Joey Castle

Chanteur Rockabilly US né Joseph Fohn Castaldo, le 24 Juin 1942 à New York. A l'âge de 16 ans Joey Castle enregistre pour son compte en juillet 1958 quelques morceaux de rockabilly, qu'il présente au label RCA. Une annonce parue dans "Billboard" daté du 21 juillet 1958 présente Joey comme « le nouveau roi du Rock 'n' Roll », le label RCA pensant alors avoir trouvé une nouvelle star. Ces prédictions ne se réaliseront pas. Il restera pour la grande majorité des américains un obscur petit chanteur de Rockabilly/Rock 'n' Roll. La carrière de Joey Castle entre 1958 et 1963 restera confidentielle.
Après quelques années Joey réalisera un autre enregistrement True Lips en 1963 sous le nom de Cliff Rivers. Il est décédé d'une tumeur au cerveau le 15 Décembre 1978.

Joey Castle was like a lot of the kids who came up in the wake of Elvis Presley, trying to sound like him and not making it, but with a difference — Castle left behind a dozen or so records that are well worth hearing.
Among the ranks of Elvis Presley sound-alikes, there are the imitators who came along in the wake of his death in 1977 and then there are those who came to the sound a little more honestly, back in the formative days of rock & roll. Joey Castle, aka Cliff Rivers, real name Jospeh Fohn Castaldo, fits into the latter category — he was even signed to RCA. And he never had the chance to cash in on Elvis' death as a sound-alike artist, succumbing to brain cancer less than 18 months after the demise of his onetime idol.
Joseph Castaldo was born in the Bronx, NY, in 1942, and was 13 years old when rock & roll broke nationally — the family was a musical one, his uncle Lee Castle having become famous as a bandleader in the 1940s, but Joey took to the new music. By the end of 1957, at 15, he was ready to take the plunge, and a year later his demo tapes landed him a contract with RCA. His first and only RCA release, "Come a Little Bit Close Baby" b/w "That Ain't Nothing But Right," failed to chart, and he was dropped from the label at the end of the year. He next turned up on the Headline label with a rockabilly screamer, "Rock 'n' Roll Daddy-O," backed with the brooding "Wild Love," both extraordinarily effective rockabilly tunes to come out of New York City — it didn't sell, but it did become a highly prized collector's item.
Castle kept performing locally but didn't record again until 1963, when he hooked up with entrepreneur Sid Prosen, who had previously recorded the teenaged Simon & Garfunkel as Tom & Jerry. Castle cut a series of sessions that yielded one single, "Marsha" b/w "True Lips," on Prosen's Thanks label, credited to "Cliff Rivers" — intentional or not, it was an Elvis homage, recalling the latter's performance as "Deke Rivers" in the best of his early movies, Loving You, as well as alluding to English rock & roller Cliff Richard. The A-side sounded like Elvis Presley crossed with Del Shannon, while the B-side recalled the Elvis of 1956 in a softer moment. Ironically, it was his best-selling record, although it never moved more than a few thousand copies, and most of those in England — too far away to do Joey Castle/Cliff Rivers any good.
Apart from a handful of unreleased tracks that year and the demos that got him signed to RCA in the first place, much of Castle's work consisted of cutting demos for publisher Hill & Range. He made his last single in the late '60s, still true to his rock & roll roots even amid the changing tastes of the era. During the 1970s, he re-emerged in a rock & roll/variety act featuring music and comedy, and put out an album of his own — Castle evidently had enough of a following locally to perform at least part-time and sell the album after his shows. He died of cancer in December of 1978.

1910

2000

DISCOGRAPHY

Singles

06/1958	SP RCA VICTOR 47-7283 (US)	.	That Ain't Nothing But Right / Come A Little Closer Baby
12/1959	SP HEADLINE 1008 (US)	.	Joey CASTLE & The DADDY-O'S - Rock And Roll Daddy-O / Wild Love
1962	SP TELSTAR NO9W-7503 (US)	.	The Voice In The Choir / You've Got Me Crying Again
05/1963	SP THANKS! 1201 (US)	.	Cliff RIVERS - Marsha / True Lips
12/1979	SP EMERALD CITY EC 7212 (US)	.	Green Wood / Bitter Grapes
12/1979	SP EMERALD CITY EC 7212 (US) (promo)	.	Green Wood [mono] / Green Wood [stereo]
2014	SP SLEAZY SR6 (S)		That Ain't Nothing But Right / Don't Knock It

Unissued Tracks

19??	Unissued track - (Bear Family LP 15114 (#8) / Bear Family CD 15560 (#4) / Bear Family CD 15560 (#16))	Please Love Me
19??	Unissued track - (Bear Family LP 15114 (#7) / Bear Family CD 15560 (#17))	Shake Hands With A Fool [vers. 1]
19??	Unissued track - (Bear Family CD 15560 (#18))	Shake Hands With A Fool [vers. 2]

Need Infos

19??	Need info - (Bear Family CD 15560 (#3))	Cathy [vers. 1]
19??	Need info - (Bear Family CD 15560 (#7))	Cathy [vers. 2]
1963	Need info - (Bear Family CD 15560 (#2))	Don't Knock It [vers. 1]
1963	Need info - (Bear Family CD 15560 (#9))	Don't Knock It [vers. 2]
19??	Need info - (Bear Family CD 15560 (#8))	Lucy Ann
19??	Need info - (Bear Family CD 15560 (#5))	That Ain't Nothing But Right [alt. vers. 12]
19??	Need info - (Bear Family CD 15560 (#6))	That Ain't Nothing But Right [alt. vers. 15]
19??	Need info - (Bear Family CD 15560 (#13))	True Lips [alt. vers.]

Album

1991

CD BEAR FAMILY BCD 15060 (GER)

ROCK AND ROLL DADDY-O - True Lips / Don't Knock It / That Ain't No Thing But Right / Please Love Me / Shake Hands With A Fool / Come A Little Closer Baby / Wild Love / Rock And Roll Daddy-O / Marsha / That Ain't Nothing But Right (take 12) / Lease Love Me (take 10) / That Ain't Nothing But Right (take 15) / Phantom Lover / That's My Secret / Cathy / Lucy Ann