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Beach Music – music style made popular in the Carolinas, it combines many styles that may include but are not limited to Rhythm and Blues, Soul Music, and a little bit of Disco. Basically anything you can “Shag” to (The Shag, or Carolina Shag, is a dance style that has been around almost forever. We are not referring to the slang term made popular by a major movie personality portraying a British spy from the 60’s)
When you ask the question “What is Beach Music?”, you will hear a wide variety of answers. Some may try to define the genre, some may simply describe the feeling they get when they hear Beach Music. Ask the person answering the question how they associate themselves with beach music and you may understand their comments. Old School DJs will tell you something different than guys that have only been playing in bands for a few years. Shag Dancers will have different definitions than the fans of the bands. You may hear varied answers depending on which state the person lives in or was born.
What is Beach Music to YOU?
What does the term “Beach Music” mean to you? Here is what other have to say…Feel free to add your comments to the list. You will find some great comments from people like Jim Quick, Keith Houston, Craig Woolard, Don Bunn, and many more.
DJ’d at the Wits End in Cola SC for a couple of years back in ’80 and ’81. Blast!
I will agree beach music is a type of music that is different it has its own language when you listen to it you can’t help but start dancing but beach music we have like a different type of dance it is like being on the beach listening to the waves come in and go out and your body does the same your feet your hips your whole body Moves In and Out and swirls like the ocean as it has its own sound but when you mix both of them together you have beach music and it is totally awesome you don’t have to be a Surfer to appreciate it but the music is far out so let’s do a little shagging. Kind of long-winded but it’s the same way on the Dance Floor once you get rolling you can stop no matter how hot it gets that music in your blood gets pumping it ain’t no stopping. Let’s enjoy because I love beach music always have and always will.
I grew up in Charlotte but our family vacationed at OD each summer. I remember at around the age of 14 noticing all the music that flowed out of The Pad and looked forward to the day that I could get myself inside. As under age teenagers we hung out on the patio of the OD Pavilion listening to the Juke Box, meeting girls and developing our Shag moves. In those days we called going out at night to the Pavilion “Goin’ Jookin’. This went on for several summers until I was 18 at which time the Pad was winding down but the Barrel and the Spanish Galleon were cranking up. The summer after my Freshman year in college I lived at the beach for the entire summer. During the winter back in Charlotte the big hang out was the Cellar. Most Weds., Fri. and Sat. nights and Sun. afternoons I could be found at the Cellar. The regulars at the Cellar were called Cellar Rats. Many of the Cellar Rats were fixtures at OD as well beginning with Easter, Mothers Day, and throughout the summer until Labor Day. In those days OD shutdown for the winter. In the spring of 1969, I was inducted into the USAR and spent the entire summer away from the Carolinas but upon my return I was right back in my OD & Cellar groove. I would not take anything in exchange for my Beach Music lifestyle. it has been a major part of my life and will continue to be until my days are done. “It Will Stand”
Joe, liked these comments. Please give me your list of, say, your Top Twenty Beach Music Songs that were popular from, again say, 1963 to 1968. thanks! And, yes, “It Will Stand”.
Francis
Beach music for me is something more than just music. It is a lifestyle. The music comes to life much like the Blues through our memories. The songs recall memories of sand, sea, the people we have met, hot dogs and the warm summer breezes of the Grand Strand and the wind blowing on our faces as we spin through the air on the roller coasters and ferris wheels. Beach Music also recalls visions or some fantastic show bands that ignite covers of the Temps, Tams, 4 Tops and many other MOTOWN greats. Beach Music transports us to a less stressful time where calming thoughts crash over us like the waves on the sandy shore.Beach Music is: R&B, Big Band, and Soul, Southern Rock, and Country rolled into one package. It is the timeless sound of the 40’s.50’s,60’s 70’s and beyond.
I totally agree, it is a lifestyle. Each decade has their version of Beach Music and each thinks theres is the best. Growing up only 1.5 hours away from Atlantic Beach, NC, I grew up with it ingrained in my life and lifestyle-Nothing better than sitting on the beach with a cold beer listening to the music coming from the Pavillion!!!
Hi Bo
I’m a student at WA and am perusing some websites for my course.
Beach Music was a great find. The tunes are joyous, the moves are coo-ool! I needed to google definition of shag..ended up at youtube with fantastic clips of shaggers.
Your site is jam packed with exciting stuff.
Wow, I learn something new every day.
I’m hoping now to find some Beach Music and Shag dancers here i Brisbane, Australia.
Thanks for the fun.
I perform in a local band in Charleston, SC by the name of “LEGACY”(formerly A Touch Of Class Band).
Each year we perform at a lot of different events( mostly wedding receptions or corporate events).
I have notice that no what the event is there is always a group that doesn’t seen to be enjoying themselves. And over time we have learned that the best way to get that group involved is to start playing Beach Music. Every time that we have done that the dance floor become packed with dancers.
I don’t know what it is but people no matter their age , sex or race just come alive when this music began to play. Beach music now makes up about 70% of our play list.
BEACH MUSIC While composed of many genres from soul to show tunes is the music heard and danced to on every beach in the Southeast. It’s the music that makes you smile, puts that twinkle in your eye and hers, and makes your feet move. I’ve proven it many times in my travels–I’ve been in a bar and everyone was in the doldrums, not talking much, and in general not happy and not smiling. I go to the jukebox and select some great “beach music” songs by the Temptations, Willie T, the Tams, Band of Oz, the Tymes, and a host of great artists that play “good time” music, and within seconds, the people start to smile, beat out rhythm on the table, laugh out loud, tap their feet, and start enjoying life again. In Orange Beach/Gulf Shores, Alabama, where I live, I gave a friend of mine a CD for his jukebox, and made 20 copies and told him to hold on to them. He asked me what for and I told him $20 each. He laughed and said they won’t sell. A week later he called me and said it was the most played CD on the jukebox and could I make him some more copies–he had sold out. Went into a little bar in Daphne, Al. and there were a bunch of bikers in there and it was dead. I walked over to the jukebox, played Doris Troy “Just One Look”, and they started clapping, grabbed some money off the table and asked me to play some more “BEACH MUSIC”!
There’s just nothing to compare to beach music and Motown as far as I am concerned. I absolutely love it. Grew up with it, and its what I want to listen to now, at age 57. Even my little granddaughters know that “Granny” loves, loves, loves beach music and Motown. My youngest son is a professor at the University of Colorado, and he said anytime he hears this music, he can’t help but smile, because he KNOWS that Mama is such a fan. He also said he remembers me dancing with him as he was growing up to this wonderful music. Keep playing it please…there are plenty of fans and listeners out here.
Driving through the Carolinas one lazy day, heaing back to the steelcity, I stumbled upon a beach music/shag station and feel in love with this laid back, mellow, bluesy soul music style….it is SO COOL SO RIGHT….I just know that this Yankee has a southern soul…. I LOVE IT.
