Rock, Rock, Rock! | |
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Directed by | Will Price |
Written by | Phyllis Coe Milton Subotsky |
Produced by | Max Rosenberg Milton Subotsky |
Starring | Tuesday Weld Chuck Berry Fran Manfred Alan Freed Teddy Randazzo |
Music by | Milton Subotsky Frank Virtue Ray Ellis |
Production company | Vanguard Productions |
Distributed by | Distributors Corporation of America |
Release date |
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Running time | 85 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $75,000 plus $25,000 in deferments [1] |
Rock, Rock, Rock! is a 1956 musical drama film conceived, co-written and co-produced by Milton Subotsky and directed by Will Price. The film is an early jukebox musical featuring performances by established rock and roll singers of the era, including Chuck Berry, LaVern Baker, Teddy Randazzo, the Moonglows, the Flamingos, and the Teenagers with Frankie Lymon as lead singer. Later West Side Story cast member David Winters is also featured. Famed disc jockey Alan Freed made an appearance as himself.
Valerie Harper made her debut in a brief appearance as an extra seated at the center table during the performance of "Ever Since I Can Remember" by Cirino and the Bowties and can be seen after the performance of Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers. This was also Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers' film debut.
Almost every member of the cast was signed to a record label at the time, which was credited along with each star. In 1984, the film entered the public domain in the United States because the claimants did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication. The film's numerous musical numbers may have been copyrighted separately, however. [2]
Dori discusses with her friend Arabella that they are planning to attend the school prom. She is in love with an ambitious singer Tommy Rogers, but she rejects his offer to enter a talent contest sponsored by Alan Freed. However, when she sees a new student Gloria Barker who arrives and announces that she will be wearing a strapless evening gown in blue, Dori becomes disappointed. Dori then persuades her father to give her money so she can afford a dress. However, unbeknownst to Dori, her father closes their charge accounts due to his disapproval of the allowance she has spent.
When she and Arabella are watching Freed's television show featuring upcoming rock and roll performers that night, Dori is worried that Tommy is attracted by Gloria, especially his newfound fame shortly after he has won the talent contest. Dori attempts to buy a strapless evening dress at Miss Silky's shop, but realizes that the charge account has been already closed. Dori then tries to persuade her father to buy her the new thirty-dollar dress; as long as she earns the rest, Dori's father agrees to give her fifteen dollars. Dori then decides to become a banker and borrows fifteen dollars from Arabella for a primary deposit after asking Mr. Bimble for a loan and providing collateral as a requirement–based on the principles of banking. Mistakenly believing that one percent interest on a dollar equals a dollar, Dori realizes that Gloria is attempting to ruin her by buying more expensive dresses and borrowing all fifteen dollars. On the other hand, Gloria tells Tommy that she is being taken advantage of by Dori after the former pledges her newest dress as collateral. Then Gloria exposes Dori's accounting error after refusing immediate repayment. Already upset, Dori encounters Tommy who cancels their date for the prom after hearing Gloria's warning about the former.
Dori asks her father's advice about loans in a coyly manner, and he suggests that bankers can foreclose and take ownership of collateral. As she is on her way to Miss Silky's shop in order to claim ownership, Dori realizes that both the former's and Gloria's fathers are involved, and gets in trouble with Gloria after their schemes are exposed. Dori however convinces both her and Gloria's father that if her father pays Barker thirty dollars for more expensive dress, the former will then have the dress and use the refund to pay Arabella, resulting in Dori getting Gloria's blue dress for the prom.
Meanwhile, Dori attends prom with another boy. Tommy, on the other hand, has arranged for Freed to bring his show to the prom. After several performances by various rock and roll artists, Dori and Tommy reconcile and reunite on the dance floor after the latter's apology.
The soundtrack album, also titled Rock, Rock, Rock! , was released in December 1956 by Chess Records, labeled LP 1425. [4] The soundtrack compilation featured four songs each from only three artists, Chuck Berry, The Moonglows, and The Flamingos. Only four songs on the album ("Over and Over Again", "I Knew From the Stars", "You Can't Catch Me", and "Would I Be Crying") actually appear in the film. Rock, Rock, Rock! is regarded as the first rock and roll movie to have had a soundtrack album issued. [5]
The Connie Francis songs "I Never Had a Sweetheart" and "Little Blue Wren" appeared in the film and were also released by MGM Records in 1956 as a Connie Francis single. "Baby, Baby" and "I'm Not a Juvenile Delinquent" by The Teenagers also appeared in the film and were subsequently released as a single by Gee Records.
This was the first feature film collaboration between Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg. [1]
On August 13, 1956, the movie began filming in Mikaro Studios, near botanical gardens in Bedford Park, Bronx, and was shot over a period of two weeks. [6] [7]
The film was a success at the box office. [1]
Franklin Joseph Lymon was an American rock and roll/rhythm and blues singer and songwriter, best known as the boy soprano lead singer of the New York City-based early rock and roll doo-wop group The Teenagers. The group was composed of five boys, all in their early to mid-teens. The original lineup of The Teenagers, an integrated group, included three African-American members, Lymon, Jimmy Merchant, and Sherman Garnes; and two Puerto Rican members, Joe Negroni and Herman Santiago. The Teenagers' first single, 1956's "Why Do Fools Fall in Love", was also their biggest hit. After Lymon went solo in mid-1957, both his career and that of The Teenagers fell into decline. In 1968, Lymon was found dead at the age of 25 on the floor of his grandmother's bathroom from a heroin overdose. Lymon was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 as a member of the Teenagers. His life was dramatized in the 1998 film Why Do Fools Fall in Love.
Albert James "Alan" Freed was an American disc jockey. He also produced and promoted large traveling concerts with various acts, helping to spread the importance of rock and roll music throughout North America.
The Teenagers were an American music group, most noted for being one of rock music's earliest successes, presented to international audiences by DJ Alan Freed. The group, which made its most popular recordings with young Frankie Lymon as lead singer, is also noted for being rock's first all-teenaged act. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
Herman Santiago is a Puerto Rican rock and roll pioneer and songwriter who was previously a member of the vocal group Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. He (disputedly) co-wrote the group's iconic hit "Why Do Fools Fall in Love".
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Why Do Fools Fall in Love is a 1998 American biographical drama film directed by Gregory Nava. Released by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is the true story of Frankie Lymon, lead singer of the pioneering rock and roll group Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers for one year. Moreover, the film highlights the three women in his life, each of whom claim to have married Lymon and lay claim to his estate.
"Why Do Fools Fall in Love" is a debut single by American rock and roll band Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers that was released on January 10, 1956. It reached No. 1 on the R&B chart, No. 6 on Billboard's Pop Singles chart, and No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart in July. Many renditions of the song by other artists have also been hit records in the U.S., including versions by the Diamonds, the Beach Boys, and Diana Ross.
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Rock, Rock, Rock! is the soundtrack album to the motion picture of the same name and was the first LP ever released by Chess Records labeled LP 1425 and Chuck Berry's first appearance on a long player. Only four songs from the album actually appear in the film. Eight additional songs by Chuck Berry, the Moonglows, and the Flamingos make up the balance of the songs. Other artists who appeared in the film were not on the album. Rock, Rock, Rock! is regarded as the first rock and roll movie to have had a soundtrack album issued.
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Alessandro Carmelo "Teddy" Randazzo was an American pop songwriter, singer, arranger and producer, who composed hit songs such as "Goin' Out of My Head", "It's Gonna Take a Miracle", "Pretty Blue Eyes", and "Hurt So Bad" in the 1960s.
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