Friday, January 20, 2017

January 20th

Arthur Conley records his soul classic "Sweet Soul Music" (essentially a reworking of Sam Cooke's "Yeah Man").



Highest debuts on the chart for the week ending January 21st are "Ruby Tuesday" by The Rolling Stones, premiering this week at #71, "Lovin' You", a John Sebastian song recorded by Bobby Darin, which enters the chart this week at #74, "Let's Spend The Night Together", also by The Stones (and the flip-side of "Ruby Tuesday") which debuts at #77, "All" by actor James Darren at #81, and the first hit for The 5th Dimension (covering a Mamas and Papas track, "Go Where You Wanna Go" at #84).  





Darren and Darin ...  

Not to be confused with the two Darrens that ended up on "Bewitched" before all was said and done!!!


Also new on the charts this week are "Walk Tall" (#96) by The 2 of Clubs (a HUGE hit here in Chicago that totally captures the "Girl Group" sound of the '60's), and the timeless rock classic "For What It's Worth" by The Buffalo Springfield, which comes in at #97.  



The Monkees' debut album finally sees release in the UK.  The following day, "I'm A Believer" will top the singles chart there.  (The group is planning a trip to England in February)  

Here in The States, The Monkees appear on KRUX in Phoenix, Arizona, where they take over the studio for two hours of "music and mayhem".  

The Electric Prunes are back on "Where The Action Is" today, along with Joe Tex.

Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons were scheduled to perform the first of two shows at The Arie Crown Theater in McCormick Place right here in Chicago tonight.  Also on the bill:  ? and the Mysterians and The Sandpipers.  However, fire gutted this establishment earlier this week (scroll back to January 16th for more details).

*****

Bobby Darin enjoyed a comeback of sorts in 1966 when his version of "If I Were A Carpenter" became his first Top Ten Record in three years.

Darin was now into the denim folk period of his career, even leaving his hairpiece behind for various gigs ... and recording an album under his real name, Walden Robert Cassotto.

Darin, who enjoyed quite a successful career as a music publisher through his Trinity Music company was often approached by up-and-coming songwriters pitching their wares.  Such was the case of a couple of guys representing John Sebastian, prior to his success with The Lovin' Spoonful.

Bobby evidently had a blind spot to this music, however, and turned down a number of songs that became HUGE hits for John's new group.

He would often tell this story as part of his nightclub act about how, when the song "Lovin' You" was first presented to him, he just couldn't turn it down for fear of passing on yet another sure-fire chart hit.  (He was right ... "Lovin' You" eventually peaked at #31 on the national charts.)  It was an ingenious bit of comedy that traced the history of this struggle.

You can read more about that ... and the entire Bobby Darin Story ... on our other Forgotten Hits Web Page here:
http://www.forgottenhits.com/the_bobby_darin_story ...

And you can hear Bobby tell it himself right here!