>>>It's a good biography but I often felt like Paul was rewriting history here and there. To hear him tell it, he's been the Forest Gump of pop music for the past five decades ... any place ANYTHING was going on or happening, he seems to have been involved in some fashion. From Elvis and Buddy Holly to JFK and The Beatles ... from billionaire Kings, Princes and land developers like Steve Wynn and Donald Trump to Michael Jackson, Michael Buble and Princess Diana. (kk)
Sounds like Freddy Cannon's biography, which has him touring the UK with Eddie Cochran on the tour that Eddie would pass away during (although from a concert poster I saw some time ago, Freddy apparently didn't even touch UK soil for his first tour over there until three months after Eddie had passed away).
By the way, does Paul Anka's biography mention his rant about T-Shirts?
-- Tom
No, great rap 'tho!!! (lol) Gives whole new meaning to why he calls his book "My Way".
Honestly, I get it ... a bit harsh, but I get it. (Trust me ... this is about a WHOLE lot more than just T-Shirts!!! In fact, it sounds like this is where all of his exposure to a mob / gangster background comes into play ... he sounds a lot more "wise guy" than Canadian on this tape!!! lol)
Strangely, he never mentioned the time his teeth fell out and flew into the audience either. (kk)
re: THIS AND THAT:
Tom Cuddy sent us this great (but somewhat lengthy) interview with Howard Kaylan. So disappointed to hear that he doesn't hold "You Know What I Mean" in very high regard ... it's one of my absolute Turtles favorites! (kk)
Tom Cuddy sent us this great (but somewhat lengthy) interview with Howard Kaylan. So disappointed to hear that he doesn't hold "You Know What I Mean" in very high regard ... it's one of my absolute Turtles favorites! (kk)
Kent ...
Maybe some of your readers would like to tell us about their Prom Song.
I can't help thinking that Chet might like to chime in on this one.
Frank B.
Click here: The Glory Days: The Best Prom Songs Of The Last 60 Years « WCBS-FM 101.1
Wow ... NONE of these would have made my list!!!
The one that got saturated to death here in Chicago was "Colour My World" by Chicago ... I don't know of a school in the '70's that DIDN'T use that song as their prom theme!
CBS-FM seems a bit tardy on this one ... proms are usually in May ... school's out already now!!! (kk)
>>>The Rolling Stones' B-Side "The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man" is one of my favorites, too ... a pretty insightful piece for this early in their musical career. Were The Stones really already this jaded by 1965??? (Now I gotta hear it again!) kk
>>>The Rolling Stones' B-Side "The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man" is one of my favorites, too ... a pretty insightful piece for this early in their musical career. Were The Stones really already this jaded by 1965??? (Now I gotta hear it again!) kk
A great insight into those early Rolling Stones days is a book by Andrew Loog Oldham called 'Stone Free.' It's a must read for all who are interested in 'behind the scenes' during those times.
Hope all is well,
Cheers,
Vic
I don't know why this occurred to me ... However: I never really cared for Pat Boone's music. He mostly just copied other artists. However, he made a few records that were done pretty well. I'm including one of them (which is on Youtube. For some reason the record is rare, but well done.
Click here: Pat Boone - Some Enchanted Evening - DOT.wmv - YouTube
Click here: Pat Boone - Some Enchanted Evening - DOT.wmv - YouTube
Thanks.
Arnold Kirkbride
I'm not especially caring for this one. (And with only 1100 hits in two years, it's clearly not a "fan favorite" either!)
I think Pat made a few good records but in hindsight they haven't really held up very well. I was talking with Scott Shannon about this just a few days ago and we tried to make a list of which Pat Boone songs might still play well on the radio today. Truth be told, we didn't come up with a very long list.
Once you eliminate the covers (music fans would rather hear the R&B originals of songs like "Long Tall Sally", "Tutti Frutti", "Ain't That A Shame", "At My Front Door" and "Good Rockin' Tonight" than Pat's sanitized, watered-down whitebread versions), what are you really left with? Even a #1 Hit like "April Love" sounds ancient (and, quite honestly, boring as hell!) I can't believe anyone would stay tuned in if this were playing.
