The Singing Senators

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Singing Senators were a group of U.S. Republican Senators who sang as a barbershop quartet.

1 Members
2 History
3 Other Singing Legislators
4 External links

[edit] Members

Representation at 2000:

John Ashcroft (R-Missouri) - Baritone (lost re-election, became Attorney General, then retired)
Larry Craig (R-Idaho) - Lead
James Jeffords (R-Vermont) - Tenor (Retired in 2006)
Trent Lott (R-Mississippi) - Bass

[edit] History

In 1995, on New Hampshire Senator Bob Smith's birthday party, Ashcroft, Jeffords, Lott, and Connie Mack of Florida sang "Happy Birthday". Later, when Senator Bob Packwood of Oregon was having a birthday party, Jeffords called Lott and suggested that the four of them sing at the party. Mack declined, but Larry Craig joined. Guy Hovis, the Mississippi state director for Lott, was a talented musician and trained the Senators. According to his autobiography, Herding Cats, A Life in Politics, Lott formed the group in large part to improve relations between the Republican Conference, of which Lott was Majority Leader, and Jeffords, who frequently voted with the Democrats.

During the five years the Singing Senators were together, the four usually practiced in Lott's hideaway office. On April 22, 1995, the Oak Ridge Boys decided to sing with the Singing Senators, and it was described in the Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper, as "Congressional Harmony". They released their lone album, "Let Freedom Sing," in 1998.

Ashcroft lost re-election to the Senate in 2000 and was appointed Attorney General, and Jeffords later became an Independent in early June 2001.

In October 2006, Lott and Craig said they were putting the quartet back together after a six-year hiatus. They said they had found two solid prospects in Senators Bob Bennett (R-Utah) and Senator John Thune (R-S.D.)[1]

[edit] Other Singing Legislators

Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is also a religious music recording artist. During 2002 he earned $18,009 in income from sales of his own recordings, according to a Senate financial disclosure; this was his highest annual intake from his singing. [2] He maintains a website for his music at hatchmusic.com.