The “Golden Hits Of The 70s”
Main MenuConcept Refinement The Author..Wayne JancikGolden Age Of The 50sGolden Age Of The 60s1970s and There After
HILLSIDE SINGERS
“I’D LIKE TO TEACH THE WORLD TO SING
(IN PERFECT HARMONY)”
(William Backer, Billy Davis, Roger Cook, Roger Greenaway)
Metromedia 231
No. 13 January 15, 1972
.
.
Producer Al Ham is a collection of moments in pop music history, a personable man with stories and snap
shots. At what now seems like the dawn of rock’n’roll, he was functioning and in top form–long before
producers were given a second glance, label credits, or much else (like money). He was a bass player and
arranger for Tex Beneke, Artie Shaw, and Glenn Miller.
As a producer with Columbia Records, he worked throughout the ’50s for acts like Tony Bennett, Rose
Mary Clooney, RAY CONNIFF, Percy Faith, Erroll Garner, the KIRBY STONE FOUR, Johnny Mathis, and
Mitch Miller (on his “Sing Along With Mitch” albums). He also produced the original cast recordings for
My Fair Lady, Gypsy, West Side Story, and Bells Are Ringing. In the intervening years, Ham has scored
films like Harlow (1965) and Stop the World, I Want to Get Off (1966); arranged and composed
commercials for Breck, Gillette, and McDonald’s; and both handpicked and groomed a number of vocal
units, the most successful of these being the Hillside Singers.
“I was the arranger and producer, and they were my group,” Ham recalled in an exclusive interview. “I
formed them explicitly for the purpose of making that record. In fact, it was our idea–Jack Wiedinman
was the president of Metromedia–to do this cover version of a Coca-Cola jingle. We got the permission
from the ad agency, BBDO, to record it.” The New Seekers muscled in on the Hillside Singers’ action with
their own version of the jingle (#7, 1972) and eventually out-sold–and outcharted–Ham’s Hillsiders.
The Hillside Singers was composed of Ham’s daughter Lori; his wife, Mary Mayo; Ron and Rick Shaw; and
a group called the Good Life (Frank, Bill, Laura, and Joelle Marino). Ham assembled the unit, worked up
an arrangement, and made the record. The disk took off, and the Hillside Singers recorded two LPs before
the downslide began.
“It was bad timing, or bad luck, but by the time we had that hit, they wanted to kill the [Metromedia] label,
if you can imagine that. We went through the motions with our albums and our touring, but by the time the
last LP was out, the label was defunct.” The Hillside Singers are still active–“it’s been pretty much an
ongoing thing, all these years, but obviously it’s not been as active as we’d like it.”