Eugene "Cookie" Favilla:
CLASS OF 1965
Excelsior Union High SchoolClass of 1965
Norwalk, CA
Cerritos Community CollegeClass of 1968
Cerritos, CA
Eugene "Cookie"'s Story
First of all, I'd like to say hello to all of my classmates. I've been retired for about five years and my wife Lynda (LemMon class of '68) retired in June '08 form the Anaheim City School District. Now I'm spending a lot of time playing music, working on the house, have already restored a Corvette which I rarely drive (typical), building remote control model airplanes. Been playing in a rock and roll band for about 25 years. I learned to play the piano from Steve Volkoff Class of '65 and Mark Clements Class of '63(?). Thanks for those lessons guys.
Here's a lot of info about the band:
Historical Bio: The "Rock-Its" evolved from a group known as the Chan-dells from the era of the 1960s. This group experienced great success in the beach cities of and throughout California, opening and backing such notables as Sonny & Cher, Little Richard, Jimmy Reed, Ike & Tina Turner, BJ Thomas, The Chantels, Jan & Dean and several other performing artists of the day. The group, however, was disassembled by the war in Viet Nam with half of the band drafted into military service. This was most unfortunate as the band had just come under contract with Reb Foster (radio station KRLA) and had begun limited tours with the bands with a similar history know as "The Crossfires". This group, upon release of their first hit single, "It Ain¿t Me Babe", became known as "The Turtles".The group re-assembled in the 70s and in 1984 formed the 50s Retro- group known as "Ruby and the Rockets". This group was composed of two original members of "The Chandells", Dan Thomas on saxophone, Art Banuelos on lead guitar / vocalist, and a female vocalist. Jim Sposa of Tenafly, New Jersey joined the group as the bass guitarist / Harmony Vocalist and Eugene "Cookie" Favilla joined as the keyboard player and vocalist. Tony Ortiz later took over the lead guitarist position when Art Banuelos left the band. This group continued to work together for another 20 years and performed for major county events such as "The Relay For Life" in Newport Beach, hosted by newsman Ed Arnold for 5 years. It became the band of choice for several events, fundraisers and political rallies in La Palma, Long Beach, Irvine, Newport Beach, Sacramento, and San Diego. The Association of California School Administrators flew the band to...Expand for more
Sacramento and San Francisco for perform for their State-wide convention and brought the group to San Diego on three occasions for major events, including a dinner reception on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Midway. The group also served as the house band for many upscale restaurants in Southern California to include such places as the Orange County Mining Company, Cannons and the Balboa Bay Club.Early in 2005, the band morphed itself once again when Dan Thomas, Jim Sposa, Cookie Favilla and Tony Ortiz joined forces with a 5 part acapella group out of Las Vegas, Nevada called "Richie D. & the Highlights". The response to this 50's / 60's Rock & Roll Doo-Wop extravaganza was instantaneous and overwhelming. The combined groups performed at the Italian American Club and the San Genero Festival in Las Vegas in 2007 and the Royal Carribean Cruise Lines in 2008. The Hilites & The Rockits continue to perform on a regular basis throughout Southern California and Las Vegas. The "Rock-Its" band is composed as follows: Mr. Tony Ortiz: - Federal Government Employee Guitar/ Vocals Mr. "Jersey" Jim Sposa - Director of Human Resources, Taco Bell Bass/Vocals Mr. Eugene "Cookie" Favilla - Retired Police Officer Keyboards/Vocals Mr. Bobby Jones - Professional Drummer / Vocalist Mr. Bill Crandel - Member Disneyland Cast Back-up Drummer/Vocals Dan DiThomas - Retired School District Administrator/ Sax / Vocals. "The HiLites" vocal group is composed of five East Coast Do-Wop group performers. These individuals have worked with such groups as "The Graduates", "Randy and the Rainbows", and the "Dell-Vikings". The group is composed of: Richie DiThomas, Donna DiThomas, Rita Bianco, Bobby Bianco and Bobby Poleti.
Well, as of about six months ago, everything has changed. We bought a house up in Crescent City, CA, just South of the Oregon border along the coastline. It's in the Redwoods area and we have plenty of Redwoods on our new land. We should have done it 40 years ago when I was young and had more time on this planet to enjoy it. But for now, we're enjoying just watching the slow life up here. Three miles from the beach and three miles from a big river with Salmon. Of course, I had to quit the band and I miss the guys sorely, but they're still going and having fun at it.
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