Rock Duos of the 1950's: Skip & Flip and Santo & Johnny

Welcome to Rock and Roll Flashback!  During the 1950's there were numerous Rock and Roll artists, which included bands, vocal groups, solo and duo artists. I'm Bill Price, and in this edition of the Rock Duos of the 1950's series, I will feature vocalists Skip and Flip and the instrumental duo Santo and Johnny. Both of these artists achieved brief success, but only one duo moved on to other groups and music production.

All podcasts on the Rock and Roll Flashback Podcast are produced by brothers-in-law Bill Price and "Jumpin' John" McDermott. The Podcast Theme Song, "You Essay", was written by John, and the basic track was recorded by Bill and John on April 1, 2004.
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Transcript

During the 1950's there were numerous Rock and Roll artists, which included bands, vocal groups, solo and duo artists. In this edition of the Rock Duos of the 1950s series, I will feature vocalists Skip and Flip and the instrumental duo Santo and Johnny. Both of these artists achieved brief success, but only one duo moved on to other groups and music production.

Skip and Flip were a singing duo comprised of Clyde Battin who used the name of Skip
and Gary S. Paxton who used Flip. Paxton, whose birth name was Larry Wayne Stevens
was born on May 18, 1939 in Coffeyville, Kansas. At the age of three he was adopted and given a new name. The family then moved to Arizona when he was 12 years old and by the age of 14, he started his first band and played rock and roll and country music. During his teenage years he performed through out the American Southwest.
Clyde Battin was born on February 18th, 1934 in Gallipolis, Ohio. By the age of 17 he
took an interest in playing bass guitar. Two years later he relocated to Tucson, Arizona to attend the University of Arizona. Gary and Clyde met while attending the university in the late 1950s. Together they formed a college band called The Pledges. Later as Gary and Clyde, they recorded a single titled “Why Not Confess” on the local label Rev
Records. 

In 1959 they traveled to the Desert Palm Studios located in Phoenix, Arizona to record a few of Gary’s compositions. Even thought the recordings were just demos, one of the songs was relesed by Bob Shad on his Brent record label. That song was “It was I”, with the duo also renamed Skip and Flip. Once the single was released, it reached the number 11 position in the US charts.

As a result of their success, the duo made television appearances and toured with DJ Alan Freed. A follow up release was “Fancy Nancy” but only managed to become a minor hit, reaching number 77. In 1960 they achieved another number 11 hit with a cover of Marvin and Johnny’s ballad titled “Cherry Pie”. The next release “Hully Gully Cha Cha Cha” written by Gary and Clyde did not make it onto the charts in spite of receiving radio airplay. Eventually they disbanded and went their separate ways.

In 1961 Clyde relocated to California and obtained small acting parts in movies and
television. By 1966 he made an attempt to re-enter the music business, by forming a folk rock band called the Evergreen Blueshoes. An album was recorded and released on the Amos label, however it failed to generate any sales. Clyde then decided focus on doing session work for other musicians such as Warren Devon and Gene Vincent.

As a bass guitarist Clyde joined the Byrds from 1970 to 1973. During that time he
recorded three albums and toured with them. In 1973 he joined the country rock band
New Riders of the Purple Sage, also recording three albums with band during 1974 to
1976. Then he left to join a new line up of the Flying Burrito Brothers. From 1989 to
1991 he continued to tour with the Byrds featuring Michael Clark. Clyde stopped
recording and touring once his Alzheimer’s disease had gotten worse. Clyde died on
July 6th, 2003 in Salem, Oregon.

After the split, Gary Paxton relocated to Hollywood, California and worked on a number of projects, collaborating with other artists as a writer, producer, performer, audio engineer and record label owner. In 1960 he scored a number one hit with “Alley Oop” which was recorded quickly with a hastily assembled group put together by Gary’s
roommate Kim Fowley. In 1962 he produced the number one hit “Monster Mash” by
Bobby “Boris” Pickett. In a future episode of One Hit Wonders on Rock and Roll
Flashback, I’ll feature the group that recorded “Alley Oop”, which involved Gary.
In the early 1960s he worked with artists such as Tommy Roe, Paul Revere and the
Raiders, The Four Freshmen and The Association. In 1965 he produced the hit “Sweet
Pea” for Tommy Roe and won a Grammy nomination for his engineering work on the
Association’s hits “Along Comes Mary” and “Cherish”. In 1966 Tommy Roe scored an
other hit with “Hooray for Hazel”. By 1970 Gary had focused on writing and producing
gospel music. In 1975 he won the Best Inspirational Grammy for his album titled “The
Astonishing, Outrageous, Amazing, Incredible, Unbelievable, Different World of Gary S.
Paxton”, wow that was a mouthful! Then in 1999, he was inducted into the Country
Gospel Music Hall of Fame. On July 17th, 2016 Gary S. Paxton died at the age of 77.

Santo Anthony Farina and John Steven Farina were brothers from Brooklyn, New York.
While they were children, their father was drafted into the US Army during World War
II. After hearing a steel guitar on the radio, he encouraged the boys to learn to play the
instrument. After returning from the war, their father arranged for a teacher give the boys steel guitar lessons. As a teenager, Santo had an acoustic guitar modified so it could be played it like a steel guitar. Two years later Santo was appearing in amateur shows playing a Gibson six-string steel guitar. He also had begun getting additional lessons from a steel guitar teacher. When he was 14 years of age, he began composing songs and put together an instrumental trio with a guitarist and a drummer. The trio performed original compositions as well some Hawaiian standards at local dances and parties. With the money Santo earned from the performances, he purchased a Fender steel guitar and he began experimenting with different instrument tunings.

When Johnny was 12 years old, he began to accompany Santo by playing a regular
electric guitar. They formed a duo, became poplar performers in school and soon
appeared at events in the New York boroughs. When Johnny reached the age of 16, he
announced to the father that they were going to quit school and pursue a career as rock
stars. To which the father responded, “The only stars are in the sky”. After an evening
performance, the brothers could not sleep, so they began jamming; the result was the
instrumental “Sleep Walk”. The duo attracted the attention of a music publishing
company, signed a songwriter’s contract, which led to a record deal with Canadian-
American Records.

After recording the song at Trinity Records, the single was released. In September 1959, it went straight to number one in the US charts and earned a gold record. A follow up release titled “Tear Drop” charted at number 23. Two subsequent releases “Caravan “
charted at number 48 and “Bullseye” charted at number 49. “Sleep Walk” remains
popular on radio airplays and is used in commercial and television programs. It was also
featured in one of the final scenes of “La Bamba”, a film about Rock and Roll artist
Ritchie Valens. They performed on the Alan Freed shows in Brooklyn, and appeared on
television in Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, and The Perry Como Show.

By 1976 the duo of Santo and Johnny disbanded and later in 2002 were inducted in to the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame. Johnny however continued to perform and tour as a solo artist as of 2021. Santo on the other hand decided to retire from performing and the music industry.

This has been a look back at two of Rock and Roll’s duos of the 1950's, vocalists Skip
and Flip and the instrumental duo Santo and Johnny.