The Transition to Mainstream Pop
Payola scandal
"Payola" is a contraction of the words "pay" and"Victrola" (LP record player), and entered the English language via the record business. The first court case involving payola was in 1960. On May 9, Alan Freed was indicted for accepting $2,500 which he claimed was a token of gratitude and did not affect airplay.
"Will You Love Me Tomorrow"
"Will You Love Me Tomorrow", also known as "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow", is a song written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. It was originally recorded in 1960 by the Shirelles, who took their single to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song is also notable for being the first song by an all-girl group to reach number one in the United States.
Wouldn't It Be Nice
"Wouldn't It Be Nice" is a song written by Brian Wilson, Tony Asher, and Mike Love for American rock band the Beach Boys, released as the opening track on their 1966 album Pet Sounds. The song was also released as a single two months after the album's release with "God Only Knows" as its B-side.[3] In other countries, the sides were flipped, with "Wouldn't It Be Nice" as the single's B-side. Its lyrics describe a couple in love lamenting about being too young to run off to get married, fantasizing about how nice it would be if they were adults. Like other tracks for Pet Sounds, Wilson constructed the song's symphonic Wall of Sound arrangement using a variety of instruments not normally associated with popular music of its time, including accordions and a detuned twelve-string guitar. The music contains classical music devices that are unusual for a rock song, such as bitonality and ritardando. After recording the instrumental track, the Beach Boys overdubbed their voices to Wilson's exact specifications.
The death of Rock & Roll
1. Carl Perkins was in a car accident that nearly killed him in 1956 2. Little Richard retired to the ministry in 1957 3. Elvis joined the army in 1958, and his career never recovered afterwards 4. Jerry Lee Lewis was shunned after he married his cousin in 1958 5. Chuck Berry was arrested in 1959 for violating the Mann Act 6. Buddy Holly died in 1959 and Eddie Cochran died in 1960
Girl Group
A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of whom were influenced by doo-wop, and which flourished in the late 1950s and early 1960s between the decline of early rock and roll and start of the British Invasion. ith the advent of the music industry and radio broadcasting, a number of girl groups emerged, such as the Andrews Sisters. The late 1950s saw the emergence of all-female singing groups as a major force, with 750 distinct girl groups releasing songs that reached US and UK music charts from 1960 to 1966.[5] The Supremes alone held 12 number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 during the height of the wave and throughout most of the British Invasion rivaled the Beatles in popularity.[6] In later eras, the girl group template would be applied to disco, contemporary R&B, and country-based formats, as well as pop.
Teen Idols
A teen idol is a celebrity with a large teenage fan-base. Teen idols are generally young but not necessarily teenaged. Often teen idols are actors or singers, but some sports figures also have an appeal to teenagers.
A&M Records
A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent label by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was eventually acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distributing releases from Polydor Ltd. from the UK. Throughout its operations, A&M housed well-known acts such as Captain & Tennille, Sting, Supertramp, Bryan Adams, Burt Bacharach, Liza Minnelli, the Carpenters, Paul Williams, Janet Jackson, Cat Stevens, Peter Frampton,Elkie Brooks, Carole King, Amy Grant, Joan Baez, the Police, CeCe Peniston, Soundgarden, and Sheryl Crow.
Aldon Music
Aldon Music was a New York-based music publishing company, founded by Don Kirshner and Al Nevins in 1958. Aldon is regarded as having played a significant role in shaping the Brill Building Sound in the late 1950s and 1960s.[1] Nevins was a music industry veteran with "money, reputation, experience and connections". He had been a member of a popular instrumental trio The Three Suns for over twenty years and was also the co-writer of their 1944 hit "Twilight Time", which sold over three million copies. At the time Aldon was founded, Nevins had recently been forced to leave the group due to heart trouble. Kirshner, who was many years younger than Nevins, had recently achieved some success in partnership with singer-songwriter Bobby Darin, although they did not work together for long.[2] Seeking to break into publishing, Kirshner approached two major songwriting teams, Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman and then Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller before convincing Nevins to become his partner. Aldon enjoyed enormous success in the late 1950s and early 1960s with scores of hits written by its contract songwriters, such as Neil Sedaka, Howard Greenfield, Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, Neil Diamond, Paul Simon, Phil Spector, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil and Jack Keller. Aldon established Kirshner as a major music publisher and was the springboard for even greater success. Aldon Music also owned a record company, Dimension Records. Kirshner and Nevins sold the company to Columbia Pictures for a substantial sum in 1963, leading to subsequent successes with The Monkees and The Archies.
