At a time when rock music was steeped in psychedelia and the bird of hard rock, Sha Na Na were one of the first bands to eagerly celebrate the sounds of rock & roll's first era, and they parlayed their straight-ahead '50s rock & roll revivalism into a long and successful touring career. The group's image and style were unabashedly anachronistic, as they covered '50s pop and doo wop standards, slicked their hair back in the greaser fashion, and dressed in flamboyant '50s costumes. Formed on a lark by a handful of Columbia University students, Sha Na Na's career was made when they appeared at the Woodstock Music & Art Fair in 1969, winning over the crowd with a raucous version of "At the Hop," and they were a successful touring show band for decades afterwards. Sha Na Na never enjoyed the same success as a recording act (in part because their originals weren't as exciting as the oldies they covered), but 1972's The Night Is Still Young was the most satisfying of their studio albums, and 1973's The Golden Age of Rock 'N' Roll was a live album that captured the enthusiasm of their stage show. Sha Na Na was formed in 1968 by Columbia University students as an offshoot of the college's celebrated a cappella group the Kingsmen (no relation to the band that made "Louie Louie" a hit). As they worked up material for an upcoming concert, they got the idea to do a show called "The Golden Age of Grease," in which they sang '50s doo wop and rock & roll classics while wearing gold lamé jackets and sporting greasy ducktail hair styles. The show was a hit on campus, and they expanded the act into a concert attraction, with the vocal group accompanied by a rock & roll combo. The original vocalists were Don York, Frederick "Denny" Greene, Scott Powell, Richard "Ritchie" Joffe, Alan Cooper, David Garrett, and Rob Leonard, while the musicians included Henry Gross and Elliot "Gino" Cahn on guitars, Bruce "Bruno" C. Clarke on bass, Joe Witkin on keyboards, and John "Jocko" Marcellino on drums. The group soon developed a following on the East Coast, gigging regularly at top venues like the Fillmore East, and they won a valuable fan in legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix loved their show, and on his recommendation, Sha Na Na were booked to appear at Woodstock in the summer of 1969, before anyone knew it would turn out to be an event that summed up the zeitgeist of the late '60s. They were the last act to appear before Hendrix closed out the weekend, and their enthusiastic blast of rock & roll energy was well received by the audience, making their name. Before the year was out, they'd signed with Kama Sutra Records and released their first album, Rock & Roll Is Here to Stay, a set of impassioned covers of classic rock & roll tunes. In 1970, the movie Woodstock and its accompanying album came out, and Sha Na Na's version of "At the Hop" appeared on both, and the non sequitur fun of their spot boosted their growing fan base. In 1971, they delivered their second album, Sha Na Na, and continued to tour constantly. The initial lineup began to split, and as would be a common occurrence over the years, members would drop out and replacements would sign on to replace them. By 1971, guitarist Henry Gross, bassist Bruce "Bruno" C. Clarke, keyboard man Joe Witkin, and vocalists Alan Cooper, David Garrett, and Rob Leonard had all left the group. (Gross would be one of the very few former members of Sha Na Na to enjoy a successful solo career, scoring a hit with the song "Shannon" in 1976.) Screamin' Scott Simon came on board as pianist, and would go on to become the group's musical director, while new bass vocalist John "Bowzer" Bauman soon established himself as one of the band's most distinctive personalities. Lennie Baker, who had worked with Danny and the Juniors, joined the group on sax, vocalist Johnny "Kid" Contardo and bassist David "Chico" Ryan also signed on, and singer Grover Kemble would spend a year with the band. Lead guitar became a revolving door position in Sha Na Na, with Larry Packer, Billy Schwartz, and Vinnie Taylor all playing six-string with the combo between 1970 and 1974. (Taylor's departure was especially upsetting for the group, as he died of a heroin overdose.) Along with frequent touring, Sha Na Na issued a handful of albums during this period -- The Night Is Still Young in 1972, the live set The Golden Age of Rock 'N' Roll, the studio LP From the Streets of New York in 1973, and Hot Sox in 1974. In 1975, Sha Na Na delivered another studio album, Sha Na Now, which as usual was dominated by vintage rock numbers with a few originals blended in. It came at a time when the group's fortunes seemed to be on the decline, as record sales shrunk and touring was less lucrative, but better days were around the corner. In 1977, Sha Na Na became the stars of a syndicated comedy/variety series that placed them in a neighborhood where the '50s had seemingly never ended. The show was a success, with 96 episodes aired over the course of four years, and they landed another high profile gig when they were cast as fictive rock band Johnny Casino & the Gamblers in the 1978 musical Grease; the film became a blockbuster hit, and Sha Na Na placed six songs on its best-selling soundtrack album, with Scott Simon penning "Sandy," sung by leading man John Travolta. Their new success in film and television seemingly confirmed the obvious: Sha Na Na's greatest strengths were as musical entertainers and not as a recording act, and after parting ways with Kama Sutra, they recorded only sporadically, with themed collections like 1997's Halloween Oldies Party and 2002's Rockin' Christmas, and live albums dominating their releases from the '80s onward. John "Bowzer" Bauman left in 1983 and led his own oldies group, Bowzer & the Stingrays, as well as enjoying a career as a game show host; he also campaigned for the rights of veteran musicians who had lost the rights to their group's names and were forced to compete with versions that featured no original members. Frederick "Denny" Greene dropped out in 1984 to pursue a career in academia, and Lennie Baker retired from the act in 1999. Of the members from their classic era, Don York, John "Jocko" Marcellino, and Screamin' Scott Simon were still touring with Sha Na Na when the band revealed they were breaking up in 2022, after more than 50 years of keeping the '50s alive. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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