Congratulations to Ed Pond of Lebanon, Oregon ... he's the winner of the autographed copy of Alan O'Day's CD "Appetizers", a reissue of his very first LP, making its appearance on CD for the very first time.
Here's another one of MY favorite tracks from this release ... "Slot Machine"!!!
You can order your OWN copy of this CD (and, if you tell him you heard about it in Forgotten Hits, Alan will autograph YOUR copy, too!!!) simply by visiting his website: Click here: Alan O'Day, Songwriter
It's a WHOLE lotta fun (in a '70's sort of way) and includes his #1 Hit "Undercover Angel", one of the BIGGEST Songs Of Summer, 1977. (kk)
Click here: Forgotten Hits - The Best Of The Rest, Part 2 ...
Summer's Greatest Hits, 1971 - 1980
re: GERRY RAFFERTY:
I have a very fond memory from '73, of driving around with my friends Kathy and Lisa. Kathy would always sit in the middle while I drove and Stuck In The Middle With You would come on and we all sang along. Kathy and Lisa would do the hand clapping and Kathy would laugh like crazy when the title came along. Every time I hear that song I think of those two girls and how much fun we had! Thanks, Gerry!
Eddie Burke,
Orange, CT
re: NICK SANTO:
I'M GONNA MISS NICK FROM THE CAPRIS, TOO. HE WAS ALWAYS A GENTLEMAN AND SOUNDED BETTER THAN HE THOUGHT IN THE LAST FEW YEARS. HE TOLD ME THAT THE LESSENED BREATHING (WITH ONE LUNG) WAS MAKING IT HARD FOR HIM TO SING.
GOD BLESS HIM! ...
MICHAEL G. BUSH
Hi Kent -
So sorry to hear of the passing of The Capris lead singer, Nick Santamaria.
"There's A Moon Out Tonight" was always one of my favorite oldies. I did see them perform on one of TJ Lubinsky's shows. What a beautiful voice he had.
Carolyn
Kent ...
1/2/11 - Wild Wayne's Memory Machine = He did a touching tribute to the late, Nick Santamaria. Wild Wayne is great at these tribute shows. Most people play "There's A Moon Out Tonight" and leave it at that. Wild Wayne traced Nick's career with The Capris and played their music throughout the show.
Frank B.
"There's A Moon Out Tonight", of course, was the big one, #3 in Billboard in early 1961, so naturally THAT'S the one that folks are going to remember. The highest they ever charted again was #74 with their follow-up hit "Where I Fell In Love". Their next two chart singles only spent a week on the charts and never made it out of the 90's. (kk)
Sadly, it's tribute time again. We just lost Nick Santos (Nick Santamaria), the lead singer of The Capris. It was back in 1961 when I first heard "There's a Moon Out Tonight" and actually met the group. We talked about that and more Friday night on my Top Shelf Oldies / Pop Shoppe Radio Program. We have lost another fabulous voice that many of us grew up with.
Looking ahead, I was on the phone earlier this evening with Wally Roker / the original bass from the Heartbeats. Talk about a group that gave us lots of memories. I hope to be speaking to Wally next Friday (the 14th). I am most excited about his memories with a group that has been so loved all these years. The first song (of course) that always comes to mind is "A Thousand Miles Away". The week after that I'll be featuring a very special tribute to Sam Cooke who would be 80 years old has he lived. Besides hearing some of Sam's great songs, you'll thrill to a live concert.
DJ Stu Weiss
re: JIMY ROGERS:
Hi Kent,
Just wanted to let you know about the new Mauds Wikipedia page. I wrote it after digging through three boxes of Jimy Roger's Mauds memorabilia and newspaper articles. Wow - what a trip down memory lane. I tried to get it right, but if anyone wants to add or correct it, that can easily be done. Here is the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mauds
I also posted the Jimy Rogers Tribute Slideshow (from the memorial concert celebration) for those who couldn't be there, or for any of us who need our Jimy "fix" every once in awhile, just click on this and enjoy. It's set to his amazing version of "When Something Is Wrong (With My Baby)" and has photos from throughout his career.
http://www.themauds.com/ then click on "Jimy Rogers Tribute Slideshow"
We are also excited about the event we are planning for Saturday, April 2, 2011, at Reggie's Rock Club, a fundraiser / tribute concert to Jimy Rogers, which will feature a full roster of 60's bands and more, hosted by Blue Road. So far the tentative lineup includes Jimy Sohns from the Shadows of Knight, the New Colony Six, The Cryan Shames, Corky Siegel, and more TBA. Tickets can be purchased in advance at:
http://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/23913.
