This article needs additional citations for verification .(September 2008) |
Santo & Johnny | |
---|---|
![]() Santo & Johnny, guests of the television program "Tutto è pop", Turin, 1972 | |
Background information | |
Origin | Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
Genres | |
Years active | 1959–1978 |
Labels | Canadian-American Records |
Members | Santo Farina – steel guitar Johnny Farina – rhythm guitar |
Website | santoandjohnny |
Santo & Johnny were an American rock and roll instrumental duo of Italian descent [1] from Brooklyn, New York, composed of brothers Santo Farina (born October 24, 1937) and Johnny Farina (born April 30, 1941). [2]
They are known best for their instrumental melody "Sleep Walk", one of the biggest hits of the golden age of rock 'n' roll, which became a regional success and eventually scored the top of the Billboard pop chart when it was released nationally during 1959. [3]
Santo Anthony Farina and John Steven Farina were born in Brooklyn, New York, to Anthony and Josephine Farina: Santo on October 24, 1937, and Johnny on April 30, 1941. [4] [5] Their father was drafted into the United States Army while they were children and was stationed for some time in Oklahoma. After hearing a steel guitar on the radio, he wrote to his wife, "I'd like the boys to learn to play this instrument". [6]
Upon returning from World War II, the boys' father found a music teacher who gave the boys steel guitar lessons. When Santo was a teenager, he was able to get a local music store to modify an acoustic guitar, allowing him to play it like a steel guitar. [5]
Within two years, Santo was performing in amateur shows using a new Gibson six-string steel guitar and had started receiving lessons from a steel guitar teacher who had studied in Hawaii. By the age of fourteen, Santo was composing songs, and formed an instrumental trio with a guitarist and drummer. This trio appeared at local dances and parties, performing both original compositions and some Hawaiian standards. With money Santo made from these performances, he bought a Fender steel guitar, one with three necks, each with eight strings. This allowed him to experiment even more, and he tried different tunings until he found ones that appealed to him.
When Johnny reached the age of twelve, he began to play accompaniment to Santo on a standard electric guitar. The brothers soon formed a duo and became rather popular in school, eventually performing at events in the New York boroughs. They recorded a demo that they circulated to local New York record companies.
When Johnny turned 16, he told their father that they would be quitting school to pursue a career as "rock stars", to which their father responded "The only stars are in the sky." [7]
The brothers wrote a song one night when they "couldn't sleep after playing a gig, and started jamming." [7] The song was "Sleep Walk" and during September 1959 it scored at the top of the American charts.
The brothers eventually came to the attention of a music publishing company and signed a songwriter's contract and eventually landed a recording contract with Canadian-American Records. Their first release, "Sleep Walk", was credited as being composed by the two brothers plus Santo's wife, Ann, [8] although Johnny later said that her name was put on by mistake. [9]
"Sleep Walk" was recorded at Trinity Records in Manhattan. It reached Billboard magazine's No. 1 position for two weeks during September 1959, [3] and earned a Gold record for Santo & Johnny. [6] [10] The follow-up single "Tear Drop" (spelled "Teardrop" on the album Encore) [11] was also successful, though their long-playing record Santo & Johnny was less successful in the United States.
"Sleep Walk" continues to be popular owing to consistent radio airplay as well as its usage for commercials, television programs, and movies. Santo & Johnny were inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 2002. [12]
The duo broke up in 1976.[ citation needed ] After this split, Johnny continued to perform as a solo artist, and is still touring as of 2021. [13] By contrast, Santo retired from the music industry in the 1970s, for reasons he did not disclose. [14]
Canadian-American Records Ltd
Imperial
Black Tulip
Aniraf Record Co.
