David White obit

 

David White, Hitmaker With Danny and the Juniors, Dies at 79

He was not on the list.

David White, who as a teenager in Philadelphia co-founded the doo-wop group Danny & the Juniors in 1955, and wrote or co-wrote many of their hits including the #1 “At the Hop,” as well as “Rock and Roll is Here to Stay,” died March 16, in Las Vegas, Nev., where he lived. His death was confirmed by a daughter, Wendy Adamczyk. Though no cause of death was announced, White had been hospitalized last month. He was 79.

With John Madara, three years his senior, White co-wrote 1957’s “At the Hop” (with Artie Singer). The song was later famously performed by Sha Na Na at the 1969 Woodstock festival. White alone is credited for writing “Rock and Roll is Here to Stay,” a #19 hit for Danny & the Juniors.

As the Juvenaires in the mid-’50s, White, Danny Rapp, Joe Terranova and Frank Maffei performed at local events in the Philadelphia area. White and Madara, then a local producer, wrote a song called “Do the Bop,” which the Juvenaires recorded. Singer took the song to an influential local disc jockey, and soon-to-be host of American Bandstand, Dick Clark. Clark suggested changing the song title as well as the lyric, “Let’s all do the bop” to “Let’s go to the hop.” He convinced the quartet to rename themselves Danny & the Juniors.

In December 1957, they performed “At the Hop” on AB and the song took off.

The band’s namesake, Danny Rapp, died in 1983 at just 41.

The Madara-White songwriting team also wrote “The Fly,” a 1961 hit for Chubby Checker, “You Don’t Own Me,” a #2 smash for 17-year-old Lesley Gore in 1963, and “1-2-3,” a #2 hit for Len Barry in 1965, among others.

In 1991, White's piano was donated to The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1992, White and Danny & the Juniors were inducted into The Hall of Fame and Walk of Fame in Philadelphia by The Philadelphia Music Alliance. In 2003, Danny & the Juniors were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in Sharon, Pennsylvania. In 2013, White and Danny and the Juniors were inducted into The Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame in Philadelphia. Also in 2013, White and John Madara were inducted into The Walk of Fame by The Philadelphia Music Alliance.

White arranged and performed background vocals for Debby Boone and Bernadette Peters, appearing with Bernadette on The Tonight Show and The Tim Conway Show.

Moving on to Decca Records, White and Madara produced "1-2-3" (No. 2 in Billboard), co-writing it with Len Barry. This song is also featured in several motion pictures, including Mr. Holland's Opus.

Some other hits that Madara and White co-wrote and co-produced include "Birthday Party" (No. 40 in Billboard), "442 Glenwood Avenue" (No. 56 in Billboard) and "Cold Cold Winter" (No. 79 in Billboard), all for The Pixies Three; "Pop-Pop-Pop-Pie" (No. 35 in Billboard) for The Sherrys; and "The Boy Next Door" (No. 18 in Billboard) for The Secrets. “Today’s The Day” (No. 91 in Billboard) for Maureen Gray.

At Decca, White, Madara, and disc jockey Ray Gilmore formed and became members of The Spokesmen. Madara and White co-produced "Dawn of Correction" (No. 36 in Billboard) for them, co-writing the song with Gilmore. The Spokesmen recorded an album and made appearances on The Mike Douglas Show, Shindig!, Shivaree, Where the Action Is, and Hollywood A Go-Go, among others. White and Madara along with Gilmore also wrote "Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)", recorded by Johnny Farnham, which became a number one record in Australia.

The Juvenaires were renamed Danny & the Juniors, since it was a more contemporary name, and "At the Hop" backed with "Sometimes (When I'm All Alone)" was released on Singular Records, Artie Singer's label with partner, disc jockey Larry Brown. Payola was not illegal at the time and Singer reluctantly gave Dick Clark half the publishing of "At the Hop", which Clark later sold prior to the payola hearings in 1960. "Sometimes (When I'm All Alone)" became a favorite of a lot of street corner groups just starting out who later became successful, including The Capris, The Chimes, The Cleftones, The Rascals, The Del Satins, The Dovells, The Elegants, The Impalas, The Earls, Randy & the Rainbows, The Tokens, The Vogues, and Vito & the Salutations, among others.

White was now attending Temple University on a full gymnastics scholarship, but when Dick Clark started playing "At the Hop", he left college, never to return, instead going over to Danny Rapp's house every weekday to watch American Bandstand. "At the Hop" went to number one on the Billboard Chart, a position it would hold for seven weeks, breaking a record for vocal group chart position. It was also number one on the R&B chart for five weeks, and stayed in the top forty for eighteen weeks. "At the Hop" is featured in quite a few films, most notably, American Graffiti and Woodstock (performed by Sha Na Na). Singular Records could not handle the distribution of such a hot record, so Singer sold the master to ABC Paramount Records. Danny and the Juniors' follow-up record was White's composition "Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay", which went to number nineteen on the Billboard Chart and has become a rock and roll anthem. It is featured in the films Grease (performed by Sha Na Na) and Christine, among others.

White had several other chart records while with the group, including "Dottie" (No. 39 in Billboard), "Twistin' USA" (No. 27 in Billboard), "Pony Express" (No. 60 in Billboard), "Twistin' All Night Long" (No. 68 in Billboard), "Back to the Hop" (No. 80 in Billboard), "Doin' the Continental Walk" (No. 93 in Billboard), and "Oo-La-La-Limbo" (No. 99 in Billboard). White said in a later interview: "Back then, you would give a DJ a bottle of booze, and he'd play your record. You could just walk into a recording studio. We were making three or four records a week..."

White appeared with Danny and the Juniors in the 1958 film Let's Rock and while touring with them he appeared at The New York Paramount with Alan Freed and The Apollo in Harlem with "Jocko" Henderson. Some other appearances with the group include Patti Page's The Big Record, Merv Griffin's Saturday Night Prom, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom, and Dick Clark's Saturday Night Beechnut Show.

White left the group in 1959, but continued to appear and record with them occasionally until the early 1970s.

White then wrote and co-produced "The Thought of Loving You" for The Crystal Mansion, of which he became a member. It has been covered by Cher, The Manhattan Transfer, Astrud Gilberto, Lou Christie, The Spiral Starecase, and Wayne Newton.

In 1971, White recorded a Brooks Arthur-produced solo album for Bell Records titled Pastel, Paint, Pencil and Ink under the name of David White Tricker (Tricker being his family name).

He lectured at a community college and studied film scoring and orchestration at UCLA Extension.