Saturday, June 6, 2015

The Sunday Comments ( 06 - 07 - 15 )

re:  6-6-66:  
>>>"Oh Yeah!" by The Shadows Of Knight ... not as big as "Gloria" ... but a stand-out just the same ... "America's Answer To The Rolling Stones" (or so we were told at the time).  Jimy Sohns is still going strong ... earlier this week we featured a picture of him performing at The Whisky A Go-Go in Hollywood!  (kk)  
And do not forget that the "Gloria" LP was issued as Dunwich 666 (in the year 1966), even tho Dunwich had but about 3 or 4 albums tops.  Kent:  "Oh Yeah!" 
Clark  

re:  Hangin' Out With Us:  
FH Reader Larry Neal enjoyed hangin' out with us the other day here in Forgotten Hits.  Here are a few of the comments we received throughout the day as new music unfolded.  (Friday was an "all-day event" ... scroll back and check it out if you missed anything!)  kk  

Kent,  
First ... I am getting ready to leave the house. Great idea for FH for today. Don't forget the Righteous Brothers flip of UNCHAINED MELODY, HUNG ON YOU in 1965 and Marty Robbin's 1959 crossover, THE HANGING TREE.  Probably several others but got to go now.  
And then ... I like these ideas you come up with spotlighting a tune every hour that has something in common. I just thought of one that I am sure didn't make your cut and probably one you are not familiar with and that's the 1968 record HANGIN' FROM YOUR LOVIN' TREE by the In Crowd on Abnak records. Don't know if it charted in your area or not. And finally ... Enjoyed today's FH. To be honest with you and without listing them, there were a few songs I wasn't familiar with. Wonder if some of your other readers weren't familiar with some as well. 
Larry Neal 
In order ... the Marty Robbins track just missed the cut.  I never even thought of "Hung On You" by The Righteous Brothers ... and I've never even HEARD of "Hangin' From Your Lovin' Tree" by The In Crowd. 
The ones we DID go with were:  "What Am I Doin' Hangin' 'Round" by The Monkees (a Michael Martin Murphey song from their #1 "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones" album that received a lot of airplay thanks to their television show which also featured a great performance video of this track), "Hangin' Around" by The Edgar Winter Group (a minor hit ... #39 in Cash Box but #65 in Billboard) from their "They Only Come Out At Night" LP, "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by Vanilla Fudge (their heavy remake of The Supremes' #1 Hit, which I found out later when I actually played the track was a remake of the long, LP version), "Hang On To Your Life", the Guess Who hit single from 1971, "Hang On In There Baby" by Johnny Bristol (#8, 1974), the #1 Hit "Hang On Sloopy" by The McCoys, "Love Hangover" by Diana Ross, another #1 Hit, "Let's Hang On" by The Four Seasons (yet ANOTHER #1 Hit), "Don't Hang Up" by The Orlons, "Hang Fire" by The Rolling Stones from 1982, "Hang Up My Rock And Roll Shoes" by Alan O'Day (a fun track that I opted for at the very last minute over the Chuck Willis hit), "Hang 'em High" by Booker T and the MG's, "Let It (All Hang) Out" by The Hombres and "She Hangs Out", again by The Monkees from the same LP mentioned above.  Put 'em all together and you get The Forgotten Hits "How You Hangin'" special! This was a VERY last minute decision ... the piece scheduled to run on Friday had to be pushed back because I was still waiting for some information to come in ... so I quickly scrambled and threw that whole thing together in about 20 minutes!  All things considered, I thought it played pretty well!  (kk)  

I am getting worried ... I need some fudge ... vanilla, I hope!  
Mike De Martino  
It's there ... you just need to scroll back to the 8 am hour to find it.  I was really bummed to find out this was a re-recorded track.  I had the single all set to go but then decided to download the longer, LP version instead from iTunes ... but never had time to play it until later in the day.  I guess the original album version isn't available for downloading for some reason ... kinda surprising since this was released on Atlantic / Atco Records!  (kk)  