PAUSA (aka: Pause) Records
Year | "A" Side | "B" Side | US Pop | US R&B | US Easy Listening | Label |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1959 | "Sleep Walk" | "All Night Diner" | 1 | — | — | Canadian-American 103 |
1959 | "Tear Drop" | "The Long Walk Home" | 23 | — | — | Canadian-American 107 |
1960 | "Caravan" | "Summertime" | 48 | — | — | Canadian-American 111 |
1960 | "Seashells" | "Hop Scotch" | 90 | Canadian-American 114 | ||
1960 | "The Breeze and I" | "Lazy Day" | 109 | Canadian-American 115 | ||
1960 | "Annie" | "Lost Love" | Canadian-American 118 | |||
1960 | "Bullseye!" | "Twistin' Bells" | 49 | — | — | Canadian-American 120 |
1961 | "Theme from Come September" | "The Long Walk Home" | Canadian-American 128 | |||
1961 | "Birmingham" | "The Mouse" | Canadian-American 131 | |||
1962 | "Stage to Cimarron" | "Spanish Harlem" | 101 | Canadian-American 137 | ||
1962 | "Tokyo Twilight" | "Miserlou" | Canadian-American 144 | |||
1963 | "On Your Mark" | "Manhattan" | Canadian-American 151 | |||
1963 | "The Wandering Sea" | "Manhattan Spiritual" | Canadian-American 155 | |||
1963 | "Love Letters In The Sand" | "Lido Beach" | Canadian American 161 | |||
1964 | "In The Still of the Night" | "Song For Rosemary" | Canadian-American 164 | |||
1964 | "A Thousand Miles Away" | "Road Block" | 122 | Canadian-American 167 | ||
1964 | "Sugar Stroll" | "Rattler" | Canadian-American 174 | |||
1964 | "A Hard Day's Night" | "And I Love Her" | Canadian-American 177 | |||
1964 | "A Hard Day's Night" | "The Beatle Stomp" | Canadian-American 177 | |||
1964 | "Goldfinger" | "Sleepwalk" | Canadian-American 182 | |||
1965 | "Mucho Tempo" | "Brazilian Summer" | Canadian-American 189 | |||
1965 | "Off Shore" | (One sided record) | Canadian-American 190 | |||
1965 | "Watermelon Man" | "Return To Naples" | Canadian-American 194 | |||
1965 | "The Young World" | "Come With Me" | Canadian-American 204 | |||
1965 | "Thunderball" | "Mister Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" | United Artists UA970 | |||
1967 | "Live for Life" | "See You in September" | Imperial 66269 | |||
1968 | "Sleepwalk 68" | "It Must Be Him" | Imperial 66292 | |||
1973 | "Piedone Lo Sbirro (Flat Feet)" | "Moon Dog" | — | — | — | Produttori Associati/Canadian-American 7054 |
Brian Robert Setzer is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly group Stray Cats, and returned to the music scene in the early 1990s with his swing revival band, the Brian Setzer Orchestra. In 1987, he made a cameo appearance as Eddie Cochran in the film La Bamba.
Instrumental rock is rock music that emphasizes instrumental performance and features very little or no singing. Examples of instrumental music in rock can be found in practically every subgenre of the style. Instrumental rock was most popular from the mid-1950s to mid-1960s, with artists such as Bill Doggett Combo, The Fireballs, The Shadows, The Ventures, Johnny and the Hurricanes and The Spotnicks. Surf music had many instrumental songs. Many instrumental hits had roots from the R&B genre. The Allman Brothers Band feature several instrumentals. Jeff Beck also recorded two instrumental albums in the 1970s. Progressive rock and art rock performers of the late 1960s and early 1970s did many virtuosic instrumental performances.
The Ventures are an American instrumental rock band formed in Tacoma, Washington, in 1958, by Don Wilson and Bob Bogle. The band, which was a quartet for most of its existence, helped to popularize the electric guitar across the world during the 1960s. While their popularity in the United States waned in the 1970s, the group remains especially revered in Japan, where they have toured regularly. The classic lineup of the band consisted of Wilson, Bogle, Nokie Edwards, and Mel Taylor (drums).
Joseph Raymond Conniff was an American bandleader and arranger best known for his Ray Conniff Singers during the 1960s.
The pedal steel guitar is a console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play unlimited glissandi and deep vibrati—characteristics it shares with the human voice. Pedal steel is most commonly associated with Country music and Hawaiian music.
The Tennessee Three was the backing band for country and rockabilly singer Johnny Cash for nearly 25 years, providing the unique backing that came to be recognized by fans as "the Johnny Cash sound".
