The Silhouettes were an American doo wop/ R&B group, whose single " Get a Job" was a number 1 hit on the '' Billboard''

R&B singles chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

and pop singles chart in 1958. The doo-wop revival group

Sha Na Na Sha Na Na was an American rock and roll doo-wop group. Formed in 1969, but performing a song-and-dance repertoire based on 1950s hit songs, it simultaneously revived and parodied the music and the New York street culture of the 1950s. After ga ...

derived their name from the song's

lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a " libretto" and their writer, ...

and the nickname "Xanana" of former

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-west ...

ese President and

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Xanana Gusmão José Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmão (; born 20 June 1946) is an East Timorese politician. A former rebel, he was the third President of the independent East Timor, serving from 2002 to 2007. He then became its fourth prime minister, serving from ...

is in return derived from the name of the band "Sha Na Na", though with the spelling changed to "Xanana" to conform with the spelling rules of both

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

and

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, both of East Timor's official languages. "Get a Job"' is included in the soundtracks of the film ''

American Graffiti ''American Graffiti'' is a 1973 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by George Lucas, produced by Francis Ford Coppola, written by Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz and Lucas, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard (billed as Ronny ...

'', ''

Trading Places ''Trading Places'' is a 1983 American comedy film directed by John Landis, with a screenplay by Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod. Starring Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche, Denholm Elliott, and Jamie Lee Curtis, the ...

'' and '' Stand By Me''. The Silhouettes performed in the 1986 movie '' Joey''.

Career

The Silhouettes were formed in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, Pennsylvania, United States, in 1956, at first using the name The Thunderbirds. Their classic hit "Get a Job" – originally the B-side to "I Am Lonely" – was issued by their manager

Kae Williams Ulysses Kae Williams (February 4, 1921 – December 29, 1987) was an American DJ, record label owner and producer, known as one of the earliest local deejays to play the blues. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, he started in radio around 1 ...

on his own Junior Records label, before being sold to the nationally distributed Ember label in late 1957.Jay Warner, ''American Singing Groups: A History from 1940 to Today'' (Hal Leonard Corporation, 2006):290–291. It reached number 1 on both the R&B and pop charts in US and the group performed it on television's '' American Bandstand''. The song sold more than one million copies, and was awarded a

gold record Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

. The lyrics of "Get a Job" are notable for the depiction of a household in tension because of unemployment, despite the man's desperate attempts to find work, all delivered in a relentlessly upbeat style. A second release, "Heading for the Poorhouse", continued the economic theme. It was one of the few songs to allude to inflation, the trip to the poorhouse being because "all our money turned brown". This single and all their subsequent singles sold poorly and the group never entered the national charts again, making them a classic example of "one hit wonders". The Silhouettes toured with Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Clyde McPhatter and others. They disbanded in 1968, but the four original members reformed the group in the 1980s and continued to work until 1993.

Group members

*Richard "Rick" Lewis,

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...

(September 2, 1933 – April 19, 2005) *Bill Horton, lead (December 25, 1929 – January 23, 1995) *Earl T. Beal, baritone (July 18, 1924, Donora, Pennsylvania – March 22, 2001) *Raymond Edwards, bass (September 22, 1922, Virginia. – March 4, 1997) *John "Bootsie" Wilson, lead (July 18, 1940 – September 21, 2009)

References

External links

The Silhouettes (tribute site)

(Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebook)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silhouettes, The African-American musical groups American rhythm and blues musical groups Musical groups established in 1956 Musical groups from Pennsylvania Musical groups from Philadelphia Doo-wop groups Imperial Records artists Ace Records (United States) artists 1956 establishments in Pennsylvania