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LOS ANGELES (BW) – Rock ‘n’ roll music of the late 1950s and early 1960s is once again at the top of the charts, but this time the listeners aren’t nostalgia buffs.
The Chinese, some 30 years after rock music became an American culture form, are now swinging to the be-bop of those early years and making such 1950s classics as “Tell Laura I Love Her” No. 1.
In response to this new-found audience, United Airlines and the China Amusement and Leisure Co. (CAL) are sponsoring the China Friendship Tour, which departed Sunday from Los Angeles on a four-city tour to Peking, Shanghai, Guangchou, and ending in Hong Kong. It returns to the United States Dec 23.
The tour, headlined by 1960s rockers Jan and Dean, is part of an American cultural exchange program developed by CAL, a new company formed to provide Chinese cultural and entertainment attractions to both Chinese and American audiences.
United Airlines is the tour’s official sponsor and a company who CAL officials say mirrors its message of friendship.
“We are very pleased that the ‘Friendship Airline’ could play a key role in this friendship tour,” said CAL Entertainment Director Dr. Don Altfeld, who co-wrote one of Jan and Dean’s biggest hits “Little Old Lady From Pasadena.” Before turning to entertainment Altfeld was a practicing physician in Maui, Hawaii.
Rob Doughty, United’s manager of corporate communications-international, said the airline was excited at the opportunity to be involved in a program of cultural understanding through music.
“United is committed to fostering better understanding between countries in the Pacific Rima and the United States,” Doughty said. “We believe that sharing the cultures of these countries is a beautiful and effective way of improving cross-cultural understanding.”
Also accompanying Jan and Dean, whose music captured the fun-filled lifestyle of summer, surf and cars of the early 1960s with such songs as “Surf City” and “Dean man’s Curve,” are Rachel Paige and songwriter Jeff Barry, who wrote “Tell Laura I Love Her.”
Barry has also written such hits as “Da Do Ron Ron” by the Crystals, “Do Wah Diddy” by Manfred Mann, “Hanky Panky” by Tommy James and The Shondells and “I Honestly Love You” by Olivia Newton-John.
CAL, a division of Counselors-At-Large, with U.S. offices in Santa Monica, was started by Tiffany Chu, a long-time resident of Shanghai, China, now living in Southern California.
Chu, the president of CAL, is noted for organizing the first American rock tour to China with the group Sherock.
United Airlines is the largest investor-owned airline in the world and the only airline to serve all 50 states in the United States. In addition to the Pacific Basin, United’s international destinations include Mexico, the Bahamas and Canada. United is owned by UAL Inc., which also owns the hertz Corp and Westin Hotels.
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