"The Jordanaires: The Story of the World's Greatest Backup Vocal Group"/Michael Kosser & Alan Stoker [Episode 99]

As told by the late great lead tenor Gordon Stoker, this is the story of the greatest backup group in the history of recorded music and that is undoubtedly the Jordanaires, a gospel group of mostly Tennessee boys, formed in the 1940s, that set the standard for studio vocal groups in the '50s, '60s, '70s, and beyond. In their sixty-five-year career, from 1948 through 2013, the recordings they sang on have sold an estimated eight billion copies. They sang on more than 200 of Elvis's recordings, including most of his biggest hits. They were in three of his best-known movies, appeared with him on most of his early nation-wide TV shows, and toured with him for many years. <br /><br />Throughout Elvis's early career, the Jordanaires were his most trusted friends and probably his most positive influence. While the Jordanaires' bread and butter may have been Nashville's burgeoning recording industry, it seemed that there was always a plane waiting to take them cross country to the pop sessions in L.A. They sang on most of Ricky Nelson's biggest hits and over the years backed up Andy Williams, Fats Domino, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Dinah Shore, The Everly Brothers, Glen Campbell, Patti Page, Neil Young, Perry Como, Loretta Lynn, Ringo Starr, Tom Jones, Andy Griffith, Bobby Vinton, Brenda Lee, Patsy Cline, Billy Ray Cyrus, Clyde McPhatter, and about 2,100 other recording acts.<br /><br />Michael Kosser is a senior editor at American Songwriter magazine, where he has written a column on songwriting called "Street Smarts" for the past twenty years. Since 1979, Kosser's songs have been recorded by George Jones, Barbara Mandrell, Conway Twitty, Tammy Wynette, Charlie Rich, and others. Many of his songs have appeared on the national country music charts. Kosser offers an in-depth, insider's view of Nashville during its ascendancy in his book “How Nashville Became Music City, U.S.A.: Fifty Years of Music Row”.<br /><br />Alan Stoker is the son of Gordon Stoker, of the Jordanaires quartet. He’s a Grammy-winning audio engineer,