Maybe not born too late

Is it really so bad that the contemporary Pony Tails singing group really has no connection to the original singing group of the same name?

At last one responder to yesterday's blog said yes, since they're taking advantage of the name some people made for themselves many years ago without having to pay for it.

I didn't mind. The new group did a passable "Born Too Late'' and seemed to have the same spirit as the original trio.

Far worse, as I recall, was going to see the original Platters more than a decade ago. When they sang "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes'' and got to the key part of "Ooooooh,'' the lead singer's voice cracked, and the whole show practically ground to a halt.

So an oldies show that was supposed to take the audience back to their youthful years instead had the opposite effect of making me and I suspect many others in the crowd feel, well, old.

My all-time favorite group is the Beach Boys. When I was an adolescent I thought what could be better than having a woody car, picking up your Surfer Girl and heading for the beach? (especially from the perspective of someone in New England in February)

Now of course a Beach Boy concert is a crap shoot, depending on how many of the originals, half of whom are still alive, are part of the group. At least Dennis Wilson, as I recall, had the decency of going out like a Beach Boy: getting drunk and falling off a boat.

Who knows? Maybe the new Pony Tails will have a hit, only 52 years after the original group pulled it off.