Frank Virtue & The Virtues played Bill Haley and The Comets styled Fifties Rock'n'roll. 20 page booklet, lots of great 'period' photos - a genuine collector's item.
1.Rollin' an' a rockin' 2.Straighten up and fly right 3.Rattle my bones 4.Guitar boogie shuffle 5.My blue heaven 6.I think you're lying 7.Let's have a party 8.Hop skip jump mambo 9.Corrine Corrina 10.Boppin' the blues 11.Stranded in the jungle 12.Flippin' in 13.Ain't gonna do it no more 14.Mambo rock 15.Rip it up 16.My constant love 17.Made a mistake 18.Oo ya gotta 19.Lover boy 20.Go Joe go 21.Can't we be sweethearts 22.Fever 23.Rose of San Antone 24.Hallelujah I love her so 25.Charleston twist 26.Mountaineer teen break 27.Toodle oo kangaroo 28.Roll over Beethoven 29.I'm going home 30.Goodbye mambo
While instrumentals were a regular part of the hit parade during the fifties, guitar instrumentalss were few and far between, and then were usually limited to 'one-hit wonders'. Frank Virtue and his band, The Virtues, had a couple of hits, based on quirky rockabilly boogie woogie riffs.
Frank Virtue & The Virtues
In 1959 Frank Virtue enriched the world of music with his instrumental world-hit 'Guitar Boogie Shuffle', which now belongs to the classics of this genre. Although Frank Virtue and his Virtues were part of the Big Band Jazz Era and concentrated themselves mainly on instrumental music, they recorded from the middle to the end of the Fifties some successful Rock'n'Roll songs in Northern Band Sound à la Bill Haley, which are collected for the first tiine in this CD. Frank Virtue was born on the 21 st of January 1921 in South Philadelphia, were he also grew up. His family was from La Bruzzi, Italy and changed their name to 'Virtue' upon arriving in the USA. Frank attended the 'Thomas Jr. High' and the 'Southern School for Boys' where he first came in touch with Jazz musicians such as Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Harry James, Duke Ellington and other Big Bands of the Thirties and Forties. Little Frank took an early fancy to music and didn't give up until his parents allowed him to take violin lessons. At the beginning of 1936 at the age of 15, he took up the guitar and two years later he decided to study double bass. He took music very seriously and was instructed by Mr. Torrelli of the Philadelphia Orchestra, who was at that time one of the most famous musicians in his field. As a member of the school band, he accompanied musicians such as Frank Greer of the Metropolitan Opera, star tenor Mario Lanza and others. As a result Frank, registered himself at the Temple University to study music arrangement and at the beginning of the Second World War he became the leader of the 'Merchant Marine Band'. In 1945 he went into the US Navy and because of his musical backround he became leader, conductor and arranger of the 'Navy Dance Band'. Arthur 'Guitar Boogie' Smith was also stationed in Bainbridge and was supposed to have had a quite a strong influence on Frank Virtue's further life. In 1946 he was disbanded from the US Navy because of his father's cancer operation and from that moment on had to take care of this family and his brother Nicholas. This was also the time that Frank decided to found his own band. He was conscious of the financial problems of a big orchestra and decided therefore to found a trio à la Nat King Cole, the 'Virtuoso Trio', which consisted of Ralph Frederico (piano), St Rossi (guitar) and Frank Virtue (bass and guitar).....
Frank Virtue & The Virtues played Bill Haley and The Comets styled Fifties Rock'n'roll. 20 page booklet, lots of great 'period' photos - a genuine collector's item.