Debra Yurica and Swinging' Majority
I fell in love with music from probably the time I could hear it and understand. I truly remember bopping up and down in my playpen to to songs of Elvis, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Hank Williams and whatever else was on the radio. It was 1956 and I was three years old.
I grew up on North and Pulaski (in Chicago) right in the midst of an explosion of rock music followed by the incredibly exciting 'British Invasion' of the early '60s. I could always be found on my bike with my Hitachi transitor radio blasting away the sounds of WLS and WCFL. I rushed home from school every day to see Where the Action Is and never missed American Bandstand on Saturday.
At the age of 10, I attended my first concert with my best friend Edna (who, by the way, had the coolest mom and dad of all time). The lineup of that concert was quite bizarre. It was The Four Seasons, The Shangra-Las, The Righteous Brothers and Roger Miller. It was glorious and I was hooked on live shows from that moment on. I'm not sure how we knew we could do this but at the end of the show we ran around to backstage, past The Righteous Brothers walking down the road. I begged them to sign my white shirt. Bobby Hatfield said, 'No, your mother will kill you!' Assuring him I'd live, he did sign, followed by Bill and then everyone else backstage. So, I became a huge fan of music in many forms and started going to as many shows as I could and finding out where people were playing.
Listening to Art Roberts on the radio is most likely the source for Swingin' Majority! I was a clever little thing and could always find bands and their whereabouts. I was quite young at the time so I never actually got onto the show but I was outside waiting for autographs and news of concerts when the bands emerged. For a while I had a blue autograph doll that everyone signed. If I had only kept the doll and the white shirt!
There are so many stories, letters received, phone calls, being completely in love with music and having a wonderful father that carted me all over the place to go to live shows, even to Wisconsin.
I could go on and on but this will at least give you a taste of what my growing up years were like. I still have a major passion for music and now I'm a bit sad. I live in the south of India and there are really no concerts here other than classical Indian music. The last shows I saw before I left London (my home for 15 years), were The Eagles and Bruce Springsteen.
All photos courtesy Debra Yurica.
Left to right:
1) Art Roberts, host of Swingin' Majority
2-3) Tiny of The Human Beinz
4-5) Mike & The Messengers
6-7) Mike of The Human Beinz
8-13) The Robbs (Joey, Joey, Joey, Dee, Bruce, Joey)
14-19) The Turtles (Howard Kaylan, Al Nichol)
20-21) Barry Cowsill of The Cowsills
22) Jim Fairs of The Cryan' Shames
23-26) The Flock
27-28) H.P. Lovecraft (Jerry Mc George and Michael Tegza)
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