In the Broadway play and movie "Bye Bye Birdie", the character Conrad Birdie was based on a real singer.
The Kinks lived up to their name. All were gay, except their creator and leader Ray Davies. His younger brother, Dave Davies was the lead guitar player, who was not really good enough to be in this band. In the studio, recordings were often made with 16 year-old super musician Jimmy Page on lead guitar, including this hit.
Jimmy Page was a musical phenom. He was the studio guitarist as a teenager and was simply better than many of the "stars" who recorded there. The person who chose Jimmy to do the recording was Ray Davies: brother of Dave Davies. This was not uncommon. Paul McCartney would often record his own drum work after Ringo left the studio at night, and it's mostly his drumming you hear on Beatles songs. A similar situation existed on the Rolling Stones, where Keith Richards would record his own bass work to replace Bill Wyman's efforts. By Wyman's own admission, it's Keith Richards bass playing that you hear on Jumpin Jack Flash, not his.
Interview with Jimmy Page. At age 14 (1963) he was already a legendary studio musician in England. He had begun his career at age 12.
At one brief moment, the Yardbirds had Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page in the group all at the same time...
Tons of great info from Professor O'Connor of the College of Musical Knowledge. Thought I knew a lot about these performers... turns out I didn't. A few tidbits. One of my best accounts is the City of Hoboken. The Police Department also houses a ton of Frank Sinatra memorabilia including a an arrest report from a teenage indiscretion and lots of priceless photos. You do NOT speak ill of the Chairman of the Board within the one square mile confines of that city. It also houses a great crime memorabilia collection including Legs diamond's tommy gun and lots of Dutch Schultz stuff among others. My wife and I saw the reconstituted Angels last year in an oldies show at the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, NJ. As the Professor no doubt knows, Basie and Sinatra collaborated on some top shelf renditions. Kinky Friedman was a frequent guest on the Imus in the Morning show here in the greater New York area. He was a fabulous storyteller. Another great guest on Imus show was Dwight Yoakum who always had tons of great stories and would paly as well. He is one of my favorites: <iframe width="640" height="480" src="Dwight Yoakam - "Little Sister" [Live from Austin, TX] - YouTube" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Paul Anka was a full-blooded Indian from Canada who grew up in the Syrian Orthodox church. Writing his own songs from age 13, he traveled to America and became a huge star. More than that, he became maybe the most prolific song-writer of all-time. His resume of songs includes hits that he's written for Michael Jackson, Tom Jones and others right up to the present time with artists that I've never heard of. Here he is before he had plastic surgery on his nose.