Dick Dodd, Drummer for the Standells, Dies at 68

Dick Dodd, a Mouseketeer who went on to become a member of the Standells, the garage rock pioneers who recorded the Boston sports anthem “Dirty Water,” has died. He was 68.

Dodd, who also sang and played drums with the surf band the Bel-Airs (the 1961 instrumental “Mr. Moto”), announced recently that he had stage 4 cancer of the esophagus, spleen, liver and spine. He died Friday in a Fountain Valley hospital, the Los Angeles Times reported.

At age 9, Dodd, a native of Hermosa Beach, Calif., joined ABC’s The Mickey Mouse Club in 1955 as one of the youngest and smallest Mouseketeers on the show’s first season and was known as Dickie. He later performed as a dancer in the musical Bye Bye Birdie (1963) with Ann-Margret.

After playing with the Bel-Airs, which were born in the South Bay, Dodd left with guitarist Eddie Bertrand to form another surf band, Eddie and the Showmen. In 1964, he joined the Standells, and “Dirty Water” became their biggest hit, rising to No. 11 on the Billboard chart in June 1966.

Thanks to its refrain, “Boston, you’re my home,” the song is still played at Red Sox and Bruins games. (None of the bandmembers had ever been to Boston; the song was written by producer Ed Cobb after a visit to the city, during which he was robbed.)

It was noted on Dodd’s Facebook page last month that the drummer watched the Red Sox clinch the 2013 World Series from his hospital room and heard “Dirty Water” playing in Fenway Park during the celebration: “He was all smiles.”

Dodd later sang on another Standells’ hit, “Riot on Sunset Strip.” He and the band are seen during the opening credits of the 1967 film of the same name that starred Aldo Ray as a police captain caught between L.A. businessmen and teenagers.

The Standells also appeared in the film Get Yourself a College Girl (1964) starring Mary Ann Mobley and Nancy Sinatra and in 1965 episodes of The Munsters and Ben Casey.

Dodd’s survivors include his daughter Nicole.