Alive N Kickin’ (known originally as Alive and Kicking, and sometimes spelled Alive 'N Kickin’) is a

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran *Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

, led by

singers Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

Pepe Cardona and Sandy Toder, known mainly for their 1970

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

Tighter, Tighter "Tighter, Tighter" is a song written by Bob King and Tommy James. Alive N Kickin' recorded it for their 1970 album, ''Alive N Kickin''. The tune was also produced by King and James. It reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in ...

", which reached number seven on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100

chart 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 tabu ...

Formation

The six original members formed the band when they were

teenagers Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the te ...

in 1968 in

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

Dave Shearer's basement. The group included Sandy Toder and Pepe Cardona (vocals),

Bruce Sudano Bruce Charles Sudano (born September 26, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter, noted for creating songs for artists such as Michael Jackson, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire and his late wife, the Grammy Award-winning singer Donna Summer. Sudano is t ...

(keyboards), Woody Wilson (

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

), Dave Shearer (

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

), and Jeff Miller (

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

). They gained some popularity when they began

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, ...

for

Tommy James Tommy James (born Thomas Gregory Jackson; April 29, 1947), also known as Tommy Tadger, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer, widely known as frontman of the 1960s rock band Tommy James and the Shondells, who were know ...

on the

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, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed dir ...

he was signed to,

Roulette Records Roulette Records was an American record company and label founded in 1957 by George Goldner, Joe Kolsky, Morris Levy and Phil Kahl, with creative control given to producers and songwriters Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore. Levy was appointed direc ...

"Tighter, Tighter"

In early 1970, the band began recording sessions. A song

written Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...

and produced by Tommy James, Bob King and

arranged In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestra ...

by Jimmy Wisner was to be recorded, and although James originally considered having his friends do this song—now known as "

Crystal Blue Persuasion "Crystal Blue Persuasion" is a 1969 song originally recorded by Tommy James and the Shondells and composed by Eddie Gray, Tommy James and Mike Vale. Background A gentle-tempoed groove, "Crystal Blue Persuasion" was built around a prominent orga ...

"—he liked it so much he decided to keep it for himself. As a gesture of friendship to the group, he wrote "Tighter, Tighter" for them. After recording the hit song the group replaced Vito Albano (drums, percussion) and Dave with Ronny Pell and Johnny Parisio. With the new line-up, "Tighter, Tighter" was released. The song was released in May 1970 and stayed on the US

for 16 weeks. It sold over one million copies and received a

gold disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

awarded by the

R.I.A.A. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

Two singles were almost immediately released to ride on the good fortune of the hit song, but after a lack of success with "Just Let It Come" and "London Bridge", and after increasing difficulties with their producer

Morris Levy Morris Levy (born Moishe Levy; August 27, 1927 – May 21, 1990) was an American entrepreneur in the fields of jazz clubs, music publishing, and the independent record industry. Levy was cofounder and owner of Roulette Records, founding partner ...

and the label's insistence on trying to make more singles so quickly, the band quietly broke up in the fall of 1971.

Reunited

Most of the group reunited in 1976 with a line-up that now included Cardona (vocals), Wilson (lead guitar), Shearer (rhythm guitar), Albano (drums), and new member Richie Incorvaia (bass). This new version of the band played throughout the tri-state area from the mid-1970s till the late 1980s. Today the band has a new and revised line-up once more, although Cardona and Parisio have remained a constant presence within the band. Wilson, Albano, and Shearer are no longer members of the band, and Incorvaia has died. As of August 2013, the band members were: Pepe Cardona - Lead Vocals (died 2020)
Elaine Tuttle - Vocals
John Parisio - Guitar
Jeff Miller - Keyboards
Chris Vega - Bass
Sal G. - Sax
Zoe Grella - Drums
Pepe Cardona was diagnosed with stage-3 pancreatic cancer in August 2019. The tumor was removed in April 2020, but it had spread to his stomach. Cardona died on July 28, 2020, at age 72.

Discography

Singles

Albums

References

External links

Official websiteAlive N Kickin' video clips
*{{Allmusic, class=artist, id=p15367, label=Alive 'N Kickin' Musical groups from New York (state) Musical groups established in 1968