Sha Na Na was an American rock and roll and doo-wop revival group formed in 1969. The group performed a song-and-dance repertoire based on 1950s hit songs that both revived and parodied the music and the New York City street culture of the 1950s. After gaining initial fame for their performance at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, made possible with help from their friend Jimi Hendrix, the group hosted Sha Na Na, a syndicated variety series that ran from 1977 to 1981.
Billing themselves as "from the Streets of New York", members were frequently outfitted in gold lamé or leather jackets and sported pompadour or ducktail hairdos. The group's name was taken from a series of nonsense syllables ("sha na na na, sha na na na na") in the song "Get a Job", originally recorded by the Silhouettes.
The final lineup featured original members Donny York and Jocko Marcellino, and longtime member Screamin' Scott Simon, who joined in 1970. Everyone else from the original band and TV show had since departed.
Sha Na Na released their last regular album in 2006, although they subsequently released compilation albums. , they announced that they would no longer tour.
Career Conceived by George Leonard,Thomas Edwards Harkins, Woodstock FAQ: All that's Left to Know About the Fabled Garden, Backbeat 2019, p. 275 then a humanities graduate student, who also became the group's original choreographer,Rock 'n Roll is Here to Stay! Kama Sutra 1969, liner notes inside the original gatefold album cover. Sha Na Na began performing in 1969 at the height of the hippie counterculture. Only five months after Leonard had explained his concept to the group, on the basis of excitement their performances had generated in a New York City club frequented by famous rock musicians and others from the music business, and with the help of Jimi Hendrix, a friend they had met at the club, they obtained a slot at the Woodstock festival. Their performance immediately preceded that of Hendrix, who closed the festival.Robert Rubsam, "Rock 'n Roll's Sha Na Na Remembers the Golden Days of Woodstock", Hudson Valley Magazine, May 30, 2019.Michael Lang, The Road to Woodstock, Ecco 2010, p. 131
As with most of their other early performances, Sha Na Na's performance at Woodstock was a "show stopper"Irwin Stambler, The Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock and Soul, revised ed., St. Martin's Press 1989, pp. 610–11 that left the audience simultaneously "delighted and bewildered."Wade Lawrence & Scott Parker, "Sha Na Na: 50 Years of Peace and Music" Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. Retrieved June 30, 2021. Their set-closing song, the 1957–58 number-one hit "At the Hop", got the group a standing ovation, and they were brought back for an encore. Subsequently, the inclusion of their performance of "At the Hop" in Michael Wadleigh's award-winning documentary film of the festival made Sha Na Na nationally famousThomas Edward Harkins, Woodstock FAQ: All that's Left to Know About the Fabled Garden, Backbeat 2019, p. 277, stating inclusion of "At the Hop" in the Woodstock film was "enough to cement the group in the public's consciousness and keep things going"Jack Doyle "At the Hop, 1957–58" PopHistoryDig.com, August 12, 2010, stating Sha Na Na's performance of "At the Hop" at Woodstock "helped launch their career". and helped spark a 1950s nostalgia craze that inspired similar groups (Flash Cadillac, Showaddywaddy, Big Daddy), as well as the Broadway musical Grease (and its feature film adaptation), the feature film American Graffiti and the TV show Happy Days.Woodstock – Back to the Garden: The Definitive 50th Anniversary Archive. Released August 2, 2019; Recorded: August 15–18, 1969, Rhino Entertainment, Performer Notes p. 52 describing Sha Na Na as "The bleeding edge of the 1950s rock revival".
Before 1969, the group had been singing as part of the long-standing Columbia University a cappella group called the Columbia Kingsmen. But when, based on Leonard's advice, they transformed their show and became a commercial act, they changed their name to Sha Na Na to distinguish themselves from the Pacific Northwest group also called The Kingsmen that had become famous for recording the 1963 hit "Louie Louie".
