Little Kitten

Little Kitten

Colpix CP 153
1960

His first record before his better known on Gone Records  — a cover of Rock Around The Clock (as Franny Boye) — on  also issued in 1960.

Real name : Frank Ciliberti from Media, Pennsylvannia.

Francis Ciliberti, 17-year-old Penncrest High School junior, appeared twice on American Bandstand as a dancer when kids and dance to the tunes Dick Clark played.  When he recorded "Rock Around the Clock,"   Frank mentioned to Dick Clark that he didn't want to get in trouble because he had a record of his own.  Clark then invited him to perform his song.   Clark said thanks for letting him know about the record, then he said  'have your manager get in touch with me so you can appear on the show.'" [ed. you all know what that means...]

"Little Kitten" was written by his manager Charles D. Poole,of Woodlyn, formerly leader of the Channels combo and Ted Fedena of Marcus Hook.

Dick Clark will always have a special meaning to Frank's family.  According to his son :

Every year, it was a fact that my family would watch Dick Clark count down a new year on Dick Clark's "New Year's Rockin' Eve." Even my son started getting interested in the show because a lot of his favorites were performing.

Watching Clark push forward after a stroke was both heartbreaking and inspiring. He wasn't going to let this obstacle stop him from doing what he loved. I also would watch Dick Clark with my grandmother during the 1970s when he hosted the $25,000 Pyramid.

Clark, forever known as "America's oldest teenager," had also a rep of a greedy exploiter of pop culture, an insatiable money-grubber with countless business ventures who produced and often hosted game shows, lowbrow bloopers shows and awards ceremonies,  according to Ben Fong-Torres who interviewed him when they met in 1964 in Malibu.

I asked why he had to get his hands into everything. Clark smiled at this naive, long-haired inquisitor from San Francisco. "The problem with you," he said, "is that you're a liberal, and I'm a f--ing whore."

Of course, he was effing right.  

Dick Clark: 'You're a Liberal and I'm a F---ing Whore,' the TV Icon Once Told a Famed Rock Music Editor  The Hollywood Reporter