We had to say goodbye to another great rock songwriter/producer/singer as Bobby Hart passed away at the age of 86. His wife said his death came after a long illness.

Hart, who was born Robert Harshman, was best known for his long-time collaboration with Tommy Boyce. Together, the two wrote and produced most of the Monkees’ early hits, including “Last Train to Clarksville,” “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone,” “Words,” and the Monkees TV theme song.

They also wrote hits for other artists, including “Hurt So Bad for Little Anthony and the Imperials (later covered by Linda Ronstadt) and “Come a Little Bit Closer” for Jay & the Americans. At the height of the Monkees’ fame in the mid-1960s, the duo also recorded a couple of hits themselves, including “I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight” and “Out and About.”

At one point in the early 1970s, before the revival of interest in the Monkees’ music, Hart joined with Boyce and Monkees members Mickey Dolenz and Davy Jones, and toured nightclubs and smaller venues as “Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart.”

Looking back over his career, Hart remarked: “It’s interesting and gratifying to look back these many years later and see that the Monkees are still with us, and they’re still being played somewhere...the records themselves have been staples that have gone on to sell for years and years. They still sound pretty fresh, and that we had an opportunity to do a lot of music that was married to visuals, and so, that in itself kinda seems to ensure that they’ll have a life of their own that’ll probably far outlast mine.”

His words are most certainly true. We will miss him.

It began on July 17^th of this year with a seemingly innocent Instagram post from Stevie Nicks. It looked like she had written a bit of an old lyric on a piece of paper. “If you go forward…”

Ah, but it was followed just an hour later by a handwritten Instagram post from Stevie’s star-crossed ex Lindsey Buckingham: “I’ll meet you there.”

Fans of the duo quickly identified both posts as being the first and second parts of a lyric from the song “Frozen Love,” a track from their one-and-only LP as a duo. Even more interesting, it was the only track on that album that credited them as co-songwriters.

Their on-again, off-again romance has been the stuff of rock legends. The most recent chapter took place in 2018 when Stevie Nicks gave her Fleetwood Mac bandmates an ultimatum: “It’s either Lindsey or me.” The band went with Stevie. Lawsuits ensued (since settled), and with the passing of Christine McVie, many thought the ongoing soap opera that was always the band’s private life might finally be over.

But in the newest installment of “As the Rock Rolls,” it appears that there has been a thaw in the Stevie-Lindsey relationship. The Instagram posts were the duo’s way of announcing that their 1974 album Buckingham Nicks, out of print for over 50 years, would finally be getting a release on CD and streaming come September.

Now, we’ve been playing some Buckingham Nicks tunes here at BoomtownAmerica.com (like “Races Are Run”) since we launched ten years ago. But this will be your chance to own a copy of the entire album for yourself. The album has a historic element to it. Hearing this LP is what caused Mick Fleetwood to invite Lindsey to join Fleetwood Mac. Lindsey agreed to join, but only if they took Stevie as well.

If you liked their work with that legendary supergroup, you will like Buckingham Nicks. Frankly, it’s a mystery why this album has been out of print for so long, especially considering the fame both achieved in their solo careers as well as with Fleetwood Mac. Some speculation says the reissue had been held up because they needed permission from both parties to make it happen, and – given their well-known squabbling – it may have taken this long to get them both to agree on something.

In any event, Buckingham Nicks will be available once again starting on September 19, and we couldn’t be happier.

We lost one of the early stars of rock and pop music when Connie Francis passed away yesterday at the age of 87. Connie was the first woman to hit # 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Everybody's Somebody's Fool." She had 53 hits reach the charts, including two more #1s ("My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own" and "Don't Break the Heart of Someone That Loves You") and 15 that reached the Top 10. Estimates are that she sold more than 200 million records.

We’ve got some top tips on saving money this year!

• Buy gift cards at a discount – Many big box stores or credit card companies offer discounts on gift cards, most often around holidays. You can save up to $25 when purchasing multiple cards during such promotions.
• Skip the alcohol when dining out – Restaurants' biggest profit margins are typically on the alcoholic beverages they serve. You can buy a whole bottle of booze for what they’re charging for a shot or two. Save the cocktails until you return home.
• Get a mid-tier smartphone – Phones today come packed with all kinds of apps and features, typically many more than people ever use. And most manufacturers offer cheaper versions of their flagship models. Taking a step down can save you hundreds of dollars and still give you a phone packed with features. (Hey, most of us are old enough to remember when just making a call was all we expected from a phone.)

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

Every Wednesday, we present “ROCK REMEMBERED,” where we take 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 take another look at the stories behind some of rock's "One-Hit Wonders!"

