‘Jolly Green Giant’s Valley’ Exists in Minnesota

Today’s post updates information that first appeared in columns on June 24 & 28, 2020.

Within the fertile Minnesota River Basin lies “The Valley of the Jolly Green Giant.” Stretching roughly 70 miles from Le Sueur south to Blue Earth, the valley is where the Green Giant Company took root.

 

Local farmers and investors came together in 1903 to build the Minnesota Valley Canning Company factory in Le Sueur to process cans of white cream-style corn. Peas came next.

 

(The Le Sueur community takes its name from French explorer Pierre-Charles Le Sueur, the first European to set foot in the Minnesota territory in about 1695. He became a successful fur trader.)

Edward Bradley “Ward” Cosgrove, a son of one of the original founders of the cannery (Carson Nesbit Cosgrove), assumed a leadership role within the business in 1914. Soon thereafter, he developed the famous Le Sueur brand of “very young small sweet peas,” which appealed to consumers with “sophisticated palates.”

 

Ward Cosgrove realized it took a lot of little peas to fill a can. He went to Europe in 1925 and gathered jumbo-sized “Prince of Wales peas” that were both “tender and sweet.” The seeds thrived in the fields around Le Sueur. Cosgrove called them “Green Giant Great Big Tender Peas.”

 

Ward Cosgrove’s son, E.B. Cosgrove, from the third generation, assumed the company presidency in 1929. His vision was to make Green Giant a national brand, “like Campbell Soup,” but not many people believed him, said the late Don Osell, who worked nearly 40 years alongside the various Cosgrove family members at the canning company.

“By happenstance, we met a young Chicagoan named Leo Burnett (shown below), who had dreams of his own – to start an advertising agency. He did so in the early 1930s with a commitment from E.B.: ‘You open your own agency, and we’ll be your first account.’”

 

It was risky, Osell said. “Leo Burnett opened his Chicago advertising agency in the midst of the Great Depression. Observers predicted failure and said that in no time at all he would be selling apples on the streetcorner.”

“From those comments, Burnett made the apple a symbol for his agency. Every day, on every reception desk, in every Burnett office, there was a bowl of big Red Delicious apples for callers to munch on,” Osell said.

The “Jolly Green Giant” mascot fully emerged in 1935, when Burnett introduced an enormous fellow who was solid green with a sunny smile, wearing a skimpy toga of leaves.

“Burnett created the entire ‘concept of the Valley of the Jolly Green Giant...a mythical, Shangri-La place where the soil was richer, the rains softer and gentler, where the sun shone warmly on the fields...and where the vegetables grew like no place else in the world,’” Osell noted.

“The caretaker who overlooked this idyllic place was a jolly, friendly giant.” His role was to produce “Good Things from the Garden…Ho, ho, ho.” (The booming, deep bass voice came from the late Elmer “Len” Dresslar Jr., a vocalist with The Singers Unlimited.)

All of this was highly successful, prompting the cannery to change its name to the Green Giant Company in 1950.

In the 1960s, Green Giant perfected the science of packaging frozen vegetables and turned up the heat on its marketing.

Perhaps the most innovative commercial pairing of all time was the campfire scene from 1963 with Tennessee Ernie Ford singing to children about the Jolly Green Giant, as the giant basked in the light of a rising full moon.

This novelty mini-album was titled “When Pea-Pickers Get Together.” Ford earned the nickname as “the Ol’ Pea-Picker” due to his catchphrase, “Bless your pea-pickin’ heart!”

 

There was yet another surge is 1965 when “The Jolly Green Giant” was released as a novelty song, creating a minor hit for the band known as The Kingsmen from Portland, Ore., who had recorded the rock’n’roll classic “Louie Louie” in 1963.

In 1972, a newcomer arrived in the Green Giant’s valley. He, too, was green and dressed in leaves. But “he was pint-sized, to the point where he could easily fit into the palm of the Jolly Green Giant,” wrote Heather Taylor for AdvertisingWeek magazine.

He was the Little Green Sprout, and his arrival…“introduced kids to the healthy goodness of veggies,” Taylor added.

 

 

Where Is the ‘Jolly Green Giant’ now?

Things began to change in 1979 after the Green Giant Company was merged into The Pillsbury Company. The entire community of Le Sueur (about 4,000 people) mourned when Pillsbury shuttered the original Minnesota Valley Canning Company plant in 1995.

Next, Pillsbury was acquired in 2001 by General Mills.

