When the Beatles came in, I really concentrated on making a lot of movies. Those beach films that we did were a lot fun. They hit with an audience that related to what we were trying to do on the screen. That kept me going all through that Beatle period.
Frankie Avalon
When I was kid, my uncle had a grocery store. I remember the smell of the sawdust on the floor.
I never thought that 'Grease' would be a smash. I turned it down at first.
I definitely remember doing 'The Alamo' with John Wayne and Lawrence Harvey and Linda Cristal. We'd work six days a week, and then John Wayne would invite us down to a little place in Texas called Del Rio, and we would break bread and have some wine and tell stories.
I guess I've maintained my hair. I'm like a Donald Trump. I have a good, solid head of hair, and that's been my trademark all these years.
I still have the tradition of Sunday dinners at my house, and I make all kinds of different Italian foods, and there's a lot of fun going on.
My mother never threw anything out. If there was a sliver of a tomato, it was in the refridge. I would come in with my friends, and Mom would say, 'Want something to eat?' In 20 minutes, there was four, five dishes to eat.
I've been around two years shy of 50 years doing what I do. I am a musician.
They look for the top note to end every song. They don't know what they are singing about. There is no style.
I was trying to become a legitimate trumpet player, and I had a scholarship to Eastman School of Music. I was really on my way. But I didn't take the scholarship. I got sidetracked, because when summers came around, I started playing with a rock-and-roll band.
When I was a kid, we'd go crabbing, as a lot of folks do on the East Coast, and we'd catch some fresh crabs and take it home, and Mom would turn it into this unbelievable crab gravy - or, as they say, sauce.
Well, we all age, but I'd been taking herbal supplements for a long time.
The fun of cooking is the fun of communicating with people, even if it's just two people. As you're cooking, you're talking, you're having a glass of wine. It's wonderful; it's an experience. Once you get into cooking, it becomes something that you really look forward to doing.
The kids have all seen it on DVD or videotape.
There have been a lot of memorable meals in my life and in my career.
I like to be busy.
For me, the biggest successes I've ever had were the ones I never counted on. I never thought my first big record would be a hit. I thought it was an average song.
I've got eight children, 10 grandkids. I have friends over all the time, and I like to cook.
'Grease' is the most successful thing I've ever been part of. It spans generations.
I think about growing up back in Philly. It was about friendship with the guys and having a distant crush on some gal. And when you finally got the nerve to take her out on a date, you went to her parents' house with a shine on your shoes, took her to the movies, and got her home nice and early.
I'm not a chef: I'm a cook.
If I go to a restaurant, or if I'm at an airport and people recognize me, it amazes me that most of them know me from 'Grease.'
Rocco paid me 35 bucks a week at Murray's Inn in South Jersey. People started asking Rocco to have me sing.
When I started to play trumpet I was fortunate to learn very quickly.
No sooner than I did take it seriously, I had million-selling hits and movies with John Wayne.
Kids know me from their Grease DVD, so they instantly respond. You can hear a pin drop when I do my old songs.
I was not a trained actor.
I learned not to blink in a close-up or move your head at all, because if you did, they wouldn't use it.
I'll be 65 in September and I work as much as I want to, take cruises with Kay, relax with my family, do everything in moderation, because I want to enjoy my life.
They weren't great pictures, but they were fun, and they really represented that period of time well.
I think today's music absolutely stinks. I really do mean that.
These kids today, everything is about hitting a vocal home run.
Yes, but I don't think of the Teen Angel as of an age.
I like that because the fans want to see onstage what they know so well from the big screen.
I wish I could talk to Annette, but she doesn't even correspond at this point.
It captures a lot of the spirit of the '50s.
I studied with Seymour Rosenfeld, who was first trumpeter of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
I love Billy Joel's music, but let's put it this way - I think this is a frustrated, ugly man.
If you watch 'American Idol,' and you close your eyes, you don't know who's singing because they all sound exactly alike.
I recognize them for what they were. 'DeDe Dinah,' 'Ginger Bread,' come on. They're fun things. They're middle of the road. It wasn't really rock and roll. I don't know what it was, but it was something accepted and bought, and people still like them. When I reminiscence on stage, people respond. They really like those songs.
It's a wonderful thing to be stopped by people, to be recognized, to have somebody come up and say, 'Thank you for all the wonderful memories, for everything... ' Those are compliments you can't imagine.
I eat pasta every day. It gives me energy. I love the taste.
Everybody wants instant gratification for everything. It's all got to be like fast food. You want a hamburger now, you get it now. Hey, even when McDonald's started out, it took them a couple of minutes to make your burger and get it to you. Now, it's all wham, bam. That's tough enough on a burger. It's impossible with a relationship.
