Most likely its inspiration came from the 1953 Marlon Brando biker film The Wild One.īlack Denim Trousers by The Cheers on Grooveshark ) "Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots" is a snappy little number that tells the tale of a motorcycle lovin' fool that was the "terror of Highway 101", losing his life after colliding with a diesel truck. (Cool bit o'trivia for you: one of the members of The Cheers was Bert Convy, who would go on to be a game show host for Tattletales, Super Password and Win, Lose or Draw. ![]() Just a week before Dean's death, a little rock and roll vocal group called The Cheers had released a single called "Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots", written by the famous lyrical/composer team Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. On Septemthe actor James Dean died after crashing his Porsche 550 Spyder nearly head-on into another car near the intersections of highways 46 and 41 in California. Why did so many hits kill off the subjects of the songs? Who knows.but at least we can trace the beginning of this macabre trend to one event in pop culture history. The question is why were these songs so popular? Teenagers sure weren't dreaming them up-it was the songwriters and record companies. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, young characters in songs met untimely deaths through car and motorcycle crashes, drownings and even suicide-and these songs routinely topped the U.S. Yet the post-WWII era was responsible for launching a music genre that persisted for several decades: the teenage tragedy theme. They had drive-in movie theaters, rock and roll, their dad's Oldsmobile, and Clearasil. ![]() You would think that in 1950s Americana, teenagers were a happy lot.
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