Today (10/10) in 1939 rocker Tommy Bubba Facenda was born.
He spent a couple years touring as a back up singer in Gene Vincent's Blue Caps but left by 1958 for a solo career.
His first efforts met with failure so he migrated to NYC where he was discovered by Frank Guida, the head of Legrand Records. Guida had a concept for a novelty record titled "High School USA" that listed the schools around Facenda's his home state of Virginia.
After recording, Atlantic picked up the track and had Facenda record 28 versions namechecking regional schools in various states across the country. The song became a nationwide hit, reaching No. 30 on the Rhythm and Blues chart and No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959. All 28 regional versions were combined into one chart listing.
In 2012, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Facenda as a member of the Blue Caps by a special committee, aiming to correct the previous wrong of not including the Blue Caps with Gene Vincent. Bubba Facenda died where he began in Portsmouth Virginia in November 18, 2022, at the age of 83.
Despite the label shown, this is the national release. I dig it: