Saturday, February 10, 2007

Sha Na Na Video: At The Hop (Woodstock Festival 1969)

I was a little shocked when I first saw Sha Na Na perform in the movie Woodstock. I didn't really know the difference between Doo Wop and Perry Como. If you grew up when I did, it was all Beatles, and British Groups, all the time (and around '66, Dylan, and the emerging American bands and musicians like Love, The Doors, Chicago, Joni Mitchell , The Grateful Dead, The Zombies, and others). But Sha Na Na played 50's music, and we just couldn't hear it. It was only later I came to appreciate Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, the Doo-wop bands, Elvis and the other 50s music. Sha Na Na's spirited performance at Woodstock helped change all that, and I think their performance, in some ways, helped ignite a revival of earlier music, and probably helped lead to that great movie The Buddy Holly Story starring Gary Busey. This is absolutely the best and most frantic performance of this song I've heard.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

God. They are so cool. My personal favorite woodstock performance. If I could join one band it would be, with out a doubt, Sha-na-na.