We're all about the history of rock & roll at BoomtownAmerica.com!

Every week, we present “ROCK REMEMBERED,” a deep dive into the hidden history of rock & roll, the stories behind the artists and songs that changed the world. Join host, “Boomtown Bill” Cross each Wednesday at 7 pm (Eastern) with an encore broadcast on Saturday at noon (Eastern).

Join us today as we reveal "The Origins of Classic Songs!"

When most people think of a rock group with an internal dynamic rife with drugs and sexual jealousy, Fleetwood Mac is probably the first name that might come to mind. But a decade before Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, and Christine McVie intrigued us with tales of affairs, break-ups, and betrayal, the Mamas and the Papas were doing it first.

The four founding members of the Mamas and the Papas, John Phillips, Michelle Phillips, Denny Doherty, and Cass Elliot, had all come from folk music. Michelle and Cass were extremely interested in what the Beatles were doing and convinced the guys that rock was where the future of music lay. Between 1965 and 1968, they came out of nowhere to become major headliners, creating a string of hit singles and albums that were among the most successful and best-remembered from that era.

But there was inner turmoil from the beginning. Michelle, Cass, and Denny had all been members of a folk ensemble known as the Mugwumps. Cass had a fierce, but unrequited passion for Denny. Michelle had married fellow folkie, John Phillips, but soon after the official formation of the Mamas and the Papas, began an affair with Denny. When the illicit lovers were caught, Michelle went back to John, and Phillips and Doherty patched up their relationship. The duo even wrote a song about it (well before Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours LP) called “I Saw Her Again.”

While recording their second album, Michelle was involved in a second affair. This time with Gene Clark, who was a member of the Byrds. John was not so forgiving this time. He had Michelle fired from the group in June of 1966. However, her replacement, Jill Gibson, never jelled with the rest of the group. So, less than 2 months later, Jill was out and Michelle was back in.

The Mamas and the Papas then started a tour. It was now that drinking and drugs (primarily on the part of John & Denny) marred their stage performances and increased tension within the band. Nevertheless, the group continued to find success in the recording studio through 1967. At the same time, John Phillips became one of the primary movers and shakers behind the legendary Monterey Pop Festival. There is some conjecture that during this period Michelle and Denny resumed their affair but Michelle cut it off again.

By 1968, Cass had had enough. She had clearly emerged as the most recognizable personality in the group and was ready to embark on a solo career. She abruptly quit the Mamas and the Papas just as they were to perform a show at the Royal Albert Hall in the UK. Not happy with this turn of events, their record label, Dunhill Records, threatened each of the members with a huge lawsuit if they didn’t get back in the studio and deliver a final album. So, the group did record The Papas and the Mamas, although most of their parts were recorded individually and then blended in post-production.

Michelle and John divorced (shocker, right?). Cass developed a mildly successful solo career until her death (by heart attack, not choking on a sandwich, okay?) in 1974. Doherty struggled with alcohol problems until finally getting sober in the early 80s. He returned to his native Canada where he had a successful career as a TV personality.

Michelle became a very successful actress, appearing in many movies and even being a part of the regular cast on the popular 80’s TV series, Knots Landing.

John Phillips spent years deep in heroin addiction and was embroiled in a further sex scandal when his daughter by his first wife, actress Mackenzie Phillips, claimed she’d had sexual relations with her father for years. Despite all of this, Phillips continued to work as a successful songwriter. One of his biggest post-Mamas & Papas hits being “Kokomo” for the Beach Boys.

Today, Michelle is the only surviving member of the continuous soap opera that was the Mamas and the Papas.

It's no big secret that as we age, our bones tend to grow a bit more brittle. Here's what the experts say you can do to keep your bones strong:

1. Cut out soda - The acid in those fizzy drinks can diminish bone mass

2. Work out every day - A daily walk can help keep bones strong

3. Get enough calcium - Baby Boomers need up tp 1,2000 miligrams a day

In television’s early days, the hands-down, most popular, can’t miss genre was Westerns. Especially when it came to kids’ programs.

