Our Story

A look at the singing group follows their forty-year career and the many personnel changes and reveals the problems of spending much of the year on the road and the temptation of drugs

The Oak Ridge Boys are one of the most successful groups in country music today. Their roots are in gospel music, however, and the authors interviewed most of the singers who have performed with the group since its inception in the mid-1940s to compile this history. Indeed, there were 35 other Oak Ridge quartet members prior to the famous foursome who have made up the group since 1973. Duane Allen, William Lee Golden, Richard Sterban, and Joe Bonsall are the ones who took the group to its greatest fame in gospel music and then made the controversial transition to country and popular music with such hits as "Y'all Come Back Saloon" and "Elvira." Separate chapters profiling these four stars will appeal to the ORB's many fans.Will Hepfer, SUNY at Buffalo Libs.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.