Same Song, Separate Voices: Collective Memoirs of the Lennon Sisters

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Summary: An intimate portrayal of "America's Sweethearts of Song"
Review: The book "Same Song--Separate Voices" by The Lennon Sisters is a touching, personal account of these talented women's lives. It is the only quartet-authored autobiography written today. It is an excellent book in that it takes the reader through a spiral of personal memories; both good and bad. The informal conversational style used by Dianne,Peggy,Kathy and Janet Lennon gives the reader a feeling that the sisters are actually talking to him or her. The book can make the reader laugh, cry, and just feel good all in one chapter. I consider this to be one of the most well-written autobiographies I have ever read and recommend it to those who love.

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Summary: The Amazing Sweethearts of Song - The Lennon Sisters!!!
Review: This is in my opinion the greatest autobiography ever written because it is the collective memories of four wonderful women - Dianne (Dee Dee), Peggy, Kathy, and Janet Lennon. America watched them grow up from little girls to young women on the Lawrence Welk Show, and now for the first time America can relive those wonderful days while reading along as Dee Dee, Peggy, Kathy, and Janet share their memories. The girls take you on a "sentimental journey" with them as they remember their childhood growing up as the oldest four in a family of eleven, their exciting days on the Lawrence Welk Show, and so many more touching and inspiring memories, both good and bad. This book will make you laugh as well as cry, and it is asured to make you love the Lennon Sisters even more.

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Summary: Beautiful Music, Beautiful Lives
Review: With dismissive foolishness, I was skeptical of one reviewer's remark about this four-author autobiography to be the best biography she ever read, assuming she hasn't read a whole lot of books. But I suspected it might be a pleasant read to find out in greater detail what life was like through the years for four icons of the sweeter side of American culture, so I ordered it. I've seldomly made better decisions in life, and I apologize to my fellow reviewer for my condescending thought. I wouldn't rank this book above the Bible or the novels of Dostoyevsky for example, but as a middle-aged man who has read somewhere between one and two thousand books during his life, this book making his top twenty all time list, regardless of genre, says a great deal.

It is hard to avoid invoking the obvious superlatives about how The Lennon Sisters have embodied beauty, friendly charm, and an ability to sing like angels, but this book, rendered in a conversational style, is an articulate, serious account of their own self-understanding, of what it meant to them personally to be so adored while preserving their sense of professional obligation, loving their fans along the way, and allowing themselves to find ways to enjoy it all. It wasn't always easy. They experienced their share of identity confusions, but coming from a large, affectionate family, twelve siblings and a huge extended family, there were many providential strengths on which to draw. The sisters take great joy in their memories, and this is precisely what makes this book so appealing. During the course of reading it, the reader feels as though he or she is invited to become an honorary member of the family. There are a lot of very personal admissions that always manage to invoke humor or joy for the happy events, or deep empathy for the family tragedies.

Achieving fame in the wholesome setting of The Lawrence Welk Show made the sisters objects of countless adolescent crushes across the nation, especially Janet, the youngest, the cute one, who most assumed might be available long enough to be approachable. Okay, I admit it; I harbored one too. Alas, she married at nineteen. There is a hilarious anecdote of one of her unacquainted suitors presenting himself at the family front door greeted by a consternated father and equally mystified daughter.

Given the book's honesty, it is sad to later read how finding lasting happiness in life seemed to be more difficult for Janet-no one's fault-but gratifying to read that it eventually did occur. The authentic courtship stories of the sisters are very warmhearted, even for a generally non-sentimental type like me. This book is so infectious, one even ends up enjoying all the incorporated family photos. A favorite has to be the image of Dee Dee and her fiancé, Dick Gass, gazing back towards the camera personifying a happy young couple of the early sixties.

A second favorite has to be of Peggy in her favorite Halloween costume, St. Therese of Lisieux. That the pressures of being young entertainers who helped support the family, spending much time on the road, did not cause destructive strains in the family is testament to the strengths of their two loving parents, not affluent, but very hard working and able to instill a deep religious faith in each of them, as well as the rest of the family. This is a family that seems never to have lacked for a knowledge that love is the most important thing in life.

For all the innocent crushes on America's sweethearts, there were clearly a few mentally unbalanced stalkers they had to contend with. But even here their unyielding support for each other gave them unusual strength. When one of the stalkers pursuing Kathy seemed to be getting close, while they were on the road, the sisters were forced to take up arms. One wonders what ever happened to that poor night-tour window washer who, after rattling a window pane on the exterior of their hotel room, underwent the startling experience of watching a rapidly opened set of blinds revealing the Lennon sisters, in dainty pajamas, holding raised wooden hotel room hangers poised for combat.

As symbols of what is best in America, the sisters drew the whole spectrum of attention. Publishers produced coloring books and children's novels. And at the peak of popularity, they may have been the all time target of mendacious scandal tabloids, a situation they handled with humor. More catastrophically, a severely mentally ill man did strike tragedy on the family when he killed William Lennon, father and business manager to the sisters, the family patriarch, a man who knew how to be a proper patriarch by loving his family intensely. A testament to the incredible strength of this family, prayers for the killer were made at the wake.

I am writing these comments at a time when a sociological study is being publicized that describes how average personal net worth achieved in later life is inversely proportional to the size of a family from which one emerges. The study's authors seem to believe that the success of families is measured in affluence rather than the character of its members. The truth that the moral strength of a nation exists in direct proportion to the strength of family life rather than government schemes of social engineering is an insight cynical politicians manage to constantly mangle and more-enlightened-than-thou academics manage to constantly seek to undermine. But the inspiration of becoming a temporary member of such a beautiful family is a tour de force of anti-cynicism, a graceful expression and invitation on how to live life better.