Frankie Avalon defines music in personal terms.
“Music is a feeling and a memory you will never forget,” he said Saturday at the Circle Square Cultural Center in Ocala. “You hear a song and it brings you back to a moment.”
The same could be said for Frankie Avalon.
This Golden Oldie Boy of Bandstand is 77 and brought back memories in an ultra-smooth performance. Avalon has mastered the art of nostalgia, but there is more to him than just reliving the past.
He has a chummy, warm way with an audience. Avalon can sing a song, show a film clip and intertwine it with is life. He makes his music, old movies and his time on American Bandstand real and personal – like your uncle telling stories at the Thanksgiving table.
You keep wanting to hear more.
Avalon is one of those performers who seem forever young. From his self-described “steel” pompadour, to those sparkling eyes and frisky stage movements, Avalon not only sells a song but himself.
A Frankie Avalon show is part nostalgia and part biography. It’s filled with film clips, old photos and long -ago hit records. That formula helps Avalon touch a raw nerve with a generation of performers and fans that grew up with him but are now disappearing.
Avalon often reminisces about Elvis, Bobby Darin, Rick Nelson, Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson.
They’re all long gone but Avalon is still out there hustling.
“Frankie is one of the few original guys from the ‘50s still around,” said Floyd Painter, a longtime fan . “He’s an authentic part of that era. It’s not easy going out there and still singing those songs and sounding fresh. But Frankie does it.”
He doesn’t hide from age, Avalon embraces it.
“Time goes by so fast,” he said on stage. “There are three ages: young, middle age and ‘you look good.’” After chatting with the sold out audience, Avalon opened the show with a swinging jazz version of “Where Or When.”
Then he jumped into the schmaltzy pop of “Beach Blanket Bingo,” one of the many Beach movies he made with Annette Funicello.
“Annette’s gone and we all miss her,” Avalon said with a sad voice.
But the Frankie show goes one.
“I’ve got eight kids and the oldest is 54. We’re both the same age,” he cracked.
The highlight of any Avalon show is the younger members of his band: his son Frankie Jr. on drums and Edan Everly – Don Everly’s son — on lead guitar.
Those two kicked up the energy level, especially during an Everly Brothers tribute that included “Bye Bye Love” and “Dream.”
Then it was back to the Frankie shtick.
“I’ve got great hair for a man of my age—67 plus 10,” he said . “It’s not a wig or toupee or a helmet –this is my hair.”
Avalon then, aptly enough, sang his big song from the movie “Grease,” called “Beauty School Dropout.”
He covered most of his big hits including: “Dee-Dee-Dinah,” “Gingerbread,” “Bobby Sox to Stockings” “Just Ask Your Heart” “Why” and of course his biggest hit, “Venus.”
Those songs have been around for six decades but the audience still remembered and you could almost feel the warm glow from the people when they listened.
Such is the power of music – and Frankie Avalon.