But there are a few good ones that still hold up ... and deserve at least an occasional spin ... "I Almost Lost My Mind" (#1, 1956); "Love Letters In The Sand" (#1, 1957); "Moody River" (#1, 1961) and his novelty hit "Speedy Gonzales" (#6, 1962 ... and one of MY First 45's) for starters. Certainly even in today's programming there must be room for FOUR Pat Boone Top Ten Hits ... I mean the guy had 18 of them!!! (kk)
Kent,
Just a few things that I thought of immediately when I read today's comments.
Kent,
Just a few things that I thought of immediately when I read today's comments.
First, hearing of Jim Sundquist's passing (member of the Fendermen), I always did like their follow-up hit DON'T YOU JUST KNOW IT. Wasn't big nationally, but still one I liked. In fact I had to get it out just now and "play it once more".
Mentioning Davie Allan reminded me that the morning DJ who works here in OKC on the TOC before Scott Shannon takes over, stresses his request line number and likes for listeners to call in with hard to find songs to play. This past week, a listener called in and wanted to hear BLUE'S THEME. Haven't actually heard it on the radio in years.
Mentioning the song by the Four Preps LAZY SUMMER NIGHT reminded me of the quite a few records they made that people tend to forget they recorded other than 26 MILES and BIG MAN.
The song by Bob Lind REMEMBER THE RAIN, wasn't all that big a record here in OKC. I checked and it was only on our survey for just two weeks, peaking at #32 in May of 1966.
I, for one, always liked the novelty records, some more than others. I always did like BOOGIE BEAR out of 1959 by Boyd "17" Bennett. You are right in that the "novelty" began to wear off when you heard them over and over again.
THE MECHANICAL MAN by Bent Bolt & the Nuts never made our survey. It did remind me of the song ROBOT MAN recorded by Jamie Horton in 1960, which did make our survey.
Finally, NEANDERTHAL MAN by Hotlegs reminded me of an instrumental from 1960 called THE BRONTOSAURUS STOMP by the Piltdown Men (Capitol), with ALLEY OOP coming in a very far second.
Larry Neal
Mentioning Davie Allan reminded me that the morning DJ who works here in OKC on the TOC before Scott Shannon takes over, stresses his request line number and likes for listeners to call in with hard to find songs to play. This past week, a listener called in and wanted to hear BLUE'S THEME. Haven't actually heard it on the radio in years.
Mentioning the song by the Four Preps LAZY SUMMER NIGHT reminded me of the quite a few records they made that people tend to forget they recorded other than 26 MILES and BIG MAN.
The song by Bob Lind REMEMBER THE RAIN, wasn't all that big a record here in OKC. I checked and it was only on our survey for just two weeks, peaking at #32 in May of 1966.
I, for one, always liked the novelty records, some more than others. I always did like BOOGIE BEAR out of 1959 by Boyd "17" Bennett. You are right in that the "novelty" began to wear off when you heard them over and over again.
THE MECHANICAL MAN by Bent Bolt & the Nuts never made our survey. It did remind me of the song ROBOT MAN recorded by Jamie Horton in 1960, which did make our survey.
Finally, NEANDERTHAL MAN by Hotlegs reminded me of an instrumental from 1960 called THE BRONTOSAURUS STOMP by the Piltdown Men (Capitol), with ALLEY OOP coming in a very far second.
Larry Neal
While "Don't You Just Know It" by The Fendermen only managed to "bubble under" in Billboard Magazine, it DID reach #76 on the Record World / Music Vendor chart. Here in Chicago, it peaked at #39 (and, of course, now you've got me singing "Chick-A-Boom, Chick-A-Boom" over and over in my head again, thanks to the "don'tcha just love it" line!!!) "Blues' Theme" was a HUGE hit here in Chicago, reaching #3 on the old WCFL Chart. We'll hear it every great once in a while (primarily if Bob Stroud features it on his "Rock And Roll Roots" radio program.) We've featured a few tracks from The Four Preps over the years so it as nice to be reminded of this one. As for Bob Lind's "Remember The Rain", check out Bob's comments below regarding this song ... and any similarity to its sounding like "Hey There Delilah". (kk)
>>>The mention of Bob Lind reminded me of something that was really stumping me a few years ago.