When I think of Beach Music in Virginia the one and only place comes to mind.”THURSDAY AT THE WORKS” IN OLDE TOWN PETERSBURG.And I still Love Beach Music
I grew up listening to beach music & Elvis and I loved both types of music. My husband & I learned how to shag dance this past year and my husband David (45 years old) has never fast danced he would only slow dance with me. He is pulling me on the dance floor now. GO FIGURE!!! (LOL) He loves to shag dance just as much as I do and if my husband can learn how to shag dance anyone can…and he will tell you this. Shag dancing will be the new trend for the younger generation. Beach Music & Shag Dancing will still long be here…when we are all gone… 🙂
“Lipstick Powder and Paint”….Jackie Wilson…”Baby Work Out” and here comes Ron Paul shagging into Ocean Drive for Liberty with his common sense economic text book.When his family goes to bed ,he said he was up reading an economic text book. Not to mention he’s been the one telling us all what we don’t want to hear. “The Country Is Broke.” Taking on the status quo ! Go Doc Go !Visualize a bike ride and the theme is called, The Liberty Freedom Ride from Sea To Shinning Sea…… Ron Paul For President ! That’d be a cool theme for a sailing rally too.Come on SC and belly roll on in for Ron Paul.At least he’s telling the truth ! Watch your 2 step on that vote for Romney and do your research. Obama you’re fired and that’s enough of him !Get your coat,your hat and get on out the door ! A catharsis or revolution but a revelation and it’s curtains and lights out for Obama ! He can take his “Lipstick on a Pig” with him too and his signature on horse slaughtering for human consumption.National Security ? Look at our debt!Just read he’s sharing our missile data with Russia. Ron Paul is no fool on Foreign Policy but they’re sure trying to make him out to be. Do your research and shag in Ron Paul for President ! Ain’t No Chicken’s Roosting here and play “Chicken Shack Boogie”…..
a cold drink, a warm night, a hot date & the right music.
‘shaggin the night away’ PBS-FM melbourne australia
Through all the musical cycles I’ve encountered in my life (British Invasion, Motown, Psychedelic, Rock, Country, Blues, Soul, etc.) the one constant has always been “beach music”. If I had a convertible, it’s the kind of music I’d be playing while cruising with the top down just as the sun’s setting, but still sounds just as good in my pick-up truck. It’s the music I played for my kids when they were young, just to plant the seed (it worked). It’s the music that compliments a cold beer better than any other I’ve ever found. It’s the music that creates a lasting bond between guys and girls, especially while dancing. It’s the music I play for my sweetie to get her in the mood. It’s music with heart, sometimes a little humor, and a healthy dose of “feel good”. ’nuff said!
Beach music makes life feel like summer all year long. Living in the desert would be so depressing if I didn’t have the “Songs of the South”! I’m a Virginia girl who took a wrong turn at Palm Springs and ended up in Las Vegas. Beach music keeps me grounded and reminds me of the Seventies at Mary Baldwin College…Road trips included Myrtle Beach for Spring Break and UVA for Easters. Shaggin’ was our way of mixin’ and minglin’ … It was our common language…Beach music provided opportunities to snuggle and pretzel … Depending on how well your date was going. Beach music keeps me young.
In your desription you say “Beach Music” consist of “R&B,Soul and a little Disco” I don’t agree! The only reason disco was or is played by so called Beach DJ’s was to cater to the masses and unknowledgeable dancers.I cringe everytime i hear “A Little Lovin”The Rays come on in a Beach Club.If anything the DJ’s should go back further in time for more choices or listen to what the Britts call Northern Soul.They have the right idea w/Rare soul 45’s lost to white radio programs.
It’s the feel good music that you can never get enough off. From the first time you hear something that moves your feet, whether or not you’re a good shagger or not, the music makes you feel like you are in another world of sun, surf, sand, and suds. Beach music forever!!!
The music that makes you want to dance with anyone. It makes no difference their size or features. It gives everyone a memory to go home with.
My first boyfriend, 64, at Crystal Lake, Winston-Salem, NC. learned to shag holding on to the door of my Granma's frig, can't move the upper body–I started at four years old. Do we ever forget our first love, no, anymore than beach music—–DJW & CKC~!
Nobody fusses or fights and it is always clean fun—I assume there might have been some scuffles in our days, but we're to busy dancing to think of such.
Half or moreof our generation/seeds;-) was gotten to lots of the loving tunes;-) Kay
Today I pop in a Beach Music CD and drive with the windows down to feel the warm air. I even pretend to smell all the great smells that came in the window of my 65 volkswagon as we cruised the Grand Strand at Myrtle Beach and OD. Back then they were two seperate places, each with it's own idenity. We would park and watch the muscle cars run back and forth as we flirted with the girls with every shy bone in our body. It was a time when fun was a simple thing and easy to have. Money was not even a factor as long as you had any at all. Being from Burlington I grew up with some of the greatest Beach Music Bands ever. We always knew we were blessed..
The sand, the ocean, a cold beer and beach music are synonymous with The Jolly Knave at Atlantic Beach NC.
Though I don’t know the names of many of the bands who put out this amazing music, I do know that when I hear this music, I can feel at home, no matter where I am. I grew up on the NC coast, and have recently moved back, for good. Atlanta was good enough to provide me the best soul mate a man could have, and a career in the audio visual market. I have now converted her to a true Carolina Girl. I’ve only had a few shag lessons, and hoping to pursue this dream, just trying to fit it in around making a living. However, back to the music. I remember growing up as a small child in the Morehead City, Atlantic Beach area, and listening to the radio staions there. I can hear a song today I have’nt heard in years, and how it so hits your heart and soul. There is nothing better.
Traveling home to Holly Ridge from Atlanta, I travel Hwy 74 into Wilmington, if you know the route you know the smell when you get close to the battleship. My wife asked me why I always slow down, roll down the windows, and take long deep breaths. She thinks it a bad smell, you know the famous Carolina Black Mud Smell, the Sound. Anyways, the only answer I could ever come up with is the simple fact that “It let’s me know that I’m home”. And that is from the heart. It’s the same with the music, when you hear it, it puts you at home no matter where you are.
I grew up in Ocean Drive and lived there most of my life. But it wasn’t until I left in 1998 that I truly learned to appreciate Beach Music. I had listened to it all my life but until I moved to Chicago and started listening to it again did it really get me. It took me “home” and I listened to it so much that my children began to sing along with the songs I played on the CD player in the car…even though they would rather have listened to something else. Now Beach Music is a part of their childhood…even though they didn’t grow up shaggin’ like I did. Beach Music makes you happy and you get a good feeling inside…reminding you of times past when life was simpler and we had no worries. I remember when I was little sneaking out to the dance floor outside Forks DriveIn with Woosie Livingston peeking over the cinder block wall watching the highschool kids from Wampee High School shag. Those were the good ol’ days!
Its hard to explain exactly what beach music is to someone else, but I know it when I hear it, even if it is a brand new song.
Just GREAT you can dance the night away and buy only 1 corona
Beach Music and beer, both have been helping guys and gals meet each other for over 50 years. The music used to help guys “strut-their-stuff” to impress the fairer sex. (I suspect this is still so!) The music is easy and fun to listen to and always puts a longing in your heart to be at the beach. Fortunately we have many, many examples and choices to listen to. I have no doubt that generations to come will find this genre of music enjoyable and as exciting as we Beach Music Lovers do. See ya at da Beach!
Beach music is the “sweet” salty air on a summer night walking waist-to-waist with your “vacation love” on a moon lit pier. And off in the distance the sound of “All I Need” by the Temptations coming from the jukebox on the porch of the Ocean Drive Arcade. It’s a musical memory that embrases you tenderly, and makes you so happy that you grew up in the Carolins’s and – not experienced – but lived beach music.
Plus, what Harold Dave Ballard (aka – HB) said and a bag a chips. Next Beer is on me…. and bunch a straws. I’m broke.
