 
(House bands in this film: The Pyramids (Steve
Leonard, Will Glover, Skip Mercier) with
another appearance by The Exciters
Band)
After some classic slapstick opening
scenes that run under the titles (with wonderful, jazzy scoring by
Baxter), Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon and the gang kick things
off again by driving down to the beach hwhile singing. Here the whole ensemble
performs Bikini
Beach, a bouncy but so-so title piece,
primarily because of the horrendously archaic lyrics (at least by
contemporary standards; who knows, “all the chicks are bikini
clad” may have even come across as crude, tacky and stupid back
in 1964). It still
works, however, in setting theme, which is what opening numbers are
really all about.
After the “adult villain” is introduced (retirement home
owner/newspaper publisher/greedy real estate developer Keenan Wynn
and his pet chimp/gorilla/whatever, who want to run the presumably
brain-dead, sex-obsessed surfers off the beach) Donna Loren appears
out nowhere in a bright yellow and white two piece. To reinforce the storyline
gag of the kids appearing to be mindless sybarites, she whips the
gang into a dancing frenzy in the sand with her first solo, the
upbeat Love’s a Secret Weapon (scene from number, right).
While the song itself isn't anything special, Donna does
a great job with it, displaying her strong, melodious
alto and striking screen presence. That’s fortunate, for it
will lead the producers and writers to give her more screen time and
better material to work with in subsequent films. 
After Frankie Avalon's second character is introduced
(mop-topped British Invasion Artist "The Potato Bug," who even has
the obligatory Austin Powers-ish bad teeth,) he feels obligated to
drive the girls in the gang crazy with
Gimme Your Love (left).
This probably one of the better upbeat numbers Avalon did in the
series; since he’s performing it in comedic character and doesn’t
feel constrained, he hams up this silly let’s-make-fun-of-the
British-Invasion-number for all it’s worth. Notably, the lyrics contain
scores of “yea yeas;” you can tell Avalon -- who was
clearly speaking for every other then-fading American male teen idol
– is having a blast making fun of the Beatles by singing those words
as ridiculously as possible
After a lot of intervening storyline (which includes
one of the choicer Eric Von Zipper “Ratz revenge” sequences of the
series, as well as some nice, noisy drag racing), we enter an
extensive musical sequence 
We're back at a club, but it's not Big Daddy's.
Instead, welcome to “Big Drags” (since it’s owned by drag
racing promoter Don Rickles) and the sight of Candy Johnson
doing her thing in a bright red dress, backed by some generic fast
number being played by the Pyramids. They are subsequently
introduced, and kick off a great song, Midnight
Run,
as their wigs fly off (the gimmick with this band was
that they were all bald, which per legend was intended as a
direct insult aimed at a particular group of long-haired
foreigners). The piece
has a good pulse and nice choral vocals, which makes the viewer wish they could hear it better,
since it’s unfortunately somewhat buried under the yacking of
various characters.
After the song ends and we enjoy another short sequence
between Von Zipper and Keenan Wynn (more of Lembeck’s classic
“you are my idol” stuff), the girls in the crowd demand
that the “visiting celebrity” (Avalon’s Potato Bug character)
perform a song.
He
obliges them with How About
That,
a fast, vaguely British Invasion-ish Hymeric-Styner piece which is
backed by the Pyramids.
Avalon does the song in humorous character again, wanging out
on a ridiculous looking dual neck guitar as Dee-Dee dances around
him, with the “normal” Frankie eventually joining in. This is the third time we’ve
sat through an Avalon club dance piece in these films, and we’ve
come a long way since Don’t Stop
Now in
the first film. Not
only is Frankie tolerable here, but we have the added attraction of
finally getting to see Annette dance around for the first time in
the series. That’s made
all the better since in this script she’s playing the “flirt,“ which
gives her the excuse to provocatively wink, wiggle and grin
throughout her whole section of the
number.
The
music continues with a second Pyramids piece, the short surfish
instrumental Fingertips.
This time, the song fortunately isn’t
disrupted by script lines (Baxter appreciated good musicianship and
lets it show here). As
a result, we’re treated to a nice snapshot of the West Coast sound
of the era, as well as some great stage gimmicks (including a full
back flip by the lead guitarist). This appearance was really the
last gasp for this short lived surf combo, which disbanded shortly
after the film was released. They'd peaked earlier in the
year with their one hit (the instrumental
Penetration) and left behind only one album and a
few singles. 
