Thursday, October 5, 2023

Good Old-Fashioned Forgotten Hits #2

In 1971, Novelty King Dickie Goodman took the band The Glass Bottle into the recording studio and produced their onlyTop 40 Hit Record "I Ain't Got Time Anymore."

It went all the way to #26 on the pop charts (#36 in Billboard for some reason) and became a #17 Hit here in Chicago on both of our local Top 40 Charts.  (A far inferior version recorded by British Pop Star Cliff Richard was released the year before and went to #21 in the UK.  It sounds damn-near depressing in comparison.  Goodman's arrangement modified the melody a bit to give it a more uplifting feel.)

The story goes that at this point in his career, Dickie Goodman was working in advertising after creating a series of classic break-in records in the 50's and '60's.  It was in this capacity that he was approached by a company called Benton and Bowles about coming up with a song designed to draw attention to the bottle industry. 

Returnable glass bottles were going bye-bye in favor of disposable plastic ones and aluminum cans ... so he and co-producer Bill Ramal recruited a group, fronted by Gary Criss, and tried to come up with an advertising campaign that would fit their client's needs.  When they couldn't come up with a catchy-enough song mentioning glass bottles, they simply named the group The Glass Bottle instead!

The rest, as they say, is history ... 

Or, at the very least, their fifteen minutes of fame.  (kk)