Johnny Farina
| Santo & Johnny | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Brooklyn, New York, United States |
| Genres | Rock and roll, surf rock, instrumental rock |
| Years active | 1959 - 1976 |
| Labels | Canadian-American Records |
| Website | www |
| Members | Santo Farina Johnny Farina |
Santo & Johnny were an American rock and roll music duo from Brooklyn, New York, comprising brothers Santo and Johnny Farina.
They are known best for their instrumental melody "Sleep Walk", one of the biggest hits of the golden age of rock 'n' roll, which became a regional success and eventually scored the top of the Billboard pop chart when it was released nationally during 1959.
At present, Santo is semi-retired and Johnny currently tours and records new material with his own band. Johnny is also the president of Aniraf, Inc., an international record company based in New York City.
Santo Anthony Farina and John Steven Farina were born in Brooklyn, New York to Anthony and Josephine Farina: Santo on October 24, 1937 and Johnny on April 30, 1941. Their father was drafted into the Army while they were children and was stationed for some time in Oklahoma. After hearing a steel guitar by radio, he wrote to his wife, "I'd like the boys to learn to play this instrument".
Upon returning from World War II, the boys' father found a music teacher who gave the boys steel guitar lessons. When Santo was a teenager, he was able to get a local music store to modify an acoustic guitar, allowing him to play it like a steel guitar.
Within two years, Santo was performing in amateur shows using a new Gibson six-string steel guitar and had started receiving lessons from a steel guitar teacher who had studied in Hawaii. By the age of fourteen, Santo was composing songs, and formed an instrumental trio with a guitarist and drummer. This trio appeared at local dances and parties, performing both original compositions and some Hawaiian standards. With money Santo made from these performances, he bought a Fender steel guitar, one with three necks, each with eight strings. This allowed him to experiment even more, and he tried different tunings until he found ones that appealed to him.
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Wikipedia