As the 50s became the 60s, many thought rock & roll was on the way out. Buddy Holly was dead. Little Richard had quit rocking to join the ministry. Elvis was in the army (and would never be quite the same after he came out). Chuck Berry was on his way to jail.

Even scarier, folk music was threatening to become young America’s favorite genre.

But there was one man who kept the flame of rock & roll burning until the Beatles brought the British Invasion to our shores. That man was Charles Weedon Westover. Perhaps you know him better by his stage name – Del Shannon!

Shannon was born in 1934 and raised in Michigan. He spent his childhood listening to country artists (as rock & roll hadn’t been invented yet) and his voice never lost that country twang. Following a stint in the army, Shannon began playing part-time in a Battle Creek, Michigan band called the Moonlight Ramblers. By 1958, the Ramblers ditched their lead singer, who seemed to have a bit of a drinking problem, and promoted Del to group leader.

By 1960, Del and his keyboard player, Max Cook, signed as songwriters and recording artists with Big Top Records. Their first couple of tunes went nowhere. Then, local DJ Ollie McLaughlin suggested they take an older song from their repertoire, rework it a bit, and add the strange organ hybrid Cook had invented and was using in their live show (named the Musitron). Of course, the song was “Runaway,” and it lived up to its title becoming a runway smash that went to #1 not just in the United States, but all over the world.

Shannon managed to follow up that success with a string of other hard rockers that also found chart success, including “Hats Off to Larry” (#5), “Little Town Flirt” (#12), “Handy Man” (#22), “Keep Searchin’” (#9), and “Stranger in Town” (#30).

On a tour of England in 1963, Shannon played on a bill with the Beatles and liked what he heard. When he returned to the States, he recorded his own version of “From Me to You.” While it only managed to make it to #77, it was the very first Lennon-McCartney tune to chart in America.

Once the Beatles started putting their own records on the U.S. charts, times got hard for a lot of American recording acts and Shannon was no different. By late 1965, the hits stopped coming.

As the hits slowed down, Shannon’s drinking increased, which certainly didn’t help his career. He found sobriety by 1978 and began putting his career back together. In 1982, Shannon recorded a cover of “Sea of Love,” a tune composer Phil Phillps took to #1 in 1959. That song, part of an album produced by Tom Petty, actually gave Shannon his first top 40 hit (reaching #33) in 16 years.

In 1986, his career got another shot in the arm when NBC launched Crime Story and used a new recording of Shannon and his signature tune, “Runaway,” as its theme song.

By 1990, Shannon was hard at work on a new album. He put himself under a lot of stress to finish the project. That led him to a doctor who prescribed the antidepressant, Prozac. Big mistake. According to Shannon’s wife, Shirley Westover, Shannon’s personality underwent a dramatic shift as soon as he started taking the medication, developing severe insomnia, extreme fatigue, and other disturbing symptoms. Just 15 days after he began taking Prozac, Shannon took his own life with no note and no goodbye. His wife swears that suicide was totally out of character for her husband.

Having worked with both Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, there were rumors that he might replace Roy Orbison in The Travelling Wilburys. Those rumors died along with Del.

Del Shannon was posthumously elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. His music is still frequently featured in movies and TV shows. Any true rock fan owes a huge debt to the guy who kept rock alive in the early 60s.

One of the best films of the sixties came at the very end of the decade. Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, a hybrid of the buddy comedy and a Western, was a huge hit with audiences when released in 1969. It also made a star of Robert Redford. And its bubbly, yet anachronistic pop song, “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head,” finally earned Burt Bacharach his first Oscar as a composer.

Here are a few things you might not know about this classic movie:

1.) It almost co-starred Steve McQueen with Paul Newman.

William Goldman wrote the screenplay with Paul Newman and Jack Lemmon in mind. Lemmon had no interest in the project, so the studio next approached Steve McQueen. McQueen was interested but wanted top billing. The studio thought (correctly) that Newman was the bigger star and refused, so McQueen moved on. It was only after Marlon Brando and Warren Beatty also passed that Newman’s wife had an idea.

2.) The studio boss at 20^th Century Fox had to be talked into casting Robert Redford.

Redford was primarily known as a stage actor at that point. It was Newman’s wife, Joanne Woodward who suggested him for the role. Newman liked the idea and soon won over director George Roy Hill. Together, the three of them mounted a campaign to convince studio boss, Richard Zanuck to go with the unknown.

3.) The “Hole-in-the-Wall Gang” was not really named that.

Butch’s actual gang was named the Wild Bunch. (You can see where this is going, right?) Sam Peckinpaugh had filmed his own movie called The Wild Bunch (although it was not about Butch’s gang) and got it into theaters before Newman’s film. So, they simply changed the name of the gang in the film, basing it on a location in Wyoming where Butch & Sundance were known to hide out.

