JOHN MEDORA
John Madara (born John 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)”.
(August 2015)
