The Rooftop Singers

The Rooftop Singers: The Best of The Vanguard Years

by C. Michael Bailey
February 3, 2004

The immediate appeal of the Rooftop Singers is their innocent yet informed style. Popular in the mid-'60s, this group predated the Hippie Movement and the Summer of Love. They arose during the searing career of the similar Weavers (the group guitarist/vocalist Erik Darling belonged to before joining the Rooftops). Where the Weavers became political lightening rods, the Rooftop Singers were content to make white folk covers of black blues, ragtime, and spirituals. At a time when Elvis Presley, the Beatles, ...