May 9: Tommy Roe - “Sheila” “Everybody,” “Dizzy”- is 69 years-old today.

Thomas David Roe, was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He wrote, co-wrote, and recorded, six top ten hits between 1962, and 1969, more than any other single artist/songwriter during this period of the 60's, with four RIAA certified gold records.

Two of his hits, "Sheila" (1962) and "Dizzy" (1969), hit # 1 on the Billboard chart. Roe had a total of eleven records reach the Billboard top forty, and twenty three Billboard top 100 chart records. With similar chart success in England, and throughout Europe, Asia, and Australia, Tommy is considered one of the early pioneers of American pop culture.

Music critic Bill Dahl wrote that Roe was "widely perceived as one of the archetypal bubblegum artists of the late 1960s, but Roe cut some pretty decent rockers along the way, especially early in his career."

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Tommy started singing and writing songs at the age of fourteen. In high school, Tommy, and two friends, Mike Clark and Bobby West, formed a band called The Satins. In addition to neighborhood gigs, Tommy and The Satins played high school dances, and fraternity parties at Georgia Tech, and the university of Georgia.

During this time, Tommy met Felton Jarvis, who would soon become his producer. After graduating from high school, he took a job at General Electric soldering wires.


In February, 1962, Tommy along with Felton Jarvis, and his new manager, Bill Lowery, drove from Atlanta to Nashville, and recorded two songs; "Save Your Kisses," and "Sheila." The single was released, and "Sheila" soon became the number one hit around the world.

When "Sheila" became a hit, ABC-Paramount Records asked him to go on tour to promote the hit. He was reluctant to give up his secure job at GE until ABC-Paramount advanced him $5,000.

The following year Roe scored a Top 10 hit with "Everybody", which reached US #3 and UK #9, and the critically acclaimed "The Folk Singer" (#4 UK) written by Merle Kilgore was also popular. However in March 1963, the UK music magazine NME reported that he and Chris Montez had both been upstaged by The Beatles and their fans on a 21-day UK tour.

Following a more successful tour of the United Kingdom by his friend Roy Orbison, Roe toured there and then moved to England where he lived for several years. In 1964 Roe recorded a self-penned song, "Diane From Manchester Square", with his backing group at the time, the Roemans. It was a story in song about a girl called Diane who worked in an upstairs office at EMI House when it was based in London's Manchester Square. Sales of this single in the UK were poor, and it failed to chart. In 1965, he and Jerry Lee Lewis combined with Orbison to create an album for the Pickwick International label.

During the 1960s, he had several more Top 40 hits, including 1966's #6 "Hooray for Hazel" (#2 Canada) and #8 "Sweet Pea" (#1 Canada). In 1969, his song "Dizzy" went to No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart, #1 in Canada, as well as to Billboard's #1 in the U.S. This transatlantic chart-topper sold two million copies by mid-April 1969, giving him his third gold disc award. His final Top 10 single, a track co-written with Freddy Weller, "Jam Up and Jelly Tight," was another gold record, peaking at #8 in the U.S. and #5 in Canada.


The 1968 song written by Merle Kilgore called The Folk Singer is allegedly about Tommy Roe.

In 1986, he was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and his pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

Although his style of music declined in popularity with the 1970s mass market, he maintained a following and continues to perform at a variety of concert venues, sometimes with 1960s nostalgia rock and rollers such as Freddy Cannon and Bobby Vee.
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May 8: British singer-songwriter Kathleen "Katie" Brien - AKA Katy B - is 22-years-old today.

Kathleen "Katie" Brien was born in Peckham, South London. Also known as Katy B, and Baby Katy, she is a Dubstep, R&B, funky, house and UK Garage singer. She was offered major label deals in 2009. She released her first single with the label Rinse in 2010. The same year, she completed a degree in Popular Music at Goldsmiths, University of London.

