Freddie Cannon

One notable fan of Cannon's was the late Box Tops and Big Star singer Alex Chilton; Chilton reportedly had a portrait of Cannon hanging on the wall of his home in New Orleans and had once offered the following comment about Cannon to a friend: "Freddy Cannon’s shows always worked, because he moved through life with ease."

He kept busy with recording and touring in rock-n-roll revival shows, and in 1982 made an appearance in the H. B.

In the 1970s he was working for Buddah Records, both as a performer and promotions man.

Records, and after leaving them in 1967 he recorded for various labels.

Cannon also appeared with Bobby Vee, Johnny Tillotson and others, in the movie Just for Fun, made in the UK in 1962. Although his popularity in the US faded, he remained a popular touring act in Britain and elsewhere in the world for some years. In 1963, he signed for Warner Bros. Records where he recorded his last two US top twenty hits, "Abigail Beecher" (No. 16) in 1964 and the following year "Action" (No. 13), from Dick Clark's TV show Where the Action Is, which he recorded with top Los Angeles session musicians including Leon Russell, James Burton, Glen Campbell, and David Gates. "Action" got a fourth gold disc for Cannon. Also in 1965, Slay acquired Cannon's Swan recordings and sold them to Warner Bros. He appeared, along with the Beau Brummels, in Village of the Giants, a teen movie with early film appearances by Beau Bridges and Ron Howard, and played himself, performing one of his songs, in the final episode of the teen soap opera, Never Too Young, on 24 June 1966. After leaving Warner Bros. Records in 1967, Cannon released singles on several labels, including Sire, Royal American, Metromedia, MCA, Andee, Claridge, Horn, and Amherst. In the 1970s he recorded and became a promotional man for Buddah Records, but returned to the lower reaches of the charts in 1981 with "Let's Put the Fun Back in Rock'n'Roll," recorded with the Belmonts for MiaSound Records and in 1982 appeared in the independent movie, The Junkman. Thereafter, he continued to work with Dick Clark at his Bandstand reunion concerts and to tour all over the world. In 2002, he released an album of seasonal songs, Have A Boom Boom Christmas!!

He continued to tour and record but his career faded somewhat until 1965, when he recorded the song "Action", which was the theme song for the Dick Clark-produced TV series Where the Action Is (1965).

He also appeared in a few movies, in such teen-themed vehicles as Just for Fun (1963) and Village of the Giants (1965). He left Swan Records and signed with Warner Bros.

He continued to have chart hits, although no blockbusters, until 1962, when he came out with his best-known song and his biggest hit, the Chuck Barris-written "Palisades Park", about a famous New Jersey amusement park.

The song's driving guitar solo, pounding bass drums and Cannon's shouts and cries of "Whoo!" made the song a major hit, hitting the #6 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959. With his name now changed to Freddy Cannon--at the suggestion of the record company's president--and dubbed "Boom Boom" because of his unrestrained, boisterous style of singing, he finally achieved his dream of becoming a singing star.

Freddy Picariello was born in Revere, Massachusetts, moving to the neighboring city of Lynn as a child. His father worked as a truck driver and also played trumpet and sang in local bands. Freddy grew up listening to the rhythm and blues music of Big Joe Turner, Buddy Johnson and others on the radio, and he learned to play guitar. After attending Lynn Vocation High School, he made his recording debut as a singer in 1958, singing and playing rhythm guitar on a single, "Cha-Cha-Do" by the Spindrifts, which became a local hit. He had also played lead guitar on a session for an R&B vocal group, the G-Clefs, whose record "Ka-Ding Dong" made No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1956. At a young age he joined the National Guard, took a job driving a truck, married, and became a father.

Rocker Freddy Cannon was born in the Boston suburb of Swampscott, Massachusetts. His father, a truck driver, was also a semi-professional musician, getting gigs in the Boston area with local bands playing his trumpet and singing. Freddy taught himself to play guitar, and after graduating high school in 1955 got a job playing guitar on a record by a local group called the Spindrifts, "Cha-Cha-Do". The record became a regional hit, and Freddy began getting more studio work, including playing the lead guitar on The G-Clefs' record "Ka-Ding Dong", which went to #24 on the Billboard national charts. Although he took a full-time job as a truck driver to support his family--he had married and had children--he didn't give up his musical career, and eventually formed a group called Freddy Karmon and the Hurrcanes, which began to make a name for itself in the Boston area. His appearances on a Boston dance show led to his signing a management contract with a Boston DJ, and soon Freddy cut a demo record--written by his mother--called "Rock and Roll Baby". His manager took the demo to the well-respected producing team of Frank Slay and Bob Crewe (later of The Four Seasons fame). The pair saw possibilities in it, and after some tweaking they sent Freddy back into the studio to re-record the song, now called "Tallahassee Lassie". Philadelphia TV personality and record producer Dick Clark heard the song and, after suggesting some further tweaks to it, had Freddy re-record it and distributed the record on Swan Records, of which he was part-owner.

He had numerous appearances on Clark's American Bandstand (1952) show, and altogether he had 22 songs place on the Billboard Top 100 list over the years. His follow-up song, "Okeefeenokee", did disappointing business, only reaching #43, but his next song, "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans", was one of his biggest hits, going gold and shooting to #3. He toured the US and Britain.

Frederick Anthony Picariello, Jr. (born December 4, 1940) known as Freddy Cannon, is an American rock and roll singer, whose biggest international hits included "Tallahassee Lassie", "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans", and "Palisades Park".

His second single "Okefenokee" (credited to Freddie Cannon, as were several of his other records) only made No. 43 on the charts, but the next record, "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans", a rocked-up version of a 1922 song, became a gold record and reached No. 3 in the pop charts in both the US and the UK, where it was the biggest of his hits. It also sold over one million copies. Cannon toured in Britain and, in March 1960, his album The Explosive Freddy Cannon became the first album by a rock and roll singer to top the UK Albums Chart. For the next two years, until early 1962, he continued to have lesser chart hits in the US, in some cases with versions of old standards including "Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy" and Edward "Kid" Ory's "Muskrat Ramble". His hits also included "Twistin' All Night Long", recorded with Danny and the Juniors and also featuring Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons on backing vocals. However, one of his biggest hits came in May 1962 with "Palisades Park", written by future TV Gong Show host Chuck Barris. Produced by Slay with overdubbed rollercoaster sound effects, it reached No. 3 on the Hot 100, No. 15 on the R&B chart, and No. 20 in the UK. This release also sold over one million copies, gaining gold disc status.