Beach music
Encyclopedia
Beach music, also known as Carolina beach music, is a regional genre which developed from various musical styles of the forties, fifties and sixties. These styles ranged from big band
swing
instrumentals to the more raucous sounds of blues
/jump blues
, jazz
, doo-wop
, boogie
, rhythm and blues
, reggae
, rockabilly
and old-time rock and roll
. Beach music is closely associated with the style of swing dance known as the shag, or the Carolina shag
, which is also the official state dance of both North Carolina
and South Carolina
. Recordings with a 4/4 "blues shuffle" rhythmic structure and moderate-to-fast tempo are the most popular music for the shag, and the vast majority of the music in this genre fits that description.
, disco
, hip hop
and gangsta rap
, the predominantly white beach music enthusiasts have remained more loyal to the "old school" stylings. This has been due primarily to the beat
and tempo
of the music, as well as the long established non-threatening nature of this form of African-American music toward its southern white audience base.
Historical accounts of beach music as it relates to the development of this dance are often conflicting, but most agree that the Ocean Drive section of North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
is where the beach/shag phenomenon had its greatest impact among vacationing teenagers and college students.
, white youth in the Jim Crow South
could not always hear the compelling music of primarily black R&B artists in their home towns. In some communities, this remained in effect even after racial integration
was implemented in the region. However, these young people flocked to the bars and pavilions of the Carolina beaches where the shag was gaining popularity and R&B ruled the jukeboxes, and to the beach clubs where R&B artists performed live.
A major contributing influence upon this cross-racial musical affinity was the powerful radio station WLAC
in Nashville, TN, which blanketed the Southeast with the gritty, driving sound of jump blues and other forms of R&B. Stations with similar playlists began to emerge in the Carolinas and surrounding states throughout the late fifties and the sixties, increasing the popularity of the music across racial lines and contributing to the increasing popularity of the emerging new gospel
-infused R&B sound, soul music
.
http://beachshag.com/ImagesSoundsResources/BeachShag.html
, Artie Shaw
, Wynonie Harris
, Ruth Brown
, Little Willie John
, Earl Bostic
, The Drifters
, Wilbert Harrison
, Clyde McPhatter
, Billy Ward and His Dominoes, Hank Ballard
, James & Bobby Purify
, Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, The Tams
, Bob and Earl, The Tymes
, The 5 Royales, The Coasters
, Fats Domino
, Jimmy McCracklin
, Brenton Wood
, Solomon Burke
, Sam Cooke
, The Platters
, The Four Tops, Louis Prima
, Arthur Alexander
, Stick McGhee
, Jackie Brenston
, Wilbert Harrison
, Tyrone Davis
, Big Joe Turner
, Bruce Channel
, Wilson Pickett
, Clarence Carter
, Dinah Washington
, Billy Stewart
, The Temptations
, The Impressions, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Marvin Gaye
, The O'Jays
, The Spinners, Otis Redding
, Jackie Wilson
, Etta James
, The Checkers, The Clovers
, Barbara Lewis
, Don Covay
, Mary Wells
, Garnet Mimms
and The Enchanters, Ben E. King
, Major Lance
, Willie Tee
and Ernie K-Doe
.[]
While some of the "beach hits" by these artists appeared on the R&B and rock and roll charts nationally, a great many of them were "b-sides
" -- or even more obscure recordings that never charted at all. With this penchant for obscure R&B, especially from the sixties, beach music has much in common with the northern soul
phenomenon in the UK
, and perhaps even more with the popcorn sound in Belgium
.
http://beachshag.com/ImagesSoundsResources/BeachShag.html
, Stax
, etc. These included The Tassels
, Harry Deal and the Galaxies
, The Embers, The Tams
, General Johnson and the Chairman of the Board, The Catalinas
and the nationally-charting groups The Swinging Medallions, Cannonball, The Okaysions and Bill Deal and the Rhondells. Many of these bands got their start backing the famous R&B/soul artists who played at The Myrtle Beach Pavilion
and The Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, The Coachman and Four in Bennettsville
, The Cellar in Charlotte, NC
, The Embers Club in Raleigh
, The Galaxy Club in Wilson
, Rogues Gallery and Peppermint Beach Club in Virginia Beach
and other such venues. http://beachshag.com/ImagesSoundsResources/BeachShag.html
This wave of primarily white R&B artists was part of a strong but nationally short-lived musical trend known as "blue-eyed soul
" which also produced The Rascals
, The Box Tops
, John Fred
, Rare Earth
, Leon Russell
, Johnny Rivers
, Bonnie Bramlett
, Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels, and The Righteous Brothers
.
At around the same time, a fanzine
called It Will Stand (from the song of that name by The Showmen
) began to delve into the history of beach music. Concurrent with the new enthusiasm for the shag, and an increased emphasis on the roots of the music came a period of revival for many of the beach bands that had come to prominence in the sixties. In addition to these groups, younger artists began to emerge, either as members of established groups, or with groups of their own. Dedicated beach music charts began to appear, tracking the musical tastes of shaggers and other aficionados of the genre. The number of regional radio stations playing beach music began to increase substantially.http://beachshag.com/ImagesSoundsResources/BeachShag.html
In 1981, Virginia entrepreneur John Aragona sponsored the first Beach Music Awards show at the Convention Center in Myrtle Beach. He would sponsor and produce two more TV Specials over the next several years. In the late 1980s interest in Beach Music was revived and expanded. On November 19, 1988, live from Reynolds Coliseum, on the campus of North Carolina State University, "The Third Annual Beach Music Awards" was videotaped by Creative Center, a Los Angeles based TV Production Company. The Awards show featured 20 of Beach music's greatest stars and groups, 10 Los Angeles Dancers, 20 Professional Shag Dancers, twenty-piece back-up band, performing 50 of the Best Beach music Hits.
The 3rd Annual Beach Music Awards was said to be,one of the Southeast's premier events, with more than four solid hours of Beach Music. The TV Special was produced by Ron Dunn and Susan B. Donovan. Ron Dunn, DGA, served as Director and Writer, along with Susan B. Donovan (Choreographer), and the show's Executive Producer... John X. Aragona. Today, the show's four-hour videotape and triple-record album are considered Beach music Collectables. One of the key factors was a new song by O.C. Smith, "Brenda", written and produced by Charles Wallert. "Brenda" was on the national Billboard charts for 3 months and became the number one Beach music song for two years. "Brenda" was nominated for six Awards and won five at the Third Annual Beach Music Awards. The telecasts of the Beach Music Awards in the 1990s (the footage appears in TV shows currently being broadcast) brought new awareness to the wide appeal of this music. New songs that were also national hits became popular in the Beach music markets, illustrating the great desire for new product. John X. Aragona, the show's Executive Producer, has spent more than 30 years promoting Beach music. He is well respected for his record and television productions.
