Monday, May 18, 2015

50 Year Flashback - May 18th, 1965

WIBM broadcast out of Jackson, Michigan ... and this VERY simple chart shows the week's 30 Most Popular Songs in the area.

"Engine Engine Number Nine", a pick hit last week in our 50 Year Flashback feature is already the #8 record on WIBM's chart this week.  Right behind it at #9 is a Bobby Goldsboro track LONG since forgotten by radio (but a pretty catchy record in my mind) ... "Voodoo Woman" ... one of this week's featured tracks.

The duo of Buzz and Bucky are at #11 this week with "Tiger-A-Go-Go", a song that "bubbled under" on the Billboard chart at #107.  Bucky was none other than John Wilkin, who used the nick name "Ronny" when he fronted Ronny and the Daytonas the year before on their Top Five Smash "G.T.O."  (By year's end he'd be back as Ronny charting with their follow-up Top 40 Hit, "Sandy", a LONG-time Forgotten Hits favorite.)  Buzz was a guy named James Cason.  Earlier in HIS career he recorded as Garry Miles (an obvious attempt to confuse the listeners ... and record buyers!) when he cut a version of "Look For A Star", already a hit for an artist named Garry Mills!  (Hard to keep track without a scorecard!!!)

Freddie and the Dreamers are back with a favorite of mine, "You Were Made For Me" at #14.  I truly could not get this song out of my head the other day ... so we'll be sure to feature this one!

I'm not quite sure what the deal is with the Sir Mack Rice version of "Mustang Sally" charting this week at #22.  This one, too, bubbled under in Billboard (#108) but Rice was a Michigan born artist so that may have had something to do with his charting this high on a local chart.  What's really strange about THIS record is that Rice was ALSO a member of the R&B Group called The Falcons ... as was Wilson Pickett, who would chart with the HIT version of this very same song eighteen months later! (Mack WROTE the song ... and obviously Wilson Pickett liked it ... and added it to his OWN repertoire!  The Young Rascals, of course, also did a very popular version of this tune.)

And I couldn't pass up the opportunity to feature Dickey Lee's hit "Laurie" ... EVERY time we run this one in Forgotten Hits we get a GREAT response from readers who LOVED this tune and had long-since forgotten about its existence.  Now HERE'S a track some of the dee-jays on our list should play today ... betcha YOUR listeners will respond in much the same way!