Somewhere between Claudine Longet and The Gold Diggers is The Four King Cousins. Pretty, likeable and…well….blonde, The Four King Cousins – Tina, Cathy, Carolyn and Candy – were once mainstays on television sets everywhere, but today seem to be more of a faint pop culture memory belonging to middle Americans who grew up in the 1960’s and watched them on various variety shows with Mom and Dad on family TV nights. But years before the success of The Osmonds and The Jacksons, The Four King Cousins, an off shoot the bigger show business entity The King Family, were seemingly everywhere, and were affectionally known to audiences as “America’s First Family of Song.” But popularity with television audiences did not necessarily translate to chart success, and during the height of their popularity The Four King Cousins only released a single record – 1968’s “Introducing the Four King Cousins.” Despite being mainstays on the culture radar during the turbulent 60’s, The Four King Cousins didn’t have any Billboard hits, and their album continues to be a rare collectable sought out today by nostalgia buffs and vinyl collectors.
“Introducing the Four King Cousins” proves to be a very difficult album to find, and copies are not cheap. I have never actually seen a copy in any store or record show I have ever gone to and acquired my copy at a fairly high price when I had it shipped from a seller in Seattle. The album was a “white whale” of mine for a long while, and I became discouraged when copies were not showing up in my travels, and as I watched the value of the record rise on Discogs. The money I spent on the album was worth it to me though, and it remains to be one of the gems of my record collection.
Not being part of the generation which grew up watching The King Family, I can’t quite recall how I first became aware of The Four King Cousins. I assume it was during one of my late nights runs down YouTube rabbit holes watching various 1960’s music shows. If I had to guess, it probably came out of watching clips of “Hollywood Palace,” which was ABC-TV’s competitor to CBS-TV’s “Ed Sullivan Show” (I just love watching old “Hollywood Palace” performances, which are often extremely bizarre and tackily dated. Some of my all time favorite 60’s performances are from this series). However, I may have just stumbled on one of The King Cousins “Top Twenty” segments from their own original series, which ran on ABC-TV from 1965 to 1966. Those “Top Twenty” segments are the kind of vintage music performances that really wet my whistle. Whichever the case, the good natured King Cousins really scratched an itch for me, making me an instant fan.
To create a full discourse on The Four King Cousins, its necessary to understand the make up of the family construct that they branched off from. It’s going to be a bit of a journey to get to “Introducing The Four King Cousins,” but take this trek with me as we go through some King Family history together.
The Four King Cousins were part of a much larger entertainment legacy which began in vaudeville and early radio in the 1920’s, and whose family members continue to spread out to all aspects of entertainment, from music, theatre, production, television and film, to this day. The matriarchs of the family were The King Sisters, who were a popular vocal group during the 1930’s. There were six sisters in the family – Alyce, Donna, Luise, Marilyn, Maxine and Yvonne – who normally sang in one combination or another as a quartet. The King Sisters became popular with radio audiences before successfully transitioning to film, and when Luise married bandleader Alvino Rey, they became his band’s resident vocal group Charting 22 top 40 singles on the Billboard charts between 1937 and 1944, The King Sisters were an important part of the wartime soundscape. But, by the 1950’s, as the individual sisters focused on raising their young families, their activities as performers began to decrease. But The King Sisters maintained their popularity throughout the 1950’s, playing popular night spots and jazz clubs, and even getting a Grammy nomination in 1958 for their album “Imagination.”
By the middle of the 1960’s members of the King Family, which had tripled in size, seemed to have their fingers dipped in every areas of entertainment. Each of the King Sisters were raising multiple children who all seemed to be following in their mother’s footsteps. With music and show business running through their heritage, the kids all were talented, highly disciplined and used to the glitz and the glitter of show business life.
In 1963 Yvonne King was asked by her church in Oakland to organize a benefit concert. Instead of seeking outside entertainment, Yvonne had the idea to bring together her sisters, as well as their spouses and children, all together for an entire showcase of talent. The idea proved to be a good one, and the show was so successful that The King Family were asked to do a second church benefit in Burbank. Again the family came together to a sold out audience who loved the combination of nostalgic favorites of the past, and the fresh faced talent of the next generation. The King Family were energetic, talented and, most of all, seemingly untainted by the counterculture that was beginning to challenge traditional family values. The Burbank performance brought the family back to their home state of Utah when they did a benefit performance at Brigham Young University, which was professionally filmed for prosperity. Getting ahold of the tape from the third performance, Yvonne brought it to the head of ABC-TV and pitched a variety show featuring the family. ABC’s president, Edgar Sherick, was reported to say that the performance he saw on the tape provided was the kind of entertainment he would want his family to be watching, so he gave The King Family a guest spot on “Hollywood Palace” in May 1964. Well, they were a hit, and it was estimated that ABC received approximately 53 thousand letters from viewers saying they wanted more of The King Family. This led to the first King Family TV series, which made its debut January 23rd, 1965.
