Sunny Afternoon

Remember that tax rates were upwards of 90% if you were in the upper brackets in those days, so the irony of having a yacht but also being squeezed was quite real for the young bands from the poorer classes who suddenly came into money in the 60s.  See also the Beatles' "Tax Man." They hadn't learned how to shelter that, as the rich had long ago. Though things had gone steadily downhill for inherited wealth over the previous century as well.  PG Wodehouse and Downton Abbey capture the end of an era.

 

 

As here, the dancers, especially the teenage ones, were more in the background at first, though there were professional dancers brought in some weeks. The fan mail brought in all-girl troupes every week, of which the Scottish pop-music singer Lulu said "They mostly wore white boots to the knee and short skirts and the camera would go up the skirt and it was all very risqué." There was more to come, as the teenage "regular kid" dancers were increasingly female, and the camera angles and knickers became part of their show in the 1970s as well. Oh tempora, o mores! As I go through binges of 60s-70s music videos I thought I had detected that change over time, and my reading today confirms it.  I suspect American Bandstand might show something similar if someone were to check it out.