American bandstand
American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer. The show featured teenagers dancing to Top 40 music introduced by Clark
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer best known for being the multi-tasking leader and co-founder of the rock band the Beach Boys. After signing with Capitol Records in 1962, Wilson wrote or co-wrote more than two dozen Top 40 hits for the group.[2] Because of his unorthodox approaches to song composition and arrangement and mastery of recording techniques, he is widely acknowledged as one of the most innovative and influential creative forces in popular music by critics and musicians alike.
Bubblegum pop
Bubblegum pop (also known as bubblegum music or simply bubblegum) is a genre of pop rock music with an upbeat sound contrived and marketed to appeal to pre-teens and teenagers, that may be produced in an assembly-line process, driven by producers and often using unknown singers. Bubblegum's classic period ran from 1967 to 1972. he genre was predominantly a singles phenomenon rather than an album-oriented one. Because many acts were manufactured in the studio using session musicians, a large number of bubblegum songs were by one-hit wonders.
Burt Bacharach
Burt Freeman Bacharach (/ˈbækəræk/ bak-ə-rak; born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer, pianist, and singer. A six-time Grammy Award winner[2] and three-time Academy Award winner,[3] he is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many with lyrics written by Hal David. Most of Bacharach & David hits were written specifically for and performed by Dionne Warwick, but earlier associations (from 1957-63) saw the composing duo work with Marty Robbins, Perry Como, Gene McDaniels, and Jerry Butler. Following the initial success of these collaborations, Bacharach went on to write hits for Gene Pitney, Cilla Black, Dusty Springfield, Jackie DeShannon, Bobbie Gentry, Tom Jones, Herb Alpert, B. J. Thomas, The Carpenters, among numerous other artists.
Chubby Checker
Chubby Checker (born Ernest Evans; October 3, 1941) is an American singer. He is widely known for popularizing the twist dance style, with his 1960 hit cover of Hank Ballard's R&B hit "The Twist". In September 2008 "The Twist" topped Billboard's list of the most popular singles to have appeared in the Hot 100 since its debut in 1958, an honor it maintained for an August 2013 update of the list.[1] He also popularized the Limbo Rock and its trademark limbo dance, as well as various dance styles such as the fly. Checker is the only recording artist to place five albums in the Top 12 all at once. The performer has often claimed to have personally changed the way we dance to the beat of music, as when he told Billboard, "Anyplace on the planet, when someone has a song that has a beat, they're on the floor dancing apart to the beat. And before Chubby Checker, it wasn't here." Clay Cole agreed: "Chubby Checker has never been properly acknowledged for one major contribution to pop culture—Chubby and the Twist got adults out and onto the dance floor for the first time.
Dick Dale
Dick Dale (born Richard Anthony Monsour on May 4, 1937) is an American surf rock guitarist, known as The King of the Surf Guitar. He pioneered the surf music style, drawing on Eastern musical scales and experimenting with reverberation. He worked closely with Fender to produce custom-made amplifiers,[1] including the first-ever 100-watt guitar amplifier.[2] He pushed the limits of electric amplification technology, helping to develop new equipment that was capable of producing distorted, "thick, clearly defined tones" at "previously undreamed-of volumes." The "breakneck speed of his single-note staccato picking technique" and showmanship with the guitar is considered a precursor to heavy metal music, influencing guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen. He worked with a band called the Del-tones
Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick (/ˈdiːɒn ˈwɔːrwɪk/) (born Marie Dionne Warrick; December 12, 1940) is an American singer, actress and TV-show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health. Having been in a partnership with songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Warwick ranks among the 40 biggest hit makers of the entire rock era, based on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles Charts. She is second only to Aretha Franklin as the most-charted female vocalist of all time, with 69 of Warwick's singles making the Billboard Hot 100 between 1962 and 1998.
