The Doughboys’ “Queen City” is an anthem about their hometown, Plainfield.
New Jersey’s longest-lived garage-rock group, The Doughboys, salute their hometown of Plainfield in their hard-driving, Chuck Berry-esque rock anthem, “Queen City.”
Queen City is, indeed, Plainfield’s nickname. As explained on WestfieldNJ.com:
Plainfield was gaining a reputation for a climate that was beneficial for sufferers of respiratory ailments. In 1886, in an attempt to publicize this, the publisher of the local newspaper, Thomas W. Morrison, began to use the slogan “Colorado of the East.” Since Denver, Colorado, was known as the “Queen City of the Plains,” the slogan for Plainfield eventually was shortened to “The Queen City.”
Anyway, back to The Doughboys … the band, a favorite of garage-rock aficionado Steven Van Zandt, has a history that stretches all the way back to 1963, though it was inactive from 1968 to 2000. The band is still playing, though, with three original members — singer Myke Scavone, bassist Mike Caruso and drummer Richard X. Heyman — joined by guitarist Gar Francis, who replaced original member Willy Kirchofer after Kirchofer died in 2005.
The band has been more prolific in its second incarnation than its first, with three studio albums (including Shakin’ Our Souls, which Van Zandt named his favorite album of 2012) and a DVD.
New Jersey celebrated its 350th birthday in 2014. And in the 350 Jersey Songs series, we marked the occasion by posting 350 songs — one a day, from September 2014 to September 2015 — that have something to do with the state, its musical history, or both. To see the entire list, click here.
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1 comment
Please consider adding The Critters to your list – one of Jersey’s great 60’s groups. “Younger Girl” and “Mr. Dieingly Sad” were fairly big hits, and the latter is still played on oldie stations nationwide.