DJ NG's song "Tell Me," on which she's featured as Baby Katy, was released on a white label and later signed to Ministry of Sound. Katy B has collaborated with Geeneus to cover the Kevin Saunderson produced "Good Life" and the track "As I." She also provides vocals on the track "Hold Me" for The Count & Sinden's debut album Mega Mega Mega and features on Magnetic Man's tracks "Perfect Stranger" and "Crossover."

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Geeneus, with whom Katy B collaborated, works for Rinse FM. Following the official recognition of the station in June 2010 (formerly a pirate radio station), Rinse presented Katy B's first single, "Katy On a Mission," which was produced by Benga and was released on 22 August 2010. The single reached number 5 on the UK Singles Chart and number 1 on the UK Indie Chart.

With Ms. Dynamite

Katy B performed at the London Jazz Festival in 2009 with Ms Dynamite, who also featured on Katy's second single, "Lights On" which was released in the UK on 19 December 2010, where it debuted at number 4 on the UK Singles Chart.

Her third single "Broken Record" was released in March 2011, and peaked at number 8 in the UK. Her fourth single "Easy Please Me" and her fifth, "Witches Brew" were released in 2011.


Katy's debut album On a Mission was released in April 2011, and reached number 2 on the UK Albums Chart.

Katy B supported Tinie Tempah on his tour during Spring of 2011. In April 2011, Katy embarked on her debut concert tour across Europe.

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May 8: Ricky Nelson was born on this date in 1940…

… he was 45 when he died on December 31, 1985.

(Video of Rick Nelson singing at end of post.)


Eric Hilliard Nelson was born in Teaneck, New Jersey. He was the second son of big band leader Ozzie Nelson, and big band vocalist Harriet Hilliard Nelson.
He placed fifty-three songs on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1957 and 1973, including nineteen top-ten hits, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 21, 1987.

Nelson knew and loved music, and was a skilled performer even before he became a teen idol, largely because of his parents' musical background. Nelson worked with many musicians of repute, including James Burton, Joe Osborn, Allen "Puddler" Harris, Joe Maphis, The Jordanaires, Scotty Moore and Johnny and Dorsey Burnette.

Nelson began his entertainment career in 1949 playing himself in the radio sitcom series, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, and, in 1952, appeared in his first feature film, Here Come the Nelsons. In 1957, he recorded his first single, debuted as a singer on the television version of the sitcom, and recorded a number one album, Ricky.

In 1959, received a Golden Globe Most Promising Male Newcomer nomination after starring in the western film, Rio Bravo. A few films followed, and, when the television series was cancelled in 1966, Nelson made occasional appearances as a guest star on various television programs.

Nelson played clarinet and drums in his early teens, and learned basic guitar chords while imitating his favorite Sun Records rockabilly artists in the bathroom at home or in the showers at the Los Angeles Tennis Club. His biggest influence was Carl Perkins and once said he tried to emulate the sound and the tone of the guitar break in Perkins's March 1956 Top Ten hit, "Blue Suede Shoes.”

With his father's help, Nelson secured a one-record deal with Verve Records, an important jazz label looking for a young and popular personality who could sing or be taught to sing. On March 26, 1957, Nelson recorded the Fats Domino standard "I'm Walkin'" and "A Teenager's Romance" (both released in late April 1957 as his first single), and "You're My One and Only Love.”

Before the single was released, Nelson made his television rock and roll debut on April 10, 1957 lip-synching "I'm Walkin'" in the Ozzie and Harriet episode, "Ricky, the Drummer.” "I'm Walkin'" reached number four on Billboard's Best Sellers in Stores chart, and its flip side, "A Teenager's Romance,” hit number two.

In the summer of 1957, Ozzie Nelson pulled his son from Verve after disputes about royalties, and signed him to a lucrative five-year deal with Imperial Records that gave him approval over song selection, sleeve artwork, and other production details. Ricky's first Imperial single, "Be-Bop Baby,” generated 750,000 advance orders, sold over one million copies, and reached number three on the charts.

