BEACH BOYS SURFIN USA

I believe this was their first Ed Sullivan appearance...

(250) I MEET BRIAN WILSON

One day in the studio I met Brian Wilson, of the Beach Boys, who showed me some of the lyrics he was writing, wanting my opinion. I was honored when anyone asked my opinion. I thought Brian was insecure about his talent. And today I know that Brian has struggled for years to overcome so much, I can admire him as much for his ability to persist as I can his musical genius.

At the time what we had around the studio was fun working. His wife Marilyn, used to drive by me as she dropped Brian off or picked him up from the studio, and she'd give me the finger - along with a big smile and a laugh!

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(249) SURF MUSIC and ME

Maybe songs from the late 1950's like Buddy Knox's "Hula Love" and Pat Boone's "Love Letters in the Sand," and the Hawaii craze that started when Hawaii became a state of the United States, started it...

Although I was not so much into it myself at the time, having been raised in the Smokey Mountains far from any ocean and more into my roots in Country, the summer of 1962 was the summer that California surf music washed across the United States like an tidal wave from west to east!

In the studios I began to meet the surf music stars.

INTERVIEW WITH FRANKIE AVALON IN VEGAS on CHARLIE BASS SHOW

In this interview, Frankie talks about the history of the singers coming out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - so very many - including Fabian. "It's a neighborhood, ethnic people who survived together..."

If you click on the link above you'll get to the FRANKIE AVALON on the HISTORY OF ROCK page.

(248) FRANKIE AVALON GEARS UP FOR THE BEACH MOVIES!

My Friend from New York, Frankie Avalon, was also headed for a movie career. (He would eventually make eight beach movies in about three years for Warner Brothers.) Frankie, from Philadelphia, and an Italian family, was teamed up with Annette Funicello, who became the Italian-American princess of films. He would make "Back to the Beach," "Beach Blanket Bingo," "Beach Party," "Muscle Beach Party,"...



Surf music was the craze and taking the teen idol romance movie to the beach made a lot of sense. I knew Frankie Avalon in New York and at one point while with United Artists I'd been considered to star in beach movies myself. But the farm country aspect of me, that aspect that I had in common with James Dean, was too strong.

(247) NICK ADAMS THE REBEL

Nick Adams, the actor, was a friend of mine and a friend of Elvis' who came up to the parties at Elvis'. He was a serious, hard working actor, who had been THE REBEL in a 1959 television serious. He used to say that other people bet on horses, but he bet on himself.


Nick had been a friend of James Dean's - good friends - and as you can imagine, he was fascinated with me and all the James Dean connotations. Nick had spent a lot of time with Jimmy in Los Angeles and after Jimmy died in that car crash, he wrote about him for publication. I talked to Nick the way I talked with Jimmy's friend Christine White. I wanted to know everything about James Dean.

Maybe what made Elvis, Nick, and me friends, was that we all came from hardworking families who had lived impoverished. We didn't have to be reminded that we were living a life in Hollywood that wasn't just a dream - and that was ever more true as Elvis's parties were attended by some of the most beautiful women! Nick was the most reserved of our bunch when it came to the women, but he sure appreciated them!

While Elvis and I were southerners, Nick had grown up the son of Eastern European immigrants in the North.

By 1962 Nick's determination was bringing him closer to his ambitions to win an Oscar. Not to get ahead of our story here, but if you click on the title above, you'll get to a good bio of Nick, which mentions his eventual death as a murder mystery. (At the time we all believed it to be an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.)

(246) BOBBY DARIN stars with NICK ADAMS

My friend Bobby Darin came out to LA from New York to pursue an acting career, had a whirlwind romance with actress Sandra Dee, and married her. I got to pitch songs to him on the set of some of their movies and in the offices of his music publishing house. Bobby continued to make television appearances as a singer, as he did on the Judy Garland show, while pursing an acting career.

Bobby made a World War II story film in 1962 that also stared Nick Adams, my friend and Elvis'.

WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC RIGHTS INFORMATION

Once in a while we'll be posting a notice like this one that reminds readers that the original content of this blog is Copyright Wes Bryan and Christine Trzyna with all rights reserved including Internet and International Rights.

If interested in speaking to me, Wes Bryan, please contact us at the e-mail address wewritethebook@yahoo.com

We appreciate your contribution of positive suggestions for this blog!

We are linking to a good many web sites, favoring the official web sites of various famous and important people as well as reference sites and historical YouTube video. If we link to your site or a video you uploaded and you don't want us to reference it, please let us know, and we'll take down the link. We also attempt to review our Youtube videos for the same reason, and will take down or substitute any link that proves to be someone else's copyright. The content of other people's sites remains their own property.

Thank you for your consideration and courtesy.

Christine Trzyna & Wes Bryan

HENRY Z. JONES, Actor, Singer, and Genealogist, on ELVIS PRESLEY

This is from PSYCHIC ROOTS, Serendipity and Intuition in Genealogy, by Henry Z. Jones, C 1993, and published by Genealogical Publishing House in Baltimore.

This book is about how researchers sometimes find or get information needed during a roots quest through paranormal means, such as dreams, visions, hunches, odd coincidences, synchronicity, and serendipity.

Henry was an actor in Hollywood for some time - his first career - and was on Tennessee Ernie Ford's show. He says that he was an Elvis Fan and he and his partner tried to style their voices on Elvis for some time. They were signed by the same man who produced Elvis in his RCA Victor years, Steve Sholes. Henry got involved in intense research on the Palantine German's, Germans who went to Ireland and then the United States, and is now a Fellow of the American Genealogical Society. One of the families he research is the Pressler's, who are Elvis' ancestors (and the origin of his family name)! Henry says that several of Elvis' key band members played on their sessions and his very first role was on MGM's "Girl Happy," which starred Elvis. He was thrilled and Elvis "Couldn't have been nicer to me."

So here is what happened to Henry while he was watching - in grief - when CBS- Television showed the last filmed concert of Elvis', which had occurred October 3, 1977.

"As I sat back in my chair, stressed out but determined somehow to watch Elvis' final appearances, I felt an unknown energy almost an electricity, pulsing throughout my living room. It was so strong, I could almost touch it. Then, at the very mini second the show began, a large framed picture of my daughter, hanging on the wall opposite my chair, crashed to the floor with a gigantic boom. In all my years of living in that house no picture had ever fallen and none ever did again."

MAY 8 - RICK NELSON HAPPY BIRTHDAY ! - THE NELSON TWINS

Rick Nelson was born May 8, 1940. HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICK!

I met Rick Nelson in Los Angeles through Elvis. He and I played on EP Enterprises, Elvis' football team in pick up games at Valley College and public parks. I have only good things to say about Rick, who came across as rather shy at first, but played to win. He was raised on his parent's television show "Ozzie and Harriet," and had grown up in the business and turned into a teen heartbreaker ! Friends of mine were always trying to find good songs to get over to Rick and his people.

Some of my generation of musical artists, have children who've followed in their footsteps into the music business. Rick Nelson's sons, who go by "The Nelsons," are two of them.

Click on the title above to get to the official RICK NELSON WEB SITE!

HELLO TO OLD FRIENDS IN AKRON !!!

Friends of mine from my Akron days recently contacted us and I want to say hello to them, Buddy Crine, Dominic and David Allen Coe, and the gang who hung out at Kippy's and Billy Lee's were nice enough to contact me through friends. I remember you all - Dominic was a "Fonzie" -like guy in those days. As usual, I feel surprised that they found me! Wes