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1969-2022 Sha Na Na

2023 YTcomm *joeroberts248 Arguably the spark that lit the fire of 50s nostalgia that would be a big part the culture for the next decade-plus.

2022 @eljefescientist5726 Pioneers of a worldwide nostalgia movement that includes American Graffiti, Grease & Fonzie, whose leather jacket is in the Smithsonian — all occurring AFTER this performance.

2015 YTcomm @robertexley1332 Rubbish. The moment the Rock n Roll ship started floating backwards

2018 YTcomm *GlobalTubeTruth2 This is embarrassing to watch. There had to be some way to get people to leave Woodstock.

The Sha-Na-Na story starts in 1969 when a group of students at Columbia University, New York, formed an acapella group called the Kingsmen. They were originally attired in turtleneck and blue blazers and performed a variety of songs, but the success of the acapella versions of 50s rock songs as part of the performances proved so popular that the rock’n’roll segment eventually took over, instruments were added and Sha Na Na was born. The name came from the refrain of the Silhouettes’ 1958 hit ‘Get a Job’.

They began playing their own folk and pop music, using oldies as filler, but they quickly noticed how audiences reacted enthusiastically to the songs from the ’50s.

Historically, the group had just two gigs a year: The Yule log lighting ceremony at Barnard College, and the mental ward at St. Luke’s Hospital.

“You were singing to older people and also to young guys who were classmates sitting in bathrobes who had a bad trip,” Greene recalls. “I will never forget having this bizarre experience having an a cappella group singing ‘Going Out of My Head’ … in a mental ward.”

Breaking out of their traditional mold, they greased back their hair, rolled up the sleeves on their T-shirts, and put on an oldies show at the campus cafeteria. People liked it so much they added costumes and instruments and called it “The Glory That Was Grease.”

The only one in the group with any formal dance training, Greene did a lot of the choreography, devising moves that could be done by guys who couldn’t dance.

“The jocks and the pukes were both coming with their hair greased back and rolled-up T-shirts, hugging and singing along to ‘Run Around Sue.”‘ Greene says. “We realized that wherever there was this kind of brotherhood, there had to be money.”

Joe Witkin, who played piano and went on to become an emergency room physician in San Diego, had the only car in the group. Alan Cooper, who sang bass and went on to teach the Bible at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, joined him and they drove around Manhattan with a map of all the nightclubs. At the last one on their list, Steve Paul’s Scene, they got an audition.

“Before we could get through the first song, the guy said, ‘OK, you can start tonight. You get $50,”‘ Greene says. “We had 12 guys being paid $50.”

But the group had stepped into the perfect place at the perfect time. The club drew an extraordinary mix of promoters and stars, including Jimi Hendrix.

Their gig there lasted just two weeks, but during that time they got a record deal and bookings at Fillmore East and Woodstock.

After the movie “Woodstock” hit theaters, with Sha Na Na on screen for 52 seconds doing “Let’s Go to the Hop,” things started to change. They got booked on “The Tonight Show,” “Merv Griffin” and “David Frost.”

Instead of college girls in poodle skirts pretending to scream and swoon over them, girls were grabbing for their legs on-stage for real.

For most people at Woodstock, the big worries were rain, mud and a shortage of food. But not for John “Jocko” Marcellino. The Sha Na Na drummer and co-founder spent most of the famous 1969 rock festival wondering whether his fifties revival band would ever get to perform.

“We were supposed to go onstage on Saturday (the second day), but the schedule went out the window early,” Marcellino recalled in a telephone interview. “By Sunday we weren’t sure we would even get on.”

They finally did – just after daybreak on Monday, as the next to last act before guitarist Jimi Hendrix closed the festival. Their rave-up version of “At the Hop” turned out to be one of the highlights of the 1970 documentary film “Woodstock.”

Sha Na Na was an unlikely act amid a counterculture extravaganza that featured the likes of Janis Joplin, Santana, Jefferson Airplane and The Who, but Marcellino didn’t care. He says the appearance launched the band’s 40-year career.