Hope your New Year is Happy,
Joan Gand
Thanks for the updates, Joan ... it's GREAT to see Jimy being remembered with so much love here around town. The slide show is EXCELLENT!!! You did an outstanding job on this! (Guess I must have missed Jimy's "Afro Years" lol!) Thanks again ... very happy to pass this info along. (kk)
re: THE ASSOCIATION:
>>>Among those are two favorites of mine that never got the attention -- or chart love -- I thought they deserved. Those two also show their wide range of talent and styles:-- "Names Tags Numbers Labels," which barely crawled onto the Hot 100. Great lyrics, written by Albert Hammond.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--EqbOuIQSk
-- And "Goodbye Columbus," one of the most upbeat, feel-good songs of the Sixties (in distinct contrast to the downbeat, like-titled movie).
Don Effenberger
Don, I'm in total agreement about both of the above tracks! The Association were HUGE in Chicago in the 60's. I've sent along two promos for the "Goodbye Columbus" movie, one featuring the greatness and excitement of the Association's theme. It easily beats WB labelmates Harpers Bizarre's film theme, "I Love You Alice B Toklas" of the same time period.
"Names, Tags, Number & Labels" by the Association takes Albert Hammond's song to new heights after his version failed as a single release. The Association's 70's version did get good aiplay on WCFL in the 70's. When I asked the late Barney Pip of CFL who was the most popular national group in Chicago in the 60's, he said one name, the Association!
Altho "Along Comes Mary" only reached #12 on the Big 89, "Cherish" made the Association THE group from there through 1968 in Chicago and beyond. Between these two, "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies" got airplay despite not reaching the Silver Dollar Survey. "No Fair At All" is just plain GREAT, despite its low national rating. It was #19 on WLS. Three more top 6 singles followed on WLS and "Time for Livin'" their last WLS charter at 25. "Six Man Band" got airplay on WLS, too.
Even these chartings don't prove the prowess of this group's hold on Chicago. Better showing would be a special WCFL chart attached. In May, 1968, Lew Witz replaced Ken Draper as THE man at CFL and many changes occurred including putting out hand outs of the Capsule Countdowns. They were still in store displays. In late 1968, WCFL DID release a special "Big 10 Solid Gold Selection" chart which they counted down in November of the year. Besides the local talent you'll see, you can also find the Association logging in at #1, 5,11, 29 (NOTE: NO other artist had even two songs in the Top 30 besides the Association!), 79. How's that for domination?
You'll find other FH members in this chart as well!!
(click to enlarge)
The Association's success was much due to the great songwriting of the Addrisi Brothers, as we know. Here are a couple of great tunes that show how commercial their writing could be post-Association. First, their theme from "Nanny & the Professor" from the 70's and a 1972 (1973?) Bell 45 that is just tremendous, I think. Sounds just like a TV theme of the day. Why wasn't it a hit??
WLSClark
I agree that The Addrisi Brothers should have had more success on their own ... their first chart hit dates all the way back to 1959 when "Cherrystone" went to #62 on the Billboard Chart. It would take 13 years before they would hit the charts again ... but "We've Got To Get It On Again" (#15, 1972) is yet ANOTHER one of those GREAT Top 20 Hits that gets virtually NO airplay anymore these days. (We're making it our Forgotten Hit of the Day for Monday!) The follow-up single, "I Can Feel You", is my personal favorite ... and it actually made The Top 20 here in Chicago. (Nationally, it stalled at #90!)
"Slow Dancin' Don't Turn Me On" hit #18 in 1977. (I like their version of "Does She Do It Like She Dances", too, a #74 hit that same year.) And then they released their own version of "Never My Love" ... unfortunately they destroyed a beautiful melody in the process by trying to sound "too trendy" with almost a Disco arrangement.
The Association WERE very big here in Chicago ... "No Fair At All", "Everything That Touches You" and "Names, Tags, Numbers And Labels" ALL performed better here on our local charts than they did nationally. They played at my high school in 1967, most certainly the PEAK of their career, and I was fortunate enough to have seen that show. As we mentioned last week, they'll now be part of The Happy Together Again Tour for 2011 this summer.
