Butch Remembers ‘the Little Old Lady from Pasadena’

 I don’t know about you, but sometimes I just can’t get certain songs out of my noggin. Now, I’m not talking about a song that I just heard, but instead, the tunes that I listened to sixty or seventy years ago…catchy songs that I played over and over again on those 45 rpm records. I woke up the other night, singing in my head,”It’s the little old lady from Pasadena, Has a pretty little flower bed of white gardenias, But parked in a rickety old garage, Is a brand new shiny red super stock Dodge.” (“The Little Old Lady From Pasadena” by Jan and Dean–1964.

   If you are a baby boomer like me, I would bet anything that you can sing along with most of those “car songs.”  “Spring little Cobra gettin’ ready to strike, spring little Cobra with all of your might, Hey, little Cobra, don’t you know you’re gonna shut ’em down.” (by the Rip Chords–1964). How about this one…”Three deuces and a four speed and a 389, Listen to her tackin’ up now, listen to her whine, Come on and tune it in, wind it up, blow it out GTO.” (“G.T.O” by Ronnie and the Daytonas–1964). Some of you older boomers might recall, “They arrested me and put me in jail, and called my pappy to throw my bail, and he said ‘Son, you’re gonna drive me to drinkin’, if you don’t stop drivin’ that hot rod Lincoln.'” (“Hot Rod Lincoln by Johnny Bond–1960). In 1964, Jan and Dean had another hit “Dead Man’s Curve”…”I was cruisin’ in my Stingray late one night, when an XKE pulled up on the right, He rolled down the window of his shiny new Jag, And challenged me then and there to drag.”

   There were over 100 car songs in the ’50s and ’60s, but the group who had the most hits were the Beach Boys. “Declinin’ numbers at at even rate, at the count of one we both accelerate, My Stingray is light, the slicks are starting to spin, but the 413 is really diggin’ in.” (“Shut Down”–1963). And how about…”Just a little deuce coupe with a flathead mill, but she’ll walk a Thunderbird like she’s standing still, she’s ported and relieved and she’s stroked and bored, she’ll drive a hundred and forty with the top end floored.” (“Little Deuce Coupe”–1963).

   The first Beach Boys song that I heard was…”Well I saved my pennies and I saved my dimes, for I knew there would be a time…when I would buy a brand new 409.” (“409″–1962). One of the most catchy songs by this group was…”Well, she got her daddy’s car, and she cruised through the hamburger stand now, seems like she forgot all about the library, like she told her old man now, and with the radio blastin’, goes cruisin’ just as fast as she can now…and she’ll have fun, fun, fun…till her daddy takes the T-Bird away.” (“Fun Fun Fun”–1964)

    I don’t know what it is about those car songs, but they are still floating around in my brain. In today’s world, who is going to sing about a Toyota, Honda, Kia, Hyundai, Subaru, Tesla, etc.? They can’t find any words to rhyme! And back in the day, no group ever composed a song about our family’s 1956 pink and white 4-door Buick Special or, after I got my license, our 1963 red and white Chevy station wagon (with no radio) which, unfortunately, I had to take on dates. Better than no car at all I guess, but I would have had a LOT more “FUN, FUN, FUN” if Dad had taken that station wagon away…and provided me with a ’65 Corvette!

John “Butch” Dale is a retired teacher and County Sheriff. He has also been the librarian at Darlington the past 37 years, and is a well-known artist and author of local history.