Call Me Lumpy: My Leave It to Beaver Days and Other Wild Hollywood Life by Frank Bank, Gibu Twyman
Authors: Frank Bank, Gibu Twyman
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Boulevard with neon that's almost like daylight.
Traffic would be about one mile an hour. It took about an hour and a half to go from Hollywood and Vine to LaBrea, a couple miles or so.
Guys are hanging out the window: "Screw you!"
"Yeah, up yours."
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"Eat me?"
"You wish."
"Come 'n' get it."
People jumpin' in and out of cars. Swinging off into the side streets to get laid.
Again, back to DL's to talk about it. Share war stories. Keep score.
Hollywood Boulevard was one reason I changed cars so often. I wanted to keep my repertoire fresh.
I had a '62 Cadillac convertible, pale yellow with a yellow top.
I had a '61 Impala convertible.
I had a '61 Bonneville convertible. Metallic green. Tri-power under the hood.
A '62 Corvette.
A '61 Corvette that was red. Fuel-injected 4-speed.
But you couldn't just depend on cars and clothes and cuckoo buddies at the beach to impress girls.
I wanted the all-round approach.
I always wanted to use my mindif not for grades, something far more important. To up the cool quotient. To impress my friends. Make them look up to me. So girls would want me more. So I could get laid more.
So I decided to make myself an expert on rock 'n' roll music. Well, actually, all kinds of music. I love music. My absolute favorite music was Broadway show music. I knew it all. I still do.
But rock 'n' roll was the way to go in high school. So I got real good at knowing it.
It used to kill me when people would say that "Sha-boom" was the first rock 'n' roll song. I'd say, "No. It wasn't. It wasn't even the second rock 'n' roll song."
People forget about the real roots of rock 'n' roll. The first hit song was called "Gee" by The Crows.
The second hit was "Work With Me Annie" by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters.
And "Work With Me Annie" also became "Dance With Me Henry," which Georgia Gibbs did. Georgia Gibbs did it on Mercury. The Midnighters did it on Atlantic.
These two songs were at the end of '53. Then "Sha-boom" comes out by The Chords on the Cat label.
Immediately, The Crewcuts cover it. A "cover" record is where someone records a song, and then along comes someone else and "covers" it with his own version. They would both contend on the radio for the most popular rendition. This happened all the time back then.
Both "Sha-booms" went No. 1, actually. Of course, the version that gets
Page 71
the most popularity is by The Crewcuts because they were more from the music establishment at the time.
Which sucked. The one that was really great was The Chords' version, which was the black rendition on Cat records.
Here's a guy who got famous, never did an original song in his life, until "Love Letters in the Sand" and a few others: Pat Boone.
Pat Boone started off covering records all over the place.
There was a guy named Randy Wood, who owned a record company in Mee-umphisas Elvis would have pronounced itTennessee, called Dot records. And Pat Boone is this young kid who happens to be a direct descendant of Daniel Boone.
(Also, he happened to be a client of Frank Bank when Frank Bank opened his own financial-consultant business, but that's for another chapter.)
Anyhow, Pat was signed by Dot recordsyoung kid, married this girl named Shirley, pumpin' kids out like Eddie Cantor. His first hit was called "Ain't That a Shame?" which was done by a guy named Antoine Domino on Imperial Records. Fellow we came to know by "Fats."
Within a week, a version of "Ain't That a Shame?" by Pat Boone comes out on Dot records.
Shortly thereafter, the El Dorados come out with a song, "At My Front Door""Crazy little mama comes, knockin', a-knockin' at my front door, door, door." Guess who comes out with a hit? They hadn't even let the ink dry on "Ain't That a Shame?" and here comes "At My Front Door."
So Dot records was made by covering records with all their original artiststhey had the Fontaine Sisters, Pat Boone, Billy Vaughan, Jim Lowe. Well, Jim Lowe actually did an original record, a great hit called "The Green Door."
But
Traffic would be about one mile an hour. It took about an hour and a half to go from Hollywood and Vine to LaBrea, a couple miles or so.
Guys are hanging out the window: "Screw you!"
"Yeah, up yours."
Page 70
"Eat me?"
"You wish."
"Come 'n' get it."
People jumpin' in and out of cars. Swinging off into the side streets to get laid.
Again, back to DL's to talk about it. Share war stories. Keep score.
Hollywood Boulevard was one reason I changed cars so often. I wanted to keep my repertoire fresh.
I had a '62 Cadillac convertible, pale yellow with a yellow top.
I had a '61 Impala convertible.
I had a '61 Bonneville convertible. Metallic green. Tri-power under the hood.
A '62 Corvette.
A '61 Corvette that was red. Fuel-injected 4-speed.
But you couldn't just depend on cars and clothes and cuckoo buddies at the beach to impress girls.
I wanted the all-round approach.
I always wanted to use my mindif not for grades, something far more important. To up the cool quotient. To impress my friends. Make them look up to me. So girls would want me more. So I could get laid more.
So I decided to make myself an expert on rock 'n' roll music. Well, actually, all kinds of music. I love music. My absolute favorite music was Broadway show music. I knew it all. I still do.
But rock 'n' roll was the way to go in high school. So I got real good at knowing it.
It used to kill me when people would say that "Sha-boom" was the first rock 'n' roll song. I'd say, "No. It wasn't. It wasn't even the second rock 'n' roll song."
People forget about the real roots of rock 'n' roll. The first hit song was called "Gee" by The Crows.
The second hit was "Work With Me Annie" by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters.
And "Work With Me Annie" also became "Dance With Me Henry," which Georgia Gibbs did. Georgia Gibbs did it on Mercury. The Midnighters did it on Atlantic.
These two songs were at the end of '53. Then "Sha-boom" comes out by The Chords on the Cat label.
Immediately, The Crewcuts cover it. A "cover" record is where someone records a song, and then along comes someone else and "covers" it with his own version. They would both contend on the radio for the most popular rendition. This happened all the time back then.
Both "Sha-booms" went No. 1, actually. Of course, the version that gets
Page 71
the most popularity is by The Crewcuts because they were more from the music establishment at the time.
Which sucked. The one that was really great was The Chords' version, which was the black rendition on Cat records.
Here's a guy who got famous, never did an original song in his life, until "Love Letters in the Sand" and a few others: Pat Boone.
Pat Boone started off covering records all over the place.
There was a guy named Randy Wood, who owned a record company in Mee-umphisas Elvis would have pronounced itTennessee, called Dot records. And Pat Boone is this young kid who happens to be a direct descendant of Daniel Boone.
(Also, he happened to be a client of Frank Bank when Frank Bank opened his own financial-consultant business, but that's for another chapter.)
Anyhow, Pat was signed by Dot recordsyoung kid, married this girl named Shirley, pumpin' kids out like Eddie Cantor. His first hit was called "Ain't That a Shame?" which was done by a guy named Antoine Domino on Imperial Records. Fellow we came to know by "Fats."
Within a week, a version of "Ain't That a Shame?" by Pat Boone comes out on Dot records.
Shortly thereafter, the El Dorados come out with a song, "At My Front Door""Crazy little mama comes, knockin', a-knockin' at my front door, door, door." Guess who comes out with a hit? They hadn't even let the ink dry on "Ain't That a Shame?" and here comes "At My Front Door."
So Dot records was made by covering records with all their original artiststhey had the Fontaine Sisters, Pat Boone, Billy Vaughan, Jim Lowe. Well, Jim Lowe actually did an original record, a great hit called "The Green Door."
But
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