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66-404: Stop Pretending may refer to: Stop Pretending, a 1940 single by The Ink Spots Stop Pretending (album) , a 1986 album by The Pandoras Stop Pretending: What Happened When My Big Sister Went Crazy , a 1999 novel in verse by Sonya Sones Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

132-670: A Time , Fallout , and Heroes . Recordings by the Ink Spots have been featured in the popular Fallout video game franchise . Their recording of "Maybe" was used as the opening theme of Fallout (1997), as well as in the epilogue. It was also played on the in-game radio station Galaxy News Radio in Fallout 3 (2008), alongside their recordings of "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" and "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall". "I Don't Want to Set

198-508: A ballad entitled "Where You Are". The following year, the Ink Spots were featured in an Abbott and Costello film, Pardon My Sarong . In this film, the Ink Spots play singing waiters in a nightclub. They sing the ballad "Do I Worry?" and the swing song "Shout Brother Shout". In 1943, Ink Spots baritone singer and guitarist Fuqua was drafted into the US Army . He chose his friend Bernie Mackey to be his temporary replacement until he returned to

264-446: A bit of dancing to conclude their act, and the leading guitarist simultaneously plays and juggles with his instrument. They first recorded for Victor Records in 1935. Their early recordings included such songs as "Swingin' On The Strings", "Your Feet's Too Big", "Don't 'Low No Swingin' In Here" and "Swing, Gate, Swing". Despite their rising popularity as performers, their early records were not commercially successful. In 1936, Daniels

330-446: A cappella groups is to simulate an instrumental rhythm section, often alongside a vocal percussionist or beatboxer . Some notable vocal bass artists are Tim Foust , Adam Chance , Bobby McFerrin , Al Jarreau , Reggie Watts , Alvin Chea , Joe Santoni , Avi Kaplan , Matt Sallee , Chris Morey , Geoff Castellucci . Many hip hop artists and rappers use scat singing to come up with

396-399: A good response, it was not very successful in terms of record sales and did not reach the pop chart. On January 12, 1939, the Ink Spots entered Decca studios to record a ballad written by a young songwriter named Jack Lawrence . This ballad, "If I Didn't Care", was to be one of their biggest hits, selling over 19 million copies and becoming the 8th- best-selling single of all time . This is

462-520: A kind of musical parity" and are "at times so close in timbre and so inextricably interwoven within the music's fabric as to be nearly indistinguishable." Dick Higgins likewise attributes scat singing to traditions of sound poetry in African-American music. In West African music , it is typical to convert drum rhythms into vocal melodies; common rhythmic patterns are assigned specific syllabic translations. However, this theory fails to account for

528-556: A quartet when Jones joined the following year. In July 1934, they accepted a booking at the Apollo Theater , New York, supporting jazz bandleader Tiny Bradshaw . At this point they had changed their name to "The 4 Ink Spots". Later that year, the Ink Spots achieved international success touring the UK with Jack Hylton 's Orchestra, one review in the Melody Maker stating: The sensation of

594-454: A song a flavor." Morton also once boasted, "Tony Jackson and myself were using scat for novelty back in 1906 and 1907 when Louis Armstrong was still in the orphan's home." Don Redman and Fletcher Henderson also featured scat vocals in their 1925 recording of "My Papa Doesn't Two-Time No Time" five months prior to Armstrong's 1926 recording of "Heebie Jeebies." It was Armstrong's February 1926 performance of "Heebie Jeebies," however, that

660-637: A vocal duo called "Jerry and Charlie", and performed in the Indianapolis area around 1931. About the same time, Jones and Watson were part of a quartet, "The Four Riff Brothers", who appeared regularly on radio station WLW in Cincinnati , Ohio . In 1933, that group disbanded, and Watson, Daniels and Fuqua got together to form a new vocal, instrumental and comedy group, initially called "King, Jack, and Jester". They continued to appear regularly on radio in Ohio, and became

