This was an ear worm for me when I was 9 years old...cheesy as it is, the harmonies and modal shifts got in my gears, and I also had a dear granny who drove a little crazy sometimes.
I find it funny that I don't know if old folks look this up and comment on it but I'm 15 and my grandfather showed me all his old songs and my most favorite song are these and the beach boys
I still remember when Jan Berry totaled his 'Vette in '66 and pretty much ended the best years of their career. Ironic it was literally near Dead Man's Curve on that highway; wreckage not even recognizable as a Corvette. Hitting stationary vehicles at speed in fiberglass cars is not a great idea....
I love this song and even though I’m almost thirty years younger than the tune I loved cruising.
To bad the town I used to do that in here in colo, Wrongmont, has outlawed it.
Jerks
Pasadena - Colorado Blvd. was the main drag and the cruisin' street (although I think the cruisin' part was east of Pasadena). I remember Pasadena, I remember Colorado Blvd., I remember the Rose Parade. I never thought I would be homesick for southern California but right now I am.
"Little old lady" was co-written by Dr. Donald Altfeld and Jan Berry while they were both in med. school in Irvine Ca. Brian Wilson had nothing to do with the writing of this classic.
"The Little Old Lady from Pasadena" - that was what everyone in my family including my dad called my Mom. She wasn't from Pasadena and she didn't have a "shiny red super stock Dodge" but she did pretty well with her "shiny blue 1967 Dodge Monaco with a 440 Magnum V-8 meaning that it was stock equipped with a 4bbl carburetor, dual exhausts and a three-quarter cam. It didn't idle smoothly, it loped due to the cam. But I'll tell ya it sure could lay a patch without even trying! At 80 mph out on the road it was just beginning to purr smoothly.
Just a bit of background on this song: Back in the day, when asked who the previous owner of a car was, used car salesmen in California would often say "A little old lady from Pasadena, and she just drove it to church on Sundays."