Anyway, here's hoping he's right ... because thanks to the help and support of some of our readers, we'll soon be back up and running again. It'll take a little while until everything is truly functional again ... but the new computer is here and installed ... and we are slowly but surely beginning to rebuild the foundation that will allow us to re-launch Forgotten Hits once again.
For the past fourteen years I have maintained that Forgotten Hits belongs to the people ... and I have truly believed it in my heart of hearts. It's the interaction of the oldies music fans that makes it all work ... I'm simply the organizer that sorts it out and puts it out there for the world to see ... the glue that holds it all together, if you will ... the conduit through which our shared love of this great music passes. But I can now say without ANY hesitation or reservation, that Forgotten Hits TRULY belongs to the people, thanking these folks in particular for their generous contributions to help get us back online.
I've already thanked them privately ... but now want to do so publicly as well ... and, if you love and enjoy Forgotten Hits, you should thank them, too ... as it was through their acts of kindness, generosity and compassion that we're back up and coming to you today.
So a grateful "Thank You" and a tip of the hat go out to:
Frank Buongervino, Tom Cuddy, Mike De Martino,
Dick Eastman, David Lewis, John Madara and Carrie Pasfield ...
all of whom contributed to the cause of saving Forgotten Hits.
WAYS YOU CAN HELP:
The old hard drive was completely trashed ... we weren't able to salvage ANYTHING from it ... so we need to rebuild the archives from scratch.
If you're a long-time Forgotten Hits Reader ... and by that I mean somebody who used to receive Forgotten Hits by email back in the old pre-website / "The60sShop" days (1999 - 2008) ... and you saved ANY of these emails or FH Series ... we'd love to hear from you.
Beginning August 1st, you can email those articles back to us or, if you prefer, burn them to a CD and mail them to us the old-fashioned way. (Just drop me a line at forgottenHits@aol.com and I'll get you the necessary address information to do so.)
In addition, all email exchanges prior to June 1st of this year have been lost forever ... I may be contacting some of you to see if you still have some of this correspondence in your "Sent Mail" folder in the hopes of resurrecting some of the series we were working on when the old hard drive crashed and burned. This would allow us to complete our recent Forgotten Hits Poll determining Your Top 20 All-Time Favorite Garage Bands ... and updating our list of the Top 40 Most Deserving And Denied Artists continually being overlooked by the seemingly always out-of-step Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Nominating Committee.
I'm also trying to pull together the next installment of our on-going Helping Out Our Readers series from what remains ... as well as an assortment of hopefully still-relevant comments from our readers. Along with that, we're planning new features ... and I'm determined to run my recent interview with Al Kooper, too!
Without question, this is all going to take some time to sort out, so please continue to be patient.
Meanwhile, if you, too, would like to make a donation to help SUPPORT FORGOTTEN HITS, for the first time ever in our nearly 14 year history, we are now accepting donations to help offset the cost of operating expenses and rebuilding the archives. Again, drop us a line at the email address shown above, and we'll get you the details on how you can help.
Optimistically, we hope to be back up and running in another week or so. It'll be limited postings at first ... there's a heck of a lot to pull together here ... but my intention is to return to "business as usual" in the very near future.
Thank you all for your continued support. (You gotta love the Power of Music!!!)
