December 4
BOOM BOOM DAY
Cannon’s went off in Lynn, Massachusetts on this day in 1940, when baby Frederick Anthony Picariello arrived on the scene. Little Freddy and his mom got along just fine. They even collaborated in the writing of a song when Freddy was 16. They titled their piece, Rock ’n’ Roll Baby. By this time Freddy was driving a truck while he was trying to make the move to show biz. The first thing he did was take on the stage name of Freddy Karmon.
Then he made a demo of the song and presented it to Philly DJ, Jack McDermott. What happened next made rock ’n’ roll history. Producers Frank Slay and Bob Crewe heard the song, took Freddy under their wings, changed his stage name to Freddy Cannon and the title of the song to Tallahassee Lassie. Freddy Cannon exploded onto the music charts and on June 29, 1959, he had a #6 hit. From that day on, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when you’d turn on a rock station, you could count on hearing jocks introducing Freddy ‘Boom Boom’ Cannon and hits like Way Down Yonder in New Orleans (#3 on January 11, 1960), Palisades Park (#3 on June 23, 1962), and Transistor Sister.
After recording several hit LPs in the mid-1960s, Freddy, no longer a teenage idol, promoted other singers’ recordings for Buddah Records, and participated in an oldies revival; having some success with his 1981 recording, Let’s Put the Fun Back in Rock ’n’ Roll.
Happy Birthday, Boom Boom.
Those Were the Days, the Today in History service from 440 International
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