Mary Ford
Encyclopedia
Mary Ford born Iris Colleen Summers, was an American vocalist and guitarist, comprising half of the husband-and-wife music
al team Les Paul
and Mary Ford. Between 1950 and 1954, the couple had 16 top-ten hits. In 1951 alone they sold six million records.
, Ford came from a musical family. Her father was a Nazarene
minister. Her parents left Missouri, traveling cross-country while singing gospel music and preaching at revival meetings across America. They eventually settled in Southern California, where they were heard over Pasadena's first Christian radio station. Her sisters and brothers were all musicians; Esther, Carol, Eva, Fletcher, jazz organist Bruce and film composer Bob Summers.
In the early 1940s Ford found work as a country music
performer with Gene Autry
and Jimmy Wakely
. She appeared with Wakely in the PRC
film I'm from Arkansas (1944) as a member of the Sunshine Girls trio. In 1945, Autry introduced her to guitarist Les Paul, and the two teamed in 1946. For billing purposes, Paul selected "Mary Ford" from a telephone directory so her name would be almost as short as his. With Paul she became one of the early practitioners of multi-tracking
. Patti Page
and Jane Turzy
were other 1950s vocalists who used multi-tracking.
", "Vaya con Dios
" (11 weeks at #1), "How High the Moon
" (nine weeks at #1), "Bye Bye Blues
" and "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise
". These songs featured Mary harmonizing
with herself, giving the vocals a very novel sound. Paul and Ford also used the now-ubiquitous recording technique known as close miking
, where the microphone is less than six inches from the singer's mouth. This produces a more intimate, less reverberant sound than when the singer is a foot or more from the microphone. It also emphasizes low-frequency sounds in the voice. The result was a singing style that diverged strongly from earlier styles, such as vocals in musical comedies of the 1930s and 1940s.
In 1952, their innovative sound was satirized by Stan Freberg
in his recording of "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" (Capitol, F 2279).
In 1953, the couple began their television series, The Les Paul and Mary Ford at Home Show. In 1955, they gave a concert at Carnegie Hall
, and the following year they performed for President Dwight Eisenhower at the White House
. In 1961, they appeared on NBC's Five Star Jubilee
.
, she married an old friend from high school, Donald Hatfield, and she occasionally performed with her sisters and brother. Bassist Red Wootten, who married Mary's sister Eva Summers, wrote his memories of playing at the Crescendo in Los Angeles with Mary, her sister Carol and her brother, Bob Summers:
In Downey, California
, Mary's sister Esther Williams played the organ in The Village Restaurant. Esther's daughter, Esther Colleen "Suzee" Williams, recalled one amusing incident at the restaurant in the years after Mary Ford and Les Paul had split up:
Mary Ford died of complications from diabetes in Arcadia, California
at the age of 53. She is buried at Forest Lawn-Covina Hills in Covina, California
. Although her year of birth has been variously reported (1924, 1925, 1928), the year 1924 is engraved on her tombstone.
, Chasing Sound premiered May 9, 2007 at the Downer Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
, followed by the television premiere July 11, 2007 on PBS as part of its American Masters
series.
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
al team Les Paul
Les Paul
Lester William Polsfuss —known as Les Paul—was an American jazz and country guitarist, songwriter and inventor. He was a pioneer in the development of the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. He is credited with many recording innovations...
and Mary Ford. Between 1950 and 1954, the couple had 16 top-ten hits. In 1951 alone they sold six million records.
Early life
Born Iris Summers in El Monte, CaliforniaEl Monte, California
El Monte is a residential, industrial, and commercial city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city's slogan is "Welcome to Friendly El Monte," and historically is known as "The End of the Santa Fe Trail." As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 113,475,...
, Ford came from a musical family. Her father was a Nazarene
Church of the Nazarene
The Church of the Nazarene is an evangelical Christian denomination that emerged from the 19th century Holiness movement in North America with its members colloquially referred to as Nazarenes. It is the largest Wesleyan-holiness denomination in the world. At the end of 2010, the Church of the...
minister. Her parents left Missouri, traveling cross-country while singing gospel music and preaching at revival meetings across America. They eventually settled in Southern California, where they were heard over Pasadena's first Christian radio station. Her sisters and brothers were all musicians; Esther, Carol, Eva, Fletcher, jazz organist Bruce and film composer Bob Summers.
In the early 1940s Ford found work as a country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
performer with Gene Autry
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
and Jimmy Wakely
Jimmy Wakely
James Clarence Wakeley , better known as Jimmy Wakely, was an American country-Western singer and actor, one of the last crooning cowpokes following World War II...
