So, there's this movie that came out in 1978. It stars John Travolta and Lily Tomlin. The film is called Moment By Moment, and it is by far, the most disgustingly terrible film I have ever seen.
And this is the soundtrack...
So in this movie, Lily Tomlin plays Trisha, a drug addicted rich lady who is insanely bored with her life. The film starts out with Trisha having a chance meeting with a drug dealer named Strip (no, I'm not kidding... that's really the character's name) at Schwab's Pharmacy, where she finds out that she's run out of her sleeping pill prescription. Strip follows her home and they start a really creepy relationship in exchange for drugs. Of course, to make things worse for everyone involved, they have lots of sex, and make out in a hot tub.
Ugh.
Why does this movie exist?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
"Ohhhhhhh, Strip!"
*GAG*
Seriously, guys. It's the worst.
In fact, Moment By Moment is so freaking bad, it's never been released on DVD or VHS or Beta or Laserdisc or even CED!!
Well, you know, except in Germany... because we all know how much Germans love repulsive love stories.
Aaaaaanyways, even with all the star power of Lily Tomlin and John Travolta, this movie just didn't do great. Apparently, people just don't want to see a love story about two super famous people who are obviously not attracted to each other... and also look like brother and sister.
No, seriously... Lily Tomlin looks exactly like Ellen Travolta!
See?!?
Creeeeeeepy.
Also, weirdly enough, this film was written and directed by Jane Wagner, who is the longtime romantic partner of Lily Tomlin. Oddness.
Also, this movie was apparently going to be featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, but at the last second, they weren't able to get the rights to do it. Damn it, that would've been awesome.
SUBJECT CHANGE!!
The music in this film is kind of ridiculous, and adds to the insanity of it all.
And of course, it being the late 70s, and it being a crappy love story, the Moment By Moment soundtrack includes one of the worst "love" songs ever — "Sometimes When We Touch" by Dan Hill.
Basically, it's all the kind of music you'd find on Los Angeles radio smooooooth jazz... 94.7... The Waaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy-haaaaaaayyyyyyyvvvve!
Yuck.
Also, I have a theory about playing non-stop smooth jazz in prison... but that's a whole different (and perhaps more political) post altogether.
You can download the soundtrack to Moment By MomentHERE!!
No, I'm not kidding. This thing is real. My awesome boss, Phillip, at the greatest video store in the universe, CineFile Video, discovered this amazing VHS. And boy oh boy, do I thank him for it.
So, apparently after appearing in such dramatic masterpieces as Indecent Proposal and Wayne's World 2, Rip Taylor decided he wanted to be the next Rip Torn and become a dramatic Oscar® caliber actor. And of course, to show off his acting chops, they cut together this videotape compilation of his best dramatic work.
Weirdly enough, this tape starts with Rip in a Dr. Pepper commercial, where he screams and giggles at us about winning $100,000 or a "nostalgic Dr. Pepper mini-truck", or an "exciting1985Buick Century". Groovy.
Of course the tape also includes the aforementioned toupée-less scene from Indecent Proposal (which disappointingly doesn't consist of him throwing confetti at Robert Redford), as well as another hairless scene from some weird short lived 90s TV series called Johnny Bago with Denise Crosby, where Rip Taylor plays the wannabe game show host mayor of some creepy town.
Then it cuts to the most schizophrenically disturbing commercial for adult survivors of child abuse I've ever seen. AND THEN, a weird-ass clip from an infomercial for the Psychic Friends Network where Rip implores you to finally do something for yourself, and call the Psychic Friends Network... NOW!!
And of course, since we started with some funny, we must end with funny — so the tape ends with a clip from Rip's live comedy show where he tells a terrible joke about Bill Clinton having sex with a doberman. Thank you, Jesus.
Check it out below!
Well, that's it. That is the "dramatic reel" of the great Rip Taylor.
Yep.
It sure is.
And if you thought that was great, check out the back of the VHS box where it proclaims all the awesomeness that is Rip Taylor.
