{{Short description|1950s American folk music group}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}} The '''Gateway Singers''' were an American folk music group who achieved national prominence in the US in the late 1950s.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.travisedmonson.com/hifi.htm|title=The Gateway Singers in Hi Fi|website=Travisedmonson.com|accessdate=3 September 2021}}</ref> The group was included in the Smithsonian's ''Folk Song America'' compilation.<ref name = "Smithsonian2">{{Cite web |url=http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,87396,00.html |title=Folk Song America Vol 1 @ARTISTdirect |access-date=2012-02-17 |archive-date=2017-04-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404044721/http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,87396,00.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> They are best known for their song "Puttin' on the Style", which sold one million copies and was later used in a beer commercial.<ref name=rainbow />
Gateway Singers member Lou Gottlieb left the band,<ref name="LarkinGE">{{cite book|title=The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music|editor=Colin Larkin|publisher=Guinness Publishing|date=1992|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-939-0|page=948}}</ref> obtained his PhD in musicology from the University of California and then formed The Limeliters. Travis Edmonson left the Gateway Singers to form the duo Bud & Travis with Bud Dashiell.<ref name=rainbow>{{cite book|last=Cohen|first=Ronald D.|title=Rainbow quest : the folk music revival and American society, 1940 - 1970|url=https://archive.org/details/rainbowquestfolk00cohe|url-access=registration|year=2002|publisher=Univ. of Massachusetts Press|location=Amherst [u.a.]|isbn=978-1-55849-348-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/rainbowquestfolk00cohe/page/95 95]|edition=cop.2002.}}</ref>
The group split in 1961, although three of the members—Milt Chapman, Betty Mann, and Jerry Walter—continued performing as the "Gateway Trio",<ref name="LarkinGE"/> and released albums for Capitol Records.<ref name="Trio">{{cite web |title=The Gateway Singers Biography by AllMusic |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-gateway-singers-mn0001181073/biography |website=ALLMUSIC |accessdate=31 October 2020}}</ref>
''The Ed Sullivan Show'' reportedly cancelled a Gateway Singers appearance after executives from the CBS television network objected to showing a mixed-race group.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theroot.com/hugh-hefner-civil-rights-activist-1790880423|title=Hugh Hefner: Civil Rights Activist?|first=Janice C.|last=Simpson|website=Theroot.com|date=30 July 2010 |accessdate=3 September 2021}}</ref>
==Discography== * ''Puttin' on the Style'' * ''Gateway Singers at the hungry i'' * ''Gateway Singers in Hi Fi'' * ''Wagons West'' * ''Gateway Singers on the Lot'' * ''Down in the Valley'' * ''Live at Stanford 1957''
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20100523033457/http://www.starbeams.com// Gateway Singers web site (copy at Internet archive)] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120326151606/http://www.nbcuniversalarchives.com/nbcuni/clip/5112571238_s01.do Fairmont Hotel August 21st, 1956 performance (copy at Internet Archive)]
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Category:American folk music groups