Nelson's first album, Ricky, was released in October 1957 and hit number one before the end of the year. Following these successes, Nelson was given a more prominent role on the Ozzie and Harriet show and ended every two or three episodes with a musical number. During the sitcom's run, Ozzie Nelson kept his son from appearing on other television shows that could have enhanced his public profile, American Bandstand and The Ed Sullivan Show in particular.

Nelson decided to form his own band with members closer to his age. Eighteen-year-old electric guitarist James Burton was the first signed and lived in the Nelson home for two years. Bassist James Kirkland, drummer Richie Frost, and pianist Gene Garf completed the band. Their first recording together was "Believe What You Say.” Rick selected material from demo acetates submitted by songwriters. Ozzie Nelson forbade suggestive lyrics or titles, and his late-night arrival at recording sessions forced band members to hurriedly hide their beers and cigarettes. The Jordanaires, Presley's back up vocalists worked for Nelson but at Presley's behest were not permitted credit on Nelson's albums.

In 1958, Nelson recorded seventeen-year-old Sharon Sheeley's "Poor Little Fool" for his second album Ricky Nelson released in June. On August 4, 1958, "Poor Little Fool" became the number one single on Billboard's newly instituted Hot 100 singles chart, and sold over two million copies.

From 1957 to 1962, Nelson had thirty Top-40 hits, more than any other artist at the time except Presley (who had 53) and Pat Boone.  Many of Nelson's early records were double hits with both the A and B sides hitting the Billboard charts.

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In 1972, Nelson reached the Top 40 one last time with "Garden Party,” a song he wrote in disgust after a Madison Square Garden audience booed him, because, in his mind, he was playing new songs instead of just his old hits. When he performed the Stones' "Honky Tonk Woman" he was booed off the stage. He watched the rest of the performance on a TV monitor backstage, and quietly left the Madison Garden, without taking a final bow for the finale.

In May 1985, he decided he needed a private plane and purchased a luxurious, fourteen-seat, 1944 DC-3. Following shows in Orlando, Florida and Guntersville, Alabama, Nelson and band members boarded the vintage DC-3 and took off for a New Year's Eve extravaganza in Dallas, Texas. The plane crashed northeast of Dallas on December 31, 1985. Seven were killed including Nelson and his fiance, Helen Blair.

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May 7: Vocalist Johnny Maestro of The Brooklyn Bridge "The Worst That Could Happen" - was born on this date in 1939...

 

... he died March 24, 2010.

 

Born John Mastrangelo in New York City, Johnny Maestro began his career in 1957 as the original lead singer of The Crests, one of the first interracial groups of the recording industry. Patricia Van Dross, older sister to famed R&B singer Luther Vandross sang with Johnny Maestro during his tenure as lead vocalist with The Crests.

The Crests

By 1967, another New York vocal group called The Del-Satins—who had become well-known in the New York area - had made several non-charting recordings between 1959 and 1967 under their own name, and were also noted for backing up Dion on his post-Belmonts recordings—were looking for a new lead singer. Members of the group ran into Maestro at a local gym, playing his guitar, and approached him with the offer to join the group. After initially turning them down, Maestro's manager, Betty Sperber, called Cauchi and told him Maestro had changed his mind.

In 1968, Sperber, owner and founder of the talent management and booking agency Action Talents in New York City, was hosting her once a month Battle of the Bands talent search at the Cloud Nine nightclub in Long Island and brought Maestro along as the evening's special guest star. Action Talents' Vice President and General Manager Alan White suggested that Maestro be backed up that night by a seven-piece brass-filled group of youngsters called The Rhythm Method.

That night's performance was such a success that the next day Sperber decided to combine the talents of Maestro, the four Del-Satins, and The Rhythm Method. The new group's name came about after White made the off-handed comment that "it would be easier to sell the Brooklyn Bridge" than book the proposed 11-piece act.

