February 6th, 1966

60 YEARS AGO TODAY:

2/6/66 – The Animals appear on “The Ed Sullivan Show”

Also on 2/6, singer Rick Astley is born

 

CHICAGO RADIO, 1966

60 YEARS AGO TODAY:

The whole radio landscape changed here in Chicago in 1966 ... 

All of a sudden, we had TWO major AM Top 40 / 50,000 watt giants competing for listenership ... and everybody upped their game to be the FIRST station to play the latest hits by the era's biggest artists.

But even more importantly, both stations (WLS 890 and WCFL 1000) began campaigns to salute and honor LOCAL artists who were bursting with talent and anxious to gain  pop music fame and fortune.

The first out of the gate to cash in were The New Colony Six ...

(As you can see, their first release, "I Confess," was already the #2 Record here in Chicago by this time.)

All of a sudden, there they were ... playing side-by-side with the likes of The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Herb Alpert, Petula Clark, Simon and Garfunkel, Gary Lewis and the Playboys, The Dave Clark Five and more!

The movement was ON!!!

("I Confess" may have only reached #80 on Billboard's Hot 100 Pop Singles chart ... but it was a bona fide SMASH here in Chi-Town!)

Other local acts would follow ...

In 1966 alone, The Shadows Of Knight, The Buckinghams, The Cryan' Shames and The Ides Of March would ALSO enjoy Top Ten Hits on our local countdowns!  (Look for more local charts spread out throughout this year's 60 YEARS AGO TODAY flashbacks!)  kk 

  

 

February 4th, 1966

60 YEARS AGO TODAY:

2/4/66 - The Rolling Stones released 19th Nervous Breakdown as their new single in England.  (It won’t come out until February 12^th here in The States.)

It will eventually go to #1 in the UK and #2 the US.  

 

Also on 2/4, Bob Dylan and The Band played at the Convention Centre in Louisville, Kentucky. This was the first date of their new world tour, which would be the first using all electric instruments, after Dylan had ‘gone electric’ at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival the year before.

Also on 2/4, The Nashville Tennessean reports that Johnny Cash will file a $25-million defamation of character lawsuit against the Ku Klux Klan, which has circulated messages demanding boycotts of his concerts, falsely believing he married an African-American woman.  (Wait .. say WHAT??!?!?!)  Cash's wife was country legend June Carter ... who was white!

OOPS!!!

Major correction below ... thanks, Harvey!  (kk) 

kk: 

That lawsuit was about JR's first wife Vivian Liberto, NOT June Cash. 

Vivian Distin (née Liberto, formerly Cash; April 23, 1934 – May 24, 2005) was an American homemaker and author. She is notable as the first wife of singer Johnny Cash and mother of their four daughters. She inspired his first hit single "I Walk the Line".^[1]

Born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, she grew up in a Sicilian-American household and was raised Catholic. She married Cash in San Antonio, but they separated after several years. In 1965, Cash, who was already well known, was arrested for drug possession. She stood by him during this time, and photographs of her were widely publicized.

Between 1965 and 1966, she faced discrimination due to her racial identity after white supremacists classified her as Black based on her appearance in the photos. At the time, interracial marriage was illegal in many places, and white supremacists claimed her marriage to Cash was unlawful. As a result, both she and her husband experienced harassment, and he was boycotted in the South for a year until his manager provided documentation confirming her classification as White.

Harvey Kubernik