“But we still wore navy blue (blazer) jackets, ties and grey flannel pants.”Īfter a pause, Cahn said, “We had someone (George Leonard) in the group who was obsessed with pop culture and trivia - and he put on the first All-Ivy Trivia Contest, at which Sha Na Na performed The Diamonds’ “Little Darlin’,” a 1957 doo-wop classicĪt that point, Sha Na Na’s cover of “Little Darlin’” then was played over The AshevilleGuitar Bar’s sound system.Ĭahn reiterated that, standing in a semi-circle, “we did this (song), wearing navy blue (blazer) jackets, ties and grey flannel pants.”Īccording to an essay, “Sha Na Na and the Woodstock Generation,” it was during the group’s performance at the trivia contest that “when Rob Leonard did the spoken solo (of “Little Darlin’” when the audience reaction was so intense that George Leonard (already studying choreography) had his vision of a group that would sing only ‘50s rock and perform dances like the Busby Berkely films Susan Sontag had taught George to love.” “I took over the musical direction of this group when I was a sophomore. The group performed about three times a year, he said, recalling that it once performed for the the “psych ward” at a local hospital, where, he noted that, in an ironic twist, the group “sang Little Anthony and the Imperials’ ‘Goin’ Out of My Head,” a 1965 hit that was a major leap from the Columbia Kingsmen’s usual repertoire - but was well-received by both the staff and the mental patients. The formal program began with Cahn noting that, while attending Columbia University, he joined what is billed as the school’s “oldest and finest” all-male a cappella group “since 1948,” the Columbia Kingsmen, where, in Ivy League style, he said with a laugh, “it was blazers with repp ties (classic, diagonally striped silk ties) and grey flannels (trousers).” What’s more, he admitted a deep love for doo wop music.) He said he also had deeply experienced listening and singing to jukebox music in diners and elsewhere. (In a brief interview after the program, Cahn told the Daily Planet that he grew up singing doo-wop music with groups in New York City, including outside under the streetlamps at night, as welll as singing in any other locales available. “Book of Love” - a song originally recorded in 1958 by The Monotones that reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart in 1960, despite the reported initial reluctance of some disc jockeys to play it because of its morbid subject m atter - a teenager’s car stalls on the railroad tracks.
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