Music Mondays: After 30 Years, Hooters Keep Alumni Together

(l to r): John Lilley, Rob Hyman (C’72), Eric Bazilian (C’75), Fran Smith, Jr. and Dave Uosikkinen

What happens when a group of undergrads get together to form a band and they’re still together touring the world over 30 years later?!

Ask Eric Bazilian (C’75, Penn Singers, Mask and Wig), Rob Hyman (C’72), and Rick Chertoff (C’72) who are currently touring the world with their band The Hooters.

Over the past 30 years, some notable achievements of theirs include:

Rob and Eric writing and playing on Cyndi Lauper’s debut album “She’s So Unusual”.

Rob and Cyndi co-writing the hit song “Time After Time”.

Eric and Rob contributing much of the material and instrumentation for the debut album “Relish” for Joan Osborne. Eric’s masterfully penned “One Of Us”, shot up the charts.

I recently chatted with Eric about his beginnings and he told me he had already been in several bands by the time he got to Penn. However, he worked with the Penn Singers initially as band leader and director under Bruce Montgomery and liked it so much he started singing with them.

Per Eric,

“I got involved with “Uncle Benny’s Summer Camp” (also known simply as “The Cabaret” –also featuring Doris Cochran-Fikes (C’72) currently known for being involved in Penn’s Alumni Relations, and now Admissions) also as bandleader and musical director through Todd Feinberg (C’74) who was already in the group as a performer. I joined Mask & Wig spring semester senior year as bass player because I didn’t have anything to do over spring break and Florida seemed like a good idea.

Outside of Penn groups, during Eric’s freshman year he played in a band called “Wax” with Rob and Rick and had a band called “Cyclic Blowfield And His Funky Calypsos” (together with Bob Goldman, C’74) which played numerous times at Houston Hall, in the Quad at Spring Fling, various frat houses and many more gigs.”

Recently The Hooters were featured on NY’s WPIX news and introduced by Penn alum entertainment reporter Emily Frances.

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