Bill Milhizer, What Was the First Album You Ever Bought?

“The first record I bought wasn’t an album; it was a single. My brother and I pooled our money and bought ‘Lonely Teenager’ by Dion and the Belmonts. We bought it at Montgomery Ward’s. The two of us were sitting in the back seat, and my father was driving. And he said, ‘You can buy anything that you like. The only thing that I don’t want you to start listening to is all those songs about teenagers crying and being hurt — moaning and groaning about being a teenager. My brother and I just looked at each other and said, ‘How are we ever going to play this?’

“The first album I bought was by Bobby Rydell. I was about 11 years old, and I bought it at Woolworth’s for $2.98. It was an album that had a picture of him inside that you could pull out and put on your wall. I forget the title, but it might have been called ‘Swingin’ School.’ And my second album was ‘Rydell at the Copa.’ We used to have arguments about who was better — Dion, Bobby Rydell or Paul Anka. Bobby Rydell was definitely my favorite.”

Drummer (and Troy native) Bill Milhizer jumps behind the skins with his bandmates in the Fleshtones for one last night of bash-’em-out glorious garage-rock hits at Positively Fourth Street in Troy on Saturday night. The Farewell to P4th festivities begin at 9pm with Intelligent Television and Keith & the Cockroaches. Admission is $5. Yes, another Troy institution is biting the dust, but look for P4th owner Art Fredette to carry on the Troy music tradition when he opens the Judge’s Inn (just around the corner) in a couple of weeks.