Glenn Yarbrough

Glenn Yarbrough
Yarbrough in 1965
Background information
Birth name	Glenn Robertson Yarbrough
Born	(1930-01-12)January 12, 1930 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
Died	August 11, 2016(2016-08-11) (aged 86) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.
Genres	Folk
Occupation(s)	Singer
Instruments	Vocals, Guitar
Years active	1951–2010
Labels	RCA Victor
Associated acts	The Limeliters
Website	glennyarbrough.com

Glenn Robertson Yarbrough (January 12, 1930 – August 11, 2016) was an American folk singer and guitarist. He was the lead singer (tenor) with the Limeliters from 1959 to 1963. He also had a prolific solo career, recording on various labels.

Biography[]

Glenn Yarbrough was born in Milwaukee on January 12, 1930, into poverty as his parents were social workers without any available jobs during the Great Depression. His father traveled around the country from one job to another, while Glenn lived with his mother in New York City. He was able to help support his mother as a paid boy soprano in the Choir of Men and Boys at Grace Church in Manhattan. He graduated in 1948 from St. Paul's School, located at Brooklandville, Maryland and attended college at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, where his roommate was Jac Holzman, founder of Elektra Records. Yarbrough started singing folk songs after going to a Woody Guthrie concert; the next day he bought a guitar and taught himself to play.

During the Korean War, Glenn was drafted; his talent allowed him to perform at army bases in Korea and Japan. After leaving the military, he went to South Dakota, then to Chicago and performed on local TV stations and in clubs. Glenn then moved to Aspen, Colorado where he ran a club called Limelite. In 1959, he met Alex Hassilev and Lou Gottlieb and formed a singing group named after the club. In 1960, they recorded their first album on the Elektra label, thanks to his old friend Holzman. From 1959-64, the Limeliters had ten hit albums and sold millions of records, as well headlining many sold-out concerts and making a slew of TV appearances.

But Yarbrough wasn't happy, so he left the Limeliters in 1963, causing the group to break up. He bought a boat so he could spend all of his time sailing, but RCA convinced him to come back to dry land and record solo albums for them. "Baby the Rain Must Fall", the title song of the 1965 film of the same name made it to #12 on the singles chart, making the song his biggest hit). (An LP, also called "Baby the Rain Must Fall", hit #35 on the albums chart; it would also prove to be his most popular.) However, as he told the Saturday Evening Post, "The only thing success has taught me is that success is meaningless."

By the late 1960s, he had quit entertaining to sail around the world, ultimately deciding that he would rather teach than sing. He sold many of his considering holdings (including expensive cars, a house in New Zealand, his banana plantation in Jamaica and an apartment building he owned in Beverly Hills) and used the money to start a school in the mountains outside Los Angeles for disadvantaged, mostly African-American children. Lacking the knowledge and discipline to run a school, however, it soon ran out of money and Yarbrough had to close it down in the early 1970s.

After divorcing his first wife, Peggy Goodhart, and marrying his second, Annie Graves, Yarbrough built and moved into a 57-foot sailboat and spent the next five years on the high seas. Promoters still sent sporadic requests for the Limeliters to get back together, though, so in 1973 they gave a reunion concert at Chicago's Orchestra Hall to a sold-out audience. The public responded so enthusiastically to that performance that, despite some conflicts, the group stayed together until 1981. Then Yarbrough quit again and once more left to sail around the world. Through the 1980s and 90s, Yarbrough spent most of his time on his boat, occasionally returning to land and record songs and give concerts. Meanwhile, the Limeliters continued to perform without Yarbrough, first with Red Grammer and then Rick Dougherty. Gottlieb died in 1996, leaving Hassilev as the only original member of the Limeliters (he retired in 2006 but still makes special appearances with the group). By this time, Glenn had bought a home near Guadalajara, Mexico, growing fruit and vegetables which he gave away to poor people who lived nearby. In 1996, Yarbrough told the Los Angeles Times, "You know, I never thought I’d spend a lifetime doing this; it just happened."

In 2010, Yarbrough (now 80 years old and separated from his fourth wife) had lost his concert voice and tried to correct the problem with surgery. In the recovery room, he had a heart attack and was put on a ventilator. He survived, but began to suffer from dementia and never sang in public again. Glenn had to be cared for full time by his daughter, Holly Yarbrough Burnett, in Nashville and died there in 2016 from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Discography[]

Albums[]

With The Limeliters[]

• 1960 The Limeliters
• 1960 Tonight: In Person
• 1961 The Slightly Fabulous Limeliters
• 1962 Sing Out!
• 1962 Through Children's Eyes
• 1962 Folk Matinee
• 1962 Our Men in San Francisco
• 1963 Makin' a Joyful Noise
• 1963 Fourteen 14K Folk Songs
• 1964 The Best of The Limeliters
• 1964 The London Concert
• 1968 Time to Gather Seeds
• 1974 The Limeliters Reunion Volume One
• 1974 The Limeliters Reunion Volume Two
• 1976 Glenn Yarbrough and The Limeliters Chicago tape I (released early 2000s (decade))
• 1976 Glenn Yarbrough and The Limeliters Chicago tape II (released in the early 2000s (decade))
• 1977 Pure Gold
• 1993 Joy Across the Land Glenn Yarbrough and The Limeliters
• 2001 Recently Found- Glenn Yarbrough and The Limeliters Chicago Tapes I and II

Singles[]

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Glenn Yarbrough

• Official website
• Glenn Yarbrough at IMDb
• Glenn Yarbrough discography at Discogs