The “Golden Hits Of The 60s” 

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LITTLE DIPPERS  

“FOREVER“

(Buddy Killen)

University 210

No. 9    March 28, 1960

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If not for the heartache of producer Buddy Killen and the ethereal talent of Anita  Kerr–unsung

heroes both–“Forever” would not be.

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Buddy was having a rough time coming to grips with a marital breakup;  the summer of ’59.  “I’d

close my office door, wanting to withdraw from other people,” he wrote in his book, By The Seat

Of My Pants. “I’d sit down at the piano…a terrible­ sounding piano, miserably out of tune, with

half the keys missing.  I could barely play the piano, but I would clumsily and slowly form three-

note chords.”

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One day, Buddy hit a special chord and started humming.  Jane Hines, his secretary noted it’s

extraordinariness; as did other office visitors.  “Gee whiz,” thought Killen, “if  it’s that good, I think I

better make a demo on it. When Harold Sadler, a disgruntled Little Rock, Arkansas Chevrolet dealer,

decided to start a record company [University] and approached Buddy about helping him cut some

sides Killen remembered that tune; “Forever” he called it.  The session was for Smilin’ Eddie Hill, a

sometime singer and country DJ.  With two songs in the can and  20 minutes to spare, Buddy showed

his break-up ode to those studio musicians present:  Floyd Cramer (piano), Hank Garland (guitar),

Buddy Harmon (drums) Kelso Herston (guitar), BOB MOORE (bass), and the Anita Kerr Singers.

Wrote Killen:  “We  made one false start and had time to make a final take and the session was over.” 

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” Two By Four,” an instrumental track, featuring Kelso Herston in the style of Duane Eddy was to be

the top side.  Within days, it was apparent that Buddy Killen and his buddy, the Chevy dealer, had a hit

on their hands;  a hit with the “B” side, “Forever.”  Dick Clark called Buddy saying he wanted the

“group” to be on his “American Bandstand.”   Although others were assembled to tour as the Little

Dippers (reportedly, Delores Dinning,  Emily  Gilmore, Darrel  McCall, and Hunshel Wigintin) the

actual voices heard on “Forever” were that of Anita Kerr and her behind-the-scene singers.

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She was talented and  ambitious, but no one could have guessed that Anita could become involved

in–some claim–“possibly half”  of  all the records that came out of Nashville in the ’50s and ’60s.

She was born Anita Jean Grob on October 31, 1927, in Memphis.  For 11 years, beginning at the age

of four, she took  piano lessons.  While still in elementary school,  she arranged songs for her church

and  formed the secular-singing   Grilli  Sisters to  perform  on her mother’s radio programson WREC.

 By age 14, she was a staff pianist at the Memphis station, and after graduation,  moved  to Nashville

to search out fame and fortune.

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Anita made ends meet for several years by playing piano in local night spots.  In 1949,  she formed her

first professional group with Dottie Dillard (alto), Louis Nunley (baritone), and Gil Wright (tenor).

The   Anita Kerr Singers/Quartet made radio appearances, and soon found that elusive cloud with the

silver lining–studio back-up work.

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For the next 10 to 15 years, the Anita Kerr Singers sang on piles of disks recorded in Nashville. To list

all of their credits would be an encyclopedic task, but–to mention a mere sprinkling of acts–the Kerr

Singers accompanied Eddie Arnold, Chet Atkins, Brook Benton, the Browns, Perry Como, Floyd

Cramer, Jimmie Davis, Skeeter Davis, LORNE GREENE, Brenda Lee, Roy Orbison and Jim Reeves.

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Beginning in 1951, Kerr’s groupings had the first of  their very own disks issued by Decca Records.

Over  the next two decades, stacks of wax were shipped on several major labels.   Surprisingly, none

of  these ever found positions on Billboard’s C &  W singles charts.  Kerr did briefly touch the pop

charts as Anita & The So-And-So’s with “Joey Baby” (#91, 1962).

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Anita scored the Kate Jackson film Limbo (1972) and did well with  a couple of albums  in the late ’60s

(The Anita Kerr Singers Reflect on the Hits of  Burt Bacharach & Hal David and Velvet Voices and

Bold Brass). She also composed the music–with words and narrative supplied by Rod McKuen–to

seven words LPs by the San Sebastian Strings & Singers.

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“Forever” would make a One-Hit Wonder out of yet another­–talking guitar picker PETE DRAKE  and

would extend the charting success of MERCY, known primarily for “Love (Can Make You Happy).”