Today's awesome post of awesomeness is the original pressbook and soundtrack for the 1973 film Soul Hustler, starring Fabian Forte and Casey Kasem!
GAH! What a badass poster.
As you may or may not know, I am a gigantic dork for films about religion — but mostly weird religion films about Christian cults... and Soul Hustler is one of the weirdest ones there is.
The story is about a druggie/hippie named Matthew, who, after accidentally killing his wife and kid in a car accident, goes on a crazy bender. He picks up a hitchhiker named Brian, and on the way to nowhere in particular, he stops at a church tent. He gives this crazy testimony, and claims to be the son of Jesus Christ! He's so charismatic that the crowd believes him, and the creepy pastor sees a moneymaking opportunity. After Matthew gets thrown in jail for fraud, the pastor comes and bails him out on one condition — he's got to join the pastor in his evil quest for money from gullible religious jerks! Along the way, Matthew becomes a huge deal, being the rock and roll star son of Jesus and all, and the pastor ends up hiring a press agent, played by Casey Kasem! Insanity ensues!
It's one crazy ass fun movie, and one that deserves to be seen more! Fabian is awesome as the singing son of Jesus Christ and Casey Kasem is perfect as the sleazy agent.
The movie's directed by Burt Topper, who also directed The Devil's 8 and The Hard Ride, amongst others. He also produced some awesome movies like Wild in the Streets, Devil's Angels, Thunder Alley, and Fireball 500!
The music's not half bad either. It's all fun fake Christian music, and perhaps that's why I love it. I sure do love me some fake Christian music. The songs and score are written by Harley Hatcher, who also wrote music for The Wild Angels, Kelly's Heroes, and another weird Casey Kasem movie that I've written about here before, Wild Wheels!
All the music is performed by the cast, too, so you're in for a lot more groovy Fabian-ness!
Like the Girl in Gold Boots pressbook, the Soul Hustler book contains a few pre-written articles that theaters were supposed to send to newspapers! Obviously my favorite of these is the one about the blasphemous nature of the film —
Well, there you go. The Soul Hustler is a really interesting early 70s cult film that definitely deserves to be rediscovered! While it's essentially a low budget B-Movie, it's well made and has a great message. Fabian is actually really awesome in the movie, and the music is fun!
As always, you can CLICK on the photo(s) to enable the ENLARGE-O-MATIC™ PHOTO EMIGGENER®!!
You can download the Soul Hustler pressbook and soundtrack HERE!!
Aaaaaaand if you wanna give the actual film a shot, which I highly suggest, you can purchase the VHS over at Amazon... or you can just watch it on this semi-legal interwebsite.
Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know. I've been gone for a llllllllllloooooooonnnnnnggggggg time.
But don't blame me! If anything, you should blame love... and whiskey... and Mai Tais...
Anywhoo, now that that's all over, I can finally get back to what really matters in my life — pants baskets! Uhhh... I mean BLOGGING!!
Today's magical blog of magicalness is the Darkwing Duck cassette and storybook, High Wave Robbery!
As you can see from the super groovy cover, this is an action packed thrill ride with motorcycles and fire and smoke and crazy-eyed Launchpads!
Well actually, it's just an episode of Darkwing Duck that wasn't good enough to actually be animated.
Also, I don't remember having FREE TRADING CARDS INSIDE... I feel gypped.
I enjoy this thing a whole heck of a lot. I can't even count how many times I've listened to this tape in my life. As a kid, I was OBSESSED with this thing. And to be perfectly honest, I still am.
The story concerns an evil supervillian named Frequencia who uses crazy loud sounds, or frequencies (GENIUS), to put people into a daze, and rob them while they are stuck in said daze. Darkwing Duck, of course, comes to save the day and... well, he saves the day. What else would he do?
It's a pretty awesome story.
Also, there's lots of puns. Like the names "Mrs. Rockefeather" and "Mooselangelo".
God, I love animal related puns.
