Soundtracks from the classic drive-in era can be kind of a mixed bag. Some of them hold some truly rare psychedelic or sixties punk tracks with some real dross thrown in. Others do a great job of mimicking the old Top 40 sound and are a delight to behold. The soundtrack for Get Yourself a College Girl is one of the latter.
What’s On the Tracks?
First of all, some might be surprised to see a couple of jazz heavyweights, Stan Getz and Jimmy Smith on what is supposed to be a rock and roll soundtrack. Except for the fact that some jazz was part of the Top 40 sound of the early to mid-60s. Stan does his thing with Astrud Gliberto and their big bossa nova hit, “The Girl from Ipanema” plus an instrumental track. Organist Jimmy Smith and his trio get two righteous R’n B inflected tracks.
For pretty early-on, the British Invasion gets four tracks. One of England’s ugliest bands, the Animals, get two bluesy tracks, while the ever-dependable Dave Clark Five, turn in a couple of smooth pop numbers.
The Americans get some interesting representation. Freddie Bell and the Bell Boys were an early rock and roll act. By 1964, they were more a Vegas show band. At this point in their career, they added girl singer, Roberta Linn to the line-up. A pre-garage/punk Standells turn in a couple of reliable teen dance tracks with “Bonie Maronie” and “The Swim.”
Mary Ann Mobley turns up to sing the title track. She did a fair number of drive-in films. She also sang in a fair number of them. It is safe to say she is now worse than other girl singers of the day.
Putting this record on gives people a good look into the pop-rock sounds of this era.
Current Availability
It appears this soundtrack came out on CD in 1992. This is certainly no guarantee that it currently is available. As a vinyl release it doesn’t list for a whole lot of money. A copy could be reasonably found on line for about 20 dollars. There are no real hits on this disc, so there’s no real reason to keep it in digital circulation.
If a person picks it up on LP, there are enough conversion programs around to transfer this to a digital format. This album would certainly be a good accompaniment to a summer pool party. Put it on and let the twisting begin!
Jon Pike - Pike is a Ph.D. in communication and writes about activism and popular culture topics for Suite101.
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