Myrtle Beach shares beauty of beach music

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another Cecil’s World in Print. Put on your shagging shoes because we are going to talk about beach music.

How many of you know what Carolina Beach Music is? Let me tell you, it is the best music in the world. It is a sound that originated back in the late ’40s. It’s a mixture of rhythm and blues along with doo-wop and oldies. I am sure some of you shaggers might disagree with my definition of beach music.

Last Sunday, I had four hours of beach music when I attended the 14th annual Carolina Beach Music Awards at Alabama Theater in North Myrtle Beach. This show was jam-packed with some great entertainers and radio personalities. The motion picture industry has the Academy Awards, television has the Emmys and beach music has the CBM awards. It was a fun-filled afternoon with more than 20 groups and entertainers performing for a packed house of more than 2,000 beach music lovers.

Beach music is not recognized in its own music category, but the Academy of Beach Music is in the process of trying to get enough members to receive national recognition.

CBMA President Peter Carpenter is taking beach music to another level in an attempt to get the whole world involved in Carolina Beach Music.

Carolina Beach Music is the music of the Carolinas, but more and more people visiting from other states are taking the music back and learning to shag.

There were a lot of people at the awards last Sunday who were there for the first time and they told me they would be back.

During intermission, a lady from Sumter came up to me and said this was her first time at the awards. I asked her what she thought about it. She went on to explain that she is really into soul music and beach music has a lot of soul and she loved it. As she was walking off, she looked back, smiled and said, “I’ll see you here next year.” If you have never taken time to listen to beach music, you really need to try it. It’s like that old saying, “Try it, you’ll like it.”

Florence radio station announcer Dan E. Lockemy of WDAR-FM Sunny 105.5 was inducted into the beach music hall of fame. Dan started playing beach music on the radio back in 1985. In 1987, Dan moved his show to Saturday afternoons and changed the name of the show to “At the Beach.” Congratulations, Danny, and keep on playing that great beach music. The big winner at the show was Jim Quick and the Coastline band. He picked up a number of awards, including song of the year. Quick is a true entertainer who loves his work and the people.

There is so much I could tell you about the four-hour Carolina Beach Music Awards show, but the highlights of the show in my opinion were The Swinging Medallions and Little Anthony and the Imperials. The Imperials received the Joe Pope Pioneer Award. After accepting the award, they reminisced about coming to Myrtle Beach back in the mid ’60s and playing at the Beach Club. Then they started singing some of their big hits and when they sang their hit, “Reputation,” a favorite shagging record for beach music lovers, the crowd went wild.

If you would like to know more about the beach music awards, you can go to http://www.cbmaonline.com. You can even order a DVD of the show in case you missed it. Each year, the CBMA show has a special guest and there is no telling who or what group will be there next year. Remember, until next time, “I love beach music” and keep on shagging.

That’s it for another Cecil’s World in Print. I’ll see you next week, right here in the Morning News and on the tube.

— Cecil Chandler is a veteran reporter at WBTW News13. His column appears Mondays in the Morning News.