R.I.P.: Standells’ Drummer Dick Dodd

Dick Dodd

Dick Dodd, a Mouseketeer on Disney's original "Mickey Mouse Club" who went on to become a surf music pioneer and a youth-quaking garage rock showman, died Friday in a Fountain Valley hospital, said his close friend, Tim Ferrill. 

Dodd was 68, according to the LA Times.   Dodd announced earlier this year on his website that he had stage 4 cancer. 

Born Joseph Richard Dodd Jr. on Oct. 27, 1945, in Hermosa Beach, Dodd cultivated an interest in singing, dancing and performing as a young boy. In 1955, at the age of 9, he was cast on "The Mickey Mouse Club," the beloved television variety show that came to epitomize post-war America, alongside series regulars such as Annette Funicello and Cubby O'Brien. On the show, he was the Mouseketeer known as Dickie.

"It was the best training I could have had as a kid," Dodd told The Times in 1990. "You had to learn fast. You didn't horse around. Even though you were a kid, you had to hit your marks and learn your parts."

Mouseketeer Dickie

In the early 1960s, Dodd was a member of two of the earliest and most influential surf rock bands — the Bel-Airs, which nabbed a hit with the 1961 instrumental "Mr. Moto," and Eddie and the Showmen, which performed on the same bill as some of the luminaries of the era including the Beach Boys, Sonny and Cher and the Righteous Brothers.

But in 1964, Dodd took a musical left turn out of the mainstream to become drummer-vocalist in the garage rock band the Standells, known primarily for their popular single "Dirty Water." Recorded in 1965, it became the Standells' first and only hit, peaking at No. 11 on the national singles chart. And with its unforgettable refrain, "Boston, you're my home," the song held a special renown in Beantown where it's still an anthem for its sports teams, including the Red Sox baseball team and hockey-playing Bruins.

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