Danny & The Juniors
This Philadelphia-based, Italian-American vocal quartet comprised lead vocalist Danny Rapp (b. 10 May 1941, d. 4 April 1983); first tenor Dave White; second tenor Frank Mattei and baritone Joe Terranova. Formed in 1955 as the Juvenairs, their song Do The Bop came to the attention of Dick Clark who suggested it be changed to At The Hop. They took his advice and released the song in 1957, initially with few sales. However, after they sang it on Clark's television show BANDSTAND, it was picked up by ABC-Paramount and shot to the top of the US chart for five weeks. Despite comments from the British music press that the group was amateur and imitative, it made the UK Top 3 and sold over two million copies worldwide. They followed it with their only other US Top 20 hit, the similar sounding and prophetically titled ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Is Here To Stay’. In 1960 they signed to Dick Clark's Swan Records where they scored their fourth and last US Top 40 hit Twistin USA’ (they re-recorded it unsuccessfully for the UK as Twistin England). They recorded songs about such dance crazes as the Mashed Potato, Pony, Cha Cha, Fish, Continental Walk and Limbo, but could not repeat their earlier success, even when they released ‘Back To the Hop’ in 1961. Later in the '60s they also appeared on Guyden, Mercury and Capitol, where they re-recorded ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Is Here To Stay’ in 1968. Dave White left the group in the early '60s to concentrate on writing and production and composed a number of hits like You Don't Own Me for Lesley Gore and 1-2-3 and Like A Baby for Len Barry, before recording a solo album on Bell in 1971. In the '70s they played the ‘oldies’ circuit with a line-up that included Fabian's ex-backing singer Jimmy Testa. In 1976 a re-issue of their classic At The Hop returned them to the UK Top 40. After a few quiet years, leader Rapp was found dead in Arizona in 1983—he had apparently committed suicide.