At the time when the group was being transformed from the Columbia Kingsmen into Sha Na Na, George Leonard's brother, Rob Leonard, was one of the group's bass singers and its official leader.Rock 'n Roll is Here to Stay! Kama Sutra 1969, liner notes inside the original gatefold album cover. Rob Leonard's performance at Woodstock of "Teen Angel", a teen-tragedy classic from 1959-60, was later included in the 2009 Director's Cut of the Woodstock movie.Woodstock: 40th Anniversary Edition "2009 Director's Cut".
The group's first manager, Ed Goodgold, had codified trivia as a nostalgic quiz game and conducted the nation's first trivia contests with Dan Carlinsky in 1965. The future Sha Na Na/Kingsmen were featured singers at these contests. Four years later, he co-authored "Rock 'n' Roll Trivia" just as he and the William Morris Agency began steering Sha Na Na's career.
From 1969 to 1971, the band played at, among other places, the Fillmore East and Fillmore West, opening for such bands as the Grateful Dead, the Mothers of Invention, and the Kinks.Amalie R. Rothschild, Live at the Fillmore East, 1999, Thunder's Mouth Press. When Sha Na Na began headlining at other venues, one of their opening acts was Bruce Springsteen.Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run, 2016, Simon & Schuster, p. 186Marc Dolan, Bruce Springsteen and the Promise of Rock 'N Roll, 2012, W.W. Norton & Co., pp. 84, 100 In 1972, Sha Na Na was one of just four acts invited by John Lennon and Yoko Ono to perform with them at their One-to-One benefit concert at Madison Square Garden.
Subsequently, the group appeared in the 1978 movie Grease, and, from 1977 to 1981, the group reached perhaps the height of its success with its own hit syndicated television show Sha Na Na, featuring guest musicians such as James Brown, the punk rock band the Ramones, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bo Diddley, the Ronettes, and Chubby Checker.
The original band lineup featured 12 performers: Robert A. Leonard (Rob Leonard) (bass vocals), Alan Cooper (bass vocals), Frederick "Dennis" Greene (vocals), Henry Gross (guitar), Jocko Marcellino (drums), Joe Witkin (piano), Scott Powell (also known as Captain Outrageous and Tony Santini) (vocals), Donald "Donny" York (vocals), Elliot "Gino" Cahn (rhythm guitar), Rich Joffe (vocals), Dave Garrett (vocals), and Bruce "Bruno" Clarke (electric bass). The initial act had three up-front performers in gold lamé and the other nine in "greaser" attire (rolled up T-shirt sleeves, leather jackets, tank tops). On their album The Golden Age of Rock and Roll, the lead singer taunts the audience on one of the live tracks by announcing, "We've got just one thing to say to you fuckin' hippies, and that is that rock and roll is here to stay!" The act usually ended after several encores, and closed with "Lovers Never Say Goodbye". The closing song was changed to "Goodnight Sweetheart" for the TV series. In concert, they often returned for up to seven encores, and this included when performing in Toronto, at Ontario Place and performing "Hound Dog" after announcing Elvis Presley's death earlier that same day (August 16, 1977).
East Timorese militant and state leader Xanana Gusmão reportedly took his nickname from the band.
TV series Sha Na Na hosted the Sha Na Na syndicated variety series that ran from 1977 to 1981. It was among the most watched programs in syndication during its run.The Complete Directory of Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows. 8th Edition – 2003, Ballantine Books. The show was produced by Pierre Cossette and originally distributed by LBS Communications.
The show featured the group performing hits from the 1950s and 1960s, along with comedy skits. The "tough guys" road act from their original road shows was adapted for TV and the group moved to a comedy and self-deprecating routine. The mainstay continued to be the 1950s song-and-dance routines. The show opened in a typical concert scene, and then moved through various street and ice cream parlor scenes, where their guests and they performed several songs. That was followed by a comedy-oriented song ("Alley Oop", "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh"), and closed with a slow song, again in their concert format.
