Terry Franklin and the Suntones
I just discovered something tonight that I can hardly believe. How on earth did I never know this before?! I’m a student of barbershop quartets and southern gospel like few others, but somehow I missed this one.
My favorite old time barbershop quartet is far and away the Suntones, 1961 barbershop quartet champions. They were flat-out awesome, and their stuff still is many years later. I have their Complete Works CDs 4 and 5, and sure wish I had the other three.
Back in ’03, the Suntones were doing some reunion stuff, and some of their sons got together and sang a few songs as “Sons of the Tones.” I heard it was on Youtube, so I checked it out.
Pretty sweet! They sound really good. Todd Wilson, son of baritone Harlan Wilson, sings the baritone, and the lead and tenor’s sons also sing the lead and tenor respectively. Joel T. Rutherford (not a Suntone son) fills in on bass. Todd and Joel sing with the Acoustix.
So let’s switch to Southern Gospel. It’s no secret I’m a huge fan of the Gaither Vocal Band. I’ve always liked Terry Franklin, he was tenor for a few years back in the 90’s, between Jim Murray and Jonathan Pierce.
This was way back, but they did some great stuff. And Terry was really quite a good tenor. I used to have a video of GVB at a Praise Gathering from that era, it had some great stuff on it. Somehow it disappeared on me, I sure wish I knew what happened to it.
Anyway, so I was watching these Sons of the Tones vids, and I was thinking, man that lead looks like Terry Franklin. Then I noticed that it said his name WAS Terry Franklin! I thought that was too massive a coincidence to be the same Terry, so I started Googling.
I found an interview of Bill Gaither done by Todd Wilson in ’06, and sure enough, it’s one and the same. Terry Franklin is the son of Bob Franklin, lead of the Suntones! How awesome is that.
Then I found this from Joel T. Rutherford (he posted the videos on Youtube) explaining them.
Anyway, here are some of the songs from Youtube. This first one features Terry a good bit on lead (with some great high notes!), Without a Song.
Here they are doing one of my favorite Suntones tunes, Show Me Where the Good Times Are:
Here’s a couple from the GVB when Terry was with them, these were from the video I used to have. Back when they were all mullet boys, check out the hair. And Michael English in flowing pants and Mark Lowry in his prisoner suit!
This is Little is Much, with Terry doing the tenor lead.
Here’s a great one, Satisfied. In spite of a brief trademark howl from Mike English, it’s still great.
6 Responses
August 15th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Wow! That is quite the awful suit Mark has on!! I love GVB too. Thanks for posting the videos.
August 16th, 2008 at 12:54 am
Too COOL Tom…When ya get to Oregon next,look me up and I’ll show ya a couple of autographed Suntones LP’s I own.
August 16th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I’m so glad I found this posting – the Suntones are also my favorite all-time quartet (but I wasn’t born yet when they won ;) and I was at the Jubil-Aires Show & Glow in October 2003 when the Suntones (with Todd Wilson singing bass for Bill Cain) and the Sons of the Tones sang. The Alexandria Harmonizers were also on the show. It was by far my most amazing overall barbershop experience – what a thrill!!! I hope we see the Sons of the Tones again since Terry, Bruce, and Todd are all in Nashville now!!! Thanks for posting the videos and letting me relive the experience! ~Megan
February 8th, 2009 at 8:24 am
I was so blessed by what I heard and saw keep giving God all the praise in song and you will be blessed.
August 31st, 2010 at 9:44 am
I’ve followed the Gaither Vocal Band for several years and they’re all good but I’ve never known of Terry Franklin. Only about three days ago, I ran across this great singer. He’s one of the best I’ve ever seen. Since running across him, I’ve tried to find out everything I could about him. I wish I could find DVD’s with him only but have not been able to do so yet but I’ll keep looking. He is better than good. I could listen to him all day everyday.
October 8th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
I remember when Terry first travelled in a bus with, I believe, the Florida Boys. I still have a vinyl with Terry. My favorite is First Day in Heaven.