I was surprised and pleased to hear Harvey Kubernik with George Noory on Coast to Coast AM overnight ... they even promoted your blog on the air and on their website. Nice!!!
On another musical note ...
Things are looking good for the upcoming WLS/WCFL Rewound, to be heard for the second straight year on RewoundRadio.com. I have been working almost daily with Bill Shannon in acquiring and restoring old WLS and WCFL Shows. There have been a number of people who have contacted us with something "new" to offer. It is amazing how many good quality shows are out there still, almost five to six decades later. We have also heard from a number of former D.J.s and News People, and Steve Brelsford has been putting some outstanding promos together for this year's event. Thanks Bill and Steve.
So the call to action is this: If you, or someone you know, has any "undiscovered" WLS or WCFL airchecks that they would like to submit for our Rewound, please contact me at radiofun22@gmail.com. We are constantly digitizing, filtering, restoring, equalizing and processing new-found material to bring you the best quality shows possible. We understand that many of these programs were recorded at home, sometimes a great distance from the transmitter, and on marginal quality tape and equipment ... but, we can listen and see what we can do with these archived relics gathering dust in the basement.
All in all, we can't wait to bring you this year's edition of WLS/WCFL Rewound, heard for three big days over Labor Day Weekend. If you missed it last year, don't miss it this year, because radio will never be the same as it was in the 60s, 70s and early 80's in Chicago. Tune into RewoundRadio.com and judge for yourself.
Ted Gorden Smucker
Man, I can’t wait to hear this year’s edition of the WLS/WCFL Rewound! (I wish I had even the SLIGHTEST amount of time to help out with this this year … but my schedule of late has been completely out of control and unmanageable. Meanwhile, I will continue to spread the word and, hopefully, get you some new material to air both this Labor Day Weekend (which is a WHOLE lot closer than you may think!) as well into next year’s WLS/WCLF Rewound Radio THREE!!!
Please, contact Ted at the email address above if you’ve got quality airchecks to share. (Personally, I would LOVE to hear more ‘60’s clips this year if we can come up with them … that’s when WCFL first signed on as a Top 40 station and REALLY gave WLS a run for the money. Of course the ‘70’s competition was fierce, too … with jocks jumping ship from one station to the other trying to keep them at the top of the heap.)
Top 40 Radio didn’t get any better than what we got to hear here in Chicago … and music and radio fans all over the country were tuning in by whatever means possible to hear these great sounds in every other state across the nation.
More programing information as it becomes available … but please, join in on the fun and help make this year’s edition even brighter than last year’s runaway success! (kk)
Last week we told you about the newly updated and greatly expanded edition of Ranking The ‘70’s put together by William Carroll … and it sounds like a few of you have already ordered your copy of this research delight.
Along the way, I wondered if there were any plans to revamp the '60's book in similar fashion … and also talked about perhaps being able to incorporate some of this information from both decades into my own chart-tracking research in the way of establishing a "hit index" so that songs from different eras can be accurately compared to one another. (Of course, I’ve been working on THAT theory for about 40 years now!!! lol)
Bill came back with some comments of his own in this regard …
Nice article, Kent. Thanks very much. And you're right -- the trivia quiz is hard. I hope the hints page helped a little.
As to Ranking The 60s, I have most of the data that would allow for a similar revision. Of course, albums weren't anywhere near as big a presence in the '60s, particularly not before the British Invasion. In fact, I spent about a year harvesting all the albums and all the cuts from everything that charted between 1961 and 1972. It's a huge amount of data, but the short takeaway is you can see a linear change in genres between "adult" music -- virtually everything in 1962 -- and "kid" music -- virtually everything in 1972. The crossover point is 1/1/1967.
Redoing RT60s would be Dann's call. We worked on it a little a few years ago, but he really doesn't have the energy for it and I won't push him. I owe him tremendous props for getting me into this enterprise nearly ten years ago.
Good luck with the hit index. Normalization for me was the computationally simplest approach that takes into account the most important fact: More records on the chart means less time for each. You can't score if you're off the chart, so you can't compare raw scores over time.
But there are things I either never figured out or never figured out how to explain ...
Acceleration: How do you reward the fastest to the top?
Peak performance: six consecutive weeks at number 1 has to be cumulatively bigger than 1 week -- and two consecutive weeks bigger than two non-consecutive weeks -- but how much bigger?
Even the absolute scale itself: How much more valuable is number 1 than number 2, 3 or 10?
And finally, what is the experimental error: Is number 57 for the decade really different than number 58, especially given Billboard's fast and loose approach to the underlying data?
I've come to the conclusion you just take your shot and understand that this is a relative business, not absolute. This system is one lens to see through. There are an infinite number of others. Pick one and be consistent.
Thanks again for your constant support over the past decade, Kent. FH is a bigger resource than even you may know.
Bill
The fun thing about the charts is that there are so many different ways to analyze them … which is also the most FRUSTRATING thing about the charts!!!
Now factor in the two competitive business trades at the time … Cash Box and Record World … and the discrepancies we write about every day in Forgotten Hits, sometimes as many as 20 chart places different from one publication to the next. (Some of this is because each used their own set of research to collect their data, some of which overlapped. And, as we’ve learned over the many years of doing this, NONE of these publications were immune from “outside influences” in spiking chart performances.)
This is why I always point to our Super Charts as being the most accurate representation … because they take into consideration all of the cumulative research in order to build the most comprehensive result.
And then there are the exceptions to the rule … the anomaly I always cite is “They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haa!” which had the most rapid rise to the top before it was banned on a number of stations and the novelty of the track wore off, causing it to plunge to oblivion as fast as it rose. Still, in its seven week chart run, it would have scored a higher hit index than most of the biggest hits of the decade … and we all know that THAT isn’t true!!!
