Flash Cadillac & The Continental Kids

Biography

Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids, now known simply as Flash Cadillac, were the band that portrayed Herbie and the Heartbeats in the film American Graffiti. As Herbie and the Heartbeats, they performed At the Hop, She's So Fine, and Louie, Louie. Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids although launched with "American Graffiti" really filled a void in popular music. Playing songs that they knew as kids, more important than the music and the songs was the show! Flash Cadillac not only loo...

Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids, now known simply as Flash Cadillac, were the band that portrayed Herbie and the Heartbeats in the film American Graffiti. As Herbie and the Heartbeats, they performed At the Hop, She's So Fine, and Louie, Louie.

Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids although launched with "American Graffiti" really filled a void in popular music. Playing songs that they knew as kids, more important than the music and the songs was the show!

Flash Cadillac not only looked and sounded musically like a rock 'n' roll fifties band, they had a show that was mind-stopping. Playing at Washington State University twice in the early 1970's, Keith Sorem remembers seeing frontman Flash riding piggy back on bass player Butch's hips, while playing his Stratocaster, with someone holding the mic on a straight stand, following him around the stage. It was hilarious!

In 1972 Flash was the headliner at Pullstock, Washington State University's answer to Woodstock. Their show had been refined then; it was fast paced, and laced with off-color humor that only teens can understand. They did an excellent job stringing songs together in medlies, creating not only a smooth flow of music, but a never-ending string of one-liners and great sound bites. Like at the end of Splishin' and Splashin' mimicking a stuck record needle with: "Well, I was" (Thump), "Well, I was" (Thump),"Well, I was" (Whooooooooooo...as the needle is re-set on the record) "Splishin' and a splashin', rollin' and a strollin'.

And the keyboard that looked like the front of a '58 Chevy! These guys never stopped for three hours, inspiring many others to imitate their style, including the Lipps, a northwestern rock 'n' roll band that created their own Flash Cadillac with "Johnny Love" playing a guitar made from a toilet seat!

Flash Cadillac's appearance on the Dick Cavett Show in the early 1970's featured an introduction by Rob Reiner, fresh from "All In the Family" and no one knew that Rob was a closet fifties deejay. It was a great sample of fifties "radio-eze", followed by Flash and the Kids performing "I've Had It", later covered by the northwest rock band "PAX", and featured on their debut cassette, then the memorable "Blue Moon". According to Flash, "I was lookin' up at the stars last night and all I could see was Uranus (typical Flash humor!). They scored a hit in the U.S. singles chart with their cover version of the Lynsey de Paul/Barry Blue song "Dancin' (on a Saturday Night)" and it was this version that also made the Swedish top 10. , Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.