Okay. Still with me? Good. Now let’s get to the cousins.
With 49 different family members, ranging from the ages of 7 months to 79 years old, appearing on the show, the standout players were the kids of the original King Sisters. High energy, squeaky clean and dressed in matching outfits with their names clearly printed on their shirts, which were designed by fashion newcomer Bob Mackie in one of his first design gigs, the children, which were collectively called The King Cousins, added a touch of youthful appeal to the show. The guys were good looking, and the girls were gorgeous, and young viewers watching at home with their parents were easily prone to developing crushes on one or more of the King Cousins (I know I have a King Cousin crush, but I’m not revealing who). Each week the cousins had their own segment on the show titled “Top Twenty” where they performed a medley of popular songs that were on the charts at the moment. Although light hearted and sanitized renditions of the days hits , watching the cousins perform songs by artists such as Bob Dylan, The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Supremes and Sonny and Cher, country favorites by George Jones and Roger Miller, and British imports by The Searchers, Herman’s Hermits, Gerry and the Pacemakers and Freddie and the Dreamers, not only gave the cousins a platform to take the spotlight as performers, but also differentiated The King Family from the ultra-square Lawrence Welk Show, if only slightly.
Well, during the run of the series, The King Cousins got their first go at recording a single for Warner Brothers Records The song chosen for them was an obscure Gerry and the Pacemakers B-side titled “Today I’m in Love,” and was an early composition written by future soul/disco hitmaker Van McCoy, which never seemed to make it on the charts on either side of the pond. With Cathy Cole on lead vocals, and a chorus of cousins singing an elaborate background hook – “Bom de bom bom, dee da doobie bom bom, dee da doobie bom bom, dee da doobie bom bom,” The King Cousins made “Today I’m in Love” a total banger! “Today I’m in Love” made its debut on an episode of “The King Family Show,” follow=d by a performance of the singles B-side which featured Cousin Ric de Azevedo doing a fantastic version of Randy Newman’s composition “Just One Smile,” which would become a hit a year later when released by Gene Pitney.
Upon the single’s release, “Today I’m in Love” was predicted by Billboard to be a hit and was starred in their release charts, but who knows why a record doesn’t hit big with the public. “Today I’m in Love” is one of the best forgotten bangers of the1960’s, and the song not only had a hip hook, but Cathy Cole at the lead had the right amount of enchanting presence, vocal power and poise to bring it to the top. However, “Today I’m in Love” didn’t make it on the charts at all and floundered into obscurity. The record is extremely hard to find, and it remains to be the top 45 rpm currently sitting on my “want list.” I absolutely love this song, and it is probably the true reason why I am a King Cousins fan. It should have been a major hit. If ever a song that never made it should have, “Today I’m in Love” by The King Cousins is it.
As the King Family went into their second season, their show was reduced from an hour to a half an hour, and it was placed opposite of “Jackie Gleason” on CBS, and the brand new hit sit-com “I Deam of Jeannie” on NBC. Unable to compete with these two powerhouses, the second season lasted only seventeen episodes before being cancelled in 1966. But while the King Family may have seemed temporarily out of business, The King Cousins were about to undergo another transformation on another network.
In 1966 NBC-TV was looking for a summer replacement series for “The Andy Williams Show,” and hired young crooner and future TV host John Davidson to become the head of a new variety show called “The Kraft Summer Music Hall.” The producers wanted to surround Davidson with an eclectic group of “college aged” performers and brought together folk/pop group The Lively Set, and in a strange twist, future comedy legends Richard Pryor and George Carlin. But the producers wanted some girl singers for Davidson to interact with, and remembering all of the pretty blondes from The King Family, they contacted them asking if any of the older girls would be interested in joining the cast as a singing group. Five of the cousins stepped forward – Yvonne’s daughters Cathy and Tina Cole, Maxine’s daughter Carolyn Cameron and Donna’s daughters Candy and Jamie Conkling – and they joined the cast as The Five King Cousins. Together, the cousins provided not only the harmonies that made The King Family popular with audiences, but also gave the series a chaste sort of sex appeal which would be acceptable to the middle America audience the show was aimed at. The summer series wasn’t a huge success but was popular enough to put members of the cast out on tour, and that fall John Davidson, George Carlin and the King Cousins took their show on the road. However, Jamie decided to opt out of the act in order to attend school, and The Four King Cousins were officially born.
“Introducing the Four King Cousins,” with its 1968 release date, coincides just after the girls’ appearances on “The Kraft Summer Music Hall,” as well as their tour with John Davidson. Furthermore, the groups got another boost in the public eye when Tina joined the cast of the hit sit-com “My Three Sons” in the role of Katie Miller-Douglas and became a heart throb for adolescent boys everywhere. So, despite being in the public eye for a few years, the time seemed right, and they got their chance to record a debut album of covers for Capital Records. Producing the album was another King Cousin, Lex de Azevedo, who put together a selection of pop hits for the girls to perform including songs by The Beatles, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart and The Beach Boys. The Four King Cousins gave great performances on the songs, with material carefully selected to match both their vocal abilities and public personas. But, despite being a well-produced album by a known entertainment entity, nothing from “Introducing the Four King Cousins” came close to reaching the Billboard charts.