. She appeared with Wakely in the PRC
Producers Releasing Corporation
Producers Releasing Corporation was one of the more lower-end Hollywood film studios on Poverty Row from the late '30s to the mid-'40s. PRC, as it was commonly known, made low-budget B-movies for the lower-half of a double bill. A few of its films have gained a respectable reputation over the...
film I'm from Arkansas (1944) as a member of the Sunshine Girls trio. In 1945, Autry introduced her to guitarist Les Paul, and the two teamed in 1946. For billing purposes, Paul selected "Mary Ford" from a telephone directory so her name would be almost as short as his. With Paul she became one of the early practitioners of multi-tracking
Multitrack recording
Multitrack recording is a method of sound recording that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources to create a cohesive whole...
. Patti Page
Patti Page
Clara Ann Fowler , known by her professional name Patti Page, is an American singer, one of the best-known female artists in traditional pop music. She was the best-selling female artist of the 1950s, and has sold over 100 million records...
and Jane Turzy
Jane Turzy
Jane Turzy was a Chicago, Illinois-born singer of traditional pop music.She succeeded in reaching the popularity charts only in 1951 with three recordings she made for Decca Records...
were other 1950s vocalists who used multi-tracking.
Radio and television
After their marriage on December 29, 1949, the couple appeared together on their NBC radio program, The Les Paul Show (1949–50), and they had a series of hit records for Capitol Records in the early 1950s, including "Tiger RagTiger Rag
"Tiger Rag" is a jazz standard, originally recorded and copyrighted by the Original Dixieland Jass Band in 1917. It is one of the most recorded jazz compositions of all time.-Origins:...
", "Vaya con Dios
Vaya con Dios (song)
"Vaya con Dios" is a popular song written by Larry Russell, Inez James, and Buddy Pepper, and published in 1953....
" (11 weeks at #1), "How High the Moon
How High the Moon
"How High the Moon" is a jazz standard with lyrics by Nancy Hamilton and music by Morgan Lewis. It was first featured in the 1940 Broadway revue Two for the Show, where it was sung by Alfred Drake and Frances Comstock....
" (nine weeks at #1), "Bye Bye Blues
Bye Bye Blues (song)
"Bye Bye Blues" is a popular and jazz standard written by Fred Hamm, Dave Bennett, Bert Lown, and Chauncey Gray and published in 1930.The year it was introduced it was sung by The Vikings on the NBC radio series, The Vikings. It has been recorded by many artists, but the best-known recording is one...
" and "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise
The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise
"The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" is a popular ballad with lyrics by Gene Lockhart and music by the concert pianist Ernest Seitz, who had conceived the refrain when he was 12. Embarrassed about writing popular music, Seitz used the pseudonym "Raymond Roberts" when the song was first published...
". These songs featured Mary harmonizing
Close harmony
Close harmony is an arrangement of the notes of chords within a narrow range. It is different from open harmony or voicing in that it uses each part on the closest harmonizing note , while the open voicing uses a broader pitch array expanding the harmonic range past the octave...
with herself, giving the vocals a very novel sound. Paul and Ford also used the now-ubiquitous recording technique known as close miking
Microphone practice
There exist a number of well-developed microphone techniques used for miking musical, film, or voice sources. Choice of technique depends on a number of factors, including:...
, where the microphone is less than six inches from the singer's mouth. This produces a more intimate, less reverberant sound than when the singer is a foot or more from the microphone. It also emphasizes low-frequency sounds in the voice. The result was a singing style that diverged strongly from earlier styles, such as vocals in musical comedies of the 1930s and 1940s.
In 1952, their innovative sound was satirized by Stan Freberg
Stan Freberg
Stanley Victor "Stan" Freberg is an American author, recording artist, animation voice actor, comedian, radio personality, puppeteer, and advertising creative director whose career began in 1944...
in his recording of "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" (Capitol, F 2279).
In 1953, the couple began their television series, The Les Paul and Mary Ford at Home Show. In 1955, they gave a concert at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
, and the following year they performed for President Dwight Eisenhower at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
. In 1961, they appeared on NBC's Five Star Jubilee
Five Star Jubilee
Five Star Jubilee was an American country music variety show carried by NBC-TV from March 17–September 22, 1961. The live program, a spin-off of ABC-TV's Jubilee USA, was the first network color television series to originate outside New York City or Hollywood.From March 17 to May 5, the...
.
