Back in the early 80s. To this day, it's one of my favorite shows ever.

it must've been 1969.* We were all students at NYU, and a group of us went out on the town one night, and dropped in at The Scene. There was this band--a bunch of "greasers"--that we walked in on mid-set in this hot, sweaty club, and we were amazed. No one had ever heard of them then, and we had a blast dancing and thought they were great. A night from my youth I remember fondly.

* I just figured out it had to be 1969 from this snippet (and because The Scene closed in 1970). It was before they became famous from Woodstock:

Q - How did Sha Na Na come together?

A - We played at Steve Paul's Scene on the West side of New York just before it closed down. And just before it closed down, a guy came and said "I'm holding this big festival upstate. I'll pay you $600", of which the group saw $300. "Do you wanna play at it?" Sure. Going on just before Hendrix, the camera crews were all asleep, 'cause it was 5:30 in the morning. Somebody woke 'em up and said you ought to shoot this, 'cause it's really amazing looking, and they shot 'At the Hop'. That was the only song they shot. Getting into the Woodstock movie and being linked in the same breath with The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Santana and Janis Joplin, gave the group instant creditability, that would perhaps never been achieved otherwise. And then, a scant 8 years later we were an overnight success.

http://www.classicbands.com/ShaNaNaInterview.html

I absolutely love Sha Na Na and feel that their resume is more than HOF worthy, even though I also know that they have zero chane. Consider the following:

They actually play rock-n-roll music

Woodstock- cultural landmark

Pioneers of '50s revival so popular in the 1970s

Grease- Performed in movie and had more songs than anybody else on top selling soundtrack of all time

TV Show- Hit tv show for several years which featured original 1950s and early 60s rock-n-roll artists plus newer acts like the Ramones

Recorded a song advocating for a Rock-n-roll Hall of Fame back in the 1970s, surely the first to do so.

Tour de force live act, particularly from '69-'75. Nobody else seems to think so but SNN was punk rock in the early 70s. They played hard/fast/loud and fierce. They picked fights with hippies. They were tough guy greasers, ready to rumble

Punk rock from 1970? Judge for yourself:

That WAS pretty punk!

who later ended up in Sha Na Na.

Late 60s.

Sha Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Byip Byip Byip Byip Byip, but they were told that would be too long.

Wolf