726-484: A world-wide hit with the song " Scatman (Ski Ba Bop Ba Dop Bop) " in 1994. Vocal improviser Bobby McFerrin 's performances have shown that "wordless singing has traveled far from the concepts demonstrated by Louis Armstrong, Gladys Bentley, Cab Calloway, Anita O'Day, and Leo Watson." Vocal bass is a form of scat singing that is intended to vocally simulate instrumental basslines that are typically performed by bass players. A technique most commonly used by bass singers in

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792-438: Is considered the turning point for the medium. From the 1926 recording of "Heebie Jeebies" arose the techniques that would form the foundation of modern scat. In a possibly apocryphal story, Armstrong claimed that, when he was recording "Heebie Jeebies" with his band The Hot Five , his sheet music fell off the stand and onto the ground. Not knowing the lyrics to the song, he invented a gibberish melody to fill time, expecting

858-510: Is from a radio broadcast from 1938. The song, titled "Tune In on My Heart", features Kenny taking the lead and Jones performing the talking bass. Also in 1938, Kenny took his first feature solo in Decca studios. His feature was on a song titled "I Wish You the Best of Everything". Although not in the "Top & Bottom" format, it was a ballad and used the signature Ink Spots guitar intro. Even though it got

924-745: Is often cited as the first modern song to employ scatting, there are many earlier examples. One early master of ragtime scat singing was Gene Greene who recorded scat choruses in his song "King of the Bungaloos" and several others between 1911 and 1917. Entertainer Al Jolson scatted through a few bars in the middle of his 1911 recording of "That Haunting Melody." Gene Greene's 1917 "From Here to Shanghai," which featured faux-Chinese scatting, and Gene Rodemich 's 1924 "Scissor Grinder Joe" and "Some of These Days" also pre-date Armstrong. Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards scatted an interlude on his 1923 "Old Fashioned Love" in lieu of using an instrumental soloist. One of

990-540: Is seen walking through the set carrying a dog (Bill Kenny's actual pet) and serving drinks in "You May Be the Sweetheart of Somebody Else". The Ink Spots' music has been used in the films Get Low , Radio Days , Raging Bull , Revolutionary Road , The Shawshank Redemption , The Aviator , Iris , Sphere , Tree's Lounge , Malcolm X , Maria's Lovers , How to Make an American Quilt , Men Don't Leave , Three D  [ de ] , Joe Versus

1056-523: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame , and in 1999 they were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame . Since the Ink Spots disbanded in 1954, there have been well over a hundred vocal groups calling themselves "The Ink Spots", with and without any original members of the group. It has often been the case that these groups claimed to be "second generation" or "third generation" Ink Spots. Daniels and Fuqua formed

1122-441: The bop era of the 1940s, more highly developed vocal improvisation surged in popularity. Annie Ross , a bop singer, expressed a common sentiment among vocalists at the time: "The [scat] music was so exciting, everyone wanted to do it." And many did: Eddie Jefferson , Betty Carter , Anita O'Day , Joe Carroll , Sarah Vaughan , Carmen McRae , Jon Hendricks , Babs Gonzales , Mel Torme and Dizzy Gillespie were all singers in

1188-523: The "best vocal improviser jazz has ever had," and critics since then have been in almost universal agreement with her. During this 1930s era, other famous scat singers included Scatman Crothers —who would go on to movie and television fame —and British dance band trumpeter and vocalist Nat Gonella whose scat-singing recordings were banned in Nazi Germany . Over the years, as jazz music developed and grew in complexity, scat singing did as well. During

1254-425: The 1930s and 1940s. Their unique musical style predated the rhythm and blues and rock and roll musical genres , and the subgenre doo-wop . The Ink Spots were widely accepted in both the white and black communities, largely due to the ballad style introduced to the group by lead singer Bill Kenny . In 1989, the Ink Spots (Bill Kenny, Charlie Fuqua, Deek Watson, Jerry Daniels, and Orville Jones) were inducted into

