The Montclairs performance of "Summertime", the last salvaged music sequence rescued from the 1966 musical movie, "Feelin' Good", now up on YouTube

October 17, 2016 - In the 1966 movie, "Feelin' Good", The Montclairs sang the Gershwin classic, "Summertime", as they walked from the Minuteman statue in Concord, Massachusetts, across the Old North Bridge, where, according to Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Concord Hymn", the "shot heard 'round the world" was fired, beginning the American Revolution.

The Monclairs were the winners of the first Massachusetts Jaycees Battle of the Bands, and among the prizes were their musical performances in "Feelin' Good", filmmaker James A. Pike's widescreen, color, theatrical feature film, shot entirely in and around Boston.

Some fifty years later, Pike's son, Travis Edward Pike, who not only starred in "Feelin' Good", but wrote ten of the twelve songs in it, has salvaged three recently discovered, but badly damaged film reels of the five reel feature, and diligently restored six songs, that are now all posted on YouTube.

"I wouldn't go so far as to call it a labor of love," Travis told me, "but there's nothing to sell. If it hadn't been for the clean optical soundtrack, I wouldn't have put money into restoring what little was salvageable. I've already re-recorded my songs from "Feelin' Good" in a new CD, "Feelin' Better", but two of my songs, including the title song, "Feelin' Good", were performed by The Montclairs, and they really nailed them."

I asked him what he'd do, if someone, somewhere, somehow discovered salvageable prints of the first and second reels.

"I've moved on to other things," he said. "Next year, I'll be releasing a 15th anniversary HD edition of my taped live performance of my award winning narrative rhyme, "Grumpuss", staged at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England, home of the 12th Duke of Marborough and birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill."

When I pressed him to elaborate more on "Grumpuss, he said, "This is about The Monclairs, and what they did in "Feelin' Good. We can talk about "Grumpuss later."

And that's how we left it, but from his mischievous grin, I suspect we'll have that talk sooner, rather than later.

Terry Hagerty, Los Angeles
10/15/16