If Asher or
Baxter had full control here, they would have closed the scene on
this good musical note, but then again, this is AIP. After the Pyramids end,
Candy Johnson’s Exciters Band suddenly appears, with leader Don
Hardgrave blurting out “it’s watusi
time.” They jump into the
bouncy Gotcha Where I Want You,
one of
their stock numbers from their nightclub act. As such, the piece is less
structured song and more just audio wallpaper as backdrop for
Candy’s
gyrations. She
obliges, dancing with Keenan Wynn’s monkey/chimp/simian whatever
(right). Amusingly,
this is one of the few musical sequences in the Beach Party series
where AIP’s penny-pinching mindset rears its uninvited head, for the
song playing on the soundtrack includes Candy’s voice,
even though she isn’t singing here.
AIP just
dubbed in an original Las Vegas album recording – where Candy
does sing --
rather than taping the band playing a new version for the
film.
We
later cut to Dee-Dee and Frankie, who because they are now back on
good terms again perform Because You’re You,
the first
of their several stroll-along-the-beach-at-night duets in the
series. The simple but
well composed song (which combines folky acoustic guitar with a
nicely structured melody) is pleasant and well executed, probably
the best Funicello/Avalon love duet of these movies (bettered only
by a subsequent one Annette does with a different co-star in the
next film). Annette is
positively radiant in this sequence, with a close up presence that
won’t be exceeded until her love duet in the next
film.
Footnote:
if one is fortunate enough to have a vinyl copy of Annette’s 1964
“Annette at Bikini
Beach” LP (never
released on CD), her solo version of Because You’re
You on it is
one of the most hauntingly beautiful songs she
ever recorded,
easily among her career top ten (this is discussed in more detail in
the Annette at Bikini Beach
page in the discography section of this site).
After
an amusing special effects sequence where the script Frankie
pretends to be the Potato Bug with Dee Dee, only to have the “real”
Potato Bug show up (resulting in Dee-Dee getting mad at both of
them, which treats us to another classic Funicello script line,
where she calls the British artist a “beetle-eyed bug”) we
get an Annette solo ballad.
Dee-Dee does this one in a yellow cover
up, again strolling along the beach at night as she restates her
loyalty to Frankie while singing This Time It’s
Love. This is Annette at her
restrained, subtle best; the unadorned, soft jazz ballad is a style
that really plays to her strengths (Funicello was a not a belter and
her soft mezzo soprano was of limited range, so she tended to come
across best in quieter, single clef pieces like this). Also, the engineers
avoided their prior Muscle Beach Party
mistake here and don’t ruin her vocal with doubletracking or
echo. 
Later, after Zipper sabotages Frankies “rail” (top fuel
dragster) and causes it to crash (left), we see the first of many
subsequent long, obligatory, silly, cheap B-movie-ish car chase
sequences that with this entry start a run as a staple in the
series.
The chase leads back to Big Drags, where
the Pyramids perform some unnamed upbeat piece during the inevitable
fight sequence, so the running joke of Candy Johnson being used as a
weapon can be employed again.
The noise level here is so high one can’t possibly hear what
the band is doing.
After the Ratz and Mice are defeated (and
the club is completely trashed), ”Little Stevie Wonder” appears
again, this time performing C’mon Everybody
as he’s backed by
Pyramids. While this is
a better piece than what he did in the prior film, Stevie gets
little respect as the credits start to roll over him almost
immediately after the song starts.
Those credits eventually change into a
background that contains Candy Johnson (in bright fringy red, backed
by her Exciters Band) performing the wildest dancing ever in seen in
any closing credits, as a reprise of Gotcha Where I
Want You blasts in the background (with
relatively unintelligible lyrics; if one is lucky enough to
have the rare LP or single version of this song, the
lyrics can be made out and in a few places are rather
racy. Candy and the Exciter's stage show was no tame
act). She first solos,
then duets with an "old lady" character who was a stock gag element
in several of these films.
The whole thing finally ends with a tacky shot of a bikinied
derriere waggling off with “an American International
Picture” written on the
suit. |