1320-461: The 1970s renewed interest in bop scat singing, and young scat singers viewed themselves as a continuation of the classic bop tradition. The medium continues to evolve, and vocal improvisation now often develops independently of changes in instrumental jazz. During the mid-1990s, jazz artist John Paul Larkin (better known as Scatman John ) renewed interest in the genre briefly when he began fusing jazz singing with pop music and electronica , scoring

1386-583: The Crying" was used in the trailer for Fallout 4 ; that song is also played on the in-game radio station Diamond City Radio, alongside "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire", "Maybe", and "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall". The former two songs appear once more in Fallout 76 , alongside "We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)". BioShock and BioShock 2 have also made use of the group's recordings: "If I Didn't Care" and "The Best Things in Life Are Free" in

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1452-828: The Family once in 1952. In 1946, a short documentary about nightlife in New York City called "March of Time" featured a clip of the Ink Spots singing "I'd Climb The Highest Mountain" live at the Cafe Zanzibar; the clip and outtakes can be found for viewing on various websites. In 1947, cameras captured segments of the Ink Spots in live performance at the Daily Express Film Ball in London England; this footage can be obtained by British Pathe . In 1951, Snader Telescriptions produced five "soundies" (also known as music videos) of

1518-566: The Ink Spots "trademark". From 1939 until the group's disbanding in 1954, many of their songs employed this format. The year 1939 also saw the Ink Spots enjoy commercial success with five other recordings that featured Kenny in the "Top & Bottom" format. Their most successful hit of 1939 was the Lombardo, Marks & Hill ballad, "Address Unknown". Other successful hits from 1939 and early 1940 included " My Prayer ", "Bless You", " Memories of You ", and " I'm Gettin' Sentimental Over You ". Between

1584-600: The Ink Spots for their final three months. Kenny officially disbanded the Ink Spots in July 1954, after an appearance at the Bolero Bar in Wildwood , New Jersey. inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Disputes over the rights to use the Ink Spots name began in the late 1940s, resulting in many court cases. Starting in 1954, groups calling themselves "The Ink Spots" sprang up all around

1650-644: The Ink Spots included Bill Kenny, Jerry Daniels, Deek Watson, Charlie Fuqua, Hoppy Jones, Bernie Mackey, Huey Long, Cliff Givens, Billy Bowen, Herb Kenny, Adriel McDonald, Jimmy Cannady, Ernie Brown, Henry Braswell, Teddy Williams and Everett Barksdale. Pianists and arrangers included Bob Benson, Asa "Ace" Harris , Ken Bryan, Mort Howard (arranger), Bill Doggett , Ray Tunia, Harold Francis and Fletcher Smith. Some singers have tenuous ties to Deek Watson's or Charlie Fuqua's offshoot groups; many, with no credentials whatsoever, claim to be original members. The Ink Spots are television pioneers when, on November 6, 1936 they were

1716-409: The Ink Spots. These clips feature the group lip-syncing to the songs "If I Didn't Care", "You May Be the Sweetheart of Somebody Else", "The Gypsy", "I'm Heading Back to Paradise", and "It Is No Secret". Bill Kenny's wife Audrey portrays "the gypsy" in the video for "The Gypsy" and can also be seen serving food to the Ink Spots in "You May Be the Sweetheart of Somebody Else". Billy Bowen's wife Ruth Bowen

1782-586: The Light ". In 1941, the Ink Spots were featured in The Great American Broadcast starring John Payne and Alice Faye . In the film, the Ink Spots play Pullman porters who sing during their breaks and ultimately "make it big time" and sing live on the radio during a national broadcast. The group sings a short segment of " If I Didn't Care ", "Alabamy Bound", and "I've Got a Bone to Pick with You". They also provide background vocals to Faye and Payne on

1848-636: The Moon " live in Berlin, she quotes over a dozen songs, including " The Peanut Vendor ," " Heat Wave ," " A-Tisket, A-Tasket ," and " Smoke Gets in Your Eyes ." Improvisational singing of nonsense syllables occurs in many cultures, such as diddling or lilting in Ireland, German yodeling , Sámi joik , and speaking in tongues in various religious traditions. Although Louis Armstrong 's 1926 recording of " Heebie Jeebies "

