What group was the only rock and roll band to perform on The Lawrence Welk Show?

But how many of us remember when a popular rock and roll group made its appearance on the Lawrence Welk Show? It was in 1963 when the Chantays - a California surf music group that had crafted a megahit with "Pipeline" - showed up one night with Mr. Welk, in what was surely one of the strangest pairings of all time ... The group had been formed a couple of years earlier by five high school buddies in Santa Ana, and had risen to popularity on the Southern California beach music scene. Bob Spickard, Brian Carman, Bob Marshall, Bob Welch, and Warren Waters ranged in age from 13 to 17 when the group was first formed, and even though they'd been around a while by the time they appeared on Welk's show, chances are that they were plenty nervous. What they did have going for them, though, was one of the all-time great songs in pop music. Carman and Spickard's "Pipeline" was an unforgettable piece that - according to legend - had originally been recorded in the back room of a surf shop. In any case, it would end up as a classic that would be covered by many other bands through the years. As for the Chantays, the group never again had a song that approached the popularity of that one