Frank Czuri (born September 8, 1948) is an American vocalist (tenor), entertainer, songwriter and recording artist who has been performing professionally since the age of 14. He works in all genres, and is best known as the lead singer for two popular Pittsburgh rock groups, The Silencers and Diamond Reo. Since 2013 he has been performing with legendary doo-wop group Jimmy Beaumont & The Skyliners. He also fronts a reunited lineup of the pioneering Pittsburgh rock/R&B band The Igniters, with whom he began his recording career. Czuri has performed on many LPs, CDs, and singles released worldwide. [1]
Frank Czuri was raised in the Pittsburgh, PA, suburb of Penn Hills. He was inspired to become a performer after seeing a live all-star show featuring R&B/soul greats like Frankie Lymon, Little Anthony, Bo Diddley, and Clyde McPhatter. At the age of 14 his childhood friend Bob McKeag (aka Bubs McKeg) invited him to join his popular band The Igniters as lead singer. Within a few years, Atlantic Records took notice and signed 18-year-old Frank and his bandmates to the label. As Jimmy Mack and the Music Factory, they recorded a Top 40 single, Baby, I Love You, b/w The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game - both featuring Frank on lead vocals. It's rumored that the band was the second rock act signed by the blues/R&B label—right behind The Young Rascals. Frank and his Igniters bandmates also released the Atlantic single Gonna Try b/w Goodbye Mama under the name Friends.
In 1970 Frank began a four-year stint as vocalist and keyboard player with The Jaggerz, the Pittsburgh band that had scored a Top Ten hit with The Rapper in 1969.
In 1974 he moved on to front the hard rock band Diamond Reo, whose members included guitarist Bubs McKeg, guitarist Warren King, bassist Norman Nardini, and drummer Rob Johns. Working with producer/manager Dave Shaffer and producer Tom Cossie, the band signed a contract with the Atlantic subsidiary Big Tree Records, and released a Top 40 hit cover of Marvin Gaye's Ain't That Peculiar in December 1974. They went on to release four more singles and three LPs through 1978. A British rock magazine once called Diamond Reo "the best heavy metal LP to escape from the U.S. in years." Frank's gigs with the band took him to venues far and wide - from arenas with acts like Kiss and Aerosmith, to the "upstairs room" of New York's infamous Warhol hangout, Max's Kansas City. On February 15, 1975, he appeared with Diamond Reo performing "Ain't That Peculiar" and "Movin' On" on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, season 18, episode 19. In a January 1, 1975, article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, music writer Mike Kalina named Frank the region's best rock singer and Diamond Reo the best local rock band of 1974. [2]
In 1979, Frank started producing demo tapes of original music for Tom Cossie's Precision Records, a subsidiary of CBS Records. Soon, he was talking with Warren King about forming a new band to be called The Silencers, and together they recruited Dennis Takos on keyboards, Mike Pella on bass, and Ron "Byrd" Foster on drums. Before they had played their first gig, Cossie had managed to land them a two-album record deal with Precision, based solely on the band's demo tape. Soon The Silencers would become the hottest rock band in the Pittsburgh region with their raucous covers and original material that combined rock, New Wave, R&B, soul, and reggae. Their debut LP, Rock'n'Roll Enforcers was produced by Bob Clearmountain and yielded two singles. A video of the Silencers' medley "Peter Gunn Theme/Remote Control/Illegal" aired on MTV on the day the network premiered - August 1, 1981 - and won several awards. Billboard Magazine said of Rock'n'Roll Enforcers: "The Silencers are armed with a hard hitting debut. Fronted by the aggressive vocals of Frank Czuri...the Silencers show an amazing command of rock history…This is slashing rock which goes for the jugular." [3]
The band's second album, Romanic, produced two singles. (See discography below.)