1914-460: The Moon ", for instance, use the same tempo , begin with a chorus of a straight reading of the lyric, move to a "specialty chorus" introducing the scat chorus, and then the scat itself. Will Friedwald has compared Ella Fitzgerald to Chuck Jones directing his Roadrunner cartoon —each uses predetermined formulas in innovative ways. The deliberate choice of scat syllables is also a key element in vocal jazz improvisation. Syllable choice influences

1980-634: The United States. Some groups contained original members Fuqua, McDonald, Bowen, or Watson, but most had no ties to the original group whatsoever. Many groups claimed to have the rights to the name, but no one did. Still, lawsuits were filed between various groups and there was great confusion as to who owned the naming rights. Some groups avoided lawsuits by naming themselves "The Fabulous Ink Spots", "The Famous Ink Spots", "The Amazing Ink Spots", "The Sensational Ink Spots", "The Dynamic Ink Spots", and more. According to writer Marv Goldberg : "The original group

2046-672: The Volcano , Spontaneous Combustion , Carmen Miranda: Bananas is My Business , Australia , Mr. Nobody , Hyde Park on Hudson , The Rover , Twenty Bucks , Manchester by the Sea , Logorama , and Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives . The Ink Spots' music has been used in such TV shows as The Walking Dead , The Simpsons , The Visitor , The Tourist , The Singing Detective , Sanford , The Blacklist , Defiance , Arrested Development , Better Call Saul , White Collar , Watchmen , Once Upon

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2112-537: The World on Fire" also features in both the game's trailer and its opening cinematic. The song "It's a Sin to Tell a Lie" (Bill Kenny's solo, not original recording from 1941) is played on the in-game radio station Radio New Vegas in the 2010 video game Fallout: New Vegas . In 2015, the group was once again featured in the Fallout franchise, when their recording of the Russ Morgan and Seger Ellis ballad "It's All Over but

2178-522: The condition in June 1944. Jones was temporarily replaced by Cliff Givens, who filled in from October 1944 to March 1945, before a permanent replacement was found in Bill Kenny's brother (and fraternal twin) Herb Kenny. Herb Kenny sang with the group from 1945 to 1951, when he began a career as a solo artist. The last bass singer in the Ink Spots was Adriel McDonald, who was with the group from 1951 to 1954. McDonald

2244-490: The credit away, since I know better. The first man that ever did a scat number in history of this country was a man from Vicksburg, Mississippi, by the name of Joe Sims, an old comedian. And from that, Tony Jackson and myself, and several more grabbed it in New Orleans . And found it was pretty good for an introduction of a song." Lomax : "What does scat mean?" Morton : "Scat doesn't mean anything but just something to give

2310-404: The cut to be thrown out in the end, but that take of the song was the one released: "I dropped the paper with the lyrics—right in the middle of the tune. . . And I did not want to stop and spoil the record which was moving along so wonderfully . . . So when I dropped the paper, I immediately turned back into the horn and started to scatting . . . Just as nothing had happened . . . When I finished

2376-465: The early New Orleans jazz scene. ) In this manner, soloists like Louis Armstrong became able to double as vocalists, switching effortlessly between instrumental solos and scatting. Scat singing also resembles the Irish/Scottish practice of lilting or diddling, a type of vocal music that involves using nonsensical syllables to sing non-vocal dance tunes. Scat singing can allow jazz singers to have

2442-405: The early female singers to use scat was Aileen Stanley , who included it at the end of a duet with Billy Murray in their hit 1924 recording of " It Had To Be You " (Victor 19373). Jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton credited Joe Sims of Vicksburg, Mississippi , as the creator of scat around the turn of the 20th century. In a conversation between Alan Lomax and Jelly Roll Morton, Morton recounted

2508-408: The existence—even in the earliest recorded examples of scatting—of free improvisation by the vocalist. It is therefore more likely that scat singing evolved independently in the United States. Others have proposed that scat singing arose from jazz musicians' practice of formulating riffs vocally before performing them instrumentally. (The adage "If you can't sing it, you can't play it" was common in