 In 2015, General Mills sold the Green Giant and Le Sueur brands to B&G Foods of Parsippany, N.J. (At the time, B&G Foods owned more than 50 food brands. Current familiar labels include Ortega, Cream of Wheat, Crisco, Skinny Girl, Baker’s Joy, Durkee, Old London and Underwood.)

 

Although the Jolly Green Giant had effectively moved out of Minnesota, B&G Foods fulfilled its promise to refurbish the long-standing Green Giant billboard along U.S. Route 169 on a hillside outside Le Sueur that welcomes visitors to the Green Giant’s valley.

 

In 2022, a B&G Foods spokesperson said: “It’s very important to highlight the roots of Green Giant, where it started and all the wonderful people in that area of the country who helped grow the brand to what it is today. It’s a brand that has a rich history, so it’s on us to keep it going.”

Then, in November 2023, B&G Foods sold the Green Giant canned goods vegetable product line to Seneca Foods Corporation of Fairport, N.Y. B&G Foods announced it would retain ownership of the Green Giant trademarks, licensing the Green Giant brand name to Seneca Foods. The sale did not include Green Giant frozen foods or the Le Sueur brand.

 

Seneca Foods has had a presence in this section of Minnesota for a long time and has ongoing relationships with local farmers.

“We are excited to add the iconic Green Giant brand and shelf-stable products to our portfolio of canned vegetable offerings,” said Paul Palmby, president and CEO of Seneca Foods.

“Having co-manufactured much of this product for B&G Foods for many years, we have long admired the strength of the brand in the market and look forward to its continued success.”

Seneca Foods currently operates a canning facility located at the southern end of the Minnesota River Valley in Blue Earth, Minn. It traces its history to the original Blue Earth Canning Company that opened in 1926 and became a subsidiary of the Minnesota Valley Canning Company in 1929.

Today, Seneca Foods is one of North America’s leading providers of packaged fruits and vegetables. In addition to its Libby’s, Aunt Nellie’s, Green Valley, Read and Seneca Snacks brands, the company holds a large share of the market that serves retail private label accounts, food service businesses and restaurant chains.

Although change within the food products industry can occur at a “dizzying” pace, Osell commented, “the Green Giant brand has survived and prospered. The moral: Companies are transient; brands and products – if they’re built on a stable platform and nurtured – can ride out the changes and prosper.”

 

Case in point: In 1999, Advertising Age magazine listed its choice of the 20th century’s top 10 advertising icons and placed the Green Giant third (behind the Marlboro Man and Ronald McDonald…and ahead of Betty Crocker, the Energizer Bunny, the Pillsbury Doughboy, Aunt Jemima, the Michelin Man, Tony the Tiger and Borden’s cow, Elsie).

(Interestingly, the Burnett agency created not only the Green Giant, but the Marlboro Man, the Pillsbury Doughboy and Tony the Tiger as well.)

Jolly Green Giant Statue Towers over Visitors

Blue Earth, Minn., promises its citizens an interesting quality of life combination: “Small City, GIANT Living.” Could that be related to a towering 56-foot statue of the Jolly Green Giant who watches over the community of about 3,160 residents? You bet.

Over the years, there’s been a bit of competition between Blue Earth and Le Sueur, located about 70 miles apart in southern Minnesota, related to which municipality has the right to claim the Jolly Green Giant as its own.

Technically, the Green Giant’s domain within the Minnesota River Valley encompasses both Blue Earth and Le Sueur. Each community had a canning plant that once operated under the Green Giant Company umbrella.

An entrepreneur in Blue Earth seized an opportunity in the 1970s to erect a colossal, fiberglass statue of the Green Giant…for all to look up to.

The statue was the idea of Paul Hedberg, owner of the local radio station (KBEW) in Blue Earth. His “Welcome Travelers” segment featured interviews with motorists who were passing through town on their westward journey to scenic landmarks such as the Black Hills and Yellowstone National Park.

At the end of each interview, Hedberg presented his guests with cans of peas and corn from Blue Earth’s Green Giant canning plant along with a sample of blueish dirt, as a souvenir depicting “the hue of the riverbed clay that gave the town its name.”

 

Hedberg had no trouble raising $50,000 in private funds to have the Green Giant statue built as an investment in tourism for the town. The route chosen for the construction of the east-west Interstate 90 was going to skirt Blue Earth.

I-90 is reportedly the “longest road in America,” stretching 3,081 miles from Boston to Seattle. Its east and west paving crews met just outside of Blue Earth, and Hedberg orchestrated a big ceremony on Sept. 17, 1978.

