FROM OUR ARCHIVES (286) FRANKIE AVALON : YOU'RE ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS

FROM OUR ARCHIVES (286) FRANKIE AVALON : YOU'RE ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS


Frankie came out with a Christmas album in 1962, after acting in a film called Panic In The Year Zero, a war picture. This smooth romantic song was one of the songs he recorded for the album along with classics. Frankie and his wife have eight children and are still together after all these years.

(352) THOSE ACTING SINGING SONGWRITING SENSATIONS! (DO YOU THINK JAMES DEAN COULD HAVE MADE A HIT RECORD?)

A number of the artists we're talking about here (including me) fell under the category of "ACTING - SINGING SENSATIONS."

Elvis Presley was probably the most successful at turning a music career into a musical acting career. Bobby Darin did it well. Pat Boone, Frankie Avalon, so many others sang as actors in movies.

James Dean played the bongos. He liked Jazz.
DO YOU THINK JAMES DEAN COULD HAVE MADE A HIT RECORD?

Many of us had multiple creative talents or interests.

For me it was (way back then) sculpture and photography.
Today I still play my guitar and it seems I'm always working on a song in my head.

JAMBOREE

This Jamboree promo video has excellent quality and since it includes BUDDY KNOX and the RHYTHM ORCHIDS singing Hula Love, JIMMY BOWEN singing Cross Over, as well as CARL PERKINS and FRANKIE AVALON, we thought we'd post it. We're still working on our updates... check the pages for UPDATE PROGRESS!

(349) FRANKIE AVALON YOU'RE ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS

Frankie Avalon recorded more than one song that I was a co-writer on and we're always looking for a Youtube video so we can hear those recordings again. This recording is Frankie in his best voice.

(286) FRANKIE AVALON YOU'RE ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS

Frankie came out with a Christmas album in 1962, after acting in a film called Panic In The Year Zero, a war picture. This smooth romantic song was one of the songs he recorded for the album along with classics. Frankie and his wife have eight children and are still together after all these years.

(253) DICK DALE and the DEL-TONES SURF BEAT

The saxaphone, so present in the late 1950's rock and roll continues to wail in early 1960's surfing music! This was one of my favorites. Dick was probably the most popular performer of this genre. Click on the title above to get to a link for Dick Dale's official site. Dick has been treating for cancer but is alive and kicking!

The line up on this front photo on this video actually has my friend John Ashley in it. It goes from left to right Dick Dale, John Ashley, Frankie Avalon, and Annette.. Wes

INTERVIEW WITH FRANKIE AVALON IN VEGAS on CHARLIE BASS SHOW

In this interview, Frankie talks about the history of the singers coming out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - so very many - including Fabian. "It's a neighborhood, ethnic people who survived together..."

If you click on the link above you'll get to the FRANKIE AVALON on the HISTORY OF ROCK page.

(248) FRANKIE AVALON GEARS UP FOR THE BEACH MOVIES!

My Friend from New York, Frankie Avalon, was also headed for a movie career. (He would eventually make eight beach movies in about three years for Warner Brothers.) Frankie, from Philadelphia, and an Italian family, was teamed up with Annette Funicello, who became the Italian-American princess of films. He would make "Back to the Beach," "Beach Blanket Bingo," "Beach Party," "Muscle Beach Party,"...



Surf music was the craze and taking the teen idol romance movie to the beach made a lot of sense. I knew Frankie Avalon in New York and at one point while with United Artists I'd been considered to star in beach movies myself. But the farm country aspect of me, that aspect that I had in common with James Dean, was too strong.

(238) 1962 BOBBY DENTON - CHANCELLOR COUNTRY RECORDS - I GUESS I'M STILL IN LOVE WITH YOU

Jimmy Bowen, who I first met in Akron, Ohio, and then performed with on Roulette Record promotional tours at dance hall venues, and I wrote "I Guess I'm Still In Love with You." Jimmy was one of my first advocates, taking me and the first demo I ever pressed - in a kitchen in North Carolina - to the local DJ in Akron. Jimmy became a big producer working for Frank Sinatra's Reprise label and bringing both Frank and Dean Martin hits in the early 1960's.

The song did well in the country market when it was put out by Chancellor Records, Bob Marcucci's Label in 1962.

Here's the RCS Discography for Chancellor Country Records out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philadephia was so important to music at the time, bringing so many talents including Frankie Avalon and the Dick Clark American Band Stand show to America. My friends Fabian and Johnny Rivers also recorded on Chancellor.

http://rcs.law.emory.edu/rcs/labels/c/c2818.htm

Chancellor also had a label that didn't focus on country. Here's a list of recordings and you see that Frankie Avalon and some other artists we've mentioned on this blog are listed:

http://www.globaldogproductions.info/c/chancellor.html

Check out our previous blogs on Bobby Denton, The Singing Senator, using the search feature of this blog or check out the links to the left!

(83) BOBBY DARIN EARLY 1960'S STYLE / CHRISTINE WHITE

By the end of 1960, Bobby Darin had four Gold records and had won two Grammy awards and he had become an actor - a movie star - too. He had moved to Los Angeles, California, in order to make the movie "Come September." Sometimes I wonder if he lead the parade of us singer-songwriter-musician-singer-entertainer types from New York to the West Coast.

"Come September"was a light comedy. Now my friend Frankie Avalon had been making the beach blanket movies and it had been a while since anyone really expected me to be The Next James Dean. He got teamed up with Annette Funicello. Bobby Darin was teamed up with Sandra Dee, a child star who had matured to about sixteen years old. Bobby was about twenty four when they met, and Bobby, who was aggressive for anything he wanted badly - like fame and fortune - went after Sandra. They were married.

And well, it was a volatile situation.

When Sylvester Cross got wind that I knew Bobby Darin, he decided I should pitch American Music songs, including a couple I wrote, to him in person. Why not another Gold for the singer who had "Splish Splash," and "Dream Lover?"

I did, and guess who I ran to at the movie studio when I went to pitch Bobby?

My old friend Christine White!
Fate... that's what it was.

Christine White, James Dean's great friend, who I'd met in 1956 on the street in Hollywood on my first tourist trip down from Oregon, was in town working on a television series. She invited me to one of her celebrity filled house parties in the Hollywood Hills and that reignited our friendship!

NEW LINK TO BOBBY DARIN'S OFFICIAL SITE!

(36) Goodbye UNITED ARTISTS! Hello CLOCK RECORDS!

I'll leave the details about my departure from United Artists for my memoir, but without getting into the circumstances that propelled me, the short of it is that I quit.

Dad pointed out that I had signed my seven year contract underage because UA didn't want to let me go. My dad had first expressed big doubts about my becoming an "Acting-Singing Sensation," but had become my biggest fan. Now he was on my side when it came to leaving United Artists. Dad wanted me to have a new manager - Elvis' Colonel Tom Parker!

I quit United Artists having traveled thousands of miles on tours and after having made countless television, radio, and record hop - dance party performances, and after having had a Gold Record.

I quit having studied acting with Lee Strasberg at Actors Studio, having auditioned for some movie roles and having appeared in promotionals for other star's films. (We called them movies then.) I quit having the highest hopes to play the late, great James Dean in the bio pic.

But I was also tired of the James Dean comparisons. There were those who were glad I had failed. How could I have ever dared try to "be" him? When could I be myself?

United Artists had decided they could not make the movie. I was told that if they had gone forward with it, I would have had the role. I'd beat out a few other guys including Dean Stockwell for the part, and it meant everything to me to know that James Dean's own family had put the good word in for me that they wanted me to play Jimmy!

I quit United Artists having honed my performance and interviewing skills to perfection. I quit while having great respect for Max E. Youngstein, who had personally signed me to their new label to launch it, and having appreciated all that United Artists had done for me - the publicity, everything. I quit because it was the only choice, in circumstances that were devestating to me.

But I was still young, healthy, talented, and ambitious, and maybe more than anything I had made a lot of friends in the business.

This was when Bessie Little, the publicist entered my life. She had written about me - and many other stars - before, but she had never met me. A woman executive at United Artists who knew the inside story of my circumstances ran into singer Bobby Darin in a cafeteria and urged him to have me come up to see her. That woman personally introduced me to her publicist friend Bessie Little.

(I wrote a bit about Bessie Little earlier in this blog, on the September 10th, 2007 - blog post #23.)

Record companies trying to track me down called Bessie's office.

After I left United Artists there was a record label bidding war for me!

This gave me hope that I still had a career ahead of me! Bobby Darin was thinking of changing labels himself, despite the success of "Splish Splash." Frankie Avalon, Buddy Knox, Ersel Hickey, and other friends in the music business had urged me to change labels.

The new Clock label was owned by veteran English-born EMI record man Wally Moody and his son Doug Moody. In about 1958 they had Dave "Baby" Cortez, known for "The Happy Organ." The Moodys, who had managed to produce a high percentage of hit records for a small label, won me.

Clock Records had a unique record label design with an alarm clock going off on it, as you'll see when you click on this RCS discography link.

On the CLOCK LABEL I recorded "Honey Baby," and "So Blue Over You."

IT WAS THE SUMMER OF 1959!

A bit on Clock Records... Link to PAISLEYHAZE site!

Little did I know that an even more exciting phase of my life was beginning for me, and that it would be some of my best friends in the business who would give me that hand up when I needed it!

To this day I am grateful for those friends along the way,those friends who never gave up on me!

