Jewish Classic Rock and Oldies Musicians Part 1: Europe and South Africa

Easily one of the largest religions amongst classic rock musicians after Christianity and non-religious is Judaism. There are many Jewish musicians who have shaped classic rock and made it what it is today from songwriting to performing the music. Jewish classic rock musicians come from both sides of the Atlantic. Let’s start with Jewish musicians from Europe and Africa.

This is a topic that really hits home with me since I was raised Jewish as a child, however I was never particularly religious. You end up finding that it seems that everyone is Jewish. My dad told me that my great grandfather told me that. According to my dad, my great grandfather was the kind of person to point out who is Jewish and not let you forget it. Now it’s my turn to do that with classic rock! Let’s get started! I hope you enjoy it.

Adrian and Paul Gurvitz: Brothers who formed the 1960s rock band The Gun, known for the 1968 song “Race With The Devil”, famously covered by Girlschool in the 80s, incredibly ahead of its time! It’s kind of like Cream, but even heavier, or The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Before The Gun, they were in a freakbeat group called The Knack (not to be confused with the American power pop who did “My Sharona” – coincidentally half the group are Jewish too, Berton Averre and Doug Fieger). After the breakup of The Gun, they were in Three Man Army. Adrian got an offer to be in the Buddy Miles Express, so he toured with them for a couple of years. After that, he formed the Baker Gurvitz Army with Ginger Baker. He also was in the Graeme Edge Band in the 70s. Later, he moved to the United States and became a successful songwriter, writing hits for Eddie Money, REO Speedwagon, and Steve Perry.

Adrian and Paul Gurvitz’s father Sam Gurvitz was the tour manager for Cliff Richard & The Shadows and The Kinks, so they had music industry connections from the star. Adrian started playing guitar at 8 years old and by the age of 15 he was working with Screaming Lord Sutch, Billie Davis, and Crispian St Peters.

Alexis Korner: Father of British Blues. Was born Alexis Andrew Nicholas Koerner in Paris to an Austrian Jewish father and a Turkish-Greek mother. Best known for forming Blues Incorporated with harmonica player Cyril Davies. There have been many famous classic rock stars who were members of Blues Incorporated. These include Charlie Watts, Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, Long John Baldry, and Graham Bond. The band were together until 1966. After that he interviewed musicians on television like The Jimi Hendrix Experience. In the 70s he started CCS, Collective Consciousness Society and Snape.

Barry Hay: Frontman of Dutch band Golden Earring. He also plays flute. His mother was Dutch Jewish and his father was Scottish. Golden Earring’s best known songs are “Radar Love” and “Twilight Zone”.

Basil Kirchin: Drummer and composer born in Blackpool, Lancashire. His father, Ivor Kirchin was a composer too. The family’s original surname is Kirchinsky. He made production music for the De Wolfe library, working with legendary session guitarists Jimmy Page and Big Jim Sullivan. He also composed the scores for 1960s films Catch Us If You Can (starring the Dave Clark 5), The Shuttered Room, The Strange Affair, and I Start Counting as well as the 1971 film The Abominable Dr Phibes (the movie Keith Moon last watched before dying of an overdose at the age of 32). Some famous fans of his music include Brian Eno and David Byrne.

Bob Geldof: The most famous Irish person of Jewish descent. He was the lead singer of The Boomtown Rats and is famous for his activism. You might think the Geldof surname is Jewish, but actually it comes from his paternal grandfather, who was Belgian. His paternal grandmother was a Jewish woman from England named Amelia Falk. He is an atheist. What he has to say about his religion is “I was a quarter Catholic, a quarter Protestant, a quarter Jewish, and a quarter nothing. The nothing won”.

Cherry Wainer: South Africa’s first rock star was known as “The Female Liberace” and “The First Lady of British Rock and Roll”. She started playing piano as a kid and as a teenager she became fascinated with the Hammond Organ, aspiring to be like Jimmy Smith. She moved to the UK in the late 50s and was in Lord Rockingham’s XI, the house band for the show Oh Boy! This show was very popular with teenagers and a variety of music genres were played on the show from jazz to skiffle to rock and roll. She was known for her energetic stage presence.

Des O’Connor: Comedian and musician who opened for Buddy Holly on his 1958 UK tour. He would often joke that he was the first O’Connor to have a bar mitzvah.

