The Hardy Boys

Artist: The Hardy Boys

LP: Wheels

Song: "Love Train"

[ listen ]

It's hard to imagine how I lived on planet Earth for 41 years without ever hearing about the late-'60s/early '70s animated Hardy Boys Saturday morning TV show. I just found out about it last year when I stumbled across this related 1970 Hardy Boys LP in the basement of a big antique store up in Bellingham. I read all the Hardy Boys mystery stories when I was in grade school, was obsessed with the late '70s TV show starring Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson, and my older brother and I used to pretend we were Frank and Joe, solving mysteries while being hounded by phantoms in the back yard. I suppose if I were a true fan though, I'd have read about The Hardy Boys on Wikipedia here long ago, where I'd have found out about their Saturday morning show, which you can also read about on IMDB here. I would have learned that the show was the first Saturday morning cartoon to include a black character, and that the program served as a platform to address important issues facing its young audience—like illegal drug use and the wearing of seat belts.

 [ one of the novels that started the Hardy thing. ]

The Hardy Boys musical rock group—who are the supersingers of the in world and the property of Filmation Studios in Hollywood, California—features not only the crime-thwarting Hardy brothers, but also drummer Pete Jones (what about Biff Hooper!?), some gal named Wanda Kay on keyboards (where's Callie Shaw?!), and the Hardys' good friend Chubby Morton (aka Chet Morton in the books) on sax. I'm pretty sure Aunt Gertrude joins in from time to time to add backing vocals or a little tambourine.