Benny Cannavo hears it all the time. "Hey Benny, you played my wedding 42 years ago," a guy will say. "Benny! Remember when you played on my wedding day in 1968?" a woman will ask. Cannavo can't remember all of them, but he'll smile anyway.

For about 50 years, the 87-year-old Schenectady resident brought his crew - "Benny Cannavo and the Accents" - to Italian weddings, church festas, dinner dances and other social events around the Capital Region. Cannavo retired as drummer - later percussionist - around 2008. The Accents are still in business and still in demand 60 years after their first gig, and Cannavo's sons Joe and Frank are keeping the band in the limelight.