The Continental Co-ets were an American all-female rock and roll band founded in 1963 in Fulda, Minnesota. [1]
The band was composed of teenage girls enrolled at Fulda High School. Nancy Hofmann played the bass guitar, Carol Goins on lead guitar, Vicki Steinman on drums, and Carolyn Behr on rhythm guitar. Later, the group included Hofmann's sister, MaryJo Hofmann, on keyboards. They gained recognition for being one of the first female bands formed, and to play their own instruments. The band was encouraged by their chorus teacher, David Edwards, to start performing. The group's first public performance was at a movie theater in Marshall, Minnesota. In the beginning, the band only played instrumentals as they did not have a lead vocalist. Another local band, The Vultures, invited the group to a "battle of the sexes". The Continental Co-ets practiced extensively, and included vocals to their performance which led to a successful concert. This, along with other similar performances, opened the band to a broader audience. [2] [3] Their touring extended throughout the Midwest and Canada. [4]
In late 1965, the band traveled to Milford, Iowa to record two original compositions, "I Don't Love You No More" and "Medley of Junk", for the IGL (Iowa Great Lakes) label. [5] About 1,000 copies were produced for release and charted in some parts of Canada. They recorded two more songs in March 1966, but were not released until the 1990s. [6] [7]
In 1967, the band disbanded when the members either left for college or got married. In 2002, the band was inducted into the Iowa Hall of Fame. The band reformed to perform at the induction ceremony. [1] [6]
Charles Hardin Holley, known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer and songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texas during the Great Depression, and learned to play guitar and sing alongside his siblings. His style was influenced by gospel music, country music, and rhythm and blues acts, which he performed in Lubbock with his friends from high school.
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The Crickets were an American rock and roll band from Lubbock, Texas, formed by singer-songwriter Buddy Holly in January 1957. Their first hit record, "That'll Be the Day", released in May 1957, peaked at number three on the Billboard Top 100 chart on September 16, 1957. The sleeve of their first album, The "Chirping" Crickets, shows the band line-up at the time: Holly on lead vocals and lead guitar, Niki Sullivan on rhythm guitar, Jerry Allison on drums, and Joe B. Mauldin on bass. The Crickets helped set the template for subsequent rock bands, such as the Beatles, with their guitar-bass-drums line-up, performing their own self-written material. After Holly's death in 1959 the band continued to tour and record into the 1960s and beyond with other band members through to the 21st century.
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The music of Iowa includes such notable musicians as Rock and Roll Hall of Famers The Everly Brothers, Bix Beiderbecke, Art Farmer, Peggy Gilbert, Patty Waters, Mortimer Wilson, Thurlow Lieurance, Charlie Haden, Arthur Russell, Greg Brown, William Elliott Whitmore, Clarence Whitehill, Andy Williams, Meredith Willson, composer of The Music Man, and Alice Ettinger who was renowned enough to perform in Europe in the 1890s. Famed swing era musician and band leader Glenn Miller was born in Clarinda. Rock and metal bands from Iowa include For Today, Euforquestra, The Envy Corps, The Cassandra Disease, Hawks, Slipknot, Stone Sour, Radio Moscow, Modern Life Is War, and Unknown Component. The city of Walnut is home to the National Traditional Country Music Association (NTCMA), which produces programs for local radio and television in Iowa. NTCMA also operates the Walnut Country Opera House, which is a theatre and home to several halls of fame and museums. The town of Clear Lake is known as the place the Big Bopper, Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens took off from on the day they died; their last performance was at the Surf Ballroom. The Escorts are one of the first bands to be inducted into the Iowa Rock N Roll Music Association's Hall of Fame. Sioux City brought to the National scene The Velaires, and rocker Tommy Bolin. Also from Iowa is Black Iowegian heavy blues artist John-Paul Jones Group.
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