You Need Us!

Many of you know that I am a huge fan of 1960s pop culture, especially 60s Music.

In the mid 60s, when the War in Viet Nam was raging and its body count was featured on the TV News every night, there was a need for mindless comedies to take people's minds off the more serious issues of the day.  One such TV show was Gilligan's Island.

Gilligan, the Skipper, the Howells, the Professor, Ginger and Mary Ann were stranded on a remote deserted island.  Sometimes they had visitors from the outside world but incredibly they were never able to get off the island.  In one episode, Rock band The Mosquitos ended up on the island.  This was an episode titled "Don't Bug the Mosquitoes" - Season 2, Episode 12 - and was originally on the air on December 09, 1965.

It seems that the girls wanted to form their own singing group.  So Mrs, Howell, Ginger and Mary Ann created a group called The Honey Bees and sang a song called, "You Need Us".  They performed the song for the guys, and you can see that performance below.

This song, You Need Us, has always been one of my favorite TV show songs from the 60s, right up there with The Alvin Twist and The Bedrock Twitch.  If you want to listen to an MP3 of You Need Us, by The Honeybees, from Gilligan's Island, click here.

I recently came across a simply delightful lipsync cover of You Need Us, performed by a family who shot this video in two takes and posted it to YouTube.  The mother plays Mrs. Howell and her two daughters play Ginger and Mary Ann.  They are all adorable as they lipsync and do The Honey Bees dance moves.  We are Featuring this video this week on our YouTube Top 100 Weekly Chart. Check it out!



Now, here is the original performance of You Need Us sung by The Honeybees - Lovey Howell, Ginger and Mary Ann. This was originally on TV back in 1965 and reflects the kind of Garage Rock music that was popular at the time. The Beatles were huge and every teen in the world dreamed of being in a band that would make the girls scream and chase after them, like they did to The Beatles. It was quite an interesting time for music!



If YOU decide to do a cover of this groovy 60s tune, email me a link to your video and I'll feature it here too!