RadiJohan

This week in 1975 Fly Robin Fly by “Silver Convention” hit number 1 in America for the first of three weeks. The song was written with very few lyrics because the German group couldn’t speak English which made memorizing a page of lyrics in a language unfamiliar to them too difficult. The disco classic contains only six unique words. It simply repeats “fly, robin, fly” three times, with an ending of “up, up to the sky!” Initially the song was titled Run, Rabbit, Run, but the writers changed it moments before the recording took place.  Fly Robin Fly won the 1975 Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance.

Three young ladies, known as “The Andrews Sisters,” started their career as imitators of an earlier successful singing group, the “Boswell Sisters,” who were popular in the 1930s. The Andrews Sisters sang with various bands and for several radio broadcasts while they were struggling to establish a reputation during the mid-1930’s. A failed radio performance in 1937 turned out to be the sisters’ big break. Although they were fired soon after their first night on the program Saturday Night Swing Club, they were signed to a recording contract by a Decca Records executive who had heard the broadcast. On 24 November 1937 they recorded their first major hit, Bei Mir Bist Du Schön (To me, You are Beautiful). The song went on to become the first million-selling record by a female singing group. The sisters, Laverne, Maxene and Patricia, have sold an estimated 80 million records. In 1984 a dance/pop trio from The Netherlands, “The Star Sisters,” charted internationally when they recorded a medley imitating the Andrews Sisters.