How to Stuff a Wild Bikini

I watched this movie a few days ago, when I was dead tired from lack of sleep, and I was trying to take a nap, except that I was also oddly insomniac so I watched tv instead

This was my first encounter with a real 60s beach party flick, after much waiting and anticipation. I loved it as much as I thought I would, based on my love for the Beach Boys and the Cramps. I loved all the stupid campy sexual stuff and all the dumb teenage high-jinx and the total lack of credible plot. The one thing I did not like, which I was not prepared for, was all the god-awful singing involved. For whatever reason, I did not know that the 60s beack party genre was a musical genre.

I was talking to some people yesterday about this movie, and both (independently) said, "Was Annette Funicello in it?" "Yes!" I exclaimed the first time; "How did you know?" Turns out that Funicello is an institution, and that everyone except me knew this; between her and Frankie Avalon, they starred in pretty much all the beach party movies, like: Beach Party, Muscle Beach Party, Bikini Beach, Pajama Party, Beach Blanket Bingo, Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, and Operation Bikini (source: imdb).

Annette Funicello - a most unlikely candidate for a beach party star, being dark-haired and not exactly willowy - had the cache of being a Mickey Mouse Club alum. She also had a teenage romance with Paul Anka, who wrote his song "Puppy Love" for her.