(35 1/2) FRANKIE AVALON

Friends, in blog #35 I gave a mention to my New York pal and peer, Frankie Avalon, who was also being promoted like me, to be a "Singing, Acting Sensation." I decided he really deserves his own little blog here so I'm doing a blog #35 1/2.

Believe it or not, I was up for some of those beach party type roles he got and I thought Frankie ought to do them. I was born and raised in the mountains, the magnificent Smokey Mountains of far western North Carolina, far from the ocean.



Being from Philadelphia, Frankie had the Atlantic in his back yard. I figured he could relate to the beach scene better than me, that he had actually gone to the beach and had summer fun there, and of course if you know the movies, he became the handsome screen boyfriend of the beautiful Annette Funicello. But before all that, he had a number one hit, "Venus," which is his signature song.

Here's Frankie singing "Venus" on the Dick Clark American Bandstand show.

I used to go to a lot of Frankie's recording sessions in New York at Bell Sound, including when he recorded "Venus," and Frankie also recorded a song I wrote called "I'm Forever Yours."

FRANKIE AVALON at the History of Rock Link at Post Title!

Frankie Avalon - Movies on IMBd movie database.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000811/ REFRESHED LINK!

(35) FREEZE! A DANCE CRAZE SPARKED ON AMERICAN BANDSTAND BY THIS "SINGING - ACTING SENSATION"

I played live at record hops, accompanying myself on a guitar, and when I was on television performing, I sang either live or along with a recording. I never just lip sync-ed (silently moved my lips) to a tune and as a result I kept my voice honed. Having to perform live, with no technology to cover your mistakes, meant having to be your best at all times. There was no slacking off. Touring was grueling and I often suffered from sleep deprivation, but being your best at all times also meant clean living. Though years later I would realize that some of my peers had begun to take drugs to keep going, for the most part the ones I associated with at the time kept drinking to a minimum and relied on their youthful energy to keep going!

I had lost all shyness of performing. I was better than ever! My confidence had grown as I traveled and met people all around the country and from all walks of life. I felt myself to be part of the vital New York music scene too. I had begun writing songs and presenting them to my peers. Besides my own hit songs, I performed many of the popular Rockabilly and early Rock and Roll songs of my era.

In the summer of 1958, on the United Artists record label, I put out another single. This one had "Wait for Me Baby," on one side, and a song called "Freeze," on the other.

Once again I made an appearance on Dick Clark's American Bandstand television show, performing "Freeze." It seemed that my first appearance on Dick Clark's, singing "Tiny Spaceman," with a prop flying saucer going around my head, had been an eon ago - when it had been a bit more than a year.

Now "Freeze" was meant to be a record hop - dance party tune. When I sang the word "freeze!" the kids on the dance floor would stop for a moment wherever they were. It was like vogue-ing, late 1950's style. The song started a bit of dance craze around the nation!

(My writing partner, Christine, has a memory of learning this dance as a kid. She says a neighbor's mom owned an old copy and her friends played the record while they ran through the lawn sprinklers! Their idea was to stick someone else in the sprinkler for a moment at freeze!)

Now at this point Elvis Presley was over in Germany in the United States Army. He had the opportunity to be part of Special Services and spend his time there as an entertainer but Elvis (some say Colonel Tom Parker chose this for him) chose to be regular army. Elvis was granted the privilege of living off base and rented a house over there, and he had some of his favorite companions come over there to keep him company including Cliff Gleaves, the hep cat DJ, who clicked his fingers and joked "We have James Dean in the car with us," about me. Officially autographing was kept to an hour or so every day, when Elvis was in residence.

I, like just about everyone else, kept reading the fan magazines, to keep up on Elvis, but also to keep up on the competition. Frankie Avalon - Fabian - Pat Boone. Meanwhile Elvis kept up on us. He was very worried about Fabian as his competition. He had magazines, demo-records, the top 40, and even movies brought over so he wouldn't loose touch with what was happening in the United States.

Frankie Avalon was a friend of mine in New York. His dad came to town from Philadelphia to visit and we all went out to dinner. Despite my success with "Freeze!" Frankie was one of my singer-songwriter peers - and another fellow who was being marketed as a "Singing-Acting Sensation" - who urged me to consider changing labels. Believe it or not, I too was up for the parts he got as a beach boy! Frankie, Buddy Knox, and some others, felt that I could be doing more with my career, even as the whole Next James Dean promotion continued to propel me forwards. They felt that United Artists Records was just too new at the music business and as for my acting career - well, it had stalled out for reasons I can't reveal here - but it was stalled.

Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis's manager, had enough records to put out while Elvis was in Germany to keep the fans thinking of - and buying - Elvis. Throughout Elvis' time in Germany he and I passed hellos and good wishes through people we knew in common. I think we were all waiting to see what would happen when Elvis returned to the States.

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2011

FREEZE HAS APPEARED ON YOUTUBE! THANKS FRIEND!