Continuing with our "Today's Forgotten Hit" suggestions, we've got an encore performance of four of our favorites ...
Songs that we absolutely maintain will be listener attention getters (and crowd pleasers) if slipped somewhere in between your standard block of three or four predictable oldies.
They don't even need a lot of fanfare ... just sneak 'em in as if they're supposed to be there ... because they really DO deserve a spin now and then. All are legitimate, recognizable hits from this era.
So without further adieu ...
We gave Doris Day the spotlight treatment a few months back in Forgotten Hits and got a great response. This track (a #6 Hit in 1958) is simply fun to listen to ... and I just love the whole counter-melody thing going on.
We featured this one a couple of weeks ago after we heard it being used as the opening theme to the new HBO Movie "The Girl", a profile of the relationship between legendary director Alfred Hitchcock and his leading lady (object of his affection ... or would that be obsession?) Tippi Hedren.
Linda Scott went all the way to #3 with this catchy tune back in 1961.
The last time we featured this track, Scott Shannon rose to the challenge and featured it on The True Oldies Channel. Even if you missed the airing, you surely must remember the aftermath ... the very next day THOUSANDS of birds fell out of the sky as the world had been turned COMPLETELY upside down by such a bold programming move. (Just kidding ... but Skeeter Davis' #5 hit from 1963 IS an attention grabber ... when I played it this morning, 16 year old daughter Paige said "This girl's a FOOL!!!" Maybe so ... but at least it proves she was listening!!! And she'd never even heard the song before!) To paraphrase the all-knowing James Earl Jones: "If you play it ... the new oldies fans will come."
OK, so maybe I stretched the truth a little bit about this one. Incredibly, "Thank You And Goodnight" was NOT a hit record when it was first released back in 1963. In fact, it was the flipside of their Top 40 Hit "I Adore Him" and only rose to #84 on The Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles Chart. Yet when we featured it as part of our Favorite, Forgotten B-Sides Series a few years ago, fans came out of the woodwork, raving about how much they LOVED this song ... and how they remembered their favorite deejay using this as his signature sign-off tune on his program back in the early '60's. And the fact is, it IS a great song ... how this one wasn't a Top 20 Hit is beyond me. Why not play it at the end of YOUR program and see if you don't start a brand new tradition!
