Sha Na Na
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Sha Na Na is a rock and roll revivalist/comedy group from New York City, who perform doo wop hits from the 1950s, simultaneously reviving and sending up the music, as well as 1950s New York street culture, in their performances.
Their current touring group features original members Donny York, Jocko Marcellino, and Screamin' Scott Simon. Everyone else from the TV show days has left the group, and been replaced by bass singer Reggie Battise, bass player Jim Waldbillig, guitarist Gene Jaramillo, drummer Paul Kimbarow, and sax player Michael Brown. Their most notable work was on the 1978 film adaptation of the musical Grease.
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[edit] Career
The group began singing as part of the longstanding (and still-extant) Columbia University a cappella group The Kingsmen but changed their name due to the Pacific Northwest group of the same name, famous for covering "Louie, Louie". The name comes from the refrain of the classic '50s hit "Get a Job" ("Sha-na-na-na, sha-na-na-na-na...") by The Silhouettes.
Conceived by George Leonard, then a graduate student in English Literature, Sha Na Na began performing in 1969, at the height of the hippie counterculture, and achieved national fame after playing at the Woodstock Festival. The group helped to spark a 1950s nostalgia craze, inspiring similar groups both in North America and in the United Kingdom, as well as the Broadway musical Grease. The group appeared in the movie Grease as Johnny Casino & The Gamblers. The group had its own hit syndicated television show Sha Na Na from 1977 to 1982, featuring guests such as James Brown, the popular 1970s punk band the Ramones, and musicians from rock & roll's golden era, such as Little Richard, Bo Diddley, and Chubby Checker.
One former Sha Na Na member from the television show lineup, Dave "Chico" Ryan, died in 1998. The group's first guitarist, Henry Gross, went on to become a solo performer, and had a hit single titled "Shannon" in 1976. Vinnie Taylor (1949 - 1974) (real name Chris Donald), who replaced Gross as the lead guitarist in 1970, died from a heroin overdose on April 17, 1974, after a concert at University Hall at the University of Virginia. He was found in a Holiday Inn hotel room in Charlottesville, Virginia. Another founding member of the band, Robert Leonard, is a professor of linguistics at Hofstra University. Founding member Alan Cooper, the lead singer in the group's performance of "At The Hop" in the Woodstock film, also went on to an academic career, and he is now professor of Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. "Bowzer" Bauman also continues to tour under his own banner. Elliot Cahn, the group's original rhythm guitar player and musical arranger, later became the first manager of Green Day. Another founding member of the band went on from Woodstock to become a physician. Joe Witkin, the original keyboard player (and singer of the Sha Na Na cover of Teenager in Love) is an E.R. physician living with his family in San Diego, CA. He's still playing with a band "The Corvettes" (http://www.thecorvettes.com/Home.html) doing an oldies revue.
The group remains well-known for their tracks on the Grease soundtrack, including "Those Magic Changes", "Hound Dog", "Rock & Roll Is Here to Stay", "Blue Moon", "Born to Hand-Jive" and "Tears on My Pillow", the song "Sandy" sung by John Travolta for which Screamin' Scott Simon wrote the lyrics, and for their appearance in the film itself during the school dance scene as well as the Woodstock movie and the more recent Festival Express.
[edit] Members included
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- Alan Cooper
- Robert Leonard
- Jon "Bowzer" Bauman
- Johnny Contardo
- Frederick "Dennis" Greene
- Lennie Baker
- Donny York
- Jocko Marcellino
- Screamin' Scott Simon
- 'Dirty Dan' McBride
- Dave "Chico" Ryan
- Scott Powell
- Joe Witkin
- George Leonard
[edit] Discography
- Woodstock Festival Soundtrack [1969] (includes “At The Hop” by Sha Na Na)
- Woodstock Festival Soundtrack (1969) (includes “DUKE OF EARL” Sha Na Na BONUS WD THE UNSEEN DY III)
- Rock And Roll Is Here To Stay [1969]
- Sha Na Na [1971] (Side A: Recorded live at Columbia University, New York)
- The Night Is Still Young [1972]
- Live In Belgium, With Francis Bay & His Orchestra [1972] (Bootleg)
- The Golden Age of Rock ’N’ Roll [1973]
- From the Streets of New York [1973]
- Sha Na Na Live in Germany (TV: Musikladen), 1973 (DVD, CD+VCD)
- Hot Sox [1974]
- Sha Na Now [1975]
- Rock’n Roll Graffiti - Live In Japan [1975]
- Grease Soundtrack [1978] (includes 6 songs by Sha Na Na)
- Rockin’ In The 80’s [1980]
- Silly Songs (1981)
- Rock’n’Roll Concert & Party [1987] (VHS)
- The Sha Na Na 25th Anniversary Collection [1993] (including the 8 tracks on the previous album)
- Live In Concert (late 80’s / early 90’s concerts) [199?] (1 CD, 2 cassettes, or 1 DVD)
- Rock ‘N’ Roll Dance Party (20 tracks in 1996; 16 tracks in 1998)
- Then He Kissed Me (with Conny) [1999], Japan
- Live In Japan (with Conny) [2000], recorded In November 1999, Japan
- Rockin’ Christmas [2002]
- One More Saturday Night [2006]
[edit] Gallery
[edit] Trivia
- Two former members of Sha Na Na would go on to join Bill Haley and His Comets in 1979: David "Chico" Ryan and Mal Gray. Both performed with Haley during his final tour of Great Britain and Europe in the fall of 1979, including the group's command performance for Queen Elizabeth II in November 1979.
