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 look at sometimes centuries-old songs that became modern rock hits a.k.a. "Real Oldies That Became Huge Hits!"
One of the biggest, most popular TV shows from the Baby Boomers' childhood was The Mickey Mouse Club. Airing after school Monday through Friday on ABC, it was “must-see TV” for our generation.
While the Mouseketeers were the main attraction, no one was prepared for the popularity of the first serial to air on that program: “The Adventures of Spin and Marty.” Debuting on Friday, November 4, 1955, the rather mild adventures of Marty Markham and Spin Evans, proved to be an instant smash, spawning two sequels, a comic book series, and plenty of other merchandise.
The serial was shot during the summer of 1955 before The Mickey Mouse Club debuted on ABC. They did this so the cast of mostly school-age boys could work during their summer school vacation. The location was the Golden Oak Ranch in southern California. Today that ranch is owned by the Disney Studios and has been used frequently for exterior shooting, including scenes for their long-running Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise. “Spin & Marty’s” budget was set at $600,000 ($7.1 million in 2025 dollars) – quite pricey for something that was just one part of the hour-long Mouse Club episodes. But Walt always insisted on quality no matter the cost.
Based on the 1942 novel Martin Markham by Lawrence Edward Watkin, “The Adventures of Spin & Marty” was adapted by veteran TV writer Jackson Gillis and directed by William Beaudine.
Playing Spin and Marty, respectively, were Tim Considine, who appeared in lots of Disney’s stuff as a kid before becoming one of the original siblings on My Three Sons, and David Stollery. For whatever reason, Stollery gave up acting soon after “Spin & Marty” for a career as an auto designer for Toyota. Considine passed away in 2022. Stollery is still with us.
“The Adventures of Spin & Marty” comprised 25 episodes. The plot involved spoiled snob Marty Markham being forced to spend the summer at the Triple-R Boys’ Camp. He’s accompanied to the camp by his valet, Perkins, played by veteran British character actor J. Pat O’Malley. Of course, the main story arc has Marty slowly coming out of his shell and becoming best buds with Spin, easily the most popular kid at the Trile-R. The serial’s climax involved a rodeo with their rival, Northfork Boys’ Camp.
Perkins provides most of the laughs in the serial, occasionally joined by the camp’s Asian cook, Sam, portrayed by Sammee Tong, who’s most famous for playing a similar role on the long-running sitcom, Bachelor Father. Of course, there's also a crusty ranch hand named Ollie, who supplied the serials' catch phrase, “Well, I’ll be a blue-nosed gopher.”
The Triple-R is owned by Colonel Jim Logan (Roy Barcroft), with Harry Carey, Jr. featured as the boys’ counselor, Bill Burnett. Carey grew up on a California cattle ranch and had a long career in movies, mostly in Westerns. See if you can spot him in the saloon scenes in Back to the Future III.
What made "Spin & Marty" successful wasn't the plot. That moves slowly and, even at our young age, we could tell where the plot was going. The appeal of Gillis’ script lay in correctly capturing the summer camp experience many Baby Boomers were starting to live through themselves. Plus, the kids didn’t seem like actors. They were relatable to us, like friends.
As said, the serial proved enormously popular so additional adventures showed up in each of the Mouse Club's subsequent seasons. With the second installment in 1956, “The Further Adventures of Spin and Marty,” something new was added – girls!
Annette Funicello was rapidly becoming the most popular of all the Mouseketeers, so Disney put her in this sequel, playing a young lady named – wait for it- Annette! (She wasn’t the first Mouseketeer to star in a serial – Darlene Gillespie had starred as Corky in “Corky & White Shadow” a year earlier. But "Corky" didn’t generate anything like the fan response to “Spin & Marty”).
The plot of this return to the Triple-R finds the lads hosting a dance for the girls’ camp across the lake, the Circle-H. Both Spin & Marty develop crushes on Annette, who looks very fetching in her bathing cap. And this year, instead of a rodeo, we have a climatic swim meet against the Northfork boys.
All the regulars from the first summer are back, plus we get a new kid at camp, one who would go on to become a Disney legend. Seven-year-old Kevin Cocoran appears as Moochie, a nickname that would stick with the young actor no matter what other parts he played. He probably had the second most successful career of any of the Mouse Club gang outside of Annette.
“The Further Adventures” ran 23 episodes. It was followed a year later by “The New Adventures of Spin & Marty.” This time the girls have an even bigger part with Darlene joining the cast. The third summer revolves around capturing and taming a wild stallion and then morphs into a “let’s put on a show” plot, like those old Mickey Rooney – Judy Garland films of the 1930s. Knowing what a hit “Spin & Marty” was, Disney had this final serial stretch out over 30 episodes.
