Is Johnny Be Good Forgotten?

I'm not quite sure what to make of that. See, we've been traveling. In San Francisco, to be exact. And I happened to be talking with a young man, and I tossed into the conversation an observation about "like Johnny Be Good." His eyes glazed, and he gave a funny little nervous half-chuckle. "I guess so." I looked at him and said, "You don't know who that is, do you?" He shook his head. I laughed, and said, "It's from an old rock-n-roll song. Well before your time, I'm afraid." Now he joined me in laughing, and said, "I never heard of it."

The question I was left with, which I won't bother him with, is whether the odds and ends of songs, radio or TV shows, even comic strips that I grew up with are a cultural heritage that should be passed on, or simply allowed to quietly pass into the darkness. Or perhaps the flip side of the question is what are the cultural tags and hints that I am missing, having aged before the current era?