SO many different ways to look at these things … and every time you think you’ve got it figured out, something else sways you in another direction. (Look how many times we’ve talked about hits that would have been MUCH bigger on the charts had the momentum been all at the same time rather than spread out over three or four months as it became a regional hit in different parts of the country … by which time it had already dropped in favor of where it first ignited. Absolutely NO way to measure that … but we’ve seen it when we’ve run our weekly charts from all over the country … records that have made The Top Five week after week after week no matter where you go … yet still barely registered as a Top 40 Hit in Billboard at the time (keeping in mind that Billboard’s list only reflected what our local lists were showing a couple of weeks sooner … the national charts were always playing catch-up in this regard.)
As you can see, we could go on for hours and hours on this topic (or, in the case of putting together a book like yours, years and years!!! Lol)
But I can assure you that us chartaholics LOVE this stuff … and we thank you and appreciate you for all that you’ve brought to the game! (kk)
Speaking of which …
The Dusty Rhodes Show is on Sundays at 5 cdt
Here is his Facebook page:
Where were you in ’62?
Recapture the rapture tonight (6/4) 6pm – Midnight on Cincinnati and Dayton’s great new radio station. 105.9 FM “The Oasis” wherethemusicwent.com and Delhi Township’s WDTZ 98.1 FM and Z98fm.com. We’re on at 9 pm, too (6/4) on WMKV 89.3 FM and WLHS 89.9 FM and wmkvfm.org
Bill in Dallas / Fort Worth
Micky Dolenz, in London this past Sunday for the James Burton One Night Only event (at The London Palladium) is shown here in rehearsal with (sitting) L-R: Jeff “Skunk” Baxter; James Burton; Brian May; and Albert Lee.
Dolenz performed “I’m A Believer,” “Randy Scouse Git” and “Daydream Believer.”
His Micky Dolenz Celebrates The Monkees tour picks up Thursday, 6/8, at The Egyptian Theatre in Park City, Utah.
David Salidor
The "Forgotten Hits Cinema Corner with Chuck Buell!"
Kent wrote:
>>>We
went to see the new live action version of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” over
the Memorial Day Weekend and were blown away … absolutely magnificent …! (kk)
OK then Kent, this is for you!
He continued with:
>>>I took my then four year old daughter Nicki to see the animated version in 1989, and she was completely mesmerized! (kk)
Well then, this is for Nicki!
Now, with those two movies in mind, here’s my Special “Chuck Buell Mermaid Music Melody” briefly highlighting “Under the Sea,” Then and Now! First the Original; Second the Current.
(They’re separated by a Mermaid Splash because, basically, staying true to the original, it’s really a bit difficult telling those two versions apart!)
And, of course, as long as we're on the musical portion here, here’s a Top Three Forgotten Hit from late 1963 – early 1964 from . . . The “MURMAIDS!”.
“Today’s Chuck Buell Forgotten Hits Movie/Music Feature has been brought to you by the Choice of Forgotten Hitters Everywhere ~~~ “
[ circa 1965 ]
WHOA! I love their slogan, “It’s water-active just like me!”
"Man the Water Buckets, Men!”
CB ( which stands for Cecil B. DeBuell!” )
The Murmaids’ hit “Popsicles And Icicles” went all the way to #1 in Music Vendor Magazine, the precursor to Record World, back in 1963. (It peaked at #3 in both Billboard and Cash Box.)
It also spelled an early round of success for a young songwriter named David Gates … about seven years before he hit major pay dirt with Bread. (That’s right, folks … he made MAJOR bread with Bread … until they were toast.)
Three years after his success with “Popsicles And Icicles,” Gates scored a track on The Monkees’ first album (“Saturday’s Child’), which sold about a gazillion copies and kept those songwriters royalties coming in for decades to come.
But it was while he was leading Bread that his career really took off … and made him a household name. (Between 1970 and 1976, Bread scored seven Top Ten hits … plus three more that just missed when “Diary,” “Sweet Surrender” and “Aubrey” all peaked at #11.)
“Make It With You” (#1, 1970), “If” (#4, 1971), “Baby I’m A-Want You” (#3, 1971) and “Everything I Own” (#5, 1972) all made The Top Five while “It Don’t Matter To Me” (#6, 1970), “The Guitar Man” (#9, 1972) and “Lost Without Your Love” (#9, 1976) round out their Top Ten Hit List.
I kinda get Nicki’s objection to seeing the remake … when something is perfect just the way it is, there is really no reason to mess with it. Disney built their business in top shelf animation … and “The Little Mermaid” was a HUGE comeback for the company. Redoing some of their big second wave hits in live action films (“The Lion King,” “The Jungle Book” and, more recently, “Pinocchio” with Tom Hanks as Geppetto) just don’t measure up to the classic originals … and odds are every new generation of kids to come along are going to fall in love with the cartoon versions just the way we did.
But I’ve got to tell you, they did a stellar job with this “Little Mermaid” redo … it is BEAUTIFULLY filmed and sung … and remains faithful to the story we all know and love. (Even, as Chuck mentions, remaining faithful to the music … along with a new hip-hop tune called “Skuttlebutt!”) I can’t help but highly recommend it … as I truly did find it quite enjoyable. (kk)
OK, now this one is REALLY bothering me!!!
Why is it when I look at that last photo that Chuck sent in, the first thing that pops into my mind is "They're not looking for tuna with good taste ... they want tuna that tastes good!" (Something's just not right there!!!) kk
Or worse yet ...
Remember the whole scandal surrounding the VHS release of Disney's "The Little Mermaid" a couple of decades back???
Another important day in June ...
Breaker 1-9!