Beach music. HMMMM. Well, it goes hand in hand w/ some of the best memories of my life! Watching mommy & daddy dance to it when I was a little girl. Looking forward to going to the Carolina beach music fest in high school all year long w/ my best friends. Cruising the strip in my sisters mustang GT. Etc.Etc… As soon as I hear it I feel like a teenager. Free & happy. I feel like taking off my shoes & feeling sand beneath my feet. The warm winds blowing, the smell of salt air! Summertimes calling me!!! I love BEACH MUSIC & all the wonderful memories that go with it! So keep it coming & Thank you!!!!
“I love beach music!” Makes me smile, anytime, anywhere!
Beach Music to me has been my piece of mind through the years!!! I’ll always love Beach Music!!!
just reading all the comments here made me smile that there are so many lovers of beach music out there. because the love of beach music is something in your soul, and if you don’t have it, you can’t get it. my love of beach music came from hanging out at the peppermint in virginia beach in the late 60’s with my brother, even though i was too young to be there. from the the bluesy sound of delbert mcclinton to the stirring voice of jerry west to craig woolard’s cute son, it’s deep in my heart and soul. i’m proud to call myself a good “son of the beach” (well, maybe daughter!)
Beach Music seems a timeless journey into the past, and at the same time an exploration into the future. Unlike any other music, its sound is unique, and yet it crosses many generalities. It’s a pure honest feel that comes from the hearts of the listeners and the creators. Its simple, yet beautifully intricate, delicate yet sustaining…Beach music is…more than its not…I know that’s why it has been for so long, and will remain being. its a place we cannot get to another way, unless we turn on the dial.
Carolina Beach Music is —— Just the way Music “at it’s very best” IS!! It’s that music that make’s you move no matter what mood you’re in when you first arrive at Duck’s or the O.D. Pavillion. It’s all of those old songs that no-one’s parents would have ever allowed their children to listen to if they “GOT” the double-meaning funny ha-ha lyrics, much less the sinful rythym.!!! It is the feeling of Summer Love and Year Round Lovin of Life!!!
AT
I spent every summer (from the age of 6) in Nags Head, NC and every summer night, from the age of 14-21, at the Nags Head Casino dancing to the music of bands I had never heard of. But I loved the music!!! During the long winters, back in VA, I rarely heard that music…so I couldn’t wait to get back to the beach. For the next 21 years, I had to endure the depressing sounds of country music, preferred by my now ex-spouse. I’d change the radio to Oldies stations, but my favorites were rarely played.
Then in 1993, happily divorced, I started a new career. A co-worker belonged to the Va Beach Shag Club and played tapes at her desk. THERE was the music I loved!!!! Just listening to it brought back a flood of memories from my happy, carefree teen years at the Nags Head Casino. She informed me that it’s called Carolina Beach Music & where to find it in the music stores. Now I have a large collection of CBM CDs and listen to them all the time. I signed up for shag lessons, but discovered that I’m not a dancer….never got past the basic steps.
I moved to NC in 1996, but still rarely heard Beach Music on the radio. Once in a while, 102.5 The Shark would throw in a beach tune and played 4 hours of CBM on Sunday evenings. I’ve lived on Hatteras Island for the last 8 years and can only pick up radio stations on my car radio. So I listen to my CBM Cds exclusively.
My only regret is that I never knew the music I loved for 40+ years had a name, much less it’s own dance. I feel like an outsider because I’m so far behind the curve. But I’m trying to catch up!!! Playing my CDs lifts my spirits and takes me back to a wonderful era when life felt good!!!!
California had their surfing music craze and California Girls in the 60s, but nothing can compare to our Carolina beach music and our Sweet Carolina Girls which go on forever.
Beach music to me is setting on the beach with the best lady in the world. and frends listening to the best music in the world,
WOW Andrew, You didn’t say where you were or how old you were so I chose to ignore your condiending(ignorant) ways.
Beach music has been with Me since I was old enough to listen to a radio(AM of corse) It has reemerged several time in my life when needed. Calming uplifting. From The Light House in Wilson with the Band of OZ; To rythem on the River in Greenville SC(again with the band of OZ I am a OZ Munkien.)
Beach music is the alternative to slaming over driven sounds of today. It is what We remember from our youth now that we have, for the most part, raised our own children. WE still have the bands we grew up with in one form or another. What has happned to the hard rockers. Go OZ. Beach Music Forever It will stand
I live in Ohio or as Jim Quick refers to it OH-10. Got hooked on beach music vacationing in MB.
When people ask me what it is having never heard it before I just say, “think of it as Motown with a little sand”
Beach music is the music of my youth beginning at the Pavillion in Atlantic Beach and continuing today. Started going to the Pavillion in the early sixties and got my first Embers album as a gift in 1964. Not long after, the Embers Club opened in Atlantic Beach. It has been non-stop ever since although I, like many others, have had to slow down with age and knees. I still make it to the Cammys, DJ Throwdown ect. and try to keep up with all the music. Beach music has just been a part of my life for about as long as I can remember. It is the cause of many of my friendships from Jimmy Smith, Keith Houston, Freddie Tripp, Buddy Johnson ect. to Bill Mason, Bill Moore, Barbara Kiger, Butch Conner, Butch Metcalf and many others. To me beach music embodies great music, great friends, lots of spirits and a lifestyle that will last many many more years. As time goes on I hope to meet and make many new friends thru this great music!
I first heard Beach Music when I was living in Birmingham, AL during the 1980’s. My neighbors would bring it to parties. I’m hooked…I’ve now been in San Antonio, TX for 20 years and darn, but every time I hear it I wanna go back to the South! Actually after 30 somthing years of marriage I’m single and I feel the pull of the ocean and beach music to get back there. This time around “I want a widow from the south that loves Beach Music as much as I do. Then my dreams will be filled. If he also with children looking fot a wonderful woman to be part of their lives that will be a great added plus.. Whew, that’s a mouthful.
Grew up on the same street (4th St. Later Young St.) as the Quinlan sisters and one street over from Mickey Combs in Burlington NC. They even named that street after Mickey’s family. Still remember the dances at the Burlington City Pool and at the Y. The Castaways in Gboro. All of Bill Griffin’s clubs. My father learned how to shag at White Lake in the late 40’s and he and my mom would have dance parties at our house with the neighbors while I played the records on the single play RCA. Little did I know I was a six year old DJ then.
“I love Beach Music…” I learned to shag with a rope tied to a door. Worked at Crazy Zack’s every summer during college, and I too danced the night away at Zack’s and the Spanish Galleon. What great care free times!!! Does anyone know if either place is still open? Makes me want to go back and visit. (Forgot to mention the Tally Ho in Columbia) How could I ever forgot that!
From Lake Artesia to Williams Lake and White Lake, what a great way to grow up! Listening to the Tams, The Drifters and all the great bands. And now – could anything be better than walking into a crowded bar, grabbing a cold beer and listening to Craig Woolard singing Carolina Girls!! It just doesn’t get any better than that.
Thanks Craig!!
Beach music makes me feel good about what I am. I go there when I need that…and when I don’t.
Back in the 50’s, sittin’ on the picnic tables at Lions Beach Pavilion,Moncks Corner,SC
Waiting for the next song to play on the “Jukebox” so you can Shag. The music that came out of that Jukebox was unreal!!!!!! “Live To Shag”, “Shag To Live”
“I love Beach Music”….you’re right…It becomes part of you and you never get over it.
