By BBC Music Magazine

Published: Tuesday, 15 February 2022 at 12:00 am


When six recent Cambridge and Oxford undergraduates took to the stage at the Southbank in May 1968, few of them could have envisaged just what was to come. Within a few years, the King’s Singers were appearing regularly on prime-time TV, touring globally and selling out major venues.  The group is still going strong today, though none of the current members were even born when that first concert took place. Over its 53 years in business, it has recorded many albums, ranging from Renaissance motets to six-part arrangements of Bowie and Billy Joel. Here are six of the very best…

King’s Singers best recordings

Original Debut Recording (1971)

The first ever King’s Singers album consists mainly of popular songs, a number of which are heard in deft arrangements by Gordon Langford, whose Trio accompanies the group here. Originally released under the title By Appointment, the disc is rounded off by Ron Goodwin’s sublimely daft ‘What Kind of Things (Do the King’s Singers Sing)?’ party piece. Chandos CHAN6562

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