John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band | |
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Origin | Rhode Island, United States |
Genres | Rock, heartland rock |
Years active | 1972–present |
Labels | Scotti Bros., Epic, CBS Associated Records |
Associated acts | Beaver Brown, Ernie and the Automatics |
Members | John Cafferty Gary "Guitar" Gramolini Michael "Tunes" Antunes Jackie Santos Steve Burke Dean Cassell |
Past members | Bobby Cotoia, Pat Lupo, Kenny Jo Silva, Paul Jackson, Fred Macari, Thom Enright |
John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band is an American rock band from Rhode Island which began its career in the 1970s and achieved mainstream success in the 1980s. Originally known as simply Beaver Brown, they got their name from longtime friend William Bosworth. The classic lineup of the group (consisting of John Cafferty on vocals and guitar, Gary Gramolini on lead guitar, Pat Lupo on bass, Kenny Jo Silva on drums, Bobby Cotoia on keyboards, and Michael "Tunes" Antunes on saxophone) started out as a New England bar band based in Narragansett, Rhode Island and established a following up and down the Northeast corridor with strongholds in the beach resort towns of Narragansett and Misquamicut, Rhode Island; New York City; New Haven, Connecticut; Boston, Massachusetts; and Asbury Park, New Jersey.
They first achieved success with a 1980 self-released single pairing two of their songs, "Wild Summer Nights" and "Tender Years", which sold over 10,000 copies and had radio play up and down the Atlantic seaboard. Despite their success, the act was ignored by the major labels due to persistent critical comparisons to Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band. They finally achieved international success when producer Kenny Vance, a longtime fan, offered them the score to a movie soundtrack he was helming based on a best-selling novel about a legendary bar band, Eddie & The Cruisers. Thanks to frequent airings of the film on HBO and the purchase of the soundtrack album by their established fanbase as well as hundreds of thousands of new converts, Eddie & The Cruisers: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack reached the top 10 on the Billboard 200 chart and produced a number 7 hit single ("On the Dark Side") on the Billboard Hot 100. "On the Dark Side" also held number-one on the Album Rock Tracks chart for five weeks. The album was eventually certified triple Platinum by the RIAA.