Focus members Jan Akkerman, Thijs Van Leer, and Pierre van der Linden: Jan Akkerman is the guitarist of Dutch prog rock band Focus and Thijs Van Leer is the flautist and lead vocalist. Pierre van der Linden is the drummer.

Focus were famous for the songs “Hocus Pocus” and “Sylvia”. Akkerman first learned to play accordion before he started learning guitar at 10. Van Leer was born in Amsterdam to a Jewish father who was a classically trained flautist. He followed in his father’s footsteps and played flute. He also played piano from the age of 3 and wrote his first song when he was 6. One of his early influences is Miles Davis and in the 60s, he got into the music of The Beach Boys and Steve Winwood’s band Traffic.

Helen Shapiro: English musician who made it big in the early 60s as a teenager. She sang with Marc Bolan in a band before she got famous. She took voice lessons when she was 13 and through her teacher she got connections to a record label and got a record deal. At 14 her debut single “Don’t Treat Me Like A Child” hit #3. After that, she had two number ones with “You Don’t Know” and “Walkin’ Back To Happiness”. She toured with The Beatles when they did their first UK tour. Her fame declined by the mid 60s due to the change in the sound of mainstream music and they felt that her musical style was too antiquated.

Jacqueline Taïeb: 1960s yé-yé singer of Tunisian Jewish descent. She was born in Tunisia and moved to France with her parents at the age of 8. She started writing songs and playing guitar at 12 years old. Famous for the song “7 heures du matin”, which is about a teenage girl who gets up early in the morning and doesn’t want to go to school because she’d rather be listening to her rock and roll records. So relatable to any teenage girl who loves rock and roll.

Johnny Clegg: Born in England and moved to South Africa with his mum as a child. He grew up in the suburbs of Johannesburg and got into music that Zulu migrant workers played and fell in love with it. His music is a fusion of western rock and pop and Zulu music. As well as being a musician he is an anthropologist. He studied and taught anthropology at University of The Witwatersrand, one of the best universities in South Africa. He formed Juluka with Sipho Mchunu in the 70s. During this time they were censored by the South African government due to the mixing of cultures and languages. In the 80s he formed Savuka and combined Zulu music with Celtic music. Here’s a video where he talks about how he got into traditional street music by migrants. I found it pretty interesting that Zulu street music took western instruments like the guitar and concertina and  and re-imagined them in a uniquely African way.

Keith Reid: Songwriter for Procol Harum. He co-wrote many songs with Gary Brooker (also Jewish). He co-wrote along with Brooker and Matthew Fisher, their most famous song “A Whiter Shade of Pale”. This song was very iconic and was a theme for the 1967 Summer of Love. The video perfectly complements the song with the walking around in a field and later showing them in Piccadilly Circus in London. I love the clothing the band wore in the video and the organ playing by Matthew Fisher. Other hits he wrote for the band include “Homburg” and“Conquistador”.

Malcolm McLaren: Helped popularise the punk subculture in the UK in the 70s. He was dating Vivienne Westwood, a famous fashion designer, and they ran a shop together. He got to know the members of the Sex Pistols because they were customers of his shop. He came up with their band name and found their singer, Johnny Rotten (John Lydon). He became their manager. He helped get publicity for the band in a very controversial way by playing a concert on a boat named The Queen Elizabeth on the River Thames. He ended up getting arrested. “God Save The Queen” peaked at #2 on the UK Singles chart in 1977. He had a solo career in the 80s and did many styles of music.

Manfred Mann: Born Manfred Lubowitz in Johannesburg to a Jewish family. His stage name was a tribute to jazz drummer Shelly Manne. After studying at the University of the Witwatersrand, he left for England with some friends since there were better opportunities and he was disgusted at the racist government of South Africa. Before he was famous he was a teacher and a music journalist and it was a bumpy start in the beginning. His eponymous band started coming into place when he met Mike Hugg while playing in a jazz band at a holiday camp. They met vocalist Paul Jones whose inspirations were more R&B, changing the sound. The band got famous in 1964 and continued until 1968, having multiple top 10 hits and 3 number ones in the UK. In 1969, the band broke up and went their separate ways. Manfred and Mike Hugg did a short lived jazz project and that broke up a year later. In 1971, Manfred’s current band, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band started. Over the years he has played many different genres of music from jazz to pop to rock to fusions of world music with rock.