Crescendo
They faded from the charts in the late 1950s, and in 1962, Ford and Paul had a bitter divorce, ending their professional association. Living in Monrovia, CaliforniaMonrovia, California
Monrovia is a city located in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 36,590 at the 2010 census, down from 36,929 at the 2000 census...
, she married an old friend from high school, Donald Hatfield, and she occasionally performed with her sisters and brother. Bassist Red Wootten, who married Mary's sister Eva Summers, wrote his memories of playing at the Crescendo in Los Angeles with Mary, her sister Carol and her brother, Bob Summers:
- My brother, Buddy Wootten, also a bassist, called me from Atlanta to tell me he had just finished working the Fox Theater with Les Paul and Mary Ford. Mary also told me this later. This was while I was holding forth with Woody Herman OrchestraWoody HermanWoodrow Charles Herman , known as Woody Herman, was an American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading various groups called "The Herd," Herman was one of the most popular of the 1930s and '40s bandleaders...
. So, later when I had married her sister (Eva), we worked with her other sister and Bob Summers (her brother) on guitar (sounds like Les Paul too) and Mary's other sister Carol. The gig was the Crescendo club right in the middle of Sunset StripSunset StripThe Sunset Strip is the name given to the mile-and-a-half stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with Hollywood at Harper Avenue, to its western border with Beverly Hills at Sierra Drive...
. A very hip joint!
- Mary used a drummer added to Bob, Mary and myself on electric bass. We did almost all the Les Paul-Mary Ford recordings but with more heavy end on the bass. Les having used guitar on his bass tracks with Mary earlier. On all their recordings (as good as they were), I always missed that deep dark sound... Mary (bless her heart) recorded a few of my compositions (never released), but she did an excellent job as always. Mary divorced Les Paul and later married her old school friend from Monrovia, California, namely Don Hatfield, who owned a large construction company in California. He is still with us, and I see him occasionally. Doing great, but he misses Mary.
- Bob Summers, my brother-in-law, has come into his own over the years too. Bob and I worked a lot on MGM records with the Mike Curb scene, early 1960s. He also was chief arranger for the Mike Curb CongregationMike CurbMichael Curb is an American musician, record company executive, NASCAR and IRL race car owner. A Republican, he served as the 42nd Lieutenant Governor of California from 1979-1983 under Democratic Governor Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown, Jr...
, and they recorded some of my material, great too! Also Bob and I worked at Capitol Records for Ken Nelson and Cliffie Stone, passed recently. Too many country artists to even name nearly all of them: Hank ThompsonHank Thompson (music)Henry William Thompson , known professionally as Hank Thompson, was an American country music entertainer whose career spanned seven decades...
, Wynn StewartWynn StewartWinford Lindsey Stewart , better known as Wynn Stewart, was an American country music performer. He was one of the progenitors of the Bakersfield sound...
, Rose MaddoxRose MaddoxRoselea Maddox , better known as Rose Maddox, was an American country singer-songwriter and fiddle player.Born in Boaz, Alabama, Maddox was the singer in the Maddox Brothers and Rose....
and others. Roy Lanham did one of his better albums at the Sound House, Merced, in El Monte (my old stamping grounds) and Mary Ford's home place, 9840 Kale Street. Bruce Summers (who is no longer with us), a piano man whom I played with a few times; a real swinger too.
In Downey, California
Downey, California
Downey is a city located in southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States, southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The city is best known as the birthplace of the Apollo space program, and is the city where folk singer Karen Carpenter lived and died...
, Mary's sister Esther Williams played the organ in The Village Restaurant. Esther's daughter, Esther Colleen "Suzee" Williams, recalled one amusing incident at the restaurant in the years after Mary Ford and Les Paul had split up:
- There was one singer that came in to sing with my mom. His name was Lou Monica. Well, Mary asked him to learn the song "Donkey Serenade." It's not an easy song to sing. However, Mr. Monica agreed, and after a couple of weeks he said he was ready. As he began to sing, the doors of the club opened wide, and in came Mary, dressed in black with a black gaucho hat, on top of a donkey! Mr. Monica never skipped a beat.
Mary Ford died of complications from diabetes in Arcadia, California
Arcadia, California
Arcadia is an affluent city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, and located approximately northeast of downtown Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley and at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains....
at the age of 53. She is buried at Forest Lawn-Covina Hills in Covina, California
Covina, California
Covina is a small city in Los Angeles County, California about east of downtown Los Angeles, in the San Gabriel Valley region. The population was 47,796 at the 2010 census, up from 46,837 at the 2000 census...
