The Rockin’ Rebels

The story from the Rockin’ Rebels is among rock & roll’s longest-running mysteries using a pedigree that could execute a private detective proud. Their tale started when Buffalo, NY disk jockey Tom Shannon and his partner Phil Todaro composed a theme melody, “Crazy Weekend,” for Shannon’s radio display. The melody — originally a vocal — became an area favorite along with his hearing audience, as well as the light bulb continued over his mind when he was deluged with demands for a duplicate of an archive that didn’t can be found. While hosting an archive hop, Shannon was contacted by a regional high school music group over the costs, the Rebels, called after Duane Eddy’s support group. The music group asked Shannon if indeed they could play an instrumental edition of his theme melody. Shannon hadn’t considered the melody as an instrumental, but after hearing the group’s edition from it, he quickly booked them right into a studio room. Released on Todaro and Shannon’s very own Marlee label in 1959, the record was a big strike regionally, kicking up plenty of noise to protected the music group an area on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. It had been at this time that Clark informed Shannon it had been unwise to keep phoning the group from the same name as Duane Eddy’s nationally known support group, and on the following two Marlee produces, the group became referred to as the Buffalo Rebels. By 1962, the initial group had split up and Shannon is at the military, stationed at Fort Dixon in NJ. During this time period, another DJ (Syracuse, NY’s Jimmy O’Brien) got started utilizing the three-year-old record because the theme music for his display. This captured the ear of Swan Information chief executive Bernie Binnick, who monitored down Shannon and struck a rent offer for the get better at. This time around, the single strike the national graphs, rising to the quantity eight i’m all over this the national graphs in early 1963. However the tale gets even more interesting from right here, as Todaro and Shannon discovered themselves with popular record but no music group to record the follow-up. Luckily, once that they had been slicing the (Buffalo) Rebels, in addition they released a 45 on the Shan-Todd label by way of a Canadian group known as Big John Small & the Rockers. Renamed the Popular Toddys, their “Rockin’ Crickets” was originally released in March of 1959 and also made the nationwide graphs, peaking out at amount 57. It acquired an audio close enough towards the Rebels to create it worth resuscitation because the follow-up to “Crazy Weekend,” as the vocal flipside (“Shakin’ and Stompin'”) was considered obsolete and unusable. Therefore another regional group, the Jesters, was pressed into provider to lead the turn, “Hully Gully Rock and roll,” and the next album. Right now, Todaro’s and Shannon’s Rockin’ Rebels task had been in charge of three national strikes from simply two information, the monitors themselves being created by three completely separate rings who, altogether, had proved helpful under a minimum of six different brands. Even though Jesters produced even more Rockin’ Rebels monitors than the various other configurations, these were the only types to not have got popular record with their credit. And in a single last, oddball addendum to the confusing tale, Swan re-released “Crazy Weekend” in 1966 and highlighted just one more group for the flipside. Therefore in a footnote to rock and roll background, Kathy Lynn & the Playboys’ “Donkey Twine” became the final incarnation from the Rockin’ Rebels on vinyl fabric. At least for the present time, perhaps. In the end (as we’ve simply noticed), you can’t maintain a great tune as well as the American entrepreneurial nature down for too much time.