rock and roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...
band that featured vocalist/guitarist/harmonica player
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...
, and was formed by guitarist/vocalist George Theiss, with various lineups during its existence. They recorded two songs, and performed throughout New Jersey and New York before disbanding in 1968.
Springsteen went on to a successful recording and touring career, while Theiss was in various New Jersey bands, none that earned notoriety. Theiss died on July 13, 2018.
History
In 1964, Theiss saw
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
perform on
The Ed Sullivan Show
''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television program, television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York City, New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in Septembe ...
, and decided to form a band called The Castiles, named after the shampoo brand he was using at the time. He was romantically interested in Springsteen's sister, Virginia, and when Theiss would go to her house, her brother was playing guitar. Theiss asked Springsteen to join The Castiles in 1965 as lead guitarist. They were students at Freehold Regional High School at the time.
“I was sitting in my South Street home one afternoon when a knock came at our front door,” Springsteen wrote in his autobiography “Born to Run.” “It was George Theiss, a local guitarist and singer who’d heard through my sister that I played the guitar. I’d seen George around the Elks. He told me there was a band forming and they were looking for a lead guitarist. While I hesitated to call myself a lead guitarist, I had been hard at it for a while and worked up some very rudimentary ‘chops.’ We walked across town to Center Street and into a little half-shotgun house fifty feet up the block from where the metal-on-metal war of the rug mill spilled out open factory windows onto the streets of Texas. In Texas I’d slip on my guitar and join my first real band.”
Theiss and Springsteen were joined in The Castiles by original members Paul Popkin, guitar/vocals; Frank Marziotti, bass; and Bart Haynes, drummer. When Haynes joined the army and went to Vietnam, he was replaced by Vinny Maniello. Marziotti left, and Curt Fluhr became the bassist.
The Castiles practiced in half of a duplex home belonging to Haynes. Gordon "Tex" Vinyard lived in the other half of the two-family home, and he became the band's manager. They played gigs in local spots of Freehold from junior high school dances, roller rinks, drive-in theaters, supermarket openings, even clubs in the area and places like Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village, and Asbury Park. They wore white pants, Beatle boots, and Beatle haircuts, and performed cover songs.
The Castiles played their last show in August 1968 at the Off Broad Street Coffeehouse in Red Bank, New Jersey.
When the band disbanded in 1968 due to tension between Springsteen and Theiss, the two remained friends.
Recordings
In May 1966, Vinyard paid for a demo record made at Mr. Music in
Toms River, New Jersey
Toms River is a township in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States. Its mainland portion is also a census-designated place of the same name, which serves as the county seat of Ocean County.
''The Bruce Springsteen Story Vol. 1: The Castiles'' was released in 1993.
Of his 2020 album, ''
Letter to You
''Letter to You'' is the twentieth studio album by Bruce Springsteen. Released in October 2020, it was Springsteen's first new studio album with the E Street Band to be released since 2014's '' High Hopes''. ''Letter to You'' was met with w ...
'', Springsteen has said that the music was inspired by the Theiss' death in 2018. Songs "Ghosts" and "Last Man Standing" were written by Springsteen because he was the last living member of The Castiles. Two other tracks with the same theme, "I'll See You in My Dreams" and "One Minute You're Here" were also included.
"The songs reminded me of a debt that I still owed to my Freehold brothers in arms," he said in the Thom Zimny-directed documentary, ''Bruce Springsteen's Letter to You'', which aired on
Apple TV+
Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...
in 2020. The doc includes Springsteen teaching his cousin to play The Castiles song "Baby I".