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Friday, 01 August 2025 04:20

This Day in Rock History - August 1st

1960: According to the finding of a Seventeen magazine survey released on this day, the average American teenage girl listens to the radio 2 hours and 13 minutes a day and plays records 2 hours and 12 minutes a day.

 

Thursday, 31 July 2025 04:20

This Day in Rock History - July 31st

1968: London’s Apple Boutique closes its doors for good.

Founded as part of the Beatles’ Apple Corps business efforts, the store was in trouble from the start with bad management and rampant theft. On its final day, employees were instructed to let anyone have anything they wanted of the store’s remaining inventory without charge.

Wednesday, 30 July 2025 04:20

This Day in Rock History - July 30th

1986: A sign of the times, RCA Records drops John Denver from their roster.

The label claims Denver’s most recent single, “What Are We Making Weapons For” upset the label’s owner General Electric (which manufactured weapons).

GE repays RCA for their sensitivity by selling the label two months later.

Tuesday, 29 July 2025 04:20

This Day in Rock History - July 29th

1966: Bob Dylan has a bad motorcycle accident while riding his Triumph 500 near Woodstock, New York. His recovery keeps him out of the public spotlight for nine months and fuels all kinds of rumors.

Dylan uses the time to record a series of songs in a makeshift recording studio in a big pink house in Woodstock. He is accompanied by a band known as the Hawks. The songs eventually see a release as The Basement Tapes, while the Hawks change their name to the Band and release their first album (with a picture of the Woodstock house), Music from Big Pink.

Monday, 28 July 2025 04:20

This Day in Rock History - July 28th

1973: One Of the last gigantic rock festivals was held on this day at Watkins Glen racetrack in New York. 600,000 people attend, making it the largest gathering of human beings in history to that point.

Headlining the event: the Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers Band and the Band.

Sunday, 27 July 2025 04:20

This Day in Rock History - July 27th

1955: Chuck Berry’s first record, “Maybelline” hits the Billboard R&B chart where it will eventually climb to #1. The song also crosses over to the pop chart where it will hit #5. One of the true giants of rock & roll is on his way!

Saturday, 26 July 2025 04:20

This Day in Rock History - July 26th

A lot of rock legends celebrate birthdays today:

1938: Bobby Hebb
1940: Dobie Gray
1941: Brenton Wood
1941: Darlene Love
1943: Mick Jagger
1949: Roger Taylor (Queen)
1950: Duncan McKay (10cc)

Friday, 25 July 2025 04:20

This Day in Rock History - July 25th

1965: The day folk music officially lost to rock & roll.

It was on this day that Bob Dylan walked on stage at the Newport Folk Festival with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Dylan performed his first-ever set of electric rock songs, angering the vast majority of the crowd.

After three songs, Dylan stormed off stage. He was coaxed back by Peter, Paul and Mary to perform two more songs in his more traditional, acoustic manner.

But the “damage” had been done. Many young folkies, including John Sebastian, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, John Phillips, and more would soon leave folk and start recording rock.

Thursday, 24 July 2025 04:20

This Day in Rock History - July 24th

1971: The Raiders have one of their last hits with “Indian Reservation.” Truth is, the record was intended to be a Mark Lindsay solo release, but the Raiders former lead singer had Columbia credit it to the entire group as a thank you to his old pal, Paul Revere.

Friday, 06 June 2025 03:20

Gidget (1959)

This is the film that started it all!

Teen exploitation movies! A nationwide craze for surfing! The slang phrase “Big Kahuna!” Sandra Dee’s brief career as a movie star!

Before Gidget, there had been movies aimed at teenagers, but they were mainly bad horror and science fiction films whose stars were still adults. Gidget was the first movie for the Baby Boomers to make the kids and their personal lifestyle the focus.

The movie was based on a book written in 1957 by Frederick Kohner. The book was based on the real life adventures of the author’s daughter, Kathy who was the first female to successfully infiltrate the small California sub-culture of surfers a few years before that. The males really did call her “Gidget” (a contraction of “girl” and “midget”).

 In addition to Ms. Dee in the title role, Columbia Pictures cast future Oscar-winner Cliff Robertson as the head of the surfers (the Big Kahuna) and actor-singer James Darren as Gidget’s would-be boyfriend Moondoggie. While Gidget would change from film to film, Darren is, was and always will be Moondoggie.

The film was actually shot in the winter at Leo Carillo State Park in California. Sandra Dee reports that she had a major crush on Darren during filming and would have gladly surrendered her real virginity to him (mirroring one of the film’s plot threads), but Darren was married at the time and says he did all he could not to give into temptation (sort of  like what ultimately happened in the film)!

The movie earned Columbia a big glassy wave of cash and directly spawned two sequels (Gidget Goes Hawaiian and Gidget Goes to Rome), a TV series (Sally Field's first big break) and three made-for-TV movies (Gidget Grows Up, Gidget Gets Married, and Gidget’s Summer Reunion) as well as brief attempt at an updated TV series, The New Gidget in 1986. It was also directly responsible for inspiring American International to launch the Beach Party movies.

For whatever reason, no actress played the part twice. Sandra Dee was followed by Deborah Walley, Cindy Carol, Sally Field, Karen Valentine, Monie Ellis, and Caryn Richman.

If you watch it today, Gidget is a cut above the Frankie & Annette movies with much better production values and much less gratuitous footage of young girls shaking their bikini bottoms for the camera.

BTW the real Gidget is still around.

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