1 Rock, Rhythm and Doo Wop Once-in-a-lifetime reunion of music legends. Performers include Frankie Valli, Little Richard, Little Anthony & The Imperials, Fred Parris & The Five Satins, Lou Christie, Lenny Welch and many more! A simple song has the ability to transport any one of us back in time – and the lyrical and electric sounds of Rock, Rhythm and Doo Wop do it better than almost any other genres! It evokes images of slow-dancing with your steady in the still of the night . crying to your “ex” that he don’t love you like I love you . or dreaming of happily-ever-after since I fell for you. WQED Pittsburgh and Rhino Entertainment, the world’s leading pop culture label, team up to present a musical event that is as close to time-travel as television allows! Rock, Rhythm and Doo Wop was taped at the Benedum Center in Pittsburgh – the Oldies Capital of the World – reuniting the original legends of Rock-n-Roll for a once-in-a- lifetime performance. Hosted by legendaries Frankie Valli, Jerry Butler (The Iceman), and Lloyd Price , the program also boasts a surprise appearance by Little Richard , who burns up the stage with an exhilarating performance of Keep A-Knockin’. “You’re never going to see a line-up like this again,” says T.J. Lubinsky, the program’s producer and mastermind. Lubinsky is a Doo Wop aficionado – which is not so unusual if you consider the fact that he’s the grandson of Savoy Records founder Herman Lubinsky. “These are the original performers, singing their biggest hits. This is as close as you can get to one of the great Alan Freed rock and roll shows.” It was both a professional and personal mission for die-hard fan Lubinsky to reunite the original superstars of “oldies” music, and he launched a worldwide search to find the performers – many of whom had dropped out of the music scene years before. In many cases, they hadn’t seen or even spoken to each other in decades. Some had fallen on hard times; others thought they’d retired from music permanently. Yet Lubinsky managed to soothe ruffled feathers, entice singers from retirement, and orchestrate one of the most exciting coups in concert history. On the bill for Rock, Rhythm and Doo Wop is Fred Parris, who comes out of retirement after a decade to join The Five Satins in a performance of In the Still of the Night, the number one oldies single of all time! Hal Miller joins The Rays after 40 years of retirement to sing Silhouettes ; and Kathy Young is reunited with The Innocents to sing A Thousand Stars for the first time since they recorded the hit when Young was just fourteen years old! 2 Ed Townsend , who wrote and produced Marvin Gaye’s R&B classic Let’s Get It On , performs his 1958 hit For Your Love ; and hometown Pittsburgh boy Lou Christie displays his classic trademark falsetto in Lightning Strikes . The line-up also includes superstars Little Anthony & The Imperials singing their hits Tears On My Pillow, Going Out of My Head, Hurt so Bad, and Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Bop; and, in a touching return to the stage after battling throat cancer last year, Larry Chance reunites with The Earls to sing I Believe and Remember Then . Rock, Rhythm and Doo Wop’s predecessors, Doo Wop 50 and Doo Wop 51 , were co- produced by WQED Pittsburgh and Rhino Entertainment and raised over $30 million in pledges for PBS, shattering all previous fundraising records for the network, including those set by The Three Tenors. That same production collaboration is responsible for Rock, Rhythm and Doo Wop. Henry DeLuca, Associate Producer for Rock, Rhythm and Doo Wop and Lubinsky’s second lieutenant for all three Doo Wop programs, says the overwhelming response from viewers is a testimony to the enduring popularity of the genre. “Nothing transports people back to a good time like music does,” DeLuca claims. A Pittsburgher and avid oldies fan who has been staging and producing concerts for many years, DeLuca notes that the atmosphere was electric during the taping of Rock, Rhythm and Doo Wop. “The audience was so responsive. They were cheering, there were constant standing ovations. It was really gratifying to be there and be a part of it.” “We’re preserving a personal time capsule of memories,” says Lubinsky. “This show gives the performers the credit, honor and respect they deserve. And for the audience, well. It’s as close as they’re ever going to get to that piece of their past, to what they experienced in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s.” WQED Pittsburgh, honored with the 2007 and 2006 Mid-Atlantic Emmy® Award for Station Excellence, was founded in 1954 as the nation’s first community-supported broadcaster. WQED creates, produces and distributes quality programs, products and services to engage, inform, educate and entertain the public within its community and around the world. WQED Pittsburgh is one of the first broadcasters in the country to be fully high-definition (HD) in its studio and field production capabilities. It is the parent company of WQED-TV (PBS); WQED: The Neighborhood Channel; WQED: The Create Channel; WQEX-TV (A ShopNBC affiliate); WQED-FM 89.3/Pittsburgh; WQEJ- FM 89.7/Johnstown; a publishing division that includes P ITTSBURGH MAGAZINE ; local and national television and radio productions; WQED Interactive ( www.wqed.org); and The WQED Education Department. 