[speedy]

Don't remember the Slauson Shuffle, Fiji Hill. Is that anything like The New Continental or The Philly Freeze? Not to mention the Tennessee Birdwalk. I grew up in Philly, so I'm pretty comfortable with the Bristol Stomp and The Pony. Of course, the Olympics also gave us the Hully Gully, but then again they did The Philly Dog too, so maybe at heart they were bi-coastal.

Bet you know all about Vernon Green and the Medallions and Don Julian and the Meadowlarks. When I lived in LA, among other musical pilgrimages I went to the house where "Earth Angel" was written in South Central and the site of DooTone Records. Also paid my respects at the grave of Cornell Gunther in Inglewood.

[Fiji Hill]

Bet you know all about Vernon Green and the Medallions and Don Julian and the Meadowlarks. When I lived in LA, among other musical pilgrimages I went to the house where "Earth Angel" was written in South Central and the site of DooTone Records.

I have seen Vernon Green and Don Julian perform many times. Vernon Green was never in good health. The last time I saw him perform, around 2000, he was in a wheel chair.

I've never seen the home where Earth Angel was written, but I have seen Cleveland Duncan and the Penguins perform. They ushered in 1984 at the Olympic Auditorium by singing "Auld Sang Syne."

[Fiji Hill]

"Philly Dog" by the Olympics was a hit in LA around the beginning of October, 1966. The Olympics' original version of "Good Loving" was a local hit in 1965, but but the Young Rascals' later version was a national bestseller.

Speaking of musical pilgrimages, not long ago, I drove past the building that once housed Utopia Cleaners in Watts. An employee there apparently served as the inspiration for "The Man From Utopia" by Donald Woods & The Vel-Aires, the B side--and, in my view, the better side--of their 1955 hit "Death of an Angel," which was probably inspired by the Penguins' "Earth Angel." Utopia Cleaners is no longer in business.