As I've said many times before, you just never know what the next "Hot Topic" is going to be here in Forgotten Hits ... but apparently you guys are liking THIS one, so we'll stick with it for a few more days.
Here are a few of the comments we received this week ... along with a sneak peek of what's still to come ...
Hi Kent,
I listened to the jingles this morning. Do you ever get writers block? You are so faithful in doing this blog and your readers / listeners surely respond with many words and things to say back to you.
Carlene
It's that inter-active aspect that helps to make Forgotten Hits so unique ... check out the email below! (kk)
Wow - it's interesting that after all the years all the lyrics to "Happiness Is" come back instantly. And only at Forgotten Hits would the writer join in the conversation when the Kent commercial was brought up. I don't recall hearing Bobby Sherman's take on this, but I do remember hearing the Ray Conniff version on the radio. The Ray Conniff group's recordings were always engineered with an unmistakable, full sound that was easy to listen to. The TV spot sounded the same. By the way, did you also spot the Eddy Rambeau record on the WKYC chart?
David Lewis
I love looking at these local charts from around the country ... sometimes it gives you a much clearer picture of what was really popular than the national trades would often indicate. (FH List Member Clark Besch just sent me a couple of surveys from KPOI in Hawaii from the early '70's for another piece I'm working on ... incredible to see Chicago's New Colony Six at #4 in HAWAII with a record that peaked at #93 in Billboard ("Long Time To Be Alone", 1972) ... in fact, that chart-showing beats its Chicago Radio countpart ... the record peaked at #13 here in Chi-Town ... and ONE of our Top 40 Stations didn't even play it!!!)
Hey Kent,
I have a CD that I got years ago, not sure where, maybe Collector's Choice (?), but it is called Things Go Better With Coke, Sixties Coca-Cola Commercials 1965-'69. This disc has 60 different tracks including the 2 American Breed tracks you featured. Also on this disc are many Forgotten Hits favorites like Jan and Dean, Boyce and Hart, Freddie Cannon, Gary Lewis and many more including many great English groups of the same time period.I was just wondering if you had this same disc or had ever heard of it before. There's some very rare stuff on it. I'll try and get a scan made of the front and back cover. The front is a great Big Daddy / Rat Fink type cartoon that is very fitting for the time. I'd be interested to know if there are other discs like this out there. This one seems to have been released thru a company called McCann - Erickson, Inc. NY, maybe an ad agency or commercial production company. Don't know.Needless to say I'm enjoying the Ad Nauseum very much!!
Thank You,
Eddie,
Orange, CT
I've seen several versions of this CD over the years ... every once in a while a new one will surface that features a few tracks not previously available ... the one I have is simply called "Coca-Cola Commercials" and appears to be a British import. It, too, has 65 tracks: in order - two by The Seekers, Fontella Bass, two by Tom Jones, Petula Clark, Jay and the Americans, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, Jan and Dean, Freddy Cannon, two by Gary Lewis and the Playboys, two more by Petula Clark, two by The Supremes, The Troggs, two by Lee Dorsey, Lesley Gore, The Vogues, Roy Orbison, The Drifters, Ray Charles, Nancy Sinatra, Joe Tex, The Moody Blues, The Fortunes, two by Lulu, two by The American Breed, two by Jay and the Techniques, two by The Box Tops, The Bee Gees, The Tremeloes, two by Aretha Franklin, three by Sandy Posey, one each by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell and then a solo spot for Marvin, The Brooklyn Bridge, two by B.J. Thomas, Carla Thomas, Jerry Butler (and then one by Carla Thomas AND Jerry Butler!), two by Vanilla Fudge, two by The Moody Blues, two by Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin (and then one more solo spot by each), two by Boyce and Hart, two by The Fifth Dimension and two by Gladys Knight and the Pips. I've got a hunch this is the same CD you're referring to, but with different packaging.
Thanks, Eddie! (kk)
Yeah, basically the same with a few differences. The back cover and inside front cover lists a few that aren't on the disc, but I see them in your list. Must be multiple variations of this out there.
Thanks,
Eddie,
Orange, CT
Hi Kent -
"Happiness Is a Kent" (Kotal) Forgotten Hits Newsletter!
The two song are different songs. I do believe I also heard the jingle "Happiness Is" song on a Ray Conniff or Readers Digest album. The one I was referring to was off one of my old Association CD's put out I think in 1984 called "Songs That Made Them Famous". I also have this song on my old scratchy 1967 LP "Insight Out". This Association album features their big hit "Windy".
The song was written by The Addrisi Brothers, Dick & Don. The brothers also wrote The Association's #2 hit "Never My Love".
I always thought their own two mini-hits, Billboard #25 "We've Got To Get It On Again" and #20 "Slow Dancin' Don't Turn Me On" fell into my own They Should Of Been Bigger Hits category.
Give "Happiness" a listen and see if it sounds familiar.
Take care.
Jerry jfk
Great stuff today … certainly I’m not biased or anything …
Any chance you could include a link to order Book of Days, in case anyone reading wants to after seeing this?
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?r=1&ISBN=9781435104709&ourl=Book%2Dof%2DDays%2FHarvey%2DSolomon&cm_mmc=Google%20Product%20Search-_-Q000000630-_-Book%20of%20Days-_-9781435104709
Thanks….
Rich Appel
Happy to, Rich ... (of course a mention or two on YOUR radio program would be kinda nice, too!!! lol) kk
>>>Cherokee Indian Iron Eyes Cody (Rich Appel)
WASN'T HE REVEALED (many years later) TO BE ITALIAN? NO INDIAN AT ALL?
Renfield
Yeppers!!! We found several websites corroborating Cody's true ancestry, a fact that became public knowledge many years after these famous ads ran. (Incredibly, a website called IronEyesCody.com, which sells a collectible Iron Eyes Cody doll, perpetuates the myth by talking about what a famous Native American he was!!! Meanwhile, "Snopes" has a whole page dedicated to Cody, under the banner "Was Iron Eyes Cody" a True-Born Native Indian". (The answer, by the way: "False".)
Here are a couple of other excerpts we found along the way:
Iron Eyes Cody was born Espera DeCorti on 3 April 1904 in the small town of Kaplan, Louisiana. He was the son of Francesca Salpietra and Antonio DeCorti, she an imigrant from Sicily who had arrived in the USA in 1902, and he another immigrant who had arrived in America not long before her. Theirs was an arranged marriage, and the couple had four children with Espera (or Oscar, as he was called), their second eldest.
As a teenager, he changed his surname to Corti, following in his father's footsteps and, in 1924, after his father's death, Espera moved to Hollywood changing his name again from Corti to Cody. "Iron Eyes" began working in the motion picture industry, representing himself to the world as an Indian. He went on to achieve a full career as an actor, appearing in well over a hundred movies and dozens of television shows across the span of several decades.
This from the ever-reliable Wikipedia:
Iron Eyes Cody, born Espera de Corti (April 3, 1907 - January 4, 1999) was an American actor. He was recognized for portraying Native Americans in Hollywood films. Near the end of his life, his Italian ancestry was made public. In 1995 he was honored by the Native American community for his portrayals.
Cody was born Espera de Corti in Kaplan, Louisiana, a son of Antonio de Corti and his wife, Francesca Salpietra, immigrants from Sicily. They had a local grocery store in Gueydan, Louisiana, where he was raised.
In some of his earliest acting credits, Cody was listed as Tony de Corti. He and his two brothers, who were also acting, changed their surname to "Cody". Tony Cody then claimed to be part Cherokee and Cree.
Cody began his acting career at the age of twelve and continued to work until the time of his death. He appeared in more than 200 films, including The Big Trail (1930), with John Wayne; Sitting Bull (1954), as Crazy Horse; Nevada Smith (1966), with Steve McQueen; A Man Called Horse (1970), with Richard Harris; and Ernest Goes to Camp (1987), with Jim Varney. In 1953, he appeared twice as Chief Big Cloud in Duncan Renaldo's syndicated western television series, The Cisco Kid.
He was most famous for his "crying Indian" role in the "Keep America Beautiful" public service announcement in the early 1970s.[1] It was an ecology commercial in which an Indian (Cody) sheds a tear after some trash is thrown from a speeding car and lands at his feet. The announcer, William Conrad, of Bullwinkle and Cannon fame, memorably declares: "People start pollution; people can stop it."
The Joni Mitchell song "Lakota," from the 1988 album, Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm, features Cody's chanting.[2]
Cody had a cameo in the 1990 film Spirit of '76.
In 1995, the Hollywood Native American community honored Cody for his contributions to Native American life. [3]
In 1996, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported his Sicilian heritage, but Cody denied it. He lived all his adult life claiming he was Native American and supported Native causes. Cody and his wife Bertha, who was Native American, adopted several children, all Native American.
Cody died in 1999. He was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California. He was survived by his adopted son, Native American flautist Robert "Tree" Cody.
Thomas King named and created a character based on Iron Eyes in his novel Green Grass, Running Water.
But apparently nobody ever told the folks running the Iron Eyes Cody Doll Website about his TRUE heritage!!! Here's THEIR opening statement:
Iron Eyes Cody was, and still is, one of the most famous Native American Indians since Geranamo. Iron Eyes Cody passed away in January of 1999 at the age of 94 years old. The Indian with the tear in his eye, and the Indian that was in the world famous environmental commercial for the organization Keep America Beautiful.
Click here: Iron Eyes Cody Doll
SNOPES dispelled the rumor some time ago:
Click here: snopes.com: Iron Eyes Cody
Oh sure ... and NEXT you'll be telling me that the Native Indian Group Redbone, who topped the charts with their hit "Come And Get Your Love" back in the mid-'70's were really The Vegas Brothers, Mexican Americans who first appeared as part of the "house band" on "Shindig" back in the mid-'60's. (Oh wait ... we burst THAT bubble several years ago in Forgotten Hits, too!!! lol) kk
Coming up in Forgotten Hits:
More from Rich Appel ...
Back in 2002 he polled his readers for their all-time favorite commercials for his Hz So Good Music / Radio Publication ... and we'll have those results right here in Forgotten Hits ... along with an EXCLUSIVE Interview that Rich did with Jake Holmes (a guy who knows a thing or two about "jingles").
And, in true commercial fashion, here are a few plugs for some of the OTHER things Rich has got going on:
You can order his latest book, "Book Of Days, The '70's" here:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?r=1&ISBN=9781435104709&ourl=Book%2Dof%2DDays%2FHarvey%2DSolomon&cm_mmc=Google%20Product%20Search-_-Q000000630-_-Book%20of%20Days-_-9781435104709
(Be sure to check out the '60's edition, too ... it's Fab AND Gear!!!)
You can get his Hz So Good Newsletter (MUST reading, by the way), by sending an email here: rich.appel@hzsogd.com
(Just be sure to tell him that Forgotten Hits sent you!!!)
And, once you're on the list, you can vote for YOUR favorites in this year's I.R.S.
Countdown (as in "It Really Shoulda ... Been A Hit"!!!) Send your votes and nominations to the same address above. (Come on, guys, this is RIGHT up our Forgotten Hits alley!!! In fact, you'll find a couple of nominations for two over-looked Addrisi Brothers hits in one of the emails above!)
And, you can listen to Rich Appel on the radio here:
http://www.ghtradio.com/personalities_appel.htm
(these days, every other Sunday, 10 am - 2 pm EST [with ‘polkus interruptus’ 12 noon - 1 pm EST] … although I won’t be back until Sunday January 24th)
and
http://www.wrnjradio.com/personalities.php
(every Saturday, 9 am - 1 pm EST … although I’m on vaca this weekend, so back Saturday January 16th)
Where we hope he'll SHAMELESSLY return our plugs with at least half-a-dozen mentions of The Forgotten Hits Newsletter!!! (lol)
Rich tells us ...
You'll hear more Forgotten Hits on the GHT show, but both feature at least one weekly reading from Book of Days, songs for famous birthdays and on-this-day events. The GHT show also features “American Top 4,” the countdown of the 4 hottest hits this week in pop music history (as in, the biggest upward moves).