The WCFL "Big 10 Solid Gold Selection" Chart you sent in is quite fascinating ... an idea of what radio thought oldies programming should be back in 1968. You're right, The Association are all over this chart: "Cherish" (#1), "Windy" (#5), "Never My Love" (#11), "Along Comes Mary" (#29), "No Fair At All" (#79) ... and local talent is EVERYWHERE on this chart: "It Could Be We're In Love" by The Cryan' Shames (#9), "Bend Me, Shape Me" by The American Breed (#17), "Gloria" by The Shadows Of Knight (#50), "Kind Of A Drag" by The Buckinghams (#52) and "I Will Always Think About You" by The New Colony Six (#55) give our "local heroes" Five of The Top 100 Spots on the Chart. Interesting to see what an perceived "oldie" was back then: NOTHING on this list was more than six years old other than "Are You Lonesome Tonight" by Elvis and "Where The Boys Are" by Connie Francis. Of course, oldies wouldn't really come into their own as part of radio programming for a few years yet, introducing many of us to some GREAT songs we missed growing up simply having been, to quote The Poni-Tails, born too late. (kk)
re: MIKE CURB:
Kent,
I see that you've been in touch with Mike Curb.
If you think of it, and if it's not too inconvenient, please tell him that Gary Myers of the Portraits says hello.
We had two singles on Sidewalk and we did the vocals on two other LP cuts, one of which was "Devil's Angels."
Gary E. Myers / MusicGem
Passed your note along, Gary ... I'll let you know if he responds. (kk)
Sidewalk had several Tower things, but if Mike Curb thought they were sellers that he put out from Tower, I don't think so! Sidewalk did have the first Stone Poneys 45, as I got it way back in late 67 from our local AM station. It had the "3 in the Attic" soundtrack with the music of Chad & Jeremy, too. Of course, Chicago's Aorta released its own version of "Shape of Things to Come" on Atlantic in late 68. Davie Allan's work on these soundtracks is always of interest. For Colorado music people, the Poor (featuring Nebraska's Randy Meisner) were on a track on "Wild Angels" and their track was even issued on 45. The Poor's output has been comped, but I'm not sure if it's still available.
In 1968 (?), Mike Curb appeared on Bandstand talking up his new sound, the Clingers. This all girl band had some minor success. They recorded for Chicago's Tollie label in 65 and later on Columbia, they covered the Easybeats' great tune "Gonna Have a Good Time" and did a fairly decent job! They appeared on the Smothers Brothers show performing this song, if I remember correctly. Of course, Mike is well known for "Burning Bridges" which charted forever (17 weeks!) in 1970. At that time, he also released a new Bandstand theme song which was used in 1970. The 45 came with a sleeve denoting the change from the old 50's tune that the show had used thru the 60's.
Here's a couple of things you might enjoy ... a "Born Losers" trailer featuring a girl called "Matress Back"!!! Hmm?? Also, an Arrows concert nugget. These were among things I sent in for the Arrows' double CD Sundazed released a few years back.
Clark Besch
re: DIGGIN' FORGOTTEN HITS:
KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK ... THERE ARE MANY, MANY MORE OF US OUT HERE WHO REALLY APPRECIATE ALL THAT YOU DO!!
MICHAEL G. BUSH
I also agree that many of Carly Simon's songs never get air play. One of my favorites is "That's the Way I Heard It Should Be", too.
Keep up the Great work and Happy New Year 2011!!
Carolyn
I like the new "Forgotten Hit Of The Day Feature" and I hope some of the jocks on the list pick up on this and schedule it as part of their Monday thru Friday programming. This week's candidates featured a few surprises -- but also reminded me that SOME songs are forgotten for a reason!
Dennis
Yeah, they're not all personal favorites of mine, either ... but I've found that just HEARING one of these "Wow! Factor" songs brightens up my day ... ANYTHING to break from the same old / same old being driven home on a constant basis. (I heard "Scorpio" by Dennis Coffey the other day ... again, not one of my favorites ... but when's the last time you heard THAT one?!?!? And, once again, it's a legitimate Top Five Hit!) kk
WOW, was that an honest to goodness reminder yesterday? I have been faithfully checking your blog daily for new reading material, but I was excited to see forgottenhits in my inbox Sunday morning. I must enjoy the idea that there is fun, educational reading afoot.
Shelley J. Sweet-Tufano
Life was just SO much easier when we could email Forgotten Hits right to everybody every day and not have any hassles. Honestly, today I don't know what I can or can't do ... so I'll just keep pluggin' away (in the hopes that you guys are all checking the site regularly!) Thanks, Shelley! (kk)
