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Johnny Contardo (born December 23, 1951) is a former singer with the musical group Sha Na Na, which he left in 1983. In 1978, he appeared with Sha Na Na in the movie musical Grease as Johnny Casino and the Gamblers. His performance of the song "Those Magic Changes" was featured in the film and on the soundtrack for Grease .
Johnny Contardo was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. His first singing experience was at the age of six, in a Boston church choir.[ citation needed ]
His mother took him into night clubs when he was a teen to perform for audiences. She discovered that he had stage presence and personality in addition to his singing talent.[ citation needed ]
After graduating from Brookline High School in 1969, Johnny attended the Boston Conservatory of Music, studying voice, acting, and dance. [1]
At age 19, Johnny took a minor role in a Boston production of the musical Hair . After six months, he played the lead role. He then received an offer to be understudy for the lead role on Broadway, and an offer to join Sha Na Na.[ citation needed ]
Johnny joined Sha Na Na in 1971. The television show Sha Na Na , aired from 1977 to 1981. [2]
The show was primarily made up of 1950s song covers, and featured musical and non-musical guests and comedy sketches. Johnny performed many ballads, doo-wop, and rock and roll songs on the program.[ citation needed ]
In 1983, he left the group and began a solo career. He appeared in a minor role in the movie Scarface , released two albums and did live performances.[ citation needed ]
Eventually, he left the business and worked in advertising for a number of years. He taught voice lessons as well.[ citation needed ]
In 2005, Johnny returned to show business at the urging of his fans. He rehearsed in his garage, then made his comeback in a show in Florida, with headliner Frankie Avalon, who had also appeared in Grease.[ citation needed ]
Johnny's comment about his return to the business was, "My fans are unbelievable. They pushed me to do this. When I got on that stage again, it was like I never left Sha Na Na."[ citation needed ]
In June 2007, Johnny did a reunion performance with Jon "Bowzer" Bauman. He sang a few songs and a duet with Bowzer at Bowzer's Rock 'N' Roll Party Volume VI, held in Connecticut.[ citation needed ]
As of July 2008, Johnny is performing as a solo artist in concerts around the U.S. He holds an occasional Meet and Greet, which consists of a performance, followed by a gathering of his fans. At these events, there are photo opportunities, a chance to get Johnny's autograph, and to talk with him.[ citation needed ] Contardo also enjoys cooking and runs a catering business in California.[ citation needed ]
In the early 1970s, guitarist Joe Jammer, who worked with many classic groups including Led Zeppelin, assembled a group of musicians to record an album of funk/rock tunes called "Headway," with Contardo on vocals. The album sat on the shelf for years but was finally released in February 2015.[ citation needed ]
Grease is a 1971 musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Named after the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as greasers, the musical is set in 1959 at fictional Rydell High School and follows ten working-class teenagers as they navigate the complexities of peer pressure, politics, personal core values, and love. The score borrows heavily from the sounds of early rock and roll. In its original production in Chicago, Grease was a raunchy, raw, aggressive, vulgar show. Subsequent productions sanitized it and toned it down. The show mentions social issues such as teenage pregnancy, peer pressure and gang violence; its themes include love, friendship, teenage rebellion, sexual exploration during adolescence, and, to some extent, class consciousness and class conflict. Jacobs described the show's basic plot as a subversion of common tropes of 1950s cinema, since the female lead, who in many 1950s films transformed the alpha male into a more sensitive and sympathetic character, is instead drawn into the man's influence and transforms into his wild, roguish fantasy.
Grease is a 1978 American musical romantic comedy film based on the 1971 musical of the same name by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Written by Bronte Woodard and directed by Randal Kleiser in his theatrical feature film debut, the film depicts the lives of greaser Danny Zuko and Australian transfer student Sandy Olsson who develop an attraction for each other during a summer romance. The film stars John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John as Danny and Sandy.
Darlene Wright, known professionally as Darlene Love, is an American singer and actress. She was the lead singer of the girl group the Blossoms and she also recorded as a solo artist.
Robert Mills is an Australian actor, television host and singer-songwriter. He was one of the finalists from the first season of Australian Idol. He co-hosted the late-night quiz show The Mint, and was a regular singer on the game show The Singing Bee both on the Nine Network. Mills took part in the ninth season of Dancing with the Stars, and appeared on Celebrity Apprentice. In 2008, Mills won the lead male role of Fiyero in a production of Wicked, and continued the role when it moved around Australia. He has since starred in a number of popular large scale musical theatre productions. In 2012, Mills was announced as the host of Network Ten's revamped Young Talent Time. He played teacher Finn Kelly on Neighbours from 2017 until 2021.
