Johnny's Dance Band

Inner sleeve from their 1st album featured their logo. It was used on their t-shirts, one of which
was worn by Paul Simon in the movie "One Trick Pony".

Johnny's Dance Band - 1977

l to r: Bobby Lenti, Johnny Jackson, Nannette Mancini, Courtney Colletti, Chris Darway, Dave Mohn, Tony Juliano

The band's line-up at the time of the 1st album was:
Johnny Jackson (The JOHNNY, namesake of Johnny's Dance Band) - bass, guitar
Tony Juliano - lead vocals, percussion, guitar
Bobby Lenti - guitar
Courtney Colletti - bass , guitar
David Mohn - drums
Chris Darway - keyboards
Nannette Mancini - lead vocals
and they were all excellent vocalists!

The 1st album was a change of style from what the band was doing in their stage shows. They had some great songs that the local fans were more familiar with, but were replaced on record by different ones. The album wasn't what the fans who love them expected. I was disappointed when it came out. I talked to Dave Mohn the drummer a few years ago and told him that I had wished the band would've been more true to their real personality and he said the management (star makers?) chose to do that, and I got the impression the band wasn't real happy with it either.

Love Wounds, Flesh Wounds

l to r: Chris, Nan, Dave, Fran Smith & Bobby

The 2nd album was "Love Wounds, Flesh Wounds" in 1978, produced by Tony Bongiovi (Jon Bon Jovi's uncle), Lance Quinn and Bob Clearmountain.
The line-up was pared down to:
Nannette, Chris, David, Bobby and a new bass player Fran Smith (who played with the Asbury Park bar band Cats on a Smooth Surface and later went on to play with The Hooters on their last couple of albums).

This album included a fan favorite from their bar band days "Alfredo" and an excellent version of Billy Joel's "All You Want To Do Is Dance".

It's A Man's World

For their 3rd (and final LP) in 1979, the name of the band was shortened to: "Nan Mancini and JDB" , (the band was generally referred a to as JDB anyway ) .
Bobby Lenti was replaced on guitar by Bobby Bunten.

The inner sleeve from "It's A Mans World"

I found this at a used record store, the flip side is the Fat's Domino song "I'm Walking". I'm not sure who was in the band at the time, but I figure at least Tony & Johnny were.

Check back for a "RealAudio" file of it soon!


	This pic is from a "Nolde's Music Box" advertisement.

After JDB Nannette & Chris (husband & wife) started a band called The Chet Bolins Band. Chris had a warped sense of humor hence some of the comedic and tongue in cheek style of some of the early JDB songs. This band sort of brought that back out again. He had his senior year class picture hanging in house and when people would ask if it was him, he'd tell them no, that's Chet Bolins. So he named the band Chet Bolins. They put out an indie album with that picture on the cover titled "All American Masher". Chris Darway was a member of the band The Critters in the mid 60's see: http://www.tsimon.com/critters.htm http://www.jra.org/test_dir/references/craft_images/darway.htm
Here's a newspaper article about Chet! Chet Bolins by Mike McGrath The Philadelphia Enquirer - Weekend November 20, 1981 Chris Darway has his eyes on the Tower Theater: "The Bijou has a good stage, and the room has great sound, but the sound at the Tower is legendary. That's the hall we want to play." And the act they'll take there is refreshing, even for Philadelphia. Darway comes from the old, old Johnny's Dance Band, one of the finest rock 'n' roll outfits ever to emerge from the city. But with two RCA albums in the stores and former background singer Nanette Mancini full-fronting the band with a .powerfully sultry lead presence, the group broke up at what many thought to be its strongest moment musically. As Mancini puts it, "For one reason or another, it just didn't work for us anymore." The band split up, but Nan Mancini and Chris Darway didn't. They were married in June of last year, and soon after the arrival of their son Borden ("little Bo-Bo"), the music itch returned. Darway began shaping up an act that was "similar to JDB in its earliest days - when fun was the message musically." The impetus was an old high school picture of himself that Darway kept out on display, telling people, "That's my brother, Chet," since it was a name that fit the early-'60s masher look of the photo perfectly. "Bolins came from my lawnmower," he reluctantly admits.
	Chet Head pin.
Living just across the river from New Hope, Darway began to record an album by this Chet Bolins guy. Slowly, other former band members began to surface, although the album, recently released on hot red vinyl on the group's own "Straight Face Records and No Tapes" label, is mostly a solo effort, with Darway overdubbing almost all the instruments and deliberately avoiding the use of guitars. In from the beginning, however, were Chet's comely pair" of female backup singers, the Mature Sisters, Vicki and Tina. In real life, Mancini is Vicki and former Hot Property member Heidi Lindner is Tina. (They named themselves during a Victor Mature movie on TV.) Mancini, who cites lack of artistic fulfillment and, money as the reasons behind the demise of JDB, enjoys sharing the vocals with Lindner. "I really enjoy every moment we're on stage, and 1 don't miss the anxiety of fronting a band at all. I did find that it's real easy to sing by yourself, but it takes a lot of discipline to synchronize sound and movement with someone else." On stage, "it's so much fun to be part of this group." Chet is out front with his keyboards, the Mature sisters are stealing the show over to the side with a combination of old Temptations' routines and occasional torch singing, and there is still no guitar, although Chet warns that Heidi may soon be taking the stage "with a guitar that's blonder than she is." "The songs are all about love and irony," says Darway, who almost talks the lyrics through a maze of background music and vocals. But the fun wins through, especially on the new al-bum's title cut, "All American Masher" ("Everyone on stage is some kind of a masher," Darway says), and on "Boom Boom," "Avenue of Love" (reworked from the old JDB number), "Willie the Snake" and "Superman Love," on which the Mature Sisters step up front to sing about the domestic aspects of living with the Man of Steel. The group is still weeding out those v/ho expect a JDB clone, but it's clear that after eight years the energy simply ran out for that band. Now, it's Chet Bolins' turn to make some noise. "Artistically, we're all fulfilled," Darway says. "And we're all good musicians. It's a riot." The people at Billboard agree. They picked the new album to become a hit.

Here's a site with a few more cool pics of JDB from around the time of the 1st album:
http://geosound.org/johnny-dance-band.htm
The link above is part of a tremendous site similar to mine dedicated to Philadelphia Rock & Roll bands of the same era. It was put together by George Manney who played drums in many top bands in Philly. He's now a studio owner and producer. Go to the "Archives" section of his website and scroll down to the "Local Artists & Venues" area. Very cool stuff!
http://www.geosound.org

Courtney has an orchestra that plays the Philly area, doing mostly weddings, society and corporate events. He recently told me the story of how Dave the drummer joined the band. It seems Dave was riding down the road and saw a hand printed cardboard sign that said "Drummer Tryouts" with an arrow pointing up the driveway to a barn. He was a jazz trained and marching band drummer. He tried out on a whim, he ended being the best one that showed up, the guys liked him so he was in. Courtney had to teach him how to play rock & roll! see:

http://www.nvgc.com/new_years_eve.htm
(That's Courtney with the banjo!)

http://www.firstnightdoylestown.org/performers.html

Dave Mohn's website:
http://members.aol.com/jdmdrums/index.html

They've had a few reunions over the years:

http://www.citypaper.net/articles/010600/ae.six.pick5.shtml

Bobby Lenti had some health problems a few years back but as far as I know he's doing good, and still playing around the area. Here is a couple links to things with him:
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~kyleroth/mercenaries.html

http://www.bigdaddyswagonwheel.com/giggin01.html