These shows set the stage for the CAMMY Awards show, first held at Salisbury, North Carolina
in 1995. The shows soon moved to Charlotte and then to North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
(the home of Beach music), where they are still an eagerly-anticipated and well-attended annual event under their new name, The Carolina Beach Music Awards (CBMA). The CAMMY (CBMA) show has turned into a five-day long showcase and party for the fans and the bands, with shows all along the strip in NMB. It culminates in a huge show at the Alabama Theatre. Chuck Jackson ("I Don't Want to Cry") and William Bell ("Private Number") were the national stars featured in 2009, backed by the Craig Woolard Band and the Band of Oz respectively.
The best of beach music from the early decades, from both national and regional artists, is known today as "classic beach". However, there is more to beach music than just the "oldies
". New recordings in this style are being produced regularly as part of the regional music industry in the Southeastern United States. While the terms "beach music" and "Carolina beach music" are still used, the increasing popularity of the shag has led to it sometimes being identified as "shag music". Many websites have lately begun to refer to this music as "beach & shag".
Also charting regionally are such US and international artists such as Van Morrison
, Ray Charles
, Adele
, Cee Lo Green, Kid Rock
, Michael Bublé
, Rod Stewart
, Huey Lewis
, T. Graham Brown
, Simply Red
, Wilson Pickett
, Hall & Oates
, Al Green, James Hunter
, Seal
, Duffy
, and Delbert McClinton
. In recent years, national artists of note - such as O.C. Smith, Alabama
, Jimmy Buffett
, and the Carolina's own Nappy Brown
and Roy Roberts
- have recorded music specifically aimed at this market.
Though primarily confined to a small regional fan base, in its early days what is now known as Carolina beach music was instrumental in bringing about wider acceptance of R&B music among the white population nationwide. Thus is was a contributory factor in both the birth of rock and roll and the later development of soul music as a sub-genre of R&B.
In the years since its beginning, while the older styles of R&B have faded from popularity nationally, the Carolina shag has gained wide popularity in swing dance circles around the US. This has not generally led to increased appreciation for the music of the beach bands, however. Many of these new shag dance aficionados prefer the "R&B oldies" and/or shagging to currently popular tunes that happen to have the required beat. As more networking is being done on the Internet among shag deejays and beach music fans nationwide, however, there is a growing acceptance of the regional bands by the "new shaggers".http://beachshag.com/ImagesSoundsResources/BeachShag.html
In a related trend, since the year 2000 there has been a steady increase in the popularity of Southern Soul, led by such R&B labels as Ecko
and Malaco
. These labels feature both original and new artists of "the old school", and sometimes turn out recordings aimed specifically at the beach/shag market. An example of this is "I'm In A Beach Music Mood" by Rick Lawson
. In addition, at least one dedicated Beach act, General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board, charted both nationally and internationally with their brand of Southern Soul - sometimes with songs that were not aimed specificially at the beach and shag market, such as "Three Women". In its October 15, 2010 edition, the New York Times obituary for General Johnson referred to "beach music" as an "upbeat brand of rhythm and blues".
Jimmy Buffett
cites beach music as a major influence. His CD Beach House On The Moon was intended as an homage to the genre. Though it featured The Tams, and for a while they toured with him as vocalists, the CD did not yield any tunes that were big hits with beach music fans. However, it may have been influential in popular country music. Since that release, there have been others by artists associated with Buffett that have had that "perfect shag beat" and a beach music feel to them. Some have become hits with shaggers, including "Drift Away" and "Follow Me" by Uncle Kracker
, "Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum
, "Why Don't We Just Dance" by Josh Turner
, "Some Beach" by Blake Shelton
and "When The Sun Goes Down" by Kenny Chesney
. Just as was the case with "Dancing, Shagging On The Boulevard" by Alabama
in the nineties, these country-flavored songs went over well on the dance floor regionally but did not please the more R&B oriented beach music fans. They did, however, impact the growing national shag dance scene to some degree.
In addition to these country and pop connections for the music, the pure R&B aspects of it have led to a kind of cultural cross-fertilization of beach and shag music with the northern soul scene in the UK and elsewhere. This has been due in large part to communication between DJs of the respective genres on the Internet. 'Fessa John Hook's Endless Summer Network, streamed on the Internet, has a weekly program featuring noted northern soul deejay Kev Roberts, and there are plans for its programming to also be carried on satellite radio
in Europe.
Carolina beach music was featured on the sound track of Shag, a 1989 film starring Bridget Fonda
and Phoebe Cates
, filmed in part at the Myrtle Beach Pavilion and other Grand Strand locations. Though not a wholly accurate portrayal, with the actresses' uneven attempts at Upstate Carolina accents especially notable, many viewers consider it an agreeable and entertaining "coming of age" movie, with a good soundtrack and some excellent shagging. Not widely popular in its initial release, Shag has gone on to become something of a cult film
. No doubt it has helped to foster and maintain some interest beyond the Carolinas for beach and shag music.
In what is undoubtedly the most internationally famous example of its influence, Beach Music by South Carolina
author Pat Conroy
takes its title from this regional genre of music. The novel's protagonist, Jack McCall, seeks to get his daughter more in touch with her Southern roots. He does this by introducing her to the shag and to classic beach music. He describes The Drifters' immortal song, "Save the Last Dance For Me" in this way:
"This is your Mama's and my favorite song. We fell in love dancing to it."
Then: "Carolina beach music," her uncle Dupree tells her, "is the holiest sound on earth."
WSGI
, an AM oldies station in the afternoon M-F Sun up to sun down Friday Beach Music Hour Website - http://www.wsgi1100.com/ with The Daddy-O on the Patio
WKSX, an FM oldies station in Johnston, South Carolina
plays beach music.
WIOZ
, an FM oldies station in Southern Pines, North Carolina
Star 102.5 plays beach music on Sundays from 2pm - 7pm with DJ King Curtiss Carpenter.
WLWL
, an AM oldies station in Rockingham, North Carolina
, plays beach music almost exclusively
WRBK
, an FM oldies station in Richburg, South Carolina
, prominently features beach music every Saturday afternoon from 2 PM to 9 PM, interspersed with other oldies
WSWO, an FM oldies station in Dayton, Ohio
, broadcasts the Carolina Beach Music Show every Saturday evening from 6 to 9 pm.
WSGE
, an FM station in Dallas, North Carolina
playing beach and shag Friday nights, all day Saturdays and at 5pm on Sunday afternoons.
WNCT
, an FM oldies station broadcasting in Eastern North Carolina, features Steve Hardy's Original Beach Party on Sundays from 5pm-10pm.
WPCM
920, an AM oldies and beach music station in Burlington, North Carolina
. 2007 and 2008 AM Station of the year for CBMA. Home of On The Beach with Charlie Brown syndicated program.
WVCO
, an FM station in the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
market which won Carolina Beach Music Station of the Year nine years in a row.