Beach music is the first time you see the ocean, get sand in your shoes, dance at the magic attic at the Myrtle Beach Pavilion, ride the Swamp Fox rollercoaster, Kings highway, Sloppy Joes, the Diplomat Motel
Beach music festivals….probably where i will meet my next future x-wife!!!!Jim
HAPPINESS! Beach Music is happy music. When we say we “love beach music” and mean it, we are part of a unique group. It is as if we are a family – no separation of cultures. When you are in a group and listening to beach music – everybody is having fun. We know the words, the performers, and we dance…together. Nobody seems to care about any differences – just as long as you “love beach music!” I hope it stays that way.
As a girl from New York, we made it to Myrtle Beach every year for Easter week from when I was in 3rd grade through high school. We stayed at the same little hotel – which was located next to THE LANDMARK – big hotel back in the ’70’s with live music in their top floor “lounge”. THE EMBERS were there every year during that week – and I would hang out with Gerald Davis son. That was my into to beach music and THE EMBERS. I LOVE BEACH MUSIC is still one of my favorits and even today brings back wonderful memories of being young and carefree!!! Now, I am living in Georgia and introducing beach music to my 4 girls!!
I have been around Beach & Shag my entire life… I am a former DJ and have been collecting the music “seriously” since 1978… I have DeeJayed for many of the Shag contests and have even taken video of some of them… Check out my Web-Site at shagdjrecords.com
Beach Music is a lifestyle.My Mom and Dad were both Shaggers,My Aunt owned the pig pin on the back side of Williams Lake.We went to White Lake/Goldstons Beach to Dance.My Sister and I both did not know any other type of music.As A single parent rasing a daughter by myself.I have had her in the shag world since she was 6 years old.She is 18 now and sings with our group every weekend.Her boyfriend is also a shagger,and I knEw his parents when they were younger and use to dance at CTs nightlife in NMB.From friends in the 70s/80s dancing to today 2007 and our children dancing with one constant
THE MUSIC/THE BANDS/THE FRIENDSHIPS
THATS BEACH MUSIC AND IT IS IN GOOD HANDS WITH OUR CHILDREN
Oh where to start….beach music is a feeling you get when you hear it. Going through my teen years in the 60’s I for some reason had a liking for the particular sounding songs which later became known as beach music. Back then in the early 60’s we didn’t know it as “beach music” but mostly thought of it as “soul music”. Growing up in Roxoboro, NC far from the beach we still made it to various beaches and began to associate summer, sun, going to the lake or beach with that sound. I was fortunate to live in a small town that still featured many nights with bands playing outside at the local Tastee Freeze or City Hall parking lot or National Guard Amory. There were many local bands but remember seeing the Pieces of Eight singing “Lonely Drifter” one of my all time favorites. The Platters with some original members such as Herb Reed. I also remember going to Memorial Auditorium in Raleigh and seeing The Showmen, Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs and Peggy Scott & Jo Jo Benson singing “Lovers Holiday” another favorite of mine. Then along came Bill Deal & The Rhondels when I was in college and put a whole new sound to the old Tams classics. It was exciting and upbeat. Speaking of th eTams I saw them at Gardner-Webb College in early 70’s after the release of their album called “The Tams-A Little More Soul” It featured the big hit “Be Young Be Foolish Be Happy”. They put on the most fantastic show I’ve ever seen them do. It is also great to see all the present day beach bands such as CWB, Castaways, Rick Strickland. Mike Schermer (sp?), Band of Oz, Breeze Band, Pat Christie and the Fabulous Hot Dog Daddy-Os whose new song “It’s You” is great! So many othters to numerous to mention. Yikes I’ve said enough but leaving you with one of my all time favorite classic beach songs although not shaggable: “Sweet Soul Music” Arthur Conley. Oh by the way I thought it was so neat to see Ron Ely formerly of the Kingsmen singing “Louie Louie” at the 2006 Cammy Awards. Even though it wasn’t Beach Music as such it was a song that was part of us…always played at those parties we went to growing up right along with the beach tunes. Congrats to whoever thought of inviting him. He was great (as was Craig Woolard) and looked younger than I would have thought. later dudes!
Williams Lake, NC was the place to be to hear the best beach music around. The Tams, Embers, Archie Bell and the Drells, Georgia Prophets, The Platters, Black and Blue, The Drifters, Percy Sledge, ……..Can’t help moving our feet when we hear “With This Ring,” “”I Love Beach Music,” and “Love You 1,000 Times.”
As a Southside Virginia farm boy on my first beach trip to Nags Head, N.C. I was injected with my first shot of BEACH MUSIC at a two story club/bowling alley called THE CASINO and the band was The HOTNUTS, with me that night was a young lady (my first puppy love) I had met on the beach, Shelia Mahoney, a model from Springfield, IL , her dad was a police officer. So Shila, if you should read this, I’m still lost in 1957 with you on my mind and beach music as our blanket on the sands of time. GOD BLESS !!
I now work with FAB (Fat Ammons Band) and many other beach bands providing sound systems & Bus as needed. After playing drums on stage, Beach Music, for 45 years I feel Blessed to have been just a little piece of BEACH MUSIC, SHAG ON !!!
Curley b 71year young shagger. been to most clubs to dance and listen to beach music.shagging at LBJ Little Brown Jug on the Neuse at Smithfield sun afternoon .nothing better .long live beach music
Beach Music is the Best Music Around!!!
Im from uk….only been listening to beach music for a year now…..now im hooked!
No, you never get too old to enjoy beach music or SOS!
Who could ask for more? You enjoy music, the beach, a cool drink and your friend all at the same time!! My heart swells just thinking about it!!!
Beach Music was and is music from the late 60’s , Big Ways Radio in Charlotte, splitting a six pack from Hickory, to Charlotte to the World Famous Cellar on a Saturday nite. When I first started collecting “music” I thought well I’ll get all the Tams,Drifters,Tops,Temps to start and it went from there, then the Stax, soul , R&B , growing up listening to the Platters and then as a DJ later in life meeting the real Sonny Turner, it so much , fans friends family, growing up in Hickory is like in heavy Nascar land, my dad said race fans are always great people, well I’ll say that double for Beach music fans, artists and industry people, Im honored to have known the best , the late Leighton Grantham, everybodys good friend billy Scott, Butch halpin, Chris Beach, John Hook ,Curtiss Carpenter and so many more, bless you all, may beach music live forever and ever!!!!!!!!!!!
I have been around beach music just about all of my life and think there is nothing like it. I have been to the Pad, Jap’s Barrel, Spanish Galleon, The Beach Club and almost all of the clubs between Raleigh and Charlotte past and present.Of all the postings I have read on this site I have not seen one that gives credit to two people I feel we owe a great deal of thsnks to for keeping Beach Music alive. One is from DJ that I happened to find back in the early 80’s at WRDX Raido in Salisbury NC. His name is John Hook and the other is Charlie Brown. Without these two gentleman I don’d know where Beach Music would be today. We all need to give both of them a hugh Thank You .
I am told that I have always loved beach music because that is what my Mom listened to while I was in vitro! The Pad used to have a sign that said, “Boogie here cause your Momma did”…My Momma DID! So did I during the summers in college, when I lived right behind The Pad. I feel fortunate to have been able to see The Tams when Joe Pope was still with them, The Embers with Jackie Gore and Craig Woolard, Band of Oz with Big John, Fantastic Shakers with Bo, and still love seeing the Chairmen do the same show they have done for over 20 years! Not to mention being able to go to Harold’s when it was “across the street,” The Spanish Galleon and even Crazy Zack’s for a change of pace! I can’t imagine how my life would have been without beach music, and though I live in Raleigh, no matter what season or weather, when I hear beach music I am right back at OD with my toes in the sand.