Reminiscent of the “Golden Spike” that symbolized completion of the nation’s first transcontinental railroad in 1869, Hedberg convinced transportation department officials to tint a small section of I-90’s pavement gold.

Susan Perkins Botsford of Middletown, Ohio, who was Miss America 1978, participated in the “Golden Spike” ceremony in Blue Earth.

The event included the unveiling of the 4-ton Jolly Green Giant statue in Blue Earth’s Giant Park. It is mounted on an 8-foot pedestal. There are stairs so visitors may climb up and stand next to the statue to have their photos made.

Here is Paul Hedberg with the unpainted head of the Jolly Green Giant.

Heidi Van Heel of the MinnPost news service observed: “The Giant’s feet are 6-feet long; that’s the equivalent of size 78 shoes.”

Every Christmas season, Santa Claus visits the Giant. Lifted up in a bucket truck, Santa places a long red scarf around Giant’s neck to keep him warm for the winter.

The Blue Earth Fire Department also gives the Giant a bath at least once a year...and he  recently received a new coat of paint.

 

 

* * * 

“Paul Hedberg never had a negative comment about anyone or anything; always all positive,” said Larry Anderson, former executive director of the Blue Earth Area Chamber of Commerce. “If every community had a Paul Hedberg kind of leadership in everything, we would all be better off.”

 

Before Paul Hedberg died in 2021 at age 81, he provided funding to install six giant-sized musical percussion instruments at Giant Park in Blue Earth, yet another example of how “Paul was always looking for ways to promote Blue Earth and the local area,” Anderson said.

 

Anderson told Chuck Hunt, editor of the Faribault County Register, published in Blue Earth: “I remember when KBEW radio was celebrating its 10th anniversary in 1973. Paul convinced Paul Harvey (a radio broadcaster with a national audience) to come here for the celebration.”

 

Hedberg picked up Paul Harvey at the local airport in Fairmont, about 20 miles away, and took him all around Blue Earth to “sell him” on the community, Anderson said. “It worked, too, because later that week Paul Harvey talked about wonderful Blue Earth on his radio show.”

(Paul Harvey’s “News and Comment” programs reached as many as 24 million people per week, as these accounts were carried on 1,200 radio stations, on 400 American Forces Network stations and in 300 newspapers across the country.)

 

 * * * 

Visitors to Blue Earth are invited to “seek and find” the 24 statues of “Little Sprouts” that are located around town.

Launched in 2018 as a project of the Business Improvement Committee, which is fostered by the Blue Earth Area Chamber of Commerce, each Sprout has a custom paint job, courtesy of local artists and sponsoring businesses and organizations. 

Find all 24 and win a prize at the chamber office.

  

Jesus’ return to Nazareth meets resistance

Sunday’s sermon was about Jesus’ “homecoming” to Nazareth, the community where he grew up in the southern part of the Galilee region of Israel. The account from Luke 4:14-21 is believed to contain the “first recorded words of Jesus’ public ministry.”

Jesus had begun traveling from town to town across Galilee teaching in the synagogues and proclaiming the arrival of God’s kingdom. 

 

He drew great praise from the people, “making good impressions” all across the region, according to Pastor Karl.

Upon Jesus’ returned to Nazareth, he was scheduled to attend the local synagogue on the Sabbath, conduct a reading from the scrolls and engage in teaching. Luke tells us:

As he stood up to read, the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And he opened the book and found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

 

“Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down (as was the custom for the teaching moment). The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’”

 

It was a directive from the Messiah himself. The people of Israel were free and liberated. The wait is over. The future is now, Pastor Karl explained.

Amazement quickly faded to skepticism, however, as the people perceived that nothing had changed. There were no visible miracles from the young man who was advertised as the Son of God. The locals still viewed Jesus as the “carpenter’s son.” They became quite angry, as if to say: “Who does he think he is?”

Commenting on the crowd’s reaction, Pastor Karl said: “They didn’t see it, they didn’t get it; they missed it. Are we flexible and open to new ways? He may express himself at any time to open doors for ongoing encounters with God? Or are we too distracted? God is here. Today.”

This point of view is underscored by Dr. Michael K. Marsh, rector of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Uvalde, Texas. 

He wrote: “Today the Spirit of the Lord is here. Today is the day of anointing. Today is the day to bring good news to the poor. Today is the day to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. Today is the day to let the oppressed go free. Today is the day to proclaim 2025 as the year of the Lord’s favor.”

