JIMMY O'NEILL : SHINDIG HOST : GONE TO MEET ELVIS

We've written about Shindig, the music television show that was so popular, and Jimmy O'Neill was the host.  Yesterday word reached us that he had passed in West Hollywood, where he had been living in retirement.  The City News Service article made its way around the net.  Here's a link to the West Hollywood Patch: JIMMY O'NEILL : OBIT

A little excerpt: In 1959, O'Neill made radio history as the first voice heard on KRLA-AM (1110) when it dropped its country-western format for rock music, the Times reported. It quickly became a powerhouse in rock radio and launched O'Neill into television in 1964 as the winsome emcee of Shindig!

You can use the Search feature on this Google Blogger to read more about Shindig, the influence of DJ's on popular music, and Jimmy!  If you scan down a bit to our YouTube video selections, you'll see Jimmy hosting this popular music television show!

(441) THE BLOSSOMS : FREQUENT MUSICAL ARTISTS ON SHINDIG : DARLENE LOVE AND THE WALL OF SOUND

BLOSSOMS HISTORY OF ROCK link here! 

They were the background group on so many popular records, working for Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin, and so many others.  The writer of this article is right when he says they were the most unknown successful group there was!

The Blossoms covered so many songs and were frequent guests on the Shindig television show as performing artists.  In the studio they are probably most famous for working with music producer Phil Spector and his Wall of Sound. You know them for the song "He's The Rebel." Here is just one of so very many videos presently on YouTube featuring their performances. 

Now, over the years there were a number of different women who worked as a Blossom.  Darlene Love is the Blossom most mentioned. Check our previous posts about the Blossoms and Darlene, using the Google Blogger search feature!




The Rock and Roll hall of Fame also Inducted Darlene Love in 2011, age 70, after a career of 50 years! Below the link to the bio and a long but very funny and very touching video of

ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME: DARLENE LOVE link!

BORIS KARLOFF SINGS "THE MONSTER MASH" ON SHINDIG 1965 : BOBBY PICKETT and LEONARD CAPIZZI SONGWRITERS

  See our previous posts on Bobby Pickett using the Google Blogger search feature!  The Shindig Haloween show featured Boris reading Monster Mash Lyrics.  The song first came out in 1962.  This video is "recreated" but we were fooled.

SONNY AND CHER ON SHINDIG : 1965

Shindig was in it's second hot season, and by 1965 the careers of Sonny and Cher had taken off. The duo had one of the most successful careers in the business that year, considering they were Americans. Sonny had worked for Phil Spector as a record promoter.

SHINDIG 1965 GENE PITNEY & GARY LEWIS AND THE PLAYBOYS & SO MANY MORE!

(428) GENE PITNEY : SINGER-SONGWRITER, RECORDING ARTIST, PERFORMER

Gene had an album out in 1965, was still performing, still writing songs, still covering tunes recorded by other artists. He performed on Shindig, the hot rock and roll television show broadcasting from Los Angeles that featured the Americans who invaded Britain and the British who were invading the United States!

(422) JERRY COLE ON CAPITOL : SURF GUITARIST : STUDIO GENIUS

This Youtuber did a fine job of writing about Jerry if you go right to his link on that site. He was a great studio musician and had become known for surf music but in his case he got to be the vocalist for a couple songs.

"Come Over to My Place" was a Shindig TV show theme song. Capitol was the hot record label in Los Angeles summer of '65. Jerry became a life long friend of mine.

Linking to Jerry Cole on Rockabilly Hall of Fame!

Use the Search feature of this blog to locate other Jerry Cole posts, including the Interview with Wes Bryan.

(420) BOBBY VEE : A TRUE INVADER OF BRITAIN : MUSICALLY THAT IS!

Bobby Vee had "Go Away Little Girl, and "Take Care of My Baby" and also "Run to Him." in the early 1960's. Since then he has a multitude of hits and gold records. His career has spanned 50 years, and in that time he truly invaded Britain, with top ten hits and albums. He appeared on television shows like, Hollywood A Go Go and Shindig, and is one of several Americans who gave the Beatles some good competition.

Recently it was in the news that Bobby, a few years younger than me, has a mild form of Alzheimer's. He announced that on his own web site and the news zipped around the world. Meanwhile, back home at Tuscan, Arizona, Bobby's been recording.

We're linking to his official site above, which will also take you to his sites on the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame,



Just a short excerpt from Bobby's own fine site, linked above.