Rock music has lost one of its true geniuses. Brian Wilson, leader of the Beach Boys has passed away just 9 days short of his 83^rd birthday. Words fail us, but they never failed Brian, one of, if not THE greatest American songwriter of the rock era.

Born in Inglewood and raised in Hawthorne, California, Brian formed a band with his brothers Dennis and Carl, his cousin Mike Love, and a friend named David Marks. First known as the Pendletons (after a type of shirt that was popular in southern California), the group quickly latched onto the emerging surfing trend and renamed themselves the Beach Boys. Ironically, Brian was deathly afraid of the water, and only his brother Dennis was an actual surfer. Marks departed after the first LP and was replaced by another friend, Al Jardine.

Managed by their father, Murray, himself a very frustrated and abusive would-be music star, the Beach Boys landed a contract with Capitol Records in 1962. By the mid-1960’s, he had written or co-written more than 24 Top 40 hits in the U.S. Perhaps more than any single individual, Brian created the image of California as the land of sun, sand, and an endless summer that helped shift the center of popular culture from New York to Los Angeles as the 60’s moved on.

The stress of being the man with the most responsibility for the success of the Beach Boys coupled with what he imagined to be a competition with the Beatles (three of that band’s members were composers, compared to just Brian) led to a nervous breakdown at the end of 1964 and a retirement from performing live. Brian continued to work in the studio creating some of the most brilliant pop music of the 1960s. His “answer” to the Beatles' Rubber Soul, Pet Sounds, is frequently listed as one of the greatest albums ever released. It spawned two Top 10 singles (“Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “Sloop John B”) and a pair of other songs that eventually became classics (“God Only Knows” and “Caroline No”).

He followed that up with two of the most complex and ambitious songs ever recorded, “Good Vibrations” and “Heroes and Villains.”

Work on what was supposed to be the Beach Boys' ultimate album, Smile, had to be shelved when Brian became convinced the recording sessions were causing fires to break out around Los Angeles. Drugs and alcohol contributed to Brian’s continuing mental decline as the band moved into the seventies.

Brian finally began to emerge from his mental health issues in the 1980s. He released a string of critically acclaimed solo albums and finally returned to the concert stage in late 1999.

On the 50^th anniversary of the Beach Boys’ first album (2012), the surviving members of the original band, Mike Love, Bruce Johnston, David Marks, and Al Jardine, joined Brian for a very well-received album, That’s Why God Created Radio. Brian produced the album and contributed 11 of the album's 12 tunes. A subsequent reunion tour also went well. However, for whatever reason, Mike Love (now the legal owner of the name Beach Boys) announced that Brian would not be touring with the band anymore.

Wilson continued to record and tour with the Brian Wilson Band (which usually contained as many or more former Beach Boys than the act that toured as the Beach Boys) until Brian's worsening dementia made further recording and touring impossible.

Wilson was father of two daughters by his first wife, Carnie and Wendy, who have had a very successful career of their own as two-thirds of the vocal group known as Wilson Phillips.

As a songwriter, producer, musician, and singer, Brian Wilson is a true American original. He will be missed. His music will continue to entertain and delight us for many, many years to come.

It is with sadness that we note the passing of rock & funk legend Sly Stone of Sly & the Family Stone. He died at the age of 82 after a long battle with COPD. Sly was one of the rare musicians who managed to find a sizeable audience of both white and black fans in what was sometimes the very polarized 1960s. His career reached its peak with the band's performance at Woodstock in the summer of 1969 and the subsequent release of the film of that concert.

Unfortunately, following that triumph, drug abuse and erratic behavior brought his career to a virtual standstill just a few years later. The Family Stone disbanded in 1974, and Sly himself ceased recording music after 1982.

However, his contributions to the music of the 60s, as well as the legion of artists he inspired, will ensure that his legacy and his music will live on.

Back at the dawn of the TV era, most shows, and especially shows aimed at children, were Westerns. Heck, even Howdy Doody was supposedly about performers in a Wild West Show (Buffalo Bob, Chief Thunderthud, Princess Summerfallwinterspring, and Howdy himself decked out in a neckerchief, blue jeans, and cowboy boots).

One of the earliest and most successful of these types of shows was My Friend Flicka, originally broadcast on CBS in 1956 in what was quaintly known then as the “family hour” (7:30 pm Eastern and 6:30 Central). As you can guess from the title, the show wasn’t based on the exploits of any gun-totin’ marshal or masked vigilante (and why did they call him the “Lone” Ranger when he was always hanging around with Tonto?). Nope, the hero of this TV show was a horse. Or should we say heroine as “flicka” is Swedish for “girl” and friend Flicka was indeed a girl horse.

