Kenny Vance and The Planotones

Jay Leno with Kenny Vance
and The Planotones

By Mark Handler

Jay Leno with Kenny Vance and The Planotones in the Mark C. Etess Arena at Trump's Taj Mahal Casino Resort.
Opening for Jay Leno was the incredibly gifted doo wop group, Kenny Vance and The Planotones.

(l to r) Kenny Vance, Jay Leno and Ken Weiss

This group of five fifty-something Brooklyn guys still carry the fire from when they were teenagers singing street corner doo wop and dreaming about stardom. Doo wop is a style of singing where harmonies would blend beautifully and the meaning of a lyric would be clear and concise. These were the beginnings of rock'n roll, when the human voices was the pre-eminent instrument before The Beatles arrived with their amplified guitars and pounding drums.
This night they performed well-known songs and some not so well known. "Hey Senorita" is fast paced and has witty lyrics and is sung with their beautifully melded harmonies. It was followed by "It's Alright" 1964's "I Love You" and the slow ballad, "It Takes A Fool." All were sung with a minimum of musical accompaniment - synthesizer and electric guitar.
The young group, West Philadelphia's own Boyz Too Men, carries on the vocal tradition of doo wop. Vance and The Planotones sang the Boyz Too Men classic "To The End Of The Road."
Next, they performed a medley of 50s doo wop classics that - if you turned on your radio in 1955 to DJ Alan Freed's radio show - you would definitely have heard. Included were "Who Wrote The Book Of Love" and "Who's That Knockin' On My Door?"

The group is comprised of Kenny Vance (originator, lead singer and co-founder of Jay And The Americans), Gary Bonner (famous for writing The Turtles' "Happy Together" and Three Dog Night's "Celebrate"), Jerry Freidman (an extraordinary guitarist who's noted for his session work with top singers), Eddie Hokenson (a noted backup singer and songwriter for a major motion pictures) and Murray Weinstock (an eclectic artist who has been a highly requested keyboard session player and backup singer with his unique bass vocals).
After his 12 year stint with Jay and The Americans, Kenny Vance went on to compose, supervise and produce a long list of scores and sound tracks for feature films and television one of which was - American Hot Wax - led to the creation of The Planotones. This 1978 movie about famous DJ Alan Freed recreated the musical lives of the groups of the 50s and 60s . The Planotones were formed solely for the film as an off-screen group .Then they disbanded. In 1992, Kenny brought them together again and the rest as the say is history.
The group ended with a wishful autobiographical number about the old days singing doo wop in Erasmus High School in Brooklyn entitled "Looking For An Echo." Besides being the title of their 1996 album, "Looking For An Echo" is also the title of a movie that is being made starring Armand Assante as Vance. It was recently filmed right in our own backyard at the Taj Mahal Casino Hotel.

Excerpts from Whoot Newspaper, Alantic City, NJ, April 29, 1999