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A few years back, the British alternative rock band Radiohead put out a song called ‘You and Whose Army?’ Radiohead’s guitarist, Jonny Greenwood, later revealed that this track was inspired by the Ink Spots and that his fascination with that mid-20th century vocal group had infected the whole band. Why this connection between five arty rockers from 1990s Oxford and four proto-doowoppers from 1930s Indianapolis? Most likely, Radiohead simply heard and loved what most people hear and love in the Ink Spots’ music: warmth, wit, tasteful musicality and unapologetic beauty. It is those traits that gave the Ink Spots 19 U.S. Top Ten hits between 1939 and 1949, caused generations of close-harmony groups to follow their example. — Mac Randall