The Outsiders is a coming-of-age novel by S. E. Hinton, first published in 1967 by Viking Press. Hinton was 15 when she started writing the novel, but did most of the work when she was 16 and a junior in high school. Hinton was 18 when the book was published. The book follows two rival groups, the Greasers and the Socs (pronounced by the author as /soʊˈʃəz/, short for Socials), who are divided by their socioeconomic status. The story is told in first-person narrative by protagonist Ponyboy Curtis.

The story in the book takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1965, but this is never stated in the book.

A film adaptation was produced in 1983, and a little-known short-lived television series appeared in 1990, picking up where the movie left off.

Plot summary

Ponyboy Curtis, a member of a gang called the “Greasers”, is leaving a movie theater when groups of “Socs” (short for "Socials", pronounced /ˈsoʊʃɪz/ soh-shiz), the Greasers’ rival gang, jump him. His two older brothers—Darry and Sodapop—and several members of their gang rescue him. The next night, Ponyboy and his Greaser friends Dallas and Johnny meet Socs, Cherry Valance and Marcia, at a drive-in movie theatre. Ponyboy realizes that Cherry is nothing like the Socs he has met before.

The Outsiders may refer to:

Literature and Stage

Music

Film

The Outsiders was an American rock and roll band from Cleveland, Ohio, that was founded and led by guitarist Tom King. The band is best known for its Top 5 hit "Time Won't Let Me" in early 1966, which peaked at No. 5 in the US in April, but the band also had three other Hot 100 top 40 hit singles in 1966 and released a total of four albums in the mid-1960s.

Allmusic described the act's style: "Part of the secret behind the Outsiders' musical success lay in the group's embellishments [with horns and strings], which slotted in perfectly with their basic three- or four-piece instrumental sound. . . . [H]owever bold and ambitious they got, one never lost the sense of a hard, solid band sound at the core."

Career

First single

The Outsiders were an American garage rock band from Tampa, Florida who were active in the 1960s. They are not to be confused with the better-known group, the Outsiders, from Cleveland, Ohio, nor with The Outsiders from the Netherlands, both of whom were active at the same time.

The band was formed in 1964 in Tampa, Florida. Their initial lineup consisted of Hardy Dial on lead vocals, Buddy Richardson and Ronnie Vaslovsky on guitars, Ronnie Elliot, formerly of local group the Raveons, on bass, and Spencer Hinkle, previously of the Tropics, on drums. They became a popular local act and in 1965 went to Tampa's H&H Avenue Studios to cut their debut single, "She's Coming On Stronger" b/w "Just Let Me Be," released on Knight Records.

In 1966 the band replaced Hardy Dial with John Delise as their new lead vocalist and proceeded to record their rendition of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues." The record became a big hit regionally. They signed with Providence Records, a subsidiary of Laurie Records, who persuaded them to change their name to avoid legal conflicts of interest which could arise out of the use of the same name by other better-known bands, such as the The Outsiders from Cleveland, who scored a smash hit that year with "Time Won't Let Me" and the Dutch band of the same name featuring singer Wally Tax, as well as a host of other acts using the name. Upon urging of Providence Records, the band changed their name to the Soul Trippers and proceeded to record a version of Slim Harpo's "I'm a King Bee" released in July as a single backed with a Byrdsy "Set You Free This Time." The record did well, selling over 20,000 copies, until it was discovered that the members of the band who were using the term "soul" in their moniker were in fact white, causing numerous stations to pull the song from their playlists—a situation that hastened the band's demise. By the end of 1966 they had broken up.