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Randy Sparks, a creative entrepreneur whose musical ensemble, the New Christy Minstrels, helped fuel the folk revival of the early 1960s and launched the careers of artists such as John Denver, Steve Martin and Kenny Rogers, died Sunday at a assisted hospital. housing center in San Diego. He was 90 years old.
His son Kevin confirmed the death. Sparks had been living on his 168-acre ranch in Jenny Lind, California, northeast of San Francisco, until a few days before his death.
Before Beatlemania and the British Invasion revolutionized American popular music, folk music dominated the airwaves, and perhaps no group was more ubiquitous than the New Christy Minstrels. They had a near-constant presence on television and sold approximately two million albums in their first three years.
Sparks was already well-known as a singer, songwriter and actor in Southern California when he gathered nine other musicians in 1961 to form the group, which took its name from a popular 1840s stage show directed by Edwin P. Christy. Sparks was quick to note that his group shared nothing with its namesake, a white group that had promoted Stephen Foster’s music in blackface.
His group was a success from the beginning; Their debut album, “Presenting the New Christy Minstrels” (1962), won the Grammy Award for Best Choir Performance and remained on the Billboard charts for two years.
Under the direction of Mr. Sparks, the New Christy Minstrels quickly gained public attention for their mix of tight harmonies and casual, upbeat material. They played classic folk songs, often with modern updates, and their own original works, many of which were written by Mr. Sparks, including three that reached the Top 40: “Today,” “Saturday Night” and “Green, Green ,” which he wrote with Barry McGuire.
“The Minstrels maintain the kind of bubbly good spirit that should be bottled and sold in every supermarket in the country,” The New York Times wrote in 1964. “They suggest a Norman Rockwell portrait of nine young people smiling as they sing. and life.”
The folk scene took place mainly in coffee shops and university campuses; Mr. Sparks’ innovation was to bring national attention to his group by showing it on network television.
Between 1962 and 1963, New Christy Minstrels appeared in 26 episodes of “The Andy Williams Show,” a popular NBC variety series, and in eight episodes of the folk-oriented ABC show “Hootenanny.”
In 1964, they even had their own 30-minute summer show on NBC, “Ford Presents the New Christy Minstrels,” with comedy interludes by Tony Hendra and Jackie Mason. That same year they performed on the steps of the White House, at the invitation of President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Mr. Sparks demonstrated a keen eye for talent. In addition to the rotating New Christy Minstrels roster, he maintained what he called a “farm” group, the Back Porch Majority, which he supplied with promising artists.
After watching a young Steve Martin win second place in a banjo competition at Knott’s Berry Farm amusement park near Los Angeles, Sparks invited him to join the Back Porch Majority and even let him live in a spare room above the Sparks family garage.
Sparks also hired a budding singer-songwriter named Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. as the opening act for Back Porch Majority, but insisted that Deutschendorf choose a shorter stage name. He chose John Denver.
Among the other stars who began their careers under Mr. Sparks’ tutelage were Kenny Rogers, who went on to sell more than 100 million records as a country star; Kim Carnes, best known for her 1981 hit “Bette Davis Eyes”; McGuire, whose 1965 album “Eve of Destruction,” like “Bette Davis Eyes,” reached number one; Gene Clark, who became one of the founders of the Byrds; and Larry Ramos, who became the first Asian-American to win a Grammy while a member of the New Christy Minstrels in 1963 and later joined the Association.
As the group’s popularity and touring schedule expanded, Mr. Sparks stopped performing to concentrate on managing the ensemble. He also opened his own club in Los Angeles, Ledbetter’s, which he used as a testing ground for potential musicians.
Sparks sold his interest in New Christy Minstrels in the mid-1960s for $2.5 million, the equivalent of about $24 million today, and moved his family to rural Northern California. There he began a 30-year working relationship with his idol and mentor, Burl Ives. Mr. Sparks wrote songs for Mr. Ives and often performed as an opening act.
Lloyd Arrington Sparks was born on July 29, 1933 in Leavenworth, Kansas, although his family soon moved to Oakland, California, where he grew up. His father, Lee Sparks, built furniture and later worked in a shipyard. His mother, Pearl (Arrington) Sparks, ran the household.
He briefly attended the University of California, Berkeley, but left to write songs, something he had begun doing as a teenager. However, shortly after moving to San Diego and beginning to perform under the stage name Randy Sparks, he was drafted into the US Navy.
During his assignment aboard the aircraft carrier Princeton, he continued writing songs and playing music. He twice won a Navy talent show, an achievement that earned him a spot on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and a role in a tour of Navy musicians.
After leaving the service, Sparks signed a contract to appear alongside comedian Bob Hope on television and on tour. He also recorded two solo albums, “Randy Sparks” (1958) and “Walkin’ the Low Road” (1959), and made films: he had the lead role in the 1960 crime thriller “The Big Night” and a supporting role in the drama “College Confidential” that same year.
Clean-cut and square-jawed, Sparks had a face for television and became a regular on the numerous variety shows that were common on television in the 1950s. He initially played calypso, but soon moved on to folk music, which was increasingly popular in the bars and clubs of Los Angeles.
His marriage to Jackie Miller, who was briefly at New Christy Minstrels, ended in divorce. He married Diane Jergens, an actress, in 1962, and they were together until her death in 2018. Along with his son Kevin, he is survived by another son, Cameron; his daughters, Melinda and Amanda; his sister, Naomi Allen; and four grandchildren.
Sparks formed a folk trio with his first wife, Miller, but aspired to a bigger, richer sound. He convinced two other folk groups to merge with his, and after adding a few more musicians, the New Christy Minstrels were born.
After Mr. Ives, his mentor, died in 1995, Mr. Sparks reconnected with the New Christy Minstrels, who were still performing with a new generation of members. Sparks regained control of his creation and for the next 25 years directed, wrote music and performed with his former ensemble.
The venues were much smaller, mostly in Northern California, but Mr. Sparks didn’t mind.
“I don’t even care that there’s no market for what I write,” he told The Stockton Record in 2019. “I still write songs that are fun to sing and I’m still committed to teaching history with ditties.”