The Go-Gos

The Go-Gos featured here are not the valley-girl group from the 1980s, rather, The Go-Gos from the "Gidget" era of surf music. For the uninitiated, "Gidget" is the protagonist in Frederick Kohner's novel, Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas (1957). Gidget was most popularly portrayed in film by Sandra Dee and on television by Sally Field. As head of Screen-Gems Music, Lester Sill was the publisher and music supervisor for the Sally Field "Gidget" series.

The original Go-Gos consisted of Roger Yorke, William Wild and Jim Infield, backed musically by The Wrecking Crew. Roger Yorke was the only surfer in the group and recently explained the connection between the two groups, "RCA owned the name Go-Go’s and I worked with and promoted the girl’s group." The Go-Gos were hired vocalists on an album called The Munsters a quick session put together to produce merchandise for the television situation comedy of the same name. It is currently reported that Glen Campbell and Leon Russell were also hired musicians on this album.

Produced by Grammy award winning Al Schmitt, Swim With The Go-Gos (1964) is a forgotten sample of the music that helped to take surfing from a localized pastime into an international lifestyle and a $13 billion industry.  Lester Sill published several songs on the album under Gregmark/Lonnette Music, Inc., including "Do The Malibu", "Goodbye Winter", "Sand Swimmer", "Swim Time U.S.A.", "(They Call Him) Chicken Of The Sea", and "Underwater". Lester and the album producer Al Schmitt were close friends and colleagues throughout their careers in the music business..