Manfred Mann did not write much of his own music, but he did write “One Way Glass”. This song was sampled in The Prodigy’s “Stand Up”.

Marc Bolan: Born Marc Feld in London. He was in a band called John’s Children before starting Tyrannosaurus Rex, which became glam rock band T. Rex. He was also a mod and modelled clothing. The sound of Tyrannosaurus Rex was a combination of psychedelic and folk. A couple of my favourite songs from this early Bolan era are “One Inch Rock”, “By The Light of a Magical Moon”, and “Beltane Walk”. The change in T. Rex’s sound is noted in the 1970 single “Ride a White Swan”. In 1971, the album Electric Warrior was released. I think this is a great album to start with if you’re new to Bolan. Some of my favourite songs from this album are “Planet Queen”, “Mambo Sun”, “Jeepster”, and “Get It On”. In 1972, The Slider was released. My favourite songs from that album are “Telegram Sam”, “Metal Guru”, and “Ballrooms of Mars”. In 1973, the hit single “20th Century Boy” was released. My favourite later singles of his to listen to are “I Love To Boogie” and “Dandy In The Underworld”. Marc Bolan died in a car crash in 1977 two weeks before his 30th birthday and exactly a month after Elvis died. He was survived by his partner, Gloria Jones, who is famous for the song “Tainted Love”. He had one son, Rolan Bolan.

Marianne Faithfull: Singer and actress. She got a top 10 hit with “As Tears Go By”. She also got top 10 hits in the UK with “Come and Stay With Me”, “This Little Bird”, and “Summer Nights”. Not only that, but she inspired the writing of “Sympathy For The Devil” by introducing Mick Jagger to the book The Master and Margarita. The song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” is about her. She also co-wrote the Rolling Stones song “Sister Morphine”. Her father was a British Intelligence officer and Italian language professor. Her mother came from nobility from Austria-Hungary. Her maternal grandmother was Jewish.

Mark and David Knopfler: Founding members of Dire Straits. Mark Knopfler is the lead guitarist and vocalist and David Knopfler is the rhythm guitarist. Their father was Hungarian. Dire Straits released their first album in 1978 and their best known song, “Sultans of Swing”, was on that album. That song was a top 10 hit in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia. Dire Straits continued recording music in the 80s and had multiple top 10 hits: “Romeo and Juliet”, “Private Investigations”, and “Money For Nothing” (this song was banned in Canada for decades).

Mick Jones: Member of The Clash, played guitar and sang. He often co-wrote with Joe Strummer. Songs he had a songwriting credit on include: “White Riot”, “London Calling”, “Tommy Gun”, “Clampdown”, “Train in Vain”, “Rudie Can’t Fail”, and “Rock The Casbah”. Their lyrics were political, left wing. Before The Clash, he played in a glam rock band. One of his influences was The New York Dolls. He was introduced to Joe strummer by Bernie Rhodes (who is also part Jewish). He left the Clash in 1983 and formed Big Audio Dynamite.

Nicola and Stéphane Sirkis: Twin brothers who formed the French new wave band Indochine. Their father, Jean Sirchis, was of Russian Jewish descent and his family escaped from Chisinau, Moldova because of antisemitism. Their mother was Catholic and the two brothers were raised Catholic. Indochine were very popular in the 80s in Francophone countries and had a following in Latin America, especially in Peru, where a DJ played L’Aventurier on the radio.

Nina Hagen: Punk rock musician from East Berlin. She’s not just any punk rock singer, she is known as The Godmother of Punk because of her influence in the punk genre. Her father was Jewish and his father died in a concentration camp. She has been singing opera since she was a kid and this had an influence on her performances. Not only is she known for her voice, she is also known for her stage presence. She moved to West Germany in 1976, aged 21 because her stepfather had his East German citizenship stripped and going to West Germany would help her career a lot. She is more than a singer. Before her music career she was an actress. Here’s one of her most popular songs from the late 70s:

Olivia Newton-John: This Australian pop star was born in England to a Welsh father and a mother of Jewish descent. Her maternal grandfather, Max Born was a Nobel Prize winning physicist. Her family moved to Australia when she was six. In short, she started singing as a teenager and appeared on local TV shows, then she went back to England in the mid-60s to further her career. In the early 70s, she sang mostly pop and country music. Then in the late 70s, she was in Grease, which really made her a household name. Like her character Sandy, she decided to change her image from girl next door to more badass and risqué, one example of her more risqué image was the song, “Physical”, which was banned from some radio stations in conservative areas like Utah.

