Helen Carroll and the Satisfiers


Helen Carroll and the Satisfiers were an American smooth harmony popular music singing group of the mid-20th century consisting of Carroll and the Satisfiers
Helen Carroll was the stage name of Helen Kress She began her singing career as a teenager on radio in Memphis, Tennessee. Carroll returned to Indiana and enrolled at the Indiana University for college, but left school in her senior year to pursue a career in broadcasting. She settled in New York with hopes of working on Broadway, but found little work until she auditioned for a group called the Merry Macs. With the Merry Macs, she appeared on Fred Allen's show and in the movie Love Thy Neighbor. Carroll left the group when it relocated to California; she signed on with the Satisfiers only after the group promised to remain in New York. Carroll was married to guitarist Carl Kress; the couple had a son, Rick, who became a drummer, and went on to become a professor of harmony at Berklee College of Music.
Helen Carroll and the Satisfiers were regulars on Perry Como's Chesterfield Supper Club which ran from 1944 to 1949. With or without Carroll, the Satisfiers also backed Como on some recordings. Most of the group's recording on their own were made with trumpeter Russ Case's orchestra for instrumental accompaniment.
Helen Carroll and the Satisfiers' recording of "Old Buttermilk Sky" reached #7 on the Billboard top-selling retail records chart for November 23, 1946. Billboard described the record as exhibiting "easy flowing melodies and rhythms" which "fall easy on the ears" making for a "bright and breezy" performance. This recording also appeared on Billboard's chart of songs most played on jukeboxes.
Helen Carroll and the Satisfiers performed the theme song for the Little Lulu theatrical animated short subjects. The song was written by Buddy Kaye, Fred Wise, and Sidney Lippman for the series, of which 26 episodes were produced by Famous Studios for Paramount Pictures between 1943 and 1948.
Helen Carroll with an ad-hoc group called the Swantones backed Frank Sinatra on one 1950 single, "Life is So Peculiar".

Discography

;Singles
;Compilations
;Compilations