So why did The Four King Cousins fail to be Billboard hit makers? One thing I find disconcerting is that Capital Records did not promote the album with any singles, which pretty much doomed them from having any success on the radio. I have no idea why Capitol Records would do that to them. It pretty much kneecapped them. But perhaps part of the problem was that The Four King Cousin’s sound, although very breezy and pleasant to listen to, was not hitting on the zeitgeist of the moment and maybe Capital didn’t know who to market the album to. Learning the industry from their mothers, The Four King Cousins performed today’s hits in a style that was already a bit of a throwback. Although the songs were all from the world of pop, the youth of America were listening to acid flavored rock like The Doors, The Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company and Sgt. Pepper. The Four King Cousins were too pristine and too clean cut for America’s youth market. I’m not sure who ended up buying The Four King Cousins’ album, but I envision many copies ended up in the collections of an older generation who were trying to relate musically with their kids.
Although the album failed to chart, and no follow up album was ordered, The Four King Cousins did not disappear from the cultural landscape. In 1969, when a new sketch comedy show called “Turn-On” was historically cancelled mid episode on ABC-TV, the network needed a quick replacement and looked to The King Family to pull things together for them again. The King Family had continued to appear in a series of specials on ABC, maintaining their popularity with audiences, so they became the natural go to entity to make the public forget the “Turn On” fiasco. A new King Family Show was produced almost overnight with greater screen time being dedicated to The Four King Cousins. The series lasted thirteen episodes, and although a second series was not picked up, the family continued to appear in ongoing specials until 1974.
As the King Family quietly began to disappear from American airwaves in the mid-70’s, The Four King Cousins were not quite finished yet. In 1975 the girls did a tour of Japan, and proving popular with Asian audiences, they were asked to do a second album for the Japanese market. To appease their fans in the East, the girls recorded an album with Hugh Hefner’s fledging Playboy Records and released “The Way We Were” in 1977. The new album had the girls singing more modern hits, including songs by Roberta Flack, The Carpenters, Neil Sedaka, The Captain and Tennille, Leon Russell and Barbra Streisand. So, you think “Introducing the Four King Cousins” is a rare album to find? “The Way We Were” is completely impossible to locate, and I doubt I’ll ever see a copy of this one in my lifetime.
After the Japanese Tour, The Four King Cousins quietly started to slow down their appearances. Now having families of their own, their attention began to move away from show business and to raising the next generation of The King Family. But they made one final appearance when they were spotlighted as part of an epic musical performance led by Toni Tennille of Bill Conti’s “Gonna Fly Now,” for ABC-TV’s Silver Anniversary Special in 1978. One of the most impressive gathering of stars ever assembled on one stage, how that performance didn’t turn into an absolute melee is beyond me. It is one of my favorite videos on all of YouTube and needs to be seen to be believed.
As the 70’s turned into the 80’s, The King Family as an entertainment franchise seemed to fade into obscurity, but the individual family members, and the next generation of kids, continued to make inroads into the world of entertainment. For years the family became little more than a memory for the public, but in the 2000’s new interest in the King Family emerged when PBS, tired of recycling the old Lawrence Welk reruns which they’d been unpacking for decades, began reairing their holiday specials for the very first time. Once again, the charm and kitch of The King Family hit with the public striking a nostalgic emotional chord with viewers who saw the specials when they were originaly aired and finding their way for the first time to new fans and nostalgia buffs.
And with the King Family emerging like a phoenix from the abyss, new interest in The Four King Cousins also emerged. In 2006 “Introducing the Four King Cousins” was released on CD for the first time and received a brand new vinyl pressing in 2007. Then, in 2013 Poly-O Records released never released recordings of King Cousins performances lifted from their TV appearances. Later that year, Candy, Carolyn, Tina and Cathy reunited for their first concert in 30 years at Los Angeles’ Catelina Jazz Club! The sold out performance gained media attention and led to further performances by The Four King Cousins through to 2017. Continuing the family’s profile in the modern age, Cousin Cam Clarke, who has the entire collection of family footage via kinescopes in his possession, has maintained a steady flow of vintage footage appearing on social media and YouTube for nearly a decade, and has just released a brand new book on celebrating The King Family’s centennial, “Now They’re All Here: Over 100 years of Entertainment from America’s First Family of Song,” which you can purchase through Rare Bird Books here.
Still a close knit family today, another King Cousin reunion could happen at any moment. A family who loves to perform together, even in the current century the King Family continues to be “America’s First Family of Song.”
