Dick Foley, KOMO host and Brothers Four folk singer, dies at 85
Dick Foley - a pioneering, Grammy-nominated Seattle folk singer who performed at the Academy Awards and at the White House before his second act as a longtime KOMO host - has died.
Foley passed away March 15 "after a long illness," according to a statement from his family. He was 85.
"His love for his family was evident in his daily life and his faith was important to him," Foley's widow, Mary, said in a statement to the media. "Dick's God-given talents were many, but it was his warmth, his compassion, his generosity, and his humor that brought us together."
Foley grew up in Madison Park. Prior to launching his Emmy Award-winning TV career, a college-age Foley first found success in the entertainment industry with folk group The Brothers Four. Formed in the late 1950s with his University of Washington fraternity brothers Bob Flick, John Paine and Mike Kirkland, The Brothers Four was part of the Northwest's contribution to the folk revivalist movement of the mid-20th century.
The outrageously wholesome" vocal quartet, as Flick described them, incorporated more of a pop sensibility that placed the group somewhere between early folk purists like artist/activist Pete Seeger and The Mamas & the Papas, who came in "California Dreamin' " with the 1960s counterculture.
"The Weaver[s] provided the original impetus," Foley said of the era's folk movement in a 1963 interview with The Seattle Times. "But the Kingston Trio really got it off the ground in the late ‘50s. We came in on the first wave of the folk-song fad, but it is no longer a fad - it is a tidal wave."
The influence of that "tidal wave" still shows up in ripples across the American music landscape, be it in the three-part harmonies of Brandi Carlile and the Hanseroth twins or the work of current Seattle breakouts The Brudi Brothers.
Foley and The Brothers Four caught one of their first breaks in 1959 when they went to San Francisco to play the influential Hungry I club. After their Phi Gamma Delta fraternity brothers from the nearby University of California, Berkeley, chapter packed the place, the Seattle foursome grabbed the attention of Columbia Records, which released the group's self-titled debut album in 1960.
"At the beginning, [Foley] was with no question the lead singer; the voice of the soloist that was featured on our very first record, 'Greenfields,' " Flick said of their signature hit. "That carried on throughout most of the '60s. He was just a lovely performer."
A year after that fateful San Francisco trip, The Brothers Four landed a slot on "The Ed Sullivan Show" to perform "Greenfields," when Foley's voice apparently cracked at the most inopportune time.
"Ed invited us back for several repeat appearances, so I guess it wasn't a complete disaster," Foley later told The Seattle Times.
With its spellbound harmonies, "Greenfields" ascended to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, helping The Brothers Four to three nominations at the 1961 Grammy Awards, where they lost best new artist to comedian Bob Newhart. The song itself was up for performance awards in the folk and vocal group categories.
"We don't claim to be an ethnic or purist group," Foley said of The Brothers Four's place in the early '60s folk scene, "but we do all our own arranging and much of our own writing, revising old lyrics for a more contemporary flavor."
Beyond the Grammys, the group also earned an Oscar nomination that same year with their single "The Green Leaves of Summer," which was featured in "The Alamo" starring John Wayne. Though it didn't win, The Brothers Four performed the song at the Academy Awards.
"During the rehearsal, we were singing the song and we heard a fifth voice," Flick recalled. "We looked at each other. We looked at the corner of the room [at] the door and it was Danny Kaye. He'd popped his head in to add a fifth part to our rehearsal."
1961 marked the group's commercial peak, following the Grammy and Oscar showings up with their highest-charting album, "BMOC: Best Music On/Off Campus," which reached No. 4 on the Billboard 200 album chart. The same year, the quartet performed at President John F. Kennedy's inauguration - the first of four presidents The Brothers Four would serenade at the White House.
While The Brothers Four and the folk revival saw their popularity wane by the late ‘60s, the group has continued to this day. Flick is the lone original member. Foley left the touring ensemble in 1990 to focus on his television career, Flick told The Seattle Times.
(The current iteration of The Brothers Four performs May 22-23 at the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in Langley.)
Flick remembers Foley as a "quiet guy" with vast interests, including a love of comedy albums, often passing time on tour by reciting bits for his bandmates.
"On road trips, he would have us rolling in the car by doing, for example, a complete Lenny Bruce album," Flick said.
An Emmy Award-winning broadcaster, Foley's 16-year stint at KOMO during the ‘80s and ‘90s saw the musician hosting shows like "Northwest Afternoon," "The Time of Your Life" and others. In a bit of a role reversal, Foley invited his old group onto his shows on several occasions.
"It was kind of fun to cross over, sing songs and have him be the host on the show," Flick said. "We found that quite exciting and we were happy for him.
Following his time at KOMO, Foley worked as the A/V production manager at Virginia Mason Medical Center.
Outside of music and television, Foley was a frequent emcee at Seattle charity events and served on the boards of various organizations, according to his family, including the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the American Cancer Society.
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