Beach music is me and my dad shagging in the sand. Having The Embers sing Carolina Girl to me. It is when i feel like i am free and living. Beach music is the only music worth dancing to. And finally beach music is Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Beach Music is as natural to us native North Carolinians as barbecue, ‘bacca, and Bass weejuns! I was raised on the “real” beach music sounds of soul from the late 50’s thru the 60’s, i.e. Jr. Walker & the All-Stars, Al Greene, Billy Stewart, Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, Little Anthony & the Imperials, The Temptations, The Tams, The Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, and many others mainly from the MoTown and Stax record labels. It was played on radio stations like WLLE-AM and WRNC-AM in Raleigh by dj’s like Sweet Bob, Daddyio on the Patio, Charlie Brown on Bib Kix at night, and a very few others. We aaw the artists live and in person at the old Embers Club on Dzwson at McDowell in downtown Raleigh and at concerts at Memorial Auditorium. We had all their 45’s and LPs. We loved the music and lived the lifestyle, too. The best beach music live band of all time was and remains to be The Embers. Period. End of story. The best Beach Music Club of all time, again the Embers Club. The best beach music jukebox of all time – the Jolly Knave on Hillsborough St. in Raleigh.
Beach Music is all about the beat. It’s the beat of the music, and the bop we do to it. Once you’ve gotten beach music in your veins, you cannot get it out. It’s impossible. Other forms of music come and go, but beach music is here to stay. Just look at what the young folks are digging today. It’s beach music, again.
Live on beach music. And the beat goes on!
Well, beach music to me simply reminds me of home. Beach music to me is the soundtrack of my parents’ youth, and reminds me of stories they tell of being young and carefree at the beach when they were my age. It reminds me of growing up near the beach in Virginia and all those great memories with family at the Outer Banks.
Most of all, it reminds me of the coolest “old dude” I know, my Dad, who passed on a love of this music to me at an early age–so thankfully, even at 27 years old, and even though I wasn’t around for “the good old days”, I know what “good music” is. Some of my favorite memories were Dad taking me to beach music shows, and he never fails to make me compilation CD’s of his favorites, and now, some of mine: The Embers, Band of Oz, Bill Deal and the Rhondels, General Johnson and the Chairman of the Board, The Tams,The Catalinas, The Coastline Band, the Drifters…and I could go on. It’s nice to know whenever I miss being home near the beach, I can put on a CD he made for me and cruise around with the sunroof open! I love you Dad!! Happy Birthday!
Well the 300 lb shagger from raleigh is back-had stopped dancing due to a wore out hip( had thought it was my knee)now home with a new hip, I can’t wait to get back on the dance floor with my honey. Also can’t wait for the next SOS and dance on all you wonderful shaggers
I read one of the comments about the Spanish Galleon and the back deck and it made me go back so many years. I remember going to the “Galleon” every Fri.& Sat. night (even in the winter). My friends and I would take turns driving. The music, the guys and the beer!!! We had so much fun. I am so glad I got to grown up in those days, it was so good. I miss it!!!
Beach music is something that keeps you young. Nothing like going to SOS dancing all night and laying on the beach all day. I guess I have seen the Embers a couple hundured times in my life. I can’t think of any thing I have ever done that is more fun than shaging to a great beach tune. I started shaging back in the early eighties and still love it today. There are a lot of great people I have met over the years and I only get to see a few of them once a year down at SOS. I can’t wate to dance the night away.
I grew up with older bros and sis and have heard this music b/4 I could even speak a word. It has stuck with me in all my years of growing up. There are times that when I hear a beach song and it’s cold outside, it warms my insides. keep the beach music rolling.
Beach music is happy music…….music that soothes and excites. …….Quick. …Craig …..myself …all the band members who play this music are truly blessed!!
I grew up in Savannah with Beach music on the air but didn’t know it. It wasn’t until I moved away and came back that I came to appreciate it. I’ve enjoyed learning to Shag and dance to it. The best part is that my wife learned about Beach Music in college; and, she loves it too, even though she is from Ohio.
Beach Music is the only music that makes you feel good whether you are sober are had a few. The gentle smoothness of the music makes every bone in your body want to move and relax at the same time. It’s just good therapy.
With me it all started when I was about 14 listening to R&B on the late night John R. show WLAC in Nashville, Tn. It was the music, the horns, the down to earth beat and it just evolved into Beach Music in my opinion. Enjoyed playing it (although my talent was limited), but most of all it was good times and super great people.
Personally Phil, you had all the attributes, great sax player and singer as well …..great dancer and excellent PR man….. and great personality.
Mac
I have to agree Mac. Phil was a versatile musician , Great Sax Player as well as singer. Had smooth moves on the floor and was always promoting the Band. And he could also make you laugh with a great Joke, Super Personality. Great addition to The Rhondels, Holiday Band and briefly with Bob Collins and The Fab Five.
Beach Music – Life,Love and the NOT the pursuit of Happiness but Happiness! It is Memories that you will never forget and Friends that are Forever. It was listening to the Music on a jukebox during the day at the Jolly Knave and then seeing, hearing and feeling the music with the bands at the Pump House at night. It is teaching your children values, morals and common sense. Places like the Spanish Galleon and FAT HARROLLS and many more are really places you want your children to grow up knowing. There are Beach Music Festivals and Out door Concerts that draw in the Love and you cannot help but feel when you attend, as we are all there for the same purpose. It is music that builds on the Soul and makes you a better person. But if you just don’t get it – IT IS A WAY OF LIFE! It is the greatest way of life for us and all to come – all you have to do is Listen!
Beach Music ?
A style and sound I can’t live without!!!!!
When I see all these great thoughts from the people who have kept beach music alive and strong, there isn’t much more I can add. One definition came from a man Bob Fee and I knew well, the late and great, our often imitated never duplicated radio brother J.W.Pittman: “If it was playing on the jukebox at the Coachman when a cold Bud was in my hand, then it’s beach music.” To me, beach music is our history. It is those precious songs that keep us young and make us just as excited to be on highway nine crossing into Horry County as we were the first time. It is remembering the original Pappy, Buddy and Harold’s Spanish Galleon and that woman you just met on the back deck while listening to the Atlantic Ocean meet the sand and moving your feet to Roscoe Gordon’s “Surely I Love You.” Beach music is that being in part of OD where The Pad once stood and still hearing Billy Smith on that radio in my memory saying “Come party at The Pad. Why? ‘Cause yo mama did!” Beach music is Jerry Butler singing “Never Gonna Give You Up” and proving why he is the Iceman. Beach music is that low down funky soul music that John R played on WLAC, Nashville in between those commercials for Ernie’s Record Mart and Silky Staight Pommade when I would have my transistor radio under my pillow hoping my parents wouldn’t hear it. Beach music is that Atlantic 45 rpm record “Thank You John” by Willie Tee my big sister brought home that I played so many times I just about wore the grooves off of it in 1965. Beach music is a wonderful part of our lives that unites those of us who have loved it dearly and always will. Beach music is what I plan to be listening to when I’m enjoying that cold beer my brother Jim Quick’s getting on the next round.
