ORDER IT HERE
(cover art by Toni Pawlowsky)
             produced by Leib Ostrow and Gary Mankin
         for Music For Little People
            Project Coordinator: Rip Rense

Andrew Bartlett, editor of "Amazon.com Delivers Children's Music," writes:"What makes the Persuasions so important in 1999 is their immense contribution to children's music. The late-1990s are marked by a deepening fascination with classical music for children and a nascent--and much needed--emphasis on international music. The Persuasions enhance this widening musical universe for children, bringing a form that originated on urban street corners to young listeners and teaching them the art of vocal dynamism. Whether it's grammar, language, singing, or the relationship of one singer to the group, there are many points from which kids can learn. On the Good Ship Lollipop pushes each of these issues to the fore, making the line between musical enjoyment and education indistinguishable."

REVIEWS OF "On the Good Ship Lollipop:"

People (May 31,1999)

    "'Christ had to persuade people to listen,' baritone Jerry Lawson once said, explaining how the a cappella group he helped form in 1962 got its name, "and so do five guys without a band.' Fans who've heard some of the 18 albums and countless live shows the Persuasions have performed in their 37-year career need no inducements. As adept at percussive vocal effects as they are at soaring quartet-style gospel harmonies, the singers---Lawson, tenor Joe Russell, bass singer Jimmy Hayes, tenor Jayotis Washington, and baritone B.J. Jones (a former member of the Drifters)---make instrumentation superfluous. Here the quintet aims to entertain a new generation of listeners with 14 tunes, ranging from ditties like "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?" and "On Top of Spaghetti" to a delightful obscurity cowritten by Country Joe and the Fish's Joe McDonald that will give boomer parents a kick: 'I'm so glad that I've got skin/ 'Cause that's what keeps my insides in.'  Bottom line: Kids will need no persuading to play this."---Steve Dougherty

Billboard  (June 5, 1999)

Persuasions Bring Their Vocal Charms To Kids' Music
 by Moira McCormick

   A SWEET TRIP: Venerable a cappella group The Persuasions, who've been harmonizing for some 37 years, are the latest grown-up artists to toss their collective hat into the children's audio ring.

    The Persuasions' purely delicious Music For Little People (MFLP) offering, "On The Good Ship Lollipop," contains 14 tracks both traditional ("Big Rock Candy Mountain," "On Top of Spaghetti") and original ("Persuasions' Nursery Rhyme Medley," "A Cappella Fellas") along with a most welcome helping of African-American folk standards ("Swing Low,Sweet Chariot," "Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me"). Without a doubt, "Lollipop" is one of the freshest-sounding, most outstanding kids' albums of the year.

    Actually, it's a bit of a surprise that it took this long for The Persuasions to release a children's record. Unlike most moonlighting celebs from the pop world, this five-man outfit from the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, N.Y., actually has a history of performing for kids. They have been singing for young audiences and putting on music workshops practically since day one, according to lead singer Jerry Lawson. "We would practice in the park in our early days," he says, "and a lot of kids would always join in. We're kids at heart ourselves, and have children of our own."

    The workshops began in the '70s, according to Lawson, whose fellow group members are bass Jimmy Hayes, tenors Jayotis Washington and "Sweet" Joe Russell and baritone Bernard "B.J." Jones. "We put them on at local Bed-Stuy schools," says Lawson, noting that one summer the New York school board had them perform for children at housing projects across the city. Still, he says, "we never thought anyone would ask us to do a kids' record. But we were doing a concert in Oakland, Calif., and (MFLP founder Leib Ostrow) came up and said, 'Would you guys consider doing a children's album?' When we came back to New York, our producer called us and said, 'Did a guy from Music for Little People contact you about a kids' record? He sounded sincere.' The following month, we were in the studio."

    The material on "Lollipop" is strikingly diverse, including songs popularized by Patti Page ("How Much is That Doggie in the Window?"), Shirley Temple (the title track), and Country Joe McDonald ("I'm So Glad I've Got Skin"). There's a "Train Song Medley" "to end all train song medleys," featuring "People Get Ready," "Little Red Caboose," "Choo-Choo Boogaloo," and "To Stop The Train." "Before we started recording," says Lawson, "I said, 'Everyone come up with at least six kids' songs. We started getting calls from people: 'What about this one?' We ended up with 100, and before we left for California, we'd gotten it down to 13.But some songs we put on the album caught on later---'On The Good Ship Lollipop' wasn't on the schedule when we left New York, and neither was 'Teddy Bears' Picnic.' But when we got there, they worked their way in."

