Saturday night was a big deal when I was young. It was a Monday to Friday world, a 9 to 5 work week. Thus Saturday was the time to get out, a full 24 hours of free time... and since everyone got paid every Friday, well enough said.
In the mid 1950's as a young teen, we from the Bronx would travel to the Brooklyn Paramount. The mecca of Inner City Rock 'n Roll. Alan Freed would put together shows that ran from noon to midnight, not every weekend, but often enough. There would be 8 or 10 performers involved, they would each perform at every show, a new show started every 2 hours. Yeah, six shows a day.
Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, BUT the girl groups would always steal the show.
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We had nothing to entertain us but live shows and radio. TV was in it's infancy, no cell phones, no video games, nothing streaming. So we got together, all nationalities all colors and we rode the subway (for a nickel) from The Bronx, to Brooklyn. Our reward was getting to see the original tunes by the original artists, the African Americans, before the white artist covered them and got ALL the air play. Saturday's in the 1950's looked something like this~
Enjoy: A Joe Turner Video:
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The girl groups pretty much took over in the early 1960's at the shows....the music took a turn toward sassy, sexy, vocalists. There is so little footage available of them. Hope you enjoy this one~
A music video 20 years ahead of it's time.
Enjoy: Martha Reeves and the Vandellas
...we had so much fun traveling together to the shows in NYC, I just scratch my head when I move through the city now...
Here's a GR8 video also from the sixties, Enjoy~~
Enjoy: The Shirelles
