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The Jordan Brothers
The Jordan Brothers were a musical group active for thirty years beginning in the mid-1950s. They originated in Frackville, Pennsylvania and achieved high regional popularity in Schuylkill and surrounding counties and Philadelphia. They released over 24 single records on 15 different labels, including several that were self-produced from 1957 until 1984. The brothers are: *Joseph "Joe" Jordan (1941–January 20, 2021), keyboards and vocals, composing, arranging *Frank Jordan (born ca. 1942), saxophone and bass, vocals, composing, arranging *Robert "Bob" Jordan (1943–October 9, 1993) drums and percussion *Lewis "Lew" Jordan (ca. 1947–January 3, 2022) lead guitar, vocals, composing Origin The 30-year career of the Jordan Brothers began on Halloween Eve in 1954, when instead of the usual trick-or-treating, three (Joe, Frank, and Bobby) of the eventual four brothers, took to the streets with accordion, clarinet and drum. Their musical efforts netted over twenty dollars and a car ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frackville, Pennsylvania
Frackville is a borough in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, United States, incorporated in 1876. Today, the intersection of Interstate 81 and Pennsylvania State Route 61 is located near the borough, which is approximately northwest of Philadelphia and southwest of Scranton. Frackville is named for Daniel Frack, an early Anglo-American settler. History Frackville was settled in 1861. It was incorporated more than a decade later in 1876, when the villages of Frackville and Mountain City merged to form the borough of Frackville. The name "Mountain City", however, is still a common nickname for the borough. A past diner and beer distributor were both named after it. Early in the twentieth century, anthracite coal mining was the chief industry of this area, Northeastern Pennsylvania's historic Coal Region. While many mines were operated in the area, the borough developed about 4 miles south of Shenandoah as a predominantly residential community - for workers in and related to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Freed
Albert James "Alan" Freed (December 15, 1921 – January 20, 1965) was an American disc jockey. He also produced and promoted large traveling concerts with various acts, helping to spread the importance of rock and roll music throughout North America. In 1986, Freed was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His "role in breaking down racial barriers in U.S. pop culture in the 1950s, by leading white and black kids to listen to the same music, put the radio personality 'at the vanguard' and made him 'a really important figure'", according to the executive director. Freed was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1991. The organization's website posted this note: "He became internationally known for promoting African-American rhythm and blues music on the radio in the United States and Europe under the name of rock and roll". In the early 1960s, Freed's career was destroyed by the payola scandal that hit the broadcasting industry, as well as by alleg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gee Whiz (Look At His Eyes)
"Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)" is a song written and performed by Carla Thomas. It reached #5 on the U.S. R&B chart and #10 on the U.S. pop chart in 1961. It was featured on her 1961 album ''Gee Whiz''. The song was produced by Chips Moman. The song ranked #62 on ''Billboard'' magazine's Top 100 singles of 1961. Other versions *Bernadette Peters released a version of the song as a single in 1980 which reached #3 on the adult contemporary chart and #31 on the U.S. pop chart. *Kathy Young released a version of the song on her 1961 album ''The Sound of Kathy Young''. *The Crystals released a version of the song on their 1962 album ''Twist Uptown''. *The Orlons released a version of the song on their 1963 album ''Not Me''. *Fontella Bass released a version of the song on her 1966 album '' The 'New' Look''. * Nella Dodds released a version of the song as a single in 1966, but it did not chart. *The Casinos released a version of the song on their 1967 album ''Then You Can Tell Me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cynthia Weil
Cynthia Weil (born October 18, 1940) is an American songwriter who wrote many songs together with her husband Barry Mann. Life and career Weil was born in New York City, and was raised in a Conservative Jewish family. Her father was Morris Weil, a furniture store owner and the son of Lithuanian-Jewish immigrants, and her mother was Dorothy Mendez, who grew up in a Sephardic Jewish family in Brooklyn. Weil trained as an actress and dancer, but soon demonstrated a songwriting ability that led to her collaboration with Barry Mann, whom she married in August 1961. The couple has one daughter, Jenn Mann. Weil became one of the Brill Building songwriters of the 1960s, and one of the most important writers during the emergence of rock and roll. She and her husband went on to create songs for many contemporary artists, winning several Grammy Awards as well as Academy Award nominations for their compositions for film. As their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame biography put it, in part: "Man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barry Mann
Barry Mann (born Barry Imberman; February 9, 1939) is an American songwriter and musician, and part of a successful songwriting partnership with his wife, Cynthia Weil. He has written or co-written 53 hits in the UK and 98 in the US. Early life Mann was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York City, United States. He was born two days before fellow songwriter Gerry Goffin. Career His first successful song as a writer was "She Say (Oom Dooby Doom)", a Top 20 chart-scoring song composed for the band The Diamonds in 1959. Mann co-wrote the song with Mike Anthony (Michael Logiudice). In 1961, Mann had his greatest success to that point with "I Love How You Love Me", written with Larry Kolber and a no. 5 scoring single for the band The Paris Sisters (seven years later, Bobby Vinton's version would reach the Top 10). The same year, Mann himself reached the Top 40 as a performer with a novelty song co-written with Gerry Goffin, " Who Put the Bomp", which parodied the nonsense ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oldies
Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. After 2000, 1970s music was increasingly included. "Classic hits" has been seen as a successor to the oldies format on the radio, with music from the 1980s serving as the core format. Description This broad category includes styles as diverse as doo-wop, early rock and roll, novelty songs, bubblegum music, folk rock, psychedelic rock, baroque pop, surf music, soul music, rhythm and blues, classic rock, some blues, and some country music. Golden Oldies usually refers to music exclusively from the 1950s and 1960s. Oldies radio typically features artists such as Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, The Beatles, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Beach Boys, Frankie Avalon, The Four Seasons, Paul Anka, Neil Sedaka, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Invasion
The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Pop and rock groups such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Zombies, the Kinks, Small Faces, the Dave Clark Five, Herman's Hermits, the Hollies, the Animals, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Searchers, the Yardbirds, the Who and Them, as well as solo singers like Dusty Springfield, Cilla Black, Petula Clark, Tom Jones and Donovan, were at the forefront of the "invasion". Background The rebellious tone and image of US rock and roll and blues musicians became popular with British youth in the late 1950s. While early commercial attempts to replicate US rock and roll mostly failed, the trad jazz–inspired skiffle craze, with its do it yourself attitude, produced two top ten hits in the US by Lonnie Done ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barnesville, Pennsylvania
Barnesville is an unincorporated community in Ryan Township, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally built to support nearby rust belt industries, the hamlet is between the center and eastern thirds of the Southern Anthracite Coal Region. The community is part of a wide-ranging township and is situated atop a summit and drainage divide flanked by two long climbs that are traversed by local transport infrastructure, railways with an important switching junction within the village, and Pennsylvania Route 54, which collects towns like beads on a string along a particular combination of connected valleys in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians. John Faust, in 1806, first settled in Barnesville, followed by Abram L. Boughner who located near the same place in 1815.Munsell, W.W., History of Schuylkill County, McNamara, NY (1881), p. 344 This village owes its origin to the building of the Little Schuylkill and Susquehanna - Catawissa Railroad, which was completed in 1854. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noble "Thin Man" Watts
Noble "Thin Man" Watts (February 17, 1926 – August 24, 2004) was an American blues, jump blues and rhythm and blues saxophonist. He primarily played tenor saxophone. The AllMusic journalist, Bill Dahl, considered Watts "one of the most incendiary ..fire-breathing tenor sax honkers" of the 1950s. Biography Born in DeLand, Florida, Watts studied violin and trumpet in his youth, later switching to sax. He gained musical training at Florida A&M, where he played in the school's marching band with future saxophonist Cannonball Adderley. Hired to play with The Griffin Brothers after college, Watts began his professional career. During the 1950s, he would work with Lionel Hampton, Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams, Dinah Washington, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, the Everly Brothers, and others. He also appeared on ''American Bandstand'' with Johnny Mathis in 1957, and performed in the house band at a Harlem club owned by boxer Sugar Ray Robinson. Watts's career would eventua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ed Hurst
Ed Hurst (July 16, 1926 – October 30, 2020) was an American radio and television personality. He referred to himself at one time as the "Stone-age Dick Clark". Early years Hurst was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey and graduated from Atlantic City High School. He started his career from 1943 to 1946 at WFPG, in Atlantic City. Hurst then did a radio show on WPEN-AM 950, out of Philadelphia, called ''The 950 Club'' with Joe Grady from 1946 (until 1955) before he teamed up with Joe Grady to do ''The Grady and Hurst Show'' on Philadelphia TV, which was broadcast in the tri-state area. ''The Grady and Hurst Show'', which started in 1952, was the first to show teens dancing (from 11 a.m. to noon every Saturday) in a studio. The groundbreaking format influenced programs like ''American Bandstand'' and others. ''The 950 Club'' on radio, which preceded ''The Grady and Hurst Show'', was the first teenage show to have a studio audience (by invitation only) dance to the music on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York Metropolitan Area
The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass, at , and one of the list of most populous metropolitan areas, most populous urban agglomerations in the world. The vast metropolitan area includes New York City, Long Island, the Mid and Lower Hudson Valley in the State of New York; the six largest cities in New Jersey: Newark, New Jersey, Newark, Jersey City, New Jersey, Jersey City, Paterson, New Jersey, Paterson, Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth, Lakewood, New Jersey, Lakewood, and Edison, New Jersey, Edison, and their vicinities; and six of the seven largest cities in Connecticut: Bridgeport, Connecticut, Bridgeport, Stamford, Connecticut, Stamford, New Haven, Connecticut, New Haven, Waterbury, Connecticut, Waterbury, Norwalk, Connecticut, Norwalk, and Danbury, Connecticut, Danbury, and the vicinities of these cities. The New York metropolitan area comprises the geograp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerry Blavat
Gerald Joseph "Jerry" Blavat (born July 3, 1940), also known as "The Geator with the Heater" and "The Big Boss with the Hot Sauce," is an American disc jockey and performer who has been a major influence in promoting oldies music on the radio. A Philadelphia icon, he gained local fame hosting live dances in the area, leading to his own independent radio show, on which he introduced many acts in the 1960s to a wide audience, including the Four Seasons and The Isley Brothers. Blavat was born in South Philadelphia to a Jewish father and Italian mother. Career In 1953, Blavat debuted on the original ''Bandstand'' on WFIL-TV with Bob Horn and Lee Stewart. In 1956, he managed a national tour for Danny and the Juniors, and he worked as Don Rickles' valet in 1958–59. He got his start in radio in 1960. By 1963, his show was syndicated in Camden, Atlantic City, Trenton, Pottstown, Wilmington and Allentown. He said he refused to follow a playlist, "playing music from the heart, not a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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