[Fiji Hill]

One of the first pop songs I ever remember hearing as a small child (I would have been six or seven). Another of the earliest rock-and-roll songs I remember was The Dovells - You Can't Sit Down. I thought it was weird and annoying the way they kept repeating the same words over and over.

Note the reference in the lyrics to South Street,"where all the hippies meet." South Street in Artesia, Calif. may have been "the hippest street in town" in 1963, but nowadays, you'll see a lot of South Asians but few, if any, hippies.

[Steely Tom]

I never heard South Street before I moved to Philadelphia in the early '80s.

Since the song was done by a Philadelphia group (The Orlons), I kind of doubt that it was about any South Street other than the one in Philly, which is where the Jim's is located, where you can get the best cheesesteak (or pizza steak) in the world.

Also the TLA (Theater of the Living Arts) is located there, where many national acts have performed. I saw wonderful Kenny Rankin there. He played to an enthusiastic crowd of about 500 people, and thanked the audience for sending his kids to college.

South Street is kind of the most youth-oriented drag in the city.

I suppose there were hippies there "back in the day" (I hate that expression).

Ira Einhorn, creator of Earth Day and murderer of a beautiful young woman named Holly Maddux, lived in Powelton Village, which is near Drexel University in West Philly. He was certainly a hippy and an a-hole.