JOHN MADARA
John Madara (born John L. Medora; May 28, 1936) is an American singer-songwriter and record producer who teamed up with David White and Arthur Singer to write the 1957 hit song “At the Hop”. He later co-wrote other hits including “1-2-3” for Len Barry, and “You Don’t Own Me” for Lesley Gore. In 1965, he and White co-wrote and performed, as the Spokesmen, the song “Dawn of Correction”, an answer song to Barry McGuire’s hit “Eve of Destruction”. The pair also formed their own publishing company which was later sold to Michael Jackson. Madara also worked as a record producer, and discovered both Leon Huff, later a highly successful songwriter and producer, and Hall and Oates. In the mid 1970s he moved to Los Angeles, and produced music for movies including Cinderella Liberty and Hey Good Lookin’, as well as for television. (More from Wikipedia)
David White (real name: David White Tricker) comes from a show biz family, performing as a child with his parents in an acrobatic trio called Barry and Brenda and Company. Singing first tenor, White started a doo-wop vocal group called the Juvenaires in 1955 with Danny Rapp (lead singer), Joe “Terry” Terranova (baritone) and Frank Maffei (second tenor). White made contact with another young singer, John Madara (real name: John Medora) who had a hit in 1957 with “Be My Girl” under the name Johnny Madara. The two wrote a song called “Do the Bop” for the Juvenaires and brought it to their vocal coach and record producer Artie Singer. He liked the song and arranged studio time in Philadelphia to record that song and also a ballad that White had written called “Sometimes (When I’m All Alone)”.
At the studio, the Juvenaires were told that they would be singing back-up for John Madara; but as it turned out, his record company turned down the song “Do the Bop”. Artie Singer took the song to Dick Clark, who suggested that they change the name to “At the Hop”, since “bop” was considered old-fashioned by then. (Cyndi Lauper would later revive the term in a completely different context in her 1984 hit song “She Bop”).
The band changed its name to Danny and the Juniors and. after performing as a last-minute substitute on American Bandstand, had a #1 hit for 7 weeks with “At the Hop” (beginning in January 1958, and breaking the record among vocal groups). In a classic example of so-called “payola”, Artie Singer (who also has a writing credit for “At the Hop”) had to sign over one-half of the publishing credits for the song to Dick Clark (Clark sold the rights to the song prior to the Congressional payola hearings in 1960).
* * *
“At the Hop” though has reached almost mythic status, far beyond even the major hit that Danny and the Juniors made of the song. One of the earliest of the rock and roll revival bands, Sha Na Na (with the name taken from among the innumerable nonsense syllables in the classic “Get a Job” by the Silhouettes) performed “At the Hop” at the original 1969 Woodstock festival not long after the group was founded earlier that year. Sha Na Na is perhaps the most unlikely rock band to appear at Woodstock; what’s more, their set immediately preceded that of Jimi Hendrix which included his legendary performance of “The Star Spangled Banner”. “At the Hop” also appears in the Woodstock film and the triple-LP Woodstock soundtrack album.
Sha Na Na has had a long career, including a syndicated television show called Sha Na Na from 1977 to 1981 (roughly 10 years after their appearance at Woodstock). Wikipedia lists dozens of albums in the band’s discography. The gonzo antics of the best known member of the band, Jon “Bowzer” Bauman were probably the key to the band’s (and the show’s) success. Bowzer did not appear at Woodstock but was in Sha Na Na from 1970 to 1983.
* * *
“At the Hop” was also featured in the nostalgic 1973 hit movie American Graffiti, an early film among the credits for both George Lucas (director) and Francis Ford Coppola (producer). Unlike the other rock and roll hits featured in the film (which were by the original artists and were found only in the soundtrack), three songs were performed in the film by another rock and roll revival band, Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids. “At the Hop”, “Louie Louie” and an original composition by the band called “She’s So Fine” were performed “live” by Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids (under the name of Herbie and the Heartbeats) in the dance party sequence in the film. “Louie Louie” did not appear on the double-LP soundtrack album, 41 Original Hits from the Soundtrack of American Graffiti, though “At the Hop” and “She’s So Fine” did.
Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids (now known as Flash Cadillac) are still around, having released five albums; three singles by the group made the Billboard Hot 100.
* * *
David White left Danny and the Juniors and formed a production and songwriting team with John Madara called Madara and White Productions. One of their early hits was a #7 song that they wrote and produced in 1961 for Chubby Checker called “The Fly”.
One of their finest and best known songs is the proto-feminist anthem by Lesley Gore called “You Don’t Own Me”, a #2 hit in December 1963 that was kept from the top of the charts only by the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand”. The song was written by David White and John Madara; Quincy Jones was the record producer, and Jones later produced a 2015 remake of “You Don’t Own Me” by Australian artist Grace featuring G-Eazy.
David White and John Madara had a second #2 hit song in 1965 with “1-2-3” by Len Barry, who had been the lead singer of the Dovells, one of my favorite early rock and roll groups.
* * *
In 1965, David White and John Madara formed a band called the Spokesmen with a popular Philadelphia disc jockey named Ray Gilmore. They had an “answer song” that year to the Barry McGuire protest song “Eve of Destruction” that was called “The Dawn of Correction” (“You missed all the good in your evaluation . . .”). I used to play those two singles back to back all the time back in the day. White and Madara produced the song, which was written by all three bandmembers. A cover version of the Beatles song “Michelle” by the Spokesmen was a minor hit in the Philadelphia area.
David White, John Madara and Ray Gilmore also co-wrote a song called “Sadie (the Cleaning Lady)” that became a #1 hit in Australia in 1967 for Johnny Farnham.
* * *
In 1963, David White and John Madara were approached by a Cleveland girl group called the Secrets, who had secured a recording contract after playing at a gig with the Starfires (also of Cleveland and later evolving into the Outsiders). They used their influence to release a single in October 1963 on Philips Records, “The Boy Next Door” b/w “Learnin’ To Forget” that became a #18 hit. The Secrets released three other unsuccessful singles on Philips Records that each featured a David White/John Madara penned song. The “A” side on one single that is shown in Discogs, “Here He Comes Now!” b/w “Oh Donnie (He Ain’t Got No Money)” was co-written by legendary “Philly soul” producer Leon Huff, who also worked with past UARA Mikki.
* * *
The single by the Secrets mentioned above also features the Madara White Orchestra; this name (or variations) shows up on other early 1960’s singles, including the 1963 single “Gotta Dance” b/w “At the Shore” by Johnny Caswell, who later became the lead singer for Crystal Mansion. A version of “La Bamba” was released under the name the Madara White Orchestra, also in 1963. Additionally, David White and John Madara co-wrote both sides of a 1963 single for an active band called the Visions (also known as Bocky and the Visions), “Tommy’s Girl” b/w “Oh Boy, What a Girl”.
* * *
The genesis of Crystal Mansion was in an R&B covers band called the Secrets from Mount Laurel, NJ that was active from 1962 to 1968 – they had the same name as the girl group called the Secrets that David White and John Madara had worked with in 1963, though there was apparently no other relation between the two groups.
(August 2015)
