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April 30, 2007
University Park, PA—Fred Waring music lovers, take note—the discography located on the Waring Web site (www.libraries.psu.edu/waring) has been reviewed and updated by recently retired Coordinator of Fred Waring’s America, Peter Kiefer. Kiefer, who compiled the original print version, Fred Waring Discography, published in 1996 by Greenwood Press, has made a number of changes to the online resource. “Missing information has been added and details included which vastly improve the discography’s usability to visitors and patrons to the site,” Fred Waring’s America Coordinator Eileen Akin says.
Kiefer was Waring’s sound and recording engineer, director of the Fred Waring Music Workshops, and company manager of the Fred Waring Show. His association with Waring spanned thirty years. Waring, born in Tryone, Pennsylvania, was a former member of the Board of Trustees and Distinguished Alumnus of Penn State University. Known as “the man who taught America how to sing,” his “Pennsylvanians” were a unique group of performers touring the United States and the world for almost seven decades, building an impressive list of accomplishments on stage, radio, motion pictures, television and music education.
He racked up many “firsts” along the way—he was the first to have a singing band, the first to use megaphones, to feature vocalists with an orchestra, to combine an orchestra with a glee club, to originate the show choir concept, to make one of the first full-length musical talking pictures, and the first to present weekly musical spectaculars on television.
The Fred Waring Discography lists recordings made for such labels as Victor Talking Machine Co., Decca Records, Capitol Records, Reprise Records and Mega Records. The listing also includes recordings made for the Waring-LangWorth transcribed program series and those produced by the Fred Waring’s America Collection from material contained in the collection.
The Fred Waring’s America Collection contains all the recordings listed in Fred Waring Discography. In addition, the collection contains hundreds of recordings of regular and special broadcasts, special events, concerts, workshops and rehearsals. This unique and significant 20th century American culture archive is an important resource to historians, musicians, artists, educators and students of all ages.
Fred Waring’s America is part of the Penn State University Libraries’ Special Collections Library. For more information, contact Akin at (814) 863-2911.
Editor's Contact:
Lana Munip, 814-863-4265