Old-Time Rock ‘n’ Roll:
How The 1980s Embraced 1950s and 1960s Oldies Music
Back to the Beach
Photo: "Tumble and Rinse" by moonjazz is licensed under CC PDM 1.0
Utica, New York native Annette Funicello started her singing/acting career as a 1950s Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeer. She recorded several popular songs, including Tall Paul
and Pineapple Princess.
Annette then starred in a series of 1960s California beach-based movies with Frankie Avalon, who had a big hit with his 1959 song Venus.
The movies, such as Beach Party and Beach Blanket Bingo were popular and independent TV stations aired them during the seventies and eighties. Annette Funicello became a familiar face to Gen Xers by appearing in Skippy peanut butter commercials. Funicello and Avalon made appearances on several variety shows together. During the mid-eighties, Frankie Avalon had a successful Boys of Bandstand concert tour with Bobby Rydell and Fabian. Avalon and Funicello decided to cash in on nostalgia and have another beach party, 1980s style.
In Back to the Beach, Frankie and Annette are married, but are not happy with their lives. Frankie, the Big Kahuna,
left the beach scene after a life-altering surfing accident. Both settled in Ohio with Frankie selling cars and Annette raising two children in a house overstocked with Skippy. They decide to vacation at their former California beach hangout, where their eldest daughter is attending college. The movie then shifts to the beach where the baby boomers adjust to the new beach scene and show the youngsters how they had fun. Funicello performs an updated version of Jamaica Ska
with the Fishbones. Stars from the past appear in the movie, including Connie Stevens, Edd Kookie
Byrnes, Bob Denver Alan Hale Jr, and Leave It To Beaver stars Barbara Billingsley, Tony Dow, and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver. Pee-wee Herman sings his version of The Surfin’ Bird.
Dick Dale, the surfing music guitar god, plays California Sun
with Frankie Avalon and Connie Stevens singing. There were critics who panned it when it was released, but overall this nostalgic spoof entertained film-goers.