Santo Farina was born October 24 1937, and Johnny Farina was born October 1941 in Brooklyn, New York, USA; rhythm guitar, steel guitar). Santo and Johnny’s father, a serviceman, had found the steel guitar on C&W records very soothing when he was overseas. He encouraged his children to learn the instrument and was impressed when they wrote an instrumental, ‘Sleep Walk’ Harvey Weiss, owner of Canadian-American Records took a flyer and released the small combo demo as is. (The record label and the publicity referred to a third composer, Ann Farina, who was what was claimed, a sister. This was a mistake - they did not even have a sister.)

The sound was unique. The record topped the US charts, selling over two million copies . Since then, the tune has become a cheek to cheek dancing classic There are cover versions by The Ventures, the Shadows, and, with soppy lyrics sung, Caterina Valente.

Santo And Johnny had moderate success with ‘Tear Drop’ not so with two versions (one with backup girl singers), "The Long Walk Home," the third and final release on the financially ailing Canadian American label

On various other indie labels, They often recorded in an Hawaiian setting and some of their later titles are ‘Goldfinger’, ‘Spanish Harlem’ and ‘Last Tango In Paris’. In their later years together, they tried to shake their ‘easy listening’ tag by adding fuzz guitar and doing songs by Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. They also recorded many Italian tunes in Italy as they established a huge following there, being awarded 33 gold discs. The duo split in the 70s and both have released their own albums - Johnny’s label Aniraf is his surname backwards. The eerie ‘Sleep Walk’ was later used as the theme of the Stephen King movie, The Sleepwalkers and it continues to be played regularly on oldies radio stations earning it ‘all-time classic’ status, as well as here at Oldies Television (ah Ed Sullivan "Sleepwalk" performance is seen and heard on the Classic Oldies Video Juke Box)

In 2002 Santo And Johnny were inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame.

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