By Daniel Rigney
I began watching “American Bandstand” in the early 1960s, when the show was still in black and white. It came on soon after school each weekday, and kids across the country tuned in to the beat of its theme song, “Bandstand Boogie.”
I began watching “American Bandstand” in the early 1960s, when the show was still in black and white. It came on soon after school each weekday, and kids across the country tuned in to the beat of its theme song, “Bandstand Boogie.”
We're goin' hoppin' (Hop)
We're goin' hoppin' today
Where things are poppin' (Pop)
The Philadelphia way
We're gonna drop in (Drop)
On all the music they play
On the Bandstand (Bandstand)
We're goin' hoppin' today
Where things are poppin' (Pop)
The Philadelphia way
We're gonna drop in (Drop)
On all the music they play
On the Bandstand (Bandstand)
“Bandstand
Boogie,” performed in the fading style of big-band swing, may have been
an odd choice of music to open this televised dance party showcasing
the very latest contemporary pop tunes. Yet it is this theme music that I
remember best.
I'm
guessing that many of us who came of age in this era have a garbled
recording of "Bandstand Boogie" stored in deep memory, and are
retrieving it and playing it back on our inner soundtracks this week as
we learn of the passing of the show’s forever-young host, Dick Clark.
For
me, there are two especially memorable things about "American
Bandstand" besides the music: First, it was one of the first TV programs
of its time to show blacks and whites mingling with each other
comfortably and even exuberantly, often to the music of black or
R&B-inspired artists -- though Clark would later be accused of
exploiting pop artists on an equal-opportunity basis for his own
financial gain.
Second,
the show featured a regular segment called “Rate a Record” in which
audience members listened to a couple of new pop songs and gave each
tune a score and a quick comment. The most famous and oft-repeated of
these comments soon became a jokey national catch phrase: “It’s got a
good beat and you can dance to it.”
Dick
Clark’s “American Bandstand” will not be remembered for its gravitas,
or for the timelessness of its music (although I like to imagine that
somewhere in the universe there’s a civilization that wants us to
transmit “more Chuck Berry!” -- if anyone still remembers that classic
SNL sketch).
But
“American Bandstand” had a good beat, and I looked forward to it every
day after school. Decades later I can still hear music on my inner
soundtrack that Dick Clark first introduced us to on Bandstand.
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