Dec 1, 2013 4 min read

About a year ago, Joe Ruggerio walked into the WJPA lobby and requested to see morning disc jockey Pete Povich. Recognizing the name, Povich walked into the lobby and extended his hand to “Joey Powers,” Washington’s one-hit wonder.

Ruggerio is, to date, Washington’s lone claim to fame as a lead singer on the national music charts. His “Midnight Mary,” recorded as by Joey Powers, leaped onto the Billboard Hot 100 on Nov. 9, 1963, largely on the airplay it was receiving on Pittsburgh’s KQV. While it peaked locally two weeks later, it continued to ascend nationally, where it reached No. 10 the week of Jan. 4 – the same week another Washington County artist, Bobby Vinton, was sitting in the No. 1 position with “There I’ve Said It Again.”

Four weeks later, Vinton was dethroned by the Beatles’ first hit, “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” The British invasion that ensued pretty much capped the career of Powers, who failed to chart with two subsequent singles that year, and with a lone release on MGM (“Leave Me Alone”) in early 1966.

Pete was no doubt surprised to see Ruggerio, a 1953 Washington High School graduate. He had left Washington long before the release of “Midnight Mary,” returning over the years mostly to visit friends and relatives.

Over the decades, I was able to track him down a few times for intermittent updates on his career for this column, but eventually we lost touch.

Rumors persisted that Ruggerio had moved back to the area, but they weren’t confirmed until he walked into WJPA’s office. And then he promptly disappeared again.

I was trying to locate Ruggerio last month primarily for a 50-year anniversary article on not only “Midnight Mary,” but also to get his take on the John F. Kennedy assassination, which occurred on the same weekend he was recording his album. (In that era, albums were generally recorded only when – and if – there was already a hit single.)

Artie Wayne, who co-wrote “Midnight Mary,” was producing the album and a few years ago recounted the event on a blog. Here’s a capsule version:

On Nov. 22, Joey had flown in from Ohio State University, where he was pursuing his master’s degree, and arrived in New York, where he met Wayne. He didn’t realize President Kennedy had been shot until he heard it on the radio in the taxicab. But because Wayne only had the studio for four days, they had to pursue recording the album. Wayne recalled that when they arrived, most of the musicians and singers had tears in their eyes. Among those in the studio (and providing 12-string guitar) were Paul Simon and Roger McGinnis (the Byrds). During that weekend, Joey was also to tape a segment on the Clay Cole Show at WPIX. It was there where Wayne said they first saw an unaired network feed of the Abraham Zapruder film, which never was shown in its entirety until many years later. The lip-synched clip of “Midnight Mary,” which Powers taped that Saturday, did not air that weekend, either.

While “Midnight Mary” just made it into the Top 10 (tough competition included “Louie Louie” by the Kingsmen, “Quicksand” by Martha & the Vandellas and “Dominique” by the Singing Nun), Powers career in music continued with a band called Powers Flower.

When we last talked with Powers in 1989, he was very much into Christian music, but he also had worked with Paul McCartney’s drummer, Joe English, on a solo effort, and had managed Phantom’s Opera, the pre-Bon Jovi band that included Richie Zambora, Tico Torres and Alec John Such. He also worked with Billy Falcon (“Power Windows”).

That’s quite a long journey from 1959, when his parents arranged a meeting with family friend Perry Como in New York City. As Powers explained in a 1979 interview, Como got Powers a job as an NBC page and eventually he was signed to Como’s RCA label. (While he was then using the name Joey Rogers, it was changed to Joey Powers to avoid confusion with singer Jimmie Rodgers.) None of the RCA singles clicked, and Powers was soon dropped from the label.

A tidbit Powers related in the same interview was that “Midnight Mary” originally was intended for the Everly Brothers, but it was deemed to be too similar to their previous hit, “Take a Message to Mary”). So Wayne had Powers cut a demo, which Paul Simon (then known at Jerry Landis) suggested be given to Larry Uttal at Amy Records. Uttal loved it.

And so, for a few months in 1963 and 1964, did the rest of America.