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.