Paul Kossoff: Guitarist of the band Free, who had a big hit in 1970 with “All Right Now”, love his guitar solo from that song! His father was the actor David Kossoff. At the age of 15 he saw Eric Clapton with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. Before joining Free, he was in a group called Black Cat Bones, who shared the stage with Champion Jack Dupree and Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. After the breakup of Free he was depressed and used drugs to cope. He became especially depressed after the death of Jimi Hendrix, one of his biggest idols. He died of a pulmonary embolism while flying from LA to NYC. He was only 25.

Pete Brown: English songwriter/poet who collaborated with Jack Bruce and Graham Bond. He is best known for co-writing the following Cream songs with Jack Bruce: “I Feel Free”, “White Room”, “SWLABR”, and “Sunshine of Your Love” with Eric Clapton as well as a songwriter. He also write songs with Jack Bruce during Bruce’s solo career. Pete Brown also had a band called Pete Brown and His Battered Ornaments. He was kicked out of that band and that band became The Battered Ornaments and they opened up for The Rolling Stones at Hyde Park on 5 July 1969. In 1972 he did an album with Graham Bond called Two Heads Are Better Than One, credited to Bond & Brown. In the 60s and 70s he published books of his poetry such as Few Poems; Let ‘Em Roll, Kafka; The Old Pals’ Act; and The Not Forgotten Association.

Peter Green: Founder of Fleetwood Mac and an important guitarist in the British Blues scene. He was born Peter Greenbaum in London. One of his inspirations to play guitar was Hank Marvin of The Shadows. Before he started Fleetwood Mac, he was in John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers. When he founded Fleetwood Mac, they were a blues rock band. Famous fans of Peter Green include Eric Clapton, Steve Hackett, and Jimmy Page. The early Fleetwood Mac were the only era of Fleetwood Mac to have a UK #1 with“Albatross”. It’s a beautiful instrumental and it’s very calming. He wrote “Albatross” and a lot of other famous early Fleetwood Mac songs. Some of these include “Black Magic Woman” (best known as a Santana cover), “I Loved Another Woman”, “Oh Well”, “Man of the World”, and “The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)”. He left Fleetwood Mac in 1970, ending that era of Fleetwood Mac. He released a solo album in 1970, but was out of the spotlight through most of the 70s. He made a recovery by 1979 and started recording music again.

Phil, Derek, and Ray Shulman: Three brothers who were in Simon Dupree and The Big Sound and later on the progressive rock band Gentle Giant. All three were multi-instrumentalists. Phil played woodwinds such as the flute, clarinet, and saxophone. Derek was on lead vocals. Ray mostly played bass. They are musicians that are a great example of diversity in classic rock. Simon Dupree and The Big Sound were a psychedelic garage band that took influences from soul and r&b music. Gentle Giant took influences from jazz and classical music. Some songs I recommend from Simon Dupree and The Big Sound are “Kites – their biggest hit, peaking at #9 in the UK, “I See The Light” – their first single , and “Thinking About My Life”. A good place to start with Gentle Giant is their 1970 self titled debut album. I recommend it if you are a fan of Yes and Genesis. Some parts of it remind me of things that Yes and Genesis did a year or two later.

Ronnie Robot: Played bass for Rabbitt. He was born Ronald Friedman on October 5, 1954 in South Africa. Not much is known about him, but in recent years he worked on a classical music CD series for children called Majors for Minors.

Serge Gainsbourg: French singer-songwriter born in Paris as Lucien Ginsburg. He survived the His songs were well-known for having sexual innuendos and double-entendres. He made music in multiple genres from pop to jazz to reggae. He sang duets with Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin. Jane Birkin was his partner for over a decade. He released his first album in 1958, one song he did then was called “Le Poinçonneur des Lilas”. He wrote a few songs for French yé-yé singer France Gall. One of these songs won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1965 “Poupée de cire, poupée de son”. “Les Sucettes” was one song that caused a controversy in France for it being a sexual innuendo. Another great song he wrote for France Gall is “Laisse tomber les filles”. With Brigitte Bardot he recorded songs like “Bonnie and Clyde”, “Comic Strip”, and “Initials B.B.”. Serge Gainsbourg released his first album with English actress Jane Birkin in 1969. She was his partner at the time. The song that was the biggest success was a controversial one “Je t’aime… moi non plus”. This made it to #1 in the UK.

