The Bell Sisters - Bermuda

Cynthia (16) and Kay (12) Bell sing their big hit Bermuda on the Bob Hope Show...the song was written by Cynthia Bell
25-03-1952

[@jodyrobbins1719]

My mother who is in 70's could not find this song, so I pulle up YouTibe and made her cry by playing this song for her.

[@kencooper6232]

Our police sponsored club, the DAPs, took us to LA's Shrine Auditorium to see a concert with several acts. This song by the Bell Sisters was the hit of the evening (actually, their performance is the only one I remember). My girlfriend Roberta and I were about 13 at the time.

[@waynebrasler]

This was a terrific record and got the sisters noticed right away, along with many television appearances, most notably on the Dinah Shore show. The anthology of their recordings is well worth getting as musically they were imaginative and tackled some unusual and intriguing music.

[@galeperez475]

Thank you for posting! I love this song, my parents had it on a 78 and I played it over and over again.

[@woody41435]

these girls were a big hit/////thanks for the post.

[@milpeg9526]

Came to hear the Bell sisters sing after hearing them on a Canadian crime series "Coroner" Session 3 Episode 5. Did not know about these singers before now. Glad to have found this recording here. Thank you for posting.

[@gogo31038ify]

Had a lot of plays on the BBC's Two Way Family Favourites record programme back in 1953.

[@oldtimer5738]

Used to listen to this in my youth

[@MsYtab]

Same here! I was 15, it was 1952

[@WilliamFox-dn3bk]

Visited Florida oldie oldie man

[@ThatDifferentDude]

This song is great. It's not the easiest song to find.

[@pennydesouza]

wow, this is brilliant

[@mescko]

Haven't heard this in 25 years at least. When I was a kid, we had an old (mono) Zenith Radio/"Cobra" Phonograph (remember them?) Hi-Fi--it said "High Fidelity" on the front in fancy--metal!--script. it had stacks of my parents' 45's in it, including this. I can still see the blue RCA Victor label. The B-side was "June Night."

[@BDFDJOE]

They came to Korea with a Bob Hope troupe for christmas of 1954 to Marine-Air-Base at k6....

[@RexStrother]

Yes, the Bell Sisters did Christmas tours of Korea with the USO in 1953 and 1954. At the time, Kay (Bell) Strother was the youngest performer in the USO.

[@LandondeeL]

The Bell Sisters were supposed to have been the 1950's answer to the Andrews Sisters, much in the same way as the Andrews were the 1940's answer to the Boswell Sisters. But then Rock & Roll came in, and swept them away like a Bermuda monsoon. But don't worry. At least Cynthia was able to live comfortably off the royalties of the Four Seasons' cover of the song.

[@RexStrother]

The royalties from the Four Seasons never really amounted to much income to Cynthia, unfortunately - she saw a brief bump to her royalties for a year-ish, but it wasn't a big hit for the Four Seasons, so didn't stay on the radio long, or find it re-used in movies/TV as did some of their hits.

[@LandondeeL]

Maybe it wasn't a big hit for the Seasons chart-wise, but it did end up on dozens of "All-Star Oldies" albums throughout the 1960's, at a time when the Seasons' Vee Jay and Philips material were not available for such purposes.

[@RexStrother]

Well, some royalties definitely came in ... in the early 1960s, but they quickly tapered off I'm afraid and were not sufficient to live on. Cynthia and Kay are my aunts (they are still kicking, I'm happy to say) and I own the publishing rights to BERMUDA and other songs Cynthia wrote. Our last BMI statement for royalties was $3.92 (Q3 of 2015). Most of that came from the use of BERMUDA in the 1996 film "Grace of My Heart" (the Bell Sister version). Now, if they had thrown BERMUDA into the play/movie "Jersey Boys' - damn, I wish.

[@LandondeeL]

Glad to hear your aunts are still with us. If they ever decided to perform again, they would definitely pack the house at Westbury Music Fair!

[@RexStrother]

I'm happy to say they're now available on Pandora and on Spotify - if you want to follow them or add them to your Pandora station.

[@MizRoxy2005]

Ah wonderful - although I wouldn't describe the Bermuda waters as 'cold'!

[@alyssadyer4096]

It can be. Enough to make your nose red in the winter.