2574-521: The first musical group to perform live on television, during an NBC test broadcast held at the NBC/RCA Building for the press. In 1948, they were the first black performers to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show . The Ink Spots made guest appearances on Milton Berle 's Texaco Star Theater on three separate occasions in 1949, on The Ed Sullivan Show three times (1948, 1950, and 1952), on Steve Allen 's Songs For Sale twice in 1952, and on Star of

2640-430: The first studio recorded example of the Ink Spots "Top & Bottom" format with Kenny singing lead and Jones performing the "talking bass". For this recording, each member was paid $ 37.50; after the record sold 200,000 copies, however, Decca destroyed the original contract and the group was paid an additional $ 3,750. This was the recording that brought the group to global fame and established the "Top & Bottom" format as

2706-589: The former, and "We Three (My Echo, My Shadow and Me)", "I'm Making Believe", and "Memories of You" in the latter. Still others were included in Mafia II and on the in-game radio stations in L.A. Noire . Scat singing Though scat singing is improvised, the melodic lines are often variations on scale and arpeggio fragments, stock patterns and riffs , as is the case with instrumental improvisers. As well, scatting usually incorporates musical structure . All of Ella Fitzgerald 's scat performances of " How High

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2772-440: The group for only a few months, Williams was replaced by Ernie Brown. Barksdale stayed with the group for about a year before being replaced by baritone vocalist and guitar player named Jimmy Cannady. This line-up of Kenny (lead tenor), Brown (second tenor), Cannady (baritone and guitar), and McDonald (bass) lasted until 1954, when the final change of lineup was made. In April 1954, Brown was replaced by Henry Braswell, who sang with

2838-502: The group. After being with the group for two years, Mackey was replaced by Huey Long in March 1945. Long completed the role as a "fill in" until Fuqua finally returned in October 1945. Jones died in October 1944, after collapsing on stage at the Cafe Zanzibar in New York City, near the height of the Ink Spots' popularity. He had been having cerebral hemorrhages for a year, and had fallen ill from

2904-550: The group. Watson went on to form a group similar in style to the Ink Spots called the Brown Dots (which later became the Four Tunes ), and his place was filled by Billy "Butterball" Bowen, who sang with the Ink Spots from 1944 to 1952. In 1952, Fuqua left the group to form his own vocal group using the name "Ink Spots". At this time, Kenny and Fuqua each owned 50% of the Ink Spots, and it was decided by court ruling that Kenny's group

2970-414: The high complexity of scatting at the same time, in harmony. An example is their version of " It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) ." The Boswell Sisters' "inventive use of scat singing was a source for Ella Fitzgerald ." As a young girl, Fitzgerald often practiced imitating Connee Boswell's scatting for hours. Fitzgerald herself would become a talented scat singer and later claimed to be

3036-410: The history of scat: Lomax : "Well, what about some more scat songs, that you used to sing way back then?" Morton : "Oh, I'll sing you some scat songs. That was way before Louis Armstrong's time. By the way, scat is something that a lot of people don't understand, and they begin to believe that the first scat numbers was ever done, was done by one of my hometown boys, Louis Armstrong. But I must take

3102-517: The idiom. Free jazz and the influence of world musicians on the medium pushed jazz singing nearer to avant-garde art music. In the 1960s Ward Swingle was the product of an unusually liberal musical education. He took the scat singing idea and applied it to the works of Bach, creating The Swingle Singers . Scat singing was also used by Louis Prima and others in the song " I Wan'na Be Like You " in Disney's The Jungle Book (1967). The bop revival of

3168-637: The medium in his 1935 opera Porgy and Bess . Following the success of Armstrong's "Heebie Jeebies," a number of popular songs featured scat singing. In June 1927, Harry Barris and Bing Crosby of bandleader Paul Whiteman 's " The Rhythm Boys " scatted on several songs including " Mississippi Mud ," which Barris had composed. On October 26, 1927, Duke Ellington 's Orchestra recorded " Creole Love Call " featuring Adelaide Hall singing wordlessly. Hall's wordless vocals and "evocative growls" were hailed as serving as "another instrument." Although creativity must be shared between Ellington and Hall as he knew

