American musician, a tenor, guitarist and ukulele-player who co-founded The Ink Spots, an American pop vocal group which gained international fame in the 1930s and 1940s.
As “Jerry and Charlie”, Daniels and Charlie Fuqua formed a vocal duo performing in the Indianapolis area around 1931. About the same time, Hoppy Jones and Deek Watson were part of a quartet, “The Four Riff Brothers”, who appeared regularly on radio station WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1933, that group disbanded, and Watson, Daniels and Fuqua got together to form a new vocal, instrumental and comedy group, which was initially called “King, Jack, and Jester”. They continued to appear regularly on radio in Ohio, and became a foursome when Jones was added to the group the following year.
In July 1934 they accepted a booking at the Apollo Theater, New York, supporting Tiny Bradshaw. At this point they had changed their name to “The 4 Ink Spots”. Later in 1934, the Ink Spots achieved international success touring the UK with Jack Hylton’s Orchestra.
They first recorded for Victor Records in 1935, but although the group was growing rapidly in popularity, their early record releases were not commercially successful. Their first recordings included songs such as “Swingin’ On The Strings”, “Your Feet’s Too Big”, “Don’t ‘Low No Swingin’ In Here” and “Swing, Gate, Swing”.
Jerry Daniels left the group in 1936. He died on 7 November 1995, aged 79, in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Link to The Ink Spots