In 1985, Frank embarked on a different musical path when he joined the popular Pittsburgh R&B/doo-wop ensemble Pure Gold. During his 25-year years with the group, he appeared on the PBS American Music Series performing such classics as Sh-Boom and Long Tall Girl, and backed artists like Jerry Butler, Gene Chandler, Mel Carter, Barbara Mason, Barbara Lewis, Percy Sledge, Sam Moore, among others.
In 2003, Bob McKeag decided to stage an Igniters reunion and invited Frank to join the lineup. That year they performed the first of four sold-out reunion shows that drew a total of 3,000 loyal fans from all over the U.S. Reinvigorated, they reunited on a permanent basis in 2010, and have been playing at festivals, clubs and casinos all over the tri-state region. They disbanded in 2020.
Since 2013 Frank performed and toured with Jimmy Beaumont and the Skyliners, the group that recorded the huge 1958 hit Since I Don't Have You. The ensemble was recently awarded a 2016 Pittsburgh Rock' Roll Legends Award in the Legacy area. [4] After Jimmy’s passing in Oct 2017, Frank left. While working with Skyliners, he joined the well-established, beach music, doowop and Soul group, William Dell and WeeJams in 2016. One of five lead singers, his work includes Lonely Drifter, which receives Sirius Beach airplay.
In 2010, Frank was awarded the Penn Hills Arts, Music, and Entertainment (PHAME) award in recognition of his lifelong work.
In 2014, he retired from a 20-year career in the field of alternative education.
Title | Group | Label | Year |
---|---|---|---|
Come Again | Jaggerz | Wooden Nickel | 1975 [5] |
Diamond Reo | Diamond Reo | Big Tree Records | 1975 |
Dirty Diamonds | Diamond Reo | Kama Sutra Records | 1976 [6] [7] |
Ruff Cuts | Diamond Reo | Mad Dog | 1978 |
Rock and Roll Enforcers | Silencers | Precision/CBS | 1980 |
Romanic | Silencers | Precision/CBS | 1982 |
Collage | Pure Gold | Green Dolphin | 1998 |
A Capella Christmas | Pure Gold | Collectibles | 2001 |
The A Capella Album | Pure Gold | Collectibles | 2004 |
Forever | Pure Gold | Collectibles | 2005 |
24 Carat Dreams | Pure Gold | Green Dolphin | 2007 |
Merry Christmas | Pure Gold | Green Dolphin | 2007 [8] |
Igniters Reunion | The Igniters | 2003 | |
Just One More Time | DT and Some Shakers | DNT Records | 2011 |
Title | Group | Label | Billboard Top 100 placing |
---|---|---|---|
Baby I Love You / The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game | Jimmy Mack and the Music Factory | Atlantic | |
Gonna Try / So Long Mama | Friends | Atlantic | |
Let's Talk About Love / I'll Never Forget You | Jaggerz | Kama Sutra | |
Ain't That Sad/ Let's talk About Love | Jaggerz | Kama Sutra | |
The Streaker, parts 1 and 2 | Jaggerz | Jaggerz Records | |
I Can't Make It Without You / A Certain Girl | Jaggerz | Jaggerz Records | |
Don't It Make You Wanna Dance / 2 + 2 | Jaggerz | Wooden Nickel/RCA | |
Ain't that Peculiar / From Here to Infinity | Diamond Reo | Big Tree Records | 44 |
Rock and Roll Til I Die / I Ain't Buyin' | Diamond Reo | Big Tree Records | |
Work Hard Labour / Sittin' On Top of the Blues | Diamond Reo | Big Tree Records | |
Lover Boy / Boys Will Be Boys [9] | Diamond Reo | Buddah Records | |
Mad Dog | Diamond Reo | Buddah Records | |
Shiver and Shake / Illegal | The Silencers | Precision/CBS | 89 |
Modern Love / Remote Control | The Silencers | Precision/CBS | |
Sidewalk Romeo / One of Those Girls | The Silencers | Precision/CBS | |
Romanic / Cry Tough | The Silencers | Precision/CBS | |
Please Chase My Christmas Blues/I'm Your Santa Claus Baby | Pure Gold | Green Dolphin |
REO Speedwagon, or simply REO, is an American rock band from Champaign, Illinois. Formed in 1967, the band cultivated a following during the 1970s and achieved significant commercial success throughout the 1980s. Their best-selling album, Hi Infidelity (1980), contained four US Top 40 hits and sold more than 10 million copies.