Frequencia is a pretty cool lookin' supervillian too, if you ask me. I would've loved to see her in animated action, robbing people at movie premieres and art galleries! Dangit, Disney! Just start the Disney Afternoon all over again! I promise I'll pretend like the last 19 years of Disney Afternoon withdrawal never happened!
This episode ends with a BLORT — one of my favorite onomatopoeias.
Yep. I sure do love BLORTs.
The voice acting on this story is obviously super awesome, as it includes all of the original cast from the TV show — Jim Cummings, Terrance McGovern, and Christine Cavanaugh.
The narration is great too... God, I wish I sounded as cool as William Woodson! I mean, he was the narrator for the All-New Super Friends Hour!!
Also, he dubbed someone in Brian De Palma's Bonfire of the Vanities, not that that matters, or anything... even though Brian De Palma has recently become my second favorite director of all time... but that's for another post altogether.
Let's just say that I've watched Body Double 16 times in the past four months, and leave it at that... at least for now...
Oh boy.
ANYWAYS, you can download the Darkwing Duck cassette and storybook of High Wave RobberyHERE!
And, as always, you can CLICK on the photo(s) to enable the ENLARGE-O-MATIC™ PHOTO EMBIGGENER®!!
Oh, just accept it. There will never be an end to the Girl in Gold Boots memorabilia.
The record is by harmonica guy Danny Welton, who also did the theme song from Looking for Mr. Goodbar!
This record includes two instrumental/incidental songs from the "soundtract"... ALL OF THE SINGLES SPELL "SOUNDTRACK" WRONG!!
The track "Julie" is the full length version of the "A New Companion" track from the earlier soundtrack, so this replaces that one on the "soundtract".
I can't figure out where the song "Stroblights" is in the film, but then again, it might not be in the finished film so I just tacked it on at the end.
Also, THEY SPELLED "STROBE LIGHTS" WRONG!!
Seriously, what is up with this misspelling conspiracy?!
You can download the updated version of the Girl in Gold Boots SoundtrackHERE.
Today I'm going to share with you a videotape that makes me very happy.
The videotape is called Chéz-Zam, and it is by far, the greatest thing to have ever happened... EVER.
I case you couldn't tell by that beautifully creepy cover up there, Chéz-Zam is an entertainment/party group that is some crazy messed up mixture of Cirque du Soliel, CATS, Studio 54, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and 89 hits of acid... and a whole buttload of cocaine.
Why am I even trying to explain this to you with mere words?
Take 13 minutes out your day and check out the entire Chéz-Zam promotional videotape below, and find out what Chéz-Zam is really all about –
Freakin' Alan Alda.
I'm not entirely sure there's anything more that I can say – it's just perfect.
Also, I'm about 78% sure this is Clemmy from RENO! 911.
If you can believe it, these Chéz-Zam folks are still around... and if someone doesn't hire them for my next birthday party, I'll be thoroughly disappointed.
Today's script is from the classic two-part Quincy, M. E. episode "Slow Boat to Madness"!
Of course, as you all know (or should know) Quincy, M. E. stars the klug-man himself, Jack Klugman as a Los Angeles medical examiner who always gets involved in all sorts of crazy hijinks that he shouldn't be getting involved in.
This time, while on a cruise vacation in Tahiti, Quincy and his girlfriend get mixed up in a crazy situation -- someone is drugging passengers on the ship, making them go crazy and hallucinate. The drugs eventually kill the crazy hallucinating passengers, causing the rest of the people on the ship to go into a panic, afraid for their lives! Of course, Quincy being Quincy, feels the need to help and stop this crazy plot from going too far!
This is a fun two-parter with lots of action, and lots of cool late 70s/early 80s cruise ship stuff, which I LOVE... as evidenced by my earlier post of the Princess Cruise Adventure record.
One thing I really love about this episode is the ship's captain, played by character actor Ed Nelson, who is also in one of my top 5 favorite movies of all time -- Roger Corman's A Bucket of Blood. Also, he's the elusive Robert Denby, which immediately makes him the greatest human being to have ever lived.
Ed Nelson!
