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Bill Kenny with The Ink Spots

The 1930's

In 1936 The Ink Spots 1st Tenor Jerry Daniels left the group and was replaced by Bill Kenny. Bill Kenny made his first recordings with The Ink Spots "'T Ain't Nobody's Biz-ness If I Do" and the swing tune "Your Feet's To Big" on May 12th of that year. Kenny had a brief solo on "Your Feet's To Big". Kenny's first known solo feature came in February of 1938 on a radio broadcast for radio station WEAF. The song was "Tune In On My Heart" from the 1929 Broadway musical "Remote Control", lyrics and music by Buddy Valentine and Gene Johnston. Kenny's first recorded solo feature to be recorded in a studio came in 1938 for Decca records on the ballad "I Wish You The Best Of Everything". In 1939 The Ink Spots were scheduled for a recording session at Decca recording studio in NYC. Songwriter Jack Lawrence brought with him his latest composition "If I Didn't Care" for The Ink Spots to record. Bill Kenny was featured throughout except for the middle "talking Bass" part done by Orville "Hoppy" Jones. Each member was only payed $37.50 for the recording however once the record sold 200,000 Decca destroyed the original contract and The Ink Spots were paid an additional $3,750. The record went on to sell more than 19 million copies and was Bill Kenny's first top hit feature. The year 1939 was the start of a new format for The Ink Spots that would feature Charlie Fuqua's trademark Guitar intro, Bill Kenny's Tenor lead, and Hoppy Jones "talking bass". Other Bill Kenny features such as "Address Unknown", "My Prayer", "Memories Of You", "I'm Gettin' Sentimental Over You", and "Bless You (For Being An Angel)" all reach the top of the U.S Pop charts in 1939. It was around this time that The Ink Spots signed an additional five year recording contract with Decca.

The 1940's

From 1940 to 1949 Bill Kenny was featured lead singer on 38 of 43 Ink Spots recordings that reached the top of the U.S Pop charts. During the 1940's Kenny was featured in two major motion pictures "The Great American Broadcast" (1941) and the Abbott and Costello film "Pardon My Sarong" (1942). In 1944 Ella Fitzgerald joined The Ink Spots at Decca studios where she and Kenny were to be featured on song entitled "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall". That song reached #1 on the U.S Pop charts and #1 on the R&B charts. The flip side of that recording "I'm Making Believe" reached #1 on the U.S Pop charts and #2 on the R&B charts. In February of 1945 Fitzgerald teamed up with The Ink Spots and was featured again with Kenny on a recording of "I'm Beginning To See The Light" and "That's The Way It Is". "I'm Beginning To See The Light" reached #5 on the U.S Pop charts. That same year, The Ink Spots manager Moe Gale, began trying to advertise the quartet as "The Ink Spots (Featuring Bill Kenny)" due to Kenny's increasing leadership role. In 1948 The Ink Spots featuring Bill Kenny appeared on the first ever Ed Sullivan Television show. In 1949 Bill Kenny made his first solo recordings "Echoes" and "Land Of Love" without The Ink Spots on Decca records. Despite the fact that these were Kenny solo recordings Decca decided to label them as "The Ink Spots". Kenny's recording of "Echoes" reached #24 on the U.S Pop charts.

The 1950's

In 1950, Ella Fitzgerald teamed up once again with Bill Kenny The Ink Spots and recorded "Little Small Town Girl" and "I Still Feel The Same About You". Both were duo's with Fitzgerald and Kenny. Their previous collaborations were more like solo features than duets and didn't include as much harmonizing as these two recordings. In 1950, Kenny's solo recording of "If" reached #23 on the U.S Pop charts but, like his solo recordings from 1949 were labeled "The Ink Spots". In 1951 Bill Kenny recorded two more solo recordings "I'm Lucky I Have You" and "I Don't Stand A Ghost Of A Chance With You" which featured cornetist Bobby Hackett. These were also solo recordings labeled as "The Ink Spots". This happened once more in October of 1951 with Bill Kenny solo recordings "And Then I Prayed" and "Honest And Truly" on which he himself performs the "talking bass" part made famous by Orville "Hoppy" Jones. The last Ink Spots studio recordings were of the gospel composition "Somebody Bigger Than You And I" and the Blues number "Do Something For Me" both recorded in February of 1951. In 1952 Charlie Fuqua, Baritone singer, Guitarist, and original member since 1934, decided to leave Bill Kenny to form his own Ink Spots group. It was decided by court ruling that Fuqua would have to name his group "The 'New' Ink Spots" however after a short time he dropped the "New" and thus there were two groups using the name "The Ink Spots". This resulted in great conflict and confusion however Bill Kenny kept performing with The Ink Spots and started billing them as "Bill Kenny & His Ink Spots". A few live recordings and "radio checks" of Bill Kenny's Ink Spots from 1952/1953 survive today. After being with The Ink Spots for 18 years, Bill Kenny decided to leave the group for good in 1954, resulting in The Ink Spots disbanding.

Bill Kenny in popular culture

Motion Pictures

Bill Kenny's voice has been featured in such films as "The Shawshank Redemption", "Get Low", "Radio Days", "Raging Bull", "Revolutionary Road", "The Aviator", "Iris", "Sphere", "Tree's Lounge", "Malcolm X", "Maria's Lovers", "Men Don't Leave", "Twenty Bucks" and many more. Kenny appeared as himself in "Pardon My Sarong", and "The Great American Broadcast".

Television

Throughout his career Bill Kenny made several Television appearances both with The Ink Spots and as a solo act. Kenny was featured with The Ink Spots and on "The Ed Sullivan Show" multiple times. He also was featured with The Ink Spots on shows such as "Songs For Sale" three times, "The Buick-Berle Show" twice, "Star Of The Family", "Wonderful Town, USA" and many more.Kenny was featured as a solo act on "The Steve Allen Plymouth Show", "The Joey Bishop Show", "The Robert Q. Lewis Show", and 4 times as a solo on The Ed Sullivan Show. In the 1960's Kenny hosted, emceed, and performed for a number of charity telethons in Canada. Kenny's voice has been featured in Television shows such as "The Simpsons", "The Visitor", "The Singing Detective", "Sanford", and more. Kenny's unusual high singing voice and impeccable diction was often imitated on Television. Probably the most famous example is that of Fred G. Sanford (played by comedian Redd Foxx) on the 1970's sitcom "Sanford and Son". Foxx would often sing The Ink Spots hit "If I Didn't Care" while imitating Kenny's hand gestures and clear diction. In one episode, Foxx sang "If I Didn't Care" but couldn't hit the last high note at which point he remarked "Ah! Bill Kenny used to hit that note".

Video games

Bill Kenny's voice is featured in the video games "Fallout 3" and "Bioshock".