When the Plain White T's came out with the song "Hey There Delilah", it just bugged me every time I heard that song. I KNEW that song from somewhere, at least the opening of it, yet I couldn't remember what other song it reminded me of. I'm sure we've all had that happen at some point. Finally it clicked in my mind. The opening of "Hey There Delilah" reminded me of a song by Bob Lind that got some airplay in Chicago on WCFL, but I don't think charted here, called "Remember The Rain". A song that I feel should have gone higher than it did. Play the beginnings of both songs and you'll see. They aren't exact, but awful close, close enough that it triggered a memory in my head from long ago. Or maybe it's just me. They sure sound a lot closer to me than "My Sweet Lord" sounds to "He's So Fine". (Ken)
There's a marginal melodic similarity I guess, but certainly nothing actionable.
It happens. Writers pick up fragments of tunes they've heard. I certainly don't think the guy was ripping me off.
Every time I write a song I feel I've subconsciously incorporated at least part of the melody from somewhere. I've only been right once that I know of.
My song "Sweet Harriet" from my SINCE THERE WERE CIRCLES album always felt vaguely familiar to me, as though I was remembering some of the melodic phrases rather than composing.
About a year after the song came out, I was listening to an oldies station and heard that Association song again, the one that starts "In my most secure moments I still can't believe I'm spending these moments with you. The song I am singing the air that I breathe ..." etc.
That's the first time I realized I had accidentally "borrowed" a chunk of its melody.
Like this comparison your reader posted about ("Delilah" to "Rain") it's not an out and out complete theft, not note for note. But I sense I might not have found the "Harriet" tune were it not for that song.
Copyright laws account for that. One really has to burglarize massive portions of the melody to wind up on the George Harrison end of a lawsuit.
Bob Lind
Even the court found that Harrison had "subconsciously BORROWED" from the song ... and even assigned him a Song Expert to run any future melodies past to insure that they weren't in some other fashion familiar. (Harrison poked light of this in his hit "This Song", which he said had "nothing Bright about" ... Bright Music being the publisher of "He's So Fine". He later ... with the help of Monty Python's Eric Idle ... says the song sounds like "Sugar Pie, Hunnybunch" ... to which Idle responds "No, sounds more like "Rescue Me"!" All in good fun I'm sure.
I remember Paul McCartney talking about how he "dreamed" the melody to "Yesterday" ... and then went around for weeks asking others if they recognized the tune. Decades later it was determined that the song was somewhat reminiscent of an old Nat "King" Cole song that McCartney was most likely exposed to as a child growing up in Liverpool ... so you never know.
I don't know that anyone ever deliberately goes out and tries to rip off another artist (not if they legitimately want a hit record anyway!) but there have been a few cases where Led Zeppelin got sued for calling an old blues standards their own. The Rolling Stones weren't taking any chances when they released "Anybody Seen My Baby" ... they knew it sounded a little bit like k.d. Lang's "Constant Craving", so simply gave her songwriting credit on their new track! A similar ruling added Chuck Berry's name to Brian Wilson's "Surfin' USA". (So how in the world did John Lennon get away with ripping off "Happy Xmas" from the old folk standard "Stewball"?!?!?!) kk
What do YOU think. Here are both tunes for your own review ...
What do YOU think. Here are both tunes for your own review ...
Click here: The Association -[4]- Everything That Touches You - YouTube
I'd never heard this before ... kind of interesting ... and it's not like I don't have the sleeve to this day.
I'd never heard this before ... kind of interesting ... and it's not like I don't have the sleeve to this day.
(all gone)
The Gorcey photo was removed after Gorcey's agent demanded a $400 payment for use of his image.
RENFIELD
I do remember that a few photos originally planned for inclusion in the backdrop had to be removed for licensing reasons. (Wow! $400 hardly seems like extortion!!! lol) Cool that The Beatles were fond enough of these guys to want to include them. (kk)
Kent ...
Kent ...
