#280: Killer Joe by the Rocky Fellers
Peak Month: April 1963
14 weeks on Vancouver’s CFUN chart
Peak Position #3
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #16
YouTube: “Killer Joe”
Lyrics: “Killer Joe”
The Rocky Fellers were a Filipino-American group comprised of brothers Tony Maligmat (born in 1944), Eddie Maligmat (born 1955), Junior Maligmat (born 1945), Albert Maligmat (born in 1953) and their father, Doroteo Maligmat (born 1924). The family was born in Manila, and moved to the USA in the mid-50s. On October 25, 1959, the Rocky Fellers appeared for the first time on TV on The Dinah Shore Chevy Show. They performed a cover of the Diamonds 1957 Top Ten hit “Little Darlin'”. The song was introduced by Dinah Shore who spoke of the exotic and primitive music of the Philippine Islands. Speaking of music, Dinah Shore said “And one of the richest and most exotic is the primitive music from the Philippine Islands,” Of course, “Little Darlin'” was rock ‘n roll and not a primitive song – so Shore was teasing her audience before they heard the song, setting them up to expect something, well “primitive.” Lead singer, Albert, told Dinah Shore after performing the song on her show that he learned to sing and play in the Philippines. From 1959, at the age of six onward, Albert Maligmat along with the other Rocky Fellers, opened for entertainers Bob Hope, Sammy Davis Jr., George Burns, Carol Channing, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Rich Little, Phyllis Diller, Joan Rivers, and Flip Wilson among others. A decade before the Jackson 5, The Rocky Fellers were example of what a family could do in the music business.