The first
Chad Mitchell Trio album after their appearance at Carnegie Hall with
Harry Belafonte showed that their benefactor had taken charge of the youngsters' recording productions. Brought on board for this album were arranger
Milton Okun, producer
Bob Bollard, engineer
Bob Simpson, and even photographer
Peter Perri, all from
Belafonte's stable. Their sole accompanist on guitar and banjo was a young musician named
Jim McGuinn, who in later years, would change his name to
Roger and help found
the Byrds. The album was recorded before 3,000 enthusiastic students at Brooklyn College. The trio was riding high, fresh from three concert tours (including one with
Bob Newhart) and a highly charged appearance on NBC's Bell Telephone Hour (a pretty heady career start for three youngsters whose average age was just 22). Baritone
Joe "Speedo" Frazier had replaced original member
Mike Pugh;
Frazier sang on the bottom, with
Michael Kobluk in the middle and
Chad Mitchell on top. Traditional Irish tunes were always in the
Mitchell repertoire; "The Whistling Gypsy," "Puttin' on the Style," and "Johnnie" ("Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye") are three Irish-based tunes on this album. Also noteworthy is the Jewish folk song "Dona Dona Dona," written by Sholom Secunda. The
Mitchell Trio were also known for satirical, humorous songs like "Super Skier" (sung to the tune of "The Wreck of the Old '97" and "M.T.A.") and "Lizzie Borden," the latter actually cracking the Top 50 as a single during the spring of 1962.