“Screamin’ Scott” Simon, who performed piano within the early-rock revival group Sha Na Na for greater than a half-century and co-wrote the track “Sandy” that John Travolta crooned in Grease, died September 5 of sinus most cancers in Ojai, CA. He was 75.
His daughter Nina Simon introduced the information.
“Screamin’ Scott” Simon in an undated household photograph
Courtesy
The elder Simon joined Sha Na Na in 1970, the 12 months after its founding as a Fifties/early-’60s rock ‘n’ roll and doo-wop revivalist act and its look at Woodstock. He remained with the group, together with unique members Donny York and Jocko Marcellino, till it disbanded in 2022. He performed piano — banging out energetic covers of “Entire Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” “On the Hop” and others — and was identified for his signature shirt whose sleeves bore piano keys, which he typically pretended to play.
The group basked within the ’50s and early-’60s nostalgia craze of the mid-’70s as America got here to grips with Watergate and Vietnam. Spurred by George Lucas’ American Graffiti and hit information by early-rock acts together with Berry’s “My Ding-a-Ling” and Ricky Nelson’s “Backyard Celebration,” the fad helped popularize the likes of “oldies” radio and TV exhibits and movies together with Comfortable Days and The Lords of Flatbush. It additionally gave new life to the careers of such midcentury hitmakers as Paul Anka, Neil Sedaka, The 4 Seasons and lots of extra.
Alongside the best way, Simon and Sha Na Na hosted their very own syndicated selection present from 1977-81 and appeared because the fictional Johnny On line casino and the Gamblers within the juggernaut film musical Grease, starring Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. Simon and Louis St. Louis co-wrote the ballad “Sandy” for the film, which Travolta sings as he laments a drive-in date gone fallacious with Newton-John’s Sandy.
The movie’s soundtrack album topped the Billboard 200 for 12 weeks and is licensed eight occasions platinum within the U.S. It reportedly has offered greater than 30 million copies worldwide.
Born on December 9, 1948, in Kansas Metropolis, Simon was consumed by music from an early age. As a youngster, he performed in jug bands, based a jazz quartet and tried his hand at composing. His musical profession continued when he moved to New York Metropolis to attend Columbia College in 1966, the place he fronted a blues band referred to as The Royal Pythons and was given the moniker “Screamin’ Scott” by a classmate.
In 1970, Simon answered an advert within the every day Columbia newspaper about a gap for a piano participant and guitarist for a campus doo-wop group. Sha Na Na had performed proper earlier than Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock in August 1969 however nonetheless was comparatively unknown. Sha Na Na’s “Teen Angel” was featured within the fortieth anniversary home-video version of the Woodstock film in 2009, and its “Guide of Love” was included within the 2014 director’s minimize.
After Simon graduated from Columbia, he joined the band as its keyboardist and eventual managing companion.
Scott later moved to Los Angeles to carry out in all 96 episodes of Sha Na Na, their 30-minute selection present that featured his band and visitor artists starting from Chuck Berry, James Brown and Bo Diddley to the Ramones and Billy Crystal. On tour, Sha Na Na carried out with acts together with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Steve Martin, Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel. Though the group performed primarily traditional ‘50s and ‘60s songs, Simon composed a number of songs and solo albums carried out by the band and himself on information and on TV.
Together with Nina Simon, he’s survived by his spouse, Deborah Simon; daughters Morgan Simon; stepson Nick Richetta; and granddaughters Rocket Simon and Naomi Richetta.
DEADLINE RELATED VIDEO:
