Forgotten Hits spent the month of August looking back at 1969 ... if you missed any of these episodes, simply scroll (or click) back on this page and you'll find them all still posted here. Meanwhile, here's a flashback to the week of September 15th of that year ... just AFTER "The Summer Of '69".
"Sugar Sugar", the biggest hit of 1969, sat on top of The WLS Hit Parade on the survey dated September 15th ... it would be The Archies' third week on top. (Archies lead vocalist Ron Dante had ANOTHER record on the charts this week, too ... "Tracy", as released by The Cuff Links, was #35 on the WLS Chart.)
The #2 record this week, "Easy To Be Hard" by Three Dog Night, came from the Hit Broadway Musical, "Hair." My all-time favorite Gary Puckett and the Union Gap song, "This Girl Is A Woman Now" held down the #3 spot, followed by another one of 1969's musical anthems, "Get Together" by The Youngbloods, a song first released a couple of years earlier without success but then resurrected for a "Brotherhood Week" television ad campaign sponsored by The National Conference Of Christians and Jews.
A couple of other Forgotten Hits List Members were represented in The Chicagoland Top 20 this week ... The Lettermen were at #6 with their remake of the old Little Anthony and the Imperials tune "Hurt So Bad", a song we featured the other day in one of our spotlight features, The 1910 Fruit Gum Company had the #10 Record with "The Train", a song that didn't fare anywhere NEAR as well on The National Charts as it did here in Chi-Town and Chicago's very own New Colony Six were in at #12 with "I Want You To Know". (By the way, Little Anthony and the Imperials had a record on this week's chart, too ... their latest hit, "Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind" was holding on at #28, after falling from the #15 spot the week before.)
Previously featured Forgotten Hits "You, I" by The Rugbys, "Keem-O-Sabe" by Electric Indian (produced by FH List Member John Madara), "Did You See Her Eyes" by The Illusion, "Make Believe" by Wind (featuring an uncredited Tony Orlando on lead vocals) and "Jesus Is A Soul Man" by Lawrence Reynolds also made chart appearances this week ... but that STILL left room for long-forgotten Top 40 Hits like "Your Good Thing" by Lou Rawls, "Daddy's Little Man" by O.C. Smith, "When I Die" by Motherlode, "Carry Me Back" by The Rascals, "What Kind Of Fool Do You Think I Am" by Bill Deal and the Rhondells, "Don't It Make You Wanna Go Home" by Joe South, "Mah-Na-Mah-Na" by Pete Howard and "Ruben James" by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition ... ALL worthy of a couple of spins once in a while.
Motown was well-represented with Top 20 Hits by The Temptations ("I Can't Get Next To You", #5) and Marvin Gaye ("That's The Way Love Is", #16) and newly-crowned Teenie-Bopper King Bobby Sherman would see HIS first hit record, "Little Woman", leap from #9 to the #1 spot two weeks later. Next week, Three Dog Night would top The WLS Chart with their "Hair" hit, "Easy To Be Hard" ... and Elvis' big hit "Suspicious Minds" would debut on the chart at #33 ... it, too, would top the chart the following month.
The WLS line-up, circa Fall, 1969, included Bill Bailey, mornings from 6 - 10, followed by Art Roberts, now doing the late morning / early afternoon shift from 10 am - 2 pm, "Superjock" Larry Lujack from 2 - 6 pm and then the "new kids", Chuck Buell (6 - 10 pm) and Kris Eric Stevens (10 pm - 2 am), followed by Jerry Kay (from 2 am - 6 am). Lujack will be returning to the airwaves real soon as part of John Rook's "Hit Parade Radio" line-up ... and Kris Eric Stevens has carved out quite a successful radio career for himself over the past several decades.