Beach Music is not something you can hold in your hand. It is not a download, a cd, nor vinyl. It means something different to each of us yet, it is the same. I grew up and, still live in Lexington,NC. I went to the beach(OD) the first time when I was 10 years old. I am now 45. I cried the first time I saw the ocean. I layed awake late at night, listing to the muisc that was drifting in through the window with the seabreeze. I loved it, it was BEACH MUSIC! I have pased along this music to my two children, my daughter could shag by 14, my son knows all the songs and artists I have long forgotten. Beach Music IS “that song” you hear sitting on the deck dinking a beer at summer sunset. Driving by yourself on a lazy afternoon, walking by the pier, or whats in your cd player. You close your eyes and go back in time. Be it The Embers at The Copper Landing, Band of Oz at the fairgrounds, or The Tams(real Tams with Joe Pope, GOD Rest His Soul) at CT’s, or shagging the night away at The Landmark. It IS Jewel and the Rubies, Coastline, Jackie Wilson, Otis redding, Jackie Gore, Big John. Or, a young boy hearing it for the first time. BEACH MUSIC will live on FOREVER!
Beach Music is the ultimate music genre! You have ~songs to shag to, those “so tender you wanna cry” songs~ you have put on your boogie shoes disco songs~even a twang of country…..but, with a general theme in mind…MEMORIES!I think ,The Tams song says it all~~”Be Young, Be Foolish,But Be Happy!”~~Even if only in your mind ~~
Oh my gosh! What is beach music? It is happiness that just permeats the soul. When I feel blue or in the middle of the pressures of the world…all I have to do is turn it on and I can have a calgon moment and forget whatever is going on! If only the rest of world could turn it on and feel it’s soul!
Feet git to moving, No matter how old you are this music allows, no it commands you to be Young be Foolish and be Happy and so you shall!
I grew up with beach music and love it. Now I’m trying to find sheet music for Carolina Beach Music. It seems none has been written. I can’t play by ear and would love to have sheet music. Can you tell me if there is any available and where I can buy it? Thank you.
Beach Music will be here forever. You can’t listen to it ithout shuffling your feet or moving shoulders while singing along with it. Listening to beach music reminds you of the “olden days” on the boardwalk with corn dogs, candy cotton, and candy apples. The cold beer, walks on the beach at night, gosh…if only those days could have gone on forever. So the next time you hear beach music and no one is with you, just find the nearest door knob and SHAG!!!
As a local yokle Beach music is as natural a rhythym as the lull of the seagulls, the lapping of the waves, or the sand in your shoes. What would the ocean be without the beautiful sound?
I have recently become a CWB fan and must say I am very pleased to know he was reared in the area. Keep the jive alive!
Beach Music is the “Tams”, “Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs”, “The Drifters”, Ocean Drive Beach, The Castaways on Thursday Night in Greensboro, NC. It’s Carolina R & B with a little salt air and sand, it’s the Spanish Galleon, The Pad…need I say more?
Growing up in Hamlet NC it wasn’t far to the Coachmen Club in Bennettsville, SC and great beach bands. My teenage kids have grown up listening to beach music because of me and while they probably wouldn’t admit it to their friends, they know most of the words to most songs and we often sing along in the car. So, a little bit of the next generation knows a little about the music that can make you smile no matter how bad your day might be.
I’m an inplant from Indiana, and I must admit when I thought of Beach Music b4 I moved here in “97, I thought of the “Beach Boys!” Man was I wrong!! I love CWB, Embers, Fantastic Shakers, and on and on. It is just pure fun. Any time anywhere you hear these songs it makes you feel good like you’re at the beach!! I love Carolina and love Beach Music!!
Even when i hear beach music on the radio in my car-if it’s a “got to’ song(just gotta dance to that one )i’ll pull over in a safe place -get out and dance with the door handle, you should see the people looking as they ride by- but they just don’t know– they just don’t understand!i’ve been told i’m the best 300 lb shagger in three states-probly the only 300lb shagger )
but i’ve loved the music and dance for over 50 yrs- and sos conventions at fat harolds and the other clubs has made many memories- i don’t dance anymore due to a bad knee(wore it out shagging) – but the music will be with me as long as i live–
Beach Music has been a way of life for many years in the Carolina’a. The shag became famous.In Fessa Hook’s book due for release on June 17th, he traces the origin of the term “shag” all the way back to 1927! Chicken Hicks was a dancer, he is forevermore enshrined in the Shaggers Hall Of Fame at Ocean Drive Resort in N Myrtle Beach,SC.Chicken Hicks traveled around the southeast as a judge of shagging competitions until he passed away in 2004. I love the song “My Girl” and will always remember the Pavillion.!!!!!!
Beach music to me is a chance for us younger guys to enjoy what the older shaggers have been enjoying for decades.A chance to experience the culture, learn a dance thay all north carolina natives should be a part of, and to make lots of new friends and party in the best places with the coolest people
the man of the movement in beach music,has to go to fat harold. he alone has stood the test of years over yrs. he is the man of beach music and always will be…….hats off to the man , oh and that leather factory across the street well thats anthor story for anthor time , long live the sounds that the pad, the barrell, spanish gallon and so on goes the movements of her feet, as the sand ,from the shores sings out to them from the beach shaggers sands .harold my father bunky bellamy wanted to say hi so here is our hiya out to you sir the icon of the shag era keep on pumping the sounds the dj that produce the great sounds that heard , top of the hat goes off to you too .
I met my husband of 23 years at a fraternity band party at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. We danced on sand spread all over the patio that night to the Catalina’s “Little Red Book”.That’s where I fell in love, with both of them! My children were raised on Beach music.It’s party music that makes you feel alive with an urgency to dance. I taught my kids to shag in our living room. Now, we live in Texas (it’s hard to find a beach club), but I took my daughter to see the Tams last summer while visiting family in Tennessee and we had a blast! She is begging me to get them for her wedding this December… I guess beach music still inspires good times and good love!
i was raised on beach music,i learned how to shag,in back of the pavillion,at atlantic beach,when they had bars in the back,so you could hear and see the band,i wasnt old enough to get in then,but i am a carolina girl and i love beach music…
I listened to Beach Music in the mountains when I was growing up. Western Carolina University used to have all the big name R&B artists do shows in the Gym back in the ’60’s. For abot a half a buck I was seeing the Drifters, Major Lance, The Tams, The Showmen…and even opening shows for some of them with my own local group.
The area around Asheville had some great clubs at that time…The Pines, The Brown Derby, The jade Club. They all featured the groups that performed what came to be kbnown as Beach Music. It is goodtime partying music that invites you to dance!
Those Clubs Are gone now…but in the Carolinas and Virginia the music is alive and well.
Music that just thrills my soul. Its music that gets into your bones and jumps out at your feet. Its memories that have long past and memories that are still being made. Its hot days and ice cold beer at the Pad. Its those wonderful nights at the Beach Club listening to the Showmen, the Tams, Maurice, the Drifters…and its also those wonderful times today at Harolds and the OD Pavillion listening to the DJ’s still stoking the musical fires.
Carolina Beach music is best summed up in the lyrics of Big John Thompson’s “When my feet refuse to move, I’ll be good to go.”
Beach Music is “FUN Music”!!! No matter where you are or what you’re doing, when the music starts playing your feet automatically begin to move. I have met so many wonderful people through beach music and feel sorry for the ones that have not been introduced to it yet. All I can say is, you’re missing the best time of your life. I Love it!!!
