Stepping Back In Time: A Fun, Fun T-Bird Song

Cars and rock 'n roll have long gone hand in hand. From Chuck Berry's "No Particular Place To Go" to the Beatles' "Baby You Can Drive My Car,"cars have been a recurring theme in the music of our times. A half century back, when the So Cal beach scene was all the rage, Brian Wilson and Mike Love wrote the chart-climber "Fun, Fun, Fun." And what's not to like about a lively tune involving a girl and a T-Bird? The Beach Boys had a #5 single, and America had another fun song about cars.

The song is essentially a story about a teenage girl who tells her dad that she needs his car, which happens to be a Ford Thunderbird, so she can go to the library. As one might suspect by the title, she skips the library and heads off  to go cruisin'... probably catching eyes from some of the boys at the hamburger stand, radio blaring, and whipping it into gear to fly down the road "just as fast as she can." The other girls are jealous cause she drives like an ace, but in the end... well, dad's were young once so he eventually figures out what's really going on.

In a longer version of the song she may have been filling the gas tank so dad wouldn't know how many miles she was putting on the car. Unfortunately, because conventional motor oil is volatile, it boils off under high heat conditions. When dad noticed the oil level was low, he first suspected a leak. He then noticed the odometer had more miles than it ought to have, and his daughter lost her rights to borrow the car.

The Ford T-Bird was introduced to the market in 1955 and quickly became one of the cool cars of the era. The first generation of Thunderbirds cruised from 1955-57, the second generation from 1958-60 and the third from 1961-63. The first T-Birds were two-seat roadsters. But executives began to believe the car would achieve more sales as the full size car which was introduced in 1958. Sales were sensational, helped in no small part by being the first car model named Motor Trend Car of the Year. (Previous to this, Motor Trend name carmakers and not individual models.)

There have been eleven iterations of Thurnderbirds in all, the last one rolling off the assembly line on July 1, 2005. If you have one of these 2005 Thunderbirds, here's a link to the Lookup Guide at MyAMSOIL Garage with information regarding which fluids and filters you need for your car, including capacities. And whatever year you have, we hope you've had fun cruisin' in it.



Photo credit top right: (c) Can Stock Photo