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 this Saturday as we reveal "The History of Psychedelic Rock!"

In 1957, a package of the old, classic monster movies (Frankenstein, Dracula, etc.) was released to local TV stations, touching off a craze for movie monsters that continued strongly through most of the 1960s. Of course, as we grew older, the monsters were played more for laughs than screams. The Addams Family and The Munsters had made their prime-time debuts in 1964.

So, it wasn’t surprising when, just one year later, Saturday mornings got their very own lovable creature feature, Milton the Monster. Milton was the product of the lab of mad scientist, Professor Weirdo, high atop his gloomy mansion on Horror Hill. His clumsy assistant, Count Kook, caused the Professor to add too much of “the tincture of tenderness” to his formula. The result was a totally ineffectual monster who blew clouds of smoke out his sawed-off skull and spoke like Gomer Pyle.

Created and directed by a guy named Hal Seeger, the show followed the format most kiddie cartoons used back in the day – 3 different short cartoons, each starring a different lead character. Unlike most other shows, the line-up of other cartoons rotated between 5 characters. Most episodes featured Fearless Fly (a silly Superman knock-off) as the second feature, but during the show’s run, there were also cartoons featuring Muggy-Doo Boy Fox, Stuffy Durma (a hobo who became a millionaire overnight), Flukey Luke (a detective in an urban setting who was still somehow a cowboy), and Penny Penguin (a young girl mammal with the cuteness factor turned to overload).

Most of the voices for all these features were provided by versatile voice guy, Bob McFadden with the sole exception being Stuffy Durma, where the voice work was handled by Dayton Allen (who also provided the voices for both Heckle & Jeckle among other cartoon characters).

Milton the Monster proved popular enough to remain a part of ABC’s Saturday morning line-up through 1968. The entire series was released on home video by Shout! Factory back in 2007, but has since gone out of print and now commands stiff prices in the second-hand market. There is also a book about the series, Milton the Monster: Horror Hill Epitaph by Kevin Scott Collier, which is still in print.

Summer has always been time for Popsicles.

Believe it or not, this popular frozen treat really was invented by a kid. One night in 1905, 11-year old Frank Epperson of California mixed some flavoring powder in water with a fork and left it outside (fork and all) overnight by mistake. It froze, but Frank ate it anyway.

For the next 17 years, Frank made them for himself and eventually, his kids. But in 1922, Epperson sold some at a fireman’s ball in San Francisco. They were a big hit. Frank then started selling them at the Neptune Beach amusement park in Alameda, California.

Unfortunately, Frank wasn’t much of a businessman. While the treat was popular, Frank’s personal finances were shaky. In 1925, he sold the rights to the Popsicle to the Joe Lowe Company of New York. Lowe quickly took the regional treat national.

The Fudgsicle was added in 1946. The origins of the Creamsicle are a bit more confused. No one seems to know how the treat was created or when it was first marketed.

A true Baby Boomer also remembers something called a Dreamsicle that you could also find in the freezer section of your corner drug store. But do you know the difference between a Dreamsicle and a Creamsicle?

The Creamsicle features ice milk inside the Popsicle coating while a Dreamsicle featured ice cream. One other difference: you can still find Creamsicles at grocery stores and ice cream trucks, The Dreamsicle has passed away into history. Pleasant dreams, indeed.

If every girl you knew in college back in the day had a copy of Simon & Garfunkel’s Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme, every guy probably had a copy of this album, Led Zeppelin’s self-titled debut LP.

When the Yardbirds disbanded in 1968, somehow Jimmy Page (a late arrival in the band’s ever-shifting line-up) wound up with rights to the name and an obligation to honor some Yardbird concert dates in Scandinavia still on the books. Page recruited fellow session musician John Paul Jones on the bass, added Robert Plant as vocalist when Page’s original choice, Terry Reid, turned him down and finished off with John Bonham on drums.

The group honored those concert dates as “The New Yardbirds,” playing a mix of Yardbirds songs as well as working up some new material. Returning to London in the fall of 1968, the lads decided to carry on as a group, but with a new name. Legend has it that, at one time, Page, Jeff Beck, Keith Moon and John Entwistle considered forming a rock band. Moon remarked that the group would go over like a lead balloon. “More like a lead zeppelin,” added Entwistle. So, Page thought the name would suit their new effort.

Lacking a recording contract, the group took the then-unheard of step of recoding their first album on their own. Studio time was paid for by Page himself and the group’s manager, Peter Grant. That meant two things: 1.) the band could record exactly what they liked with no interference from a record label and 2.) they needed to record it quickly because they were paying for the studio time out of their own pocket.

The album we know as Led Zeppelin was recorded quickly, in about 36 hours over just a couple of weeks. Page served as producer while bringing in his childhood mate, Glyn Johns, to serve as engineer. Most of the songs were actually recorded live with the band playing as one in the studio. Fortunately, the group had worked out most of the album’s songs while touring as the New Yardbirds and we’re already fairly tight as an ensemble.

With the completed album tucked under his arm, manager Grant had little trouble attracting label interest, signing Led Zeppelin to Atlantic Records fairly quickly. Their debut disc was released in the States in January of 1969 and in their native UK in March of the same year. Surprisingly, the initial reviews for the record were not good. Rolling Stone remarked that the LP had “little that its twin, the Jeff Beck Group, didn't say as well or better three months ago.” Several other rock publications offered equally lackluster reviews.

However, the disc quickly became a smash on the then-emerging genre of “progressive rock” radio stations with virtually all of the album’s track getting substantial airplay. Grant also made the shrewd decision to bringing the boys to America almost immediately where their bombastic, exciting stage show generated sensational word of mouth.

Now, of course, the album is correctly lauded as a classic. It pioneered the smash-up of hard rock with traditional blues that came to dominate the music scene as we moved out of the 60s into the 70s. The group is also credited with pioneering the genre of rock that has come to be known as heavy metal, although their status as one of rock’s most popular acts meant Led Zeppelin has really transcended genre labels.

Led Zeppelin consistently makes those lists of the “Greatest Rock Albums” of all time and has been reissued (often with outtakes and other material added) mulitple times over the years.