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| Fred Fox, Jr. (center, in black and gold) on Happy Days. |
There's a lot going on during "Stolen Melodies," an episode from Happy Days' sixth season. Suzi Quatro returns as rocker Leather Tuscadero for the next to last time. She has a dynamite new song called "Moonlight Love," and she wants to go on a TV dance show called Sok Hop to promote it. But that show's host, overaged "dean of teens" Skip Oliver (Dick Patterson), won't let her perform for the kiddies unless she has a hit on the charts. Worse yet, a washed-up singer named Freddie (writer-producer Fred Fox, Jr.) steals "Moonlight Love" and passes it off as his own. This looks like a mess only Fonzie (Henry Winkler) can clear up! It all leads to the unveiling of Leather's latest hit, "Do the Fonzie."
"Stolen Melodies" takes us back to the carefree early 1960s when Chubby Checker's "The Twist" led to dozens of other dance craze songs, each one kookier than the last. It seemed like every week brought a new dance: the watusi, the bird, the jerk, the frug, etc., etc. Being a teenager must've been exhausting back then. You'd have to watch American Bandstand every day after school just to keep up. A few years later, the British Invasion kinda killed that trend, but then the '70s brought dance crazes back with a vengeance. Will it go 'round in circles?
Anyway, on this week's These Days Are Ours podcast, we're talking about "Stolen Melodies" and all things related to it. We sure would like you to join us.