We Five

Formed in 1964 as a five-piece outfit, We Five revolved around Mike Stewart, the singer, guitarist, and banjoist who handled most of the arrangements. The remaining lineup consisted of Pete Fullerton on bass and vocals, lead singer Beverly Bivens, Bob Jones handling six- and twelve-string electric guitars plus vocals, and Jerry Burgan on vocals and acoustic guitar. Production came from Frank Werber, manager of the Kingston Trio, a connection explained by Stewart’s relation to that group’s John Stewart.

Their debut album placed the ensemble stylistically between the New Christy Minstrels and the Byrds, mixing folk material with Broadway selections whose large-scale scoring the five musicians could not fully replicate. Among these were “My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music, Bernstein and Sondheim’s “Tonight” from West Side Story, and George Gershwin’s “I Got Plenty o’ Nothin’” from Porgy and Bess. Stewart supplied a solid catalog of originals, and the band together with Werber demonstrated skill at unearthing suitable outside material.

Acoustic guitars and layered high harmonies gave the group a luminous, airy texture reminiscent of the Seekers yet pointing ahead to Spanky & Our Gang and the Mamas & the Papas, as illustrated by their reading of “Cast Your Fate to the Wind.” The same ear for promising compositions led them to Sylvia Fricker’s “You Were on My Mind,” drawn from Ian & Sylvia’s Northern Journey album. Issued by A&M Records, the track became a major success amid the 1965–1966 folk-rock surge. Bivens delivered a powerful vocal on the single that recalled Judy Henske more than the typical female folk performers of the period; on other tracks she evoked a youthful Joan Baez or Elaine “Spanky” McFarlane. Crispian St. Peters later recorded the song, achieving substantial chart success in Britain and more modest results in the United States.

Further hits proved elusive. A 1966 single, “Let’s Get Together,” reached the Top 40 but quickly faded, even though the arrangement echoed the original Jefferson Airplane version. The follow-up album Make Someone Happy attempted a tougher, blues-inflected direction; however, Werber’s diminished interest meant the record appeared only after the original members had already disbanded.

Stewart assembled a new configuration that continued into the close of the 1960s, releasing Catch the Wind on Vault. That collection featured covers of a Donovan number, George Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun,” Gordon Lightfoot’s “Early Morning Rain,” a John Stewart composition, and additional contemporary pieces. By then audience attention had shifted elsewhere. Occasional reunions on the oldies circuit employed substitute musicians, yet the group’s substantive activity concluded in 1967. Stewart and Jones briefly formed the band West, after which Stewart worked with his brother John and with Kenny Rankin; Fullerton moved in and out of the music business through the late 1960s and early 1970s.