Shakin’ the Floors for Fifty Years

When the Dovells appear here Aug. 13 at the Lou Booth Amphitheater, Second and Ocean aves., don’t expect the ground to give way under the incessant pounding of Baby Boomer’s heels.
Sandy surfaces are not what dancers seek when they do the Bristol Stomp.
For the true effect, you need a good, ol’ hardwood floor — preferably one in a school gymnasium. At least that’s how we performed the stomp when the Dovells were sitting atop the charts in the early 60s. And now they return to the Wildwoods to help stompers celebrate the dance’s Golden Anniversary.
Today, two of the group’s original members — Jerry Gross and Mark Stevens — will be on stage with a seven-piece horn band performing the tunes that made them as recognizable as Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell, Frankie Avalon, Fabian, and other area rock and rollers of the 1950s and 60s.
“The Bristol Stomp was a hard dance to do,” Gross said in a recent interview. “When you get the Bristol Stomp; you get it. Some never do. Wildwood got it!”
The genesis of the dance could have come right out of a 1940s Hollywood musical screenplay — one worthy of Gene Kelly and Judy Garland.
“The song was written in one day by Kal Mann and Dave Appell,” Gross explained, “but it was (Parkway Records promotion man) Billy Harper who started it all when he ran in to a 1961 recording session and said, ‘Listen to this!’”
What Harper had was a recording that one of the kids had made of tune done at a dance the previous night at the Goodwill Fire Hall in Bristol, Pennsylvania. It wasn’t the tune that especially got everyone excited; it was what the kids were doing while the song played. They were stomping!
If you’ve never actually experienced a gym (or fire hall) filled with hundreds of teens pounding their shoe heels (in those days, you only wore sneakers to play ball) into a hardwood floor, well…let me just say, it’s loud! And if you’re there in person, the floor literally pulsates.
By the next day, Mann and Appell had penned the Bristol Stomp — sort of…
“They originally called it, ‘The Goodwill Stomp,’” Gross said. “I can’t imagine what it would have done if we had kept that name.”
What it did do was spend 19 weeks on the charts, once it got played around the country. And it propelled the Dovells into the spotlight. They had a string of hits (Do the New Continental, Bristol Twistin’ Annie, You Can’t Sit Down…) from 1961 through 64.
When they take to the stage at 8 p.m. Aug. 13 with their free concert, the Dovells will perform, but so will the audience.
There will be a Bristol Stomp contest, judged by true “Stomp” experts. (If you’ve ever been to a wedding where the DJ plays the Bristol Stomp, you’ve probably noticed that most contemporary “dancers” simply jump up and down doing an exaggerated — and annoying — form of the Bunny Hop.) And there will be cash prizes.
Gross and Stevens started singing back in 1957 at Philadelphia’s Overbrook High.
“Mark and I have never stopped,” Gross said. “We started out doing every record hop around, moved on to Vegas, then went on the nightclub circuit. Now we are even doing some rock and roll revival shows. Today, we do 20 to 25 dates a year.”
When the Dovells aren’t performing, Gross busies himself by producing “Lights Out,” a Four Seasons tribute band. You can see this fantastic group at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb-H2pe3sA0
Gross has also put together a TV show entitled, “Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay.”
“It’s a combination of the old 1960’s show, ‘Laugh-In’ and ‘Saturday Night Live,’” he said. “I originally did it in 1980, but it was too far ahead of its time. Now I’m bringing it back with some of that 80’s footage mixed in with some new. If the Baby Boomers see it; it could start a trend.”
But for the immediate future, the Dovells will be in North Wildwood Aug. 13, and for this one, maybe you should leave your sneakers at home.