🎤 Joanie Sommers: Musical History Highlights

🎶 Early Life & Breakthrough

• Born Joan Drost in Buffalo, NY in 1941, Joanie began singing in church to cope with a difficult childhood.

• At age 10, she won a local talent contest with Hank Williams’ “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” hinting at her future stardom.

• After moving to Venice, California, she gained attention singing with Tommy Oliver’s band, which led to a demo and a contract with Warner Bros. Records.

📀 First Hits

• Her debut single, “One Boy” (from Bye Bye Birdie), charted in 1960 and showcased her jazz-influenced style.

• In 1962, she released her biggest hit, “Johnny Get Angry”, a dramatic teen anthem that reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. Though it was a stylistic departure from her jazz roots, it became her signature song.

• 🎺 Style & Legacy

  • Nicknamed “The Voice of the Sixties,” Sommers was known for her warm vocals and versatility across jazz, standards, and pop.

  • She collaborated with top arrangers and producers, and her 1965 album Softly, The Brazilian Sound with Laurindo Almeida earned critical acclaim.

  • Despite her pop success, she often reflected on the irony of being remembered for Johnny Get Angry, a song she considered atypical of her work.

This week in Rock News 

August 15, 1956 — "Colonel" Tom Parker, an illegal Dutch immigrant who played at being a Southern U.S. aristocrat, becomes "special adviser" to Elvis Presley, effectively taking over as manager from Memphis, Tennessee disc jockey Bob Neal.
                        1971 — Thomas Wayne ("Tragedy," 1959) suffers a real tragedy when he dies in a car accident in Memphis at age 31. He is the younger brother of Johnny Cash's guitarist Luther Perkins, who himself died prematurely three years earlier at age 40 following a house fire near Nashville, which he apparently ignited by falling asleep with a burning cigarette.
 

August 16-25, 1935 — The German electronic company AEG demonstrates the first practical tape recorder, the Magnetophon K1, at the Berlin International Radio Exhibition. With much higher audio fidelity than shellac 78 r.p.m. discs, it causes a sensation.

August 16, 1938  — Blues icon Robert Johnson dies at age 27 of unknown causes near Greenwood, Mississippi. His death is not reported and his record company, Columbia, refuses to acknowledge it until executive John Hammond attempts to locate him the following spring. Almost 30 years later, a Mississippi musicologist researching Johnson's life finds his death certificate, which lists the date and place, but no official cause. His music and guitar style influence a future generation of stars such as Elmore James, Muddy Waters, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and many others.
                        1962 — The Beatles fire drummer Pete Best and Ringo Starr steps in at a concert two days later.
                        1977 — Elvis Presley dies of a heart attack at his Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, apparently the result of long abuse of prescription drugs. Throngs of fans arrive at Graceland the next day to mourn and President Jimmy Carter releases a statement saying, "Presley's death deprives our country of a part of itself. He was unique and irreplaceable."

August 19, 1957 — In a "Special Music Report," Newsweek puts Pat Boone on its cover with the tagline, "His Refreshing Song Fills The Air." The magazine crows that at 23, Boone cut a dozen singles selling over 13 million copies in two years. Newsweek opines that his voice is “unspectacular by any standards," but it quotes superstar Frank Sinatra as saying that Boone is better than Elvis Presley and would last longer. 
                        1979— Dorsey Burnette ("Tall Oak Tree," 1960) dies of a heart attack at age 46 in Canoga Park, California. He is the older brother of Johnny Burnette and co-founder of the Rock and Roll Trio in the '50s.

August 20, 1920 — The predecessor to Detroit radio station WWJ (950 AM) becomes the first to start regular broadcasting in the United States.
                        1977 — The U.S. space agency NASA launches the Voyager 2 space probe carrying a "Golden Record" of sounds and images representing Earth to any alien civilization that might intercept it. Among the music from various cultures is the Chuck Berry classic "Johnny B Goode," the only rock 'n' roll song included.

August 21, 2002 — West African and Caribbean nations issue stamps honoring African American girl groups of the 1950s and '60s. Designed by Nigerian-born artist Yemi in Frederick, Maryland, they are unveiled the next evening at a ceremony honoring him at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. The collection includes The Angels, Chantels, Cookies, Crystals, Dixie Cups, Martha and the Vandellas, Marvelettes, Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles, Ronettes, Shirelles, Supremes, and Velvelettes. Proceeds of stamp sales benefit the family of the late Florence Ballard, a member of the original Supremes.