Little Anthony shares memories of his legacy and hits ahead of Midland concert

MIDLAND ― Little Anthony lost count of how many concerts he's performed in his distinguished 67-year career.

"But I know I sang in every state of the United States, and I'm not boasting, but probably in at least a third of the biggest cities in those states," the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer said.

Little Anthony can add Midland to that lofty resume when he headlines Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center on July 22. Tickets cost $40 to $75 for the 2 p.m. show.

For Little Anthony — real name Jerome Anthony Gourdine — the venue barely matters; it's all about the concertgoers in those seats who spring to their feet when he performs a stirring version of his epic hit "Tears on My Pillow," or a Little Anthony & The Imperials classic like "Goin' Out of My Head."

The Midland show, with Anthony's backing band The Music, is a special one-off from his participation in this summer's Happy Together Tour, an oldie extravaganza also featuring The Turtles and Gary Puckett & The Union Gap, which visits The Palace Theatre in Greensburg on Aug. 4.

Interviewed last month by phone, Gourdine said he hadn't decided if his 2023 shows will include his new soul-infused version of friend Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind."

"It's really up in the air, because I was told by the promoters they'd rather I stay within the trademark and the theme of the Happy Together tour, and all of the songs that were made popular back then," Gourdine said. "I've been wrestling with that, though. We rehearsed it."

The Brooklyn native's Grammy-submitted "New York State of Mind" graces "Little Anthony & The Music: An Anthology," a must-have two-volume collection of Little Anthony's greatest hits and singles that deserved to be hits, all insightfully introduced by Gourdine via a colorful and unfiltered interview interspersed between tracks.

Those narrations include Gourdine explaining how he got his stage name after groundbreaking rock 'n' roll deejay Alan Freed first heard the singer's towering high voice and assumed it was a woman. When a concert promoter told Freed that actually was a man's voice, the DJ replied, 'Well, he must be little."

Listeners to the anthology album also will hear Gourdine's amusing reaction when learning from the interviewer that one of the anthology album's tracks, "Funny How Time Slips Away," originally was written by Willie Nelson.

"That was kind of embarrassing, but now as I look back at it, it was so funny," Gourdine said.

"What I try to do on the album is to convey to people there are back stories to the songs, just like they have back stories when they hear a particular song and it brings back all these wonderful memories to them," Gourdine said. "That's why they come out to the shows."

The 40-song album will be sold at his merch table during his Midland and Happy Together shows.

"Cheerfully, man, I'm being very capitalist," he said with an engaging laugh. "But on the other hand, I really want to be a part of this really wonderful show that I heard about for years now."

At age 82, Gourdine's got plenty of projects making him money, like his new SiriusXM Radio show that debuted on Memorial Day.

SiriusXM program directors jumped at the chance to sign Gourdine after hearing him do an interview for Black History Week.

"They were amazed by the freedom with which I spoke," Gourdine said. "One of them said, 'You're telling stories, but you got something that a lot of people don't have, and It's called "total recall,'" and that's for all the experiences I had and absorbed. So, we talk about everything '50s, '60s, '70s, all the professional relationships that people like to hear about.

"I am in the twilight of my years, you know, I don't know when it's time for me to split," Gourdine said. "But the point is, is that while I'm here, it's just a joy."

One of his most joyful moments came in 2009 in Cleveland, when Little Anthony & The Imperials got enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,

"The guys and I received so many awards over the years. We didn't know we were doing it because we were busy having fun doing it. You know what I mean?" Gourdine said. "We were like brothers. A band of brothers, like soldiers or whatever. You spend weeks, days, months, years together, you get to know one another very well. You experience the funniest things, the tragedies, the hopes, the dreams. So, when I got the call and they told us that they're going to put us in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — me being sometimes very pessimistic; sometimes I see the glass half empty, depending on the situation — but when the phone rang and it was, 'Congratulations, you have been nominated into the Rock Hall of Fame,' I pumped my fist in the air. Like, whoa, I'm going to be up there with all these great people."

Vocal legend Smokey Robinson presented the group at its induction, saying, "Little Anthony is still awesome. Give yourself a treat. Go see him somewhere, if he’s in your area, because this show is the bomb."

The hall of fame's website calls Little Anthony & The Imperials "the cream of the crop" of New York's vaunted late-1950s/early 1960s vocal group scene.

Gourdine is quick to credit earlier R&B groups like the Moonglows and The Ink Spots, and mid-to-late-1950s contemporaries like The Flamingos, Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers, and The Dells, with which Little Anthony toured the South.

"You'll hear me say when I was giving my (hall of fame acceptance) speech that we stand on the shoulders of giants," Gourdine said. "No one person gets themselves anywhere without help from somewhere. Something moves you on. If you get to the point in this business where you think it's all about me, me and myself, you're in trouble."

"My career really started in 1958, when I was a teenager. For some reason, because it was 1958, a lot of people think I'm older than what I really am," Gourdine said.

He recalls the 1958 evening when he made his first Pittsburgh visit, performing at the former Syria Mosque. A childhood friend enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh tracked down Gourdine that night and got backstage with some college friends, showing off the fact he was buddies with the fast-rising singer.

"His friends had been mocking him, saying, he didn't know me," Gourdine said. "He said it was the most wonderful experience he ever had."

"That was one of the first big things I ever did, the Syria Mosque in Pittsburgh in 1958," Gourdine said. "That was a beautiful room. I loved that place."

A teenager from Canton, Ohio, named Walter Williams attended that Syria Mosque show, Gourdine said, later becoming a founding member of Philly Soul chart-toppers and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers The O'Jays.

"I got to know them, and they said, 'Man, we learned how to sing falsetto listening to you," Gourdine said.

From viewers of Dick Clark's "American Bandstand," to coast-to-coast radio listeners, people gravitated to Gourdine's remarkable vocals on "Tears on My Pillow." There's something special about his vocal phrasing in the chorus — the way Gourdine tightly sings the first two words then takes an extra beat emphasizing the "Myyy" — that's made the song iconic. Some 65 years later, he gets excited when you ask about that phrasing, explaining that after several initial tries to record the song, the producer wasn't satisfied, finally asking Gourdine "Who's your favorite singer?"

A nervous Gourdine replied, "Nat King Cole."

The producer then challenged Gourdine to sing it again, this time trying a crisp, Cole-like phrasing, which is ultimately what appears on Little Anthony's breakout hit.

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Little Anthony & The Imperials went on to sell over 60 million records worldwide and influence many vocal groups.

"We didn't know all these innovating things that we were doing. We were just a bunch of guys out of Brooklyn who got to travel all over the world and meet some of the most powerful leaders." Gourdine said. "I am so blessed."

Blessed to still be achieving cheers on stage with Little Anthony & The Music.

"There's only five of us out there. I got my conductor who plays several instruments. He'll mostly be playing piano and second keys," Gourdine said. "It'll sound big and give the audience the full sound. They're going to get what they came to hear, basically. It's very interesting."

It's a show fans won't want to miss.

Because just like one of the lyrics in "Funny How Time Slips Away" says, "You never can tell when Little Anthony will come back in town."

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Scott Tady is entertainment editor at The Times and easy to reach at stady@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Lincoln Park-bound Little Anthony shares memories of hits & legacy