The Statler Brothers

A long-running Country Music Quartet (nearly 50 years!) from Staunton, Virginia. Former members are: Don Reid, Harold Reid, Phil Balsley, Lew DeWitt, and Jimmy Fortune. Yep, there were five of them; Fortune replacing the ailing Lew DeWitt. The group released "Flowers on the Wall" in 1965, a song that became a huge crossover hit and even netted them a Grammy. From then until the late 1980s, they were a constant presence on the country charts, scoring even more Signature Songs along the way, such as "Do You Remember These", "The Class of '57", "I'll Go to My Grave Loving You", "Do You Know You Are My Sunshine", "The Official Historian on Shirley Jean Berrell" and "Elizabeth".

Tropes

• Band of Relatives: Don and Harold Reid were brothers. (Harold passed away in 2020.)
• Class Reunion: "Class of '57," from 1972, is a roll call of a group of classmates, detailing what became of them. Most have Main Street success, such as deliverymen, factory workers, teachers, grocery store owners, etc.) to successful (millionaire's wife, cattle baron) to those with bad fates (crippling mental illness, suicide). One classmate – Mavis, near the end of the song – has whereabouts that are unknown.
• Long Runner Lineup, twice:
  • Type 1: Don Reid, Harold Reid, Phil Balsley and Lew DeWitt from 1955 to 1982 (27 years), when DeWitt had to quit because of Crohn's Disease.
  • Type 2: Don Reid, Harold Reid, Phil Balsley and Jimmy Fortune from Fortune replacing DeWitt 1982 to 2004 when the band called it a day (22 years).
• Knock-Knock Joke: They somehow work one into "Do You Remember These".
• Non-Indicative Name: Only two (Don and Harold Reid) were brothers, and none were named Statler. The band named itself after a brand of tissue. (The members used to joke that they could have easily become the Kleenex Brothers instead.)
• Nostalgia Filter: A core part of the Statlers' style were covers of oldies and adult standards, or songs reflecting on the past. One of their best known songs, "Do You Remember These" from 1972, cashed in on the then-current 1940s/1950s nostalgia craze, with multiple references from the early post-World War II years. Another positive memory song, "The Movies," was a roll call of the biggest movie hits and stars, from the earliest days to the then-present 1976 (the year the song was recorded and released). "The Class of '57" was a little more bittersweet, as some of the classmates a group of men remember didn't turn out so well: One suffered from such crippling mental illness he was institutionalized, while another killed himself. "More Than a Name On a Wall" centered on a mother grieving years after her son's death on the front lines of Vietnam, recalling the boy's childhood and his goal of one day being able to enlist to defend America's freedom.
• This Bed of Roses: Their song Bed of Rose's is the Trope Namer.
• Signature Song: "Flowers on the Wall", most definitely. Plenty more are listed above.
• Stylistic Suck: They did an album as "Lester 'Roadhog' Moran and the Cadillac Cowboys", a deliberately bad country group.