Gold Star Studios
Gold Star Studios was a major independent recording studio located in Los Angeles, California, United States. For more than thirty years, from 1950 to 1984, Gold Star was one of the most influential and successful commercial recording studios in the world. Founded by David S. Gold and Stan Ross and opened in October 1950, Gold Star Recording Studios was located at 6252 Santa Monica Boulevard near the corner of Vine Street in Hollywood, the studio name was a combination of the names of the two owners -- (Dave) GOLD and STA(n) R(oss). The studio was renowned for its unique custom-designed recording equipment, which was designed and built by Gold, as were its famed echo chambers.[1]
Hal David
Harold Lane "Hal" David (May 25, 1921 - September 1, 2012) was an American lyricist. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York City. He was best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach and his association with Dionne Warwick.
Brill Building pop
In the 1960s, the new pop writing scene was centered around the Brill Building, at the corner of West 49th and Broadway. Here, more than 150 music business employed hundreds of songwriters and music professionals. They became extremely influential to the pop music created in the 60s
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller
Lyricist Jerome "Jerry" Leiber (April 25, 1933 - August 22, 2011)[1] and composer Mike Stoller (born March 13, 1933) were American songwriting and record producing partners. They found initial successes as the writers of such crossover hit songs as "Hound Dog" (1952) and "Kansas City" (1952). Later in the 1950s, particularly through their work with The Coasters, they created a string of ground-breaking hits—including "Young Blood" (1957), "Searchin'" (1957), and "Yakety Yak" (1958)—that used the humorous vernacular of teenagers sung in a style that was openly theatrical rather than personal.[2] They were the first to surround black music with elaborate production values, enhancing its emotional power with The Drifters in "There Goes My Baby" (1958), which influenced Phil Spector, who studied their productions while playing guitar on their sessions. Leiber and Stoller wrote hits for Elvis Presley including "Love Me" (1956), "Jailhouse Rock" (1957), "Loving You", "Don't", and "King Creole".[3] They also collaborated with other writers on such songs as "On Broadway", written with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil; "Stand By Me", written with Ben E. King; "Young Blood", written with Doc Pomus; and "Spanish Harlem", co-written by Leiber and Phil Spector. They were sometimes credited under the pseudonym Elmo Glick. In 1964, they launched Red Bird Records with George Goldner and, focusing on the "girl group" sound, released some of the greatest classics of the Brill Building period.[4] In all, Leiber and Stoller wrote or co-wrote over 70 chart hits. They were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.[5]
Pet Sounds
Pet Sounds is the eleventh studio album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released on May 16, 1966. It initially met with a lukewarm critical and commercial response in the United States, peaking at number 10 in the Billboard 200, a significantly lower placement than the band's preceding albums. In the United Kingdom, the album was hailed by its music press and was an immediate commercial success, peaking at number 2 in the UK Top 40 Albums Chart and remaining among the top ten positions for six months. Pet Sounds has subsequently gathered worldwide acclaim from critics and musicians alike, and is widely considered to be one of the most influential albums in music history.[1][2] The album was produced and arranged by Brian Wilson, who also wrote and composed almost all of its music. Most of the recording sessions were conducted between January and April 1966, a year after he had quit touring with the Beach Boys in order to focus more attention on writing and recording. For Pet Sounds, Wilson's goal was to create "the greatest rock album ever made" — a personalized work with no filler tracks. It is sometimes considered a Wilson solo album, repeating the themes and ideas he had introduced with The Beach Boys Today! one year earlier. The album's lead single, "Caroline, No", was issued as his official solo debut. It was followed by two singles credited to the group: "Wouldn't It Be Nice" (backed with "God Only Knows") and "Sloop John B". Collaborating with lyricist Tony Asher, Wilson's symphonic arrangements wove elaborate layers of vocal harmonies, coupled with sound effects and unusual instruments such as bicycle bells, buzzing organs, harpsichords, flutes, Electro-Theremin, trains, Hawaiian-sounding string instruments, Coca-Cola cans, and barking dogs, along with the more usual keyboards and guitars. Unified by Wall of Sound-style production techniques, the album comprised Wilson's "pet sounds", consisting mainly of introspective songs like "You Still Believe in Me", about faithfulness, "I Know There's an Answer", a critique of LSD users, and "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times", an autobiographical statement on social alienation (as well as the first use of a theremin-like instrument on a rock record). Recording was completed on April 13, 1966, with an unprecedented total production cost that exceeded $70,000 (equivalent to $520,000 in 2016).