Oh, and you can watch A Bucket of Blood for free online, because it's in the Public Domain! Yipee!
Probably my favorite scene in this episode is in part two, when, during a screening of Phantom of the Opera, a passenger goes crazy! It's insane madness. I love it.
Oh, and the other thing I love about this episode is, after a costume party, Quincy has to seriously explain what's going on to the ship's doctor and the captain, and he is still in costume... as a jockey... with a tiny bowtie and everything.
Dr. Quincy -- Serious jockey dude
If you wanna see this episode, it's available on Netflix streaming... in HD! Jack Klugman in high definition. Nothing could be better.
Also, if you're looking for another episode of Quincy, M. E. to watch, you must must must must MUST watch what is probably the greatest episode of television ever -- "Next Stop Nowhere", where Quincy goes after punk rock. That episode guest stars Jan Levenson-Gould herself, Melora Hardin, as a teenage punk rocker. Gabba gabba hey!
You can download the Quincy, M. E. script to "Slow Boat to Madness" HERE.
Yeah, I know. I keep saying "That's the end of it all. That's the end of the Girl in Gold Boots stuff." Well, I'm sorry. I'M SORRY, OKAY?! THIS IS REALLY THE LAST ONE... maybe.
Today's article of Girl in Gold Boots-related stuff is the one and only full-length album Sinner or Saint by Joe Valino -- the guy who sang the fantastically memorable "Gold" song on the soundtrack of the film!
This is a pretty great album, actually.
I don't know really any way to recommend this album more than to say "LISTEN TO THIS." This really is a lost classic of lounge music.
The album isn't much like his hit "Garden of Eden" single, which may be the reason why he didn't make any more records. Sad face.
This is going to sound really stupid, but I'm totally blanking on things to say about this that aren't just "LISTEN AND LIKE THIS, DANG IT" because it's just a really enjoyable album. So, listen to it and like it... dang it!
So, grab a Mai Tai and put this on. You won't be disappointed!
You can download Joe Valino's Sinner or Saint album HERE.
Today's object of interest to me and one other person in the universe is PART THREE of the fantasmagorical Hollywood Trading Cards!
Today's card is the one, the only, J.R. Ewing aka Larry Hagman!
Okay, I can't lie. I don't own this trading card anymore. I gave it to my super cool friend Jennifer, who is the world's biggest Dallas fan.
Anyways, this guy is Larry Hagman. If you don't know who he is, then... well, I really don't know what to say. This guy has worked non-stop since the late 1950s! Of course, you should recognize him from I Dream of Jeannie or Dallas.
He was also in a great (and by great, I mean terrible yet entertaining) TV movie called Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic, starring Linda Blair, William Daniels, and Luke Skywalker himself -- Mark Hamill.
Oh, and he was on The Rockford Files once. This immediately makes him a god.
Not too many people know this, but he also did some directing! He directed a bunch of episodes of Dallas, I Dream of Jeannie, and In the Heat of the Night, as well as one feature length film! That one film he directed is Beware! The Blob, the insane 1972 horror-comedy sequel to the classic Steve McQueen horror film, The Blob!
It's a strangely hilarious movie. The cast includes a lot of great actors from the 1970s including Dick Van Patten, Cindy Williams, Del Close, Carol Lynley, Bud Cort, Sid Haig, and the Penguin himself, Burgess Meredith! I highly recommend watching it. It is a laugh and a three quarters.
Check out the trailer for Beware! The Blob below!!
Oh yeah, and it also includes a cameo by Christian rock pioneer Larry Norman.
WWWWEEEEIIIIIRRRRRDDDDD.
Anyways, this Larry Hagman guy is super cool. He's still working, too! In fact, he's playing J.R. Ewing again on the new version of Dallas!!
What a cool dude.
Also, if anyone can tell me what the question is on card #151, I'll give them 1,000,000 internet pixel-dollars.
Welcome to PART 2, and the last part of the Darkwing Duck pins/buttons/what-have-you!
First off, we've got your basic Disney Channel promo pin. Wow. Exciting.