Wow!  Hangin' Around by The Edgar Winter Group ... Great Track! 
I saw the They Only Come Out At Night tour in February of 1973 and they were great. Do you know anyone who may have a copy of the single version of Hangin' Around? For some crazy reason they did a different version of that and Free Ride as well -- and of course a edited version of Frankenstein.
Bill
I wasn't aware it was different!  The track was produced by Rick Derringer, who just appeared with Edgar Winter at The Arcada Theatre a couple of weeks ago!  Always one of my favorites, too ... I think this one should have been a much bigger hit than it was.  (kk)  

re:  Contacting Us:
I have to point this out again after I found TONS of six month old emails sitting in my long-dormant G-Mail box ... 63 pertaining to The Marty Grebb Show alone!
I haven't used that email in YEARS ... and obviously only spot check it every great once in awhile (as a "just in case" procedure.)  Sure enough, it had been over six months since I last looked and, as such, found ALL kinds of emails that I never knew existed about The Marty Grebb Benefit Concert, the passing of Lesley Gore, our series on Barry Winslow of The Royal Guardsmen and much, much more ... all now long out of date from a "topical" standpoint (although I may still run a few of these here and there just to rekindle these topics once again.)
Forgotten Hits thrives ... and succeeds ... on your input ... so PLEASE ... if you're going to email us, send it where we're going to find it!!!
Our PRIMARY EMAIL ADDRESS is forgottenhits@aol.com ... and I check that one several times a day, every single day, and, fortunately, this is where the majority of the email comes, which insures your comments being posted in a timely fashion.
Our Secondary Email Address is kk@forgottenhits.com ... I usually check that one a couple of times a week.
ANYTHING ELSE you have on file for me (and this includes old The60sShop email address from many, many years ago) is currently obsolete.  You have got to use one of the two email addresses shown above to be assured reaching me in a timely fashion ... EVERYTHING ELSE IS OBSOLETE ... so PLEASE delete any other email addresses you have for us from your address book and only use these two.
We WANT your feedback and input.  (We seem to have a base of "regulars" who contribute all the time ... but we want to hear from MORE of you regarding YOUR passion for this music ... so please feel free to "send away" ... but send it to an address where we're actually going to SEE it!!!
'Nuff said.  (kk)  

re:  First 45's:
Here's one of those lost in the shuffle ... but easy enough to feature as yet another entry in our on-going series ...
My first 45 was "Stand" by Sly & The Family Stone.  I bought it at K-Mart with my mother and six of my brothers and sisters when we went school clothes shopping.  I still remember that it cost 79 cents.  I bought it to play on my new Close 'n' Play (remember those?) that I had gotten for my 7th birthday.  My little brother and sister and I would stand every time they sang "Stand!".  LOL   That was my great choreography.  We were so dorky.  Glad I found this cool blog.Danny SeibSyracuse, NY  

re:  Chris Montez / Tommy Roe:  
Here's a link to a decent Chris Montez story, and you'll also see a link to an Art Laboe story from that page.  The latter is 90 now and still on the air.  Amazing. 
Scott  
http://www.laweekly.com/music/chris-montez-was-such-a-rock-star-in-the-60s-the-beatles-opened-for-him-5630883?utm_source=Newsletters&utm_medium=email Last year for the 50th Anniversary of The Beatles' first concert here in America, Tommy Roe and Chris Montez teamed up and did a special concert in Washington, DC ... and then performed together again The Cavern Club in Liverpool where, back in 1963. THEY were the headliners and The Beatles were the opening act.  (It was the last time The Beatles performed as the warm-up act ... after that, Beatlemania spread all over the world and they become the most popular group in music history.  The Beatles evidently enjoyed this line-up so much that Montez and Roe were invited to be part of their first US performance as a show of appreciation.) 
Word is Chris Montez and Tommy Roe are teaming up again ... this time for a full-blown world tour.  (What a killer double bill THAT will be!)  We hear from both artists from time to time and while there are still quite a few details to be worked out, we have it on good authority that a stop at The Arcada Theatre is definitely in the works.  Stay tuned to these pages as more details become available.  (kk)  

UPDATE:  And, incredible as it may seem, we just got one!!! 
This just in from Tommy Roe's road manager and band leader, Rick Levy ...  

