It was the summer of 1961 and we were performing again as we had every summer, that would eventually become fourteen years in Wildwood New Jersey at the RAINBOW CLUB with our band, The George Young Revue.

The Revue evolved from its earlier name, Georgie Young and the Rockin’ BOC’s. Rock ‘N’ Roll had become extremely popular during that time. (The “B” standing for Bender, Freddie Bender, our keyboard-organist … “O” for Opalisky, my original family name, and “C” for Pete Cozzi, our drummer, thus forming the original name BOC, not to be confused with Bach!

Also, another note to keep in mind; the original name of our group at its very beginning in the early fifties was, The BOC Trio. We eventually would add Bobby Mc Graw on the Fender Bass and Frankie Simon on the Guitar, but for a brief time. He was replaced with Robert “Bobby” Di Nardo who later became the staff guitarist of, The Mike Douglas Show.)

In the meantime, back in Philadelphia, Dave Appell had been calling upon several members in our band to record as back-up musicians for Cameo-Parkway Records, the company he worked for as an A & R man, arranger, co-song-writer and producer. He called upon me to play on Chubby Checker’s “Let’s Twist Again, Like We Did Last Summer” which became a huge hit record. I played the tenor saxophone solo on it as well. It was my second big hit record that I had performed on; the first being Bobby Rydell’s, “Kissin’ Time” for the same label on which again, I played the tenor saxophone solo.

The photo of the Rainbow Club’s marquee captures a bit of history from those early days that preceded my eventual New York recording career of forty years, as a studio musician.