Miriam Makeba & The Skylarks – The Best of Miriam Makeba & The Skylarks (1956-59, South Africa)

As randomly chosen by survey[1] on Mastodon, our next spotlight is on number 227 on The List, submitted by platenworm.

The Skylarks were an all-woman South African jazz & jive vocal group, founded in 1956 by Miriam Makeba upon request of Gallotone/Gallo Records. Makeba had already recorded for Gallo both solo and as part of The Manhattan Brothers, a very influential band in South Africa that was most active during the 1940s and 50s. Gallo was wanting a “girlie group” to compete with rival labels that had successful Black woman vocal groups whose style was modelled on popular close-harmony American trios from the 30s/40s/50s (such as the Boswell Sisters, Andrews Sisters, and McGuire Sisters, white groups whose style, in turn, drew on Black American music). Starting as a trio named The Sunbeams, the group brought their own unique sound to the style, adding a fourth member to perfect their harmonies, mixing in South African melodies and other elements, and singing primarily in Southern African languages including Xhosa (but also in English), with songs addressing social and political issues caused by apartheid in South Africa.

Within a couple of years, The Skylarks were South Africa’s most popular group, and had recorded over 100 songs. But, in 1959, Makeba’s star power skyrocketed with her lead role in the wildly successful South African jazz musical called King Kong (alongside Hugh Masekela, who she would later be married to for a few years), followed by her cameo in the anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa. After only 3 short years, The Skylarks disbanded [edit: or did they? see the footnote[2]] when Makeba left South Africa to further pursue her solo career; Makeba would not return to her home country for over 30 years, effectively exiled by the South African government due to her vocal criticism of apartheid.[3]

Makeba became an iconic, internationally-known figure, for both her solo music and her civil rights activism. It’s a giant, fascinating rabbit hole to go down to learn more about her, and I’m very much looking forward to jumping in. But first, many thanks to platenworm for highlighting these early recordings with The Skylarks.

• I can’t find this particular compilation on streaming services, but similar comps can be found at:
  • Bandcamp: The Skylarks – The Very Best of The Skylarks (1956-1959) Vol. 1 and Vol. 2
  • YouTube playlist: Miriam Makeba & The Skylarks – The Very Best Of (1956-1959)
  • Qobuz: Miriam Makeba & The Skylarks – The Very Best Of (1956-1959)
• Discogs: Miriam Makeba & The Skylarks – The Best of Miriam Makeba & The Skylarks

1. The survey choices that initially led to this spotlight were “You’re just a sinner, I am told”, “Be your fire when you’re cold”, “Make you happy when you’re sad”, and “Make you good when you are bad”, following surveys that had “I’m not a woman, I’m not a man”/“I am something that you’ll never understand”/“I’ll never beat you, I never lie”/“And if you’re evil I’ll forgive you by and by cuz”, “You, I would die 4 U, yeah”/”Darling, if you want me to”/”You, I would die 4 U”, and “I’m not your lover, I’m not your friend”/“I am something that you’ll never comprehend”/“No need to worry, no need to cry”/“I’m your messiah and you’re the reason why”. The third option was the winning selection, and so the survey result was translated as picking the album in The List that contained a word in the phrase – in this case, “make”. ↩︎
2. Edit: When updating The Index with the link to this post, I came across this obituary notice for Mary Rabotapi, which states that the group continued after Makeba left, and recruited Letta Mbulu as the new lead. It doesn’t indicate, however, if the band’s name changed. Discogs does list Mbulu as a band member, at any rate. ↩︎
3. The line-up changed a few times and there’s conflicting info on the Internets as to who was all in the group, but it seems The Sunbeams/Skylarks at least at some point included: Miriam Makeba, Mizpah Makeba (? – unsure on last name, is Miriam’s half-sister), Johanna Radebe, Mary Rabotapi, Mummy Girl Nketle, Helen van Rensburg, and Abigail Kubeka, with additional vocals by Nomonde Sihawu and Sam Ngakone. Discogs also lists Letta Mbulu as a member – see above footnote for an explanation on that. I primarily got my info via this post on the Soul Safari blog, as well as the liner notes for this comp that are written by Rob Allingham, former archive manager for Gallo Records. ↩︎