“Today is the day to love, today is the day to tell the truth, today is the day to forgive, today is the day to end racism, today is the day to welcome the migrant, today is the day to feed the hungry, today is the day to reconcile and make peace,” Dr. Marsh said.

“Today, not yesterday and not tomorrow, this day, is the day of fulfillment. Today is the day. If not today, when?”

Preaching on the same topic (Jesus’ rejection in Nazareth) on the same Sunday as Pastor Karl…the Rev. Jonathan Marlowe, a co-senior pastor at Mount Zion United Methodist Church in Cornelius, N.C., described the behavior of the Nazareth crowd as just “plain sorry,” a Southern term that means “ruder than rude and about as bad as it can get.”

 

Rev. Marlowe cited passages written by John Golda, founder of the Hearing From Jesus Ministries organization: “The people of Nazareth’s familiarity with Jesus and his family blinds them to the truth of his identity. They cannot reconcile the Jesus they knew as a carpenter’s son with the divine authority He now embodies, leading to their rejection of him.”

“Jesus’ rejection in Nazareth underscores the challenges of speaking truth to those who are unwilling to listen. Yet, it also demonstrates the power of truth to challenge entrenched beliefs and transform hearts, even in the face of opposition,” Golda wrote.

“Like Jesus, let us courageously proclaim truth, even when it is met with resistance or rejection. May we be steadfast in our commitment to God’s word, confronting unbelief with grace and humility.”

Here’s a bit of a eulogy to Bob Uecker

Bob Uecker made us laugh. The world needs more Bob Ueckers.

He died Jan.16, at age 90, after a “baseball career” that spanned more than seven decades, first as a professional player and then as a broadcaster.

 

Along the way, he dabbled in television, movies and comedy while hawking Miller Lite beer in creative TV commercials. He created new friendships with every venture. He never took himself too seriously, but he had a deep and serious affection for the game of baseball.

Uecker came up as a catcher, managing to land a contract with his hometown team, the Milwaukee Braves. He was called up from the minor leagues by the Braves in 1962 as the third-string catcher behind Joe Torre and Del Crandell.

In all, Uecker spent six years in the majors (from 1962-67), also playing for the St. Louis Cardinals, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Atlanta Braves, “but he was a below average player who never attained stardom on the field,” said Eric San Juan of Legacy.com.

“However, what he did have was charisma and a sense of humor. Uecker’s wit did not go unnoticed, leading to his post-retirement transition into radio broadcasting in 1971. He quickly became a beloved announcer for the Milwaukee Brewers, earning the moniker ‘Mr. Baseball’ and becoming a mainstay in Milwaukee,” San Juan wrote.

Uecker was well known for saying his catchphrase: “Get up! Get up! Get outta here! Gone!” when a Brewers player hit a home run.

Uecker’s last broadcast was Game 3 of the National League Wild Card Series between the Brewers and New York Mets on Oct. 3, 2024, ensuring his place among Major League Baseball announcers having the longest tenure. 

With 54 seasons behind the microphone, Uecker is second in line, behind only Denny Matthews, broadcaster with the Kansas City Royals, who started in 1969 and is still active.

As the 2003 recipient of the Fred C. Frick Award for outstanding broadcasting, presented by the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., Uecker relished the opportunity to deliver an acceptance speech laced with humor.

He said his father came from Switzerland where he was involved in soccer. His dad blew up the balls “before they had an air pump.”

Uecker boasted about his .200 career batting average, putting him on par with the legendary Don Carter, who averaged 200 over a 10-year period. Carter was a bowler.

“The baseball shoes and glove manufacturers paid me not to use their stuff,” Uecker said.

 

He talked about his role as a member of the Cardinals’ 1964 team that won the World Series over the New York Yankees, 4 games to 3. As the backup catcher to Tim McCarver, Uecker got to warm up the St. Louis pitchers, including Bob Gibson, who won the series MVP award for his 2-1 record, 3.00 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 27 innings pitched.

 

McCarver, who finished second in the MVP voting, batted .478 for the series with 11 hits.

 

(McCarver was so hot, it made no sense to take him out of the lineup, Uecker once told Johnny Carson, host of the Tonight Show. Carson and Uecker had chemistry. Uecker made some 100 guest appearances on the Johnny Carson show over the years.)

 

Back on the baseball diamond, the Braves organization left Milwaukee and moved to Atlanta in 1966. Atlanta traded for Uecker early in the 1967 season and named him as the personal catcher for knuckleball pitcher Phil Niekro.

