Biography
The Charleston Trio took its name with no connection whatsoever to the dance step or to any municipality sharing that designation. In this instance the moniker functioned purely as a commercial device rather than an authentic marker of group identity. An earlier Charleston Trio had assembled three 1920s session musicians whose work appeared under assorted pseudonyms, yet none of those recordings ever bore the Charleston Trio credit. During the mid-1960s three gifted siblings who regularly harmonized inside Nashville studios saw some of their tracks issued under the Charleston Trio banner.
Any researcher tracing a song or ensemble title to its geographic namesake would have searched in vain for links between this Charleston Trio and either West Virginia or South Carolina. The Glaser family hailed from Nebraska, where Tompall Glaser, Chuck Glaser, and Jim Glaser grew up as the youngest of six children on a farm. The brothers had already formed a professional vocal trio by their early teens and secured their initial national exposure in 1957 by winning Arthur Godfrey's Talent Show. They maintained a presence on television and later toured with country balladeer Marty Robbins. In 1958 the siblings moved to Nashville and began cutting records, among them a version of “Yakety Yak” that owed more to the Coasters than to Charleston. Decca contracted them as a folk act, though the Glasers pursued a country direction instead. Their association with Robbins proved decisive: they supplied background vocals on hits such as “El Paso” and contributed the song “Running Gun” to his catalog of western material.
The vocal trio also collaborated with Johnny Cash on tours and supplied backing voices on the major Cash success “Ring of Fire.” Additional sessions placed them alongside Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline, George Jones, and Hank Snow. Each brother separately distinguished himself as a songwriter. Jim Glaser penned the query “Woman, Woman, Have You Got Cheating on Your Mind?,” later popularized by Gary Puckett & the Union Gap. Tompall Glaser and Harlan Howard wrote the much-covered “Streets of Baltimore,” which found its way to recordings by Bobby Bare, Charley Pride, and Gram Parsons. In the mid-1960s material the brothers had already tracked first surfaced as Charleston Trio releases on the Bravo label; even dedicated Glaser collectors remain uncertain whether three or five separate singles appeared under the name across roughly half that many imprints, a fractional count that points to involvement by the Pickwick organization. During the 1970s the brothers opened Glaser Sound Studios in Nashville and, after 1973, ceased working together as a vocal group available for hire.
Any researcher tracing a song or ensemble title to its geographic namesake would have searched in vain for links between this Charleston Trio and either West Virginia or South Carolina. The Glaser family hailed from Nebraska, where Tompall Glaser, Chuck Glaser, and Jim Glaser grew up as the youngest of six children on a farm. The brothers had already formed a professional vocal trio by their early teens and secured their initial national exposure in 1957 by winning Arthur Godfrey's Talent Show. They maintained a presence on television and later toured with country balladeer Marty Robbins. In 1958 the siblings moved to Nashville and began cutting records, among them a version of “Yakety Yak” that owed more to the Coasters than to Charleston. Decca contracted them as a folk act, though the Glasers pursued a country direction instead. Their association with Robbins proved decisive: they supplied background vocals on hits such as “El Paso” and contributed the song “Running Gun” to his catalog of western material.
The vocal trio also collaborated with Johnny Cash on tours and supplied backing voices on the major Cash success “Ring of Fire.” Additional sessions placed them alongside Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline, George Jones, and Hank Snow. Each brother separately distinguished himself as a songwriter. Jim Glaser penned the query “Woman, Woman, Have You Got Cheating on Your Mind?,” later popularized by Gary Puckett & the Union Gap. Tompall Glaser and Harlan Howard wrote the much-covered “Streets of Baltimore,” which found its way to recordings by Bobby Bare, Charley Pride, and Gram Parsons. In the mid-1960s material the brothers had already tracked first surfaced as Charleston Trio releases on the Bravo label; even dedicated Glaser collectors remain uncertain whether three or five separate singles appeared under the name across roughly half that many imprints, a fractional count that points to involvement by the Pickwick organization. During the 1970s the brothers opened Glaser Sound Studios in Nashville and, after 1973, ceased working together as a vocal group available for hire.
Albums