4.) The real-life super posse was much more effective than the one in the film.

A good deal of Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid concerns a super posse that tracks our heroes (outlaws) until they finally flee to Bolivia. In the real world, that posse did form, but they didn’t have to do much tracking. When Butch and Sundance got word the posse was forming, they immediately hightailed it out of the country. No chase ever took place.

5.) Redford & Newman performed some of their own stunts.

They brought in a stunt man to perform the bicycle tricks of Butch Cassidy that happen during “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” but the stunt man kept falling off his bike. In the end, Newman performed his own stunts.

Likewise, Redford began by performing some of his own stunts. After Redford leaped onto a moving train in one shot, Newman got worried about losing his co-star to injury and convinced Redford to let the stunt team handle the dangerous stuff from that point on.

6.) Katherine Ross was actually kicked off the set.

At the time of filming, Ross was engaged to the movie’s cinematographer, Conrad Hall. During one scene, Hall allowed his sweetie to handle one of the cameras. In a tightly run union town such as Hollywood, that was a huge no-no, so director Hill had Ross banned from the set except when she had a scene in which she was acting.

7.) The initial cut of the film was deemed too funny.

Comedy westerns rarely did well at the box office. When audiences at the first test screenings were laughing loud and long all the way through the picture, Hill took the film back into the editing suite and cut some of the film’s funniest footage.

8.) “Most of what follows is true” isn’t true.

The film opens with that title card. But the actual truth is that screenwriter Goldman (who received a then-record $400,000 for the screenplay) didn’t want to do the tedious research it would have taken to ensure historical accuracy. So, he just took some of the generally accepted parts of the Butch & Sundance legend and wrote whatever he thought would make the most entertaining film.

One final thought, without this film, what would they call the Sundance Film Festival?

Yes, you should pay attention to how your investments are doing, but not obsessively so. For example, the stock market always goes through periods of decline, yet every time, it comes out the valley and usually winds up doing better than it ever did before. Obsessing over your investments can lead you to pull your money from some investments at the worst time or cause you to jump into something that appears to be doing so well, but is on a peak it can’t sustain. (Ask a reputable financial advisor about people who jumped into cryptocurrency.)

Here's our summer reading list:

Whether you’re working at home or still commuting, how your desk and chair are situated can cause stress for your spine and problems for your eyes. Here are some tips for tightening up your workspace for a healthier you.

1.) The top of your computer screen should be at eye level. Looking down or up can put a strain on your neck muscles.

2.) Make sure you have adequate lighting. As we age, our eyes require more light. Experts recommend a reading or desk lamp.

3.) Sit all the way back in your chair. Let it support your lower back as you work.

4.) Your feet should be firmly on the floor and your knees, feet, and ankles should be at a 90-degree angle. If not, adjust the height of your chair.

5.) Your chair should also have armrests and you should be able to type comfortably on your keyboard while keeping your arms on those rests.

Sit or stand? Lately, there’s been a positive fad for standing desks. Yet, studies have shown that workers can develop back problems from standing too long. Better to get one of those desks that you can adjust from standing to sitting if you like that sort of thing. Alternating between sitting and standing every 30 minutes is recommended.

The year was 1966 and the Summer of Love was still in the future. Yet, the first inklings of what became known as “psychedelic rock” were beginning to be heard on U.S. radio stations. One of those early hits was “Psychotic Reaction,” a bluesy, sonic assault on our eardrums by a band known as Count Five.

The group was based in San Jose, California, but its members came from all over. Lead singer Kenn Ellner was originally from Brooklyn. Lead guitarist Johnny “Mouse” Michalski was from Cleveland. Bassist Roy Chaney was a native of Indianapolis and drummer Butch Atkinson was from Springfield, Massachusetts. Topping it all off, rhythm player Sean Byrne was actually born in Ireland.

The boys' gimmick was to dress in Dracula drag as they gigged around Southern California’s teen clubs and sock hops. Local DJ Brian Lord thought they had potential, so he alerted Irwin Zucker who ran the independent Double Shot label.

Count Five auditioned with a tune the band had written for themselves. Zucker liked that song, titled “Psychotic Reaction,” took the group into the studio and came out with a song that made it all the way to #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in fall of that year.

Alas, the group was never able to get any of their follow-ups to chart and soon fell apart. But like Dracula, the song itself refuses to die and continues to haunt oldies stations to this day.

It seems like a contradiction in terms: forgetting I Remember Mama, but only the heartiest of Baby Boomers are likely to remember this gentle sitcom from TV’s early days. Based on the book, Mama’s Bank Account, by Kathryn Forbes. It recounted her growing up in turn-of-the-century San Francisco as a first-generation American with Norwegian parents.

