Thursday, July 9, 2015

Rocky Fellers, The (1960)

The Rocky Fellers were an American-born Filipino pop/rock band discovered by Stanley Kahn in the 1960s, who signed them to Scepter Records. The group was composed of four Filipino brothers: Tony, Junior, Eddie and Albert Maligmat, and their father, Doroteo "Moro" Maligmat. They had a hit single called "Killer Joe", written by Bert Russell and Bob Elgin in 1963. The song was inspired by famed dance instructor and 'King of the Discothèque', Killer Joe Piro. It has many similarities to the chorus of the Mickey and Sylvia hit, "Love Is Strange".
"Killer Joe" reached No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1963. They followed up with another Bob Elgin song called "Like the Big Guys Do". Among their other recordings was a Christmas novelty song, "Santa, Santa", written by a then-unknown songwriter, Neil Diamond. The Rocky Fellers also recorded another Neil Diamond song, "We Got Love" which is available on their LP, Killer Joe from 1963. The Rocky Fellers faded quickly from the music scene in the mid-1960s, primarily due to the arriving British Invasion bands.
Tony Maligmat died on March 4, 2007 at the age of 62.

Lucita Soriano at Stella Suarez nagsabunutan (August 28, 1967)