Happy Birthday Peter Wolf
Peter Blankfield was born March 7 sometime in the 1940’s in the Bronx, NY. His parents, Sol and Tessie owned a ‘Five and Dime’ that sold slightly used ladies undergarments.
Young Peter attended The ‘High School for Rock n Roll Science’ located in West Harlem near the Apollo Theater. He often attended the Apollo, seeing many of the famous soul, rhythm & blues, and gospel artists who influenced him. Peter also worked as a batboy for the New York Yankees . He was traded to the Boston Red Sox for 31 year old utility outfielder Claude Umphlett.
Wolf is best known as the singer, and lyricist for the Boston based band, ‘J. Geils Band’. It’s not often that a band is named after the guitar player, especially when there is a lead singer named Wolf and a Harp player named ‘Magic Dick’.
The J. Geils Band was known as the hardest working, sweatiest and best bar band in the land. For years they toured relentlessly, opening for every major act. Always the bridesmaid and never the bride, they actually performed over 7000 shows in 1974 alone.
The J. Geils Band finally made it to #1 in the 1980’s before imploding. Wolf went on to a successful solo career and recently opened for The Who. Speaking of ‘Love Stinks’, did you know that Wolf was married to Oscar winning actress Faye Dunaway!? That’s right, Bonnie! They said it wouldn’t last and they were right. They divorced after 12 days. That is actually pretty long in Hollywood. Happy Birthday Peter Wolf!
