The Virtues
The Virtues were an early American rock and roll band from Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, led by Frank Virtue (January 21, 1923 – June 11, 1994). Virtue, a
violinist as a child who later played guitar and double bass, studied
orchestration at Temple University before enlisting in the Navy in 1945, where
he became bandleader of the Regular Navy Dance Band. After his 1946 discharge he
formed an amplified trio in 1947 that evolved into the Virtuoso Trio, and by the
time Bill Haley & the Comets' mid-1950s breakthrough drew a new teenage audience
to rock and roll, the expanded lineup—Vir...
