Post by erik on Dec 11, 2021 13:04:53 GMT -5
A late 1950's forerunner of fun-in-the-sun is in this week's Pop Music Hits Spotlight.
26 MILES (SANTA CATALINA) (The Four Preps; Capitol; 1957)—One of the earliest examples of fun-in-the-sun music to come in the rock and roll era came just a few short years into this particular revolution. Bruce Belland, a student at Hollywood High School in Los Angeles in 1956, has broken his ankle in an athletic accident, and took his recovery time strumming on a ukulele; and while body surfing at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro, near the Los Angeles Harbor, he could see off in the distance the island of Santa Catalina, twenty-six miles offshore. This, plus the four chords he had learned on the ukulele, gave him and a fellow Hollywood High student of his, Glen A. Larson, the inspiration for a song that would pay tribute to that island. The two men plus fellow students Ed Cobb and Marv Ingram formed their own group, The Four Preps, in mid-1957; and their four-part harmony attracted the attention of record executives at Capitol Records, whose main office was not far from Hollywood High, and was instantly recognizable for being shaped like a whole stack of records on a giant spindle. Although they didn’t record what would be their signature song in time for it to be an official “summer” classic for 1957, that song, “26 Miles”, referring to the distance needed to travel between San Pedro and Santa Catalina, did become a big hit upon its release on Christmas Day 1957. It eventually reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #6 on the R&B chart, in February 1958; and ever since then, it has been an official anthem for that offshore California paradise. The song had a huge influence over the next several decades, influencing some of the “beach” songs of Brian Wilson and his group The Beach Boys, and Jimmy Buffett (with his signature hit “Margaritaville” in 1977). It was also a favorite of Neal Peart, the drummer and lyricist for the Canadian hard rock band Rush, and was also a fixture song at the Sunshine Plaza of Disney’s California Adventure in Anaheim.
26 MILES (SANTA CATALINA) (The Four Preps; Capitol; 1957)—One of the earliest examples of fun-in-the-sun music to come in the rock and roll era came just a few short years into this particular revolution. Bruce Belland, a student at Hollywood High School in Los Angeles in 1956, has broken his ankle in an athletic accident, and took his recovery time strumming on a ukulele; and while body surfing at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro, near the Los Angeles Harbor, he could see off in the distance the island of Santa Catalina, twenty-six miles offshore. This, plus the four chords he had learned on the ukulele, gave him and a fellow Hollywood High student of his, Glen A. Larson, the inspiration for a song that would pay tribute to that island. The two men plus fellow students Ed Cobb and Marv Ingram formed their own group, The Four Preps, in mid-1957; and their four-part harmony attracted the attention of record executives at Capitol Records, whose main office was not far from Hollywood High, and was instantly recognizable for being shaped like a whole stack of records on a giant spindle. Although they didn’t record what would be their signature song in time for it to be an official “summer” classic for 1957, that song, “26 Miles”, referring to the distance needed to travel between San Pedro and Santa Catalina, did become a big hit upon its release on Christmas Day 1957. It eventually reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #6 on the R&B chart, in February 1958; and ever since then, it has been an official anthem for that offshore California paradise. The song had a huge influence over the next several decades, influencing some of the “beach” songs of Brian Wilson and his group The Beach Boys, and Jimmy Buffett (with his signature hit “Margaritaville” in 1977). It was also a favorite of Neal Peart, the drummer and lyricist for the Canadian hard rock band Rush, and was also a fixture song at the Sunshine Plaza of Disney’s California Adventure in Anaheim.