“Screamin’ Scott” Simon ’70, Dynamic Sha Na Na Musician and Composer

Scott J. Simon ’70 was riffling through Spectator in the days before his graduation when he came across an ad from the retro rock group Sha Na Na, who were looking for a new keyboardist. A classically trained musician with his own group, Simon was intrigued. He responded, interviewed, got the gig — and the rest, as they say, is history.

“Sha Na Na satisfied my collegiate dream, which was not to have to work for a living,” Simon told The Kansas City Star in 1987. “The idea was, you would do just what you liked and somehow the money would take care of itself.”

It did for Simon; he spent a half-century with the band until the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020. Simon, who died on Sept. 5, 2024, in Ojai, Calif., at 75, was a spitfire who sometimes leapt atop his piano bench and banged out the notes with his feet, danced frenetically about the stage and never slowed down till the last note sounded.

Simon also was the group’s business manager. In the spotlight, he played piano, electronic keyboard, guitar, banjo and harmonica; in his offstage role, he booked dates, wrote set lists and sorted out the minutiae involved in wrangling a 10-man group from Point A to Point B. “He dealt with all the fuss, so we gave him a fee for each show we worked,” Donny York ’71, an original member of the group, said.

As for why Simon was chosen for Sha Na Na in the first place, York said it was an easy decision. “His performance, with our musicians backing him up and the rest of us watching, blew us away,” York said. “His ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On’ was a savage attack on the piano and became one of the most impactful things in [our repertoire].”

Simon was born on Dec. 9, 1948, in Kansas City and began studying jazz piano at the Kansas City Conservatory of Music (now the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory). As a teenager, he performed in jug bands and a jazz quartet. At the College, where he studied music and modern English literature, he led an R&B band, the Royal Pythons. A classmate gave him the nickname “Screamin’ Scott” when he heard Simon, then a freshman, singing in his dorm room.

Sha Na Na had formed in 1969 on the Columbia campus. A performance that June at the Scene, a nightclub in Midtown Manhattan, was attended by Jimi Hendrix; he recommended them to Michael Lang, a promoter of the upcoming Woodstock festival. Sha Na Na preceded Hendrix onstage on the morning of Aug. 18, Woodstock’s final day.

The Woodstock documentary and soundtrack, both released in 1970, helped fuel Sha Na Na’s popularity among fans of early rock ’n’ roll. A TV series, called simply Sha Na Na, aired 1977–1981; Simon was in every episode, often wearing brightly colored shirts festooned with images of piano keys and musical notes.

In addition to writing the songs for Sha Na Na’s albums, Simon is best known for penning the lyrics to “Sandy,” from the 1978 hit movie version of the Broadway musical Grease. Sha Na Na also appeared in the film, as Johnny Casino and the Gamblers, and performed six songs, all of which are featured on the movie’s Grammy-nominated soundtrack.

Simon was one of four members of Sha Na Na who appeared in a 2001 Los Angeles revival of the musical Leader of the Pack, about songwriter Ellie Greenwich. Simon said it was a natural fit. “We always thought we were musical theater,” he told the Los Angeles Times.

He is survived by his wife, Deborah (née Richetta); daughters, Nina and Morgan; stepson, Nick Richetta; two granddaughters; and sisters, Kay Grossman, Laura Neikrug and Diana Simon.

— Alex Sachare ’71