Patience Ann McIntyre (born August 15, 1942) and Prudence Ann McIntyre (July 12, 1945 – September 15, 2023), known professionally as Patience and Prudence, were two sisters who were a young vocal duo active from 1956 to 1963.

Career

Patience and Prudence McIntyre were born in 1942 and 1945, respectively, in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. Their father Mark McIntyre was an

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

leader,

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

, and

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

who worked with

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...

in the 1940s. Patience was named after a woman who authored poetry for '' The Ladies’ Home Journal'' in the 1920s, and her younger sister Prudence’s name was selected as one that fit with her older sister's. As youngsters, the girls studied piano and learned to read music. In the summer of 1956, their father brought 11-year-old Prudence and 14-year-old Patience into the

Liberty Records Liberty Records was a record label founded in the United States by chairman Simon Waronker in 1955 with Alvin Bennett as president and Theodore Keep as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in the United Kingdom and had two previous rev ...

studio A studio is a space set aside for creative work of any kind, including art, dance, music and theater. The word ''studio'' is derived from the , from , from ''studere'', meaning to study or zeal. Types Art The studio of any artist, esp ...

in Los Angeles. The duo made a demonstration

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, re ...

of the

song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

, "

Tonight You Belong to Me "Tonight You Belong to Me" is an American popular song, written in 1926 by lyricist Billy Rose and composer Lee David. The first ever recording was made by Irving Kaufman in 1926 on Banner Records. In 1927, Gene Austin recorded it and the song ...

," which had been a hit for

Gene Austin Lemeul Eugene Lucas (June 24, 1900 – January 24, 1972), better known by his stage name Gene Austin, was an American singer and songwriter, one of the early " crooners". His recording of " My Blue Heaven" sold over 5 million copies and was for ...

in 1927, and was

written Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which they encode a particular spoken language. Every written language ...

Billy Rose Billy Rose (born William Samuel Rosenberg; September 6, 1899 – February 10, 1966) was an American impresario, theatrical showman, lyricist and columnist. For years both before and after World War II, Billy Rose was a major force in entertainm ...

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 The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

, " A Smile and a Ribbon," a composition with music by Mark McIntyre) and by September the song reached #4 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent t ...

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 Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

status. It went on to become one of the best-selling in-store singles in the United States in September 1956. Their song "

Gonna Get Along Without Ya Now "Gonna Get Along Without Ya Now" is a popular song written by bandleader and occasional songwriter Milton Kellem. The first known recorded version was released in 1951 by Roy Hogsed. Since then it has been done in several styles and tempos. Tere ...

" reached #11 on the ''

'' chart and #22 in the UK; its B-side, "The Money Tree," reached #73 in the

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

They appeared on the

Perry Como Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (; May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an American singer, actor, and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, from 1943 until 1987 ...

Show on television in September of 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 A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product. Labels are most often affixed to packaging and containers using an adhesive, or sewing when affix ...

, including a 1964 re-recording of "Tonight You Belong to Me". In 1978, they reunited to appear on a

Dick Clark Richard Wagstaff Clark (November 30, 1929April 18, 2012) was an American television and radio personality and television producer who hosted ''American Bandstand'' from 1956 to 1989. He also hosted five incarnations of the Pyramid (game show), ...

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

feature and stated that they both did not want to be performers in the first place and that their success was just an "accident". They also stated that their father did not 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. Prudence McIntyre died on September 15, 2023, at the age of 78.

Discography

Singles

Extended plays

*''A Smile And A Song '' (1957)

In culture

* The track "Tonight You Belong to Me" is used in the end credits of ''

Birth Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring, also referred to in technical contexts as parturition. In mammals, the process is initiated by hormones which cause the muscular walls of the uterus to contract, expelling the f ...

'' (2004). * The track "Tonight You Belong to Me" is used in the Milka commercial "le dernier carré" in 2013. * The track "Tonight You Belong to Me" was used in the first and the final episodes of '' American Horror Story: Murder House''. * The track "Tonight You Belong to Me" was used in episode 14 of ''

Bunheads ''Bunheads '' is an American comedy drama television series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino and Lamar Damon that aired on ABC Family from June 11, 2012, to February 25, 2013. Starring Sutton Foster, the show centers on a Las Vegas showgirl who ...

