Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Tuesday This And That

Long-planned schedules are being shuffled around slightly due to the raging fires in Los Angeles.  Both the Grammy Awards and the Oscars will make accommodations to still air their programs, keep people safe, and take into consideration the devastation that so many are going thru right now.

Meanwhile, Irving Azoff has announced plans to hold a Fire Aid Fund-Raising Concert in LA on January 30th.

More details are still to come (including the artist line-up) but with Azoff’s connections throughout the music world, some very big heavy-hitters are expected to be joining in for this one.

More details as they become available.  (kk)

Happy Birthday Julia Louis-Dreyfus 🎂🎈!!!! ...

Seen on the lot of historic CBS Television City in Hollywood ...

Same place I watched The Rolling Stones film their last Ed Sullivan show in '69.  

Jim Roup


kk …

I Also Like The Sam Moore + Conway Twitty Duet "A RAINY NIGHT IN GEORGIA."

Cousin Brucie Talked To Mark Stein Of Vanilla Fudge Fame.

I Wasn't Paying Much Attention ... I Like Chocolate Better.

I Heard That Singer Mel Carter Is In The Hospital On The West Coast & In Bad Shape.

TUESDAY, 8 - 11 PM / KOJAK’S 1960's JUKEBOX REVUE / He'll Be Playing Elvis' #1 Hits / Remember Then Radio (WRTR)

FRIDAY, 8 – 11 PM / BAD BOY BROOKLYN BILLY - MEMORIES OF YESTERDAY - FRIDAY NIGHT DANCE PARTY /  Remember Then Radio (WRTR)

I Told Him The Title’s Too Long. He's A Little Crazy. Always Opens Show With Johnny Maestro "NATIONAL ANTHEM" + "GOD BLESS AMERICA" by Connie Francis + “BAD BOY" by THE JIVE BOMBERS.

And A New Death To Report Today …

Buck White (12/13/1930 - 1/13/2025)  -

He Was The Oldest Living Member Of Grand Ole Opry.

I Guess We Might Have To Look This One Up ---

Unless You Know Something About Him?

FB

Nope, can’t say that I do!

I remember Buck Wheat (from even before Eddie Murphy discovered him!)

And I remember Pat Boone wearing White Bucks …

But Buck White the Country Singer and Grand Ole Opry Star, I do not know!

(Nor can I find a single charted record for him on Billboard’s Country Music Charts from 1944 and beyond.)  kk

Timmy sent us this article about Mike Korgan, the guy who produced the legendary Kingsmen’s recording of “Louie Louie” …

Milton "Mike" Korgan, also known as Ken Chase, is pictured here with a framed gold record of "Louie Louie."  (Courtesy of the Korgan family)  He produced one of the 20th century’s most celebrated songs — “Louie Louie” — and died Tuesday (January 7th). He was known to many by his professional name Ken Chase. He was 85.
Korgan was preceded in death by others responsible for creating the three-chord classic: songwriter, Richard Berry, in 1997; the singer, Jack Ely, in 2015; drummer Lynn Easton in 2020; and guitarist Mike Mitchell in 2021.
The Kingsmen famously recorded the hit during a one-hour recording session that cost them between $36 and $50 on the same block as the Crystal Ballroom in downtown Portland. The song zoomed to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
“It was Ken’s unique recording technique that made the Kingsmen’s version of Louie Louie so different and iconic, including lyrics that were not easily understandable,” wrote one of his sons, Todd Korgan, in an email to The Oregonian / OregonLive this week.
So the story goes: Ely was the only band member who knew all of the words, but he’d just had his braces tightened and couldn’t speak clearly. This prompted an FBI investigation into whether the recording violated federal obscenity laws with its muffled lyrics. Although the song was banned in multiple markets, the controversy eventually fizzled and it proved to be a timeless treasure.
Mike Korgan was born in a two-room farmhouse on his family’s dairy farm in Oklahoma and was drawn to music as a child. At age 14 he became the youngest person to pass a first-class radio-telephone operator license test and spent his summers working at radio stations, according to his family.
A short while later, he built the first stereo FM radio station west of the Mississippi in Oklahoma City.
While attending Union College in Nebraska, Korgan converted a local AM radio station from a polka format to one featuring rock and roll, roiling some area farmers.
He married Carol Codr in 1960, then moved to Portland to work as program director and disc jockey at KISN radio, then on the AM dial. It was there he took on the on-air personality Ken Chase and became known as one of the “KISN Good Guys.”
According to the Oregon Music Hall of Fame, Korgan and his colleagues “ruled the AM dial like no other station in Portland: at times capturing a whopping 86% of the listening audience.”
While working full-time on the radio, Korgan and his wife opened a teen nightclub, The Chase, and selected The Kingsmen to regularly play there.
Korgan also worked in television as an engineer and director at multiple Portland stations; opened and operated Korgan’s Strudel House in 1976 in Southeast Portland with his wife for years; and was selected from more than 500 applicants to volunteer and live at the Heceta Head lightkeeper’s house on the Oregon coast with his wife, according to family. The couple started up the popular Heceta Lighthouse Bed & Breakfast in Florence.The couple were married for 64 years.
Korgan is survived by his wife, Carol Korgan; sons, Todd Korgan and Dan Korgan; daughter, Michelle Korgan; daughter-in-law Kate Korgan; and three grandsons.
A private family burial is scheduled for next week. A memorial celebration will be scheduled in coming months.

NOT mentioned anywhere in this article is the fact that Paul Revere and the Raiders recorded a competing version of “Louie Louie” at the very same studio a week earlier.  It was doing pretty well on the local charts until The Kingsmen’s version took off nationally and became the rock anthem it remains today.  

The story I've always heard is that BOTH bands went into Northwest Recorders in Portland, OR, and recorded the Richard Barry tune a week apart.  It was a popular tune for both bands, still playing the clubs at the time ... and often having to repeat this one three or four times a night.  (Recording logs show that The Raiders actually recorded it first ... Paul Revere remembers shelling out $40 for the recording session.  The Kingsmen cut it exactly one week later.)  

Although The Raiders by this time were already signed to Columbia Records, it was Wand, the much smaller, independent label, that won the race on this one.  (Paul Revere and the Raiders were the first rock act signed to Columbia Records and, quite honestly, big as they were, they didn't know what to do with them!!!  Mitch Miller was running things back then, for God's sake!!!)

The Raiders' version also charted first ... by a week.  "Louie Louie" debuted on The Billboard Hot 100 Pop Chart on November 2nd, 1963 and, over the next three weeks, climbed as high as #103 on their "Bubbling Under" list.  The Kingsmen premiered a week later (on November 9th) and stayed on the chart for 17 weeks, a full four months, eventually hitting #1 in both Cash Box and Music Vendor ... but topping out at #2 in Billboard.  (They just couldn't seem to unseat that Singing Nun!!!)  kk

If you're into Garage Band Rock, here’s one from the vaults you might enjoy …

The Forgotten Hits Readers name the Top 50 Greatest Garage Bands of All Time …

https://forgottenhits.com/your_top_50_all-time_favorite_garage_bands

(Spoiler Alert: The Kingsmen came in at #2!!! 

Hmmm ... who could have been bigger???)  kk

 

60 YEARS AGO TODAY:

1/14/65 – Actress Jeanette MacDonald died of heart failure in Houston, Texas.  She starred in the 1936 motion picture “Rose Marie,” which introduced the title song as well as the classic “Indian Love Call,” both of which she performed with Nelson Eddy.