“We wouldn’t have made it outside the New York area if we hadn’t played Woodstock,” he said. “We got a record deal from it. We had success in other mediums. A lot of things we did were connected to Woodstock.”

The group got there by the happenstance of a nightclub gig.

Marcellino and others had formed Sha Na Na in New York City in the spring of 1969. Marcellino, now one of only two original members still with the group, was a freshman at Columbia University then. He’d grown up in Quincy and Milton, Mass., played in a couple of local bands, and graduated from Archbishop Williams High School in Braintree, Mass.

Sha Na Na had only played six small shows before Woodstock, but they were in the right place at the right time that summer – closing night at The Scene, [IW Steve Paul’s] popular rock club in the Hell’s Kitchen area of Manhattan.

Woodstock producers Michael Lang and Artie Kornfeld were in the audience. After Sha Na Na’s set, the duo approached the band’s manager about Woodstock, and they were booked on the spot for $350.

[2020 YTcomm “Sha na Na had been the house band at Steve Paul’s Scene where Jimi discovered them, played with them, and had them invited to Woodstock to open for him.”]

2020 YTcomm *trustmeimblack1620 It was 50 years ago today – Monday, August 18, 1969. Sha Na Na were originally scheduled to play on Sunday, August 17th, and nearly didn’t get to play at all, until Jimi Hendrix intervened. He closed the festival, and said he wouldn’t set foot on the stage until they finished their set.

A few weeks later, Marcellino and his 11 bandmates made their way to a Holiday Inn near Bethel, N.Y., where other groups and singers also stayed. On Saturday, the second day of the festival, they took their U-Haul van and followed Sly and the Family Stone’s equipment truck to the backstage area.

“Then we were on our own,” Marcellino said.

Like thousands of others there, they slept on the ground or in their van, wandered back and forth to hear the headliners, and took swims in a nearby pond. By Sunday, “we started to get concerned that we weren’t going to get to rock,” Marcellino said.

Early Monday morning, after a sunrise performance by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, they got the word they were on. They hurried out for a 30-minute set for a dwindling crowd in a trash-strewn, muddy field.

“It looked like a refugee camp,” Marcellino recalls.

Marcellino broke down his drum kit while Hendrix played. The band was back in New York later that day.

Sha Na Na has toured ever since, with multiple changes of personnel. The group had a network TV show from 1977 to 1981 and was featured in the 1978 movie “Grease.”

As it turned out, the band wound up earning nothing from Woodstock. Their check bounced. They got $1 for their subsequent appearance in the “Woodstock” film – 8 cents each for the 12-man ensemble. But no one complained. Compared to the worldwide exposure they got, “it was the greatest 8 cents we ever made,” Marcellino said.

2017 *YTcomm AugustMedia Mind you all… these guys are doing this at 7:30 – 8:00am on a monday morning. Festival ran 10 hours over. Hendrix insisted he would play very last no matter what. About 9am …right after Sha Na Na finished, Hendrix took the stage.

The group’s appearance – only the eighth in Sha Na Na’s career, followed by the Woodstock album and movie, cemented their reputation and style. “We went on second to last, at sunrise on the final day, but, importantly, just before Jimi Hendrix,” recalls co-founder, drummer Jocko Marcellino. “We did 40 minutes and were paid $350…and the check bounced!” Sha Na Na was the only group at Woodstock without a record deal. Immediately afterwards, , they had one on the Kama Sutra label.

2023YTcomm *prschuster I was too much of a hippie to appreciate them in 69. Now I’m a fan.

2020 YTcomm *sabirelamhusseinschmidt9753 When I was a teen in the 90’s (and a quasi hippie) and saw this performance I thought it was cringe-worthy and out of touch with the times. 20 years later, rockabilly is my scene and I love this. I wish there was a bigger rockabilly scene where I lived in the 90’s. It was really underground then.

2021YT comm *johnf120 If an artist in 2021 came onstage and played “2011 music” it wouldn’t even seem that different. Just goes to show how much culture changed during the 60s

r their performance at Woodstock, made possible with the help of their friend Jimi Hendrix, 

Sha-Na-Na 1969 at Woodstock, playing before Jimi Hendrix.

