With a moniker like "beachgal" you know I had to love those old beach movies with Frankie and Annette. On top of that, Grease is one of my all time favorite movies. When it was announced that Frankie Avalon was coming to The Villages to perform in our Fine Arts Center, I was one of the first to get online tickets.
We had 75 minutes of great music, great moves (very good for a guy who is 76 and had done an earlier performance today) , film clips, and family pictures.
The lead guitarist was none other than Edan Everly - Don Everly's son. They did a duet of a few Everly brother's songs with Edan doing his uncle Phil's part. Remember Wake Up Little Susie, Dream and Bye Bye Love....
Frankie also let us know about his family. He and his wife Kathryn (a former model & Vogue covergirl) had eight children in 10 years. Their oldest child, Frank Jr, was drummer for the show.
He talked about some of his rock & roll personal friends and did a song from each of them: Elvis, Rick Nelson, Bobby Darin and Bill Haley.
But most of all we got to hear Frankie favorites like Dee Dee Dinah, Ginger Bread, Bobby Sox to Stockings, Just Ask Your Heart, Beauty School Drop Out with more to come.
Remember I said I was one of the first to get tickets --- well, we were first row center. That in itself was fantastic, but he eventually came down into the audience to sing and ended up standing knee to knee with me for Venus and stayed in this area for a couple other songs. We heard Silhouettes, Twilight Time, Earth Angel and Goodnight Sweetheart Goodnight.
We were immediately to the left of the couple in this shot. Thank you to the local newspaper for these pictures (it was a no photo show).
Thanks for the memories of American Bandstand, beach movies and so many songs that bring back memories.