“I was more like the personal chaser,” Uecker said. “I set a major league record for 27 passed balls in 1967.” (Niekro was responsible for 25 of them.)

Niekro credits Uecker will helping his pitching career get a jumpstart. “Ueck told me if I was ever going to be a winner to throw the knuckleball at all times, and he would try to catch it,” Niekro said. “I led the league in ERA (1.87).”

 

“Every time Niekro started, I went through the same ritual before the game,” Uecker said. “I took four aspirin for the headache I knew I would have afterward.”

Uecker commented that trainer Harvey Stone told a reporter that Niekro could probably pitch the next night, but general manager Paul Richards overheard him and said, “No he couldn’t.” When a writer asked if Niekro needed more rest, Richards said, “No, but Uecker does. Every time Niekro pitches, Uecker is the one who needs four days rest.”

Uecker joked that the only sure way to “catch” a Niekro knuckleball was “to just wait until it stopped rolling and pick it up.”

The acting career began with Uecker being cast in the family sitcom “Mr. Belvedere” that aired on ABC from 1985-90. The show starred Christopher Hewett as a posh English butler (Lynn Belvedere) who struggled to adapt to employment with the Owens household in suburban Pittsburgh, Pa.

Uecker played the breadwinner, George Owens, a sportswriter, while Ilene Graff portrayed Marsha Owens, who went to law school, finished and began practicing over the course of the show. The roles of their three children were played by Rob Stone, Tracy Wells and Brice Beckham.

 

As a sidebar story to the Bob Uecker obituary, Christopher Kuhagen of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel included comments written by Tracy Tofte (formerly Wells), who is now working as a real estate agent in Los Angeles. She had kept in touch with the Uecker family throughout the years and often visited their home in Menomonee Falls, Wis.

“Even with a walker and on pain meds, he was cracking jokes and making me laugh,” Tracy said. “I’ll always treasure the memories from Mr. Belvedere – there were so many. Bob was the glue that held us together and kept us grounded. He never took anything too seriously, and his #1 goal was always to make us laugh.”

 

“Bob had a rare gift of making everyone feel special. He appreciated everyone – no matter their status. He was a truly good human, inside and out. He was my second dad, and I will miss him more than words can express. My heart also hurts for the entire family. I’m holding them all in my thoughts and sending love during this difficult time.”

“The Mr. Belvedere cast – Ilene, Rob, Brice and I – will all make sure Bob’s memory stays alive. He’ll always be a part of us,” Tracy promised.

“Ninety years and still gone too soon,” wrote Brice Beckham. “He never failed to make us laugh, and I count myself lucky to have called him ‘Dad’ for those five formative years. We’ll miss him as he takes his seat ‘in the front row.’”

That was a direct reference to Uecker’s series of Miller Lite commercials from the 1970s and ’80s. In one commercial, Uecker was seen preparing to watch a baseball game when an usher informs him that he is in the wrong seat. Uecker pompously remarks, “I must be in the front row.”

Uecker’s seat was actually in the nosebleed section. Today, there is a section of $1 seating called the “Uecker seats” at Milwaukee’s American Family Field (formerly Miller Park) referencing where Uecker sat in the Miller Lite commercials.

These seats in Section 422 have an obstructed-view area (in the upper grandstand above home plate where the stadium’s roof pivot comes together).

 

Major League Baseball.com writer Adam McCalvy said the Brewers decided in 2014 to put a statue of Uecker in the very last row.

“There was a serious component to the frivolity,” McCalvy wrote. “Statue designer Brian Maughan…included an extra seat next to the seated Uecker. The idea was that fans who made a donation to the Brewers Community Foundation or the Make A Wish Foundation would get to take their picture made alongside the likeness of Uecker.”

“The Uecker statue is made of bronze, and Uecker is shown wearing a bright blue shirt, tan pants and, as usual, a big smile.”

Bob Uecker statue has a Bobblehead version.

If you listen real closely, you can hear Uecker’s voice raining down on the home plate umpire: “He missed the tag! He missed the tag!” 

Collectors scramble for American Bandstand trading cards

Serious fans of early rock’n’roll during the “Dick Clark days” may want to explore the possibility of obtaining vintage American Bandstand trading cards.

A set of 100 American Bandstand cards that feature artists who appeared on the television show between 1952 and 1989, hosted by Dick Clark, truly exists.