3234-525: The name "Ink Spots" it had become "public domain" and was free for anyone to use. In 1952, Fuqua left the original Ink Spots led by Kenny to form his own Ink Spots group. Fuqua recorded dozens of singles with his group for King Records as well as releasing two LP (long play) albums for Verve Records. In 1963 Fuqua's group also recorded one 45 RPM record for Ford Records. Fuqua led and was a member of various vocal groups calling themselves "The Ink Spots" until his death in 1971. Watson, who had been forced out of

3300-430: The original Ink Spots in 1944 and briefly sang with Charlie Fuqua's Ink Spots in 1952–1953, started his own vocal group using the name "The Ink Spots" in 1954. Watson made numerous recordings with his "Ink Spots" groups in the 1950s and 1960s. Many of the recordings Watson made with his groups were released and re-released on various low budget labels. Watson led various groups until his death in 1969. Legitimate members of

3366-412: The pitch, articulation , coloration, and resonance of the performance. Syllable choice also differentiated jazz singers' personal styles: Betty Carter was inclined to use sounds like "louie-ooie-la-la-la" (soft-tongued sounds or liquids) while Sarah Vaughan would prefer "shoo-doo-shoo-bee-ooo-bee" ( fricatives , plosives , and open vowels ). The choice of scat syllables can also be used to reflect

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3432-733: The programme is the coloured quartette, the Four Ink Spots. They sing in a style something between the Mills Brothers and the Three Keys , and accompany themselves on three tenor guitars and a cello — which is not bowed, but picked and slapped like a double bass. Their natural instinct for hot rhythm is exemplified in their terrific single-string solo work and their beautifully balanced and exquisitely phrased vocalisms. They exploit all kinds of rhythmic vocalisms — straight solos, concerted, scat , and instrumental imitations. They even throw in

3498-425: The record I just knew the recording people would throw it out . . . And to my surprise they all came running out of the controlling booth and said—'Leave That In.'" Armstrong's "Heebie Jeebies" became a national bestseller and, consequently, the practice of scatting "became closely associated with Armstrong." The song would serve as a model for Cab Calloway , whose 1930s scat solos inspired George Gershwin 's use of

3564-701: The rhythms of their raps. Tajai of the group Souls of Mischief states the following in the book How to Rap : "Sometimes my rhythms come from scatting. I usually make a scat kind of skeleton and then fill in the words. I make a skeleton of the flow first, and then I put words into it." The group Lifesavas describe a similar process. Rapper Tech N9ne has been recorded demonstrating exactly how this method works, and gangsta rapper Eazy-E used it extensively in his song " Eazy Street ." Some writers have proposed that scat has its roots in African musical traditions . In much African music, "human voice and instruments assume

3630-1122: The same improvisational opportunities as jazz instrumentalists: scatting can be rhythmically and harmonically improvisational without concern about the lyric. Especially when bebop was developing, singers found scat to be the best way to adequately engage in the performance of jazz. Scatting may be desirable because it does not "taint the music with the impurity of denotation." Instead of conveying linguistic content and pointing to something outside itself, scat music—like instrumental music—is self-referential and "d[oes] what it mean[s]." Through this wordlessness, commentators have written, scat singing can describe matters beyond words. Music critic Will Friedwald has written that Louis Armstrong's scatting, for example, "has tapped into his own core of emotion," releasing emotions "so deep, so real" that they are unspeakable; his words "bypass our ears and our brains and go directly for our hearts and souls." Scat singing has never been universally accepted, even by jazz enthusiasts. Writer and critic Leonard Feather offers an extreme view; he once said that "scat singing—with only

