San Francisco rock singer/songwriter - who should have done way better. Catchy tunes with a rockin' feeling - that might describe his music. The voice reminding of Bruce Springsteen at times. All that talent must have been the reason why many famous Bay Area artists joined Rocky Sullivan on his albums.
Rocky Sullivan was born as Anthony Galante in New York in 1948 and that's also the place where he joined his first bands. He started with the doo wop group 'The Visuals' and then went on to play with 'The Braid'. Further information regarding these bands can be found in an interview with Rocky (link underneath) and the discography. When Rocky came to San Francisco he had not only changed his name but also started his solo career and recorded several albums.
"Illegal Entry" (1980), a nice enough album which includes the tasty "Everybodies Got A Price", features among others, Nicky Hopkins, Greg Douglass, John Cipollina and Mario Cipollina. The songs on this album were recorded even before Rocky had a record deal during several sessions in 1978 (March, July and October) at the Automat, San Francisco. Except two songs, which were written by John Cipollina, Rocky wrote all songs himself.
"Back Up Girl" and "Roxy" had already been released before on San Fransico's Jupiter Records compilation City Lights in 1979. Which also featured the first appearance by Tommy Tutone.
Rocky Sullivan passed away at the age of 59 on November 25, 2007. He will be missed by fans,friends and family.
Hopefully Rocky's music will be re-released sometime in the future as all his wonderful recordings are currently out of print.
Tracklist
A1 Everybody's Got A Price
A2 Leave It At That
A3 Jacknife Lover
A4 Who's Kiddin' Who
A5 Whatcha' Get
A6 You
B1 Bring Back The Night
B2 Back Up Girl
B3 Bigelow 6-5000
Words By, Music By – Jim McPherson, John Cipollina
B4 Roxy
B5 Fever Dreams
Words By, Music By – John Cipollina
All songs by Rocky Sullivan except as noted.
Credits
Acoustic Guitar – Jeffrey Cohen (tracks: A6, B1)
Backing Vocals – Janet Morrison (tracks: A6, B1), Jeanette Sartain (tracks: A6, B1), Pam Moore* (tracks: A6, B1)
Bass – Mac Cridlin (tracks: A6, B1), Mario Cipollina (tracks: B2 to B5), Steve Lind (2) (tracks: A1 to A5)
Drums – Greg Anton (tracks: A1 to A5), Scott Mathews (tracks: A6 to B5)
Engineer – Chris Minto, Jeffrey Cohen, Leslie Ann Jones
Guitar – Greg Douglass (tracks: B2 to B5), John Cipollina, Mike Varney (tracks: A1 to A5)
Percussion – Carole Steele* (tracks: A6, B1)
Piano – Mark Shaiman (tracks: A6, B1), Nicky Hopkins (tracks: B2 to B5)
Producer – Jeffrey Cohen
Synthesizer – Mark Cummings (tracks: A6, B1)
Vocals – Rocky Sullivan