3 BACKGROUND ON DOO-WOP PHENOMENON Throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s, the sound of street-corner harmonizing blossomed into one of the most memorable eras in American music. Dubbed Doo Wop (so-named because background singers frequently sang nonsense words for added rhythm), this musical genre provided the roots for our country’s rock and roll revolution and gained a devoted following that’s endured for decades. Soulful and stimulating, lyrical and electrifying, Doo Wop music is the soundtrack for an entire generation of Americans. The list of crooners who became musical legends goes on and on: Frankie Valli . Little Anthony & the Imperials . The Duprees. Lloyd Price . Lou Christie . The Chiffons . The Coasters. Kathy Young with the Innocents. Hal Miller & the Rays. These artists and many more contributed to the rich tradition of American rock, rhythm, and blues, and even though most of the groups disbanded when the genre gave way to new musical trends in the late 1960’s, die-hard fans continued to celebrate the spirit of Doo Wop. Now, more than half a century after its birth, an Oldies revival is sweeping the nation! And it’s due, in large part, to one man who turned his personal passion for Doo Wop into a national phenomenon. T.J. Lubinsky just happens to be the grandson of Herman Lubinsky, creator and founder of the early rhythm and blues label Savoy Records. Driven by family pride and a soul- deep love for the genre, T. J. Lubinsky masterminded Doo Wop 50: Celebrating Five Decades of Street Corner Harmony . Instead of relying on tribute bands or relic recordings, Lubinsky launched a worldwide effort to locate and reunite the original superstars of Doo Wop. In many cases, performers hadn’t seen or even spoken to each other in decades. Some had fallen on hard times; others thought they’d retired from music permanently. Yet Lubinsky managed to soothe ruffled feathers, entice singers from retirement, and orchestrate one of the most exciting coups in concert history: A once-in-a-lifetime performance featuring Doo Wop’s original legends. Artists including The Chantels, The Marcels, and The Del Vikings took the stage for Doo Wop 50 , which aired nationally on PBS in December, 1999 – and immediately captured the attention of the network by attracting new audiences as well as loyal old fans! Ultimately, Doo Wop 50 raised over $22 million for PBS stations, surpassing The Three Tenor to become the highest grossing fund-raiser in PBS history. The following year, WQED Pittsburgh partnered with the world’s leading pop culture label Rhino Records, and Lubinsky recreated his magic for Doo Wop 51 , another critical and financial triumph for PBS, raising over $8 million. Rock, Rhythm and Doo Wop , taped at Pittsburgh’s Benedum Center, is hosted by Frankie Valli, Jerry Butler (The Iceman), and Lloyd Price. Fred Parris of the Five Satins comes out of retirement for the first time in a decade to join the group for In the Still of the 4 Night , the #1 oldies single of all time! The Duprees reunite with original member Mike Arnone; and Larry Chance of The Earls ( Life is But a Dream, Never, I Believe , and the classic Remember Then ) returns to the stage after recovering from throat cancer discovered late last year. Like the music itself, the programs that started as Doo Wop have evolved to include Rock and Rhythm as well as America rediscovers and revels in the past, present, and unexpected new future of Oldies music. 5 GROUPS: Bios and Special Points LITTLE RICHARD Born Richard Wayne Penniman in Macon, Georgia, “Little Richard” merged gospel with New Orleans R&B to create a fiery sound that earned him status as one of the true rock- and-roll greats. Signed by Specialty Records in 1955, Little Richard turned a provocative ditty into his first smash hit, Tutti Frutti . For Rock, Rhythm and Doo Wop, Little Richard treats fans to a sizzling rendition of Good Golly Miss Molly. KATHY YOUNG with THE INNOCENTS Formed in Sun Valley, California in 1958, this group’s major contributor is Kathy Young.