Effective period / Period of releases: 1945

Members: Chet Atkins, Wally Fowler

The core group that would eventually lead to the Oak Ridge Boys was a country group called Wally Fowler and the Georgia Clodhoppers, formed in 1943 in Knoxville, Tennessee.

They were requested to perform for staff members and their families restricted during World War II at the nuclear research plant in nearby Oak Ridge, Tennessee. They were asked to sing there so often that eventually they changed their name to The Oak Ridge Quartet.