Monday, April 25, 2011

A Few More Comments ...

... for The Morning After ... 

(And, for all of you out there who keep preaching "Size Doesn't Matter" ... then you'll just LOVE today's Comments Page ... as Blogger has once again decided to change ALL of my sizes and spacing no matter how many times I go back and fix it!!!)

re:  HAPPY EASTER!:
Today is Good Friday!!! Make it better, make it Great Friday and feed me some new FH News! LOL!
John
Honestly, we're doing everything we can to keep up with this ... but sometimes it gets away from us ... and we fall a little behind!  
Should have a few new posts this week, including a brand new edition of "Helping Out Our Readers"!  (kk)





Your eggsellent epistle was filled with bad yolks!
Steve Davidson
Kent ...
Too many EGGS ... Not enough BUNNIES.
Frank B.
hahaha Kent,
your Eggsplanation was fun to read!
Shelley J. Sweet-Tufano  
Kent,
Did you write all this? It's great!
Happy E-Day,
Davie Allan
Kent,
I had no idea you were such an Eggs-istentialist!
Regards,
Scott
Too Cute! Happy Easter to you and your family!
U R EGGONORATED THIS TIME Kent!!!!
Lynn
Kent,
Good to know you are alive and kicking. The absence of the Friday Forgotten Hit had me worried that something had happened to you ... and apparently it did. It appears you were kidnapped by some eggstra-terrestrials and they scrambled your brains ... LOL.
You often talk about the long hours you have to put in at your job ... just wondered what you do for a living.
This particular reader is happy you still find the time to do the Forgotten Hits webpage. Thanks again.
Stacee
In the "real world", I work for a printing company in the Chicago suburbs ... and, simply put, quite often the demands are pretty intense ... Thursday was literally an up at 5:15 am, home at 11:00 pm day ... what's that???  Eighteen hours?!?!?!  And all this just so I could take Friday off???  
HARDLY seems fair that after putting in double hours Friday should count as a "vacation" day!!!  But such is the world we live in.
Please know ... we ALWAYS publish WHAT we can, WHEN we can ... 
sometimes it's just a whole lot harder to keep up the schedule than others!!!  (kk)
Kent,
First let me say that I enjoyed your commentary today concerning whether you should put out a FH on Easter Sunday or not.  Now, personally, I don't see anything wrong with it. I got up this morning, went to Church, went out and ate a good lunch. If you hadn't put one out today, I would have understood. Same goes for Christmas, New Years, 4th of July, etc. 
In fact, would you believe this morning on the way to church, it dawned on me that maybe I should have e-mailed you with some suggestions of Easter Songs to mention, if not put on your website. For eggsample:  THE BUNNY HOP by either Ray Anthony, or the Appeljacks version, (remember them), I WANNA BE AN EASTER BUNNY by the Singing Reindeer,(what, you don't remember that one?) and another one by Lee and Paul from 1959 called the CHICK on Columbia, which, believe it or not made it into our top 5 here in OKC.
I enjoyed your readers' comments on Mr. Randy Wood. The one thing I always liked and noticed about Dot Records were that in the early years one could find the year of release on the label.
This idea of radio station giving out the wrong time on purpose years ago, I really don't remember or even hearing about it here in OKC. Same for speeding up the records. Maybe the stations here in OKC did it but I don't know.  I do know that many years ago, radio stations here in OKC were arbitron rated twice a year. Now they are done every quarter.
Finally, I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and something was said that reminded him about a record some years ago. He asked me what my dad did during the war and I said that he was in the navy. He snapped his fingers and said that there was a song he had not heard in years. I said what are you talking about? IN THE NAVY by the Village People. You mentioned it, of course, in your Sunday Comments today.
Again, I don't see anything really wrong on putting out a FH on holidays. I did of course notice that there wasn't a forgotten 45 on Friday. What an appropriate song to omit, expression wise, on Friday.  OH ME, OH MY (I'M A FOOL FOR YOU BABY). I am not sure but I believe I have heard Scott Shannon play that sometime during the last two months. Wait a minute! Stop the presses!! I just thought of something. A few sentences ago, I used the expression "snap your fingers". Hmm! SNAP YOUR FINGERS.  That sounds like a good title for a song, maybe sometime around the early sixties, like 1962, on some obscure record label, maybe named  Todd, by a singer sounding very similar to Brook Benton. Nope! Never would have happened.
Larry
re:  FREDDY CANNON:
Sounds like Freddy's getting LOTS of publicity about his drawings ... 
just got this from FH Reader Tom Cuddy:

FREDDY CANNON: Now His Art Is Visual
Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon has shared stages, and been friends, with many of rock and roll's greatest stars. And now, the voice of such classics as "Palisades Park," "Action" and "Way Down Yonder in New Orleans" is drawing sketches of them. Cannon's website has a page featuring his pencil renderings of Mick Jagger, Johnny Cash, Stevie Nicks and Ricky Nelson as well as such sports figures as Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers and star player Rajon [pr: RAY-zhawn] Rondo. While the work is original, Cannon says he always studies photos of his subjects to capture their expressions. Magnifying the area around their eyes is a key to capturing the details.
Freddy Cannon will join Jimmy Clanton and several other stars from rock's first decade on May 7th at the Keswick Theater in the Philadelphia suburb of Glenside, Pennsylvania. --Mike McCann

KENT,
THANKS FOR POSTING MY SITE ON FORGOTTEN HITS.
I HAVE DONE REAL WELL AND THANKS, TOO, TO MY FRIEND SCOTT SHANNON AND THE TRUE OLDIES CHANNEL.   I'M DOING MORE DRAWINGS,  MORE VARIETY.
I WILL  BE POSTING MORE PICTURES IN ANOTHER WEEK.
AGAIN, THANK YOU!
FREDDY "BOOM BOOM" CANNON

re:  BRIAN HYLAND:
Another long-time list favorite is Brian Hyland ... so it was nice to get this from Clark Besch the other day ...
I'm Afraid To Go Home -- Brian Hyland 

Last week was the 150th anniversary week since the beginning of the Civil War.  This may be the best song to be listening to for remembering the day (from the Top 40 era).  I really like the song and it is reminiscent of the later Vogues' "5 O'Clock World" beat!
Brian Hyland has some GREAT music that is passed over because he had so many HITS! 
A few I would acknowledge checking out:
Save Your Heart for Me -- Same song Gary Lewis had a smash with.  His is simpler, but beautiful as well.
Stay Away from Her -- My long time friend James Holvay co-wrote this great song with Brian when they were on tour in 64 with Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars tour.  Holvay was a member of the backing band for the stars and first year out of high school!  He and Brian wrote several songs on the bus together.  Two got released.  One was this A side single which I believe I have charting in May, 64 on WHK Cleveland, so am guessing it was recorded before May?  The song is a dead ringer for Del Shannon sound of the day.  The other song that Brian recorded and released out of the batch that they wrote together was "One Night Jimmy", appearing on the "Run, Run, Look & See" album in 66.  James tells me that he also co-wrote "Don’t Give Up Now” and “Even If She Doesn’t Love Me”, also from apparently the same session as "Stay Away from Her."
3000 Miles -- Yes, an Artie Wayne song that is REALLY good too!  Artie is well-known by most of us now. 
I Can Hear the Rain -- CLASSIC Hyland song written by Layng Martine, Jr. and also well recorded by Reparata & Del Rons for RCA.  Brian's is really great!  Flip side of "Joker Went Wild" if I remember correctly.
Hung Up In Your Eyes -- Another really cool one that came with pic sleeve, too!  It was also used for a Rowe Jukebox Stimulator that was played in jukeboxes to entice people to play records when no one was plugging the box.
Holiday for Clowns -- Right in the Gary Lewis sound of the day and a natural follow-up to his two previous hits, "Joker.." and "Run Run ..."  Holiday is a GREAT slice of bubblegum not dissimilar in lyric to "Everybody Loves a Clown."
Get the Message -- Indeed a PERFECT song for its' day.  Hard to believe mid 67 gave us this, "Western Union" by the 5 Americans and Robbs' "Rapid Transit" all with "dit dit dit's" or something to do with messages of some type.  All great!
Stay & Love me All Summer -- A perfect follow-up to his hits "Tragedy" and "A Million to One" this eclipses those in greatness by far.  It was #1 in Wichita when I lived in Kansas.
Anyway, some REAL gems that would be great to hear from masters. 
Clark Besch
I'm a big Brian Hyland fan, too ... several times over the past five or six years we've been promised interviews with him but it has yet to happen.  Would LOVE to have the readers come up with a bunch of questions to ask this obvious list favorite! 
While "I'm Afraid To Go Home" didn't do very well on the national charts (it peaked at #59 in Cash Box and #63 in Billboard), it was a #7 Hit here in Chicago.  (By the way, Brian's original version of "Save Your Heart For Me" is the B-Side of this record ... great version, by the way!)  kk
And, while we're on the topic, apparently our interview with Jack Scott is officially off.  Sounds like Jack's been working with somebody on a biography and doesn't want to "give too much away" in our pages prior to the book coming out.  Oh well ... maybe he'll want to help PROMOTE the book, once it's available, and we can talk to him then.  (We'll see!!!)  kk

