We're all about the history of rock & roll at BoomtownAmerica.com!

Every week, we present “ROCK REMEMBERED,” a deep dive into the hidden history of rock & roll, the stories behind the artists and songs that changed the world. Join host, “Boomtown Bill” Cross each Wednesday at 7 pm (Eastern) with an encore broadcast on Saturday at noon (Eastern).

Join us this Wednesday as we look at sometimes centuries-old songs that became modern rock hits a.k.a. "Real Oldies That Became Huge Hits!"

One of rock’s most famous songs had a long and strange journey to becoming a hit, not just once, but three times!

It began when Bones Howe, the producer for the squeaky clean pop group, the Association, asked composer Jimmy Webb to write a long piece for the group that featured several different movements and time signature changes. Webb was on a hot streak at the time. Starting in 1967, he had written “Up, Up, and Away” for the 5^th Dimension, “The Worst That Could Happen” for the Brooklyn Bridge, and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” for Glen Campbell.

It was at this point that he composed what he called a cantata for the Association, but neither the group nor Bones Howe liked it, calling it too complex. Around the same time, Webb was asked to play piano at a fundraiser in East L.A. It was at this fundraiser that Webb met actor Richard Harris, who had recently been successful in the movie version of Camelot. While not having the best voice, Harris had managed to sing the songs his King Arthur character was required to sing, and so got it in his head that he could also become a pop singer.

Harris called in Webb and asked him if he had any material Harris might record for his debut pop album. Among the songs Webb played for him was a part of that rejected cantata that Webb was now calling “MacArthur Park.” Harris loved the song. In fact, he loved all the songs and decided his first album would be nothing but Jimmy Webb tunes. He even hired Webb to supervise the arrangements.

When the album was completed, it was Harris himself who selected “MacArthur Park” to release as the first single. Obviously, Harris knew nothing about Top 40 radio in 1968 America. The song’s length, clocking in at well over seven minutes, its vague and confusing lyrics, and the complex arrangement, which shifted in tone and time signatures as it went on its way, all would be powerful disincentives to getting airplay.

Maybe it was Webb’s reputation for writing hits, maybe it was just that the record sounded so different than anything else at the time, but New York’s big Top 40 station, WABC, took a chance and played it on air just days after its release. Before that sweet green icing could melt much further, the song had become a nationwide smash, rocketing all the way to #2 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

That song, coming less than a year after the Doors’ “Light My Fire,” was another stake through the heart of the Top 40’s rigid time constraint on songs. Moving forward, four- and five-minute songs would become commonplace on the nation’s teen-oriented radio stations.

Many, many artists have covered the songs. Just two years later, Waylon Jennings would release a country version that won the Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group. In 1978, Donna Summer’s version of “MacArthur Park” did what Richard Harris’ version could not. Her version reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, earning even more royalties for Mr. Webb.

But just what is the song about? Actually, according to its composer, it’s a simple song about a romantic break-up. In the mid-sixties, Jimmy Webb was involved with a young woman named Susie Horton. Susie worked for Aetna Insurance in Los Angeles, and she would meet Webb for lunches in the park just across the street from her office. You guessed it, MacArthur Park. Webb says the lyrics are about mourning the end of that love affair and include the things he remembered seeing in the park when he was there with Horton:

“Everything in the song was visible. There's nothing in it that's fabricated. The old men playing checkers by the trees, the cake that was left out in the rain, all of the things that are talked about in the song are things I actually saw. And so, it's a kind of musical collage of this whole love affair that kind of went down in MacArthur Park. ... Back then, I was kind of like an emotional machine, like whatever was going on inside me would bubble out of the piano and onto paper.”

Webb and Horton remained friends after breaking up and even after Susie got married to another man. Webb has had a long, extremely successful career as a songwriter and as a singer. Richard Harris never really had another hit, despite releasing several albums, although he did wind up his long career playing headmaster Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter film series.

And while they “never had that recipe again,” “MacArthur Park” is fondly remembered as one of the 60s’ biggest hits.

Remember the Beach Party movies of the 1960’s? They were made quickly and cheaply with the barest excuse for a plot (and the barest excuse for swimsuits they could get away with in those days).

Somehow, when they decided to make one more trip to beach in 1987 with Paramount Pictures’ Back to the Beach, they made it look just as cheap and feeble as the original films!

Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello are the stars (natch) only instead of being “Frankie and Dee Dee” as they were called in the original series, they’re now named “Annette” and “Annette’s Husband” (no, we’re not making that up).

What little plot there is revolves around a return trip to Malibu where their grown-up daughter is “living in sin” (remember that concept?) with a new generation of surfer. Also along for the ride is their young son, who actually looks like he could be Eric Von Zipper’s kid (although Harvey Lembeck is nowhere to be found). If we were Frankie, we’d get a DNA test stat. Just sayin’…

Anyway, Frankie’s become a car salesman in Ohio who couldn’t do “surf’s up” if you gave him Viagra. Annette has a serious Skippy problem, and Connie Stevens (who was never in the original series) shows up as the divorced woman on the make, putting the moves on Frankie.

Along the way, you also get cameo appearances by a whole raft of Baby Boom TV icons: Wally & the Beav, Gilligan, Maxwell Smart and more.

You also get Stevie Ray Vaughn jammin’ on the classic instrumental “Pipeline” with surf music legend Dick Dale.

Just when you think things couldn’t get any weirder, Pee Wee Herman pops up out of nowhere to sing “Surfin’ Bird” (we repeat, we are not making this up).

There are some of those really phony looking shots of the stars riding surfboards inside a Hollywood soundstage, a couple of gratuitous jokes about Annette’s two biggest assets, and a surfing competition where June Cleaver gets to say “crapola.”

If you’re feeling nostalgic or want something to play in the background while you engage in a little mid-life make-out session, you might want to rent or stream Back to the Beach this weekend.

Now, anybody know what happened to Gidget and Moondoggie?

Do you know this woman? Before you answer, read this.

This woman totally changed American pop culture without even trying.

Her name is Kathy Kohner. She’s not a composer or a musician. She’s not an artist or designer, yet without her, popular culture in the 1960’s might have been radically different.

That’s because during the summer of 1956, 15-year old Kathy started hanging around with a group of guys on the beach in Malibu who teased her because of her height (she was under 5”) and gave her the nickname Gidget.

Yes, Virginia, there is a real-life Gidget. Her dad, Frederick Kohner, was a writer who turned her adventures with a small group of surfing enthusiasts in the summer of 1956 into a modest little “teen appeal” novel called Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas.

The rest is pop culture history.

The book was published in 1957 (yes, that’s the real Kathy on the cover) and did well enough that Columbia Pictures bought the film rights. Beginning in 1959, there were 3 Gidget films and a TV series that introduced us to a young actress named Sally Field. More importantly, the runaway success of the first Gidget film (starring 16-year old Sandra Dee) touched off a surfing craze that has never really gone away.

In addition to spawning a wave of surf shops and surfer magazines, the surfing craze also gave us surf music, which in turn provided us with what is inarguably one of the greatest American rock bands – the Beach Boys.

The sun, the surf, and the great music cranked out by Brian Wilson and his friends (which included Jan & Dean, Dick Dale, and others) helped shift the focus in American pop culture. Previously, the country took its cue from the East Coast, primarily New York City. Thanks in large part to the surfing craze of the early 60’s, the Pepsi Generation now looked to the West Coast for its fashions, passions and trends.

And it’s all due to little Kathy Kohner deciding that she wanted to surf back in the summer of 1956!

By the way, Kathy is still with us. Her name is now Kathy Kohner Zuckerman. She eventually settled in the Los Angeles area as a teacher. She married college professor Marvin Zuckerman and raised two children. At last report, she was still surfing at age 85. She has been inducted into the Surfer Walk of Fame and is also the subject of a 2010 film documentary, Accidental Icon: The Real Gidget Story.

Somehow, knowing Gidget is still out there shooting the curl is very comforting.

By the way, Gidget also is responsible (indirectly) for the tidal wave of BEACH PARTY MOVIES! You can reads about them here at Boomtown America as well!

Yes, that organic produce may be free of pesticides and synthetic fertilizer, but it’s no safer from germs that may come from harvest, transporting and having it out on display at your grocer’s.

Experts will tell you that germs don’t really discriminate based on how the food was grown. As with any raw produce, make sure you wash it once you bring it home from the store.