    Ostrow, who produced the album with Lawson, served as executive producer, and wrote the charming Persuasions-history tune, "A Cappella Fellas," was also responsible for bringing in some top-notch kids' chorus that guests on some of the tunes. The Persuasions may do a family concert tour highlighting "Lollipop," says Lawson, noting with a grin that their motto is "Still Ain't Got No Band."

    "Leib's also asked us to do a kids' gospel album," he adds. In the meantime, the versatile fivesome (editor's note: they are now six---see "The Pers' Story")will continue to demonstrate its far-reaching musical range, recording a tribute album to early mentor Frank Zappa, according to Lawson, as well as "an album for the Grateful Dead family, too."

Los Angeles Times (July 8, 1999):
 The Persuasions Do Doo-Wop So Well, by Lynne Heffley

    In a Brooklyn neighborhood 38 years ago, five young guys---four of them still in their teens---would get together to shoot hoops. Afterward, they'd sing. No instruments, just a couple of baritones and tenors and a deep, deep bass, rising in harmony on the corners of some of New York's toughest streets. In 1962, they became The Persuasions.

    Today, The Persuasions, with their innovative vocal style rooted in Southern gospel, R&B and pop, are esteemed as a cappella masters---the "godfathers of a cappella," Spike Lee called them in his video production, "Do It A Cappella."

    Singers' singers who have performed and recorded backup vocals for major artists from Paul Simon to Stevie Wonder, their influence on the art of four-and-five-part harmony singing can be heard in '60s doo-wop, and in the music of Boyz II Men and Bobby McFerrin.

    Baritone Toubo Rhoad died in 1988, but lead singer and baritone Jerry Lawson, tenor Joe "Jesse" Russell, tenor and lead Jayotis Washington and basso profundo Jimmy Hayes are still going strong. With recent fifth member, former Drifter B.J. Jones, the group has just recorded a children's album.

    From the opening "bumb-ba-dum-ba-dum-da-dum" and "diddy-wop, diddy-wop," you know that the Music For Little People release, "On The Good Ship Lollipop," is never going to gather dust on a CD shelf. Whether it's Hayes' extraordinary velvet bass in "Teddy Bears' Picnic," Lawson's husky-sweet baritone in Dan Conley's tender, "My Daddy Do, Too," or the soulful rendition of "On Top of Spaghetti," this mix of old and new children's songs is infused with exuberant life and cross-generational appeal.

    Spreading good cheer through a cappella is what The Persuasions do. Upbeat Lawson, who frequently breaks into song during an interview,says that music is much more than a profession for the group.

    "It's something God wanted us to do," Lawson said. "He wanted us to use what he gave us naturally, and that's our voices. And when you get together and you sing and that harmony comes out ringing,that's just something special."

    "It's like getting up in the morning and mixing the grits. You can put grits on the plate and you can put eggs on the plate, but when you mix the grits and the eggs together with a little black pepper, ohhh. . .It goes right down just right.

    "And when you put the tenor and the bass and the baritone in there together and they've got that sweetness, it's just like that."

    Although a children's album is a first for The Persuasions, they often perform in schools and children's hospitals, and their rapport shows on the album with the songs and with their Lollipop Kids Chorus.

    "Id go off sometimes and shed a tear, because when the kids came in, they were Chinese, they were black, they were Jewish, they were Korean, they were Mexican---and they were singing 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.' I went out and started crying. Chills just came up and down my spine to see these kids having such a good time.

    "I played (the album) in Brooklyn at our favorite barbershop, where they're used to listening to rappers. When it got to 'Swing Low,' people came in from outside. They kept playing it over and over and I was saying to myself, this is amazing: they don't know that there's a little white Jewish kid (Bernie Steinberg) singing---and they wouldn't care, you see what I'm saying? Teenagers came in and were getting down off of this 'Good Ship Lollipop,' and they didn't even know who we were."

    Lawson says passing the a cappella torch is what it's all about.

    "I think it's deep in people that they were born wanting to sing."