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JERRY CORBETTA - Lead Vocals, Keyboard |
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Former lead singer, keyboardist and founder of the melodically and lyrically oriented
"Green-Eyed Lady" group Sugarloaf. Jerry has garnered notice ever since 1954, when as a feisty
six year-old drummer, he was dubbed "a pint-sized Gene Krupa" by the Rocky Mountain News.
Fifteen years later, already a consummate virtuoso keyboardist, singer and songwriter, he formed Sugarloaf. Besides the
often heard today, much praised "Green-Eyed Lady", the group found gold with
"Don't Call Us, We'll Call You"
in February, 1975. Life after Sugarloaf was just as artistically lucrative, with a solo album and a co-authored
for Grace Jones hit "On Your Knees". He co-produced Frankie Valli's critically
acclaimed album "Heaven Above Me", then was asked to join The Four Seasons for their
Twentieth Anniversary Tour.
He continued to write, perform and tour as a full member for four years, supplying much needed keyboard color to the
act and working hand-in-hand in the total production with Four Seasons mentor Bob Crewe. While working with
The Four Seasons, Jerry also struck gold with the Roberta Flack / Peobo Bryson number
"You're Lookin' Like Love To Me".
The summer of 1991 found Jerry performing as feature guest star, with the "30 Years of Rock 'N' Roll Show",
before hundreds of thousands of classic rock devotees.
NEWSPAPER ARTICLES:
Where Are They Now?
Forty-six and still on the road.
More than 20 years after "Green Eyed Lady" topped the pop-music charts, Jerry Corbetta is still playing the
key-boards and singing. The band members along side him are different, but former Denver musicians still plays
about 170 dates a year - mostly state fairs and festivals.
Corbetta, a graduate of Mount Carmel High School, and his metro-area friends started a band called
Chocolate Hair in 1969. The name was later modified to the more mainstream - sounding Sugarloaf and
went on to score with two Top 40 hits: "Green Eyed Lady" and "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You." The band broke
up in 1978.
"It's like a young marriage," he said, "although you are married to four people instead of to one. And what
works for you when you're 19 doesn't necessarily work for you when you are 28. We all had different visions
of what we wanted to do with our lives."
After the break-up, Corbetta wrote songs, then went on the road with Frankie Valli as a member of the Four Seasons.
Corbetta hadn't performed in more than three years when a call came from someone wanting him to tour with
a group celebrating the 30th anniversary of rock and roll. Joining him were Mickey Dolenz, formally
of the Monkees, and Tiny Tim.
He ran into Mike Pinera, formerly of Iron Butterfly.
"We realized the average age of the people coming to the fairs we were playing were our age - baby boomers.
They loved the do-woppers, but they really started rocking when Mike did "In A Gadda Da Vida".
When we play that, people started standing up and giving peace signs. So I thought, let's make a band like
the Traveling Wilburys. The lead singers of our band are key members of bands that had hit records
in that classic rock era from 1966 to 1974 or 75."
Joined by Spencer Davis, formerly of the Spencer Davis Group, and Peter Rivera, formally
of Rare Earth, the Classic Rock All Stars started touring in 1990.
"It's fun. Absolutely fun," he said. "The fact that all four of us are playing, I think it's kind of got to be
in our blood. We're lifers. I'm not going to start selling insurance. I've had a lot of success. There were a
couple of times when I wasn't sure."
"When Sugarloaf started, we bought a bus. Everyone went along. I was the only one who wasn't married. Everyone
had wives, kids and dogs," he said. "We're flying now."
He says the experience is still "a happening." Jerry is single and has a son named Kyle. He visits his son often in Northern California when he's not on the road.
"When we are playing in front of thousands of people and they are standing up, it's exactly like it was when we
were
all big back in the '70s," he said. "One guy said, 'It made me feel exactly like it did when I still had hair
on my head.' "
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