The Sentimentalists

The Sentimentalists also known as The Clark Sisters
Origin	North Dakota, United States
Years active	1935–1977
Associated acts	Andrews Sisters McGuire Sisters Pied Pipers
Past members	Mary Clark Peggy Clark Schwartz Ann Clark Jean Clark

The Sentimentalists, also known as the "Clark Sisters" (and also as the "Original" Clark Sisters; so-called to distinguish them from the current gospel music group of the same name), were an American close harmony singing group, consisting of sisters Mary Clark, Peggy Clark Schwartz, Ann Clark, and Jean Clark. Hailing from Grand Forks, North Dakota, they were a mere seventeen to twenty-three years of age, when they signed with the Tommy Dorsey Band, in 1944, to replace the popular Pied Pipers, after the Pipers had quit Dorsey's band to go out on their own.

Although they never achieved the fame and fortune of some of their contemporaries (like the Andrews Sisters and the McGuire Sisters), the Clark Sisters' recordings are highly prized by jazz aficionados, for their unique vocal stylings in which they often emulate instrumental sections.

The Clark Sisters were born and raised in Grand Forks, North Dakota. They began singing as young children, and by the late 1930s were performing together in civic events and church services. After achieving some local fame, the sisters were taken by their mother to New York City, where they appeared on Major Bowes' Amateur Hour. Although they did not win, they did receive a contract to appear for several months in a USO show.

Following their USO tour, they returned to New York. Tommy Dorsey was looking for a vocal quartet to replace one of his band's most popular features, the Pied Pipers: he had become angry at one of the Pipers for sending him in the wrong direction at the train station in Portland, Oregon, and fired him. The Pipers, out of "team loyalty," resigned en masse. At that moment, the #1 record on the charts was "There Are Such Things" sung by Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers; the last RCA record they did with Dorsey.

The sisters auditioned for Dorsey in their West Forty-Fifth Street apartment, where he offered them a job on the spot.

Following their initial few appearances on Dorsey's radio program (for which they were not credited), he began to receive mail from listeners wondering about the identities of the new vocalists. Realizing he had a potential threat to the vocal domination of The Andrew Sisters, he made plans to build them into regular and featured appearances on his show.

...
Wikipedia