The Fleetwoods - Come Softly To Me

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Although the Fleetwoods' sound was smooth, without many of the rougher edges of doo wop groups, they were one of the few white vocal groups of the late '50s and early '60s to enjoy success not only on the pop charts, but also the R&B charts. The Fleetwoods' forte was ballads -- beginning with their 1959 debut single, "Come Softly to Me," the group racked up a number of hits over the next three years, and nearly all of them were ballads. The group broke up in 1963, but their songs -- particularly "Come Softly to Me" -- became pop-rock classics of the pre-British Invasion era.

Gretchen Christopher, Barbara Ellis, and Gary Troxell formed the Fleetwoods while attending high school in Olympia, WA. Originally, the group consisted only of Christopher and Ellis, but the duo soon asked Troxell to accompany them on trumpet. Shortly after his arrival in the group, Troxell abandoned the trumpet and concentrated on singing once the other two members heard a portion of a song he had written. Following some contributions from Christopher and Ellis, the group had written "Come Softly to Me." They began performing the song at various events around Olympia, eventually gaining the attention of Bob Reisdorff, who ran the Seattle-based label, Dolphin Records.

Dolphin released "Come Softly to Me" early in 1959 and the song became an instant hit, climbing to number one on the pop charts and number five on the R&B charts; it also reached the Top Ten in U.K. The Fleetwoods weren't able to immediately produce a follow-up single as successful as their debut, but their third single, "Mr. Blue," was a number one pop and Top Five R&B hit in the U.S. in late 1959. By the time of its release, Dolphin had changed its name to Dolton. For the next three years, the Fleetwoods had a string of minor pop hits. The group wasn't able to consistently place singles in the upper regions of the charts partially because Troxell was drafted into the navy at the height of the group's popularity at the end of 1959. Troxell was replaced by Vic Dana, who would later have a string of his own hit singles in the early '60s.

The Fleetwoods last Top Ten single arrived in the spring of 1961, when "Tragedy" climbed the U.S. charts. The group disbanded two years later, after releasing their final single, a cover of Jesse Belvin's "Goodnight My Love." Over the next three decades, the Fleetwoods reunited occasionally to perform concerts and oldies revues. In 1973, the group recorded an album with producer Jerry Dennon, but the resulting recordings were unsuccessful. In 1990, the Fleetwoods -- featuring Christopher, Troxell, and instead of Ellis a singer called Cheryl Huggins -- played a tour on the American oldies circuit after Rhino released the compact disc collection, The Best of the Fleetwoods. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Category:

Education

Tags:

• vocal
• doo
• wop
• pop

[fbenenati]

Mr. Troxel, if you read this, I am searching for your half brother Jerry. He started dental school with me at Creighton University in 1969 but only stayed four weeks. I have wondered since then, what happened to him. Please advise if you read this.

BTW, this song and all of the others by the Fleetwoods are great !!

[John1948Five]

@fbenenati You can reach Gary Troxel through the Fleetwoods website - thefleetwoods[DOT]us/html/cont­act_us - Just replace [DOT] with a period.

[fbenenati]

@John1948Five Sir, thanks so much for your help. I will give it a try. From your YouTube identifier, I suspect that you are only a year younger than I am. I was born in 1947. Am I correct? I sure hope that Gary replies. It would be fun to connect with his half brother Jerry after forty-two years.

[John1948Five]

@fbenenati Yes, I was born in 1948. Here's another coincidence - I got my MBA from Creighton University. It's a small world.

[ultraroadmap]

There were far more concerns in 1969 than in 1959...I was 13 and 14 in 69 but despite all of the negatives in the world, we were still happy kids doing happy kid things...if that's how I felt in 69, I would have been in ecstatic bliss in 1959!!

[John1948Five]

@ultraroadmap You nailed it! In 1959 we never locked our car. We never locked the door to our house. My parents let us run all over town unsupervised and free because it was safe. There were 2000 people living in Millard, NE and anywhere I went someone knew me and would watch out for me.

[felixbautista]

Heard this over and over the Pledge on Channel 9 and never knew it's title not until now. Really enjoyed listening to it. Thanks for uploading.

[John1948Five]

Yes, they were just great.

[southpole419]

I heard this on the green lantern bar scene(:

[fujitsu2171]

This song was played at the last mission in MAFIA 2 :D and I didn't finished the mission, I waited the song to come to end :D ^^

[greasegun49]

Thank you for this upload. I'm 62 and this song brings to me a plethora of memories, some good, some...not so good. Regardless, it's one of only a few "Oldies" that can really take me back to the days when everything was new, and fresh, and begging to be discovered. It's a haunting echo of youth gone by; a beautiful accompaniment to coming of age. So serene, a song to think by. Softly...

[RazorLandStudio]

This was #1 the day I was born

[musicstudio83]

Thank you John 1948five for this song I love it ....brings back beautiful memories of days gone by..

[liop871]

I first found this song on mafia 2 then on green latern which I watched today.

[MrGuerish]

in MAFIA II is my favorite song

[santiagogayhost]

@sliccflip the same as me!! the movie brought me here.

[Elixx123]

my choir is doing this at school...

Sight reading and having to keep up with the "dom dom, dom do dom be do be dooo" was one of the hardest things i've had to do. :s