Music and Dances of the 50's

Rock and Roll started in the 1950’s and I remember all of the songs started then and in the early 1960’s. It was so different from the music of today. There were so many wonderful songs created by artists that have since passed on and some amazingly still here. When Rock and Roll first started, everyone said it wouldn’t last. Of course they were wrong. Dead Wrong! There were the dances too…the Lindy Hop, the Bop, the Stroll, the Pony, the Bunny Hop, and then came the Mashed Potato and the Twist.

It really was a blend of different types of music. Songs made by Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Bill Haley and the Comets, Elvis Presley, and Jerry Lee Lewis was considered crazy and were typecast as provocative Rock and Roll. Then you had the more mellow music by Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Perry Como, Doris Day and Pat Boone. I remember a catchy tune by The Four Lads particularly because my Uncle Jerry used to love it. He would stand on the corner of 113th Street and First Avenue whistling “Standing On The Corner” … watching all the girls go by. He was a tremendous flirt. He loved the ladies and he loved them with “meat on their bones.” Not fat, but not skinny either.

The singing groups were really great. Who can ever forget The Platters “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes,” The Earls “I Believe, ” The Penquins, “Earth Angel, ” The Five Satins with the classic “In the Still of the Night,” The Flamingos “I Only Have Eyes For You,” Let’s not forget the local boys Dion and The Belmonts from Arthur and Belmont Avenues. This was considered Pop or Doo Wop music. There were so many classics. It would take most of the day to list them all. I loved all these songs and many more. These are classics still played and listened to today. I never get tired of hearing them.

There was a period when I would get home from P.S. 159 Junior High School in the afternoons and immediately turned on the television to watch American Bandstand hosted by Dick Clark. I can still remember a few of the names of the couples and singles that danced on the show…there was Bob and Justine, Bunny and Don, and don’t forget Pat Molitierri just to name a few. This is a photo of the regulars doing the Stroll. They would dance the Lindy Hop most of the time. That’s where a lot of the up and coming groups got their start…Danny and the Juniors, Fabian, Bobby Rydell, Frankie Avalon, and many others.

We would also go to the Center in Jefferson Park. The pool was on one side and the Center on the other. We would hang out there play ping-pong, dance the Stroll, and some of the kids even had singing groups. I remember the guys had Clem, Butch, Eddie and Pete who would sing “Little Darlin'”, “Come Go With Me” and quite a few more popular songs during that era. They even appeared at an Amateur Show in Queens called The Sunnyside Garden Arena. Marion was their lead singer at this event. I remember a bunch of us traveling to Astoria. Can’t exactly remember how we got there though! They were pretty good too. It’s pretty hard singing Acapella, especially with a group. They would sing in Jefferson Park, behind Benjamin Franklin High School and sometimes practice at the Jefferson Center. The ladies also had a group for a little while…there was Marion Capazolli, Joanie MacIntire, Lorraine and myself. We didn’t do it for very long, but we had fun while it lasted.