Monti Rock

Monti Rock III (born Joseph Montanez, Jr.) is a flamboyant American musician and performer from New York City.

Career

Born on 29 May 1942, to a Puerto Rican family in the Bronx,^[1] Monti parlayed his role as celebrity hairdresser into a role center stage. After several appearances and performances on The Merv Griffin Show beginning in 1966, Monti's wild antics, which included throwing bananas into the audience, and outrageous personality brought him to the national stage when he began appearing regularly as a guest on the Tonight Show.^{[citation needed]}

Monti is generally considered to be the first disco artist to cross into the mainstream.^[2] In February 1975, Monti released Disco Tex and His Sex-O-Lettes, an LP of disco songs and collaboration with producer Bob Crewe and featuring musician Jerry Corbetta of Sugarloaf.^[1] Two of the album's tracks, "Get Dancin'" and "I Wanna Dance Wit' Choo (Doo Dat Dance)", became instant staples at burgeoning New York dance clubs including Studio 54.^{[citation needed]} By the end of the 70s, disco music was fully mainstream, and Monti appeared in the movie Saturday Night Fever as the DJ.^[3]

After reinventing himself several times as "Monti Rock II", "Monti Rock IV", "Monti Rock V", "Sir Monti Rock", Monti settled on just "Monti Rock".^{[citation needed]} He currently resides and performs in Las Vegas.^{[citation needed]}

Monti is now an ordained minister, according to his Web site.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Viglione, Joe (2011 [). "Disco Tex and His Sex-O-Lettes". AllMusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/album/disco-tex-and-his-sex-o-lettes-r66535. Retrieved February 13, 2011. 
2. ^ "Monti Rock III". Disco people of the 70s/80s. discomusic.com. 2011. http://www.discomusic.com/people-more/12723_0_11_0_C/%20Monti%20Rock%20III%5D%20at%20DiscoMusic.com. Retrieved February 13, 2011. 
3. ^ "Monti Rock III". Internet Movie Database. 2011. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0734141/. Retrieved February 13, 2011. 

External links

• Monti Rock III Official Website
• YouTube Monti Rock on Merv Griffin (1966)
• YouTube Monti Rock on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (1980s)

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Name	Rock, Monti
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Date of birth	1942
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