3696-488: The singers scat variations on the word "avocado" for much of the recording. In addition to such nonsensical uses of language, humor is communicated in scat singing through the use of musical quotation . Leo Watson, who performed before the canon of American popular music, frequently drew on nursery rhymes in his scatting. This is called using a compression. Similarly, Ella Fitzgerald's scatting, for example, drew extensively on popular music. In her 1960 recording of " How High

3762-560: The sounds of different instruments. The comparison of the scatting styles of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan reveals that Fitzgerald's improvisation mimics the sounds of swing-era big bands with which she performed, while Vaughan's mimics that of her accompanying bop -era small combos. Humor is another important element of scat singing. Bandleader Cab Calloway exemplified the use of humorous scatting. Other examples of humorous scatting include Slim Gaillard , Leo Watson , and Bam Brown's 1945 song "Avocado Seed Soup Symphony," in which

3828-481: The style of performance he wanted, Hall was the one who was able to produce the sound. A year later, in October 1928, Ellington repeated the experiment in one of his versions of " The Mooche ," with Getrude "Baby" Cox singing scat after a muted similar trombone solo by Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton . During the Great Depression , acts such as The Boswell Sisters regularly employed scatting on their records, including

3894-556: The title Stop Pretending . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stop_Pretending&oldid=1225932564 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages The Ink Spots#Hit singles The Ink Spots were an American vocal pop group who gained international fame in

3960-470: The years 1940 and 1949 the Ink Spots landed well over 30 hits on the US Pop Charts with 18 of them on the top 10. The group’s first Billboard #1 hit came in 1944, when they teamed up with Ella Fitzgerald to record " I'm Making Believe ". This recording featured Bill Kenny. In 1946, the Ink Spots earned another #1 spot on the US Pop Charts with " To Each His Own ". The Billy Reid composition " The Gypsy "

4026-422: Was a partnership, not a corporation, and that influenced judge Isidor Wasservogel to say, in 1955, that when Hoppy Jones died in 1944, it effectively served to terminate the partnership and that no one could truthfully use the name after that." From 1954 to the present, more than 100 groups have used the name "The Ink Spots". In 1967 US federal judge Emmet C. Choate ruled that since so many groups had been using

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4092-399: Was previously the Ink Spots' personal valet, a job given to him by Herb Kenny, with whom he had sung in a group called "The Cabineers" in the early 1940s. Due to personality clashes between Bill Kenny and Watson after Jones' death, Kenny decided he would rather carry on as the leader of the group and bought Watson's share of the group for $ 10,000, which gave him the power to kick Watson out of

4158-450: Was replaced by a 21-year-old singer from Baltimore, Bill Kenny , who signed on with the Ink Spots after winning first place in an amateur contest at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom. Three years later, Kenny was credited for bringing the group to global success with his unusual high tenor ballad singing. In 1938, after being in the group for two years, Kenny started to introduce the group to a new format that he called "Top & Bottom". This format

4224-565: Was the Ink Spots' biggest chart success, staying at the #1 position on the Billboard Best Sellers chart for 10 straight weeks in 1946. Other hits for the Ink Spots in the 1940s included " When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano ", " Maybe ", "We Three", " I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire ", " Don't Get Around Much Anymore ", " A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening ", "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall", and " I'm Beginning to See

4290-489: Was to continue on as the original "Ink Spots", while Fuqua's group was to use the name "Charlie Fuqua's New Ink Spots". Defying the court ruling, Fuqua instead called his group the "Original" Ink Spots. Fuqua was replaced in the Ink Spots by popular jazz and R&B guitarist Everett Barksdale , so the group now consisted of Bill Kenny (lead tenor), Teddy Williams (second tenor), who had replaced Bowen, Everett Barksdale (baritone and guitar), and McDonald (bass). After being with

4356-431: Was used primarily for ballads rather than the uptempo "jive" songs the group was used to performing. This format called for the tenor (Kenny or Watson) to sing the lead for one chorus followed by a chorus performed by bass singer Jones reciting the lyrics rather than singing them. After a chorus of the "talking bass" the lead tenor sang the rest of the song until the end. The earliest example of their "Top & Bottom" format

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