The Andrews Sisters

The Andrews Sisters achieved unmatched commercial dominance among American female vocal ensembles during the opening decades of the twentieth century. One accounting credits the trio with 113 singles-chart appearances between 1938 and 1951, equaling more than eight entries each year on average. Their buoyant, tightly interwoven harmonies suited buoyant novelty material especially well, and the sophistication of their vocal writing together with their rhythmic precision recalled the swing orchestras that served as their principal rivals during the height of their popularity. In practical terms, however, they encountered almost no serious challengers. No other female group and only a handful of male acts approached their record of accomplishment from the late thirties through the early fifties, years when large bands and then individual singers controlled the marketplace. Their long reign remains striking because they largely ignored prevailing musical fashions yet conveyed the impression of effortless navigation.

Born in Mound, Minnesota, to a Greek immigrant father and a Norwegian immigrant mother who operated a restaurant in Minneapolis, the three sisters—LaVerne Andrews (July 6, 1911–May 8, 1967), Maxene Andrews (January 3, 1916–October 21, 1995), and Patty Andrews (February 16, 1918)—began performing as youngsters on local radio and in amateur shows, with Patty taking the lead part, Maxene supplying the upper harmony, and LaVerne the lower line. The Boswell Sisters, who enjoyed several successes in the early thirties, provided a strong model. Their first paid booking occurred in December 1932 at Minneapolis’s Orpheum Theatre. Six months of vaudeville travel across the Midwest followed in late 1933, after which their parents shuttered the restaurant to manage the act full-time; the sisters spent 1934 through 1937 touring with various bands. In 1937 they reached New York with Leon Belasco’s orchestra and cut their initial sides, issued under Belasco’s name, for Brunswick Records. When that ensemble disbanded that summer, Decca Records signed the trio independently, seeking a replacement for the recently dissolved Boswell Sisters whom the label had previously recorded with success.

Their second Decca release, the Yiddish-theater song “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen” rendered in English, became an enormous success; it entered Your Hit Parade on January 8, 1938, and reached number one two weeks later. Radio exposure and live appearances multiplied rapidly thereafter. They returned to the hit parade in April 1939 with the novelty number “Hold Tight, Hold Tight.” Signed to Universal Pictures, they completed the first of seventeen low-budget films between 1940 and 1948, beginning with Argentine Nights that year; they also supplied voices for two Disney animated features. A Top Ten Billboard placement arrived in 1940 with “Ferryboat Serenade (La Piccinina).” Their 1941 Top Ten entry “I’ll Be With You in Apple Blossom Time” appeared in the film Buck Privates, while “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” reached the Top Twenty the same year.

Once the United States entered World War II the sisters performed often at military installations and later entertained troops abroad. Recording slowed during the musicians’ union strike that started in 1942, yet they still scored a Top Ten hit that year with “Strip Polka.” After Decca reached a settlement with the union in 1943, a string of successes followed, many in tandem with Bing Crosby. The million-selling “Pistol Packin’ Mama” backed with “Vict’ry Polka” became a two-sided hit with Crosby across 1943–1944; the trio itself topped the charts with “Shoo-Shoo Baby” in January 1944. Before year’s end they and Crosby reached number one again with the double-sided release “(There’ll Be A) Hot Time in the Town of Berlin (When the Yanks Go Marching In)” / “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t (Ma’ Baby)” and with Cole Porter’s “Don’t Fence Me In.”

At the close of 1944 the Andrews Sisters launched their own weekly network radio program, Eight-to-the-Bar Ranch, while continuing to place hits. The calypso tune “Rum and Coca-Cola” rose to number one in February 1945 and became the year’s biggest seller. Additional Top Ten records that year were “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive” and “Along the Navajo Trail,” both with Crosby, and “The Blond Sailor.” In 1946 the gold-selling “South America, Take It Away” (with Crosby), “Rumors Are Flying” (with guitarist Les Paul), and “Christmas Island” (with Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians) all reached the Top Ten. The following year brought further Top Ten entries: “Tallahassee” (with Crosby), “Near You,” and “The Lady From 29 Palms.” Ranked as the leading recording artists of 1948, they placed four more Top Ten singles that year: “Civilization (Bongo, Bongo, Bongo)” (with Danny Kaye), “Toolie Oolie Doolie (The Yodel Polka),” “Underneath the Arches,” and “You Call Everybody Darling.”

After 1948 their recording career cooled as they concentrated on nightclub work and as Patty Andrews assumed greater prominence while also pursuing a parallel solo career. Their next major success, the gold single “I Can Dream, Can’t I?,” featured Patty on lead with her sisters backing and reached number one in January 1950; “I Wanna Be Loved,” arranged similarly, topped the charts in June. Their final Top Ten placement came in 1951 with another Crosby collaboration, “Sparrow in the Tree Top.” They remained with Decca until the end of 1953, when Patty departed for solo work and Maxene and LaVerne continued performing as the Andrews Sisters. The three reconciled in June 1956. Subsequent recordings for Capitol (1956–1959) and Dot (1961–1967) yielded no commercial success. LaVerne retired because of illness in fall 1966 and was replaced by Joyce de Young; she died of cancer the next spring. The trio’s last performance together occurred in July 1968. Maxene then accepted a position at Lake Tahoe Paradise College of Fine Arts. Patty resumed solo activity and appeared in the 1971 Los Angeles revue Victory Canteen, which expanded into the Broadway book musical Over Here!; Maxene joined the cast, and the show’s cast album charted along with additional Andrews Sisters compilations.

A dispute with the Over Here! producers and between the sisters themselves prompted the Broadway run to close early on January 4, 1975, and canceled a planned national tour. Maxene and Patty remained estranged thereafter, though they made occasional joint appearances and Patty visited Maxene during her 1982 hospitalization for a heart attack. Both sisters sustained individual careers into the 1990s. Maxene suffered a fatal heart attack in fall 1995 while on vacation from her role in the off-Broadway musical Swingtime Canteen. Patty, the last surviving member, died at her Los Angeles home in January 2013 at age ninety-four.