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- Actor
- Soundtrack
Cirino Colocrai was born in Brooklyn and was a accomplished child musician, playing multiple instruments. He and Teddy Randazzo were boyhood friends, and in the early 1950s wrote several hit songs together, including "Rosemarie." Cirino's compositions "Runaround" and "Foolishly" were both recorded by Randazzo's group, the Three Chuckles. Cirino organized a group called "Cirino and the Bowties" to experiment and demonstrate, and record Cirino's songs. The group recorded rock and roll and teenage-themed uptempo love ballads for Roost Records during the mid-1950s, their first records being "Anytime" and "Rosemarie," which sold moderately, and were a rocking lounge act. Rock and roll disc jockey and promoter Alan Freed picked them as one of the most promising groups of 1956, and heavily promoted the band that year, putting them on the crowded bills of his lengendary rock and roll shows at the Brooklyn Paramount and Fox Theaters, and also featured the group in a starring musical role in his teen drive-in rock and roll exploitation quickie "Rock, Rock, Rock," in which they sang "Ever Since I Can Remember" and also backed up Ivy Schulman on "Rock, Pretty Baby." In the late 1950s, the Bowties seemed to slowly break up, as they lost their contract to Roost, and Cirino followed other, more songwriting-type, projects. Cirino's songs were featured in the movies "Jamboree" and "Country Music Holiday" during the late-'50s, such as "Toreador," "I Don't Like You No More," and "Goodbye My Darlin'." During the 1960s, Cirino continued to write more pop songs, some of them moderate hits, but now is in obscurity if he is alive, and even I don't know where the heck he is or what the heck he's doing now. Probably retired and living happily in a nice house with some longtime wife, and they had great, wonderful children, I'd like to think.- Music Department
- Actor
- Writer
Composer, conductor, arranger, songwriter and publisher. In World War II, he composed and arranged for US Navy bands, later arranging for dance orchestras. He led his own trio on radio and television, and became a publisher, joining ASCAP in 1955. His chief musical collaborators included Kal Mann, Bernie Lowe, and Max Freedman.- Jimmy Cavallo was born in Syracuse, New York in 1927 and during high school played alto sax in a swing band, and then formed his own band, playing tenor sax and singing. During his time in the Navy during World War II, he often hung around clubs with his saxophone, and jammed with a lot of the performers. Jimmy returned home to Syracuse and also played on the Carolina beaches with his band the Jimmy Cavallo Quartet during 1948 and 1949, and played at clubs in Syracuse like DiCastros and Sorrentos (owned by his uncle) from 1950-53. In 1951, Jimmy and his group made a recording for the local BSD label called "Rock the Joint" with "Leave Married Women Alone." This may be the dawn of rock 'n' roll music, and these two recordings, with brass and saxophone solos complete with Howlin' Wolfman Jack-imitating yells by the band, are certainly rhythm and blues classics, now available in England and even Russia. Jimmy also recorded his signature song, "Fanny Brown." In 1954, after his group broke up in Detroit, Jimmy was appointed by his "so-called manager" as leader of saxophonist Joe Marillo's already-active band, and they were named "Jimmy Cavallo and the Houserockers." In 1956, they were heavily promoted by Alan Freed after an audition at the radio station where Freed had a show, WINS, in New York, appearing at Freed's legendary rock 'n' roll shows at the Brooklyn Paramount and Fox Theatres, as Freed signed the group to the Coral label for which they began recording a long string of singles, and also Jimmy and the Houserockers appeared in Freed's 1956 film "Rock, Rock, Rock," performing their Coral records "Rock, Rock, Rock" (the title song) and "The Big Beat." The white group also appeared with all-black artists at the Apollo Theatre in New York to promote the movie's release, making them the first white rock 'n' roll act to play the Apollo, even before Buddy Holly. In 1957, the group played in Wildwood, New Jersey and then played in Las Vegas and during 1959-63 recorded for lables such as Darcy, Sunnyside, and Romar, songs such as "Fanny Brown" and "Early In the Morning," and soon disbanded. Jimmy now lives in Florida but comes back to Syracuse every year to play a gig or two, and has finally played his first gig in England. In 2001 and 2002 he put out two CDs, a live album and "The Houserocker!" on which he is backed by Ron Spencer and Jumpstart.