Fred Waring Biography
Frederic Malcolm Waring, 9 June 1900, Tyrone, Pennsylvania, USA, d. 29 July 1984, Danville, Pennsylvania, USA. Waring began playing banjo at the age of 16 and soon formed his own dance band. He graduated to violin and was still at school when, after being turned down for membership of the Glee Club, he augmented his band to give it greater vocal content. This unit he called the Pennsylvanians and, conceived though it may have been as an act of reprisal, it certainly outlived its original purpose. By the 30s Waring's Pennsylvanians, by now boasting a fully-fledged choir, were a popular broadcasting group, had appeared on Broadway and made a film. In addition, the ensemble was in the cast of the 1930 musical The New Yorkers, which had a score by Cole Porter.
The band had a number of hit recordings, their popularity continuing through the 40s and into the early 50s. Although musical tastes had changed drastically and Waring's music, redolent as it was of straw hats, lazy summer days and automobiles with running boards, was out of fashion, he soldiered on. Eventually, he made his farewell appearance in 1980 with a concert at Carnegie Hall. In 1981 he was awarded the Medal of Honour by President Ronald Reagan. Waring was a musical perfectionist and, as one writer has observed, laboured long and mightily on material which was seldom worthy of the care he lavished upon it.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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