The continuing popularity of Spin & Marty led to lots of merchandise: cowboy hats, t-shirts, coloring books, records, and a comic book series that actually lasted until 1962.
The first serial was released on DVD in 2005. You can find it on eBay still at an affordable price. All 3 serials have also been shown on Disney’s original cable channel, but only the first has shown up on its streaming service.
No matter how old we get, there’s something to be said for spending a few weeks of the summer at the good ol’ Triple-R, where the horses are the best by far. Yippie-yay, yippie-yo!
Here's our summer reading list:
One of rock’s most famous songs had a long and strange journey to becoming a hit, not just once, but three times!
It began when Bones Howe, the producer for the squeaky clean pop group, the Association, asked composer Jimmy Webb to write a long piece for the group that featured several different movements and time signature changes. Webb was on a hot streak at the time. Starting in 1967, he had written “Up, Up, and Away” for the 5th Dimension, “The Worst That Could Happen” for the Brooklyn Bridge, and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” for Glen Campbell.
It was at this point that he composed what he called a cantata for the Association, but neither the group nor Bones Howe liked it, calling it too complex. Around the same time, Webb was asked to play piano at a fundraiser in East L.A. It was at this fundraiser that Webb met actor Richard Harris, who had recently been successful in the movie version of Camelot. While not having the best voice, Harris had managed to sing the songs his King Arthur character was required to sing, and so got it in his head that he could also become a pop singer.
Harris called in Webb and asked him if he had any material Harris might record for his debut pop album. Among the songs Webb played for him was a part of that rejected cantata that Webb was now calling “MacArthur Park.” Harris loved the song. In fact, he loved all the songs and decided his first album would be nothing but Jimmy Webb tunes. He even hired Webb to supervise the arrangements.
When the album was completed, it was Harris himself who selected “MacArthur Park” to release as the first single. Obviously, Harris knew nothing about Top 40 radio in 1968 America. The song’s length, clocking in at well over seven minutes, its vague and confusing lyrics, and the complex arrangement, which shifted in tone and time signatures as it went on its way, all would be powerful disincentives to getting airplay.
Maybe it was Webb’s reputation for writing hits, maybe it was just that the record sounded so different than anything else at the time, but New York’s big Top 40 station, WABC, took a chance and played it on air just days after its release. Before that sweet green icing could melt much further, the song had become a nationwide smash, rocketing all the way to #2 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
That song, coming less than a year after the Doors’ “Light My Fire,” was another stake through the heart of the Top 40’s rigid time constraint on songs. Moving forward, four- and five-minute songs would become commonplace on the nation’s teen-oriented radio stations.
Many, many artists have covered the songs. Just two years later, Waylon Jennings would release a country version that won the Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group. In 1978, Donna Summer’s version of “MacArthur Park” did what Richard Harris’ version could not. Her version reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, earning even more royalties for Mr. Webb.
But just what is the song about? Actually, according to its composer, it’s a simple song about a romantic break-up. In the mid-sixties, Jimmy Webb was involved with a young woman named Susie Horton. Susie worked for Aetna Insurance in Los Angeles, and she would meet Webb for lunches in the park just across the street from her office. You guessed it, MacArthur Park. Webb says the lyrics are about mourning the end of that love affair and include the things he remembered seeing in the park when he was there with Horton:
“Everything in the song was visible. There's nothing in it that's fabricated. The old men playing checkers by the trees, the cake that was left out in the rain, all of the things that are talked about in the song are things I actually saw. And so, it's a kind of musical collage of this whole love affair that kind of went down in MacArthur Park. ... Back then, I was kind of like an emotional machine, like whatever was going on inside me would bubble out of the piano and onto paper.”
Webb and Horton remained friends after breaking up and even after Susie got married to another man. Webb has had a long, extremely successful career as a songwriter and as a singer. Richard Harris never really had another hit, despite releasing several albums, although he did wind up his long career playing headmaster Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter film series.
And while they “never had that recipe again,” “MacArthur Park” is fondly remembered as one of the 60s’ biggest hits.
As we age, many people start skipping their regular trips to the dentist. Don’t!
As we grow, there is an increased risk of gum disease, decay, and tooth loss. With those, there may come a restriction on the types of food we can enjoy. In addition, poor dental health has been linked to heart disease, stroke, complications from diabetes, respiratory infections, worsening arthritis, and more.
Experts recommend keeping up with twice-a-year trips to the dentist as well as regular, daily brushing and flossing.