Whether it’s the shag, the PC, Ocean Drive, West Panama City Beach, Columbia, Columbus, Tuscaloosa, Auburn, Athens, or Atlanta; group or party, dancin fools or no dancin fools, like Margaritaville after it, it’s a State of Mind.
Beach Music Forever!
I can remember when they still had a jukebox outdoors on the deck at the pavillion, in the 50’s. The music is just as enjoyable now as it was then!
It’s growing up in an area close enough to Myrtle Beach that I could go every weekend. It’s listening to Alabama at the Bowery (before they were Country)and watching the upside down go go girls. It’s hanging out at the Pavillon and the old Beach Club and the Spanish Galleon when it was a hole in the wall. It’s later listening to my husband play beach music on the radio at the small station he worked at. Now it’s getting together with my friends and dancing and having a great time which is only made better by beach music and all that it stands for. “Party till the lights go out, nothing but a party.”
To a guy like me that’s been singing Blues and R&B his whole life, Beach Music is like finding an oasis in a desert.To find people that can clap on 2&4 is a great thing..ha!we have to let the rest of the country know that Soul, Blues, R&B and good old Rock&Roll is alive and well!!
Beach Music is easy to describe as far as I’m concerned … It’s The Tams, Embers, Band of Oz, Clifford Curry, Just buy one of the newer Tams C.D.’s and you’ll shag to the beach music as often as you like.
Grew up listening to beach music. My mom was born & raised in Holden Beach, NC. I thank her for just being born there. Been going there all my life. I have rememberances of Hurricane Hazel if that tells you anything.
You could hear those “Carolina beach music” songs & the R&B songs in that area & Myrtle Beach that you couldn’t hear anywhere else. Radio stations wouldn’t play a lot of the music because some thought it was too explicit, but it was & still is the best music in the world.
Now I get to play those old songs for other people. I never get tired of it.
Carolina Beach Music & Shag music is absolutely the best music that was ever created…and is still being created.
‘Nuff said,
Bigfish
You can’t listen to beach music and not smile. It’s standing in front of my juke box filled with BOZ 45s and watching my feet move on their own. It’s good music, sunshine and happy times.
It’s a lifestyle. This is a perfect harmony of fun and laughter surrounded by great friends, music, and dance. Soul based because it’s from the heart for the heart, this music originates from the south but includes many aspects of American sounds from all over. It’s all about the spirit (both kinds…next round is on me).
Beach Music to me is the ocean, the south, Im a landlocked ocean lover. Even though I have relatives in the south that showed me the shag dance it wasn’t till I actually went to the beach that it all came together for me. I love watching them shag dance to the beach music. When Im feeling down or its winter here in Illinois I put on my beach music and it lifts me up , I close my eyes and dream of being there. Thank you to all the bands who play and have wrote beach music, its a blessing. I have seen The Band of Oz and Sea Cruz and they was both wonderful, Thank you again for the memories and joy beach music brings to this Illinois girl.
To me it’s hot summer days. Friends hanging out together sharing a few. Feeling young again laughing, dancing, and not worrying about tomorrow. Beach music has a way of making this happen.
Beach music brings out memories of the Spanish Galleon, Jap’s Barrel, and The Beach Club, hearing the waves, watching the women, and hummin along to the tunes of ” A quiet Place ( Johnny Dollar ! ), Some Kind of Wonderful , What Kind of Fool, or Stand By Me ! It was a time where women were all beautiful, the world was a happy place, and men had daydreams that caused _______ so bad they got bald spots on their backs, ha ha. Anyway, lot of it still here in Virginia Beach, but not the same. Close, and may we never forget. Later to all.
I think Freddy and Craig pretty much hit the nail on the head. To me Beach music makes me thing of younger days when the Spanish Galleon was just a little hole in the wall but boy did I ever have good times there, especially after my high school graduation. Beach music makes me feel happy even when I have had a crappy day. It keeps me young at heart. And for all the artist, please dont stop makin me feel young.
Beach Music is always played in the state of mind where it always makes you feel good and ditto to big D.
A cold beer on a warm night with a hot date and no plans for tomorrow
Carolina Beach Music is truly a wonderful genre that very few Americans are aware of yet our patrons are growing fewer every year. Sad to see so many treating the shag dance like it is a cult. Yes, it is very true!
The market for Beach Music seams to be in a mode of self destruction because of fanatic behavior.
Can that be changed? You bet it can. The fanatics must wake up and leave their dancing shoes on their feat, everyone must support the artists we love by buying CD’s (not asking a DJ or friend to make a copy of a copy), go to concerts, pay the artists & DJ’s a professional wage and just relax some…it’s not a competative fasion show….it is simply a wonderful genre of the best heartfelt music ever that compliments so many others styles of dance.
Beach Music is what is right with world; hot music, warm sand, cold beer, good times and great memories. It seems to bring out the best in all of us. As soon as I here the faintest strains of one of my favorite songs, I find my mind racing back to days at the beach with friends and family. Just for a few minutes I can see the band, smell the ocean and remember all the laughter!
Beach music is just music that happens to be played at the beach. The industry has changed in so many ways and at the same time it is absolutely the same. The same feel, The same fun, The same thing that brings back great memories and continues to create more memories with every trip to the beach or your favorite hangout. The people in the business are some of the most curtious and caring people you will ever meet. We are very proud to be associated with all these great entertainers. You will never find a better bunch of DJ’s that support us and the others any better anywhere in the music business. As for the fans? Well. They have to be the most loyal fans in the entire music business. They are amazing.
Beach Music, to me, is a combination of a good beat, memorable lyrics, hearing a song that makes it impossible to keep your feet still, happy times listening to yout favorite song on the radio or in a club, shagging or slow dancing with your special one to “your song”, remembering where you were or what you were doing when you heard a particular song for the first time (or maybe what you were doing when you heard that song), the friends you make as a member of the industry or as a fan of the music, good times, watching the sunset while listening to the music pour out from the OD Pavilion or your radio, Wynonnie Harris, The Dominoes, The Chairmen of the Board, Jackie Wilson, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Fantastic Shakers, Band of Oz, Catalinas, Entertainers, Bill Deal & The Rhondels, Embers, Drifters, Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs, Cloavers and all the other great bands in this industry, the memories associated with these aforementioned topics, and probably a couple of hundred other things I forgot. Man,talk about a run on sentence. I hope no English teachers whip out their red pens….
For me, and many musicians in this area, it is a living (most of the time)! But seriously, what is beach music? Ummm….. It’s the music that when you hear it, you immediately recognize it – it makes you want to get up and dance! It’s music that makes you want to forget about all your problems and just have a good time. It’s a party! And for those of us lucky enough to have grown up with beach music, it’s a memory – that special time and special someone you met at the beach…It’s the music you heard on the jukebox at the Jolly Knave or by one of the many bands at OD and The Pavilion. It’s the music that takes us back to the good times when things were simple. The bands may have changed a little, some of the clubs are gone, but the music is still here. It’s a collection of R&B, Soul, a little disco, or even some R&R – basically, if you can shag to it, it’s Beach Music!!! Many see it as a local phenomenon, something uniquely Southern, and maybe even a little Carolinian – Beach Music is OURS!
When you hear it your mind, body, soul and liver immediately go into vacation mode. For 3 minutes and 21 seconds or so all the world’s troubles go on hiatus. It takes you back to a time when life was simpler and time moved at a much slower, relaxed pace.
