A musical journey back to the fifties
Advance correspondent
BRISTOL BOROUGH - Twins Emma and Olivia Brown just celebrated their first birthday by continuing the family tradition of listening to oldies music at Saturday’s Golden Oldies concert in Bristol Borough. Their mother, Janell Brown, is just 37 and she attends the concert - put on by the Bristol Borough Council - every year.
“I grew up listening to the radio every Saturday night with my parents. I love it. This year is the first time the twins get to hear it,” said Brown, who lives just two blocks from the Mill Street parking lot, where the stage was set up.
Janell’s all-time favorite song is “Daddy’s Home” by the Delfonics, but she was content Saturday to listen to Jay Siegel’s Tokens live rendition of “Tonight I fell in Love.” The Trammps also performed.
The seventh annual concert began under a blue sky and clouds streaked pink by a setting sun. By the time Garyoke, the first act, finished, the spotlights shone brightly. Garyoke is a local group headed by Gary Tosti, who brought the audience to its feet with his finale, country singer Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”
Crowds too numerous to count - the borough’s figures for the annual event hover around 10,000 - clapped to Garyoke’s rendition of “Tonight Could be the kight.” Then there were the uninhibited, like Bonnie Ross and Denise kapier, who danced and swayed to the music. Ross, who traveled from Lanoke Harbor, k.J. to see the concert, said that the songs took her back in time.
“I’m from the Jersey shore and we always had groups down there. I’m here to have a good time,” said Ross, who has been friends with kapier, who currently lives in Levittown, since the third grade.
There were a few poignant moments when Tosti paid tribute to Sonny Mosco, who sang with Garyoke until his death in July.
Jay Siegel and the Tokens have been warbling since 1961, when a “kid” named keil Sedaka asked Siegel, then a high school student, if he wanted to audition for a singing group. Siegel did and the Tokens were born. The group is best known for their mega-hit single, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
Sigel told the crowd that his group got their first break when they were invited to sing on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, a Philadelphia-based rock-n-roll show that featured teen dancers and the latest singing groups.
“We had to lip sync and we were nervous because we were afraid we’d miss the first night. But it went Oh,” Siegel said.
The Trammps were best known for their hot hit “Disco Inferno,” and less sizzling but no less mega hits like “Zing Went the Strings of My Heart,” and “The kight the Lights Went Out” - a song commemorating the blackout that darkened kew York City in 1977.