Off Beat - Do The Freddie

In the 1960's there were some truly weird and wacky rock acts. Some achieved success due to a certain look or gimmick. One such group was Freddie and the Dreamers, a band associated with the British invasion of the early to mid 60s. The Dreamers managed to sustain their popularity for about 3 years with top 10 hits such as I'm Telling You Now and You Were Made For Me.

The group, though, was oriented more to teeny boppers, much like Herman's Hermits say, than to rock and roll fans of other British bands such as the Beatles, the Who and the Rolling Stones.

And Freddie and the Dreamers really scraped bottom when they attempted to create a dance craze in the States based on their song "Do The Freddie". Their 1965 album of the same name even included diagrams and instructions from dance instructor Arthur Murray.

1980's Rolling Stone History of Rock and Roll says of the group:

"...Freddie and the Dreamers [had] no masterpiece but a plentitude of talentless idiocy and enough persistence to get four albums and one film soundtrack released ... the Dreamers looked as thuggish as Freddie looked dippy ... Freddie and the Dreamers represented a triumph of rock as cretinous swill, and as such should be not only respected but given their place in history."

Witness for yourself...