Doo-wop is a subgenre of rhythm and blues music that originated in African-American communities during the 1940s, mainly in the large cities of the United States, including New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Detroit, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. It features vocal group harmony that carries an engaging melodic line to a simple beat with little or no instrumentation. Lyrics are simple, usually about love, sung by a lead vocal over background vocals, and often featuring, in the bridge, a melodramatically heartfelt recitative addressed to the beloved. Harmonic singing of nonsense syllables is a common characteristic of these songs. Gaining popularity in the 1950s, doo-wop was "artistically and commercially viable" until the early 1960s and continued to influence performers in other genres.
The Music of Pennsylvania dates from the pre-colonial-era through the 21st century, and Pennsylvania has been the birthplace for some of the most prominent musicians of their respective eras and the introduction of entire new genres of music to the nation and world.
The Skyliners are an American doo-wop group from Pittsburgh. The original lineup was: Jimmy Beaumont (lead), Janet Vogel (soprano), Wally Lester (tenor), Jackie Taylor, Joe Verscharen (baritone). The Skyliners were best known for their 1959 hit, "Since I Don't Have You".
Cruising with Ruben & the Jets is the fourth album by the Mothers of Invention, and fifth overall by Frank Zappa, released under the alias Ruben and the Jets. Released on December 2, 1968 on Bizarre and Verve Records with distribution by MGM Records, it is a concept album, influenced by 1950s doo-wop and rock and roll. The album's concept deals with a fictitious Chicano doo-wop band called Ruben & the Jets, represented by the cover illustration by Cal Schenkel, which depicts the Mothers of Invention as anthropomorphic dogs. It was conceived as part of a project called No Commercial Potential, which produced three other albums: Lumpy Gravy, We're Only in It for the Money and Uncle Meat.
Danny & the Juniors was an American doo-wop and rock and roll vocal group formed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Originally consisting of Danny Rapp, Dave White, Frank Maffei and Joe Terranova, the group was formed in 1955. They are best known for their 1957 no. 1 hit "At the Hop" and their 1958 follow-up hit "Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay".
"That Thing You Do" is the titular song appearing in the 1996 film of the same name. Written by Adam Schlesinger, the song is performed by the fictional 1960s band The Wonders, who are the focus of the film. The song peaked at No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 1997.
The Del-Vikings were an American doo-wop musical group that recorded several hit singles in the 1950s and continued to record and tour with various lineups in later decades. The group is notable for the hit songs "Come Go with Me" and "Whispering Bells", and for having been a successful racially mixed musical group during a period of time when such groups were rare.
Donnie Iris is an American rock musician known for his work with the Jaggerz and Wild Cherry during the 1970s, and for his solo career beginning in the 1980s with his band, the Cruisers. He wrote the #2 Billboard hit, "The Rapper", with the Jaggerz in 1970 and was a member of Wild Cherry after the group had a #1 hit with "Play That Funky Music." He also achieved fame as a solo artist in the early 1980s with the #29 hit "Ah! Leah!" and the #37 hit "Love Is Like a Rock."
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Daddy Cool is an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1970 with the original line-up of Wayne Duncan, Ross Hannaford, Ross Wilson and Gary Young. Their debut single "Eagle Rock" was released in May 1971 and stayed at number 1 on the Australian singles chart for ten weeks. Their debut, July 1971's LP Daddy Who? Daddy Cool, also reached number 1 and became the first Australian album to sell more than 100,000 copies. The group's name came from the 1957 song "Daddy Cool" by US rock group The Rays. Daddy Cool included their version of this song on Daddy Who? Daddy Cool.
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