 

The 2.5-inch by 3.5-inch cards were manufactured and distributed in 1993 by the Collect-A-Card company, which held the license from Dick Clark Productions.

Matt Litwin, editor of Hemmings Classic Car magazine, said: “Collect-A-Card is such a small blip on the trading card radar that information about its history doesn’t exist on the Internet. It’s only through grading companies – such as Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) – and diehard enthusiasts, that we know the company was hardly a flash in the pan.”

Other successful trading cards produced by the company during the early 1990s focused on motor sports.

What is valuable, said Ryan Cracknell, hobby editor at Beckett Media, a leading authority on collectibles, is that “the American Bandstand cards chart the popular music landscape from the 1950s through to the early days of MTV. It’s somewhat remarkable when you delve into the breadth of artists featured, many of whom don’t have a lot of mainstream trading cards.”

“By today’s standards, it’s quite the festival with headliners like Buddy Holly, Peter Frampton, Mick Fleetwood, Marie Osmond, Otis Redding, Chaka Khan and Devo (an American new wave band formed in 1973),” Cracknell said.

 

“Cards have black borders on both sides. There’s a photo of the act on the front while the back has a brief biography as well as notes on the act’s American Bandstand performances,” he added. “Each foil-sealed pack contains eight cards, and they don’t cost a lot.”

Especially treasured are three cards that contain a limited number of gold foil signatures of Dick Clark, Jerry Lee Lewis and Smokey Robinson. Cracknell’s favorite card is Chaka Khan, because her second name is misspelled as “Kahn.” A little about her:

 Yvette Marie Stevens was born in 1953 in Chicago, and while working in Los Angeles as Chaka Khan, she became the lead vocalist for the band Rufus, earning the distinction as the “Queen of Funk.” Her first performance on American Bandstand in 1974 featured the hit song “Tell Me Something Good.” Other hits included “Sweet Thing” and “Do You Love What You Feel.”

 

Other artists featured in the American Bandstand collection faded through time – including groups such as The Four Lads, Bill Black’s Combo and Simply Red.

The Four Lads was a quartet from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that broke through in the late 1950s with hits like “Moments to Remember,” “Standing on the Corner,” “No, Not Much,” “Who Needs You?” and “Istanbul.”

 

Bill Black was an American musician and bandleader who is noted as one of the pioneers of rock’n’roll. He was a member of Elvis Presley’s early band, The Blue Moon Boys. Black played the upright double bass, perfecting the “slap bass” technique that became his trademark. Scotty Moore was the lead guitarist and D. J. Fontana was the drummer.

 Scotty Moore, Elvis Presley and Bill Black

Black played on early Presley recordings including “Good Rockin’ Tonight,” “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Baby Let’s Play House,” “Mystery Train,” “That's All Right” and “Hound Dog.” Black developed an onstage personality as the group’s comedian.

Big hits for Bill Black’s Combo were “Smokie,” “Smokie, Part 2” and “White Silver Sand.”

Simply Red was a British soul and pop band formed in Manchester, England, in 1985. Band leader, singer and songwriter Mick Hucknall was the only original member left by the time Simply Red initially disbanded in 2010. Since then, Hucknall has reconstituted the band and it continues to record and tour.

One of the American Bandstand cards is dedicated to Bob Clayton and Justine Carrelli, who were dancers on the television show. They paired up in 1957 and became audience favorites. In 1959, they added singing to their partnership, recording “Dream Girl” and “Drive-In Movie.”

 

Other cards in the collection pay tribute to:

Clarence “Frogman” Henry of New Orleans, a rhythm and blues singer and pianist, best known for his hits “Ain't Got No Home” and “(I Don’t Know Why) But I Do.”

 

Bill Doggett of Philadelphia, a pianist and organist who began his career playing swing music before transitioning into rhythm and blues. He was best known for his instrumental compositions “Honky Tonk” and “Hippy Dippy.”

 

Johnny Maestro of New York City, who was the lead vocalist for the doo-wop group The Crests. Its song “16 Candles” went to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. He later led The Brooklyn Bridge, best known for its cover of the Jimmy Webb song “Worst That Could Happen.”

 

Nicolette Larson of Helena, Mont. She had a hit with Neil Young’s song “Lotta Love,” which made it to No. 1 on the Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. It was followed by four more adult contemporary hits, “Rhumba Girl,” “Give a Little,” “Let Me Go, Love” and “I Only Want to Be with You.” Larson later shifted her focus to country music, charting six times.