If you can recall the movie "Eddie and the Cruisers," chances are good you also remember John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band.
Why?
Because Cafferty and company supplied all the music to the 1983 movie about a fictional '60s-era rock 'n' roll singer-songwriter named Eddie Wilson and his band, the Cruisers.
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John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band were a hit in the 1980s with the soundtrack to the film 'Eddie and the Cruisers.'
The soundtrack yielded smash hits in the form of the the upbeat rocker "On the Dark Side" and the ballad "Tender Years," and became a Top 10 fixture on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
The group's follow-up record, 1985's "Tough All Over," was a hit, too, with the title track and a song called "C.I.T.Y" making significant inroads on American charts.
Now, the boys from Narragansett, R.I., are bringing their act to the Railroaders Memorial Museum in Altoona to kick off the Alive@Five summer concert series. The band will perform at 8 p.m. June 12 in the museum's railyard, with doors opening at 5 p.m. Local rockers Flight 19 will open the night's proceedings.
Fact Box
If you go
What: Alive@Five summer concert series presents John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band with special guest Flight 19
Where: Railroaders Memorial Museum, 1300 Ninth Ave., Altoona
When: Doors open at 5 p.m. June 12; bar and food available at 5 p.m. with the first show at 6:30 p.m. and the second show at
8 p.m.
Admission: Tickets are $20 and can be purchased from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday at the museum store. All tickets are general admission.
More information: Call the museum at 946-0834 or visit www.railroadcity.com.
"We're excited to get started on the new season of Alive@Five," said Scott Stuttard, president of In2it Productions, the Hollidaysburg-based live arts and entertainment production and promoting firm responsible for bringing the band to Altoona.
"Cafferty puts on an amazing live show - it's rock and roll in its purest form." Stuttard said. "From the first few notes of '(On the) Dark Side,' you'll know it's going to be a very special night. ... Every song is a sing-a-long, and every song will bring back a memory."
Tickets for the show have been selling well, he said, and with the advance weather forecast showing a beautiful sunshine-filled day, he expects it to be "a night not to miss."
Cafferty and his Beaver Brown Band originally formed in 1972, relentlessly touring Rhode Island's bar circuit and attracting a loyal following throughout Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Today the band includes John Cafferty on vocals and rhythm guitar, Stevie Burk on keyboards, Dean Cassell on bass, Jackie Santos on drums, Michael "Tunes" Antunes on saxophone (who appeared in "Eddie" as Wendell, the Cruisers' saxophone player and Eddie's best friend) and Gary Gramolini on lead guitar.
Cafferty said the band has been on "a never-ending tour" since its commercial heyday.
"We're not really promoting an album or anything. We're just a working band," Cafferty, 58, said in a recent phone interview from his home in Rhode Island.
"We're pretty much on the road all year long."
He recalled his band's 1983 transition from bar band to mega-stars.
"We went from playing bars at the beach to playing on American Bandstand and having the No. 1 video on MTV ('On the Dark Side')," he said.
"It was all really bizarre. We all looked at each other and said, 'Ya know, we're not any more talented now than we were before this happened.' But we enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun - and still is."
Despite the fact that the triple-platinum-certified "Eddie" soundtrack was their breakthrough to success, Cafferty initially begrudged the idea of writing for and performing music for the movie, which wasn't a box-office success upon its release but developed a following via cable TV showings and its subsequent release on video.
"I didn't like the idea of songs we were doing in real life coming out of the mouths of actors," he said. "At first I said no, because I felt we were good enough to get a deal without doing music for a soundtrack.
"But we decided to do it anyway, just to see what would happen. 'On the Dark Side' became a big hit, and the rest is history."
He's looking forward to bringing that history to the museum.
"It sounds like its gonna be a really fun night," he said. "We're looking forward to making some new friends, and probably seeing some old ones. ... We just want to make it a memorable night for everyone - just celebrate the fact that we're all there together."
Museum Executive Director Larry Salone looks forward to another summer of rock and roll fun.
"From the museum's side, we are so excited to have the lineup that we have (this summer), he said.
"We've taken this to a new level - bands that everybody knows and enjoys singing their songs. ... It's gonna be fantastic."
Mirror Staff Writer Jimmy Mincin is at 946-7460.