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
swing
Swing (genre)
Swing music, also known as swing jazz or simply swing, is a form of jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and became a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States...
instrumentals to the more raucous sounds of blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
/jump blues
Jump blues
Jump blues is an up-tempo blues usually played by small groups and featuring horns. It was very popular in the 1940s, and the movement was a precursor to the arrival of rhythm and blues and rock and roll...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, doo-wop
Doo-wop
The name Doo-wop is given to a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music that developed in African American communities in the 1940s and achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. It emerged from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and...
, boogie
Boogie
Boogie is a repetitive, swung note or shuffle rhythm, "groove" or pattern used in blues which was originally played on the piano in boogie-woogie music. The characteristic rhythm and feel of the boogie was then adapted to guitar, double bass, and other instruments. The earliest recorded...
, rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
, reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
, rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
and old-time rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
. Beach music is closely associated with the style of swing dance known as the shag, or the Carolina shag
Carolina shag
Carolina Shag is a six-count partner dance done mostly to moderate tempo music . During the dance the upper body and hips hardly move as the legs do convoluted kicks and fancy footwork. The lead is the center of attention, and the follow's steps either mirror the lead's or mark time while the lead...
, which is also the official state dance of both North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
and South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
. Recordings with a 4/4 "blues shuffle" rhythmic structure and moderate-to-fast tempo are the most popular music for the shag, and the vast majority of the music in this genre fits that description.
Early history
A majority of the recordings that constituted and/or influenced beach music early on were originally termed "race music". As popular R&B tastes changed to encompass funk, reggaeReggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
, disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
, hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
and gangsta rap
Gangsta rap
Gangsta Rap is a subgenre of hip hop music that evolved from hardcore hip hop and purports to reflect urban crime and the violent lifestyles of inner-city youths. Lyrics in gangsta rap have varied from accurate reflections to fictionalized accounts. Gangsta is a non-rhotic pronunciation of the word...
, the predominantly white beach music enthusiasts have remained more loyal to the "old school" stylings. This has been due primarily to the beat
Beat (music)
The beat is the basic unit of time in music, the pulse of the mensural level . In popular use, the beat can refer to a variety of related concepts including: tempo, meter, rhythm and groove...
and tempo
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo is the speed or pace of a given piece. Tempo is a crucial element of any musical composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece.-Measuring tempo:...
of the music, as well as the long established non-threatening nature of this form of African-American music toward its southern white audience base.
Historical accounts of beach music as it relates to the development of this dance are often conflicting, but most agree that the Ocean Drive section of North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
North Myrtle Beach is a coastal resort city in Horry County, South Carolina, United States. It was created in 1968 from four existing municipalities north of Myrtle Beach, and serves as one of the primary tourist towns along the Grand Strand...
is where the beach/shag phenomenon had its greatest impact among vacationing teenagers and college students.
Socio-political context
Prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
, white youth in the Jim Crow South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
could not always hear the compelling music of primarily black R&B artists in their home towns. In some communities, this remained in effect even after racial integration
Racial integration
Racial integration, or simply integration includes desegregation . In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity regardless of race, and the development of a culture that draws on diverse traditions, rather than merely...
was implemented in the region. However, these young people flocked to the bars and pavilions of the Carolina beaches where the shag was gaining popularity and R&B ruled the jukeboxes, and to the beach clubs where R&B artists performed live.
A major contributing influence upon this cross-racial musical affinity was the powerful radio station WLAC
WLAC
WLAC is a clear channel radio station based in Nashville, Tennessee, operating at 1510 kHz on the AM dial.-Early history:Its first broadcast took place on November 24, 1926. The call letters were chosen to contain an acronym for the first owner of the station, the Life and Casualty Insurance...
in Nashville, TN, which blanketed the Southeast with the gritty, driving sound of jump blues and other forms of R&B. Stations with similar playlists began to emerge in the Carolinas and surrounding states throughout the late fifties and the sixties, increasing the popularity of the music across racial lines and contributing to the increasing popularity of the emerging new gospel
Gospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
-infused R&B sound, soul music
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
.
http://beachshag.com/ImagesSoundsResources/BeachShag.html
Classic beach
Artists and groups that were important to the formative years of this genre include: Clifford CurryClifford Curry
Clifford Curry is an American beach music and R&B singer.His career began in high school. He was the member of several groups including: The Echoes, The Five Pennies , Hollyhocks , and the Bubba Suggs Band...
, Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw
Arthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings....
, Wynonie Harris
Wynonie Harris
Wynonie Harris , born in Omaha, Nebraska, was an American blues shouter and rhythm and blues singer of upbeat songs, featuring humorous, often ribald lyrics. With fifteen Top 10 hits between 1946 and 1952, Harris is generally considered one of rock and roll's forerunners, influencing Elvis Presley...
, Ruth Brown
Ruth Brown
Ruth Brown was an American pop and R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, composer and actress, noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for Atlantic Records in the 1950s, such as "So Long", "Teardrops from My Eyes" and " He Treats Your Daughter Mean".For these...
, Little Willie John
Little Willie John
William Edward John was better known by his stage name Little Willie John. Many sources erroneously give his second name as Edgar...
, Earl Bostic
Earl Bostic
Earl Bostic was an American jazz and rhythm and blues alto saxophonist, and a pioneer of the post-war American Rhythm and Blues style. He had a number of popular hits such as "Flamingo", "Harlem Nocturne", "Temptation", "Sleep", "Special Delivery Stomp", and "Where or When", which showed off his...
, The Drifters
The Drifters
The Drifters are a long-lived American doo-wop and R&B/soul vocal group with a peak in popularity from 1953 to 1963, though several splinter Drifters continue to perform today. They were originally formed to serve as Clyde McPhatter's backing group in 1953...
, Wilbert Harrison
Wilbert Harrison
Wilbert Harrison was an American rhythm and blues singer, pianist, guitarist and harmonica player.Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, Harrison had a Billboard #1 record in 1959 with the song "Kansas City". The song was written in 1952 and was one of the first credited collaborations...
, Clyde McPhatter
Clyde McPhatter
Clyde McPhatter was an American R&B singer, perhaps the most widely imitated R&B singer of the 1950s and 1960s, making him a key figure in the shaping of doo-wop and R&B. He is best known for his solo hit "A Lover's Question"...
, Billy Ward and His Dominoes, Hank Ballard
Hank Ballard
Hank Ballard , born John Henry Kendricks, was a rhythm and blues singer and songwriter, the lead vocalist of Hank Ballard and The Midnighters and one of the first proto-rock 'n' roll artists to emerge in the early 1950s...
, James & Bobby Purify
James & Bobby Purify
James & Bobby Purify were an R&B singing duo, whose biggest hits were "I'm Your Puppet" in 1966, which reached #6 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and in a re-recorded version #12 in the UK Singles Chart , and "Let Love Come Between Us" in 1967, which reached #23 in the U.S.James Lee Purify was...
, Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, The Tams
The Tams
The Tams, sometimes later billed as 'The Joe Pope Tams' are an American vocal group from Atlanta, Georgia, who enjoyed their greatest chart success in the 1960s, and the 1970s, and most improbably in the 1980s. Two separate versions of the group continue to perform and record. One version features...
, Bob and Earl, The Tymes
The Tymes
The Tymes are an American soul vocal group, who enjoyed equal success in the United Kingdom as their homeland. They share the distinction of being one of the few acts to have one and only one chart-topper in both the U.S...
, The 5 Royales, The Coasters
The Coasters
The Coasters are an American rhythm and blues/rock and roll vocal group that had a string of hits in the late 1950s. Beginning with "Searchin'" and "Young Blood", their most memorable songs were written by the songwriting and producing team of Leiber and Stoller...
, Fats Domino
Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino, Jr. is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Creole was his first language....
, Jimmy McCracklin
Jimmy McCracklin
Jimmy McCracklin is an American pianist, vocalist, and songwriter. His style contains West Coast blues, Jump blues, and R&B. Over a career that has spanned seven decades, he says he has written almost a thousand songs and has recorded hundreds of them...
, Brenton Wood
Brenton Wood
Brenton Wood is an American singer and songwriter, best known for his two 1967 hit singles: "The Oogum Boogum Song" and "Gimme Little Sign".-Career:...
, Solomon Burke
Solomon Burke
Solomon Burke was an American singer-songwriter, entrepreneur, mortician, and an archbishop of the United House of Prayer For All People. Burke was known as "King Solomon", the "King of Rock 'n' Soul", and as the "Bishop of Soul", and described as "the Muhammad Ali of soul", and as "the most...
, Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke
Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...
, The Platters
The Platters
The Platters were a vocal group of the early rock and roll era. Their distinctive sound was a bridge between the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition and the burgeoning new genre...
, The Four Tops, Louis Prima
Louis Prima
Louis Prima was a Sicilian American singer, actor, songwriter, and trumpeter. Prima rode the musical trends of his time, starting with his seven-piece New Orleans style jazz band in the 1920s, then successively leading a swing combo in the 1930s, a big band in the 1940s, a Vegas lounge act in the...
, Arthur Alexander
Arthur Alexander
Arthur Alexander was an American country soul singer. Jason Ankeny, music critic for Allmusic, said Alexander was a "country-soul pioneer" and though largely unknown, "his music is the stuff of genius, a poignant and deeply intimate body of work on par with the best of his...
, Stick McGhee
Stick McGhee
Granville Henry McGhee, also known as Stick McGhee, was an African-American jump blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, best known for his blues song, "Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee".-Early life:...
, Jackie Brenston
Jackie Brenston
Jackie Brenston was an African American R&B singer and saxophonist, who recorded, with Ike Turner's band, the first version of the proto-rock and roll song "Rocket 88".-Biography:...
, Wilbert Harrison
Wilbert Harrison
Wilbert Harrison was an American rhythm and blues singer, pianist, guitarist and harmonica player.Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, Harrison had a Billboard #1 record in 1959 with the song "Kansas City". The song was written in 1952 and was one of the first credited collaborations...
, Tyrone Davis
Tyrone Davis
Tyrone Davis , born Tyrone Fettson, was a leading American soul singer with a distinctive style, recording a long list of hit records over a period of more than 20 years. He had three no...
, Big Joe Turner
Big Joe Turner
Big Joe Turner was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to the songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." Although he came to his greatest fame in the 1950s with his pioneering rock and roll recordings, particularly "Shake, Rattle and...
, Bruce Channel
Bruce Channel
Bruce Channel is an American singer, known for his 1962 million selling number one hit, "Hey! Baby".-Career:...
, Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett was an American R&B/Soul singer and songwriter.A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, and frequently crossed over to the US Billboard Hot 100...
, Clarence Carter
Clarence Carter
Clarence Carter is a blind American soul singer and musician.-Life and career:Born in Montgomery, Alabama on 14 January 1936, Carter attended the Alabama School for the Blind in Talladega, Alabama, and Alabama State College in Montgomery, graduating in August 1960 with a Bachelor of Science degree...
, Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington
Dinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones , was an American blues, R&B and jazz singer. She has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s", and called "The Queen of the Blues"...
, Billy Stewart
Billy Stewart
Billy Stewart was an American musical artist, with a highly distinctive scat-singing style, who enjoyed popularity in the 1960s.-Biography:...
, The Temptations
The Temptations
The Temptations is an American vocal group having achieved fame as one of the most successful acts to record for Motown Records. The group's repertoire has included, at various times during its five-decade career, R&B, doo-wop, funk, disco, soul, and adult contemporary music.Formed in Detroit,...
, The Impressions, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
, The O'Jays
The O'Jays
The O'Jays are an American R&B group from Canton, Ohio, formed in 1963 and originally consisting of Eddie Levert , Walter Williams , William Powell , Bobby Massey and Bill Isles. The O'Jays were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004, and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005...
, The Spinners, Otis Redding
Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...
, Jackie Wilson
Jackie Wilson
Jack Leroy "Jackie" Wilson, Jr. was an American singer and performer. Known as "Mr. Excitement", Wilson was important in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul. He was known as a master showman, and as one of the most dynamic singers and performers in R&B and rock history...
, Etta James
Etta James
Etta James is an American blues, soul, rhythm and blues , rock and roll, gospel and jazz singer. In the 1950s and 1960s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer...
, The Checkers, The Clovers
The Clovers
-History:The group formed in 1946 at Armstrong High School in Washington, D.C., with members Harold Lucas, Billy Shelton, and Thomas Woods. John "Buddy" Bailey was added soon after, and they began calling themselves the "Four Clovers", with Bailey on lead...
, Barbara Lewis
Barbara Lewis
Barbara Lewis , is an American singer and songwriter whose smooth style influenced rhythm and blues.-Career:Lewis was born in Salem, near Ann Arbor, Michigan...
, Don Covay
Don Covay
Don Covay is an American R&B/rock and roll/soul music singer and songwriter most active in the 1950s and 1960s, who received a Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1994...
, Mary Wells
Mary Wells
Mary Esther Wells was an American singer who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s...
, Garnet Mimms
Garnet Mimms
Garnet Mimms is an American singer, influential in soul music and rhythm and blues...
and The Enchanters, Ben E. King
Ben E. King
Benjamin Earl King , better known as Ben E. King, is an American soul singer. He is perhaps best known as the singer and co-composer of "Stand by Me", a U.S...
, Major Lance
Major Lance
Major Lance was an American R&B singer. After a number of US hits in the 1960s, including "The Monkey Time" and "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um", he became an iconic figure in Britain in the 1970s among followers of Northern soul.-Life:Major Lance was born in Winterville, Mississippi...
, Willie Tee
Willie Tee
Willie Tee was an American keyboardist, songwriter, singer, producer and notable early architect of New Orleans funk and soul, who helped shape the sound of New Orleans for more than four decades.-Biography:...
and Ernie K-Doe
Ernie K-Doe
Ernie K-Doe , born Ernest Kador, Jr., was an African American rhythm and blues singer best known for his 1961 hit single "Mother-in-Law" which went to #1 on the Billboard pop chart in the U.S.-Early career:...
.[]
While some of the "beach hits" by these artists appeared on the R&B and rock and roll charts nationally, a great many of them were "b-sides
B-Sides
B-Sides is an iTunes-exclusive album from the Coventry Trio The Enemy, consisting of ten songs that were B-sides to the single releases from their debut album We'll Live and Die in These Towns.-Track list:#Fear Killed the Youth of Our Nation...
" -- or even more obscure recordings that never charted at all. With this penchant for obscure R&B, especially from the sixties, beach music has much in common with the northern soul
Northern soul
Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged from the British mod scene, initially in northern England in the late 1960s. Northern soul mainly consists of a particular style of black American soul music based on the heavy beat and fast tempo of the mid-1960s Tamla Motown sound...
phenomenon in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and perhaps even more with the popcorn sound in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
.
http://beachshag.com/ImagesSoundsResources/BeachShag.html
The beach bands
Another wave of artists, known today as the "beach bands" came into prominence in the mid sixties to early seventies, heavily influenced by the sound of Motown and the other prominent R&B labels of the day such as Atlantic RecordsAtlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
, Stax
Stax Records
Stax Records is an American record label, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee.Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the name Stax Records was adopted in 1961. The label was a major factor in the creation of the Southern soul and Memphis soul music styles, also releasing gospel, funk, jazz, and...
, etc. These included The Tassels
The Tassels
The Tassels were a beach music band from Raleigh, North Carolina, United States started in 1962 by Sonny Coley, the lead singer. The other members of the band were Wayne Lanier , Wally Wood , Jimmy Bumgardner , Irven Hicks and Larry Nixon . The band played throughout North Carolina for...
, Harry Deal and the Galaxies
Harry Deal and the Galaxies
Harry Deal and the Galaxies is a rock and roll band formed in Taylorsville, North Carolina, United States, in 1959. They are most famous for playing a style of music known as beach music, which began in the 1960s in dance clubs of South Carolina beach towns such as Myrtle Beach.-Career:The group...
, The Embers, The Tams
The Tams
The Tams, sometimes later billed as 'The Joe Pope Tams' are an American vocal group from Atlanta, Georgia, who enjoyed their greatest chart success in the 1960s, and the 1970s, and most improbably in the 1980s. Two separate versions of the group continue to perform and record. One version features...
, General Johnson and the Chairman of the Board, The Catalinas
The Catalinas
The Catalinas are an American beach music band from the late 1950s.Since the Catalinas formed in Charlotte, North Carolina, in late 1957, over 60 accomplished guitarists, keyboardists, trumpet players, drummers, bass players & singers have been a part of the band...
and the nationally-charting groups The Swinging Medallions, Cannonball, The Okaysions and Bill Deal and the Rhondells. Many of these bands got their start backing the famous R&B/soul artists who played at The Myrtle Beach Pavilion
Myrtle Beach Pavilion
The Myrtle Beach Pavilion was an amusement park located on the corner of 9th Avenue and Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Considered by many as the "heart" of Myrtle Beach, the Pavilion sat one block away from the beach itself in a pedestrian-populated area, surrounded by similar...
and The Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, The Coachman and Four in Bennettsville
Bennettsville, South Carolina
Bennettsville is a city in and the county seat of Marlboro County, South Carolina, United States. and home to the Bennettsville Historic District...
, The Cellar in Charlotte, NC
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2010, Charlotte's population according to the US Census Bureau was 731,424, making it the 17th largest city in the United States based on population. The Charlotte metropolitan area had a 2009...
, The Embers Club in Raleigh
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...
, The Galaxy Club in Wilson
Wilson, North Carolina
Wilson is a city and the county seat of Wilson County in the Coastal Plain region of the U.S. state of North Carolina. The 18th largest city in the state, Wilson had a population of 49,167 according to the 2010 census.- Geography :...
, Rogues Gallery and Peppermint Beach Club in Virginia Beach
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Virginia Beach is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay...
and other such venues. http://beachshag.com/ImagesSoundsResources/BeachShag.html
This wave of primarily white R&B artists was part of a strong but nationally short-lived musical trend known as "blue-eyed soul
Blue-eyed soul
Blue-eyed soul is a media term that was used to describe rhythm and blues and soul music performed by white artists, with a strong pop music influence. The term was first used in the mid-1960s to describe white artists who performed soul and R&B that was similar to the music of the Motown and...
" which also produced The Rascals
The Rascals
The Rascals were an American blue-eyed soul group initially active during the years 1965–72. The band released numerous top ten singles in North America during the mid- and late-1960s, including the U.S. #1 hits "Good Lovin'" , "Groovin'" , and "People Got to Be Free"...
, The Box Tops
The Box Tops
The Box Tops were a Memphis rock group of the second half of the 1960s. They are best known for the hits "The Letter," "Neon Rainbow," "Soul Deep," "I Met Her in Church," and "Cry Like A Baby," and are considered a major blue-eyed soul group of the period...
, John Fred
John Fred
John Fred was a blue-eyed soul, Cajun swamp pop and bubble-gum pop performer from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, best known for the song, "Judy in Disguise ".-Career:...
, Rare Earth
Rare Earth (band)
Rare Earth is an American rock band affiliated with Motown's Rare Earth record label , who prospered in 1970-1972. Although not the first white band signed to Motown, Rare Earth was the first big hit-making act signed by Motown that consisted only of white members...
, Leon Russell
Leon Russell
Claude Russell Bridges , known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music....
, Johnny Rivers
Johnny Rivers
Johnny Rivers is an American rock and roll singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. His styles include folk songs, blues, and revivals of old-time rock 'n' roll songs and some original material...
, Bonnie Bramlett
Bonnie Bramlett
Bonnie Bramlett is an American singer and sometime actress known for her distinctive vocals in rock and pop music. This began in the mid 1960s as a backing singer, forming the husband-and-wife team of Delaney & Bonnie, and continuing to the present day as a solo artist.-Life and career:Bramlett...
, Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels, and The Righteous Brothers
The Righteous Brothers
The Righteous Brothers were the musical duo of Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield. They recorded from 1963 through 1975, and continued to perform until Hatfield's death in 2003...
.
The revival years
In the 1980s, beach music enjoyed a major revival in the Carolinas, thanks largely to the formation of a loose-knit organization known as The Society of Stranders (SOS). Originally intended as a relatively small social gathering of shag enthusiasts, "beach diggers" and former lifeguards meeting yearly in the Ocean Drive section of North Myrtle Beach, S.O.S. quickly grew to become a major Spring event.At around the same time, a fanzine
Fanzine
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...
called It Will Stand (from the song of that name by The Showmen
The Showmen
The Showmen were a New Orleans based American doo-wop and R&B group. formed in 1961. They are best remembered for their track, "It Will Stand", issued on Minit Records. "It Will Stand" reached #61 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1961, and when re-released in 1964 re-charted and reached #80...
