Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids, now known as Flash Cadillac, are an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 retro rock 'n' roll band. They are best known for their portrayal of the group Herbie and the Heartbeats in the film American Graffiti

American Graffiti

American Graffiti is a 1973 coming of age film co-written/directed by George Lucas starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Harrison Ford...

, to which they contributed three songs: cover versions of "At the Hop

At the Hop

"At the Hop" is a hit rock 'n' roll song written by Arthur Singer, John Medora and David White and originally released by Danny & the Juniors. The song was released in the fall of 1957, and reached number one on the US charts on January 6, 1958, thus becoming one of the top-selling singles of 1958...

" and "Louie, Louie

Louie Louie

"Louie Louie" is an American rock 'n' roll song written by Richard Berry in 1955. It has become a standard in pop and rock, with hundreds of versions recorded by different artists...

", and the original composition "She's So Fine".

Formation

The band began in 1969 in Boulder, Colorado at the University of Colorado with Kris Moe as the keyboardist, Linn Phillips guitar, Warren Knight on bass and Mick "Flash" Manresa as front man and guitar. The band got its name, "Flash Cadillac and the Continental Kids" from Hughey Plumley who spent most of his time in the back of a Boulder bar, The Sink, and who entertained himself by creating names for bands.

Kris Moe and Charlie Phillips (Linn's brother) were college roommates, and that is how Kris came to meet Linn and form the band which performed for the first time in February 1969 at a frathouse party. When the original "Flash," the lead singer and several other band members decided to return to school in 1971, Kris Moe, Linn Phillips and Warren Knight decided to replace "Flash" and auditioned and eventually hired Sam McFadin from Widefield Colorado. The band moved to Los Angeles to try and break into the big time. The L.A. house they lived in was called "The Tiltin' Hilton".

Rise to prominence

They appeared on American Bandstand

American Bandstand

American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer...

- one of the only bands to do so without having released an album. They were offered the job of playing the band Herbie and the Heartbeats in the George Lucas

George Lucas

George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...

 movie, American Graffiti. Later they appeared in an episode of the TV show Happy Days

Happy Days

Happy Days is an American television sitcom that originally aired from January 15, 1974, to September 24, 1984, on ABC. Created by Garry Marshall, the series presents an idealized vision of life in mid-1950s to mid-1960s America....

, and in the 1979 movie Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American war film set during the Vietnam War, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The central character is US Army special operations officer Captain Benjamin L. Willard , of MACV-SOG, an assassin sent to kill the renegade and presumed insane Special Forces...

. The band commissioned surf artist Jim Evans

Jim Evans (artist)

Jim Evans born sometime in the 1950s, sometimes known as T.A.Z., is an American painter, printmaker, and Creative Director who was a contributing figure in the visual art movement known as underground comics...

 to paint the cover of their third album, Sons of the Beaches.

The band hit the hot 100 in 1974 with their version of the Barry Blue

Barry Blue

Barry Blue is a singer / producer / songwriter from the United Kingdom. He is best known for his hit songs, "Dancin' " , which he co-wrote with Lynsey de Paul, and "Do You Wanna Dance" .At 14 he signed to record producer Norrie Paramor whose erstwhile assistant was one Tim Rice - the producer of...

/Lynsey De Paul

Lynsey De Paul

Lynsey de Paul is an English singer-songwriter. Allmusic journalist, Craig Harris stated, "one of the first successful female singer-songwriters in England, de Paul has had an illustrious career".-Early life:De Paul was born to Meta and Herbert Rubin, a property developer...

 classic, "Dancing on a Saturday Night" and then again in 1976 with "Did You Boogie (With Your Baby)" (peaking at #29 on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

) from their album Sons of the Beaches.

Later years

When they were in their 30s, they dropped "and The Continental Kids" from the Flash Cadillac name as they decided that as 30-year-old men, they should not be called kids anymore. Becoming tired of the Los Angeles music scene, in 1976, the band purchased a large ranch near Westcreek, Colorado where they built a state of the art recording studio. Some of the band members lived there. Kris Moe lived in a geodesic dome on the property for many years. Most of their later albums were produced there. Charlie Phillips now owns the ranch and studio. Most of the original members are long gone. Linn Phillips died of a heart attack when the band came off stage after a show in 1993. Subsequently, Sam McFadin died of a heart attack in 2001 at his home in Colorado Springs, and shortly thereafter Kris Moe died after a long struggle with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) in July 2005 at his home in Woodland Park, Colorado. Original bass player Warren Knight and long-time member Dwight Bement on sax still play and tour with additional members as Flash Cadillac.