TWIXTEEN - GENE SUMMERS FEATURING MIKU FROM THE STOMPIN' RIFFRAFFS ON PIANO

Gene Summers performing Twixteen live featuring Miku from the Stompin' Riffraffs on Piano. This is another Rockabilly video from my archive, filmed in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York in 2010 at the Rebel Night Weekender. Now that I have the resources to do so, I have improved the picture quality from SD to HD and I also improved the audio quality. Miku spontaneously decides to join in the song, and before long the two of them have a lot of fun. Previously the SD version of this video got two thousand views. Halfway through the song you see the silhouettes of three dancing couples which makes for a really great image. The last New York City video that I did at Union Square was the worst performing NYC video of the entire year, it didn't even get to a 100 views :) So I think that I am going to take a week off from the New York videos and perhaps try and regain some momentum again starting next week. It was a bit disheartening to be honest with you after having put so much work into making the video. I have a couple of dozen music videos that I want to integrate into this channel, and what better time to do so than when nobody is watching my videos anyway 😄 I still have a dozen New York videos in the bank and I have shoots planned for this week and next week, so there will be plenty from New York still to come. Hopefully you will understand why I want to take a week off from posting the New York videos. Gene Summers, born David Eugene Summers (January 3, 1939 – February 17, 2021), was an American rock singer. His recordings include "School of Rock 'n Roll", "Straight Skirt", "Nervous", "Gotta Lotta That", "Twixteen", "Alabama Shake", "Fancy Dan" and his biggest-selling single "Big Blue Diamonds". Summers was inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Southern Legends Entertainment & Performing Arts Hall of Fame in 2005. He still performed worldwide and celebrated his 50th anniversary as a recording artist in 2008 with the release of Reminisce Cafe. Summers was born in Dallas, Texas. He graduated from Duncanville High School in 1957 and attended Arlington State College, now known as the University of Texas at Arlington. That same year, he formed the rockabilly band the Rebels and performed on Joe Bill's Country Picnic on KRLD-TV where they were spotted by songwriter Jed Tarver. This led to the band being signed by newly founded Jan Records. Their first record was released on February 1, 1958, under the name of Gene Summers & His Rebels. Summers, who was still popular on the back of two regional hits "Straight Skirt"/"School Of Rock 'n Roll", and "Nervous"/"Gotta Lotta That", was playing in east Dallas at the 123 Club with his new group of Rebels which included lead guitarist and original Rebel James McClung, bass player Jack Castleberry, drummer Charlie Mendias and Codine Craft on piano. When Craft married and left the band, she was replaced by pianist/frontman C.W. Kendall formerly of the Big Beats - "Clark's Expedition" and "The Big Beats Live At The Off-Broadway" an LP issued by Liberty Records. This provided the opportunity for Summers to exit the Rebels and in April, 1961 a new group emerged on the DFW club scene known as Gene Summers and the Tom Toms. One of the first performances of this newly formed alliance was on a bill in Fort Worth, Texas at Jimmy Levin's Skyliner Ballroom with legendary bluesman Elmore James. (Before becoming a musical unit, Summers and the Tom Toms had booked studio time in early 1961 at The Clifford Herring Studios in Fort Worth where they recorded three songs. The first title was guitarist Eddie Hill's “Taboo”, “Tomorrow” and an original instrumental titled “Loco Cat”. By May, 1961, Gene and the Tom Toms were touring the US with the Chuck Berry show. The lineup also included Bill Pinkney's Original Drifters (Bill Pinkney, Andrew Thrasher, Gerhart Thrasher and Bobby Hollis) plus Bobby Hendricks of "Itchie Twitchie Feeling" fame. The group toured most of 1961 but by the end of that year they had begun to break up. Eddie Hill and Joel Colbert wanted to form a new band so they left the Tom Toms and departed for Lubbock, Texas. It was while he was returning to Dallas in early 1962 that Eddie Wayne Hill and one of his new band members, Donny LaGrone, were killed when their convertible collided head-on with a gravel truck on state Highway 114 south of Decatur, Texas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Summers

Added 19 Jul 2026