Phil Spector
Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector (born Harvey Phillip Spector; December 26, 1939)[nb 1] is an American record producer, musician, songwriter, and businessman who developed the Wall of Sound, a music production formula he described as a "Wagnerian" approach to rock and roll. Spector is considered the first auteur among musical artists for acting not only as a producer, but also the creative director, writing or choosing the material, and masterminding all phases of the recording process. He is acknowledged as one of the most influential figures in pop music history.[2] Characterized as "the first tycoon of teen",[3] Spector began his career in 1958 as the producer and co-founder of the Teddy Bears, performing on guitar and vocals, and penning their US number one single "To Know Him Is to Love Him". At the height of his success, he wrote, co-wrote, or produced for girl groups such as the Ronettes and the Crystals, and later, the Beatles' John Lennon and George Harrison - often using the Los Angeles conglomerate "the Wrecking Crew" as his de facto house band. Spector's other chart-topping singles include "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" (the Righteous Brothers, 1964), "The Long and Winding Road" (the Beatles, 1970), and "My Sweet Lord" (Harrison, 1970). By the mid 1970s, Spector had produced more than thirty US Top 40 singles for various artists, but following sporadic work with Leonard Cohen, Dion DiMucci, and the Ramones, he remained largely inactive.
Surf music
Surf music is a subgenre of rock music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Southern California. It was especially popular from 1962 to 1964 in two major forms.[11] The first is instrumental surf, distinguished by reverb-drenched electric guitars played to evoke the sound of crashing waves, largely pioneered by Dick Dale and the Del-Tones. The second is vocal surf, which took the original surf sound and added vocal harmonies backed by basic Chuck Berry rhythms, a movement led by the Beach Boys. Dick Dale developed the surf sound from instrumental rock, where he added Middle Eastern and Mexican influences, a Fender Reverb Unit, and the rapid alternate picking characteristics. His regional hit "Let's Go Trippin'" (1961) launched the surf music craze, inspiring many others to take up the approach. The genre first achieved national exposure when it was represented by vocal groups such as the Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, and Bruce & Terry.[13] Their "vocal surf" style drew more from African-American genres such as doo wop with its scat singing and tight harmonies. Dale is quoted on such groups: "They were surfing sounds [with] surfing lyrics. In other words, the music wasn't surfing music. The words made them surfing songs. ... That was the difference ... the real surfing music is instrumental."[14] At the height of its popularity, surf music rivaled girl groups and Motown for top American popular music trends.[15] It is sometimes referred to interchangeably with the California Sound.[16] During the later stages of the surf music craze, many of its groups started to write songs about cars and girls; this was later known as hot rod rock.[17]
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al Jardine. They emerged at the vanguard of the "California Sound", initially performing original surf songs that gained international popularity for their distinct vocal harmonies and lyrics reflecting a southern California youth culture of surfing, cars, and romance. Rooted in jazz-based vocal groups, 1950s rock and roll, and doo-wop, Brian led the band in devising novel approaches to music production, arranging his compositions for studio orchestras, and experimenting with several genres ranging from pop ballads to psychedelic and baroque styles. The group began as a garage band managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, with Brian's creative ambitions and sophisticated songwriting abilities dominating the group's musical direction. After 1964, their albums took a different stylistic path that featured more personal lyrics, multi-layered sounds, and recording experiments. In 1966, the Pet Sounds album and "Good Vibrations" single vaulted the group to the top level of rock innovators and established the band as symbols of the nascent counterculture era. Following Smile's dissolution, Brian gradually ceded production and songwriting duties to the rest of the band, reducing his input because of mental health and substance abuse issues. The group's public image subsequently faltered, and they struggled to reclaim their commercial momentum in America. The continued success of their greatest hits albums during the mid 1970s precipitated the band's transition into an oldies act, a move that was denigrated by critics and many fans. Since the 1980s, much-publicized legal wrangling over royalties, songwriting credits and use of the band's name transpired.
"On Broadway"
The Drifters. a song written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil in collaboration with the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in 1963
The Monkees
The Monkees are an American-British pop rock band originally active between 1965 and 1971, with subsequent reunion albums and tours in the decades that followed. They were formed in Los Angeles in 1965 by Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider for the American television series The Monkees, which aired from 1966 to 1968. The musical acting quartet was composed of Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork and British actor and singer Davy Jones. The band's music was initially supervised by producer Don Kirshner. Dolenz described the Monkees as initially being "a TV show about an imaginary band ... that wanted to be The Beatles, [but] that was never successful".[1] The actor-musicians, however, soon became a real band.
The Righteous Brothers
The Righteous Brothers is a musical duo of Bill Medley and (formerly) Bobby Hatfield. They began performing together in 1962 in the Los Angeles area as part of a five-member group called The Paramours,[1] but adopted the name "The Righteous Brothers" when they embarked on their recording career as a duo. Their most active recording period was in the 1960s and 70s, and although the duo was inactive for some years, Hatfield and Medley reunited in 1981 and continued to perform until Hatfield's death in 2003. Their emotive vocal style is sometimes dubbed "blue-eyed soul".[2] Hatfield and Medley have contrasting vocal range that helped them create a distinctive sound as a duet, but also strong vocal talent individually that allowed them to perform as soloists. Medley sang the low parts with his bass-baritone voice, with Hatfield taking the higher register vocals with his countertenor voice. They had their first hit with the 1964 song "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", produced by Phil Spector and often considered one of his finest works.
The Wrecking Crew
a loose-knit circle of Los Angeles' top studio session musicians whose services were constantly in demand during their heyday in the 1960s and early 1970s. Usually playing collectively in varying configurations, often anonymously, they backed dozens of popular acts on numerous top-selling hits of the era. They are now widely considered one of the most successful session recording units in music history. The group's ranks began to materialize in the late 1950s, but in the early 1960s they fully coalesced into what became their most recognizable form when they became the de facto house band for Phil Spector, playing on many of the hits that he produced at the time, and contributing to the development of his Wall of Sound production methods. After the initial success of Spector's records, they became the most requested session musicians in Los Angeles, playing behind many popular recording artists such as Jan & Dean, Sonny & Cher, Barry McGuire, the Mamas & the Papas, Frank Sinatra, and Nancy Sinatra.
Wall of Sound
a music production formula developed by American record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios in the 1960s, with assistance from engineers Stan Ross, Larry Levine, and the session musician conglomerate known as "the Wrecking Crew". The intention was to create a dense aesthetic that came across well on AM radio and jukeboxes popular in the era. In order to attain the Wall of Sound, Spector's arrangements called for large ensembles (including some instruments not generally used for ensemble playing, such as electric and acoustic guitars), with multiple instruments doubling and even tripling many of the parts to create a fuller, richer sound.[4] Spector also included an array of orchestral instruments—strings, woodwind, brass and percussion—not previously associated with youth-oriented pop music, characterizing his methods as "a Wagnerian approach to rock & roll: little symphonies for the kids".
