The Rockets

Biography

There are at least six bands called The Rockets. 1) The band from which Neil Young formed Crazy Horse. The band began in 1962 as the doo wop group Danny & the Memories, with guitarist/singer Danny Whitten, and counting future Crazy Horse stalwarts Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina as members, the latter two are the only individuals present in every incarnation of the band. The group evolved through nascent San Francisco folk-psychedelia, eventually ending up in Los Angeles and becoming The Rockets...

There are at least six bands called The Rockets.

1) The band from which Neil Young formed Crazy Horse.

The band began in 1962 as the doo wop group Danny & the Memories, with guitarist/singer Danny Whitten, and counting future Crazy Horse stalwarts Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina as members, the latter two are the only individuals present in every incarnation of the band. The group evolved through nascent San Francisco folk-psychedelia, eventually ending up in Los Angeles and becoming The Rockets by 1966 with Whitten on guitar, Talbot on bass, and Molina on drums, along with Bobby Notkoff on violin and guitarist brothers Leon Whitsell and George Whitsell, who played on the Rockets' only album, a self-titled set in 1968.

Selling only about 5,000 copies, it was far from a success. Nevertheless, the album found among its fans Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young. As they would often allow anyone to play with them, Young jammmed with The Rockets several times, and would soon take Danny Whitten, bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina for his backing band on the album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. They first dubbed themselves War Babies, but Young re-named them Crazy Horse, a name that would stick. The Rockets soon folded due to Young's insistence on having Whitten, Talbot and Molina keep to a strict practice schedule. Talbot and Molina have remained as part of Crazy Horse to this day, and all of the other Rockets, except for Leon Whitsell, who would also eventually collaborate with Young.

2) There was another band called The Rockets that hailed from Detroit, MI and featured Jim McCarty and Johnny Badanjek who were both in The Detroit Wheels backing up Mitch Ryder in the 60’s. McCarty was also a member of Cactus after recording a one-off album with Detroit that included Badanjek and Ryder.

The Rockets (or Detroit Rockets as they are sometimes referred to because of all the bands named The Rockets) released 5 studio albums and one live album between 1977 and 1983.

3) The Rockets hail from the UK.

4) The Rockets from Kiruna, Sweden is a rock band mostly focused on covers from other popular rock 'n' roll, blues, country or pop artists. They have released one album entitled 'Live In Studio', solely compiled of covers.

5) The Rockets from Halmstad, Sweden plays their own rock'n roll material. Official homepage http://hem.passagen.se/rocketz/index.html

6) Dutch glam rock band from the 1970s.

7) Arrogance is the key word that defines this young band formed in 2007, both in terms of stage appearance and music, lyrics. They are a strong reminder of the attitude invented by british and american rock bands of the ’60s and ’70s, simply put: Sex & Drugs & Rock 'n' Roll. The motivation is identical to the rebellious approach that created and inspired the hippi movement. Sensation and instantaneous impressions are much more important than mathematical precision and infinite guitar solos. They claim that music is not mathematics, but an emotional state and self expression. Sometimes less is more. Music: They combine the rock’n’roll sounds of the ’60s with rocky, sometimes funky guitar riffs and flashy solos. The dirty, crunchy sound of the guitar and the simple rythms of the drums, along with the whirling breaks truly recall the past, whereas the grooves and the samplers reflect the sound of today. The riffs sound like Led Zeppelin or Lenny Kravitz, but the effect of The Beatles and Oasis are also present occasionally. Beside the rock’n’roll tunes there are also rock ballads, like those heard from Guns’n’Roses and Aerosmith at the time. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.