) began to delve into the history of beach music. Concurrent with the new enthusiasm for the shag, and an increased emphasis on the roots of the music came a period of revival for many of the beach bands that had come to prominence in the sixties. In addition to these groups, younger artists began to emerge, either as members of established groups, or with groups of their own. Dedicated beach music charts began to appear, tracking the musical tastes of shaggers and other aficionados of the genre. The number of regional radio stations playing beach music began to increase substantially.http://beachshag.com/ImagesSoundsResources/BeachShag.html
In 1981, Virginia entrepreneur John Aragona sponsored the first Beach Music Awards show at the Convention Center in Myrtle Beach. He would sponsor and produce two more TV Specials over the next several years. In the late 1980s interest in Beach Music was revived and expanded. On November 19, 1988, live from Reynolds Coliseum, on the campus of North Carolina State University, "The Third Annual Beach Music Awards" was videotaped by Creative Center, a Los Angeles based TV Production Company. The Awards show featured 20 of Beach music's greatest stars and groups, 10 Los Angeles Dancers, 20 Professional Shag Dancers, twenty-piece back-up band, performing 50 of the Best Beach music Hits.
The 3rd Annual Beach Music Awards was said to be,one of the Southeast's premier events, with more than four solid hours of Beach Music. The TV Special was produced by Ron Dunn and Susan B. Donovan. Ron Dunn, DGA, served as Director and Writer, along with Susan B. Donovan (Choreographer), and the show's Executive Producer... John X. Aragona. Today, the show's four-hour videotape and triple-record album are considered Beach music Collectables. One of the key factors was a new song by O.C. Smith, "Brenda", written and produced by Charles Wallert. "Brenda" was on the national Billboard charts for 3 months and became the number one Beach music song for two years. "Brenda" was nominated for six Awards and won five at the Third Annual Beach Music Awards. The telecasts of the Beach Music Awards in the 1990s (the footage appears in TV shows currently being broadcast) brought new awareness to the wide appeal of this music. New songs that were also national hits became popular in the Beach music markets, illustrating the great desire for new product. John X. Aragona, the show's Executive Producer, has spent more than 30 years promoting Beach music. He is well respected for his record and television productions.
These shows set the stage for the CAMMY Awards show, first held at Salisbury, North Carolina
Salisbury, North Carolina
Salisbury is a city in Rowan County in North Carolina, a state of the United States of America. The population was 33,663 in the 2010 Census . It is the county seat of Rowan County...
in 1995. The shows soon moved to Charlotte and then to North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
North Myrtle Beach is a coastal resort city in Horry County, South Carolina, United States. It was created in 1968 from four existing municipalities north of Myrtle Beach, and serves as one of the primary tourist towns along the Grand Strand...
(the home of Beach music), where they are still an eagerly-anticipated and well-attended annual event under their new name, The Carolina Beach Music Awards (CBMA). The CAMMY (CBMA) show has turned into a five-day long showcase and party for the fans and the bands, with shows all along the strip in NMB. It culminates in a huge show at the Alabama Theatre. Chuck Jackson ("I Don't Want to Cry") and William Bell ("Private Number") were the national stars featured in 2009, backed by the Craig Woolard Band and the Band of Oz respectively.
The best of beach music from the early decades, from both national and regional artists, is known today as "classic beach". However, there is more to beach music than just the "oldies
Oldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....
". New recordings in this style are being produced regularly as part of the regional music industry in the Southeastern United States. While the terms "beach music" and "Carolina beach music" are still used, the increasing popularity of the shag has led to it sometimes being identified as "shag music". Many websites have lately begun to refer to this music as "beach & shag".
Artists of note
Current regional artists and groups who appear on the Beach and Shag music charts include:- The TamsThe TamsThe Tams, sometimes later billed as 'The Joe Pope Tams' are an American vocal group from Atlanta, Georgia, who enjoyed their greatest chart success in the 1960s, and the 1970s, and most improbably in the 1980s. Two separate versions of the group continue to perform and record. One version features...
- Clifford CurryClifford CurryClifford Curry is an American beach music and R&B singer.His career began in high school. He was the member of several groups including: The Echoes, The Five Pennies , Hollyhocks , and the Bubba Suggs Band...
- Band of Oz
- Bill PinkneyBill PinkneyBill Pinkney was an American performer and singer. Pinkney was often said to be the last surviving original member of The Drifters, who achieved international fame with numerous hit records. He was chiefly responsible for its early sounds...
's DriftersThe DriftersThe Drifters are a long-lived American doo-wop and R&B/soul vocal group with a peak in popularity from 1953 to 1963, though several splinter Drifters continue to perform today. They were originally formed to serve as Clyde McPhatter's backing group in 1953... - General Johnson's Chairmen of the Board
- Rick StricklandRick StricklandRick Strickland is a Southern Gospel singer. Although he is currently a soloist, Strickland has sung tenor with several groups in the past, including The Singing Americans , The Sound , The Kingdom Heirs , The Stamps Quartet, and Ed Enoch and Golden Covenant...
Also charting regionally are such US and international artists such as Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
, Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
, Adele
Adele (singer)
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins , known professionally as Adele, is an English singer-songwriter. She was the first recipient of the Brit Awards Critics' Choice and was named the number-one predicted breakthrough act of 2008 in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2008...
, Cee Lo Green, Kid Rock
Kid Rock
Robert James "Bob" Ritchie , known by his stage name Kid Rock, is an American singer-songwriter, musician and rapper with five Grammy Awards nominations...
, Michael Bublé
Michael Bublé
Michael Steven Bublé is a Canadian singer. He has won several awards, including three Grammy Awards and multiple Juno Awards. His first album reached the top ten in Canada and the UK. He found worldwide commercial success with his 2005 album It's Time, and his 2007 album Call Me Irresponsible was...
, Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
, Huey Lewis
Huey Lewis
Huey Lewis is an American musician, songwriter and occasional actor.Lewis sings lead and plays harmonica for his band Huey Lewis and the News, in addition to writing or co-writing many of the band's songs...
, T. Graham Brown
T. Graham Brown
Anthony "T." Graham Brown is an American country music artist. Active since 1986, Brown has recorded a total of thirteen studio albums, and has charted more than twenty singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts...
, Simply Red
Simply Red
Simply Red were a British soul band that sold more than 50 million albums over a 25-year career. Their style drew influences from blue-eyed soul, new romantic, rock, reggae and jazz...
, Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett was an American R&B/Soul singer and songwriter.A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, and frequently crossed over to the US Billboard Hot 100...
, Hall & Oates
Hall & Oates
Hall & Oates are an American musical duo composed of Daryl Hall and John Oates. They achieved their greatest fame in the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s. Both sing and play instruments. They specialized in a fusion of rock and roll and rhythm and blues styles, which they dubbed "rock and soul."...
, Al Green, James Hunter
James Hunter (singer)
James Hunter is a Grammy Award-nominated English R&B musician and soul singer.-Career:Hunter's career began with a band called "Howlin' Wilf and the Vee-Jays," who released their first album in 1986 entitled Cry Wilf. Later he released three more with his own band...
