Skip to main content

Malibooz Biography

malibooz

The Malibooz are an off-again-on-again surf group led by guitarist/singers John Zambetti and Walter Egan. With Chris Murray, they released an EP as high school students in 1964, followed by a single, "Goin' To Malibu." But the decline in popularity for surf music led to the group's dissolution. Egan and Zambetti enrolled at Georgetown University in 1966 and, with drummer Tom Scarp and singer Annie McLoone, formed the rock group Sageworth. Egan later moved to California, and Zambetti followed after completing his medical studies. Egan launched a solo career, and Zambetti played in his backup band. Egan placed three albums in the national charts between 1977 and 1983, and scored a gold, Top Ten single with "Magnet And Steel" in 1978. In 1981, at the prompting of Rhino Records, Zambetti and Egan reformed the Malibooz and released the album Malibooz Rule! Zambetti formed the Johnny Z Band, which released the album Bring Back The Night on Cypress Records in 1987. He scored several films in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The Malibooz returned in 1992 with the seasonal album A Malibu Kind Of Christmas on Iloki Records. Zambetti's casting of the Catholic Mass in surf music, Living Water (The Surfer's Mass), was released as the Malibooz' third album by the Pier Group in 1999, at which time the group consisted of Egan, Zambetti, keyboard player and vocalist Scott Monahan, bass player Dave Chamberlain, and drummer Teddy Zambetti. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi

Advertisement