Noteworthy: Al Osten And The Rover Boys, Credited With Discovering Paul Anka

In 1957, Billy Albert left the group and was replaced by New Yorker Buddy Victor as the lead singer. Victor was still learning the band repertoire hours before a performance.  They recorded other numbers: From a School Ring to A Wedding Ring, Little Did I know, Soft Sands, Julia and Sweet Violets, but none of the tunes had the success of Graduation Day, “despite competition from a cover of (that) ballad by the more well-known Four Freshmen,” according to onehitwondersthebook.com.

The Rover Boys appeared in Michel Legrand’s La Parisienne in Las Vegas for which they rehearsed in Paris, opened for Tony Bennett in Atlantic City, and appeared on the Tonight Show and Dick Clark’s American Bandstand with legendary performer Bobby Darin.

Osten added, “I also treasure our group’s direct role in discovering Ottawa-born legend Paul Anka who we introduced to ABC-Paramount, which Paul confirmed in his autobiography.” Niece Ellen Sue Mesbur said her uncle “told me that Anka hung around the club where The Rover Boys performed, often bringing them coffee, cajoling them to let him perform with them and finally, convincing them to take him to New York where he hoped to sell his music to recording companies, including his signature tune, Diana.”

Darin and Anka counseled Osten that “it is important to never give up…to persist until you succeed.”

Al and the Rover Boys had opportunities in the US and Canada to meet Sophie Tucker, the last of the “red-hot mammas” and perform with her twice. Al was so impressed with her and noted that she “was a terrific lady, who was loved for her random acts of kindness, from Jewish causes to Catholic nuns.” 

He said that during the day, people were constantly going to meet her at the theatre or club, asking her for donations. He said that no matter what time of day it was, she always had time to spare, to listen, and “… to give them a little something or a lot of something”.

(Tucker was known for her reverence of the Hebrew principle of Tzedakah (charity) and acts of good will toward others. In 1945, she established the Sophie Tucker Foundation, donating time, energy, and resources to an ecumenical assortment of causes including the Jewish Theatrical Guild (of which she was a life member), the Negro Actors Guild, the Catholic Actors Guild, the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital, the Motion Picture Relief Fund, synagogues, hospitals and homes for the aged. She supported Israel Bonds, and in 1959, on the first of several trips to Israel, Tucker dedicated the Sophie Tucker Youth Center at Bet Shemesh in the Judean Hills. Two years later, she sponsored another youth center at Kibbutz Be’eri in the northern Negev near Gaza, and later sponsored the Sophie Tucker Forest near the Bet Shemesh amphitheater and raised money for another forest.)