It’s Trad Dad! – SOUNDTRACK***

Tavern In The Town/Lonely City/Another Tear Falls/In A Persian Market/Let’s Talk About Love/Down By The Riverside/Ring-A-Ding/Space Ship To Mars/Everybody Loves My Baby/Rainbows/Frankie & Johnny/The Lose Your Inhibitions Twist/Sometime Yesterday/When The Saints Go Marching In

The British teen film It’s Trad Dad! starred Craig Douglas and Helen Shapiro. Plot involves a group of hip teens fighting attempts by disapproving and censorious grown ups to remove a jukebox from a local coffee bar. Released just before the trad fad fizzled out the movie also features several rock & roll acts. Notable for the directing debut of Richard Lester who went on to bigger things with A Hard Day’s Night starring a well known group that almost overnight killed off the British trad jazz craze. (UK:3)

“Riding the tail end of a wave of cheap, nearly plot-less all-star rock 'n' roll movies, it's charmingly naïve and old-fashioned but also highly innovative. The 'Trad' in It's Trad Dad! refers to the post-war revival of traditional jazz also known as Dixieland. The movement was especially popular in early-'60s Britain.”

“This is a real surprise, a delightfully old-fashioned and innovative trad jazz/rock 'n' roll musical uniquely positioned at the end of one revolution and the start of another.” “This is a very interesting movie. I love the teen songs the most. It's amazing to think that trad (Dixieland) had a burst of popularity just before The Beatles hit it big. Had it not been for The Beatles the 60s could have been mostly about jazz.”

"It's Trad Dad is ultimately an interesting museum piece that captures the British entertainment industry in its last innocence before The Beatles arrived.”

“Showcase a marvellously eclectic mix of songs alternating between wildly swinging traditional jazz bands and powerfully primal rock 'n' roll stars. The divinely cool Gene Vincent, looking super-smooth with slicked-back shiny black hair and an immaculate gleaming white suit, pile-drives his way through the sublimely groovy Spaceship To Mars. Chubby Checker grinds his hyperactive hips to giddy glory and gets down with several audience members, roaring the transcendently asinine Loose Your Inhibition Twist with infectious full-throttle brio.”

“The 'pop' performers were bland with the songs totally forgettable and it's obvious why the British trad jazz craze was soon blown away by The Beatles et al.”