Having been a part of the “birth of beach music” I look at it with more reverence and appreciation than most.
I played in the 60’s at Cecil Corbett’s old Beach Club with many greats from that era. I played at beach clubs all up and down the coast of the southeast from “Jokers Three” at Nags Head to the “Old Hickory” at Panama City, Florida. The music is a part of my being and thankfully…..I have been a part of recording music that will live long after I’m gone! Thank you Sensational Epics……Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy!
There’s a myriad of things. My song I GREW UP ON THE BEACH talks about standing outside the lattice on the ground at The Pad, not quite old enough to get in and being mesmerized by the sounds I was hearing.
Playing at the Magic Attic for the first time…seeing my band’s name on the marquee. As far as I was concerned that was as far as you could go; you had made it. Then hearing The Catalinas, at The Castaways I think…and realizing I wasn’t nearly as good as I thought I was………
Women. First kiss; first…….more than kiss.
What I really remember is what another one of may songs talks about….PARTY DOWN THE STREET…..that culture of everyone is here to have a good time. Come on in, have a beer, let’s dance!
Beach Music is a lifestyle. A lifestyle that emcompasses different kinds of music and seperate genres of music with one thing in common, it feels good. The dance and Beach Music, though considered to have a disconnect of sorts, both live under the same umbrella. A lifestyle that affords the young and old a place of comfort and one hell of a party. It provides us with the future, the present and a whole lifetime of memories. Music, friends and a cold beer pretty much says it all.
Another Definition I found online…
From Beach Music Association International, “Beach Music is original style American Rhythm & Blues and Rock & Roll that always maintained its popularity in both Carolinas as popular music tastes changed elsewhere. Carolina artists and others who headquartered in the Carolinas played and recorded this music style during the ensuing years, thus being largely responsible for its continuity. The focal point where it has always been heard is the Grand Strand Myrtle Beach area of South Carolina, thus the linkage to the term Beach Music. Though often accurately aligned with the shag dance, Beach Music and the shag are not synonymous, as not all Beach Music can be shagged to and much of what is shagged to is not Beach Music. Although Beach Music has become a part of the lifestyle of the Carolinas, the music itself is universal in recognition and appeal.”
Beach Music and dancing has been the single most factor that has kept me young, & some say tooooo full of energy. It brought my mo-jo back after a heart breaking divorce. It is certainly one of I feel the safest ways to meet people. I especially like how even if you are single someone will dance with you. Wives & husbands alike don’t seem to mind. We have fun, still let our hair down & enjoy life. It motivates me like no other recreation. I travel (not toooo far) but do travel to do it. I also enjoy the lack of fear in asking a man to dance when that was unacceptable years ago. It is one of the things I did all my life but now it is a Part of my Life. I love it!
What is Beach Music?
For the past 40 years it has been a state of mind. Kind of like a special kind of Southern Parrothead.
In Roanoke, Virginia in the ’60’s it was Clifford Curry and the Showmen at the Hills Club. Today, it’s Thursday concerts at Party in the Park and the Stuart Beach Music Festival.
It was drinking beer with your college friends at the Sig Ep house in Wilson, NC Today, it is songs you sing at the beach with your now grown kids.
Beach music is the feeling you get when you get on the floor, have no idea what you’re doing and your feet start moving, everybody smiling, music that’s fun, upbeat and makes you feel good. I’m talkin, CWB, The Shakers, Ricky Godfrey, The General, and lots of 60’s and 70’s when the Beach Club, The Pad, and Fat Harolds was still in the horseshoe. I can feel it, and I just felt a whole lot of it at DJ Throwdown. Music and Entertainment is still alive on Ocean Drive!!!!!!
I feel about Beach Music like Senator Dirkson said when asked to define pornography. “I may not be able to define it, but I know it when I see (hear) it.
Beach Music to me is remembering the 70’s at the Spanish Galleon with the cold beer, great music, and beach out the back door. A time when things were slower and sweeter. It is also about the good times, good friends, and good music happening right now. You know you will look back in 10 years and say about now, those were the Good ole Days.
Beach Music to me is “friends & “love for your fellow man”. In my “many years” I have met some of the most “wonderful” people there are thru various beach music events…it’s like u have known them all your life…Beach Music is “happy – soulful” music…it keeps you young
I was born as Beach Music was Born…saw the early acts at OD and Atlantic Beach…..Including Tams,Four Tops,Jackie Wilson,The Temptations, The Embers,Billy stewart,and it evolved from the late 60’s……And i am proud of my Heritage…….and I’lll die with a lot of beach music in my soul…I’ll never forget Labor Day Week-end 1967 at OD…Tams,Temptations and Four tops..
The late Dale Van Horn and Steve Roddy did a show years ago called “Beach Music, The Sound of the South”. They tracked Beach Music from its beginnings as music enjoyed by the youth at Myrtle Beach, primarily Rhythm and Blues, and due to the times their parents would not have approved of this. It later evolved, as you mentioned, to include other things from other popular/rock’n roll music. In that show Bill Deal of the Rondells commented that during their first trip to Myrtle Beach someone said to him that they were a great “Beach Music” group. He asked, “What is Beach Music?” In Norfolk we’re a “Rock ‘n Roll” band. Being originally from Bill’s hometown of Newport News (then he lived in Warwick), and we always considered them as one of our top local “rock” bands. The Rondells were one of the earliest “beach” groups with a full brass section about the time of “Chicago” and “Blood, Sweat, and Tears”. Whatever it is, “I Love Beach Music”.
“When that shagging beat starts to move my feet I’ve got Beach Music in my Soul … It’s a pleasure I treasure…. My Heart will never grow old because I’ve got beach music in my soul… Nothing could be finer than be in Carolina with Beach Music in My Soul”. From the song: Beach Music in Your Soul by C. Vaughn Lesley & Boys Night Out.I was turned on to Beach Music at Williams Lake back in the 60’s listening to the Tams, Swinging Medallions, Pieces of Eight, Jackie Wilson, Gene Barbour & The Cavaliers, etc. etc. and just can’t seem to get it out of my soul….It’s that shaggging beat; with a little bit of bass and horn thrown in for good measure.
Beach music to me is summertime at Ocean Drive. Back when Ocean Blvd. was only 2 lanes, we would drive from Crescent to OD very slowly (lots of traffic) and flirt with boys sitting on cars next to the street. Then we would drive by the Pad and the Spanish Galleon where all of the kids hung out listening to Beach Music. Of course everyone was tanned and smelled of suntan lotion. Oh, those were the “good ole days”!
Beach Music is to me the stuff I listened to back in the 60’s and 70’s down at Atlantic Beach, NC – The Pavilion, The Embers Club, The Jolly Knave. Groups like The Tams, The Drifters, The Embers, Jackie Wilson, Junior Walker, Billy Stewart. It was happy music.
Beach Music is more than music, it is a culture. Whenever I meet someone and I hear them say they like Beach Music I know immediately we have the makings for a good friendship.
No matter where I live in the world, I hear beach music and I am back “home”, spending summers with the sunroof open cruising at the Pavillian in Myrtle Beach, the smell of sea and suntan oil in the breeze, shell necklaces, haltertops and shorts… my childhood and youth. Beach music is HOME
To borrow a quote from General Norman Johnson’s website…
“Musical trends come and go, but for more than fifty years, Beach Music has been as steady as the Atlantic Ocean’s flow to its southeastern beachfronts,”