Sharon Tandy: Born Sharon Finkelstein in Johannesburg. She recorded music in South Africa, the UK, and the US. She got her start in South Africa’s first rock and roll movie, Africa Shakes. Her voice and sound has been compared to legends like Dusty Springfield, Julie Driscoll, and Christine McVie. In 1966, she went to the US and recorded some songs in the Stax studio with Booker T. & The M.G.’s, Stax Records’ house band. She toured Europe on the famous 1967 Stax/Volt tour. Other musicians on that tour included Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Eddie Floyd, The Mar Keys, and Booker T. and the M.G.’s. After that, she collaborated with The Fleur de Lys. She is one of the most under appreciated blue eyed soul singers of the 60s, never achieving chart success. By 1970, she returned to South Africa and recorded a few singles that charted there. She died in 2015 at the age of 71.

Trevor Rabin: Born in Johannesburg to a well off Jewish family. His father was a lawyer and he had a cousin that was a lawyer for Nelson Mandela and Steven Biko. He played piano and guitar from a young age and really enjoyed British Invasion, psychedelic, and progressive rock. He started the band, Rabbitt in the early 70s and the band were famous in South Africa. He was the primary songwriter for the band and mostly was the lead vocalist. The band tried to do a tour overseas, but ultimately were unable to due to boycotts of South Africa during Apartheid. He followed in the footsteps of many famous South African musicians and left for the UK in 1978 and started a solo career. It started slowly, but picked up by the start of the 80s. Before joining Yes he worked with Ray Davies, Manfred Mann, Jack Bruce, Brian Robertson, and Jimmy Bain. He moved to the US in 1981, later becoming a citizen. Nowadays he is doing music scores for films. You might know some of these films: Con Air, Armageddon, Remember The Titans, and National Treasure. Here’s an interesting interview he did in the 80s when he was in Yes. He talks about his life in South Africa and his move to England.

Tony Macaulay: English songwriter who wrote hit songs for The Foundations, Marmalade, The 5th Dimension, Edison Lighthouse, Donna Summer, Long John Baldry, and more. He has won 9 Ivor Novello Awards. You’ll probably know the songs “Build Me Up Buttercup”, “Baby Now That I’ve Found You”, and “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)”.

Yuri Kasparyan: Guitarist for Soviet post-punk/new wave band Kino. He was born in Simferopol, on the Crimean peninsula to an Armenian father named Dmitry (hence the last name) and a Jewish mother, Irina Guslits. Both of his parents were scientists. As a baby his family moved to Leningrad (St Petersburg), which is where he grew up. Before picking up the guitar, he played the cello, but when he heard rock music for the first time, he knew he wanted to play guitar. In 1983, he met Viktor Tsoi and the two became friends and formed the band Kino. He married an American woman named Joanna Stingray in 1987, but they divorced in 1991 after the death of Viktor Tsoi in a car accident. Afterwards he played in groups U-Piter and Ronin.

10cc members Lol Creme, Kevin Godley, and Graham Gouldman: These three members were friends from Manchester. Graham Gouldman was an accomplished songwriter who wrote hits in the 60s such as: “Heart Full of Soul”, “For Your Love”, “Bus Stop”, and “No Milk Today”. Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, before they were Godley & Creme in the late 70s through the 80s making music and directing music videos, worked together performing songs that they wrote in the 60s. What became 10cc came together in the late 60s, with Eric Stewart (he was the only gentile in the original lineup of 10cc), formerly of Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders. They worked at Strawberry Studios in Stockport, near Manchester. They worked with the Kasenetz-Katz Super K Productions, writing bubblegum pop songs. They recorded their first single, “Neanderthal Man”, together under the band name Hotlegs. They released one album called Thinks: School Stinks. Another song I recommend from that album is “Um Wah, Um Woh”. In 1972 the band changed their name to 10cc and released a self titled debut in 1973. My favourite songs from that album are “Sand In My Face”, “Donna”, and “The Dean and I”. Another song I liked was “Waterfall”, which did not appear on any album. “The Wall Street Shuffle” was a top 10 hit for the band in 1974. “I’m Not In Love” was a hit for the band in 1975 and one of their best known songs and was in the soundtrack of Guardians of the Galaxy.

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