-- FREDDY CANNON
Freddy Cannon was born Frederick Anthony Picariello at Lynn, Massachusetts, on Wednesday, December 4, 1940. Later, he lived in Revere. While he was a student at Lynn Vocational High School, evidently in 1954, he got his first electric guitar. Two years later, as Freddie Carmen, he began performing music for the public.1 He was the lead singer and played rhythm guitar in Freddie Carmen and the Hurricanes, a band that was heavily influenced by the fun songs of Chuck Berry. "Three or four thousand kids would come to the gymnasium," he said, "and a disc jockey would play for about twenty minutes. We would then come out and play live. The kids would go crazy. Then the records were played again."
Early in 1959, Bob Crewe heard Carmen and offered to work with him on a demo.2 Not much later, Swan Records test-marketed "Tallahassee Lassie" in Boston. Disk jockey Arnie "Woo Woo" Ginsburg put it into very heavy rotation on his WMEX radio program, making it a big local hit. By this time, Swan--on the advice of Dick Clark--had changed Carmen's professional name to Freddy Cannon. It was catchier. Arnie Ginsburg added a further embellishment, and Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon was introduced to an eager nation.
Cannon made a promotional tour; and in April, he appeared on American Bandstand. His career was taking off. Between 1959 and 1964, Freddy Cannon had a string of hits,3 "Palisades Park" probably being his best-known single. According to legend, this is the only song ever written by Chuck Barris, then a sound engineer on Bandstand and later well-known as host of the Gong Show. Another '60s hit, "Action,"4 was the theme song for Dick Clark's afternoon television program, Where the Action Is. Some of Cannon's more obscure numbers, too, are quite good. "June, July, and August" comes quickly to mind.
Many of Freddy Cannon's records, such as "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans," had Southern connections; and so a lot of people assumed he was from the South. When he spoke in his concerts, though, his Boston accent was hard to miss; and his debut album, The Explosive Freddy Cannon (LP, Swan, n.d. [1960]), led off with "Boston (My Home Town)."
"Things really slacked off," said Cannon, "in the late '60s and early '70s. It was the psychedelic period, and there was no demand for the stuff I do."5 For a while, he worked in promotion for Buddah Records. Around 1971 or not much later, he returned to the stage, performing on oldies tours. A decade later, he had decent success with a new single, "Let's Put the Fun Back in Rock and Roll."
When Freddy Cannon played Boston as part of "A Rock 'n' Roll Revival" on New Year's Eve in 1983, Jim Sullivan of the Boston Globe said his set was "tough and gutsy." Toward the end of the decade, Cannon told the Globe's Steve Morse, "I still do 100 dates a year, but mostly in the West and Midwest." This is not to say, though, that Cannon had forgotten his old home.6 He had just arranged for Boston's Critique Records to release a compact disc of his old recordings, along with two new tracks.
His Latest and Greatest (CD, Critique, 1991) contains the hits; and it ends with my personal favorite Freddy Cannon record ever, the new "Boom Boom Man."
Boom boom--Hey baby I'm the Boom Boom ManAn updated version of "Hanky Panky" was produced by Boston's Michael Jonzun; and "The Boom Boom Man" was produced by Harry King, who I take to be the multi-talented musician from Maine, and Fred Lewis--the same Fred Lewis who was involved in the management of both theBoom boom--Get you dancin' with my rock 'n' roll band
Shake it up, baby, just as hard as you can
Baby let me rock you ... I'm the Boom Boom Man
New England didn't forget Freddy Cannon, either. Pastiche, one of the region's best new wave bands, started their song, "Boston Lullaby," with the great line, "In the land from whence the Boom Boom came, home of the River Charles."7 Our former Web address, of course, combined the name, Freddy Cannon, with those of the legendary New England bands, the Lost and the Remains--FredRemainsLost.
Freddy Cannon told Steve Morse, "Rock has been good to me." I'll say.
-- Alan Lewis, December 18, 2000 (rev. December 4, 2001)
2. By this time, Freddy Cannon had already released a single, "Cha Cha Do" (45, ABC Paramount, 1957), which became a local Boston-area hit.
3. Freddy Cannon was a real rock and roll pioneer here in New England. So was Bob Riley (New England's Elvis) who, in addition to having a notable career of his own,
played lead guitar on Cannon's early recordings.
4. "Action" was released on the Warner Bros. Records label. When asked why he switched to Warner Bros., Freddy Cannon said, "Swan was going through some serious
financial difficulties at the time, and was ready to fold. I
went label shopping, and Warner Brothers made me the best offer.
They offered me front money, a reasonable contract and all the
artistic freedom I wanted." -- From the notes to Freddy Cannon,
14 Booming Hits (LP, Rhino, 1982).
5. When asked if he blamed inadequate promotion for his late-'60s drop from the record charts, Freddy Cannon said, "I blame it on inadequate material. I believe that if the material isn't suited to your style, you're not going to be very
successful with it." -- From the notes to Freddy Cannon, 14
Booming Hits (LP, Rhino, 1982).
6. "Later, Freddie moved to the West Coast, but he always maintained contact with his friends in Boston." -- Arnie Ginsburg, in the notes to Freddy Cannon, 14 Booming Hits (LP, Rhino, 1982).
7. From Wicked Intense! (7" EP, P*P, 1980).
All rights reserved.
Popular music, past and present,
with a New England twist.
| New England Music Scrapbook News | ||||||||||
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I-J | K | L |
| M | N | O | P-Q | R | S | T | U-V | W | XYZ | |
| New England Music Scrapbook Home Page | ||||||||||
Webmaster:
Alan Lewis