One of the many lies that TV peddled so easily in those more innocent days was that the American West was somehow virtually unchanged from its post-Civil War heyday. Sure, there might be telephones and here and there a jeep to help with the ranching, but people still preferred to ride horses and settled their disputes with a good ol’ six-shooter.

One Western that bucked that trend was Sky King, who not only didn’t ride a horse; he didn’t even ride in a car. No sir. Sky King help keep law and order along that still untamed frontier in an airplane! Not just any airplane – but in the legendary Songbird!

Right off, how fortunate was it that his parents thought to name him Schuyler (a.k.a. “Sky”) and that his last name was King? I mean, talk about wacky coincidences!

And while he didn’t ride horses, he must have been raising them because, like any self-respecting Western hero of the 1950’s, he lived on a ranch, the Flying Crown.

Sky wasn’t actually a lawman. He was just a private citizen with a private plane (first a Cessna T-50 and then a Cessna 310-B). Lucky for him (and us), the local sheriff was always needing his help and he had a niece who frequently got herself into trouble.

Sky was played by Kirby Grant, a little long in the tooth (already in his 40’s when the show began) and just a wee bit beefy to make an ideal Western hero. But we hardly noticed. His niece, Penny was played by Gloria Winters. Every so often Penny’s brother, Clipper (played by Ron Hagerthy), would show up just to relieve the monotony of constantly rescuing Penny.

The show actually got started on radio in 1946 (with a totally different cast). It made the jump to TV in 1951 as a Sunday afternoon show on NBC. It moved to Saturday mornings on ABC in 1952 and then actually moved to a prime-time slot on Mondays during the 1953 TV season.

When ABC cancelled the show in 1954, it remained in production and began selling to local stations in syndication.

Production ceased in 1959, but the show continued on as CBS broadcast reruns as part of its Saturday morning line-up (sponsored by Nabisco) all the way until 1966. Most Boomers remember the show best from this CBS run.

For years, there were rumors that Kirby Grant had actually shacked up with his younger co-star Gloria Winters after the show ended. As titillating as that thought might be, these rumors were not true.

Gloria actually married a member of the Sky King production crew, Dean Vernon and settled in California.

Kirby Grant and his wife Carolyn moved to Florida, where he founded the Sky King Youth Ranches of America that provided homes for abandoned and orphaned children. He died in an automobile accident in 1985 on his way to Cape Canaveral to watch a space shot.

That was ironic as many of America’s astronauts have claimed they first got interested in flying by watching Sky King.

Many male American males have claimed they first got interested in girls because of Sky’s niece, Penny (see “Pencil Thin Mustache” by Jimmy Buffet).

We’d like to think that somewhere the Songbird is still out there, patrolling those “Western skies!”

When we were growing up, did any of us not either have this game or play it at friends’ homes?

The term “cootie” was first coined by U.S. soldiers during World War I. They used it to describe any of the various vermin like lice and bugs that infested the trenches in which the war was waged. When they returned after the war, they brought the term home with them. Kids, in particular, liked using it.

Cootie, the game, was created in 1948 by a Minneapolis postman named William Sharper. Sharper liked to whittle and the first “cootie” was whittled by him as a fishing lure. When he finished the lure, he got the idea of turning it into a kid’s toy.

Sharper had a little store where he sold homemade popcorn machines. He started selling his wooden cooties there. After a year of pretty good sales, Sharper decided to build a game around assembling his somewhat oversize critter. He formed the W. H. Sharper Manufacturing Company and began creating his cooties in plastic. He approached Dayton’s, a local department store, and got them to carry Cootie on a consignment basis. By the end of 1950, Dayton had sold nearly 6,000 sets of the game, not bad for a local product with no advertising. Those sales convinced a distribution company to begin carrying Sharper’s creation nationwide. By 1952, over 1 million Cootie games had been sold. Thereafter, Sharper’s company sold a million a year until well into the 1960s. As time passed, Sharper added other games to his line such as Tumble Bug, Inch Worm and Busy Bee.

Eventually, Sharper sold his creation to Tyco Toys in 1973. By 1976, Hasbro acquired Cootie which it still sells to this day.

So, raise a glass to the only cooties any kid really wanted to have!