'' sung by Sutton Foster and Hunter Foster. * The track "A Smile and A Ribbon" was used in episode 18 of ''

''. * The track "A Smile and A Ribbon" was used in the

Terry Zwigoff Terry Zwigoff (born May 18, 1949) is an American film director whose work often deals with misfits, antiheroes, and themes of alienation. He first garnered attention for his work in documentary filmmaking with ''Louie Bluie'' (1985) and '' Crumb' ...

film '' Ghost World''. It was previously used in the

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

upon which the film was based. * The track "Tonight You Belong to Me" is used in the 1979 movie ''

The Jerk ''The Jerk'' is a 1979 American comedy film directed by Carl Reiner and written by Steve Martin, Carl Gottlieb, and Michael Elias (from a story by Martin and Gottlieb). This was Martin's first starring role in a feature film. The film also f ...

'' sung by

Bernadette Peters Bernadette Peters ( ''née'' Lazzara; born February 28, 1948) is an American actress and singer. Over a career spanning more than six decades, she has starred in musical theatre, television and film, performed in solo concerts and released reco ...

and

Steve Martin Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American comedian, actor, writer, producer, and musician. Known for Steve Martin filmography, his work in comedy films, television, and #Discography, recording, he has received List of awards a ...

. * The track "Tonight You Belong to Me" is used in the 2014 visual novel ''Liar Liar 2'' by tokimekiwaku. * The track "Tonight You Belong to Me" was sampled in a variety of

Aha Gazelle William Gazelle Fields Jr. (born September 25, 1993), professionally known as Aha Gazelle, is an American rapper from New Orleans, Louisiana. In 2012, he had a project released called #TeamGMG. In 2014, Aha released his first official mixtape, '' ...

's songs from his album ''Free Barabbas''. *The track "Tonight You Belong to Me" is used in the 2018

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

commercial "Assistant Google". * The track "Tonight You Belong to Me" was used in the first and sixth episodes of '' American Horror Story: Apocalypse''. *The track "Tonight You Belong to Me" is used in the sixth episode of ''

You In Modern English, the word "''you''" is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers. History ''You'' comes from ...

''. *The track "Tonight You Belong to Me" is used in the film ''

K-12 K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993 by karateka Kazuyoshi Ishii. Originally under the ownership of the Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG), K-1 was considered to be the largest Kickboxing organization in the world. ...

'' * The track "Tonight You Belong to Me" was used in season 6, episode 7 of ''

Fear the Walking Dead ''Fear the Walking Dead'' is an American post-apocalyptic horror drama television series created by Robert Kirkman and Dave Erickson for AMC. It is a spin-off to '' The Walking Dead'', which is based on the comic book series of the same na ...

''. * The track "The Money Tree" was used in Season 4, episode 6 of '' The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel''. * They were fictionalized as “Debbie and Susie” in an audition for Alan Freed in

American Hot Wax ''American Hot Wax'' is a 1978 biographical film directed by Floyd Mutrux with a screenplay by John Kaye from a story by John Kaye and Art Linson. The film tells the story of pioneering disc jockey Alan Freed, who in the 1950s helped introduce ...

(1978). * Patience & Prudence made their debut in gaming in 2022, when their song "Witchcraft" was used in '' The Quarry''. * The track "Tonight You Belong to Me" was sampled in the beginning of the track “Hummingbird” by

Metro Boomin Leland Tyler Wayne (born September 16, 1993), known professionally as Metro Boomin, is an American record producer and music executive. Widely acclaimed for his dark and cinematic production style, he is regarded as one of the most influential p ...

with James Blake, which was used in the 2023 American

computer-animated Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating moving images. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both still images and moving images, while computer animation refers to moving images. Modern c ...

superhero A superhero or superheroine is a fictional character who typically possesses ''superpowers'' or abilities beyond those of ordinary people, is frequently costumed concealing their identity, and fits the role of the hero, typically using their ...

film S''pider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse''. * The track “Tonight You Belong to Me” is used in the stage play, Stranger Things: The First Shadow.

References

External links

The Patience and Prudence story
* {{Authority control Sibling musical duos American women singers American child singers Liberty Records artists Musical groups established in the 1950s