Second, we've got a Megavolt pin! This one rules.
STORYTIME!! One time, I ran into Dan Castellaneta at a movie theater, and when I talked to him, I told him my favorite character of his was Megavolt and he got all freaked out, because everybody is all "HOMER SIMPSON" at him all the time. He spoke in Megavolt's voice at me and asked me politely to "shut up, dimbulb". It was AWESOME.
Next up, we've got a Disney Club pin from France! Why is he called Myster Mask in France? I have no idea.
Last, but certainly not least, we have the amazing, super cool, and super rare Double O Duck pin! Now, you may be saying to yourself, "Wait a gosh darn minute. This is supposed to be Darkwing Duck pins/buttons/what-have-you! Not Double O Duck, whoever the heck that is! I demand an apology, good sir!" Well guess what... YOU'RE WRONG!! Double O Duck is the originalDarkwing Duck!! KAPOW!!
Apparently the "Double O" term is a copyright of the people who own the James Bond franchise, and wouldn't let Disney use the "Double O" in their character's name. Either that, or they charged too much. I'm okay with that.
This is a really, really early (and kind of weird) design of the character, and he's obviously based off the model sheet for Donald Duck... even though the show was originally conceived as a spinoff of a DuckTales episode with the title "Double O Duck", starring the Launchpad character. Confusing, I know.
This pin was originally given out at a press conference/stockholder event for Disney, where they were promoting all their new shows in development. All I can say is THANK GOD they changed the character to Darkwing Duck.
If you're so inclined, you can watch the "Double O Duck" episode of DuckTales below!!
In case you didn't know, there's this amazingly perfect horror film called Rosemary's Baby. It's pretty much the greatest horror movie ever made... well, you know, besides Wuhrwuhlf. Oh, and guess what? It was produced by William Castle, which immediately makes gives it a billion extra brownie points in my book.
It also was a part of THE GREATEST DOUBLE FEATURE OF ALL TIME! No, seriously. It was!
Anyways, I don't need to go into the perfectness and importance of Rosemary's Baby, since it's been well documented. What hasn't been well documented, though, is the unimportance and ridiculousness of its 1976 sequel.
Now if I know you (and I think I do), right now you're saying to yourself "THIS CAN'T BE... NO IT'S NOT TRUE... IT'S NOT REAL... IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!"
Well, I hate to break it to you, but yes, there is a sequel to Rosemary's Baby -- the Made-for-TV movie, Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby.
Oh yes. This thing really exists. And oh man, is it BAD. Well, maybe I'm being a little harsh on it. I guess it might have been OK-ish and just campy groovy 70s-ness if it had nothing to do with Rosemary's Baby, but the fact that this is supposed to be a continuation of the film, makes it so much worse than you can possibly imagine.
The UK VHS cover
There is at least one... okay, two redeeming factors of this movie. Those two redeeming factors are Ruth Gordon, reprising her Minnie role from the original film, and my favorite movie drunk, Ray Milland, taking over the Roman role for Sidney Blackmer... who wasn't alive anymore. Frowny face.
The film is split up into three parts, or books, or chapters, or whatever-you-wanna-call-em's -- The Book of Rosemary, The Book of Adrian, and The Book of Andrew.
The movie/first book begins right at the end of Rosemary's Baby, with Rosemary (played by Patty Duke) still freaking out about the whole baby being a Satan-baby and what not. She then kidnaps her son Adrian/Andrew away from the Satanic cult. At a bus stop, while Rosemary is on the phone with her husband Guy (George Maharis), Adrian/Andrew gets in a fight with a couple of kids and KILLS TWO OF THEM AND THEIR DOG. What a jerk. In this crazy opening, we also find out that Guy sold his son to the cult in exchange for fame and fortune in Hollywood.
Then, with the help of a Satanized prostitute named Marjean (Tina Louise), the cult catches up with her, and re-kidnaps Adrian/Andrew back from Rosemary, who is sent off in a demon-bus of some sort, driven by nobody to nowhere in particular... and she is never heard from again! In exchange for her taking care of Adrian/Andrew, the cult gives Marjean a crappy casino in the middle of nowhere.
