In 1957 he dropped out of high school, wrote a song called "Teen Beat", recorded it, and sold a million records. A few years later he repeated the process with a tune called "Let There Be Drums" and shortly thereafter with the lesser known but equally influential "Drums Are My Beat" and "The Birth of the Beat."
Sandy has spent the time since those days playing the drums and piano, writing songs, digging lagoons and caves in his back yard, producing a public access cable television show and traveling across the U.S.in a motor home.
He's currently holed up in Boulder City, Nevada which is near Lake Mead. Sandy thinks Lake Mead is a lousy boring lake so he doesn't keep a boat there, but during his West L.A. days he once had a small cabin cruiser called the "Wunkette" that he used to sail between Marina Del Rey and Catalina Island. The picture above was taken in L.A. Harbor in the channel that goes from the open sea to Wilmington by way of San Pedro. He was never too eager to be a "rag sailor" but Sandy is deeply in touch with the Danish American side of his ancestry. He gazes out over the water to the western horizon as only a Viking can.
There are several sites that offer further information about Sandy and his music, such as:
