REVIEW: The Original Stars at American Bandstand

Written by can'tcatchup

Last Wednesday night, August 16, we were at the new Dick Clark American Bandstand theater and saw the show, "Fabian and the Original Stars of Bandstand". I was in HEAVEN! What a super GREAT show that brought back all the memories of music in the late 50's and 60's … what I call “REAL MUSIC”! :D These guys can still rock at their “advanced age”… hehe. I have to say that FABIAN, though he is now 63 is still a hearthrob ... it was great to sing along when he did "Turn Me Loose" and all the other oldies! The other performers were Bobby Vee ("Take Good Care of My Baby," "Rubber Ball" ... and so MANY other hits ....what a genuinely NICE guy!), Brian Hyland
(Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini and others), Chris Montez ("Let's Dance"), and the Chiffons ("One Fine Day"). They all seemed to be enjoying themselves as they performed, and from the extent of the audience participation; so did they/we!!! It was fun to learn a little about their lives today and their families. They didn’t dwell on it, just enough to satisfy our curiosities. Fabian, at age 63, is getting a pretty late start on the grandparent bit. He has one grandchild, a little girl who just turned 1 year old. Bobby Vee enjoyed talking about his hometown of Fargo, ND. The small live band that accompanied the “original stars” included his son Tommy Vee on bass and a younger son of Bobby's as drummer. I probably remember Chris Montez the least of all of these from my teen years, but he seemed like such a nice guy and really got into it last Wednesday night. I enjoyed his section very much. There was only one original Chiffon there ... she and her niece and daughter did the Chiffon hits..


The show is worth every penny of the ticket price ($39 … but we got radio station vouchers for $27.50). Including intermission, the show ran 2 hours and 25 minutes, and afterwards, they were all VERY willing to stay on as long as it took for autographs and photos out in the lobby. There was a professional photographer, but they had no problems with people using their own cameras either.

I think anyone who was a teen in the late 50’s through the mid-60’s would really be thrilled with this show, but even younger or older should like it too. Any of you younguns' who don't recognize some of their hits, you can listen to them at
http://www.dickclarksbranson.com/shows/sub_original.html (http://www.dickclarksbranson.com/shows/sub_original.html). As you can
probably tell, this show was the highlight of my trip!