Let’s talk about what I call the meat and potatoes of rock and roll—a style that permeated the sixties. We’ll call it garage band rock: music made by groups of band musicians who often rehearsed in their garage and often created a hit or two locally, regionally, and if lucky nationally. Instruments needed? A couple of guitars, a bass, maybe a sax, and some keyboards, usually an organ. Add to that some aggressive or unsophisticated lyrics along with a basic simple chord structure, and you have a composition that defines the youth culture from the late fifties up to about 1968. The best example is by a group known as The Kingsmen in 1963.
Soul music: a compelling, distinct, and dynamic kind of music very popular in the 1960s. Originating in the African American community throughout the United States, soul combines elements of rhythm and blues, gospel, and jazz. Ray Charles and Sam Cooke were two well-known pioneers, and another was Solomon Burke, who was central in bridging R&B and soul.
Robert Velline, born in 1943 in Fargo, North Dakota, had a band with his brother called The Shadows. When Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper were killed in an airplane crash during the winter Dance Party Tour on February 3, 1959, Bobby Vee filled in for Buddy Holly, whose next stop was to be Moorehead, Minnesota, not far from Fargo. Then Vee and his band (which briefly included a musician named Elston Gunn, otherwise known as Bob Zimmerman) hit the road. Vee was signed to Liberty Records in Los Angeles.
One of the most popular and prolific gentlemen in the music business created the only American musical act that rivaled The Beatles and The Beach Boys. His name is Francesco Stephen Castelluccio, born in Newark, New Jersey in 1934. We all know him of course as Frankie Valli, leader of The Four Seasons and possessor of one of the best falsetto voices ever put to wax.