Doubletake formed in early 1991, bringing together old and new quartet friendships that spanned from
Missouri to upstate New York. Bob Rund and Bill Stauffer had just finished up music education studies at
Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, and were eager to keep up with quartet singing.
While in college, Bob (bari) and Bill (lead) had sung in One Step Closer, a long distance quartet with
fellow student, Brad Fox (tenor), and Barry Moore (bass), presently singing with 12th Street Rag,
CSD champs and perennial International Semi-finalists. Bill reached out to former quartet mate,
Tony Carlini (bass), with whom Bill sang tenor in Four Sentimental Reasons, a popular district level
quartet out of the Sussex County, NJ chapter. Since Bill was to be on lead, the three tapped
Jamie Carbone, tenor extraordinaire of the (new) Four Crackerjacks, with Tom Magarro, Chris Slack, and Scott Brannon.
After ringing a few chords in Bob's office in Manhattan, they knew they had something special.
After qualifying for the International contest (barely!) in 1991, the quartet went on to qualify two more times,
and in October 1992 won the coveted MAD Quartet Championship against very worthy competitors
Risky Business and Hijinx, among others. These were clearly great honors, yet the
mainstay of the quartet was always making and sharing music.
In Bob Rund, Doubletake had a premiere arranger who could craft charts that fit perfectly the
personality of the quartet. (Bob’s arrangements have been sung by Keepsake, Platinum, Gotcha!, and Bank Street,
to name just a few.) Tony and Jamie learned Bob's spots with ease, and with Bob and Bill having a ton of
shared musical history, this led to a wealth of audience pleasing tunes. All this helped Doubletake
become a popular MAD show quartet in the early 90's. After Tony stepped out in late 1993,
Al Fennell of New Yorkers fame joined the quartet, which finally disbanded at the end of 1994.
Tony went on to sing with Yankee Dime, Jamie (currently) with Our Town, along with Scott Brannon,
Larry Tully, and Terry Clark.
Bill took up with Good Times, singing with Tim Waurick, Dan Deisroth, and Jack Pinto.
Both Bob and Bill jumped into various coaching and chorus directing opportunities.
Doubletake credits a host of champ quartets and singers for helping them along the way,
especially Bob "Diz" Disney and Arcade, who truly did their own thing.
Doubletake stood (with great trepidation) on the shoulders the giants of the hobby who awed
them as young singers to aspire to greatness. As Freddie King would say, "colossal!"
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