Country-western singer Hank Williams, Jr., the son of classic singing star Hank Williams, was 19 years old when he starred in this inane, low-budget musical. He portrays Grady Dodd, a farm boy devoid of ideas and imagination who has musical aspirations. With the aid of an overly cute girl (Shelley Fabares) and an overly hip agent Grady makes it to the top, despite the protestations of his reactionary uncle (Ed Begley). The cliched plot, lack of direction and atrocious dialog are but a few of the faults in the unfortunate C-movie. The soundtrack album is a much better bet.
Hank Williams, Jr., next appeared in a bit part in SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (1978). The movie career of Michele Ann Marie "Shelley" Fabares, who had co-starred with Elvis Presley in three movies, abruptly came to a halt after A TIME TO SING and she retreated back to the relative obscurity of TV work for the next 20 years. In 1962, veteran director Arthur Dreifuss wrote and directed a quality film, THE QUARE FELLOW, starring Patrick McGoohan, but soon after devolved to churning out terrible "youth themed" movies, such as THE LOVE-INS, RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP, FOR SINGLES ONLY, and A TIME TO SING for schlockmeister producer Sam Katzman (even Dreifuss' 1990 obituaries omit this movie, their final collaboration). Thankfully, A TIME TO SING has never been released on DVD or digital format.