Their 90-second appearance in the Woodstock film brought the group national attention and helped spark a 1950s nostalgia craze that inspired similar groups in North America, as well as the Broadway musical Grease, the feature film American Graffiti and the TV show Happy Days.0
ed1cat1 (YTcomm 2014)
This Woodstock performance put Sha-Na-Na on the map but it is no comparison to when they hit their stride a coupe of years later. To watch Sha- Na-Na at their absolute best with Bowzer and Johnny Contardo added (although Rob Leonard who Johnny replaced was killer) watch the Musikladen performance. This was four or five years before the TV show which unfortunately most people remember them by.
‘rock’n’roll is here to stay’ 1969

On their first album The Golden Age of Rock and Roll (1969) their picture – below – was shown as a vignette over the crowds of Woodstock (its re-release in 1973 replaced that with a hippyish art-work cover). At Woodstock, the lead singer taunted the audience by announcing, “We’ve got just one thing to say to you fuckin’ hippies, and that is that rock and roll is here to stay!” (this was captured on one of the live tracks).
1969 pic of Sha-Na-Na featured on their first album

2015 *ed1cat1 To watch Sha Na Na at their absolute best with Bowzer and Johnny Contardo added (although Rob Leonard who Johnny replaced was killer) watch the Musikladen performance [IW 1973].  This was four or five years before the TV show which unfortunately most people remember them by.

Sha-Na-Na finally got a regular spot on television with a syndicated series that ran from 1977 to 1981 with over 97 22-minute shows.
“Sha Na Na” was the #1 syndicated show in America at its highest point of popularity, and it aired in 32 foreign countries.
Unsurprisingly, this is the classic Sha-Na-Na that is best remembered by most people. They consisted of 10 regular members (all of whom sang lead and backing vocals in turns): ‘Bowzer’ (Jon ‘Bauman) [replaced Alan Cooper], Lennie Baker (saxophone), Johnny Contardo, Denny Greene, ‘Dirty Dan’ (Danny McBride, lead guitar, who left after third season; replace ‘Enrico Ronzoni’ (Elliot Randall), who in 1974 had replaced ‘Vinnie Taylor’ (Chris Donald) +1974, who had replaced Larry Packer, who had replaced Henry Gross), Jocko Marcellino (drums), ‘Chico’ (Dave Ryan, bass guitar, who replaced ‘Bruno’ (Bruce C. Clark)), ‘Screamin” Scott Simon (piano) [replaced Joe Witkin], ‘Santini’ (Scott Powell), ‘Donny’ (Donald York).
black = only 4 at Woodstock joined the tv show
blue = 1970
purple = 1971
green = 1973
red = 1975
No executive chose the band members (2023 YTcomm @jamesfetherston1190 The lineup on TV was not created by an executive. It was their current lineup at the time, all the members were in the group for years before they got the show gig, about half of them were original.)
Alan Cooper was the first to leave the group, and was replaced by another Columbia student, Jon “Bauzer” Bauman, who picked up Cooper’s shtick of turning profile to the crowd and making a muscle.
Contardo left in 1983, Bowzer in 1984.
Sha-Na-Na, mid-1970s

The members of Sha Na Na during the TV series were Jon ‘Bowzer’ Bauman (vocals), Lennie Baker (sax), Johnny Contardo (vocals), Frederick ‘Dennis’ Greene (vocals), Danny “Dirty Dan” McBride (guitar) (left after third season), Jocko Marcellino (drums), Dave “Chico” Ryan (bass), ‘Screamin’ Scott Simon (piano), Scott ‘Santini’ Powell (vocals), Donald ‘Donny’ York (vocals). Each was introduced only by his nickname or his first name in a voice-over by Myers at the beginning of each show.
A supporting cast of comedians in which Pamela Myers (luscious girl), Jane Dulo (sarcastic old woman in the window),

Bass player Dave “Chico” Ryan, among the television show lineup, died in 1998; while remaining in Sha Na Na, he joined Bill Haley & His Comets for the group’s fall 1979 tour of Europe (Haley’s last major tour before his death).

www.metv.com/lists/9-greased-back-facts-about-sha-na-na

appearance as Johnny Casino and the Gamblers in Grease

Debra Double-Ewe • 7 months ago

Is it just me or could at least three or four of the members pass for being in the Village People?

