Little Anthony would rather be a live singer than a dead legend.
“People come up to me and say, ‘Anthony, you’re a legend,’” the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer said in a telephone interview. “I tell them, I don’t want to be a legend. The only legends I know are dead.”
Anthony Guordine, 75, is alive and well and as close to an American music legend as you can get. He and his group, The Imperials were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009.
They perform a rare, three-night stand at the Savannah Center, July 26-28. Showtime is 7 p.m.
Little Anthony and the Imperials’ career stretches back to the late 1950s, when they had such hits as “Tears On My Pillow,” and “Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Bop.”
Unlike so many pioneering music acts from the 1950s, the group came back strong in the mid-1960s, overcoming the British Invasion and Motown. They scored such singles as, “Going Out of My Head,” “Hurt So Bad,” “Take Me Back,” “I’m On the Outside Looking In.” Here’s a video of the group:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CglTVsHgmPs
After 60 years in the business, the act is as vibrant as Anthony’s voice and he can’t wait to visit The Villages once more.
“We were there about 15 years ago, I hear The Villages is a lot bigger now,” he said. “What I love about The Villages is its ambience. It’s a fun place. People there love music and they love to have a good time.
“I saw them driving those little carts around. I got into one of those carts and drove it. It’s wild. I really dug it.”
Like many Villagers, Anthony refuses to let age slow him down.
“This is the most wonderful time of my life,” he said. “I’m 75 and I never had it better.”
And he doesn’t live in the past.
“I detest being known only as a doo-wop singer,” said Anthony, who started his career back in the Brooklyn projects, singing on street corners. In those days, he was a kid singing the songs of Johnny Ace and the Penguins, the “5” Royales, the Orioles and the Crows.
But Anthony realized that longevity and survival in the music business meant moving on and changing with the times. He yearned to be more than an “oldies act.”
“People change, generations change and music moves on,” Anthony said. “We’re not just singing our old hits. We sing R&B, blues and more modern songs. What matters is that it comes from your heart, and it’s authentic.
“That’s why we’re in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It’s not for one song or style of music; it’s for our body of work.”
One of the songs Anthony is currently rehearsing is “Uptown Funk,” a hit a few years ago by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars. “I’m not going to limit myself. I’m 75 and I’m doing some ‘Uptown Funk.’ That’s cool.”
Now, don’t get the idea that Anthony’s show is filled with rap and funk. It features songs from his early days and the ballads from ‘60s but also numbers from Sting and Rod Stewart. Also, there is gorgeous acapella harmony, including “Just Two Kinds of People In the World,” written by Ernest Wright, an original Imperial. He is joined in the current line-up with Robert DeBlanc and Johnny Britt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCjptf_8Y2I
There was a time when Anthony resented the name, “Little Anthony.” Famed DJ Alan Freed gave him that moniker back in the 1950s.
“It used to offend me,” Anthony said. “There was a time I thought I had moved on past that name. But I came to embrace it – because that’s who I am. That’s how people know me and my music.”
Freed is the man credited with coining the term “rock and roll” but his career and life nosedived after the “payola” scandal of the late 1950s. Freed appeared before Congress and was charged with taking money to play records on the air.
“Alan Freed was very supportive to me and he was a cool dude,” Anthony said. “He became a scapegoat and he drank a lot. It was very sad.”
Dick Clark was another friend and supporter. He put Anthony and the Imperials on “American Bandstand” and they also were on Clark’s “Caravan of Stars” tours.
“Dick Clark was like my father,” Anthony said. “He adopted me. When we would go on tour, Dick let me sit with him in the front of the bus. Fabian and I were very young, and we were like the street kids on the tour. Dick watched over us. Later on, his wife would babysit my kids.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mLjZRAXRRA
During the early ‘90s, when Anthony and the Imperials reunited, “Dick was the first guy to call, and he put us on television for Bandstand’s 40th anniversary special.”
Little Anthony has witnessed firsthand the history and growth of American music and rock and roll. He details his life in the book, “Little Anthony: My Journey, My Destiny.”
It’s the story of a street kid out of Brooklyn who only wanted to do one thing—sing.
“If my Dad couldn’t sing and perform, it would drive him crazy, and he would drive us crazy,” said his son and agent, Tony Guordine, one of Anthony’s nine children. “He’s not just about music, I think he is about artistry – he is an artist and his music comes from his heart.”
Guordine describes his father as “a very humble, quiet guy offstage, with a great sense of humor.”
Villager “DJ” Al Brady has worked with Little Anthony many times.
“His music is timeless,” said Brady, a local radio personality and DJ. “His music was extremely well-produced with riveting lyrics. Little Anthony and the Imperials have long passed their doo-wop days and they are as good as ever with their wonderful vocal harmonies.”
Little Anthony just keeps moving on. He recently moved to Boca Raton, FL. from Las Vegas. “It’s not easy moving across country when you’re 75, but I like Florida,” he said. “I can go fishing whenever I want.” Another reason was to be closer to his 14 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren.
A turning point in Anthony’s life came in 1978, when he became a Christian. “It changed everything. I tell people, ‘You can’t define me, only God can define me,’” he said.
Maybe that’s the answer to Little Anthony’s longevity and his still shimmering talent.
“I’m 75, I don’t know how I do it – I don’t know how I can still hit these high notes,” he aid. “It’s a gift from the Father. I love to sing and by God’s will, I’m going to keep on singing.”