. Although her year of birth has been variously reported (1924, 1925, 1928), the year 1924 is engraved on her tombstone.
Documentary film
Along with interviews, performance footage of the couple is featured in the musical documentary Chasing Sound: Les Paul at 90, directed by John Paulson (Johnny Mathis Live, An Evening with Chita Rivera). Distributed by Koch EntertainmentKoch Entertainment
Koch Entertainment was a music, film and television distribution company. It was purchased by E1 Entertainment in 2005 and now operates under the name E1 Entertainment.-History:The company began in 1975 as Koch International...
, Chasing Sound premiered May 9, 2007 at the Downer Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
, followed by the television premiere July 11, 2007 on PBS as part of its American Masters
American Masters
American Masters is a PBS television show which produces biographies on the artists, actors and writers of the United States who have left a profound impact on the nation's popular culture. It is produced by WNET in New York City...
series.
Hit singles
- "Vaya con DiosVaya con Dios (song)"Vaya con Dios" is a popular song written by Larry Russell, Inez James, and Buddy Pepper, and published in 1953....
" - "Tennessee Waltz"
- "Mockin' Bird HillMockin' Bird HillMockin' Bird Hill is a 3/4 song was written by Vaughn Horton and published in 1951. It was popularized by Patti Page and by Les Paul and Mary Ford in 1951, and for both of them following on to their big hit of "The Tennessee Waltz" the previous year...
" - "How High the MoonHow High the Moon"How High the Moon" is a jazz standard with lyrics by Nancy Hamilton and music by Morgan Lewis. It was first featured in the 1940 Broadway revue Two for the Show, where it was sung by Alfred Drake and Frances Comstock....
" - "The World Is Waiting for the SunriseThe World Is Waiting for the Sunrise"The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" is a popular ballad with lyrics by Gene Lockhart and music by the concert pianist Ernest Seitz, who had conceived the refrain when he was 12. Embarrassed about writing popular music, Seitz used the pseudonym "Raymond Roberts" when the song was first published...
" - "WhisperingWhisperingWhispering is an unvoiced mode of phonation in which the vocal cords do not vibrate normally but are instead adducted sufficiently to create audible turbulence as the speaker exhales during speech. This is a somewhat greater adduction than that found in breathy voice...
" - "My Baby's Coming Home"
- "Lady of SpainLady of Spain (song)"Lady Of Spain" is a popular song, written in 1931 by Robert Hargreaves, Tolchard Evans, Stanley J. Damerell, and Henry Tilsley.-Performance:...
" - "Bye Bye BluesBye Bye Blues (song)"Bye Bye Blues" is a popular and jazz standard written by Fred Hamm, Dave Bennett, Bert Lown, and Chauncey Gray and published in 1930.The year it was introduced it was sung by The Vikings on the NBC radio series, The Vikings. It has been recorded by many artists, but the best-known recording is one...
" - "I'm Sitting on Top of the WorldI'm Sitting on Top of the World"I'm Sitting on Top of the World" is a popular song.The music was written by Ray Henderson, the lyrics by Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young. The song was published in 1925.The song was first recorded by either Art Gillham or Al Jolson...
"
Albums
- Hawaiian Paradise
- The Hit Makers!
- The New Sound
- Les Paul's New Sound with Mary Ford, Vol. 2 - Capitol Records SM-286 (originally released 1951), A Capitol Monophonic Re-issue
-
- A01 In The Good Old Summer Time [2:06]
- A02 I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)[2:45]
- A03 Three Little Words [1:53]
- A04 The Lonesome Road [2:50]
- A05 Carioca [2:20]
- B01 I Can't Give You Anything But Love [1:54]
- B02 Just One More Chance [1:50]
- B03 Don'Cha Hear Them Bells [1:55]
- B04 The Moon Of Manakoora [2:45]
- B05 Chicken Reel [2:05]
- Bye Bye Blues!
- Les and Mary
- Time to Dream
- Lover's Luau
- Warm and Wonderful
- Bouquet of RosesBouquet of RosesBouquet of Roses is an album by Les Paul and Mary Ford, released in 1962.-Track listing:#"I Love You So Much It Hurts Me"#"You Win Again"#"Four Walls"#"I Hang My Head And Cry"#"Someday "#"I'll Never Be Free"...
- Swingin' South
- Fabulous Les Paul & Mary Ford
Listen to
- Internet Archive: The Les Paul Show (11 episodes)
- Sounds like Les Paul/Mary Ford, but it's actually Mary Ford's sisters (Carol, Eva) and brother (Bob)