, Seal
Seal (musician)
Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel , known simply as Seal, is a British soul and R&B singer-songwriter, of Nigerian and Brazilian background. Seal has won numerous music awards throughout his career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male in 1992, four Grammy Awards, and an...
, Duffy
Duffy (singer)
Aimée Ann Duffy , known as Duffy, is a Welsh singer-songwriter. Her 2008 debut album Rockferry entered the UK Album Chart at number one. It was the best-selling album in the United Kingdom in 2008 with 1.68 million copies sold...
, and Delbert McClinton
Delbert McClinton
Delbert McClinton is an American blues rock and electric blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, harmonica player, and pianist....
. In recent years, national artists of note - such as O.C. Smith, Alabama
Alabama (band)
Alabama is a country music and southern rock band from Fort Payne, Alabama, United States. The band was founded in 1969 by Randy Owen and his cousin Teddy Gentry , soon joined by Jeff Cook...
, Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett
James William "Jimmy" Buffett is a singer-songwriter, author, entrepreneur, and film producer. He is best known for his music, which often portrays an "island escapism" lifestyle. Together with his Coral Reefer Band, Buffett's musical hits include "Margaritaville" , and "Come Monday"...
, and the Carolina's own Nappy Brown
Nappy Brown
Napoleon Brown Goodson Culp better known by his stage name Nappy Brown, was an American R&B singer. His hits include the 1955 Billboard chart #2, "Don't Be Angry" and "Night Time Is the Right Time"...
and Roy Roberts
Roy Roberts (blues artist)
Roy Roberts is an American blues artist, music producer, and singer-songwriter. Roy Roberts grew up in a small town in Livingston, Tennessee, listening to blues and R&B on radio stations...
- have recorded music specifically aimed at this market.
Though primarily confined to a small regional fan base, in its early days what is now known as Carolina beach music was instrumental in bringing about wider acceptance of R&B music among the white population nationwide. Thus is was a contributory factor in both the birth of rock and roll and the later development of soul music as a sub-genre of R&B.
In the years since its beginning, while the older styles of R&B have faded from popularity nationally, the Carolina shag has gained wide popularity in swing dance circles around the US. This has not generally led to increased appreciation for the music of the beach bands, however. Many of these new shag dance aficionados prefer the "R&B oldies" and/or shagging to currently popular tunes that happen to have the required beat. As more networking is being done on the Internet among shag deejays and beach music fans nationwide, however, there is a growing acceptance of the regional bands by the "new shaggers".http://beachshag.com/ImagesSoundsResources/BeachShag.html
In a related trend, since the year 2000 there has been a steady increase in the popularity of Southern Soul, led by such R&B labels as Ecko
Ecko Records
Ecko Records is an American blues and soul blues record label, founded in 1995 by John Ward in Memphis, Tennessee. Ecko Records has released albums by Rufus Thomas, Barbara Carr, Denise LaSalle, Lee "Shot" Williams, Bill Coday, Earl Gaines, Ollie Nightingale, Carl Sims, Quinn Golden, and numerous...
and Malaco
Malaco Records
Malaco Records is an independent record label based in Jackson, Mississippi. Malaco is and has been the home of various major soul, blues and gospel acts, such as Johnnie Taylor, Bobby Bland, ZZ Hill, Denise LaSalle, Benny Latimore, Dorothy Moore, Little Milton, Shirley Brown, Marvin Sease, and the...
. These labels feature both original and new artists of "the old school", and sometimes turn out recordings aimed specifically at the beach/shag market. An example of this is "I'm In A Beach Music Mood" by Rick Lawson
Rick Lawson
Rick Lawson is an American soul, blues and R&B singer. He began his singing career at the age of four, singing as the lead vocalist for the "W&W Jr. Spirituals" of Raymond, Mississippi...
. In addition, at least one dedicated Beach act, General Johnson and the Chairmen of the Board, charted both nationally and internationally with their brand of Southern Soul - sometimes with songs that were not aimed specificially at the beach and shag market, such as "Three Women". In its October 15, 2010 edition, the New York Times obituary for General Johnson referred to "beach music" as an "upbeat brand of rhythm and blues".
Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett
James William "Jimmy" Buffett is a singer-songwriter, author, entrepreneur, and film producer. He is best known for his music, which often portrays an "island escapism" lifestyle. Together with his Coral Reefer Band, Buffett's musical hits include "Margaritaville" , and "Come Monday"...
cites beach music as a major influence. His CD Beach House On The Moon was intended as an homage to the genre. Though it featured The Tams, and for a while they toured with him as vocalists, the CD did not yield any tunes that were big hits with beach music fans. However, it may have been influential in popular country music. Since that release, there have been others by artists associated with Buffett that have had that "perfect shag beat" and a beach music feel to them. Some have become hits with shaggers, including "Drift Away" and "Follow Me" by Uncle Kracker
Uncle Kracker
Matthew Shafer is an American rock musician known as Uncle Kracker. His singles include "Follow Me", "Smile", and "Drift Away". His music was more rap rock-based at the start of his career before turning in a more rock and Top 40 style music direction on later releases.-Biography:Shafer was born...
, "Need You Now" by Lady Antebellum
Lady Antebellum
Lady Antebellum is an American country pop music group formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 2006. The trio is composed of Charles Kelley , Dave Haywood and Hillary Scott .The group made its debut in 2007 as guest vocalists on Jim Brickman's single "Never Alone", before signing to Capitol...
, "Why Don't We Just Dance" by Josh Turner
Josh Turner
Joshua Otis "Josh" Turner is a country music singer and actor signed to MCA Nashville Records in 2003, Turner has released four studio albums for the label. The first of these was 2003's Long Black Train, whose title track was his breakthrough single release...
, "Some Beach" by Blake Shelton
Blake Shelton
Blake Tollison Shelton is an American country music artist. In 2001, he made his debut with the single "Austin". Released as the lead-off single from his self-titled debut album, "Austin" went on to spend five weeks at Number One on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts...
and "When The Sun Goes Down" by Kenny Chesney
Kenny Chesney
Kenneth "Kenny" Arnold Chesney is an American country music singer and songwriter. Chesney has recorded 15 albums, 14 of which have been certified gold or higher by the RIAA. He has also produced more than 30 Top Ten singles on the U.S...
. Just as was the case with "Dancing, Shagging On The Boulevard" by Alabama
Alabama (band)
Alabama is a country music and southern rock band from Fort Payne, Alabama, United States. The band was founded in 1969 by Randy Owen and his cousin Teddy Gentry , soon joined by Jeff Cook...
in the nineties, these country-flavored songs went over well on the dance floor regionally but did not please the more R&B oriented beach music fans. They did, however, impact the growing national shag dance scene to some degree.
