The Rebels (also known as The Rockin' Rebels) were a
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 ...
from
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...
, known for their
instrumental
An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to inst ...
"
Wild Weekend
"Wild Weekend" is an instrumental written by Phil Todaro and Tom Shannon and performed by The Rockin' Rebels. It reached #8 on the U.S. pop chart and #28 on the U.S. R&B chart in 1963. The song was originally recorded as the theme for Shanno ...
". The original members were Jim Kipler (Guitar), Mick Kipler (Saxophone), Tom Gorman (Drums) and Paul Balon (Bass/Guitar).
"Wild Weekend"
"Wild Weekend" was written by radio entertainer
Tom Shannon and Phil Todaro as a theme song for Shannon's
WKBW weekend radio show. The lyrics were: "Top tunes, news and weather, so glad we can get together... on the Tom Shannon show... KB radio... KB Radio." It was recorded with vocals and music by the Russ Hallet trio.
A local band, the Buffalo Rebels – or just Rebels – who asked Shannon to play at a
record hop
A sock hop or sox hop, often also called a record hop or just a hop, was an informal sponsored dance event for teenagers in mid-20th-century North America, featuring popular music.
History
Sock hops were held as early as 1944 by the American J ...
also asked if they could play an instrumental-only version of his theme song. They did, and Shannon and Todaro thought there was something to it. They moved the group to a recording studio in the same building where they had a production office. The record came out locally and was a hit, but since it wasn't on a major label, the song did not go any further. It came out on Marlee Records (ML0094) and Casino Records (1307).
Two years later the track was re-issued on
Swan Records
Swan Records was a mid-20th century United States-based record label, founded in 1957 and based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It had a subsidiary label called Lawn Records.
History
Swan Records had enjoyed chart success with several U.S. arti ...
(Swan 4125). It sold more than 1 million copies, peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard charts and earned an appearance for the band on Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" TV show. The Rockin' Rebels were inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame in 2002.
To avoid confusion with
Duane Eddy and his Rebels, the Rebels became the Rockin' Rebels. Swan pressings can be found with either name; the British
Stateside pressings had "Rockin'". The band's 1963
LP uses the name "The Rockin' Rebels".
While the instrumental is the best-known version, the original lyrics were, as mentioned above, a promo for the Shannon radio show. Shannon would tweak the lyrics when he moved to
WHTT many years later.
Paul Balon died of
heart disease on December 17, 2003 at age 61.
Tom Gorman died; however, no information about his death is available.
Shannon retired in 2005. He died May 26, 2021 in California, following a brief illness.
Sources
Osborne Enterprises & Jellyroll ProductionsIn the year 1958, several important instrumental acts arrived on the scene
from Collectors Universe
Play the record at YouTube
;Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rebels, The
Surf music groups
Musical groups from Buffalo, New York
Swan Records artists