Oldies But Goodies Music

Dick Dale, leader of the surf band Dick Dale and The Del Tones, is credited with being The Father Of Heavy Metal. It’s a long story, but here’s an overview.

Dale was born in Massachusetts in 1937. He and his parents moved to Orange County, CA in 1954, where he became interested in both the sport of surfing and the art of music. He learned to play the drums, ukulele, trumpet and finally guitar. Dick Dale was left-handed, but since there were no left-handed guitar models available to him at the time, he learned to play using a right-handed standard model. He simply turned the guitar upside-down, but unlike most others who did the same, he did not reverse the strings. He played by reaching over the fretboard rather than wrapping around from underneath.

Dale was an avid surfer and wanted his music to evoke the sounds and emotions he experienced while riding the waves. He’s generally credited with introducing reverb, which gave the guitar a “wet sound,” now a staple of most all surf music. But it was his staccato style of picking that made his music stand out from the rest. Even after he finally got a left-handed guitar, he continued to use the stringing he’d gotten used to.

His drive to create a unique and powerful sound, especially in performance, caused him to push available equipment to, and beyond, their design limits. He kept blowing up amplifiers left and right. Finally, Leo Fender, of Fender Musical Instrument Corp., designed a transformer specifically for Dick Dale that had the power-handling necessary to let Dale crank it to the max without sparks and smoke resulting.

Still, the speakers themselves screamed and rattled for mercy. So Dale had the J. B. Lansing company create a special 15-inch speaker that would integrate with and handle the new power. The resulting sound system became known as the Fender Single Showman Amp.

When Dale plugged his Fender Stratocaster guitar into the new Showman Amp and speaker cabinet, Dale became the first creature on earth to jump from the volume scale of a modest quiet guitar player on a scale of 4 to blasting up through the volume scale to TEN! That is when Dale became the “Father of Heavy Metal” as quoted from Guitar Player Magazine. Dale broke through the electronic barrier limitations of that era! [quoted from the official Dick Dale Web site.]

Fender Dick Dale Signature Malibu SCE Acoustic-Electric Guitar Surfin’ Red

Fender Dick Dale Signature Malibu SCE Left-Handed Acoustic-Electric Guitar Surfin’ Red

Miserlou by Dick Dale and His Del-Tones holds a special place in my heart. If I were to start listing all the reasons, this post would go on for pages. I’ll just tell you one:

I met Dick Dale in 1962, and I was so impressed by both the man and his music that I have never forgotten how important it all was to my musical development. He made me want to learn to play guitar.

In that year, at the age of 13, I entered my freshman year of high school. It was a tradition at my new school that they held a “Freshman Welcome Dance” in the gym. The first live performance by a star act I ever saw was that of Dick Dale and His Del-Tones.

While Dick Dale had been recording and performing for a couple of years already, and had an album out, his recording of Miserlou had only just hit the airwaves locally. It was to become his signature tune, and we at that dance were among the first ever to hear it performed live.

A video is worth a thousand words. Here is a vid that shows Dick Dale and His Del-Tones very much as they were on stage that night at my high school

Watch Dick Dale and His Del-Tones Live

During the show, after about three songs, Dick Dale addressed the audience and asked that we please hold our applause between songs. He explained that if it weren’t for us, he would be just another wannabe musician, and that he felt he should be the one applauding us, not the other way around.

Dick Dale and His Del Tones played over two hours that night. While on a between-set break, Dick came over to the refreshment stand and asked for a lemonade. He also asked if he should get the Milk Duds or the Junior Mints. I told him he should go for the Junior Mints, since the Milk Duds gummed up the mouth. He laughed and took the Junior Mints. He actually paid me for what he got. And gave me a tip “for the advice.” Imagine a rock star doing that today!

I could go on and on about Dick Dale, but suffice it to say that he is a true star, and a gentleman. If any oldies but goodies artist deserved to have his music listened to and downloaded, it’s Dick Dale!

Dick Dale’s First Album: Surfer’s Choice

My Personal Favorite: Summer Surf

The Whole Enchilada: Guitar Legends: The Very Best Of Dick Dale

All Dick Dale Downloads: Dick Dale MP3 Catalog

Fender Dick Dale Stratocaster Electric Guitar R37392

“It’s Now or Never” by Elvis Presley is one of those songs that I loved as a kid. Based on an Italian melody, “O Sole Mio,” with new lyrics, it was inevitable that I’d love it. My mother’s side of our family is Italian, and I’d heard that melody many times before.

Today, August 16, marks the anniversary of the passing of Elvis, at age 42, in 1977. As a lover of oldies music, I couldn’t let this day slip by without mention of The King. To be completely honest, I was not a big fan of  Elvis Presley. What few songs I’d heard by him prior to 1960 weren’t really appealing to me musically. I’d never seen the now-famous Ed Sullivan television broadcast, so I really had no conception of the magnitude of his celebrity and talent.

To put it frankly, I simply didn’t like tunes like “Hound Dog” and “Jailhouse Rock.” I know, in retrospect those songs have taken on almost mystical proportions. Today, they’re treasured classics in oldies music and beyond. But as a kid of 10 or 11 at the time, I had no idea of their greatness, nor that of Elvis Presley himself.

Historically, now, I can appreciate that Elvis Presley was probably the greatest single performer and star of the post World War II era. But as a brat back then, if it weren’t for “It’s Now or Never,” I would likely have dismissed him as just another rockabilly singer. If I’d known then what I know now…

“It’s Now or Never” was the first of several Elvis Presley songs I would truly enjoy over the next few years. Not long after, he released another song, “Surrender,” also based on an old Italian melody, “Torna a Surriento” (“Come Back To Sorrento”).

Other Elvis recordings I consider personal favorites, as well as classic oldies, are “Marie’s The Name (Of His Latest Flame), written by Del Shannon, “Return To Sender,” “Blue Hawaii,” and “Wild In The Country.” The latter two are from two of his movies with the same titles, which I think were among his best.

Recommended:

All of Elvis Presley’s #1 Hits (Listen/Download)

Read more about Elvis Presley:

1. Graceland Vigil Marks 33 Years Since Elvis’ Death (Article)
2. The Ultimate Guide To Elvis
3. Elvis Presley on Wikipedia

Elvis In Print: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The King

Last week I noted the passing of Mitch Miller in a post. I’m back with some more notes now.

I loved Mitch Miller as a kid. I remember some of my fondest memories as a pre-teen were gathering around the Zenith black-and-white television watching Sing Along With Mitch. Some of my favorite childhood songs were courtesy of my mother’s old Decca Phonograph and Mitch Miller LP’s and 45′s.

In that post I mentioned that one of my favorite songs by Mitch Miller was his rendition of the theme to the movie “The Guns Of Navarone.” The music score and the song were composed by Dimitri Tiomkin, who also composed the scores for such highly-acclaimed movies as “The High and The Mighty,” “High Noon,” and “The Alamo.”

In my post, I lamented that that original recording by Mitch Miller was apparently unavailable today in its originally recorded form. Well, I found it, and I invite you to here it, exactly as I did, in 1961. Click below and here it.

The Guns Of Navarone (Theme) by Mitch Miller The Guns Of Navarone by Mitch Miller

Get The Guns Of Navarone on DVD at Amazon.Com

More film music by Dimitri Tiomkin at Amazon.Com

Please Click Here to see the Guns Of Navarone UPDATE Post