Sha Na Na - Career

Career

The group began singing as part of the longstanding 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". Conceived by George Leonard, then a graduate student in Humanities, Sha Na Na began performing in 1969, at the height of the hippie counterculture, and achieved national fame after playing at the Woodstock Festival, where they preceded 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 and the TV show Happy Days.

The degree to which their act was truly nostalgic, as opposed to the degree to which it was "invented nostalgia", has been called into question.

The group's first manager, Ed Goodgold, codified Trivia as a nostalgic quiz game and conducted the nation's first trivia contests with Dan Carlinsky in 1965. The future Sha Na Na/Kingsmen were featured singers at these contests. Four years later, he co-authored "Rock "n" Roll Trivia" just as he and the William Morris Agency began steering Sha Na Na's career.

From 1969 through 1971, the band played at, among other places, the Fillmore East and Fillmore West, opening for such bands as The Grateful Dead, The Mothers of Invention and The Kinks. When Sha Na Na began headlining at other venues, one of the opening acts was Bruce Springsteen. In 1972, Sha Na Na was one of just four acts invited by John Lennon and Yoko Ono to perform with them at their One-to-One benefit concert at Madison Square Garden. Subsequently, the group appeared in the movie Grease as Johnny Casino and the Gamblers. From 1977 to 1982, the group reached perhaps the height of its success with its own hit syndicated television show Sha Na Na, featuring guests such as James Brown, the legendary punk rock band the Ramones, and musicians such as Little Richard, Bo Diddley and Chubby Checker.

The original band line-up featured 12 performers: Alan Cooper (bass vocals), Rob Leonard (vocals), Frederick 'Denny' Greene (vocals), Henry Gross (guitar), John 'Jocko' Marcellino (drums), Joe Witkin (piano), Scott Powell (also known as Captain Outrageous and Tony Santini) (vocals), Donald 'Donny' York (vocals), Elliot Cahn (also known as Gino), (rhythm guitar), Rich Joffe (vocals), Dave Garrett (vocals) and Bruce 'Bruno' Clarke. The initial act had three up-front performers in gold lamé and the other nine in "greaser" attire (rolled up t-shirt sleeves, leather jackets, tank tops). On their album The Golden Age of Rock and Roll, the lead singer taunts the audience on one of the live tracks by announcing, "We've got just one thing to say to you fucking hippies, and that is that rock and roll is here to stay!". The act usually ended after several encores, and closed with "Lovers Never Say Goodbye". The closing song was changed to, "Goodnight Sweetheart" for the TV series. In concert, they would often return for up to seven encores - but none more meaningful than when performing in Toronto, at Ontario Place and performing Hound Dog after announcing Elvis Presley's death earlier that same day (August 16, 1977).