Jimmy Fallon, Robbie Dupree and Larry Hoppen
In addition to being friends for over 35 years now, Larry and I have played in various bands with Robbie Dupree for almost all of that time. We first met Robbie when he was known as “Chrome Willie” (of Chrome Willie and the Sparks). Then he had a band in Woodstock called The Striders. And we all co-created the cover bands Breaker 1-9 and, later, Mood Ring, that played the clubs in the Hudson Valley area (and even went to Hawaii once :-).
Robbie went on to Grammy-nominated chart-topping success with Steal Away in 1980. Later on down the line, Larry wound up doing tours of Japan and other gigs as guitarist in Robbie’s band. Just this past Saturday evening (October 9th, 2010) Larry was back in Woodstock, NY to play a show at the Bearsville Theater in that role.
Well, it turns out that late-night talk show host and ex-Saturday Night Live cast member Jimmy Fallon hails from the town of Saugerties, NY … the next town over from Woodstock. A while back, Jimmy was quoted in the press as saying he wanted to have Robbie on his show and, not letting such an opportunity escape him, Robbie made sure that happened. (How many of you saw that “Yacht Rock” performance? 🙂
Apparently, the boys bonded.
Jimmy showed up at Robbie’s Bearsville Theater show and, in an unrehearsed encore moment, joined Rob and Co. on stage for a doo-wop version of the 50s classic, In the Still of the Night!
(SORRY — by request of others involved, we have had to remove the link to the video)