," the stone cold classic "Graduation Day," and the closer, "Goodnight Sweetheart." These guys must have eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner with the angels, because angels are what they sound like.

'' 1000 Original Hits '' is the title of a compilation series published by EMI Plus (Europe). This release contains portions of this series, released in 2001, containing works performed from 1950 to 1959.