Kent ...
Check out the lost tape at the end of this article.  The late, great Johnny Maestro singing
"The Great Physician".
Frank B.
Kent ...
I like his early hits best.  The consecutive weeks on the charts record for his "Greatest Hits" Album is quite impressive.
Frank B.
Yeah, I always think of Johnny Mathis and Pink Floyd when I think about album chart records!  (lol)  Crazy thing is, that's EXACTLY who you SHOULD be thinking about ... yet, despite all his chart hits (and his legion of fans), you never hear ANY Johnny Mathis music on the oldies stations anymore.  All this guy did was score 22 National Top 40 Hits, including Five Top 10's ("It's Not For Me To Say", "Chances Are", "Gina", "What Will Mary Say" and "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late") and two Number One's ("Chances Are" and "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late").  kk

re:  SWEET:
>>>The Sweet - Fox On The Run (1974) ... 
as it was first issued in the UK (only)!!!
Obviously, it was remade and reissued, then it became an international Pop hit!!!!  So, in this case, tell your favorite DJ to play the remake, not the original version!!!!  (Jersey John)
A quick note:  The Sweet's song "Fox On The Run" came out in late 1975, not 1974, and was popular in late 1975 and early 1976.
Leah Jordan
For the record, "Fox On The Run" debuted on The British Chart in March of 1975 ... it wouldn't appear here in The States (in its remade form) until eight months later.  (kk)
 
re:  COOL OLDIES VIDEOS:
I wanted to alert you to a project for which I’ve been doing some work.  So while I guess this is a shameless plug, I think this venture will be of increasing interest to you and your visitors. 
The company is Digital Video Singles or DVS (www.digitalvideosingles.com) .  This is a relatively new start-up whose mission is to unearth lost and forgotten music performances –chiefly from the pre-MTV era — that were captured on film or videotape.  We secure licensing rights to the footage, digitally restore it and make them available on iTunes.  I’m proud to say that, in every case, we directly compensate the featured artists or their estates.
The DVS catalog is currently a modest 20-some clips, but we expect to reach at least 100 or more in the weeks ahead.  As small as it may be right now, our current roster speaks to the diversity we hope to curate as we go forward.  In addition to videos from Paul McCartney, Elton John, the Moody Blues, the Four Tops and George Harrison, we also have performances from Richard Thompson, Sister Rosetta Tharp (do not miss her!), Neil Sedaka, Nanci Griffith and Iggy Pop.  We have a lot of amazing stuff in the pipeline, too.  Without giving anything specific away, there’s lots of vintage Motown in the pipeline, classic rock and British Invasion stuff.  I think I heard some mention of your buddy, Peter Noone!
As I have seen, you have lots of legendary performers and broadcasters among your readership and, as our chief goal is to rescue what might otherwise be lost slices of music history, I want to throw this out there:  If you own or know the whereabouts of some incredible performance footage, let us know.  If you’re aware of a dusty archive at an old production studio or TV station, let us know.  Even if you simply recall a legendary concert event or personal appearance and believe that it was professionally recorded, let us know, we may be able to find it.  DVS would be delighted to hear from you, and the company will gladly pay licensing and finder’s fees if we come up with something that begs to be seen.  So everybody’s deputized!
You can contact DVS through their site (www.digitalvideosingles.com) or email me at sep1958@hotmail.com.  

Click here: YouTube - The Happenings - "I Got Rhythm" - 1967 Smothers Bros. Show
-- submitted by Eddie Burke

-- submitted by John Madara
 
And one new one ...
Kent ...
Have you heard this Bellamy Brothers song yet?
Frank B.
 
Some of us (myself included!) had trouble with this one on Sunday ... so we're trying it one more time again today.  (I actually was able to get it to work again later in the day!)  kk
 
And one more ...
Kinda give a whole new meaning to the domino theory!!!  (lol)
kk
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