Edd Kookie Byrnes

Time has a habit of getting away from you. One day you're learning to tie your shoes and the next day you're adjusting to bifocals. Driving along Sunset a couple of weeks ago I saw a construction fence around the long-closed restaurant--it was once called Dino's--that had been the location for the fictional joint that gave the early television series "77 Sunset Strip" its name. The series had hit the air in 1958, a few months before I hit Los Angeles, so our histories were somehow entwined.

Time has a habit of getting away from you. One day you're learning to tie your shoes and the next day you're adjusting to bifocals. Driving along Sunset a couple of weeks ago I saw a construction fence around the long-closed restaurant--it was once called Dino's--that had been the location for the fictional joint that gave the early television series "77 Sunset Strip" its name. The series had hit the air in 1958, a few months before I hit Los Angeles, so our histories were somehow entwined.

A sampling of personalities with hit singles: Edd (Kookie) Byrnes and Connie Stevens, "Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb." Produced by Irving Taylor of "77 Sunset Strip," this record reached No. 4 on the 1959 charts. Stayed on charts for 13 weeks. Estimated sales: (Billboard, Cashbox, etc.) 2 million. Shelley Fabares, "Johnny Angel." A song used on a segment of "The Donna Reed Show" and recorded to push the show. It reached No.

If you think the roadhouse blues band has gone the way of the roadhouse, think again. Unlike other long-standing R&B outfits that have refashioned themselves into funkified pop-groups (Tower of Power comes to mind), Roomful of Blues, the perennial party band from Providence, R.I., keeps the faith with its blend of boogie, bop and soul.

Comic relief: That rough, tough battling war hero of D.C. comics, Sgt. Rock, will get the movie treatment in "Sgt. Rock" this fall with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger told us that the character's success in the story stems in part from the fact that his father is a German-American and Rock speaks that language fluently and can sneak inside enemy lines. John McTiernan ("Predator") directs for producer Joel Silver at Warners. . . .

So what's the rock 'n' roll attitude? Marlon Brando had it in "The Wild One." James Dean had it. Elvis put it on TV. Edd (Kookie) Byrnes wanted to have it. Believe it or not, Bob Denver had it--forget "Gilligan"--as Maynard G. Krebs on "Dobie Gillis." Jerry Lee Lewis got in trouble over it. Jim Morrison and lots of others died over it. The Rolling Stones, those onetime surly, scruffy tough guys, had it. Now, everybody thinks Atlanta's Black Crowes have it. Do they?

If you think the roadhouse blues band has gone the way of the roadhouse, think again. Unlike those longstanding R&B outfits that have refashioned themselves into funkified pop groups (Tower of Power comes to mind), Roomful of Blues, the perennial party band from Providence, R.I., has kept the faith with its blend of boogie, bop and soul.

Like the Ramones, the members of the Donnas have all adopted group-centric names--Donna C., Donna F., Donna A. and Donna R. But this attitude-fueled foursome will cite KISS and AC/DC as key influences as much as any punk-rockers. Coming into the Troubadour, the Palo Alto adolescents are making noise in the indie-rock world with their new album "American Teenage Rock 'n' Roll Machine." * The Donnas, Troubadour, 9081 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, 8 p.m. $10. (310) 276-6168.

"Batman" may have enjoyed a boffo opening at the box office, but there was at least one dissenter in West Hollywood. The joker sprayed a logo of the caped crusader, with a line slashing through the middle, on a Melrose Boulevard sidewalk. Now begins the third annual search for the nation's biggest sports nut. It's sponsored by Fisher Nuts, of course. No Southern Californian has won yet, but Mike Zimmerman of Temple City finished in the top six in 1987. Zimmerman's most impressive performances, according to Fisher: --"Proposed to wife in bed during Mets-Phillies game."