Friday Dance Party: Groovy Motorbike

This week's Dance Party is brief, grainy, and a little kookie. It's from the old television series Shindig, a variety show aimed at teenagers which ran for a few years on ABC in the mid-60s. Shindig! and its competitor on NBC, Hullabaloo, were attempts to bring the teen audience from American Bandstand to primetime. The house band for Shindig! included Glen Campbell, Billy Preston, and Leon Russell, and the back-up singers included Bobby Sherman and Jackie DeShannon. The teen audience supported these shows for only a few years, during which time just about every pop act (including The Beatles, if you can believe it) appeared on the program.

In the following clip, the guest band is The Rondells, and as they are singing about Hondas, naturally, their appearance includes a dance number on motorcycles.

In addition to having a house band and house singers, Shindig! had their own troop of dancers. Though the age of this week's Dance Party has caused some focus problems, keep an eye on the blond girl on the far right (the one without the glasses). She's clearly having some balance issues, as she lip-syncs the backup vocals, but she's about the only interesting thing in the clip. It's Teri Garr.