Sunday, June 11, 2006

Happy birthday, Joey Dee!


Joey Dee (of Joey Dee and The Starliters fame) was born on this date in 1940 in Passaic, New Jersey. A big Happy 66th to the Peppermint Twister himself, shown above left with fellow Starliters David Brigati, center, and Bob Valli, right, in a photo from the group's appearance at Safety Harbor (Florida) Marina in March of 2006. To see three album's worth of Starliters concert pix, go to my Photosite homepage where you'll find the rest of the pix from Safety Harbor plus a bunch from Storman's Nightclub in Clearwater, FL (Wind Beneath My Wings 2006) from this past February, and Largo, FL from April. Have a great birthday, Joseph!

Friday, June 09, 2006

Wine and Orlando



Handsome and talented 1970's singing sensation Tony Orlando (of Dawn) recently appeared at Disney World's EPCOT in Orlando, Florida - yes, you read right, Orlando performed in Orlando - for three days as part of the center's annual Flower Power concert series. Joining Tony O was the lovely and talented Toni Wine (of The Archies), on vocals and keyboards. Along with Irwin Levine, Toni Wine wrote "Candida," the first single for Dawn, in 1970, before the group's name was formally expanded to Tony Orlando and Dawn; Toni also cowrote "A Groovy Kind of Love," the Mindbenders hit, with Carole Bayer Sager. Toni can be heard singing backgrounds on a variety of tracks including "It Hurts To Be In Love" by Gene Pitney and "Always On My Mind" by Willie Nelson, but she's probably best known as the female voice of The Archies; she shared lead vocals with Ron Dante on the group's megahit "Sugar, Sugar" in 1969. In addition to "Candida," Tony Orlando and Dawn had hits with "Knock Three Times" and "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree." Tony and Toni appear together in concert at venues all over the U.S. For info, check out the itinerary on their websites.

To see the photos I took at Tony's first two shows at EPCOT on May 30, 2006, please visit my
Photosite album.