" If "Susie Baby" served as Bobby Vee's entrance into the world of Billboards hot 100, then 'Devil or Angel' was certainly the foundation for a string of hit records reaching the nations top 20 throughout the entire 60's era. Bobby's hits were not limited to America. By 1963 he had collected seven top ten hits in England as well as a number 2 album called "Bobby Vee Meets the Crickets" and in 1963 shared the charts for forty weeks side-by-side with the Beatles. His tours took him to Japan, Australia and Europe as well as the United Kingdom, where he is still a yearly visitor. His thirty plus year recording career has produced over twenty-five albums including a Gold Album from England for his 1981 "Singles Album" release. Back in the US, Billboard Magazine called him, "One of the top ten most consistent chart makers ever."

I met Bobby when we was about 16 years old in New York City when he was on a promotional tour for his song "Rubber Ball." Wes

(393) AMERICAN MUSIC : SYLVESTER CROSS DIES : I KEEP WORKING WITH BOONE AND CAPEHEART

1964 seemed like a happy time to me when I was living it, and in my memory.

We songwriters were not especially concerned about the effects of the so called British Invasion of the Beatles and other groups would have on our own careers. Shows like Shindig celebrated rock and roll in Great Britain and the United States and we had confidence in our talents and abilities.

But that year there was a big change coming for those of us who were on contract with American Music, the big music publishing house that I had come to Los Angeles to work for, where Jerry Capeheart, who once worked with Eddie Cochran and who had signed me on staff was my boss.

Sylvester Cross, the owner of American Music died. I'd signed a five year contract but it was cut short. We kept going to work until Sylvester's wife sold the American Music catalogue for a song (!) and shut down operations.

I kept working for Jerry and for Pat Boone, making demos.

(392) PJ PROBY ON SHINDIG AND AROUND THE BEATLES

Texan PJ Proby was on Shindig a few times, 1964 and 1965. Here's one of the Youtube videos of PJ's performance in 1964, which I believe was taped in England, his adopted country. (P.J. is still in England, still performing, and we've posted a lot about him so search!)



We're grateful to the YouTuber who posted this video of PJ. being presented by the Beatles on a 1964 TV show called "Around the Beatles". (The Beatle's first performance on Shindig was also taped in England.) UPDATE: We'll replace this video as soon as possible.Technical difficulties.

(391) SO YOU CAN IMAGINE THAT I'M BEHIND BONNIE and DELANY BRAMLETT'S DAUGHTERS CAMPAIGN TO GET DADDY INTO THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME!

From BONNIE BRAMLETT'S OFFICIAL SITE (Linked here)!

"As you may have noticed my daughters are campaigning for their father's musical legacy. Our Michele has taken the reins and with her sisters right by her side, she has tested the waters (so to speak) to see if she would be embraced by our peers and she has been :-)

Delaney passed away not long ago and his daughters naturally want to celebrate his life's work, secure the recognition it deserves and bring it to a wider audience. He made some great music as a solo artist, as well as with Delaney & Bonnie.

I want to ask you all to support my girls in their endeavor to make things right. For whatever reasons, the girls have not inherited from their father, so they have no hope chest to work with.

They're working on their own so far. I want you all to know that I plan to support them with my performances if and when they need me. I will receive no financial benefit in any form for my performances or any other participation I may be asked to do. This IS NOT a request for any support in the form of $, just need your prayers and your votes. Just go see what the girls are up to. They are good girls and I'm very proud of them. I hope you will be as well :-) " - Bonnie Bramlett

(390) DELANY BRAMLETT ON SHINDIG and at KULAKS WOODSHED

LINKING TO THE OFFICIAL SITE FOR soul singer DELANY BRAMLETT!

There is some great information here including links to biography, interviews, concerts... Delany was a good friend of mine back in the day...

(389) JERRY COLE ON SHINDIG : THE SHINDOG

SHINDIG first premiered September 16, 2011. It was the Rock and Roll television show that some of my friends, like Jerry Cole, worked on. Jerry was part of the show band called The SHINDOGS! The band started the show out with an intro composed of a selection of hit songs, just to get the audience warmed up. They threw a few Beatles songs in there and various guests took their turn at singing four bars.

Jerry was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 2000 and was considered to be a charter member of the LA "Wrecking Crew," one of the best studio musicians around town.

