The Kingstree Connection to the Hit Song "Get A Job"

In February 1958, the song, "Get A Job," performed by a relatively unknown group, The Silhouettes, made it to No. 1 on the Billboard Charts. It would be the group's only hit, selling over 1 million copies and earning them a gold record. The song would later be part of the soundtracks for the movies American Graffiti, Stand by Me, Trading Places, Get A Job, Joey, and Good Morning, Viet Nam. It would also appear briefly in the television shows, Married with Children, and Hardcastle and McCormick. If you've never heard it, or haven't heard it in a while, you can listen to it here. In fact, it might be a good idea for everyone to listen because today we're not really interested in the lyrics, or in the sha na nas, from which the group Sha Na Na took its name. We are interested in that razzy saxophone solo that happens at one minute and twenty-nine seconds into this recording. And we're interested because the saxophonist, Rollee McGill, is Kingstree's connection to that hit song.

Cover of The Silhouttes album which contained the song, "Get a Job."

Born December 29, 1931, here in Kingstree, Rollee McGill got his start in music with the gospel group, the Carolina Quartet Boys. By the 1950s, he had moved to Philadelphia, where he started his own group, The Rhythm Rockers. Their first record, "There Goes That Train," released in 1955 on a small label, was picked up for national distribution by Mercury Records, and made it to No. 10 on Billboard's Rhythm and Blues Charts. You can listen to "There Goes That Train," here.

Cover of the 30-track compilation of Rollee McGill's recordings.

He moved to Los Angeles for awhile and also recorded in New York City, but none of these songs saw success. He moved back to Philadelphia, where he worked as both a solo performer and as a session musician. It was in that latter role that he found his moment of fame for his saxophone solo on the recording of "Get A Job." It should be noted that Rollee McGill did not read music. According to Richard Lewis, composer of "Get a Job," and lead singer for The Silhouettes, "Rollee just winged it."

He continued to record into the 1960s, but with no further hits, he worked as a machinist from 1964 until his death in 2000. He didn't completely give up his music, however, performing locally in Philadelphia during those years. In 1999, Bear Family Records produced a 30-track CD of his recordings.

Rolle McGill died in Philadelphia on October 11, 2000, at age 68. It seems fitting that we remember him during the week of the 21st anniversary of his death.