Support local students, listen to a Motown superstar
Big doings up at the Lassen Community College this Thursday evening.
The Lassen College Foundation presents a scholarship benefit concert and dance from 6 to 9:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 28 at the Lassen Community College Sports Complex featuring Louis Price, the former lead singer for both The Temptations and The Drifters, the smooth jazz styling of saxophonist Kenney Polson and comedian Feather Da’Wyz. There will even be an appearance by the Susanville Choral Society.
Those who attend will get to hear some great music and comedy, and proceeds for the concert, part of a Black History Month Celebration, benefit the Lassen College Foundation in its effort to provide scholarships to every single high school senior in Lassen County who goes to our local community college.
While Price no longer appears with those two groups from the early days of Motown and legendary record producer Berry Gordy, he continues to pursue a busy touring schedule. He’s appeared at several Black History Month fundraiser concerts at LCC. (He appeared as the lead singer for The Temptations from 1977 to 1980 and The Drifters through the first half of the 1980s. He even appeared as Eddie “The King” Faroo in the film, “White Men Can’t Jump.”)
It’s not unreasonable to expect the lead singer from such influential groups to have a great set of world-class pipes and a catalog of some of the greatest material in popular music history, including The Temptations’ four Billboard number-one singles and 14 number-one R&B singles. They won three Grammy Awards (including a Lifetime Achievement Award) and six members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Number-one hits by The Temptations include “My Girl” (written by Smokey Robinson and Ronald White, of The Miracles), “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” (written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong [the latter is also the singer of the rock standard, “Money (That’s What I Want”], Motown’s first hit in 1959), “Just My Imagination” (also written by Whitfield and Strong), “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg” (by Whitfield and Eddie Holland, a member of the hit songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland that wrote nearly 150 chart-making songs) and “Ball Of Confusion” (also written by Whitfield and Strong).
And don’t you dare forget The Drifters’ hits “This Magic Moment,” “There Goes My Baby,” “Save the Last Dance For Me,” “Up On The Roof,” “On Broadway” and “Under The Boardwalk.”
The Lassen College Foundation, incorporated in 1977, is a nonprofit public charity. According to its website, the foundation’s objectives are “to continue providing scholarships to attend Lassen Community College, develop an alumni association, build an endowment fund and increase college involvement within the community and community involvement in the college … The foundation envisions a community with a culture of philanthropy that supports higher education for local workforce development, intellectual growth and civic, cultural and social leadership.”
Tickets for the dance concert are available at Margie’s Book Nook, the Lassen County Chamber of Commerce and the Lassen Community College Bookstore. VIP packages also are available.
For more information, call LCC
at 257-6181.