In the second book/part, we see Adrian (played by Stephen McHattie) all grown up and living at the casino with Marjean. He also sings at the casino with his glitter/psychedelic rock band named Captain Nitro and His Acid Kings. Pure genius. Wish I had thought of that band name... dang it.
Adrian/Andrew also has a best friend/scapegoat named Peter, a self-proclaimed Jesus-Freak, who at every opportunity, tries to convert Adrian. Since the next day is Adrian's birthday, his "godparents" and all of their friends are coming to celebrate with him. His godparents, of course, being Minnie and Roman, the heads of the Satanic cult.
Because Adrian is a Satan-baby thing, he keeps having crazy nightmares, so Peter takes him to church, where he freaks out and speeds back to the casino in his Lamborghini, almost killing a bunch of bikers on the way. Back at the casino, his godparents are getting ready to do a seance/sacrifice thing with his father, Guy. To calm Adrian down, Roman offers him a joint.
No, really. He does.
So, after he smokes this joint, he immediately passes out, because that's what always happens when you smoke that Satanized weed. After he passes out, they paint his face like Marcel Marceau and do this crazy devil worship thing which then turns him into, as the script implies, an Alice Cooper-esque glam rocker.
Then, in a trance, he joins the band onstage flipping out and dancing like a madman. The whole band and audience now join Adrian in the trance. The movie then decides we need these nice close-up shots of the band like 7 or 8 times --
Beautiful.
Adrian's friend Peter notices things are going crazy, and tries to stop the band and Adrian by running up on stage and unplugging their instruments. Since the powers of Satan are strong, his Devil generator keeps them going, even with their amplifiers unplugged. FREAKY-DEAKY.
Guy doesn't like what he sees, so he runs out to his limo, but is followed by Peter who then tries to fight him and figure out what the heck is happening. Guy then picks up a downed power line and electrocutes Peter, and Adrian passes out.
PHEW!
That was a long book/chapter/whatever. Now I'd say it's time for a commercial break.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled program.
In our final chapter (THANK GOD), we find Andrew in a mental hospital for the criminally insane, with no memory of how he got there or what happened. We also find out that he has been committed there for murdering Peter. With the help of a caring nurse named Ellen (played by Donna Mills) and some weird therapy where they put wires on cotton balls into his forehead, he magically remembers what happened. He tells Ellen he needs to go find his father and she helps him escape!
Andrew and Ellen hide in a seedy motel, where they stay for the night before going to search for his dad, the real murderer. While hanging out in the room, Ellen gives Andrew a drink... and of course, it's been drugged. Yup. ELLEN IS ONE OF THEM. Like all evil geniuses, she then proceeds to explain what is going to happen -- she is going to have his Satan baby!! GAH!! Then she... well, you know. Ugh.
Eventually, he wakes up and stumbles out of the motel room towards the street. Ellen follows him out there, and Andrew's car starts driving by itself, trying to kill him! He jumps away, over cars and bushes and what-have-you. Then, out of nowhere, the car hits Ellen! The car crashes, and the cops come. Andrew tries to show them that there's nobody in the car, but when they open the door, it's (DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNN) GUY!! AND HE'S DEAD!! Andrew is then hauled away by the cops, thinking he's on something.
The film then fades into a doctor's office, where Roman and Minnie find out that their "granddaughter" and her baby are going to be just fine. The camera pans over and... BOOM! It's Ellen, she's still alive, and she's still having that Beelzebaby!!
FADE OUT.
THE END.
But don't change the channel just yet! Over the credits they show pictures of a woman giving birth and when credits end, there is a shot of a crying infant!
THE END.
REALLY.
Spooky, huh?