Among the supporting members featured in the series were Avery Schreiber, Kenneth Mars, and Philip Roth (all of them in the first season); both Pamela Myers and actress Jane Dulo (the Crabby Lady in the Window, who watched over the street scenes from her apartment with undisguised disdain) throughout the show's run, June Gable, and Soupy Sales (seasons two to four); Michael Sklar (season two); and Karen Hartman (season four).
Guests included Jan & Dean, Fabian, Chuck Berry, Chubby Checker, The Ramones, Ethel Merman, Frank Gorshin, Dusty Springfield, Barbara Mandrell, Stephanie Mills, Billy Crystal, Kim Carnes, Danny and the Juniors, Connie Stevens, Isaac Hayes, Rita Moreno, Del Shannon, Andy Gibb, Barbi Benton, Frankie Avalon, and others.
During the TV series, the members of Sha Na Na were Jon "Bowzer" Bauman (vocals), Lennie Baker (sax/vocals), Johnny Contardo (vocals), Denny Greene (vocals), Danny "Dirty Dan" McBride (guitar/vocals) (left after third season), Jocko Marcellino (drums/vocals), Dave "Chico" Ryan (bass/vocals), Screamin' Scott Simon (piano/vocals), Scott "Santini" Powell (vocals), and Donald "Donny" York (vocals). Every member was featured with a solo vocal spot during the course of the series. Each was introduced only by his nickname or his first name in a voice-over by Myers at the beginning of each show.
Film The group appeared as itself in the documentaries Woodstock (1970) and Festival Express (2003).
Sha Na Na also appeared in the 1978 film Grease (an adaptation of the 1971 Broadway musical of the same name) as a 1950s band called Johnny Casino and the Gamblers. Their tracks on the film and Grease soundtrack include two songs from the original 1971 musical: "Those Magic Changes" and "Born to Hand Jive", and four songs from the early rock-and-roll era: versions of Elvis Presley's covers of "Hound Dog" (1956) and "Blue Moon" (1956), a cover of the Imperials' "Tears on My Pillow" (1958), and a cover of Danny & the Juniors' "Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay" (1958). The song "Sandy", sung by John Travolta in the film, was co-written specifically for the film by Sha Na Na's Screamin' Scott Simon.
Personnel In chronological order:
Donald "Donny" York (1969–2022): original vocalist John "Jocko" Marcellino (1969–2022): original drummer, vocalist Frederick "Dennis" Greene (1969–1984): original vocalist Scott "Captain Outrageous" Powell (1969–1981): original vocalist Richard "Joff" Joffe (1969–1973): original vocalist Elliot "Gino" Cahn (1969–1973): original rhythm guitarist Bruce "Bruno" C. Clarke (1969–1973): original bass guitarist Alan Cooper (1969–1970, 1971): original bass singer Henry Gross (1969–1970, 1971): original lead guitarist David Garrett (1969–1970): original vocalist Robert A. Leonard (1969–1970): original vocalist Joe Witkin (1969–1970): original pianist Screamin' Scott Simon (1970–2022): pianist, vocalist Lennie Baker (1970–1999): saxophonist and vocalist Jon Bauman, "Bowzer" (1970–1983): bass singer Larry Packer (1970): lead guitarist Grover Kemble (1970): vocalist Billy Schwartz, AKA Billy Cross (1969-1971): lead guitarist Christopher Donald (musician) Vinnie Taylor (1971–1974): lead guitarist Johnny "Kid" Contardo (1971–1983): vocalist and dancer Dave Allan Ryan, Dave "Chico" Ryan (1973–1998), replaced Bruce Clarke Elliott "Enrico Ronzoni" Randall (1974–1975): lead guitarist Danniel Hatton (musician) "Dirty Dan" Danny McBride (1975–1980): guitarist Glenn "Guitar Glenn" Jordan (1980–1986): guitarist Dora Pearson (1984–1988): original female vocalist