Johnny and the Hurricanes
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Johnny and the Hurricanes began in 1957 as The Orbits in Toledo Ohio. Led by saxophonist Johnny Paris (born John Pocisk in Walbridge, Ohio, died May 1, 2006 in Ann Arbor, Michigan), they were a group of school friends who played on a few recordings behind Mack Vickery, a local rockabilly singer.
In 1958, they signed up with Harry Balk and Irving Micahnik of Twirl Records. This led to national engagements and in 1959, now called Johnny and the Hurricanes, they released "Crossfire". This had been recorded in a disused cinema (to provide echo), and was a national hit, reaching No 23 in the US charts in the summer of 1959.
The follow up was "Red River Rock", an instrumental version of "Red River Valley" featuring Paul Tesluk on Hammond Organ which was a Top Ten Hit on both sides of the Atlantic (No 5 in the US, No 3 in the UK) and sold over a million copies. Other members of the band at that time were Dave Yorko (guitar), Butch Mattice (bass) and Bill "Little Bo" Savich(drums).
The group continued to rework old tunes with a rock and roll beat, possibly in an attempt to save on royalty payments. The Army bugle call Reveille became "Reveille Rock", while in 1960 "Blue Tail Fly" was turned into "Beatnik Fly" - both songs made the top forty. In 1960 "When The Saints Go Marching In" became "Revival" but only managed 1 week in the charts peaking at No 97. As the gimmick began to wear thin and Johnny and the Hurricanes dropped out of music mainstream they turned to Europe, where famously, they were supported by the then unknown Beatles when they played the Star Club in Hamburg in 1962. Although Paris was by then the only original member of the Hurricanes (he later claimed to be able to recall over 300 musicians who had at one time or another been in the band), they toured Europe from time to time with an ever-changing line up until shortly before Paris' death in 2006.
