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Street Date: February 26, 2002

New York, NY-If you've been waiting to hear what those versatile a cappella icons, The Persuasions, were going to sing next, after their successful tributes to Frank Zappa and the Grateful Dead, your wait is over! Known to fans and critics alike as the 'kings of contemporary a cappella', The Persuasions are making their debut on Chesky Records with a special collection of Beatles songs entitled The Persuasions Sing the Beatles.

These fourteen carefully selected songs from the Beatles' repertoire are uniquely interpreted on The Persuasions Sing the Beatles, resulting in a glorifying accolade to the revolutionary music of the 'Fab Four'. The stunning vocal harmonies beautifully intertwine with the gospel and R&B influences of The Persuasions, who skillfully take these well-loved songs and make each one their own. Once again The Persuasions have presented incredible arrangements and adaptations of classic songs which take on an entirely new light, bringing a haunting originality to the familiar, as they have done so successfully for four decades.

With sympathetic production making the disc sound better than any release the group has issued in a career stretching back four decades, The Persuasions Sing the Beatles shows just what can be done with voices so completely accustomed to working together. "Oh! Darling" and "Imagine" emerge as near-liturgical laments, "Yesterday" is performed in the manner of a Forties or Fifties ballad, "Rocky Racoon" boasts a country feel and "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da" flows with contagious rhythm and energy.

The Persuasions don't merely cover these Lennon/McCartney tunes, but rather respectfully honor these vanguards of pop writing by creating renditions that cut to the very essence of the original songs. As the Washington Post reported, "The venerable a cappella quartet The Persuasions [are] simply brilliant, applying their incredible, octave skipping street corner harmonies to a collection of classics," and this sentiment has perhaps never been more true than on this collection of Beatles' songs.

With Chesky's manner of recording, The Persuasions Sing the Beatles was the most challenging project for the group to date, according to lead singer and the album's co-producer Jerry Lawson. "There's no over dubs and what you hear is what you get," says Lawson. "If someone so much as coughed, and they did of course, we'd have to start the whole song over again," he laughs. There's simply no room for mistakes."

Co-producer David Chesky wanted the sound to be as close to what one would hear if The Persuasions were performing on the street corner. So accordingly, The Persuasions mixed it up a bit on this album. Jerry Lawson took lead vocals only and refrained from any of his usual baritone over dubs. Jimmy Hayes was bass, Jayotis Washington sang low baritone and Raymond Sanders was high 1st tenor. Special guests for this project were Butch Phillips who was 2nd tenor and baritone and Dave Revel as 2nd tenor. The result is a less bottom-heavy sound, a sweet, balanced sound. Chesky's signature 96 kHZ/24-bit recording technology brilliantly captured the fine nuances of these talented vocalists and brought an unprecedented clarity to the arrangements of these Beatles' classics.

Not only have The Persuasions been cited as pioneers of the popular a cappella scene, influencing such groups as Boyz II Men, Take 6 and Rockapella, they have never rested on their "Muhammad Ali" status in the world of unaccompanied music. With nearly 8000 performances; numerous television specials and live radio appearances; over 20 records spanning the genres of gospel, Christmas music, children's music, the music of Frank Zappa and the Grateful Dead, these persevering gentlemen show no signs of slowing down - and most certainly no signs of getting a band!

Chesky Records, the Grammy Award-winning Jazz, Pop, World and Classical audiophile label is distributed nationally by Telarc.