The Brooklyn Bridge

Johnny and the Bridge rehearsed their unusual combination of smooth vocal harmonies and full horns, and signed a recording contract with Buddah records. Their first release, a version of the Jimmy Webb song "Worst That Could Happen" (previously recorded by The 5th Dimension)
reached No. 3 on the Billboard pop chart. It sold over one and a quarter million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A..

The group's follow up, "Welcome Me Love," and its flip side, "Blessed is the Rain" each reached the Top 50. "You'll Never Walk Alone" and the controversial "Your Husband, My Wife" also reached the middle ranges of the charts. The group sold over 10 million records by 1972, including LP sales, mostly produced by Wes Farrell.

The Brooklyn Bridge downsized to a five-man group, with the vocalists playing their own instruments. For example, Maestro could be seen on stage playing rhythm guitar. The later version of the Brooklyn Bridge released a Christmas EP in 1989 and a greatest hits compilation in 1993, re-recording Maestro's hits with The Crests.

In the early 1990s, Maestro moonlighted as the background tenor on Joel Katz's studio project CD Joel & the Dymensions (which also featured baritone-bass Bobby Jay). In 1994, The Brooklyn Bridge recorded a 10-song a cappella CD.

Recently, the Brooklyn Bridge was featured in one of PBS's biggest fundraising events ever, "Doo Wop 50," performing both "16 Candles" and "The Worst That Could Happen"; the entire program was released on VHS and DVD. In 2005, the Brooklyn Bridge released a full concert-length DVD as part of the Pops Legends Live series. They continue to tour and in 2004 released a CD on the Collectables label titled Today, featuring more re-recordings of their hits and versions of other groups' songs of the 1950s and 1960s.

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The Brooklyn Bridge was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall Of Fame with the Class of 2005, the South Carolina Music (Rhythm & Blues) Hall of Fame in May 2006 the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on October 15, 2006.

In 2007, Collectables Records reissued the Brooklyn Bridge album Peace on Earth as Songs of Inspiration. On March 31, 2009, the album Today, Volume 2 was released on CD by Collectables Records.

Johnny Maestro died on March 24, 2010 from cancer in Cape Coral, Florida at age 70.

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May 7: Teresa Brewer was born on this date in 1931…

… she died October 17, 2007. She was 76 years-old.

Teresa was 76 years old when she passed away from a neuromuscular diseaseorn Theresa Breuer, the diminutive pop, country and jazz singer with the big voice, grew up in Toledo, Ohio. She was one of the most popular female singers of the 1950s with hits such as "Dancin' with Someone," "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall," "Choo'n Gum," "Ricochet," "Baby, Baby, Baby," "Bell Bottom Blues," "Our Heartbreaking Waltz," "Pledging My Love," "Tweedle Dee" and "Rock Love," "A Tear Fell" and "Bo Weevil."

From age five to twelve, she sang and danced on the "Major Bowes Amateur Hour," then a popular touring radio show. In January 1948, 16 year-old Theresa won a local competition and (with three other winners) was sent to New York City to appear on a talent show called "Stairway to the Stars. that is when  she changed the spelling of her name from Theresa Breuer to Teresa Brewer. She won a number of talent shows and played night clubs in New York. Soon after, she was signed to a recording contract.

Teresa re-emerged as a jazz vocalist in the 1980's and 1990's recording a number of albums including tribute albums to Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, and Irving Berlin and recorded with such jazz greats as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and Bobby Hackett. Over her career, she recorded around 600 song titles.

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May 7: Vocalist Johnny Maestro of The Brooklyn Bridge "The Worst That Could Happen" - was born on this date in 1939...

... he died March 24, 2010.


Born John Mastrangelo in New York City, Johnny Maestro began his career in 1957 as the original lead singer of The Crests, one of the first interracial groups of the recording industry. Patricia Van Dross, older sister to famed R&B singer Luther Vandross sang with Johnny Maestro during his tenure as lead vocalist with The Crests.

