Norman Luboff

The Norman Luboff Choir was among the most popular choral ensembles of their day, releasing a series of hit easy-listening LPs during the late 1950s and 1960s. Luboff was born May 14, 1917 in Chicago, where he began his career as a vocalist and arranger for area radio programs; in 1948 he relocated to Hollywood, signing on to compose movie music for Warner Bros. The first incarnation of the Norman Luboff Choir was formed during the mid-1950s, and in the years to follow they released a series of albums on Columbia that drew on music from a variety of genres and geographic locales, with titles including Calypso Holiday, Broadway!, Songs of the Cowboy and Songs of the Caribbean. The choir also backed a number of vocalists including Harry Belafonte and Doris Day, and although their recording career came to a halt during the late 1960s, they continued touring until Luboff's cancer-related death on September 22, 1987. ~ Jason Ankeny