Hey everyone in the hi-lo's family!

Nice to hear that my favourite website will stay up.

I think we need to start some new nice discussions.

I agree, Simon. I would like to start by asking a question. What changed, if anything, about the sound of the Hi-Lo's when Bob S. left and Don S. arrived? Did anything suffer or was anything enhanced as to timbre, blend, balance, etc? This has been addressed before, but I would like any further comments and perhaps a summary.

Thanks,
Uncle Yar

Hey Simon,

I'm a little rusty on my Swedish, but does that headline mean something to the effect that you are terribly delighted that the website is remaining?

Yaryelrug,
I think that Bob S had a more secret voice than Don. I think they were more like one voice with strasen. I also think that with Don they had a higher sound, maybe because they were three tenors. I like the old lower sound abit more, we call it " the dark-hair sound"
But I can feel that in some way they became a more skillful group with don but I like the Strasen-sound more and olso the older record-quality.

Bobby,

Yes thats correct.

I've occasionally wondered if Gene felt like the "low man on the totem pole" when it comes to musical ability.

Both Clark and Bob Morse were very talented singers and musicians. Don attended the Navy School of Music, could play woodwinds quite well, and sight-read vocal arrangements with ease. Gene never had any formal music training at all. However, he could arrange vocals in a way that are still as fresh and exciting today as they were more than 50 years ago.

What do you think?

I think that Gene was most certainly his toughest critic. I know he often felt a bit uneasy because it took him so long to come up with these incredible arrangements. I think the whole process of "birthing" an arrangement could be tough on him. That's just my feeling after speaking to him and reading several articles/interviews.

I know Gene loved having Clark and Bob Morse around simply because they were so fricking good. He felt with that he could take chances and go anywhere with them aboard. Clark and Morse were bionic singers who had unreal range, could sight-sing well, knew how to blend, and had very little vibrato--crucial when dealing with Gene's voicings. As Clare Fischer
once said, the sound of Morse and Burroughs on the top of a chord "had an intensity" that no one could match. Later on, Don Shelton's voice, I believe, brought a more piercing quality to the group. He was like a trumpet while Morse's voice had a more burnished sound to the top end--but with a slight edge. My two cents as it were.

Jim Bridges ('Bean)