Step into Wildwoods live music history, tracing decades of legendary nightlife across venues, genres, and stars. From the authors of Wildwoods Houses Through Time and Images of America: Hunt’s Pier, Wildwood Music Memories: Entertainment & Nightlife, Volume I, 1885–1969 takes readers on a historical and nostalgic trip through the Wildwoods’ legendary live music scene. It is the first in a series spanning decades, genres, and venues. At their height, Wildwood and North Wildwood were as happening as New York, Miami Beach, or Las Vegas. From hotspots like the Starlight Ballroom to the Surf Club, the Riptide to the Rainbow, and Club Avalon to the Manor Supper Club, readers are transported back to when the Treniers and Bill Haley & the Comets sparked a rock & roll revolution, Chubby Checker launched a world-changing dance craze, and the Isley Brothers performed with an unknown Jimi Hendrix. Generations of fans arrived by train—and later the Garden State Parkway—and danced to jazz, swing, rhythm & blues, country western, and rock. And it all happened in bars, cafés, and nightclubs in the Wildwoods, New Jersey. Table of Contents Introduction 1. 1885-1949 Prohibition & Speakeasies Wildwood In Song Great Depression & Concert Bands Wartime & Big Bands 2. 1950-1959 Chitlin’ Circuit & The Green Book Birth Of Rock & Roll Wildwood Records 3. 1960-1969 Wildwood A Go-Go Coffee Houses & Folk Teen Clubs & Psychedelia Wildwood Singalongs Bibliography & Endnotes
Publisher : America Through Time
Publication date : November 24, 2026
Language : English
Print length : 110 pages
ISBN-10 : 1634996534
ISBN-13 : 978-1634996532
Item Weight : 1 pounds
About the Author
Taylor N. Henry, MA, is president of the Wildwood Historical Society and author of Wildwoods Houses Through Time (2018). Rob Ascough is treasurer of the Wildwood Historical Society, co-author of Images of America: Hunt's Pier (2011), and editor of RollerCoaster!, the official magazine of American Coaster Enthusiasts.
