Classic Rant #2,340: Good Man To Have Around the House

Remember last week, when I told you about a 45 RPM single that I had finally found that showcased a song that was featured on an episode of "Bewitched?"

If you are a regular visitor here, you must remember that blog post.

Anyway, I have another one of these for you, a song that was on a single that I finally located--with picture sleeve--and which features a tune that ended up being a major part of an episode of a long-running sitcom.

Don Grady played Robbie Douglas, the second child of Steve Douglas, played by Fred MacMurray, on the long-running sitcom "My Three Sons."

A lot of people thought he was the oldest child, but they did not see or remember or had access to the first few seasons of the sitcom, where Mike Douglas, played by Tim Considine, was the oldest brother.

But one thing led to another, and when the show moved from ABC to CBS and was shown in color, Considine was out and Grady was in as maybe not the "oldest" brother, but he was now the "older" brother.

OK, now that that scenario has been set, here is some more background on the record that I am going to eventually talk about.

Grady was something of a TV veteran by the time he was cast as he middle brother on the show, which began its 12-season run in 1960. He had been on "The Mickey Mouse Club" and had done some other things before he was cast as the kind of dopey younger brother to Considine's Mike.

But one thing that Grady had was an early interest in music, and this carried him through his teenage years through his later years, when he was more known as a musician than an actor.

But let me digress ...

Music was a major part of "My Three Sons" from the onset, with each member of the family playing a musical instrument. Grady was experienced on several instruments, so when he is seen playing on the show, yes, he is really playing.

Anyway, as Grady got older, well into his teenage years, he was firmly ensconced on the Hollywood scene, acting on the show while trying to make it as a musician on the side.

He was signed to a small Los Angeles label, Canterbury Records, and began to put out a record here and there, with little or no success.

He was also a member of the Yellow Balloon, a West Coast band that he helped to create to simply be an actual band to sing a song called, believe it or not, "Yellow Balloon," as he got some of his musician friends to join this band that hadn't previously existed to perform this song.

Incredibly, this tune--originally done by Dean Torrence but listed as being done by Jan and Dean--reached up to No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles in April of 1967, but with the label restricting Grady's presence in the band--they could not use his name or his image for legal reasons, so he went under a fake name--"Luke R. Yoo--and always wore dark glasses or a mask while playing with the Yellow Balloon--the band fell apart with just a few singles and one album under its belt. Some of the songs on the LP were credited to Don Agrati, Grady's actual last name.

Anyway, as I said, Grady had previously released a few singles under his own name, some with his backing band The Windupwatchband, and one of these was "The Children of St. Monica," which reached "Bubbling Under" status in Billboard magazine coming in at No. 132 at the tail end of 1966 and into early 1967, which meant the song probably got some regional airplay and/or sales, but nothing on the national level.

Grady often said the single was a top player on Los Angeles radio, being played in the same rotation as the Beatles and Beach Boys, but nothing generated nationally on this record.

But this time, the song we are going to focus on is the B side, "Good Man To Have Around the House."

In a 1966 episode of the "My Three Sons" sitcom called "A Falling Star," Steve and a business associate go to a local lounge and hear a past-her-time singer warble a tune or two. They later learn that that was her last gig there, as she was fired that night.

Steve felt bad for her, and invited her over to the house to hear Robbie's band, and maybe she would get some ideas for a new act.

Grady and a backing band called The Greefs played a shortened version of "Good Man to Have Around the House," the singer gets some ideas, and she later appears at a teen club to try out her new material.

The kids are not convinced that this old, 30-something singer could thrill them, but she sings a song called "Gonna Getcha" and she wins over the audience and revives her career.

Playing like a pilot for a new series spinoff from "My Three Sons," the show features Jaye P. Morgan--a fine singer in her own right with several hits in the 1950s, and later star of "The Gong Show"--as the failed singer who gets reinvigorated by Robbie's band's song.

Back to "Good Man To Have Around the House"--the song was a strong garagey-type tune, with Grady's excellent vocals, but it really didn't serve to boost the A side to any prominence at all--and probably should have been the A side over "The Children of St. Monica," which was kind of a spaced-out tune, however good it was.

But to me, the B side made the single, and made the single something I just had to have in my collection, and after searching forever for a clean, fairly priced copy, I finally found one, and now it is part of my collection.

The A side is good, but I got this for the B side, and it delivers, brings me back to another time, and is just such a fun record to listen to--and to finally hear the full version of the song to boot.

Grady was an extremely talented guy. Although he never broke through as a hitmaker in rock and roll, he did hit by composing the theme for the old "Donahue" talk show, and after he left "My Three Sons" a year before it left the air to concentrate on his music full time, he put out several singles and albums that while not chartbusters, are quite interesting to listen to.

He was also a Facebook friend of mine, one of the few celebrities who actually replied himself to the deluge of posts he would get on a daily basis.

He passed in June 2012.

So I hope that I opened your eyes to the convoluted path that was Grady's career, both on-screen and as a musician, and I certainly got what I wanted when I added this record to my collection.

Speak to you again tomorrow.