The Continentals?

[Shane]

Mods, feel free to move this thread or whatever, but I just wanted to share this video I came across on youtube.  Supposedly this is a TV appearance by a group called The Continentals from July of 1961.  Five guys wearing pendelton-style shirts, singing songs about cars, with a total surf-style guitar solo.  I guess the only thing that would be missing are the harmonies.  The lead singer even has some questionable dance moves, just like Mike Love.  


I would call these guys a total Beach Boys ripoff, if not for the fact that this was supposedly recorded six months before the BB's first single was released.  

Discuss.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua1f2sxMDZM

[The Shift]

Fascinating stuff! Surely coincidence; some of those similarities might be due to them being of an era, but who knows… judging by what's on Wiki, I'm guessing this show might well have been on TV in the Wilson/Love households.

[Jason Penick]

I love watching stuff like this; thanks for taking the time to post it. I didn't know the Pendleton shirt craze had made it all the way out to New York, which I hear is a lonely town if you're the only surfer boy around. 

Looks like these guys simply won a battle of the bands and were just featured on TV that one time. Hard to believe the Beach Boys would have caught this one-off performance and decided to base their image around it, but I guess stranger things have happened.

[SenorPotatoHead]

That was awesome actually, what a weird parallel/unwitting progenitor to the Boys of Summer.  The performance (not to mention the look) was certainly comparable to that of the BB's at the outset of their career, though I gotta say, that singer way out danced anything Love managed (sorry Mike).   That kid was slipping and sliding all over the place, what a hoot! 
Makes me want to find out what became of them. 

[Aum Bop Diddit]

The Beach Boys did not invent the Pendleton look -- they took it from the real surfers.  I imagine these guys did as well.  They have a Surfaris thing going a little bit.

Front man was way wilder than Mike Love!  Not as good a singer though.

[Emily]

That was the best thing I have seen in years. The dance (oh my god the dance), the drum solo, the face on the guy next to the drums at the end of the solo... AMAZING. And those shirts! The shirts! They are so far away from Pendletons. Yes, plaid, but the placket (!) goes to about mid-chest and the sleeves appear to be 3/4 and there's no way that's wool.
That was fantastic! I'm in love! Thank you!!

[Vernon Surfer]

No bass?

[Emily]

James Murphy reports in Becoming the Beach Boys that the BBs appeared on Dance Party in November 1962 with "live music...provided by the Continentals." Evidently (Google) there've been many bands with this name but it would be fun if it was these guys.

[SenorPotatoHead]

No bass?

According to the notes in the description beneath the video, the lead singer was the bass player.  I would suspect that they had to go sans bass on those songs where the singer would employ his James Brown moves.  Maybe other songs he would play it. 

[Jason Penick]

That was the best thing I have seen in years. The dance (oh my god the dance), the drum solo, the face on the guy next to the drums at the end of the solo... AMAZING. And those shirts! The shirts! They are so far away from Pendletons. Yes, plaid, but the placket (!) goes to about mid-chest and the sleeves appear to be 3/4 and there's no way that's wool.
That was fantastic! I'm in love! Thank you!!

Ahh, good call.

[ontor pertawst]

What a great dance!

No bass?

Holy Sister Ray, Batman!

[adamghost]

I know I've seen this before...someone must have pointed this out at some point.  Quite the little cross-stick the drummer's got going.

Mamaroneck!  My dad's home town.

[Paul J B]

That was very interesting and entertaining. Why are there so few comments about this? It certainly could have influenced Murry or The Boys or someone in their camp in 1961. Unlikely...maybe...but someone with the time and resources should dig into this. Only 10 comments but a hundred pages of weird Mike love photos..........

[Cool Cool Water]

I like the 'Fender Duo Sonic' the guitar player on the left is playing.

[Kamandi]

Even though Mike said in the recent "Part 2" interview that his performing style is self taught I have always wondered if Mike and Brian were both subconsciously influenced by the lead singers of early Rock and Roll and Rhythm and Blues bands. Look at some of the old You Tube clips of early television performances from the Coasters, Gene Chandler, Marcels, etc and often the lead singers do some kind of pantomime while singing the lyrics.  Mike and Brian both do that pantomime thing to this day though Mike has been doing it in performances since day one. Even that dance thing the Continental guy does seems relatively common among young performers in that time period. Look for a section in the flick "It Came From Hollywood" where Gilda Radner is narrating a section about "Chip and Emil, the Everly Brothers other brothers".  One of the Coasters does a similar dance during a lip synched performance of "Charlie Brown" on American Bandstand.

[Ron]

I'll bet anybody that knows any of these guys would tell you they've been bitching about this for 55 years now, LOL

[Ron]

BTW the dance the guy is doing is from James Brown, the master of that stuff back then, Not sure how prominent James Brown was in 1961 to white kids, though... however, if James Brown was doing it certainly other people would have been copying it and even if the kid didn't see James Brown do it he might have seen someone imitating him do it. 

[Rentatris]

New. Favourite. Band.


*runs off to find a Continentals message board*