Rocky Sharpe and the Replays (Razors originally) 1976

They became Rocky Sharpe and the Razors in 1978

Darts 1976 ‘Daddy Cool’ 1977 UK #6, ‘The Boy from New York City’ 1978 UK #2 (covered by the US Manhattan Transfer in 1981), ‘Duke of Earl’ 1979 UK #6

(Den Hegarty left in late 1978 to look after his ill father, featuring in three series of Jack Good’s final television show, Let’s Rock.

Flying Pickets 1982 ‘only you’

Original 1969 member, Donny York, reminisces on the beginning of Sha-na-na.

2022 YTcomm *TheChitown5  As someone who grew up in the 50’s and 60’s and remembered the 50’s era music, sha na na was a joke, not to be taken seriously. A comedy routine. Initially they were NY college students that organized a group that mocked and made a parody of that era. Their dress style, hair seen in the video were actually contemporary for the times. From a purist standpoint nobody looked like that (except motorcycle jackets). The choregraphy as some writer put it was “Busby Berkeley style”. Sha na na was in part formed because 50’s era music was hardly played on Midwest and East Coast radio stations since the British invasion of “64. For the most part they trivialized an artform that was sophisticated and required talent to perform well particularly doo wop. As far as Hippie reaction, very few early baby boomers were into Elvis or other artists from the time especially Woodstock people. Most had outgrown it and identified with the post Beatles era. Some history, the greaser (represented by Sha na na) subculture was alive and well in Chicago (as well as NY) throughout the 1960’s. The blue collar 60’s greasers, throw backs (hair and look) to the 50’s hated the hippies, and a lot of their music. Many did not get along with college bound kids either. Picked on them in high school (John Bauman “Bowzer” was one of their targets) [IW Bowzer left school in Queens NY aged 16 in 1963, i.e. so greaser survived up to 1963 at least]. On the positive side Sha na na brought this music to new generations and influenced punk rock as some have mentioned. The group did produce talented people like Johnny Contardo and Henry Gross.

2023 *ancient1350 “This music [i.e. 50s rnr] was still being played regularly on pop radio stations, mixed in among the more current singles, up until ’68. Somewhere between ’69 & ’71 it starts to change dramatically, but by the end of ’71 the on air vibe is completely different and youve got darker tones amd wild sentiments being expressed.”

2019 YTcomm @billsav57 2) Sha Na Na pre-TV show was a rough act. Yeah they were all from Columbia, but their shows attracted bikers and a lot of other rough types. Their shows weren’t like the TV show. And as I recall, they got a lot of good press from Rolling Stone, Circus and even the underground press of the time. 3) The notion that people left because of them neglects the often-mentioned fact that the show was way behind schedule and it was already Monday morning. 4) I think people tend to mischaracterize that generation as being closed-minded musically, and they did have a lot of venom for their parents’ favorites (venom that, for many in later years, turned to respect — I know there are old hippies watching Lawrence Welk reruns these days,), But this was, for the most part, their big brother’s music.

2022 YTcomm @michaelquebec6653 And this silly, goofy, and quaint way of “looking back” at ’50’s rock n’ roll is largely the view of 1950’s youth culture that the mainstream has today. Real rock n’ roll of the ’50’s, and it’s teen cultures, were actually very important, and even if it’s “old,” it’s worthy of respect and still relevant…but you wouldn’t know it due to the Fifties Nostalgia Craze of the 1970’s, which started here…at 1969’s Woodstock of all places. * Well, it “started” here, as well as on an episode of “Love American Style” that same year, titled “Love In The Happy Days.” (Yes, THAT “Happy Days.”)

2021 YTcomm @JustSomeCanadianGuy I can’t figure out if the crowd loved this or hated it.

2021 @mellogee7861 The concert promoter obviously needed to “fill some space” between the acts, so I guess he decided to toss these clowns out there for a few minutes for a little comic relief.

2015 @doublementon “more grease than peace…”

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