WQED Pittsburgh and Executive Producer T.J. Lubinsky
are proud to offer you more programming from our American Soundtrack Concert Series. Past shows have included Doo Wop 50; Doo Wop 51; Rock, Rhythm & Doo Wop; and R&B 40 -- the highest grossing pledge programs in PBS history.

Now we’ve got more Rock & Roll, Doo Wop and R&B to keep your viewers dancing in the aisles, or to your phone lines. We're committed to bringing you this great programming, which you know you won’t see anywhere else.

Look forward to a second season of The Ed Sullivan Show (including a Christmas special) coming to you this year. With performances from the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Temptations and the Supremes, these new episodes highlight some of the most exciting and memorable decades in American music history. With thirty-eight hours of programming, each half hour episode features music that is sure to bring back memories… and create new ones.

This Land Is Your Land is a folk-rock show bringing together the great folk musicians, including the Smothers Brothers, Judy Collins, James Roger McGuinn & Barry McGuire. This hour-long special will be offered for December pledge and accompanied by CDs and VHS.

Of course, everybody loves more Doo Wop, and we're excited to bring you Red, White and Rock. It's America's musical tribute to all-American artists and songs with the Righteous Brothers, Four Tops, Frankie Avalon and more than 40 other groups uniting for Public Television.

For more on any of these programs, contact T.J. Lubinsky, 412-622-1369, or tjlubins@wqed.org or PBS Express.

Biography

With his first experience in public television when he was barely out of his teens, wunderkind T.J. Lubinsky has managed to parlay a personal passion for doo wop music into a fundraising franchise for WQED Pittsburgh and PBS, having generated $45 million in pledges to date.

Currently the executive producer of WQED Pittsburgh's American Soundtrack Concert Series, Lubinsky joined the organization as a membership producer in 1996.

Lubinsky's unusual affinity for Doo Wop began developing early in his childhood in New Jersey. Exposed since birth to the music of his grandfather, Herman Lubinsky, the founder of the 1950's Rhythm and Doo Wop label, Savoy Records, he was infected by his entire family's passion for the music.

It was that kind of soul-deep appreciation for the music that inspired him to pitch his idea to WQED for the ultimate Doo Wop concert, not a revue headed by tribute bands but a line-up of the original Doo Wop legends.

"I was born too late to see an Alan Freed show, so I figured I'd recreate one for myself and my parents," Lubinsky says. "Pittsburgh was the perfect place to do it; it's the 'Oldies Capital of the World' so this couldn't have happened anywhere else."

Determined to realize his vision of a full-scale musical reunion of Doo Wop's original singers, Lubinsky launched a worldwide search for the performers. Many had long since retired from music, and in some cases, hadn't seen or even spoken to each other in decades. Some had fallen on hard times; others thought they'd retired from music permanently.

Yet Lubinsky managed to soothe ruffled feathers, entice singers from retirement, and orchestrate some of the most exciting coups in concert history: once-in-a-lifetime performances featuring Doo Wop's original legends.

In December, 1999, "Doo Wop 50: Celebrating Five Decades of Street Corner Harmony" debuted nationally on PBS. Artists including The Chantels, The Marcels and The Del Vikings took the stage. Within three hours, the program raised over $22 million in pledges for PBS stations, surpassing "The Three Tenors" to become the highest grossing fund-raiser in PBS history.

With an ambitious plan to continue to create new musical super-concert pledge programs in the months ahead, Lubinsky intends to mastermind cultural documents that can be appreciated for generations to come, not just preserving a moment in history, but re-creating it.

"It's all about the music," he says, shaking his head in both wonder and satisfaction at this phenomenon he's managed to create, "Everything's about the music."

American Soundtrack Media Archives
A comprehensive list of our music library, culled from the programs listed at left. >> VIEW

More From the American Soundtrack Concert Series

Rock, Rhythm and Doo Wop:
With a line-up boasting some of the era's most spectacular performers --Frankie Valli, Little Richard, Jerry "The Iceman" Butler, Fred Parris & The Five Satins, Ed Townsend, and Pittsburgh's native son and Doo Wop legend Lou Christie, just to name a few -- the program aired nationally on PBS in December 2001.

Much like its predecessors, the program contributed substantially to new financial support and membership.

Rhythm and Blues 40: A Soul Spectacular:
Taped at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh on November 26 and 27, 2001, this show features legendary artists of the 1960s and '70s, on-stage for a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Ben E. King returns to The Drifters, Jerry Butler reunites with The Impressions for the first time since 1958, The Miracles are rejoined by Billy Griffin. In addition, The Isley Brothers, Percy Sledge, Eddie Holman, Little Anthony & The Original Imperials, The Chi-Lites and many more performers sing their most memorable hits.

Co-hosted by Dionne Warwick, Jerry "The Iceman" Butler, Sam Moore of Sam and Dave (each of whom also performs), and Richard "Shaft" Roundtree.

'70s Soul Jam
Celebrating the sweet and sultry sounds of soul, "'70s Soul Jam" brings some of the greatest soul balladeers of the early '70s on stage for amother in the American Soundtrack series of all-star concerts.

Hosted by "Dyno-mite!" Jimmy "J.J." Walker, star of the hit '70s sitcom "Good Times," this concert special brings together, in a once-in-a-lifetime event, legendary artists of the period performing their most memorable hits: Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes ("If You Don't Know Me By Now," "The Love I Lost"), Cuba Gooding Sr. & Main Ingredient ("Everybody Plays The Fool"), the Stylistics ("You Are Everything," "Betcha By Golly Wow," "You Make Me Feel Brand New") and the Delfonics ("Didn't I Blow Your Mind").

Soul and Inspiration
"American Soundtrack: Soul and Inspiration" unites doo-wop and gospel music creating magnificent sounds on one stage -- for one powerful, stimulating show.

While focusing on vocal-group harmonies (like the "R&B 40" and the "Doo-Wop" programs before), "American Soundtrack: Soul and Inspiration" presents songs about America, hope, faith and inspiration.

The Dixie Hummingbirds, the Jordanaires and The Impressions are a few of the many legendary groups that ignite the stage with gospel favorites including "Swing Low", "You'll Never Walk Alone" and "Amen." Little Anthony and The Imperials perform "Wind Beneath My Wings" and the Jordanaires sing "God Bless America."

Music lovers of all ages will enjoy the uplifting sounds by these renowned vocal groups from the '50s and '60s, celebrating faith, hope and inspiration in song.

Doo Wop 51: Rhino Records' recap.

Rock, Rhythm & Doo Wop: Rhino Records' recap.

Rock, Rhythm & Doo Wop: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's preview of the local broadcast.

Doo Wop Preservation League: The music, the culture, the architecture.

PHOTOS
>> Headshot (T.J. Lubinsky)
>> Headshot (T.J. Lubinsky)

>> Rhythm & Blues 40 (Dionne Warwick)
>> Rhythm & Blues 40 (Temptations)

>> '70s Soul Jam (Stylistics)
>> '70s Soul Jam (Blue Notes)

>> Soul and Inspiration (Little Anthony)
>> Soul and Inspiration (Sam Moore)

AND COMING SOON:
DOWNLOADABLE PROGRAM GUIDE ADS
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