John Lennon was a major fan of the show “Happy Days”

The show “Happy Days” debuted on ABC as a midseason replacement show on January 15, 1974, and was an instant hit. Nostalgia of the 1950’s was popular in 1974 with shows like “Happy Days” and the movie American Graffiti leading the way. Coincidentally, the kind of music associated with that time period was what John Lennon was featuring on his upcoming album Rock ‘n’ Roll, which was still in production when “Happy Days” debuted to rave reviews. Lennon’s fifth solo album featured his doing cover versions of rock standards of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, the music of his Liverpool youth. Naturally, Lennon was an instant fan of “Happy Days”.

Recently, the website Slashfilm.com published an article titled “One Of The Beatles Was a Happy Days Fan, And He Made Sure To Let The Cast Know“, which tells how John Lennon, May Pang and a young Julian Lennon visited the set of “Happy Days” in Los Angeles during the show’s first season in 1974.

The article also tells how ten years later in 1984 when Julian Lennon appeared on the show “Solid Gold” to promote his hit song “Valotte“, he appeared at Henry Winkler’s dressing room, which was on the next set, and asked “The Fonz” if he remembered him.

The forthcoming Rock ‘n’ Roll album, which was still in production at the time of Lennon’s visit to the “Happy Days” set, would have many songs which would be of the era evoked by the nostalgic tv show, such as “Be-Bop-a-Lula”, “Stand By Me”, “Ain’t That a Shame”, “Do You Want to Dance”, “Sweet Little Sixteen”, “Peggy Sue” and “Ya Ya.”