Sha Na Na’s Bowzer Shares the Little-Known Story of How He Joined the Band

Karen Ruud June 2, 12:58 pm

Jon — Peter C Borsari /American Broadcasting Companies via Getty Images

What To Know

Jon Bauman, known as Bowzer in Sha Na Na, has been performing as the iconic character for 57 years.
Sha Na Na’s popularity soared with their own TV show from 1977 to 1982.
Bauman became an advocate for senior healthcare issues and also regularly attends fan conventions.

Bowzer, the cocky greaser character originally from the doo-wop revival rock group Sha Na Na, has been flexing his bicep, doing his bass baritone, and dropping his jaw for about 57 years now. As a member of the ’50s tribute band, Jon Bauman took his Bowzer persona to icon status. ReMIND caught up with the legendary singer at the Hollywood Show in Burbank this past weekend, where he shared how he actually got his job with Sha Na Na.

Sha Na Na started at New York’s Columbia University, where Bauman was a student. After the original group had performed at Woodstock, most of the primary band was breaking up, finally getting serious about their future paths.

John "Bowzer" Bauman at the May 2026 Hollywood Show

Karen Ruud/ReMIND Staff

“They had to decide, ‘Am I going to go to medical school, or am I going to run around with a rock ‘n’ roll band?’” Bauman laughs. “A lot of them decided to go ahead and do what they were going to do in the first place. So I actually replaced the original bass baritone in Sha Na Na, Alan Cooper, who eventually became provost of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. It’s hard to believe, but he was a guy who ran around with Sha Na Na the first year of its rock ‘n’ roll existence.”

Bauman had done a lot of off-Broadway shows while studying at Columbia, so he was a natural to join the group. He stayed with Sha Na Na for 14 years and has been playing the Bowzer character, which he created for the group, for 57 years.

How did the Sha Na Na TV show start?

Over a quick five years, Sha Na Na had gone from an opening act to a bona fide headliner. In 1976, when shows like Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley were at their peaks in popularity and ratings, the band was approached to do a TV pilot.

“In 1976, we did the pilot,” Bauman explains of the Sha Na Na show. “The pilot got fantastic ratings, to everyone’s surprise, and all of a sudden, we had a TV series. We did that from 1977 through 1982 … that really changed our entire audience and catapulted us to the best success that we ever had.”

The band would also appear in 1976’s hit film Grease, in which Bauman sang “Born to Hand Jive.” While Bauman left Sha Na Na in the 1980s to pursue other entertainment opportunities that included acting, voiceover work, hosting and producing, he still performed as Bowzer for solo performances, but has since spent much of his time as an advocate for healthcare issues for seniors and other causes. The 78-year-old attends fan conventions every year.