FRANKIE AVALON
The quintessential teen idol of the music world may very well be Frankie Avalon. This trumpet-playing prodigy wasn't the first (depending on how far back you want to go, we could be talking about Elvis Presley, or Frank Sinatra in the '40s, or Rudy Vallee in the '30s, or...); Ricky Nelson and Paul Anka came along at about the same time, though legions of fans will make the case that Ricky was a more "serious" rock artist and Paul's forte was songwriting, while Frankie embodied something closer to the original concept of an American Idol. One thing setting this late '50s generation of adolescent-girl-magnets apart from their predecessors is that they were actual teenagers. Avalon had more than just his image going for him; a talented musician and singer ... MORE ››