In addition to these country and pop connections for the music, the pure R&B aspects of it have led to a kind of cultural cross-fertilization of beach and shag music with the northern soul scene in the UK and elsewhere. This has been due in large part to communication between DJs of the respective genres on the Internet. 'Fessa John Hook's Endless Summer Network, streamed on the Internet, has a weekly program featuring noted northern soul deejay Kev Roberts, and there are plans for its programming to also be carried on satellite radio
Satellite radio
Satellite radio is an analogue or digital radio signal that is relayed through one or more satellites and thus can be received in a much wider geographical area than terrestrial FM radio stations...
in Europe.
Carolina beach music was featured on the sound track of Shag, a 1989 film starring Bridget Fonda
Bridget Fonda
Bridget Jane Fonda is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in films such as The Godfather Part III, Single White Female, Point of No Return, It Could Happen to You, and Jackie Brown...
and Phoebe Cates
Phoebe Cates
Phoebe Cates is an American film actress, model, and entrepreneur known for her roles in several teen films, most notably Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Gremlins.-Early life:...
, filmed in part at the Myrtle Beach Pavilion and other Grand Strand locations. Though not a wholly accurate portrayal, with the actresses' uneven attempts at Upstate Carolina accents especially notable, many viewers consider it an agreeable and entertaining "coming of age" movie, with a good soundtrack and some excellent shagging. Not widely popular in its initial release, Shag has gone on to become something of a cult film
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
. No doubt it has helped to foster and maintain some interest beyond the Carolinas for beach and shag music.
In what is undoubtedly the most internationally famous example of its influence, Beach Music by South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
author Pat Conroy
Pat Conroy
Pat Conroy , is a New York Times bestselling author who has written several acclaimed novels and memoirs. Two of his novels, The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini, were made into Oscar-nominated films.-Early life:...
takes its title from this regional genre of music. The novel's protagonist, Jack McCall, seeks to get his daughter more in touch with her Southern roots. He does this by introducing her to the shag and to classic beach music. He describes The Drifters' immortal song, "Save the Last Dance For Me" in this way:
"This is your Mama's and my favorite song. We fell in love dancing to it."
Then: "Carolina beach music," her uncle Dupree tells her, "is the holiest sound on earth."
Radio airplay
Beach Music Air Force, An updated listing of all local radio station reporting the play of Beach Music in a regular rotation.WSGI
WSGI (AM)
WSGI is a daytime-only radio station broadcasting a full service music format. Licensed to Springfield, Tennessee, USA, the station is currently owned by Lightning Broadcasting, LLC....
, an AM oldies station in the afternoon M-F Sun up to sun down Friday Beach Music Hour Website - http://www.wsgi1100.com/ with The Daddy-O on the Patio
WKSX, an FM oldies station in Johnston, South Carolina
Johnston, South Carolina
Johnston is a town in Edgefield County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 2,336 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Augusta, Georgia metropolitan area...
plays beach music.
WIOZ
WIOZ-FM
WIOZ-FM is a radio station broadcasting a Adult Contemporary format. Licensed to Southern Pines, North Carolina, USA. The station is currently owned by Meridian Communications. L.L.C. and features programing from Premiere Radio Networks.-History:...
, an FM oldies station in Southern Pines, North Carolina
Southern Pines, North Carolina
Southern Pines is a town in Moore County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 10,918 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Southern Pines is located at ....
Star 102.5 plays beach music on Sundays from 2pm - 7pm with DJ King Curtiss Carpenter.
WLWL
WLWL
WLWL is a radio station broadcasting an urban oldies music format with an emphasis on beach music that is licensed to Rockingham, North Carolina, USA. While its effective coverage range is the Sandhills area of Central North and South Carolina, its signal reaches as Charlotte, 75 miles to the west...
, an AM oldies station in Rockingham, North Carolina
Rockingham, North Carolina
Rockingham is a city in Richmond County, North Carolina, United States named after the Marquis of Rockingham. The population was 9,672 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Richmond County...
, plays beach music almost exclusively
WRBK
WRBK
WRBK is a non-commercial oldies radio station located in Chester, South Carolina, that broadcasts on a frequency of 90.3 MHz.WRBK is programmed on an automated basis rather than featuring live-on air personalities. Sometimes, a jingle featuring the station's frequency and callsign is played...
, an FM oldies station in Richburg, South Carolina
Richburg, South Carolina
Richburg is a town in Chester County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 332 at the 2000 census.-Geography and climate:Richburg is located at ....
, prominently features beach music every Saturday afternoon from 2 PM to 9 PM, interspersed with other oldies
WSWO, an FM oldies station in Dayton, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
, broadcasts the Carolina Beach Music Show every Saturday evening from 6 to 9 pm.
WSGE
WSGE
WSGE operates at 91.7 FM and is a non-commercial, public radio station owned and managed by Gaston College, in Dallas, North Carolina. The station's studio is located in the Craig Arts & Sciences building...
, an FM station in Dallas, North Carolina
Dallas, North Carolina
Dallas is a town in Gaston County, North Carolina and a suburb of both Charlotte and Gastonia. The population was 3,402 at the 2000 census. It was named for George M. Dallas, Vice President of the United States of America under James K. Polk.-Geography:...
playing beach and shag Friday nights, all day Saturdays and at 5pm on Sunday afternoons.
WNCT
WNCT-FM
WNCT-FM is a radio station broadcasting a Classic hits format. Licensed to Greenville, North Carolina, USA, the station serves the Rocky Mount, Greenville-New Bern-Jacksonville area. The station is currently owned by Beasley Broadcasting....
, an FM oldies station broadcasting in Eastern North Carolina, features Steve Hardy's Original Beach Party on Sundays from 5pm-10pm.
WPCM
WPCM
WPCM is a radio station broadcasting a Oldies format. Licensed to Burlington-Graham, North Carolina, USA. The station is currently owned by Carolina Radio Group, Inc..-History:...
920, an AM oldies and beach music station in Burlington, North Carolina
Burlington, North Carolina
Burlington is a city in Alamance and Guilford counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the principal city of the Burlington, North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Alamance County, in which most of the city is located. The population was 49,963 at the 2010...
. 2007 and 2008 AM Station of the year for CBMA. Home of On The Beach with Charlie Brown syndicated program.
WVCO
WVCO
WVCO is an American radio station in the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, market. They play a mix of oldies/Carolina beach music/shag and have a large than average playlist.-History:...
, an FM station in the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Myrtle Beach is a coastal city on the east coast of the United States in Horry County, South Carolina. It is situated on the center of a large and continuous stretch of beach known as the Grand Strand in northeastern South Carolina. It is considered to be a major tourist destination in the...
market which won Carolina Beach Music Station of the Year nine years in a row.
External links
- East Carolina Pirates Beach Music Festival
- Triangle Beach Music Festival
- Tropical Music & Island Country Artists
- Davis Valley Winery Beachfest - Beach Music Festival
- Carolina Beach Music Awards - Official Site
- Beach Music Association International (BMAI)
- Carolina Shag History
- Vocal Group Hall of Fame
- Shagdance.com -- The Official Site of SOS/ACSC