Danny and the Juniors

The 1950s

Danny Rapp (lead tenor), Frank Maffei (second tenor), Joe Terranova (baritone/bass), and Dave White Tricker (tenor) (aka Dave White) met at John Bartram High School and started singing together in the mid 1950s. Known as the Juvenaires at the time, they sang at school parties and other local events. Local record producer John Madara took notice of them and introduced them to local DJ's Larry Brown and Artie Singer, who had a record label known as Singular Records. In 1957, they recorded a Dave White penned song "Do the Bop", and Singer took it to a fellow DJ named Dick Clark. Clark liked it and suggested changing their name to the Juniors and re-naming their song. They rerecorded it as "At the Hop" and it became a local hit in June 1957. In December 1957, they received a call from Dick Clark to be a last minute substitution for a no-show band on American Bandstand, and they performed it for a national audience. The song became a nationwide hit after ABC Paramount bought the master recording and issued it in January 1958. They soon appeared on The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, and other national TV shows. Soon after, they recorded "Rock 'n' Roll Is Here To Stay" and "Dottie", both of which charted.

The 1960s

In 1960, the band was signed to Dick Clark's Swan Records label, and they released one more record, "Twistin' USA". It made it into the Top 40, and became their final hit single. They went on to release several more singles, but were not able to repeat their earlier successes.

White left the group in the early 1960s to concentrate on writing and production. He was very successful in this venture, composing a number of hits, including "You Don't Own Me" for Lesley Gore, and "1-2-3" and "Like a Baby" for Len Barry.

Through the rest of the 1960s, the Juniors also appeared on Guyden Records, Mercury Records, and Luv Records (a subsidiary of Bell Records), where they re-recorded "Rock 'n' Roll Is Here To Stay" in 1968. In 1973 they re-recorded At The Hop for Crunch Records, which was owned by the same company that owned their ABC-Paramount Records master recordings.

The 1970s to the present

In 1976, "At the Hop" was re-issued, and it made its way into the Top 40 of the UK Singles Chart. The single was commercially used for the Canadian National Exhibition, changing the words to "Let's go to the Ex" rather than "Let's go to the hop." It was parodied by the band Dash Rip Rock with their single entitled "Let’s Go Smoke Some Pot", and by NRBQ during the 1973 energy crisis under the title, "Get That Gasoline".

After a few years, Rapp was found dead in a hotel in Arizona on April 5, 1983, of an apparent suicide.

Danny & the Juniors featuring Joe Terry currently tours, with Terranova singing lead, along with Maffei and Maffei's brother, Bobby Maffei.

Since September 2011, Frank Maffei and Terranova have presented an hour-long rock'n'roll radio special for London's Covent Garden Radio in the UK.

The Canadian pop group Finrod and the Juniors apparently were inspired by the 1950s doo-wop group Danny and the Juniors, with their style being very similar, including heavy use of harmony background vocals, rolling piano, and saxophone fills.

Members

Awards and recognition

Danny & the Juniors were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2003, and the group was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame on November 22, 2013.

Albums

Oddly, despite the sizable output released by Danny & The Juniors from the late 50's to early 60's, no albums were ever released during that time. The first compilation album was released in 1983: Rockin' With Danny and The Juniors on MCA; this was followed over the years by several other compilations on vinyl and CD.