You Can Rock It...

… you can roll it…Today in rock history, on this date in 1958, Danny and the Juniors reached #1 with “At the Hop.” This record, a thinly disguised 12 bar blues, celebrated dance styles popular at the time. “At the Hop” was performed by Sha Na Na at Woodstock and captured for posterity on the soundtrack recording. It was also performed by Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids and included in the sound track recording of the 1973 movie “American Graffiti.” As I may have mentioned in previous posts, I was in a ‘50’s band in college during that same timeframe, since Sha Na Na’s appearance at Woodstock seemed to ignite a resurgence in the popularity of ‘50’s music. What has puzzled me since that time, though, is the stage garb of most ‘50’s bands of the period – greasy DA’s, white T-shirt with the pack of smokes rolled up in the sleeves, pegged jeans, engineer boots, black leather motorcycle jacket with 47 zippers – it was the uniform of the street tough hood from the ‘50’s. Check out the pic of yours truly below… However, if you take a look at, say, Bill Haley and the Comets, you’d notice they were much more dressed up on stage, usually wearing dinner jackets and those funny v-shaped ties popular in the era. So we got it wrong, but I don’t think I even owned a suit during those days! Thanks to www.wikipedia.org and www.rockhall.com/notes/today-in-rock for the info, let’s grease up and do the bop!