Patty Andrews, the lead singer of the Andrews Sisters, one of the earliest and most popular girl groups of the last century, died yesterday at the age of 94. While you may not have known her by her first name, you’ve undoubtedly heard soprano Patty and her older sisters singing jaunty, lively harmonies over a doo-wop beat in movies, TV shows, or commercial jingles, bringing mid-century nostalgia to everything their voices touched.
Best known for such songs as “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree” and “The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” the trio—which also included LaVerne, who died in 1967, and Maxene, who died in 1995—peaked in popularity during World War II, when they entertained soldiers overseas and became symbolic of a certain kind of Americana in the process.
