Wild Weekend

"Wild Weekend"
Single by The Rebels
Released	1961 (1961)
Writer(s)	Tom Shannon, Phil Todaro

The Rebels (also known as The Rockin' Rebels) were a band from Buffalo, New York, known for their instrumental "Wild Weekend". The original members were Jim and Mick Kipler, Tom Gorman and Paul Balon.

"Wild Weekend" was written by Tom Shannon and Phil Todaro and performed as a demo with vocals and music by the Russ Hallet trio. It was for Shannon's radio show, which needed a theme song for his weekend show at the time. The lyrics were: "Top tunes, news and weather, so glad we can get together . . . on the Tom Shannon show . . . KB radio . . . KB Radio". Now enter the Buffalo Rebels--or Rebels--who asked Shannon to play at a record hop and also asked if they could play his theme song. They did and Shannon and Todaro thought there was something to it. They moved the group to a recording studio in the same building where they had a production office. The record came out locally and was a hit, but since it wasn't on a major label, the song just stopped.

Two years later the track was re-issued on Swan Records (Swan 4125) and reached #8 on the national charts. To avoid confusion with Duane Eddy and his Rebels, the Rebels became the Rockin' Rebels. Swan pressings can be found with either name; the British Stateside pressings had "Rockin'". The band's 1963 LP uses the name "The Rockin' Rebels".

While the instrumental is the best-known version, the original lyrics were, as mentioned above, a promo for the Shannon radio show. Shannon would tweak the lyrics when he moved to WHTT many years later.

In 1989, NRBQ recorded a cover version with Shannon-Todaro approved lyrics under the title "It's a Wild Weekend". It was released as the title track to the group's album Wild Weekend.

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