Flicka started out as a 1941 novel, written by Mary O’Hara. In 1943, it was adapted into a couple of movies, starring Roddy McDowell. When television came along, My Friend Flicka was ready.

Flicka lived on the Goose Bar Ranch in Wyoming at the turn of the last century (around 1900) and was best pals with the ranchers’ son, Ken McLaughlin. Why a Scottish rancher was giving his animals Swedish names was never addressed. Ken’s dad, Rob McLaughlin, was one of those earnest, struggling ranchers so popular in TV shows of the time. (Prosperous ranchers were almost always crooked, unless they were named Ben Cartwright.) Rob’s wife, Nell, was one of them thar plainspoken wives living a simple prairie life, yet still finding time (and the money) for full make-up and an always-perfect hairstyle. Most episodes revolved around homespun problems like wells drying up, stray dogs that needed adoption, or young neighbor kids with a fear of animals. The problems had to be simple because the McLaughlins usually waited for Flicka to solve them. (Hmm, lack of brain power may have been the reason the Goose Bar Ranch was always struggling.) The ranch also employed one grizzled coot, named Gus, as a helper. Gus had a Swedish accent that came and went depending on the scene. Maybe he’s the one who named Flicka.

Anyway, the cast featured Johnny Westbrook as Ken, Gene Evans as Rob, Anita Louise as Nell, and veteran character actor Frank Ferguson as Gus. It was one of the first television series produced by Twentieth Century Fox. Fox actually put more money into the series than was average. For starters, they filmed the show in color (which helped keep it in syndication well into the 1960s), shot extensively in outdoor locations rather than sound stages, and used higher production values than most of the other shows being produced in 1956.

The cost of each episode is one reason why My Friend Flicka stayed in production for just one season, producing 39 episodes. But the high quality of the production kept the show running on all three major networks for a decade. From 1956 to 1957, it ran in black and white on CBS. Then, it transferred to NBC with the 39 episodes running in color on that network from 1957 to 1958. From 1959 to 1960, ABC ran My Friend Flicka as an afternoon show. Flicka galloped back to CBS during the 1961-62 season, returning to ABC in the fall of 1962 through December of 1963. It ended its network run at CBS from September of 1964 through September 1966. A very impressive run for just 39 episodes.

It's always puzzled us that this show and one of the other long-running shows starring a horse, Fury, featured a young boy as the horse’s sidekick when the kids most into horses rather than the cowpokes who rode them tended to be girls. Only National Velvet in the 60’s seemed to understand that.

Regardless, My Friend Flicka enjoyed a successful run in syndication after its network outings before finally being put out to pasture. All 39 episodes are available on home video, and there is an entire website dedicated to the show at MyFriendFlicka.com.

Summer vacation time is here. We have some timely tips that can save you money if you plan on staying at a hotel during any upcoming trip.

• Book with the hotel directly – Most hotels have to pay a percentage of the room fee if the room is booked through a third party. Most will offer you the best rate if you book directly from their website. However, you should still check around. If you can find a lower rate from a third party, contact the hotel directly and ask if they’ll match it. Odds are, they will.
• Wait – Believe it or not, arranging for your accommodations can get you cheaper room rates if you book closer to the date you actually want the room. That’s because an empty room on any given night is revenue the hotel can never recover. Studies show that if you wait, you can cut as much as 20% off your bill
• Join the hotel’s loyalty program – Most loyalty programs are offered at no charge. Even if you never plan on visiting any of that company’s hotels in the future, many loyalty programs will offer instant perks like free wi-fi or beverage credits.
• Large parties and long stays should look into Airbnb – If you’re traveling with a party that’s larger than can fit in a single hotel room or you’re planning an extended stay, renting a house through Airbnb can reduce your costs by as much as 33%.

Wherever you decide to stay on your summer trip, we wish you safe travels and happy memories!

According to the nation’s top doctors, these are the things to avoid if you want to live longer:

EATING HABITS

• Eating several meals at a fast food restaurant every week
• Eating two or fewer servings of vegetables each day
• Binging on “social foods” like hot wings, pizza, nachos, potato skins, etc., a few times per week
• Consuming ice cream, donuts, cake, or other sweets daily

LIFESTYLE HABITS

• Smoking cigarettes
• Not exercising
• Feeling lonely or socially isolated
• Feeling stressed more often than feeling happy
• Taking painkillers daily

Obviously, if you’re on painkillers, consult your doctor before doing anything!