Buffalo Bills (quartet)
| The Buffalo Bills | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Buffalo, New York, United States |
| Genres | Barbershop |
| Years active | 1947–67 |
| Labels | Decca, Columbia Records |
| Past members | Vern Reed (1947–67) Al Shea (1947–67) Herschel Smith (1947–50) Dick Grapes (1950–57) Wayne "Scotty" Ward (1957–67) Bill Spangenberg (1947–62) Jim Jones (1962–67) |
The Buffalo Bills were a barbershop quartet formed in Buffalo, New York, on September 20, 1947. The original members were tenor Vern Reed, an executive for the Tonawanda Boys' Club;lead Al Shea, who was a City of Buffalo policeman; baritone Herschel Smith, a corporate executive; and bass Bill Spangenberg, a truck driver for a steel company. They started out as an unnamed foursome, singing for community groups. During an appearance at the Buffalo Quarterback Club, they were introduced as the "Buffalo Bills", which was meant to be just for that day, but the name stuck from that point on. Coincidentally, a football team known formerly as the Buffalo Bisons also changed its name to the Bills at about the same time; the name proved popular enough that the current Buffalo Bills also picked up the name when they debuted thirteen years later.
Phil Embury traveled with the Quartet around the world. The Bills competed in the 1948 and 1949 SPEBSQSA International Quartet Contest, placing sixteenth and sixth.
However, Herschel Smith was promoted and transferred to Madison, Wisconsin, and had to leave the quartet. Unable to find a replacement, the Bills broke up. Fortunately, they found baritone Dick Grapes and blossomed quickly. In 1950, they won the Barbershop Harmony Society International Quartet Contest, earning them the title of International Quartet Champions. Soon after their victory, they appeared on the National Radio Show We The People and were honored by the Manhattan and Buffalo chapters on their return trip to their hometown. Their first national television appearance was on The Faye Emerson Pepsi-Cola Show in a television movie in April 1951. The Bills also performed at military bases in France, Germany, Austria, Japan, and Korea. That same year, the Bills released an album of four records for Decca. Meredith Willson, a famous arranger, composer, and orchestra director, hosted a radio show called Music Today with his wife, heard the album and began to admire the Buffalo Bills' work. He travelled to Buffalo with his wife in 1954 to meet them, and began featuring the quartet on his radio show.
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