"Walk On By"
a song composed by Burt Bacharach, with lyrics by Hal David. The song was originally recorded in 1964 by Dionne Warwick on her album, Make Way for Dionne Warwick. Warwick's version peaked at number 6 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for a 1965 Grammy Award for the Best Rhythm and Blues Recording.
"You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling"
a song written by Phil Spector, Barry Mann, and Cynthia Weil. It was first recorded by the Righteous Brothers in 1964, and was produced by Phil Spector. Their recording is considered by some music critics to be the ultimate expression and illustration of Spector's "Wall of Sound" recording technique.[3] It has also been described by various music writers as "one of the best records ever made" and "the ultimate pop record".[1] The original Righteous Brothers version was a critical and commercial success on its release, becoming a number-one hit single in both the United States and the United Kingdom in February 1965. It was the fifth best selling song of 1965 in the US. It also entered the Top 10 in the UK chart on an unprecedented three separate occasions
Carole King
an American composer and singer-songwriter.[2] She is the most successful female songwriter of the latter half of the 20th century, having written or co-written 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1955 and 1999.[3] King also wrote 61 hits that charted in the UK,[4] making her the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts between 1952 and 2005.[5] King's career began in the 1960s when she, along with her then husband Gerry Goffin, wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists, many of which have become standards. She has continued writing for other artists since then. King's success as a performer in her own right did not come until the 1970s, when she sang her own songs, accompanying herself on the piano, in a series of albums and concerts. After experiencing commercial disappointment with her debut album Writer, King scored her breakthrough with the album Tapestry, which topped the U.S. album chart for 15 weeks in 1971 and remained on the charts for more than six years.[6] King has made 25 solo albums, the most successful being Tapestry, which held the record for most weeks at No. 1 by a female artist for more than 20 years. Her most recent non-compilation album was Live at the Troubadour in 2010, a collaboration with James Taylor that reached number 4 on the charts in its first week and has sold over 600,000 copies. Her records sales were estimated at more than 75 million copies worldwide.
Gerry Goffin
an American lyricist. Writing initially with his wife Carole King, he co-wrote many international pop hits of the early and mid-1960s, including the US No.1 hits "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", "Take Good Care of My Baby", "The Loco-Motion", and "Go Away Little Girl". It was later said of Goffin that his gift was "to find words that expressed what many young people were feeling but were unable to articulate."[1] After he and King divorced, Goffin wrote with other composers, including Barry Goldberg and Michael Masser, with whom he wrote "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)" and "Saving All My Love for You", also No.1 hits. During his career Goffin penned over 114 Billboard Hot 100 hits, including eight chart-toppers, and 72 UK hits.[2] He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, with Carole King.
Dick Clark
an American radio and television personality, as well as a cultural icon who remains best known for hosting American Bandstand from 1957 to 1987. He also hosted the game show Pyramid and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, which transmitted Times Square's New Year's Eve celebrations. Clark was also well known for his trademark sign-off, "For now, Dick Clark — so long!", accompanied with a military salute. As host of American Bandstand, Clark introduced rock & roll to many Americans. The show gave many new music artists their first exposure to national audiences, including Ike and Tina Turner, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, Talking Heads and Simon & Garfunkel. Episodes he hosted were among the first in which blacks and whites performed on the same stage and among the first in which the live studio audience sat without racial segregation. Singer Paul Anka claimed that Bandstand was responsible for creating a "youth culture." Due to his perennial youthful appearance and his fame as the host of American Bandstand, Clark was often referred to as "America's oldest teenager" or "the world's oldest teenager". In his capacity as a businessman, Clark served as Chief Executive Officer of Dick Clark Productions, part of which he sold off in his later years. He also founded the American Bandstand Diner, a restaurant chain modeled after the Hard Rock Cafe. In 1973, he created and produced the annual American Music Awards show, similar to the Grammy Awards.
