Top 10 Songs from The Andrews Sisters

Bei Mir Bist du Schön was not just the first single The Andrews Sisters released, in 1938, it was their first Number One hit on the Billboard Top 100.  As the depression wound down the three girls from Minnesota took the US by storm with this German title, something World War II would likely have prevented had they released it a few years later.

While I always think of Don't Fence Me In as a Bing Crosby song, The Andrews Sisters reached #2 in 1943 with the song and it hit #1 on the Billboard Country Top 100 for that year.  Rum and Coca-Cola was a #1 hit for them in 1945, well before I was born.  In fact, I first heard the song in Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown.  I will always associate the song with Snoopy drinking root beer in a bar in France.

The Andrews Sisters had a #3 hit in 1945 with Civilization (Bongo, Bongo, Bongo) recorded with the inimitable and ever-delightful Danny Kaye.  It's such a goofy song that I can't help but love it.  You can listen to it and watch a great slide show of pictures below.  That was far from the only smash they sisters hit in 1945.  Shoo Shoo Baby reached #1 on the charts and Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive with Bing Crosby made it to #2 in the same year.

This is the part of the article where I admit my weakness for yodeling in American music.  Specifically, Toolie Oolie Doolie (The Yodel Polka), a song that the ladies took to #3 in 1948, and Yodelin' Jive with Bing Crosby, a hit that reached #4 on the the Billboard Top 100 in 1939.  In truth, I blame Bing and The Andrews Sisters for my yodel fondness.  Well, them and those Ricola ads.

My runner-up for the best Andrews Sister hit song also happens to have hit #2 on the charts in 1940: Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar. Regardless of the name, this song was a boogie woogie masterpiece.

Many people have recorded covers of The Andrews Sister's hit song Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (of Company B) but none have outdone the original.  Though it only reached number 6 on the Billboard Top 100 in 1941, it's their best-known song today.  It also happens to be one of my personal favorite songs.

It debuted in the Abbot and Costello film "Buck Privates", one of seventeen movies in which The Andrews Sisters appeared.  The song was nominated for an Academy Award in 1941, as well.  It was vodted number six on the 365 Songs of the Century project put together by Scholastic, Inc, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Recording Industry Association of America.

You can click over to The Not-Pop Jukebox to enjoy nine full versions of The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy or you can just watch the fantastic video below to see why this is their best song, hand down.  To hear the full version of my Top Ten Andrews Sisters Songs, try the play list I made of them at Grooveshark.