This Groups Best ... The Singing Americans

It has been a while, but I thought I would get back into things with The Singing Americans.

Charlie Burke and The Singing Americans had to endure a lot of turnover during their time. This is of course, not unusual in SG, but it seems The Singing Americans had more than average.

The one long-time member was Dwayne Burke (Charlie's son) who sang bass. Dwayne was not the lowest bass in SG, but he was a very good singer. He would be my choice to fill the bass position.

At baritone, there were several great choices: Ed Hill, Buddy Burton, Clayton Inman and others. I would have to go with Ed Hill. He was, at that time and over his career, as good a baritone as SG has ever seen.

The lead position is another where there are many, many great choices. Just a few are: Michael English, Ivan Parker, Scott Whitener and others. This is an extremely tough choice and you can't go wrong with several of these, but I would choose Michael English. In this time before he had become a "star", he was a tremendous vocalist and was a lot of fun to listen to.

At piano, I would go with Jerry Kelso. He was and is a fine musician with a lot of talent.

At tenor, there were many choices. Rick Strickland, Danny Funderburk, David Sutton, Greg Shockley and others were fantastic tenor singers. I would choose Danny Funderburk for this group. His renditions of "The Galilean" and "Whiter Than Snow" are SG classics.

Here are your Singing Americans:

Dwayne Burke - bass
Ed Hill - baritone
Michael English - lead
Danny Funderburk - tenor
Jerry Kelso - piano