Another icon of the Baby Boom era has passed away. Whether you knew him as Moondoggie from the Gidget movies, Anthony Newman from The Time Tunnel, James Corrigan on T.J. Hooker, or Vic Fontaine on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, James Darren had an acting and singing career few of his generation equaled. He died on Labor Day Monday of heart failure.

Born in 1936 and raised in Philadelphia, James Ercolani moved to New York and changed his name to James Darren in an attempt to launch an acting career. He was discovered by talent agent, Joyce Selznick, who brought him to Hollywood and got him signed to Columbia Pictures.

After starring in a few B-movies for the studio, Darren got his big break when he was cast as Jeff “Moondoggie” Matthews in the proto-surfer film, Gidget, opposite Sandra Dee. While Dee did not appear in either of the Gidget sequels, Darren played Moondoggie in all three, never once remarking that his girlfriend seemed to look different in every picture.

He was launched into a singing career he never really planned on when he volunteered to sing the title tune for the first Gidget film. The studio was pleased with his vocals and began marketing him as a teen idol in the early 1960s. His “Goodbye Cruel World” hit #3 in 1961 on the Billboard Hot 100. His follow-up, “Her Royal Majesty,” peaked at #6.

Despite that success, Darren mostly focused on his acting career. Choosing not to renew his contract with Columbia, he moved over to Universal Studios in 1963 where Irwin Allen cast him as one of the leads in his science-fiction series The Time Tunnel. While that show only lasted a single season, it was a hit with the Baby Boomers.

For the next several years, Darren found steady work as both a singer and a frequent guest star on TV series like Love, American Style, Hawaii Five-O, and Fantasy Island.

His next big break came in 1983 when he was cast in a recurring role on the TV cop series T.J. Hooker. That show also allowed Darren to develop a third career as a director. His directing credits include episodes of action series like Hunter, The A-Team, Silk Stalkings, Renegade, and Nowhere Man, as well as dramas such as Beverly Hills, 90210, and Melrose Place.

In 1998, Darren became a holographic lounge singer on the series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. In turn, the series led to a revival of his singing career as he released two albums in the style of classic crooners like Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett.

Darren was married to a former Miss Denmark, Eve Norlund, from 1960 until the time of his death. He also was father to three children.

Research has shown that negative thinking: holding grudges, resentments and negative thoughts can lead to a decline in cognitive thinking in adults 55 years of age and older.

Research has shown that those who engage in prolonged negative thinking have more amyloid and tau deposits in their brain. Those happen to be the biological markers of Alzheimer’s disease.

Of course, we all have negative thoughts from time to time, but here are some ways to make sure they don’t hang around very long:

1. 1. Make a list of all the things you’re grateful for. Can you still see? Can you still walk? Do you have a roof over your head and know where your next meal is coming from? If necessary, write the list out on paper or your computer.
   2. Take some deep breaths. Believe it or not, that can elevate your mood.
   3. Watch a comedy, be it a movie, TV show or stand-up special.
   4. Don’t beat yourself up for having a bad thought. Simply acknowledge it and move on.

An album almost as famous for its cover as for the songs inside, Cheap Thrills, released in the summer after the Summer of Love (i.e. 1968) introduced America to perhaps the greatest white blues singer of all time – Ms. Janis Joplin.

But Cheap Thrills was not the band’s first album, nor was Joplin part of the group’s original line-up. Big Brother & the Holding Company was formed in 1966 by San Francisco-based guitarist, Peter Albin. He started informally jamming with another guitarist, Sam Andrews. The pair decided to form a band, adding James Gurley on guitar (Albin moving over to bass) and Chuck Jones on drums. Jones was soon replaced by David Getz and BB&THC became one the most popular bands in what was the emerging “psychedelic” scene blossoming in San Francisco.

The lads thought adding a girl vocalist to their line-up might help expand their repertoire as well as increase their popularity. The band’s manager, Chet Helms, knew of a young Texas singer who considering moving to California. So, Helms invited Janis Joplin to move west and audition with the group. Unlike the movies, the band wasn’t that impressed with Joplin. And Joplin wasn’t that impressed with the band. Nevertheless, she decided to join, making her first appearance with the group at the Avalon Ballroom in June of ’66.

Gradually, singer and musicians found a way to work together. The group abandoned their improvisational free-form sound while Joplin learned how to sing with very loud musical accompanists. The group joined Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead, and Quicksilver Messenger Service as part of what became known as “the San Francisco sound.”

In September of the same year, the group found themselves stranded in Chicago when the money they got for a gig in the Windy City didn’t cover their fare to return home. So, they cut a deal with Chicago’s Mainstream Records and recorded the first four tunes in Chitown to earn enough to get back to California. They finished the album in L. A. Simply titled, Big Brother & the Holding Company, the album sold well enough in San Fran, but failed to make an impression anywhere else. The fact that Mainstream Records was a jazz label and BB&THC was their first rock act may have had something to do with it.

The band’s big break came a year later. Their appearance at the legendary Monterey Pop Festival was so strong that festival organizers asked the band to perform again on Sunday, following their initial set on Saturday afternoon. The buzz around this gig led Columbia Records to offer the group a new recording contract. However, it took some extensive negotiations to get the group out of their contract with Mainstream Records. That pushed off the recording of their second LP to the spring of 1968.