The first thing to note is that the TV series was not named “I Remember Mama.” Its official title was Mama. However, every episode began with a voiceover narration by the actress playing the eldest daughter Katrin Hansen. She always concluded the narration with the phrase, “…most of all, I remember Mama.” In addition, there was a Broadway play and feature film that preceded the TV series that WERE named I Remember Mama. So, most of us still called the show by the longer title.

Like the book, play, and movie, the show revolved around the day-to-day struggle of the family to both adapt to American culture and to make ends meet. Mama was played by veteran actress Peggy Wood. Papa was Judson Laird, Rosemary Rice was Katrin, and eldest son Nels was played by a young Dick Van Patten. (BTW - Rosemary Rice played Archie's girlfriend Betty - of "Betty & Veronica" fame - on the long-running Archie Andrews radio seies. Her resemblance to the comic book character is incredible considering a radio performer didn't need to look like her character!)

Mama’s first season was broadcast on CBS in 1949 and, like a lot of TV in those days, was broadcast live. For its first four seasons, the show consistently placed in the top 10 of the ratings. By the fifth season (1954-55), ratings had started to slip and by the end of its sixth season, CBS canceled the show. However, a mail campaign to save the show was launched. CBS received over 175,000 letters (quite a large sample in those days) and announced they would bring Mama back as a mid-season replacement in December 1956.

For the re-launch, they also decided to film the episodes rather than air them live. Unfortunately, by the time mid-season rolled around, there was no prime-time slot available on CBS. So, the network aired the show on Sunday afternoons at 5 pm. That was a disaster. The show generated almost no ratings and, although 26 episodes had been filmed, Mama was canceled by March 1957.

Those 26 filmed episodes were syndicated briefly in the late 50s and early 60s when there really weren’t that many reruns of prime-time series available, but with so few episodes and the fact they were all in black and white, Mama quickly vanished from TV land.

Today, a small handful of those later episodes can be found online or in DVD packages of early TV for those who still remember Mama.

You often hear it said that investing in gold is “a good hedge against inflation,” meaning the value of that gold will rise faster than consumer prices. But it turns out that is not true. If you bought gold back in 1980, it would be worth a lot more today, but it still hasn’t kept up with inflation. In fact, most seasoned investors say there is no direct correlation between the inflation rate and the price of gold.

As always, never make a significant investment in anything without consulting a financial expert you trust.

Back in the 1950s and early 60s, malt shops as well as malted milk were extremely popular all across America. Today, malt shops have virtually disappeared and malted milk is a beverage few below the age of 60 even remember let alone have ever tasted.

So what happened?

Malted milk was the creation of two English brothers who resettled in Racine, Wisconsin, James & William Horlick. In the early 20^th century, they invented a compound of malted barley, wheat and powdered milk they trademarked as “malted milk.” The lads first marketed it as a nutritional baby food, but they were taken by surprise when older children and adults started to enjoy it as a soft drink.

Around the same time, ice cream parlors and soda fountains were springing up as a healthier alternative to bars and nightclubs. Naturally, the lack of alcohol (and the subsequent need to be of drinking age to use same) also meant those parlors & fountains became popular hangouts for teenagers. In the 1940s, jukeboxes became standard equipment for any self-respecting soda fountain. Those soda fountains added ice cream to malted milk and the “malt” was born. Its popularity continued to rise through the decade. As we moved into the 1950s, malted milk had become a real favorite, so many of the aforementioned soda fountains renamed themselves malt shops.

But as we moved into the 60s, a new trend in dining out would ultimately spell doom for the malt.

Once Ray Kroc began franchising McDonald’s restaurants, the writing was on the wall. While there were people who didn’t like malted milk, virtually everybody liked milkshakes (essentially the same thing, just minus the malt powder), so the McDonald’s menu, kept ultra-simple in its early days, only featured milkshakes and not malts.

The deluge of fast food joints that followed in Mickey Dee’s footsteps also copied their beverage menu, offering shakes but not malts. Until today, the malted milk is an item one has to look for. It’s still carried on the menus of some establishments, but there just aren’t many eateries willing to call themselves malt shops anymore. And we think that’s something worth crying in your milk over.

Some healthy noshes that actually have anti-aging properties:

Almonds – These tasty treats contain vitamin E, an antioxidant that protects cells from damage, helping to slow down the aging process.

Greek Yogurt – Yogurt can help in multiple ways. You get calcium, which aids the bones, protein, which supports the muscles, and probiotics, which help the gut.

Berries – Whether they’re blue, red or black, it doesn’t matter. These berries contain compounds that improve memory functions.