Bobby Rydell (born Robert Louis Ridarelli) was born in 1942 in Philadelphia, PA.
In 1950 he competed on an amateur talent show and came in first place, which won him a permanent place on the show. He stayed with the show for 3 years and changed his name to Bobby Rydell.
In 1959 he recorded "Kissin' Time" which launched his career and made him a teen idol at age 17.
Some of his other songs were "We Got Love", "Wild One" and "Swingin' School".
His biggest hit was "Volare".
Bobby still performs today.
Brian Hyland was born in Queens, NY in 1943.
He studied guitar and clarinet when he was a child and sang in his church choir.
His first single "Rosemary" came out in 1959.
He had songs like "Sealed With A Kiss".
His biggest hit was recorded when he was 16 in 1960. It was "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini".
Hyland continues to tour internationally with his son Bodi, who assists on drums from time to time.
John Royce Mathis was born in Texas in 1935. He was the 4th of 7 children.
When he was a small boy, his family moved to San Francisco where Johnny learned an appreciation for music.
At age 13, he began to take voice lessons.
In 1955, Johnny began singing in clubs on the weekends.
In 1956, he recorded his first record. He also started working with Mitch Miller and recorded "Wonderful Wonderful" and "It's Not For Me To Say".
From then on, Johnny's career took off and he is still going strong today.
He's had many songs including "Misty", "The Twelfth of Never" and "Chances Are".
Jerry Butler was born in Mississippi in 1939.
He was the original lead singer of the "Impressions".
Jerry started out singing in church.
Today, Jerry serves as a Commissioner in Cook County, IL where he is a member of this 17-member county board, he chairs the Health and Hospitals Committee, and serves as Vice Chair of the Construction Committee.
He can also sometimes be seen on PBS when they have their "Doo Wop" revivals.
Jerry is know for songs like "For Your Precious Love" and "He Will Break Your Heart".
Connie Francis (Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero) was born in New Jersey in 1938.
She had attended Newark Arts High School for awhile before her family moved to another town. After high school, she continued to perform at various functions.
Her first record "Freddy" was recorded in 1955 and was a flop.
She met Bobby Darin and his manager, who took her under their wing and helped promote her. Connie and Bobby had a romantic relationship until her father ran Bobby away at gunpoint.
In 1958, she recorded "Who's Sorry Now" and appeared on "American Bandstand". She became one of the biggest selling female singers of the time.
She also appeared in several movies but never really made it as an actress.
In later years, Connie had financial and business problems leading to several lawsuits.
Today she still sings all over the world to the delight of her fans.
Some of Connie's other songs were "Lipstick On Your Collar", "Breaking In A Brand New Broken Heart", "Don't Break The Heart That Loves You", "Stupid Cupid" and my favorite "Where The Boys Are".
Eugene Francis Alan Pitney was born in Connecticut in 1940.
Gene started singing at a young age.
He and some high school friends put a band together.
He had a record contract in 1957 and 1958, but never really got anywhere until 1961.
He recorded several songs..."Only Love Can Break A Heart", "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"...but his biggest hit was "Town Without Pity".
Gene passed away in 2006 at the age of 66 from heart disease while on tour in the UK.
Ritchie Valens (Ricardo Esteban Valenzuela Reyes) was born in Pacoima, CA in 1941.
(Ben and I lived in Pacoima for 11 years before we moved to where we live now)
Ritchie started singing at age 5. He played the trumpet and the drums and a neighbor helped him restring an old guitar and taught Ritchie how to play it.
He played at family parties and other small functions.
In 1958, he was playing at a matinee movie theater when he was discovered and signed to a recording contract.
His most famous record was "La Bamba" and he also had a hit song called "Donna", which he wrote for his girlfriend.
In 1959, Ritchie was killed in a plane crash with Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper.
Del Shannon was born in Grand Rapids, MI in 1934.
He worked during the day as a truck driver and moonlighted in a night club until he hit it big with the song "Runaway" in 1961.
In the 1970's, Del's career began to slow down due to alcoholism.
In 1990, Del committed suicide with a .22 caliber rifle at his home in Santa Clarita, CA which is the city I live in. I just now found out from researching the Internet that this is where he died.
It was 70 degrees already when I got up this morning at 6:00 a.m. It is now a little after 10:30 a.m. and it is 87 degrees and humid. As I've said before, here in SoCal, we usually do not get much humidity. As far back as I can remember, our summers have been hot and dry, but each year, we seem to be getting more and more humid during the summer. I took some photos of the sunrise this morning from my front porch and the very last photo was taken from Discovery Park while I was out for my morning walk.
Veronica (Ronnie) Bennett Spector (born 1943), her sister Estelle Bennett born (1941) and their cousin Nedra Talley (born 1946) were The Ronettes.
They began to sing together in Manhattan, NY.
Their grandmother entered them in a talent show contest at the Apollo Theater in 1959, which they won.
They had many hits during their career with the biggest being "Be My Baby".
Ronnie married Phil Spector the record producer.
Estelle passed away in 2009.
Ronnie is still in the business.
William Jan Berry born in 1941 and Dean Ormsby Torrence born in 1940 became Jan & Dean from the late 1950's into the mid-1960's.
They were both born in Los Angeles, CA and met in high school while playing football.
Their biggest hits were "Surf City", "Deadman's Curve" and "The Little Old Lady From Pasadena".
In 1966, Jan Berry was almost killed in a car crash at the real "Deadman's Curve" in Los Angeles. He received severe head injuries and was never the same. He died in 2004 at the age of 62.