Anthony Cosmo Callea is an Australian singer-songwriter and stage actor who rose to prominence as the runner-up in the 2004 season of Australian Idol. Callea's debut single, a cover of Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli's song "The Prayer" is the fastest-selling single by an Australian artist, held the No.1 spot on the ARIA Singles Chart for five weeks, a record for the debut single of an Australian Idol contestant, and was the second-highest selling Australian single of the last decade.
Sha Na Na is an American rock and roll doo-wop group. Formed in 1969, but performing a song-and-dance repertoire based on 1950s hit songs, it has simultaneously revived and parodied the music and the New York street culture of the 1950s. After gaining initial fame for their performance at Woodstock, made possible with the help of their friend Jimi Hendrix, the group hosted Sha Na Na, a syndicated variety series that ran from 1977 to 1981.
Henry Gross is an American singer-songwriter best known for his association with the group Sha Na Na and for his hit song, "Shannon". Gross is considered a one-hit wonder artist; none of his other songs reached the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Sha Na Na is a syndicated television variety series that ran from 1977 to 1981 for a total of 97 episodes, hosted by the popular rock & roll/comedy group of the same name. The show was produced by Pierre Cossette and originally distributed by the Lexington Broadcast Services Company. Each episode ran for 22 minutes.
Grease: The Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture is the original motion picture soundtrack for the 1978 film Grease. It was originally released by RSO Records and subsequently re-issued by Polydor Records in 1984 and 1991. It has sold approximately 38 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time, also ranking amongst the biggest selling soundtrack albums of all time. The song "You're the One That I Want" was a US and UK No. 1 for stars John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.
David Ernest White, also known as David White Tricker, was an American singer and songwriter. He formed the doo-wop quartet Danny & the Juniors, as well as being a founding member of the pop trio The Spokesmen. He wrote "Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay" and co-wrote a number of other hit songs, including "At the Hop", "You Don't Own Me", and "1-2-3".
Jon "Bowzer" Bauman is an American singer, best known as a member of the band Sha Na Na, and game show host. Bauman's Sha Na Na character, "Bowzer", was a greaser in a muscle shirt.
Frederick Dennis Greene was an American singer who was a member of Sha Na Na who were formed in 1969 at Columbia University in New York as the Columbia Kingsmen. The name change to Sha Na Na occurred because of another group with a similar name, which was known for the song Louie Louie.
Scott Powell is an American musician and a former founding member of Sha Na Na, which began at Columbia University in 1969, under the name The Kingsmen. The group's name was later changed to avoid confusion with another band of the same name.
Lennie Baker was an American singer and saxophone player for the 1950s rock group, Danny and the Juniors.
David "Chico" Ryan, also called Chico Bo-Wico, was an American bass guitarist and singer. He was a member of The Happenings and Sha Na Na.
Buzz Campbell is an American guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. He plays anything that is close to Rockabilly music, Blues, Swing, Country & Rock & roll. Campbell is also a songwriter. He has played with numerous "rockabilly acts", including Lee Rocker, Slim Jim Phantom and Brian Setzer, all original members of the Stray Cats. Campbell and his group have also backed up and performed with such artists as Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Willie Nelson, Bo Diddley, Chris Isaak, and numerous others and has become a mainstay on the California rockabilly scene. He is now touring all over the American soil, in Canada and has a solid international reputation.
John Fair "Jocko" Marcellino is an American singer, musician, songwriter, producer and actor best known as one of the founders of the American rock and roll group Sha Na Na. He performed with Sha Na Na at the original Woodstock Festival, in the movie Grease and on their eponymous syndicated TV show.
"Sandy" is a song from the 1978 film Grease, written by Louis St. Louis and Screamin' Scott Simon, and performed by John Travolta, in character as Danny Zuko. It was released as a single in several countries, giving Travolta a no. 2 hit in the UK.
"Rock and Roll Is Here To Stay" is a song written by David White and first recorded by his group, Danny & the Juniors. Released in January 1958 by ABC-Paramount Records as the follow-up to the group's number one hit "At the Hop", it reached number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #16 R&B.
Freddy, My Love is a song written by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey for the 1971 musical Grease. The song was largely derived from the 1956 hit, "Eddie My Love", by The Teen Queens. Music writer Scot Miller described the song as being "closely based on "Eddie, My Love"", while "also slyly parodying" "I Met Him on a Sunday" by the Shirelles and "Be My Baby" by Ronnie Spector. Miller states:
"Freddy, My Love" is a song about early feminism, about women being sexual and aggressive. But it's also about the materialism of the 1950s, a mindset in which money is better than sex, and gifts are the only true expression of love.
