Burt Kearns & Jeff Abraham on Sha Na Na & The Escaped Baby-Killer Convict

The rock ’n’ roll parody-tribute group Sha Na Na celebrates its fiftieth anniversary next year.

And just in time, our cultural historian pals Burt Kearns and Jeff Abraham have dug up a very bizarre piece of show business & rock ’n’ roll history that the guys in Sha Na Na found themselves pulled into, against their will!

It's the story of an escaped convict who took the identity of late Sha Na Na guitar hero Vinnie Taylor, and began performing in clubs and in shows.  

The story of Sha Na Na and the Baby Killer is one of those stranger-than-fiction stories that will pull you in, for sure.

Oh, and wait unti you read about Na Na Sha.

That's right, Na Na Sha.












Find it here at PleaseKillMe.com,  Jeff and Burt's latest contribution.















And watch this space for big news about their upcoming book!

The Late Great Johnny Ace: Jeff Abraham and Burt Kearns dig up the facts behind a rock ’n’ roll legend

"Johnny Ace died at 25, allegedly during a game of Russian Roulette. The legend of his death not only obscures his talent but is built upon a misreading of what really happened backstage that Christmas night in 1954."

So reads the teaser for the item posted on Legs McNeil’s vital literary pop culture website, PleaseKillMe.com (based on his and Gillian McCain’s classic book), leading into a story that gets to the facts behind the death of Johnny Ace, the R&B dynamo out of Memphis.  Ace’s backstage exit was the first legendary “rock ’n' roll suicide,” and Jeff & Burt may be the first to cut through the mythology:

"As legend has it, Johnny Ace went out in a most romantic way on Christmas Day 1954 — romantic like the love scene between Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken in The Deer Hunter. Johnny Ace died at 25, playing Russian Roulette, the game in which you load a bullet into one chamber of a revolver, spin the cylinder, then pull the trigger while pointing the gun at your head. It’s said to be quite a rush if you only hear ‘click.'

"There’s one small catch to the legend of the late great Johnny Ace...”

Find out the catch.  Read the story here.  Then share it!  

There’s also a great hidden news item at the end of the story: Burt and Jeff have written a book about performers who died onstage, set to be published in 2019.

And stay tuned!