Sir Paul Sings In Brooklyn, New York at the Barclay Center
Here's what Music Critic, Jim Farber had to say:
Sir Paul opened with "Eight Days A Week." A Fab Four classic he somehow neglected to sneak onto the set list since it first appeared way back in 1964. Others included "Your Mother Should Know," "All Together Now," and "Lovely Rita."
It's amazing that McCartney could find something fresh to give fans. It's equally unlikely and pleasing that, as he approaches age 71 (on June 18), he could deliver these songs with such verve and verisimilitude. As usual, McCartney's show mixed Fab Four songs with material from Paul's solo career, as well as his days with Wings. Other songs included "Band On The Run," "Junior's Farm," "Paperback Writer," "We Can Work It Out," "The Long And Winding Road," and "And I Love Her." Paul McCartney puts himself entirely at the audience's service, dutifully exercising his role as sole credible conduit to songs that tap the collective memory of nearly everyone on the planet - even the very young.
Frank B.
Frank B.
Macca has always been a crowd pleaser and mixes up his sets regularly (probably to please himself as much as his fans!) An earlier report / set list that I had read said he performed "The Lovely Linda" ... but "Lovely Rita" makes a whole lot more sense. (One of my favorites from "Sgt. Pepper" by the way!) I wish I could see him EVERY time he comes on tour but I'd need his kind of money to be able to do so! (Lol) Still a pretty impressive set list (to say the least!) kk
re: THE ROUTE 66 RADIO TOUR:
re: THE ROUTE 66 RADIO TOUR:
Here are a couple of shots of Lane Lindstrom, Paul Lepek and (I believe) Geoff Kemp in the first one (don't hold me to that -- even Paul got their names confused -- the second picture has both) at the Sunday Broadcast from the Route 66 Museum in Pontiac.
Yes, they played "Whipped Cream" and (for no reason whatsoever -- Lane didn't know anything about it's history) even played "Soul Coaxing" by Raymond Lefevre.
Yes, they played "Whipped Cream" and (for no reason whatsoever -- Lane didn't know anything about it's history) even played "Soul Coaxing" by Raymond Lefevre.
Lane even sent me a pictue of me being interviewed towards the end of the broadcast by Paul Peters. That control board is the same one I ran as morning man at WCCQ-FM in Joliet in 1976.
-- Ron Smith
Glad you had the chance to go down there ... I had thought about going both yesterday (Joliet) and today but never made it. (Actually at one point I was going to take Thursday and Friday off from work and do the whole trip with them but they didn't get back to me about it until too late and by that point I had already cancelled the vacation days, not wanting to waste them.) I tried to tune in and listen a few times over the weekend but it seems that every time I put it on, they were doing something else. Still a pretty amazing experience, I'm sure. (kk)
re: ON THE RADIO:
I just thought I would pass this along to you. This was posted on my facebook and had a lot of good comments.
Carrie
Boss Radio
I listened for a little while last night and quite enjoyed what I heard. Give it a listen for yourself when you get a chance. (kk)
re: AND ON THE TUBE:
Frannie saw a few commercials this weekend about the start up of the second season of the Starz Dramatic Series "Magic City" and thought it looked kind of interesting ... so this weekend, with a little free time on our hands, we decided to check it out in an effort to get caught up with last season's episodes.
We watched the first two and (being a time-period piece) couldn't believe how much great late '50's and early '60's music they featured ... everything from "Venus" by Frankie Avalon to "Nel Blue Di Pinto Di Blue (Volare)" by Domenico Mudugno to "Beyond The Sea" by Bobby Darin and "Sugartime" by The McGuire Sisters ... GREAT stuff that plays nicely into the background of this mob-based piece. (On episode one Frank Sinatra was about to perform on New Year's Eve, 1958, at Ike Evan's ... the lead character's ... club down in Miami ... while we never saw Frank, we DID get to hear him sing.) The series stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who quickly moved into major sex appeal status after his stint as Denny Duquette on "Grey's Anatomy" a few years ago.
Proves once again that this music still has a place in our lives if used properly. Give it a look if you haven't already done so. (kk)
