Fred Waring

Fredrick Malcolm Waring (June 9, 1900–July 29, 1984) was a popular musician, bandleader, and radio and TV personality of the 20th century, sometimes referred to as "the man who taught America how to sing."

Waring was born on June 9, 1900 in Tyrone, Pennsylvania. From an early age he showed an affinity for music, making his first stage appearance at the age of five and leading the local Boy Scout drum corps a few years later. As a teenager Waring, his brother Tom, neighbor Freddie Buck, and friend Poley McClintock formed the Waring-McClintock Snap Orchestra. In their college days the quartet became known as Waring's Banjo Orchestra, playing various parties, proms and local dances at Penn State College. The band, with its fast-paced playing style and unique vocals, became so popular that Waring decided to abandon his studies in architectural engineering and tour with the band full-time.

Throughout the 1920’s Waring and the growing band (now called "The Pennsylvanians") toured from coast to coast. In Hollywood they starred in several motion pictures including Syncopation, Varsity Show, and several short-themed &"talkies". Waring and the Pennsylvanians were in at the infancy of the recording industry; their audition recording of the waltz tune “Sleep” for Thomas Edison became their first theme song. With the Victor Talking Machine Company (later RCA Victor) they would make one of the first commercial electronic sound recordings. (By 1980, Waring and the Pennsylvanians had recorded over 1,500 songs on more than 100 albums.)

In the 1930’s Warning and the Pennsylvanians, now a 55-piece orchestra, achieved national exposure with a 6-month engagement at New York’s Roxy Theater and their first radio program. Waring chose two theme songs for his programs, which would become attached to the band forever, opening his shows with “I Hear Music” and closing with “Sleep.”

It was also during the 1930’s that Waring helped refine the design for an electrical blender. Waring (a teetotaler) once touted the blender by saying, "…this mixer is going to revolutionize American drinks." Waring blenders became an essential appliance for every “modern kitchen.” It was said that Waring blenders were used by Jonas Salk for developing his polio vaccine.

When he decided to add a men’s singing group to his growing ensemble, he recruited a young man named Robert Shaw, recently out of the Pomona College glee club in California, to train his singers. Shaw, of course, went on to found the Robert Shaw Chorale, direct the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, and become America’s preeminent conductor of "serious" choral music -- although the decidedly "schmaltzy" recordings of the men of the Robert Shaw Chorale contain strong echoes of the famous Waring glee club sound.

During the war years, Waring and his ensemble appeared at countless war bond rallies and entertained the troops at training camps. He also composed and/or performed dozens of patriotic songs, his most famous being “My America.” Throughout the 1940s and early 1950s Waring and The Pennsylvaninans produced a string of hits, selling millions of records, and remained among the best known musical groups in the nation. A few of his many choral hits include "Sleep," "Battle Hymn of the Republic," "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," "Button Up Your Overcoat," "White Christmas," and "Dancing In The Dark."

In 1947, Waring began holding summer choral workshops at his Pennsylvania headquarters in Shawnee-on-the Delaware. For 37 years, talented young musicians from all over America flocked to these sessions and were taught to sing with precision, sensitivity and enthusiasm by the meticulous Waring. Among the many techniques the “maestro” shared with his pupils was his method of pronouncing “every sound of every syllable of every word,” thereby making the words of a song as clear to the audience as the music. The inspired singers then went home and shared what they had learned with fellow musicians, and Waring’s approach to choral singing spread throughout the nation. His reputation as “the man who taught America how to sing” was well earned.

Waring expanded into television in 1949 with The Fred Waring Show on CBS. The program ran until 1955 and received several awards for Best Musical Program. In the 60s and 70s, popular musical tastes turned from choral music, but Waring changed with the times, introducing his “Young Pennsylvanians,” a group of fresh-faced, long-haired, bell-bottomed performers who sang both old favorites and “choralized” arrangements of contemporary songs. In this way he continued to be a popular touring attraction, logging some 40,000 miles a year.

Ron Ketelsen, a "Young Pennsylvanians" singer in the late 70s, remembers Fred Waring with both awe and affection. "Whenever he entered a room, people stood up," Ketelsen said. "He was extremely well respected. No one ever called him 'Fred' - it was always "Mr. Waring." Ketelsen also remembers his witty repartee with his audiences between musical numbers. As a judge of the "Miss America" competition, Waring sometimes invited contestants onto his shows, and might comment on the brevity of their outfits by saying, "The women's costumes aren't quite finished yet, but I'm sure you'll enjoy what you do see."

Throughout his career, Fred Waring received many awards, but none was as illustrious as his last one. In 1983, the 83-year-old Waring -- by now considered king of popular choral music -- was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation’s highest honor for a civilian, by President Ronald Reagan.

Fred Waring died suddenly on July 29, 1984 at the place where it all began -- Penn State University -- just after videotaping a concert with his ensemble and completing his annual summer choral workshop. The always-popular bandleader/choral conductor had spent a lifetime entertaining a nation and had, indeed, taught it how to sing. For almost 70 years this untiring artist and his beloved "Pennsylvanians" had performed before, and enchanted, audiences too numerous to count. There is little doubt that "Mr. Waring" did more to popularize choral music in America than any other person.

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