Just in this period of Elvis Presley's two-year serving in the army from 1958, Chuck Berry , one of the black originators of rock'n'roll, was later forced to be in a prison under sentence concerning the employment of an under-aged girl in his own night club, and Little Richard suddenly threw away his own stardom and went to a Bible college. Buddy Holly, one of white originators of rock'n'roll, passed away by a plane accident, and white idols who sang rock'n'rolls in their ways were converted to sweet ballads and pop songs. Despite it, there came a Italian American who stubbornly kept releasing noisy rock'n'rolls. That was Freddy Cannon.
Born in the suburb of Boston, Freddy Cannon was active in Swan Records of Philadelphia in his best days from 1959 to 1963 and then in corporate Warner Brothers. As for Philadelphia songs, most of them were pop-rocks introduced by Dick Clark of 'American Bandstand' on TV, which were commercial rather than original, like in the manner of instantly covering black R&B hits and making white hits, for example. Freddy Cannon's are also in these pattern of hits, and their lyrics are for white teen-agers. The fans of R&B or Soul may say that they are weak-spirited, though, I think he should be appreciated for the hardest rock'n'rolling as he could among white singers of before and after 1960.
I myself have never consciously listened to his songs on the radio, and I got to know him by the internet and got attracted when I listened to the bests "The Best of Freddy Cannon" , which contains no ballad. After making his debut hit Tallahassee Lassie with an impressive boom-boom bass drum and hand claps and a hard-edged guitar, he had a series of songs with a place name in the South like Chattanooga or Okefenokee, which bore no relation to the singer. That suggests the vogue of hit-making at the time. Freddy Cannon's trademark is the shout of 'woo', not to mention his raising rock'n'roll voice. On Way Down Yonder in New Orleans, 1920s' song backed by the big band sound and the bass drum rhythm, he also shouts his signature 'woo'. This hit was succeeded by the big-band lines. Meanwhile, Buzz Buzz A-Diddle-It thrusts doo-wap chorus and ringing Bo Diddley-style rock'n'roll guitar into you. I think this tune is extraordinary among his other a-little sweeter ones. After Palisades Park in which sound effects of an amusement park and a pop organ ring in your ears (in Japan this tune titled as Love Jet Coaster was read by Kyouko Asou with original lyrics of Kenzi Sazanami), he had hits like Abigail Beecher or Action in Warner. And then there came more stimulative Beatles years.
Sticking to noisy rock'n'rolls with Bob Crewe (the future producer of Four Seasons and Mitch Ryder) and Frank Slay, Freddy Cannon was eventually a follower rather than an originator of rock'n'roll. But he could be true to his music because he was a follower, and then it seems to me that he was awkward but pure. As you hear the lyric of Palisades Park, "tunnel of love" is the title of Bruce Springsteen's album (ironically, Bruce had made his divorce around the period of the album). There was the past when you spent a joyful moment with your sweetheart on a vehicle of an amusement park. There is the present of daily happiness and occasional monotony. The albums of pictures or musics are necessary for tying the times together. (2004/08/28)(2005/09/25)