Darling put the group together in June 1962, specifically to
record an updated and uptempo
version of a 1929
Gus Cannon folk
blues song, "Walk Right In". In the U.S., the song was No. 1 for two weeks on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart in early 1963. It spent five weeks atop the
Easy Listening chart, which later became known as the Adult Contemporary chart. In addition, "Walk Right In" reached both the
R&B chart (peaking at No. 4) as well as the
country music chart (peaking at No. 23). The record sold over one million copies, gaining
gold disc status. The album that contained the song was also called
Walk Right In. The group was more influenced by
ragtime,
blues, and
songster material than contemporaneous folk groups such as
The Weavers, to which Darling belonged until just before he formed the Rooftop Singers. died by suicide on 21 April 1979, aged 43.
Erik Darling died on August 3, 2008, aged 74, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, from
Burkitt's lymphoma. ==Discography==