No, not at all. This thing is just sad. The movie is nowhere near the masterpiece that Rosemary's Baby is. In my opinion, this movie should've just been called Return of the Devil Child or Psychedelic Satan Baby or something. If they just got rid of all the Rosemary stuff, this would be a tolerable, crappy 1970s made-for-TV movie. The Rosemary stuff just brings this thing down. The entire time, you're waiting for some classic creepiness from Minnie and Roman or the claustrophobic feeling of the original film or even the feeling of disorientation, but nope... even with all the hand-held camera stuff, none of what made Rosemary's Baby so great is there.
The screenplay for this movie was written by a guy named Anthony Wilson who, in his spare time, created Banacek! AWESOME.
The film was directed by a guy named Sam O'Steen, who was better known as an editor. In fact, he edited the original Rosemary's Baby, as well as other classics like The Day of the Dolphin, Chinatown, Cool Hand Luke, Catch-22, and The Graduate! Woah!
The script here is pretty similar to the actual movie, with only a few lines and scenes missing, including a bunch of scenes at a Tokyo airport, and a scene of Ellen and Andrew searching Hollywood Blvd for his dad. There also this really really creepy cut line that kind of foreshadows a terrible real-life situation that involved Roman Polanski, the director of the original Rosemary's Baby --
SUPER CREEPY!!!!!!!!
Since you can't find this weird movie on DVD anywhere (and I'm sure it won't be included with the Criterion Collection release of the original film) you can watch this insane Made-for-TV movie here --
And you can download the .PDF of the Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby script HERE!!
Today's record is the soundtrack/compilation from the super cool 60s music TV show, Shindig!
Shindig! was a pretty cool show. Trillions (okay, not trillions but maybe billions) of really popular musicians performed (or lip synced) their hits on the show, and then sold millions of records! Yipee!
Wanna see what it was like? Well, here's The Beach Boys performing "Do You Wanna Dance" on Shindig! while Mike Love dances like a freak.
Or how about The Ronettes performing "Be My Baby"?
Or The Searchers performing Sonny Bono's song "Needles & Pins"?
Or, if you're so inclined, the greatest car chase song ever (and my ringtone), "Sunshine, Lollipops & Rainbows" by Lesley Gore?
Yup, it was prettay, prettay, prettay, prettay groovy.
This soundtrack is pretty groovy too, with some great 60s pop/rock-ness. Pretty much the only big names on this album are Fats Domino, The Impressions, and The Tams, who everybody knows (or at least should know).
Even though those artists are pretty great, my favorite artist on this album is Steve Alaimo. Why? Well, because he starred in a really crappy movie about bikers getting their "kicks" called The Wild Rebels, which, as you can guess, was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000. That fact alone makes him go up about 32 notches in my book.
Today's record is the soundtrack to the weird 1969 bikers vs. surfers movie Wild Wheels!
If you can't tell by that amazingly un-groovy cover to the soundtrack, this movie isn't that good. The soundtrack on the other hand, is super groovtastic.
In the movie, these biker people come to Malibu and are all like "HEY MAN, WE WANNA TAKE THIS BEACH!" and the surfer dudes go "NO WAY, BROSKY!". Music, love, action and adventure all take place and hilarity ensues.
Okay, that last part was a lie.
Oh, and did I mention the bikers are led by Casey Kasem?
Yup. Shaggy. From Scooby-Doo. As the leader of a biker gang.
Oh, the 1960s, how I love you.
Anyways, like most 1960s B-movies that take place near a body of water, this movie includes musical performances by country and rock bands that you probably never heard of before, and most likely won't ever hear from again.
Well, except for Terry Stafford, who was an actual real life musician. He co-wrote and recorded the classic country song "Amarillo By Morning".
For a sample of some of this crazy movie and it's super fun music, check out this clip of The Saturday Revue performing their song "Holiday Rider"!!
Or you can check out this clip from this drabtastically filmed "movie", if you can even call it that. This time, we have the song "I Hear Music" by the 13th Committee! Yippee.
As you can see, the music isn't half bad. The soundtrack definitely stands on its own as a compilation of obscure late 60s country rock/pop. So check it out, yo!
You can download the soundtrack to Wild WheelsHERE.