After a regional hit with "My Juanita"/"Sweetest One" on the Joyce label, and two years of chart success on Coed Records with "16 Candles," "Step by Step," "The Angels Listened In," and "Trouble in Paradise," Maestro left The Crests for a solo career. Maestro was unable to reach his former chart heights with The Crests, but did have Top 40 hits with "What A Surprise" and "Model Girl" in 1961.

The Crests

By 1967, another New York vocal group called The Del-Satins—who had become well-known in the New York area - had made several non-charting recordings between 1959 and 1967 under their own name, and were also noted for backing up Dion on his post-Belmonts recordings—were looking for a new lead singer. Members of the group ran into Maestro at a local gym, playing his guitar, and approached him with the offer to join the group. After initially turning them down, Maestro's manager, Betty Sperber, called Cauchi and told him Maestro had changed his mind.

In 1968, Sperber, owner and founder of the talent management and booking agency Action Talents in New York City, was hosting her once a month Battle of the Bands talent search at the Cloud Nine nightclub in Long Island and brought Maestro along as the evening's special guest star. Action Talents' Vice President and General Manager Alan White suggested that Maestro be backed up that night by a seven-piece brass-filled group of youngsters called The Rhythm Method.

That night's performance was such a success that the next day Sperber decided to combine the talents of Maestro, the four Del-Satins, and The Rhythm Method. The new group's name came about after White made the off-handed comment that "it would be easier to sell the Brooklyn Bridge" than book the proposed 11-piece act.

The Brooklyn Bridge

Johnny and the Bridge rehearsed their unusual combination of smooth vocal harmonies and full horns, and signed a recording contract with Buddah records. Their first release, a version of the Jimmy Webb song "Worst That Could Happen" (previously recorded by The 5th Dimension)
reached No. 3 on the Billboard pop chart. It sold over one and a quarter million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A..

The group's follow up, "Welcome Me Love," and its flip side, "Blessed is the Rain" each reached the Top 50. "You'll Never Walk Alone" and the controversial "Your Husband, My Wife" also reached the middle ranges of the charts. The group sold over 10 million records by 1972, including LP sales, mostly produced by Wes Farrell.

The Brooklyn Bridge downsized to a five-man group, with the vocalists playing their own instruments. For example, Maestro could be seen on stage playing rhythm guitar. The later version of the Brooklyn Bridge released a Christmas EP in 1989 and a greatest hits compilation in 1993, re-recording Maestro's hits with The Crests.

In the early 1990s, Maestro moonlighted as the background tenor on Joel Katz's studio project CD Joel & the Dymensions (which also featured baritone-bass Bobby Jay). In 1994, The Brooklyn Bridge recorded a 10-song a cappella CD.

Recently, the Brooklyn Bridge was featured in one of PBS's biggest fundraising events ever, "Doo Wop 50," performing both "16 Candles" and "The Worst That Could Happen"; the entire program was released on VHS and DVD. In 2005, the Brooklyn Bridge released a full concert-length DVD as part of the Pops Legends Live series. They continue to tour and in 2004 released a CD on the Collectables label titled Today, featuring more re-recordings of their hits and versions of other groups' songs of the 1950s and 1960s.

(Continued below video and Amazon portals ...)

(Press album cover for direct link to the entire Amazon Website):

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The Brooklyn Bridge was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall Of Fame with the Class of 2005, the South Carolina Music (Rhythm & Blues) Hall of Fame in May 2006 the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on October 15, 2006.

In 2007, Collectables Records reissued the Brooklyn Bridge album Peace on Earth as Songs of Inspiration. On March 31, 2009, the album Today, Volume 2 was released on CD by Collectables Records.

Johnny Maestro died on March 24, 2010 from cancer in Cape Coral, Florida at age 70.

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