What do you think of when the “band” Sha Na Na comes to mind?
\nMost likely your answers would be that they had their own TV show.
\nThey were the dance band in the movie
\nGrease<\/i>. And what you may not have known that they played at
\nthe first Woodstock.<\/p>\n
Sha Na Na, an 50s-early 60s oldies band, released albums back in
\nthe 1970s. Back when oldies were hip, thanks to the TV show
\nHappy Days<\/i>, Sha Na Na was a happening group that brought
\nback the early days of rock and roll. Of these albums,
\nHot Sox<\/i>, released in 1974, is probably considered their
\nbest.<\/p>\n
The common oldies are here as usual, plus some originals! The
\noldies list is here, as in previous albums:<\/p>\n
The Reflections’ “Romeo and Juliet”<\/p>\n
The Essex’s “Easier Said Than Done”<\/p>\n
The Crew Cuts’ “Sh-Boom”<\/p>\n
Joe Jones’ “You Talk Too Much”<\/p>\n
The Jive Bombers’ “Bad Boy”<\/p>\n
Huey Piano Smith’s “Don’t You Just Know It”<\/p>\n
And each version by Sha Na Na is fresh and exciting as the
\noriginals.<\/p>\n
Then there are the originals, something that wasn’t expected as
\nin previous releases. “Maybe I’m Old-Fashioned,” a song that starts
\nout the album. A very well-done tune, in the late 50s oldies
\nstyle.<\/p>\n
The title track “Hot Sox,” is more of a novelty song, and
\nprobably the best song on the album. It features vocalist Jon
\n“Bowzer” Baumann, and for those of you who remember him, this
\nbig-mouth singer was a very comedical character. “Hot Sox” is no
\nexception. It’s a very funny tune about dancing with those “Hot
\nSox” on. As much as Robert Parker’s dancin’ “Barefootin'” was,
\nShaNaNa puts clothing attire on those feet, and makes it just as
\nmuch fun to dance and listen to.<\/p>\n
“Stroll All Night” is a nasal-type vocal tune, that is almost as
\ngood as the remaining tunes on the album. Another “novelty” number,
\nis “Too Chubby To Boogie.” The lyrics are hysterical: “Too Chubby
\nto Boogie, Too Chubby to Rock & Roll. Too Rolly-Polly to Rock
\n& Roll.”<\/p>\n
And the last selection is a slow-dance song, which is great to
\nend the album, “Dreams Come True.” Most of the Sha Na Na albums
\nended with a slow-dance tune such as this one.<\/p>\n
When Sha Na Na first started releasing albums, they were mostly
\nfrom live performances.
\nHot Sox<\/i> is an all-studio album, which makes this album even
\ngreater than their previous releases. And most of their albums
\nincluded posters of the band. In
\nHot Sox<\/i>, it featured small baseball-card sized pictures of
\neach member of the band, and like baseball cards, they were
\nautographed. If you get a chance to see the back side of this
\nalbum, a circle of pictures is shown of these autographed picture
\ncards.<\/p>\n
Sha Na Na has only one CD on the record stores shelves. It’s
\ntheir live recording of
\nFrom The Streets Of New York<\/i>. As much as this band may not
\nhave been as popular as the big names in the Seventies, this band
\nwas very enjoyable to watch, especially for those who lived through
\nthe rock and roll 50s, and for those who like the oldies in
\ngeneral. Maybe one day their remaining releases will be reissued on
\nCD.<\/p>\n
Sha Na Na has gone through personnel changes, and there are only
\n4 original members remaining today: Jocko Marcellino (drummer),
\nDonny York (vocals), Lennie Baker (sax) and Screamin’ Scott Simon
\n(piano). They performed at the Woodstock ’69 Reunion. They, along
\nwith Crosby, Stills & Nash were two of the original groups who
\nperformed at the original Woodstock in 1969.<\/p>\n
For those who love the oldies, and for those of you who were
\naround back then, I’m sure that Sha Na Na was one of the bands that
\nwere playing in your area. Sha Na Na was the very first concert I
\never attended. Our seats weren’t the greatest, but from what I
\nremember, they did a great impersonation tribute to Elton John.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":27458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7328],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-38828","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-sha-na-na","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38828"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}