Homer and Jethro were the stage names of American country music duo Henry D. "Homer" Haynes (1920–1971) and Kenneth C. "Jethro" Burns (1920–1989), popular from the 1940s through the 1960s on radio and television for their satirical versions of popular songs. Known as the Thinking Man's Hillbillies, they received a Grammy Award in 1959 and are members of the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Larry Eugene Carlton is an American guitarist who built his career as a studio musician in the 1970s and 1980s for acts such as Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell. One of the most sought after guitarists of his era, Carlton has participated in thousands of recording sessions, recorded on hundreds of albums in many genres, including more than 100 gold records, as well as for television and movies. He has been a member of the jazz fusion group the Crusaders and the smooth jazz band Fourplay, and has maintained a long solo career.
The Dirty Boogie is the third album from the swing band the Brian Setzer Orchestra. The album is considered as the breakthrough for the band, with their first single being a cover of Louis Prima's "Jump Jive an' Wail", which Prima had made popular in 1956 and included in his album The Wildest!. The release of the single came along after a Gap advertising campaign that featured Prima's original recording of the song. Each helped to propel the larger swing revival throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s. Seven of the album's tracks are covers of songs written and originally made popular between 1952 and 1962.
"(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend" is a cowboy-styled country/western song written in 1948 by American songwriter, film and television actor Stan Jones.
The Ventures have released over two hundred fifty albums beginning with Walk Don't Run (1960), and over 150 singles. The original US albums and singles are indicated by their catalog numbers and Billboard (BB) and Cashbox (CB) chart peak positions
Alexander Emil Caiola was an American guitarist, composer and arranger, who spanned a variety of music genres including jazz, country, rock, and pop. He recorded over fifty albums and worked with some of the biggest names in music during the 20th century, including Elvis Presley, Ray Conniff, Ferrante & Teicher, Frank Sinatra, Percy Faith, Buddy Holly, Mitch Miller, and Tony Bennett.
Sunday Morning is ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro's first full-length solo album. It was released in the U.S. in October 2002 by Four Strings Productions / Hitchhike Records. The album was released in Japan the following year on August 12, 2003 by Sony Music Distribution.
Billy Wayne "Crash" Craddock is an American country and rockabilly singer. He first gained popularity in Australia in the 1950s with a string of rockabilly hits, including the Australian number one hits "Boom Boom Baby" and "One Last Kiss" in 1960 and 1961 respectively. Switching to country music, he gained popularity in the United States in the 1970s with a string of top ten country hits, several of which were number one hits, including "Rub It In", "Broken Down in Tiny Pieces", and "Ruby Baby". Craddock is known to his fans as "The King Of Country Rock Music" and "Mr. Country Rock" for his uptempo rock-influenced style of country music.
Robert George Porter was an Australian country and pop-rock musician, producer and record label owner.
"Sleep Walk" is an instrumental song written, recorded, and released in 1959 by American instrumental rock and roll duo Santo & Johnny Farina, with their uncle Mike Dee playing the drums. Prominently featuring steel guitar, the song was recorded at Trinity Music in Manhattan, New York City. "Sleep Walk" entered Billboard's Top 40 on August 17, 1959. It rose to the number 1 position for the last two weeks in September and remained in the Top 40 until November 9. "Sleep Walk" also reached number 4 on the R&B chart. It was the last instrumental to hit number 1 in the 1950s and earned a gold record for Santo and Johnny. In Canada, the song reached number 3 in the CHUM Charts. In the UK it peaked at number 22 on the charts.
Alvin Wayne Casey was an American guitarist. He was mainly known for his work as a session musician, but also released his own records and scored three Billboard Hot 100 hits in the United States. His contribution to the rockabilly genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.
"Beyond The Reef" is a song written by Canadian Jack Pitman in Hawaii in 1948. It was first performed by Hawaiian artist Napua Stevens in 1949.
Santo & Johnny is the debut album by the homonymous duo, released in 1959. The album includes the duo's best known instrumental, "Sleep Walk".
Ike & Tina Turner’s Kings of Rhythm Dance is an instrumental album by the Kings of Rhythm released on Sue Records in 1962.