# "Palisades Park": help me out, people- this is NOT and obscure song, am I right? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 18, 2009, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759 "2009-12-18T17:37:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![spoike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@spoike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spoike)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759/41 "2009-12-18T20:39:01Z")
I’m 37, grew up in Alberta, and didn’t recognize the title. As soon as I heard the the ‘circus music’ introduction, however, I realized I knew the song, including some of the lyrics. I have no idea _how_ I know it, but I did grow up listening to lots of oldies (in 1987, I was probably the only 15 year old whose favourite song was Teen Angel) so I assume it was on some compilation album. It’s a very catchy song, and I’m surprised I don’t recall the Ramones’ version. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759/42 "2009-12-18T20:40:07Z")
I’m 38. I know the song, but mostly from an oldies tape that my mom had back when I was a kid. I can’t really remember ever hearing it in rotation on the oldies station in my hometown. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759/43 "2009-12-18T20:57:59Z")
Thanks for the earworm. I remember the song from the radio when it was a hit. I’ve heard it at least a couple of times a year ever since then. Not obscure at all. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759/44 "2009-12-19T04:15:54Z")
48, east of the Mississippi and I don’t know it. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759/45 "2009-12-19T04:26:28Z")
I know the song by name and by melody, although I couldn’t name the artist. I’m 33 and grew up in the 99+% of Illinois that’s east of the Mississippi. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759/46 "2009-12-19T04:34:07Z")
Steve Van Zandt played it on _Little Steven’s Underground Garage,_ which was the first time I’d heard it. That show plays a good deal of cheerful 60s pop music in addition to garage band rock, presumably because the latter was influenced by the former. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759/47 "2009-12-19T05:02:47Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > There’s only so much musical ephemera you can keep in your head after 27 years. Heresy! Burn him! Born in 1944. Heard it when it came out. Can probably name Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon songs you never heard of. And sing them. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759/48 "2009-12-19T05:12:12Z")
Born in 1977. It sounds vaguely familiar. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759/49 "2009-12-19T05:39:14Z")
Boy, that name brings back memories! I remember ‘Palisades Park’, being that I’m (mumble mumble) years old. He also sang ‘Where The Action Is", which was the theme song to an American Bandstand type of music show I used to watch after school. (This was in the mid 1960’s and I remember Paul Revere and the Raiders, Sonny and Cher, The Zombies, Aretha Franklin, Ike and Tina Turner, and zillions more American and English bands were guests. Hard to believe, but back in caveman days, other than your transistor radio and the occasional TV show like WTAI, that was the ONLY exposure a young person had to rock n’ roll.) Good times! ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759/50 "2009-12-19T05:43:25Z")
I first heard it on an oldies station circa 1997. Born 1961. ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759/51 "2009-12-19T06:12:00Z")
Forgot to mention: I grew up west of the Mississippi, and have never been in a part of North America east of the river. (I have been in the UK, so I can’t say I’ve _never_ been east of the Mississippi.) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759/52 "2009-12-19T06:36:32Z")
I’m 55. Listened to pop radio: 1964-1965 - Cleveland 1964-present - Chicago 1954-Present - Recognized in 1964 that “oldies” are often being defined by others Freddie “Boom-Boom” cannon did not enter my binocs until the Oldies Revival in the early 70s. Doesn’t mean he was ignored around here, but it’s a pretty good indicator. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759/53 "2009-12-19T09:06:07Z")
24: Haven’t heard it before, but that’s not surprising. I’m a radio listener, not a collector, and the stations around here don’t go that far back. I must admit, I liked the [Ramones version](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DguKSknbko&feature=related) better. While I like 60s music, I don’t like how they mixed the instrumentation. It always sounds too tinny and compressed. (At least the good stations try to warm it up a bit. The equipment is better today and the music needs to be mixed better.) ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759/54 "2009-12-19T14:38:07Z")
Just to further establish my geezerness (58 years old), I remember when DC Comics ran ads for Palisades Park, featuring Superman endorsing the Tilt-A-Whirl or some such ride. To a 9 year old in Atlanta, New Jersey seemed a million miles away, but when the song played on the radio a couple of years later, I knew that was Superman’s amusement park! ---
**Author:** ![Kylede](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a6a055/32.png) [@Kylede](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kylede)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759/55 "2009-12-19T15:53:19Z")
I am 37 and I know it, but then both my parents grew up withing walking distance to the Palisade Amusment park, and My fathers first job as a teenager was working for Cousin Brucey (Bruce Marrow, a famous oldies DJ) at the bandshell at the park, so I might be a littel biased ---
**Author:** ![blinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/43a26b/32.png) [@blinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkie)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759/56 "2009-12-19T17:06:53Z")
I’m showing my age but I was at Palisades Park when The Four Seasons first performed it. Anyone who knows anything about Doo Wop will know this song. In it’s time it was a big hit. I’ pretty sure he park closed the next year. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759/57 "2009-12-19T21:33:03Z")
> [@HoboStew](#): > > I only know it from one of those 80s compilation commercials a la “Freedom Rock” (hell, it might have BEEN Freedom Rock for all I remember), where they play the medley of songs while the titles scroll by. Same here. (I’m 36 and have lived most of my life in PA.) I think my knowledge of it predates Freedom Rock and goes back to one of those K-Tel compilations. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759/58 "2009-12-19T21:47:48Z")
Well, I’m perfectly familiar with it, and so are my friends. But I grew up in the Greater New York Metropolitan Area. And I’ve actually been to Palisades Park when it was still operating, several times. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2009, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759/59 "2009-12-20T00:57:15Z")
> [@Kylede](#): > > … My fathers first job as a teenager was working for Cousin Brucey (Bruce Marrow, a famous oldies DJ) at the bandshell at the park … Which makes it even more 😕 that, > [@](#): > > … “Palisades Park” broke in when a Flint, Michigan radio DJ played it by mistake … and not on any of the “Top ##” NY area AM stations. Since my Dad’s formative years were spent in Fort Lee (NJ), I know the song well, I’ve heard it too many times (it’s one year older than me). It didn’t get the kind of airplay I’d have expected on either WABC AM in the 70’s or WCBS FM (both of which were Cousin Brucie’s home stations) and I’d bet it was because Freddy Cannon’s other hits got all his singles put in the novelty record pile. CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759/60 "2009-12-20T02:31:01Z")
1954, suburban LA. Heard it many times in the early to mid sixties. I remember it mainly because my brother won a 45 single of it from a radio station call-in contest in 1962. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/palisades-park-help-me-out-people-this-is-not-and-obscure-song-am-i-right/521759.md?page=4)