Rant #3,801: Swingin' Together

In 1962, rock and roll was still a fairly new commodity, and other than on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "American Bandstand," television really didn't know how to present this new musical form to the masses.

A couple of TV producers thought that the best way to do this was to get pop and rock stars to appear in sitcoms built around them and their music, including such notables as Jan and Dean. 

And remember, 1962 was still four years before "The Monkees" burst onto the scene.

The other night, while trying to find something to watch on TV, I turned to YouTube, and i stumbled upon one if the "missing links" of the rock and TV musical marriage.

"Swingin' Together," produced by Desilu Studios of "I Love Lucy" fame, might have been a failed pilot, but elements of it were certainly used--or lifted--for the future Monkees' pilot.

In 1962, Davy Jones was on Briadway as the original Artful Dodger in "Oliver," but in this 1962 pilot, the episode was built around Bobby Rydell, an already well-established hitmaker and teen idol who was about as rock and roll as Enrico Caruso was.

But this was the time if "Bye Bye Birdie," and Rydell was thought of as the next Elvis by some--I guess.

Rydell led a band of musicians, who traveled the country in a bus--"Partridge Family" anyone?--driven by their older manager.

Rydell and the band--the only notable one being Art Metrano, who had some fame later on as a comedian--travel from one gig to another, looking for that big break, much like the Monkees did four years later.

They wind up at a country club of a lot of rich snoots--again, the Monkees did the same in their pilot episode--and Rydell and his mates had to win over the members and the daughter of the club owner who looked down on such acts.

More about the daughter later.

In the Monkees pilot episode, they also had to win over the older members and the rich father of a girl that Davy was dating. 

The father not only didn't care for the music,  but he thought Davy and his band were taking up too much of his daughter's time, taking her away from her school studies.

And you know what happened in both instances.

The bands ended up winning over the snoots, and this led to a happy ending for each show.

But the main difference is that the Monkees had the music, but Bobby and his band did not.

Rydell--who had an incredible music canon even by 1962--sung some incredibly lame songs in this show, and reached the pits with the song that supposedly won over the crowd--

Probably the worst-ever cover version of "Let's Twist Again."

It was so bad that you could base a case on white people having absolutely "no riddim" just on this performance.

Horrible--and we are to believe that this is the tune thst won the snoots over yet!

Now, back to the actress who played the country club owner's daughter.

I recognized the voice immediately, but I could not, for the life of me, place the face.

It took a while, but she was so very young here, that it took me almost the entire episode to finally figure out who this was--

A very, very young Stefanie Powers!

So, all in all, i am glad that I found this relic of a different time.

It kind of was like a "steppin' stone" to "The Monkees" TV series, and it demonstrated how rock and roll was handled by television before it fully went mainstream.

Watch it here.

https://youtu.be/IM_KH0zGTrY?si=3phsvk3wYkiYwte3