American Bandstand 1964 - Songs of ’63 - Walk Like A Man, The Four Seasons

Airdate: January 4, 1964

“This is Saturday, January 4th 1964. DC is instructing audiences at home how to take souvenir photographs off of their television sets at home as the following Saturday (January 11th) would be their final Philadelphia show. By this time, the kids are (((REALLY))) directly upset with DC for pulling down their dance show. For the past few Saturdays, the kids had been hanging back around the bleachers and toward the back of the studio taking photographs often needing to use flashcubes as the hot studio lights were only centered over the dance floor. Saturday, January 11th would be the first time for many Bandstand dancers as well as audiences at home to hear The Beatles "I Wanna Hold Your Hand"....Even this new sound could not clear up the somber mood on the set that day. The kids had been crowding around the USA map during the breaks taking group photos of one another....Most of the photographs showed some long faces and a few teary eyes. At the end of that final show, the regulars crowded to be in the middle of the map more so than usual for one last final shot. As the cameras turned off, the kids went over to the coat racks and retrieved their coats and headed out to the cold parking lot for more photographs and LOTS of hugs. Finally, everyone dispersed and simply went home...Sad days for the Philly kids as American Bandstand unfolded into a new west coast format. (The dance shown here today is a slower suave version of 1963s "South Street" which had recently been the rage...This was not the '57 Chalypso dance.)“ -mrob75

“Walk Like A Man” was soaring up the charts in late February back in ‘63 (oh what a night!), but it didn’t become the Jersey boys’ 3rd #1 hit until the first week in March. The song was recorded while the roof was literally on fire on the floor right above the recording studio. Producer, Bob Crewe, ignored the fire, smoke and water as he insisted on getting the perfect take and only stopped when firemen broke down the door with axes and forced them all out.

Yes, the late Philadelphia dancers did a lot of this line dance, back and forth, spinning South Street in this episode, but it seems about right for a song about walking. I wonder, as has been commented here before, if the kids were just going through the motions at times knowing the show was leaving town next month. There aren’t a lot of smiles in this episode either despite them dancing to some of the greatest songs of all-time (imo). If true, I’d have felt the same way, but who knows.

Regulars dancing today are Gary Stapleford (1:04), Pat Carpino & Ailyene Silverman (2:15), Bobby Baritz & Michelle Liebowitz (2:40), and Barbara Warchol & Bruce Richard (2:48 far left).

These pictures may be some of the only existing images of Bandstand in 1962. Did anyone ever take pictures of their TV set back in the day?