Harvey Wallbanger. It sounds like some sort of slacker dude, and in a way maybe it is. But for our purposes here I’ll say that it is an alcoholic drink or cocktail made with vodka, Galliano and orange juice. It has a murky pedigree, as do so many classic libations.

Still, we know that it’s one of the original party drinks of the 1970s. It’s also true that they are easy to make and even easier to drink.

There's nothing simple about its history and its place in the world of alcoholic beverages. This drink has a convoluted past. Marketing professionals got involved in promoting Harvey Wallbangers hard in the 1970s. And that’s probably where the misinformation began.

According to legend, the drink was named after a 1950s era California surfer named Tom Harvey. After a disappointing performance on the waves one afternoon he consoled himself at the legendary Sunset Blvd. watering hole called, Duke's Blackwatch Bar. Where it is said that two-time world champion mixologist Donato 'Duke' Antone was serving up with one of his 'special' cocktails, (a Screwdriver with a dash of Galliano liqueur). After several drinks, the disappointed and highly inebriated Harvey tried to leave the bar, but unfortunately kept bumping into things, including the walls. Harvey 'the Wallbanger' soon became his nickname and this famous cocktail was born.

Now all this may be perfectly true. Or not. But we know that there are plenty of notable 'Duke' creations such as The Rusty Nail, The White Russian, The Godfather and The Flaming Caesar. Some of these drinks were created specifically to promote a liqueur. So it would not be unheard of for Mr. Antone to play along in the promotions game. Even if it was 20 years after the supposed fact.

The Moscow Mule. It’s hard to talk about this classic cocktail without starting with a primer on vodka. Because the Moscow Mule was basically brought to American imbibers as a marketing ploy designed to get vodka averse Americans to open their minds and gullets to the Russian spirit of choice.

It’s hard to imagine today, but vodka was once so despised among the American drinking populace that in 1933 it was described in print as "Russian for 'horrendous'". In fact when Fernand Petiot, inventor of the Bloody Mary, moved to New York from Paris after the repeal of prohibition he was forced by his vodka repelled customers to make his spicy tomato creation with gin.

The astounding turnaround in fortunes for American vodka began in 1934 when Rudolf Kunett bought the U.S. rights to the French brand Smirnoff. Now, I said Americans were not vodka enthusiasts but it’s not like we had never heard of the stuff. There were plenty of Russian refugees from the revolution living in this country. Kunett realized that these vodka loving émigrés were an emerging market for his newly acquired product. And since so many of these refugees were settling in and around Manhattan he convinced G. Selmer Fougner of the New York Sun, to begin presenting a selection of vodka drinks in his column on wine and spirits. Which included the earliest version of a vodka martini researchers have been able to uncover.

However, despite its niche among Manhattan sophisticates and Russian émigrés, vodka remained unloved and ignored with the wider public.