Patience and Prudence

Career

Mark McIntyre was an orchestra leader, pianist, and songwriter who worked with Frank Sinatra in the 1940s. In the summer of 1956, he brought his daughters, 11-year-old Prudence and 14-year-old Patience, into the Liberty Records studio in Los Angeles, California. They made a demonstration recording of the song, "Tonight You Belong to Me," which had been a hit for Gene Austin in 1927, and was written by Billy Rose and Lee David. Liberty signed them and immediately released a recording of the girls singing the song as a commercial single (with the B-side, "A Smile and a Ribbon," a composition with music by Mark McIntyre) and by September the song reached #4 on the Billboard charts and #28 in the UK Singles Chart, and was the biggest selling record put out by Liberty for two years. It sold over one million copies and reached gold record status.

Their song "Gonna Get Along without Ya Now" reached #11 on the Billboard chart and #22 in the UK; its B-side, "The Money Tree," reached #73 in the U.S. They appeared on the Perry Como Show on television that same year. They also released other singles such as "Little Wheel" and "All I Do Is Dream of You" but failed to reach the charts again.

They released several other singles on the Chattahoochee Records label, including a 1964 re-recording of "Tonight You Belong to Me". In 1978, they reunited to appear on a Dick Clark television feature and stated that they both didn't want to be performers in the first place and that their success was just an "accident". They also stated that their father didn't want them to be in the spotlight for personal reasons so he declined all other television and commercial offers which prevented both of the girls from furthering their professional music careers.

Collectors Choice issued a CD compilation of all their Liberty Records singles. Both Patience and Prudence are currently living in Wisconsin.

Song use