Dean Torrence still travels around the country singing his "surf songs".
When I got up this morning at 6:15 A.M. it was 62 degrees. Weatherman says it's going to be 102 degrees here in Canyon Country, CA. I got out early for my walk. Only did 1 mile this morning because I had to get back and clean the small bathroom. After breakfast, I went outside and put some bird seed out for my little feathered friends and filled the hummingbird feeder. It is now a little after 10:00 A.M. and it is already 80 degrees.
We just got back from the "proverbial Sunday Drive". It's very hot out there. Right now as I look at our indoor/outdoor thermometer on the living room wall, it shows that it is 97 degrees out on the patio.
I took a couple of photos over near Vasquez Rocks County Park in Agua Dulce, CA while on our drive.
Kathy Young born in Santa Ana, CA in 1945
At the age of 15 in 1960, she recorded "A Thousand Stars" with a group called the Innocents
In 1971, she moved to Central California where she lived for 20 years and worked on her family's citrus ranch.
In 1994, she moved back to the Los Angeles area where she still lives. She works for a major international company but still sings in her spare time. She travels around the country doing "oldies shows".
I was sitting on the sofa with my laptop listening to "Music Choice" on our cable television and got an idea. I think I'll start posting "Do You Remember" blogs here on Kay's Way. I'll try to add an old photo and a new photo of the person also a little info about them. Hopefully I'll get some good comments.
Here's the first one.....
Remember JAMES DARREN?
Born James William Ercolani in Philladelphia, PA in 1936
Played "Moon Doggie" in the old Gidget movies
As a singer his biggest hit was "Goodbye Cruel World"
Played "Officer James Corrigan" on the television show "T.J. Hooker"
Well today is Friday the 13th. Lucky or unlucky? I've always seemed to find it "lucky". Years ago when Ben and I used to go to Las Vegas we always went up on the weekend that had a Friday the 13th. We always seemed to win on those trips. We also stayed in a motel on Fremont Street that had the address of 1313 Fremont and we stayed in Room 13....yes, they actually had a room 13.
Last week I had a sore throat for 2 days. Thought I was coming down with something, but then the sore throat went away and now I have runny eyes, runny nose, I keep sneezing and my voice is hoarse. I'm thinking now that I either have a sinus infection or some kind of allergy. Went out for a 1 mile walk this morning. Ran into a neighbor lady whom I am not very acquainted with, but we've waved and spoken a few times. She also walks so we started discussing getting together for our walks. She said she had asked several people in our community to walk with her and they all turned her down. I told her she never asked me. It is so much better when you have someone to walk with. You get to talking and then the walk goes by much faster and you are not as bored. I told her that I like to walk in other areas too and she said that would be fun. So now we will have to get together to do those walks.
Been busy all morning and I've finally gotten a chance to sit down and get on my laptop this afternoon.
After Ben left for work this morning, I drove over to the little parking lot behind our CVS Drug Store that serves as the "Trail Head" for the Soledad walking/bike trail. It runs along the main branch of the dry Santa Clara Riverbed I then walked east to Sierra Highway and back which was a 2 mile walk.
Took a couple of photos of the area. I was also surprised to see that there were still some wildflowers blooming in the riverbed.
When I came home, I flushed out our hot water heater. We usually do this once a year in the spring, but didn't get it done this year because that's the time Ben was in the hospital and we just didn't get around to it, so I thought I'd better get that done today.
While the water heater was draining, I trimmed some bushes and sprayed some weeds.
Came in and vacuumed the carpet, which I try to do at least once a week.
Finally got to sit down, have some lunch and watch The Young & The Restless.
I'm sitting out on my patio...it's 65 degrees and I just got back from my morning walk. I decided to try a different walking/bike trail here in our valley this morning as I get so bored walking the same areas all the time.
There are walking/bike trails all over our valley. In fact, they claim that they are all connected and that if you really wanted to, you could walk from one end of the valley to the other on these trails.
Anyway, I drove over to Valencia Heritage Park on Newhall Ranch Road where I left my car in the parking lot and walked over to the trail that runs along one of the forks of the dry riverbed. Since I had never walked this trail before, I had to decide if I wanted to head to my right or to my left. Today I went to my left.
The trail winds down behind some houses that butt up to the dry riverbed. It passes under a couple of roads and dead ends at McBean Parkway just under a mile from where I started.
I love looking into peoples yards to see how the decorate their patios or what flowers/bushes they have planted.
Anyway, once the trail came to a dead-end, I turned around and headed back to the park and my car. Did 1.8 miles today.
I used to really hate it when summer came. It meant that there was nothing but re-runs of my favorite television shows to watch at night. I have my "normal" favorites during the regular season....
"C.S.I. - Miami"
"C.S.I. - Las Vegas"
"Ghost Whisperer"
"Desperate Housewives"
These shows are all on major networks. I used to just go ahead and watch the re-runs.
This year I have discovered "other networks". It's amazing how many good shows are on channels other than the ones we have been so used to watching.
The History Channel has some pretty good shows. I love watching "Pawn Stars" and "American Pickers".
On Tru-TV I enjoy watching "World's Dumbest".
TNT (Turner Network Television) has two of my new very favorite shows....
"Rizzoli and Isles" and "Hawthorne". If you have not checked out these two shows, you might want to give them a try.
It is a very warm day here today...in the mid-90's but the sky is so pretty that I just had to get in the car and head over to Todd Longshore Park and take some photos of the valley that we live in here in SoCal. Click on the photos to enlarge them.
