The Harmonicats

Formed as a harmonica trio with Jerry Murad handling lead, Al Fiore supplying chording, and Don Les anchoring bass, the Harmonicats achieved a massive number one hit in 1947 with "Peg O' My Heart" and sustained their audience through the 1950s, earning a Top 20 album placement as late as 1961 with Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White. Their harmonica treatments focused chiefly on popular standards and produced an uncommon ensemble texture for the period or any other, since the instruments seldom appear together in mainstream music. Decades afterward the catalog retains a period novelty character, particularly because the group favored sentimental material that later ears can find overly sweet, yet the same unusual lineup can also strike listeners as inventive. The Harmonicats remained active on Columbia into the late 1960s and explored then-current songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Get Off of My Cloud" on the 1966 LP What's New, Harmonicats?. The ensemble kept performing even after Murad's death in 1996.