The Oak Ridge Boys

• Genre: Country Pop/Cosmopolitan
• Hometown: Oak Ridge
• The Oak Ridge Boys Website

About

Best known for their 1981 monster crossover smash "Elvira" with its unmistakable basso profundo "oom papa mow mow" part, this band's career actually began in the late 1940s. They started out as a straight country Gospel group, developing tight harmonies and an even tighter stage show through constant touring. The lineup of the band that most people are most familiar with began to coalesce in the late '60s. William Lee Golden, Joe Bonsall, Duane Allen and Richard Sterban had begun singing secular music in earnest and subsequently became one of the biggest vocal groups in country music.

- Tom Heyman