Diane and I grew up listening to the female singers and groups from the 1960s. Beehive, featuring six talented women–with Beehive haircuts (remember them?–who enthusiastically performed these hits, celebrates the great songs from those years when we were teenagers.
Musical Faire, a local theater group, put on this production which immediate sold out all performances. Clearly, there’s an audience for this type of musical nostalgia.
I remembered most of the songs in Beehive but not all of them. Annette Funicello originally sang “I’ll Never Change Him” (from the Beach Blanket Bingo movie) but I forgot all about that song. The same with “Junkman” and “Academy Award.” But I knew all the rest.
If Beehive shows up in your neighborhood, I recommend you go enjoy it! GRADE: A
I know beehives existed but they must not have been popularly in my area because I don’t remember ever seeing anybody with them, except on tv/movies. Certainly no girls in my school ever had one. On what does Janis Joplin, Dion and Jefferson Airplane songs doing here?
Steve, at the end of BEEHIVE there are references to the End of the Sixties. Moms Mabley also charted with her version of “Abraham, Martin & John” in the U.S. in 1969. The Jefferson Airplane lead singer was Grace Slick (featured in BEEHIVE with “Someone to Love”). And Janis Joplin changed the style of female singers at the end of the 1960s. No more beehives!
The B52s helped reintroduce the haircut to later generations. Steve is overlooking the power of chronological propinquity in jukebox musicals…
Todd, chronological propinquity is the Term of the Day!
Most of these songs I remember fondly!
I was kind of crazy for those “black girl groups” and the fact that you could hear them only on AFN made me hate the German radio and its silly Kisch variety of pop music even more.
Wolf, our local American radio stations in the 1960s played plenty of girl groups. The Canadian radio stations…not so much.
Even the Canadian Top 40 stations avoided them? Wow.
BTW, is that photo of the cast you saw? The one woman looked (very) slightly like Ann Harada, at casual glance, but she doesn’t seem to have been in any productions of this one. (We were in high school together, she’s a year older.)
Todd, all the women in the production of BEEHIVE we saw were local singers.
Well, Harada is actually closer to six months older, I see, but that got her (sensibly) into the Class of ’81.
Canadian stations were required to play a certain percentage of recordings by Canadian artists which limited British and U.S,. artists.
Steve, I think that requirement that Canadian radio stations play a certain percentage of recordings by Canadian artists is still in effect. But that rule blocked a lot of American and British groups from being heard North of the Border.
I don’t remember Beehive Hair-dos myself, but my grandparents said they were all the rage when they were kids.
Dan, as a movie aficionado I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of Fifties and Sixties teen movies where beehive hairdos were featured. One of my sisters had a beehive hair style in the early 1960s.
Beehives are the most common women’s hairstyle in The Far Side.
Michael, good point!
I wore one to every prom I went to but not in every day life. I wish I could download the picture for you.
Patti, I’m sure you looked cute in that Beehive hair-do!
I don’t remember the songs you don’t remember, and I assume the beehive dance is original for the play.
I’d see that in a heartbeat. Have you seen Million Dollar Quartet? I was treated to that for my birthday this year, at the Coronado Playhouse, which was the first time I went there. Loved it if you get a chance, don’t miss it. the featured hairstyle was the men’s ducktail, though i seem to recall there was a beehive on the lone female in the show.
Maggie, yes, we’ve seen THE MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET. Diane and I love jukebox musicals!
I knew this sounded familiar. Believe it or not, we saw this at the Top of the Gate in Greenwich Village in…wait for it.. 1986!
“One Fine Day” is one of Jackie’s favorite songs.
As for “The Name Game” – do Chuck.
A lot of good songs here. Is it “I Sold My Heart to the Junkman”? That was by Patti Labelle and the Bluebells.
Jeff, thanks for identifying Patti LaBelle and the Bluebells and “Junkman.” Jackie has great taste: “One Fine Day” is a classic!
I just had to look that up and – lo and behold, there’s a long article on wiki, naming many stars who wore it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beehive_(hairstyle)
Now I remember it as the hairstyle of the Ronettes, especially Ronnie Spector.
Wolf, the Ronettes and other girl groups in the early 1960s popularized the Beehive hair-do.