Just as the dances of beach music have their twists and turns, so, too, do the stories behind the hits made popular in shag haunts from Atlantic Beach to Ocean Drive and the Myrtle Beach Pavilion. In Carolina Beach Music , local author and beach music enthusiast Rick Simmons draws on firsthand accounts from the legendary performers and people behind the music. Simmons reveals the true meaning behind "Oogum Boogum," uncovers just what sparked a fistfight between Ernie K. Doe and Benny Spellman at the recording session of "Te-Ta-Te-Ta-Ta" and examines hundreds of other true events that shaped the sounds of beach music. Carolina Beach Music: The Classic Years , was a finalist in the category of "Best Research in Rock and Pop Music"  by the Association for Recording and Sound Collections (ARSC) for their 2012 Awards for Excellence in Historical Sound Research. Why has Gene McDaniels only sung "A Hundred Pounds of Clay" twice in the last four decades - and why was it banned in England? Why did their record company force the Swingin' Medallions to change the lyrics to "Double Shot"? Which beach music classic was written on a matchbook cover? What famous entertainer advised lead singer Clem Curtis to quit the Foundations right before recording "Build Me Up, Buttercup"? Why did Jan Bradley become "disillusioned" with the recording industry and end up quitting the business entirely? Was that really the Harlem Globetrotters singing "Rainy Day Bells"? Why does Freda Payne say that "Band of Gold" was a "strange" song? Why did Ernie K. Doe and Benny Spellman get into a fistfight fight at the recording session for "Te-Ta-Te-Te-Ta-Ta"? What artist, after recording several chart hits and having his songs recorded by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan, spent most of the rest of his life working as a janitor? Featuring interviews with artists such as Sandra Peoples Bears of the Jewels, Jan Bradley, Norm Burnett of the Tymes, G.C. Cameron of the Spinners, Bruce Channel, Clifford Curry, Clem Curtis of the Foundations, Hershey Deville of Jewell and the Rubies, Donald Hobson of Gene Barbour and the Cavaliers, James Holvay of the MOB, Linda "Quig" Quinlan James of the Monzas, Bob Kuban of Bob Kuban and the In-Men, Meadowlark Lemon of the Globetrotters, Gene McDaniels, John McElrath of the Swingin' Medallions, Bobby Moore Jr. of Bobby Moore and the Rhythm Aces, Freda Payne, Wayne Pittman of the O'Kaysions, Charles Pope of the Tams, Billy Scott of the Georgia Prophets, Ammon Tharp of Bill Deal & the Rhondels, Sonny Threatt of Sunny and Phyllis, Bobby Tomlinson of the Embers, Sonny Turner of the Platters, Pat Upton of the Spiral Starecase, Brenton Wood, and many others, Carolina Beach Music: The Classic Years examines 100 beach music classics by more than 70 artists recorded between 1947 and 1975. In their own words, the performers and the people who knew them tell the stories behind the greatest Carolina beach music classics. Dr. Rick Simmons was born and raised in South Carolina, and during the course of his education, he attended Clemson University, Coastal Carolina University and the University of South Carolina, where he completed his PhD in 1997. He lives in Louisiana with his wife, Sue, and his children, Courtenay and Cord, though he still spends a portion of the summer at his family home in Pawleys Island, South Carolina. He is the holder of the George K. Anding Endowed Professorship at Louisiana Tech University, where he is currently the director of the Honors Program as well as the director of the Center for Academic and Professional Development. This is his third book and second for The History Press; his first book for The History Press, Defending South Carolina's Coast: The Civil War from Georgetown to Little River, was published in 2009.