Those sessions led to the release of Cheap Thrills in August of ’68. The initial idea was to record the band live. However, those recordings proved less than satisfactory (except for “Ball and Chain,” which did make it onto the album). Instead, producer John Simon brought the group into the studio and simulated a live album by overdubbing crowd noises on the rest of the tracks and tacking on a recording of noted rock promoter Bill Graham introducing the group to open the album.

The group had asked noted underground cartoonist, Robert Crumb to provide art for the back cover, which would include a list of the songs on the album. Crumb refused payment for his art, saying he didn’t want any of Columbia’s “filthy lucre.” For the front cover, the group wanted to use a photo of the band lying nude in a very wide bed. Columbia Records didn’t like that idea at all. They also didn’t like the name for the LP that the band proposed: “Sex, Dope & Cheap Thrills.” Columbia cut the title down to just “Cheap Thrills” and moved R. Crumb’s artwork to the front of the LP, slapping a black and white photo of Janis on the back cover,

Both proved to be shrewd moves. Cheap Thrills became a runaway bestseller, vaulting into the #1 position on Billboard’s LP chart for an impressive 8 weeks. And Crumb’s artwork really helped the album stand out in the record stores of America.

“Piece of My Heart” became a hit on Top 40 radio, reaching #12 on the Hot 100. “Combination of the Two,” “Summertime” and “Ball and Chain” also received heavy airplay on the newly emerging string of “underground” FM rock stations springing up in markets across the U.S.

The end result of all this was to make Janis Joplin a superstar who had outgrown her backing band. Shortly after the success of the album, Joplin announced she was leaving Big Brother to launch her solo career. Her star burned bright, too bright. She performed at Woodstock and recorded two more studio LPs, but the alcohol and hard drugs took their toll. She died of an overdose in October of 1970.

Cheap Thrills remains one of the best examples of rock from that era. It’s consistently mentioned in “Greatest LPs of All Time Lists” and its cover, intended to be a back cover (!), is also frequently mentioned as one of the genre’s best.

Subsequent reissues of Cheap Thrills now include additional tracks recorded during those sessions that were initially left off the album.

What were we thinking? In the early 1970s, lots of Baby Boomers traded in their old shows for something called Earth Shoes. These orthopedic marvels featured something called a “negative heel.” Instead of a raised heel, the toes in Earth Shoes were higher and the heels lower. According to the manufacturer, this would lead to a better posture and overall health benefits.

Earth Shoes were actually created in 1957 in Denmark by Anne Kalsø. She called them Minus Heel Shoes. In 1970, Americans Raymond and Eleanor Jacobs contracted to bring them to the States. But the Jacobs thought the name was too clunky, especially for clunky-looking shoes. So, opening their first store in NYC on the very first Earth Day, they capitalized on the media buzz and renamed them Earth Shoes.

That ignited a fad for the footwear that quickly went coast to coast. Many people claimed the shoes made their feet feel better. Others said it always felt like they were walking uphill. And still others said that it added to their back pain. For whatever reason, the fad fizzled after a few years, and the company the Jacobs founded filed for bankruptcy in 1976.

Somehow, Earth Shoes have kept on walking. While nowhere near the popularity they enjoyed in our youth, Earth Shoes can still be found from dozens of online retailers. And that’s no mean “feet.”

As we age, many of us develop hearing problems from being a bit hard of hearing to tinnitus. One of the worst things you can do is to crank up your earbuds or headphones when listening to music or your favorite podcast. Not only can that excessive volume damage your hearing, there is evidence it can increase the likelihood of developing dementia.

How do you know if you’re cranking the volume up too loud? If someone else can hear the sound from your headphones or earbuds, they’re too loud. Dial back the volume a bit. We want you to keep rocking for many years to come.

The best-selling American band of all time is the Eagles. And their best-selling, non-greatest-hits LP is Hotel California. Released in 1976, that album has racked up sales of over 30 million certified copies and ranks #3 on the worldwide list of best-selling albums of all time (right behind their own Greatest Hits LP at #2).

The title song is one of the reasons for its enduring popularity. But what was the inspiration for the song and what do its cryptic lyrics mean?

Well, like most great rock songs, the composers have been very vague, allowing each listener to define the song’s meaning for themselves. Glen Frey said that he and co-authors Don Henley and Don Felder wanted to create a song that was like a Twilight Zone episode. Weird when you think that the Twilight Zone attraction at Disney theme parks is also based on a hotel where guests check in but “never leave.” But as to its exact meaning, Frey says he doesn’t really know himself.

For his part, Henley says the song is about “a journey from innocence to experience…that’s all.”

Whatever it means to you, “Hotel California” was released as the second single from the album and went straight to #1 in the U.S. and Canada, also reaching the Top 10 in the U.K. and several other countries. It remains a staple of classic rock radio stations and is in the rotation here at Boomtown America. Plenty of room and any time of year, you can find it here.

Many Baby Boomers are looking for ways to pad their income a bit now that they’re retired. One way to do that is by renting out stuff you own. Several websites have sprung up in recent years that will act as a middleman and help you generate some extra cash from vehicles you own, but don’t use often, to outdoor sports gear.

For example, if you’re one of those handy do-it-yourselfers who own a lot of power tools and similar equipment, you can list them for rent at sites like FriendWithA.com or RentMyEquipment.com.

Listening to this online radio station not enough for you? Well, we have the solution!

"Works fine" - what better endorsement is there than that!!!