Jerry Cole was a great friend of mine who we've blogged about before. Here he is on Shindig singing an intro to the show song called "Welcome To My Place." Oh those background singers are The Blossoms!



Wes says : Delaney Bramlett and Joey Cooper (who recorded a song I wrote called"I'm A Fool") were singers of the Shindogs. Most of the guys played their own instruments. Joey played the guitar....

(388) ANN-MARGRET STARS ON A "SHINDIG" ALBUM

RCA Victor put this one out. That was Ann's label. The same label Elvis was on.

It's a "Shindig" album that "Stars" Ann-Margret. I don't think Ann was ever on the television show Shindig but she was associated with Rock and Roll early in her career not only because of her own music because of her movie roles and of course, because of her relationship with Elvis Presley.

I've blogged about Ann before - WES BRYAN is a FAN! - and we're linking to Ann's OFFICIAL web site again!

(She's been recording a Gospel album.)

(387) JOHNNY RIVERS STARS ON "SWINGING SHINDIG" ALBUM

The word "Shindig" came into common use as slang to mean...a rock and roll event...a jam...a party... and since titles are not copyrightable...


Johnny Rivers appeared on the television show but I don't think this album came out of the show.

Check out our previous posts about Johnny and go to his web site by clicking on the title above!



Here you get the whole Shindig segment including an ad for zit busters ! (Eeeewwe!) Right after the zits came Johnny playing "Maybellene" and "Memphis," both cover-tunes of the songs written by Chuck Berry. We're struck by the high energy of the shows.

(386) JAMES BURTON INTERVIEW and on SHINDIG

JAMES BURTON, studio guitarist extraordinaire worked with - almost everybody (even me) - but is most famous for working with Elvis Presley. Writer James Calemine with the Swampland site featured this interview with Burton in 2007.
Here's James playing on Shindig in 1965:

(385) THE EVERLY BROTHERS ON SHINDIG : LINK NOW TO EVERLY NET

This segment begins with the Everly Brothers performing "Wake Up Little Suzy" (a provocative song lyric for the time) and also includes James Brown.

We've posted several times over the years on the Everly Brothers (you can use that search feature to find archived posts) and we're linking to EVERLY NET which has some of the latest on the performances of Phil and Don, who've been working with other musical greats such as Paul Simon and a benefit for Habitat for Humanity.

(384) AN INTERVIEW WITH SHINDIG HOST JIMMY O'NEILL

JIMMY O'NEILL was the host of Shindig and this is a link to an interview with him posted originally by the Classic Bands site, written by Gary James. Link above!

"Q - Couldn't Shindig! have lasted as long as American Bandstand?"

"A - No doubt in my mind. ... I knew that if Jack did quit, chances were the show would not survive. Sure enough, it took about six months, but I could see almost with the first episode without Jack, that we had begun to stray off the track."

(383) GLEN CAMPBELL ON SHINDIG

Since we recently posted on Glen Campbell, we thought we'd start off our videos of this one of Glen on Shindig. Check out our other posts for more on Glen!

UPDATE BY WES: I forgot to mention that Glen's appearances on Shindig and then on The Joey Bishop show caught the attention of The Smothers Brothers, and they decided to produce a show for him on CBS.

(382) JACK GOOD : SHINDIG BLACKCAT: ROCKABILLY EUROPE

SHIINDIG was the hot Rock and Roll television show that aired for a couple years starting in 1964. Eventually the Beatles and the Rolling Stones performed and at the time we didn't know what we do now, how successful they would be or how enduring.


British JACK GOOD came to the United States to be producer. We thought he did a great job of it.


We're linking here to Black Dog Rockabilly, a site from Europe, that has a great profile of Shindig Producer and Creator Jack Good.


At the end of the article the question is WHAT HAPPENED TO JACK GOOD?
DO YOU KNOW?


"(Jack) superintended the nationally-broadcast pop showcase "Shindig" which, as well as "discoveries" like the Righteous Brothers and Sonny & Cher, represented a media breakthrough for diverse black artists from Howlin' Wolf to The Chambers Brothers...


"Cher tells the story of how and she and Sonny first got started in the US, and how they were not well received because people thought they were weird. She went on to say, "There was a man called Jack Good who was presenting a USA show called Shindig, who loved us. He said "You've got to go to England," so we sold everything, and we were famous there first. Even the older generation would ask for our autographs, and when we got back to America we were huge, and everyone thought we were English."


THIS MONTH WE FOCUS ON SHINDIG!