“Or one of the skeletons in my closet”
I’ve been known by a lot of nicknames through the years; most of them can be talked about in public. One of the nicknames I’ll never forget is “Jocko.”
Back in 1971, I was proud to be a part of one of those 50’s tribute groups. We called ourselves MF and the Galaxies. Before I go any further, I must point out that “MF” was for Mike Franey, one of our lead vocalists. So get the minds out of the gutter. Gutters are for bowling balls. There were times when I had the pleasure of taking the lead on vocals; well I needed a name and it had to be a 50’s type nickname. So “Jocko” was born. The Galaxies sang a lot of DooWop and Rock & Roll from the 50’s and early 60’s. We even got aroud to singing the greatest song of them all, "I Wonder Why!"
The first time we sang, we used hairspray and something I came across called “Fitch Grease Hair Tonic.” When we put that stuff on our hair, I recall it just rolling down our faces. It added to the effect. Later we switched to good old Brylcream. The group went our separate ways after doing some fun shows through the 70’s. Unfortunately, our main lead vocalist, “MF” aka Mike Franey passed away in 1987. We were never able to recover after that tragedy.
Mike, and all the members of MF and the Galaxies, are more of those people that I blame for my fascination of the music of the 50’s and early 60’s.
I’ve been rummaging through my archived files looking for pictures of the Galaxies. So far, I’ve come across one of them, partly thanks to Sully, one of the followers of this blog. There was a comment from my first post saying, “Long Live MF and the Galaxies.” To this person, who obviously was around back then, I dedicate this post. Drop me an E-mail Poleprech, especially if you are one of our missing Galaxies. In the meantime, I’ll keep looking for those other pics of the group. I have them somewhere in a back up file.
Rock on everyone!
I’ve been known by a lot of nicknames through the years; most of them can be talked about in public. One of the nicknames I’ll never forget is “Jocko.”
Back in 1971, I was proud to be a part of one of those 50’s tribute groups. We called ourselves MF and the Galaxies. Before I go any further, I must point out that “MF” was for Mike Franey, one of our lead vocalists. So get the minds out of the gutter. Gutters are for bowling balls. There were times when I had the pleasure of taking the lead on vocals; well I needed a name and it had to be a 50’s type nickname. So “Jocko” was born. The Galaxies sang a lot of DooWop and Rock & Roll from the 50’s and early 60’s. We even got aroud to singing the greatest song of them all, "I Wonder Why!"
The first time we sang, we used hairspray and something I came across called “Fitch Grease Hair Tonic.” When we put that stuff on our hair, I recall it just rolling down our faces. It added to the effect. Later we switched to good old Brylcream. The group went our separate ways after doing some fun shows through the 70’s. Unfortunately, our main lead vocalist, “MF” aka Mike Franey passed away in 1987. We were never able to recover after that tragedy.
Mike, and all the members of MF and the Galaxies, are more of those people that I blame for my fascination of the music of the 50’s and early 60’s.
I’ve been rummaging through my archived files looking for pictures of the Galaxies. So far, I’ve come across one of them, partly thanks to Sully, one of the followers of this blog. There was a comment from my first post saying, “Long Live MF and the Galaxies.” To this person, who obviously was around back then, I dedicate this post. Drop me an E-mail Poleprech, especially if you are one of our missing Galaxies. In the meantime, I’ll keep looking for those other pics of the group. I have them somewhere in a back up file.
Rock on everyone!
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3 comments:
You forgot to mention the UMSL Halftime performance that also highlighted the singing talents and the only appearance of the Sonny and Cher tribute couple, Puny and Hair! I still use "I got you babe" as the ringtone on my Blackberry when my bride of 36 years calls me. That ringtone/song brings back a flood of memories everytime I hear it.
Oh, by the way, I noticed in your profile that you state you are semi-retired. Reminds me of a George Carlin bit where he asked about the definition of oxymoronic phrases. "Jumbo Shrimp? Is that a very large shrimp or a little bitty jumbo? How about a semi-truck driver. Does he only go as far as St. Louis?" So, semi-retired might take on a Carlin definition like your last job is in St. Louis!!
It is I, Hammer. We need to get together and catch up.
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