TOMMY ROE COMING TO ARCADA ... IS IT TRUE???
The rumor mill is buzzing that after several years of trying, American pop rock legend TOMMY ROE will be coming to the Arcada Theatre in early 2016.
But even more exciting is that the new show is bringing "UK 63 > THE TOUR THAT CHANGED MUSIC FOREVER", a recreation of the famed British tour in 1963 where TOMMY and CHRIS MONTEZ headlined, and a young group called the BEATLES opened the show. This was the last time the Fab Four ever performed as a support group!

"UK 63" will open with a Beatle tribute band, and then CHRIS MONTEZ will perform. After an intermission, TOMMY ROE will perform his hits, rarities, acoustic set, and more surprises. A finale will top it all off.
Stay tuned to find out more details.
We are SO there for this one!  (Rick and I have been working on this for quite awhile and now, with The Arcada and Ron Onesti onboard, Chicagoans will finally have the chance to see a couple of MAJOR '60's artists who never seem to make it out our way.  (kk)

re:  The Wrecking Crew:   
We're less than ten days away from the official release of "The Wrecking Crew" documentary on dvd and bluray disc.  Kickstarter contributors will receive their copies first ... but preorders are still being taken for both the movie (which now features over six hours of bonus footage and outtakes) as well as Ken Sharp's incredible book "Sound Explosion".  More detail here:  
http://www.wreckingcrewfilm.com/  

re:  This And That:  
Now that "Guardians Of The Galaxy" is playing on cable, the soundtrack album has started selling again.  (It was one of the surprise hits last year as it features nothing but hits from the '70's, all brought back to great popularity ... and airplay ... thanks to the success of the film.) 
You know, I know this guy ... who for the past fifteen years has been telling people that if you simply introduce new people to some of this great music, they will fall in love with it just like WE did when WE heard it for the first time ... he's been preaching on and on about how "timeless" and "classic" this music really is. 
From what I understand, he has a pretty loyal group of followers who agree with him ... but for some reason he keeps running into brick walls when trying to present this concept to programmers and deejays and consultants who insist that they know better about what listeners really want to hear, insisting this music is "dead", just like most of the audience who would want to hear it ... all this despite the fact that he has been proven right time and time and time and time again. 
God, it must be SO frustrating to have this faith and passion for this music, only to be told that this music has no place on today's airwaves.  I honestly don't know how he keeps it going.  (I dunno ... maybe it's because every once in awhile he gets to silently smile to himself and mumble "I toldja so"!!!)  kk   

Hi Kent,   
Thanks, as always, for sharing another enthusiastic concert review with us.   
I’m not sure whether or not you knew this or not, but Peter Noone did make a couple of recordings for Casablanca in the 70s. It was during their early years when they were still owned by Warners and before their disco releases took off. I have attached “Blame It On the Pony Express” by Peter, together with a label scan. 
The song was originally a #7 UK hit for Johnny Johnson & The Bandwagon in 1970. Another version followed by a group named Rockit, produced by Michael Lloyd on Verve in 1971. Pretty good version here by Peter.   
Later and best wishes, 
Mike Edwards 
I knew Peter recorded some tracks for Casablanca but wasn't really familiar with them.  (Listening to this now, I'm not sure even his most die-hard fans would connect this voice with Peter Noone!)  Thanks for sharing.  (kk)






Hey Kent, 
Just wanted to chime in on the Alan Parsons review you wrote several days ago.
First, this was one of the best reviews of a concert that I have ever read.
And second, every word was absolutely correct.
Parsons played at Epcot down here in Florida last year and put on one of the best shows I've ever seen.
Rocksport43
Parsons was headed to Epcot right after his show at The Arcada last year.  As I recall, I believe he was going to play there for a week straight ... with two shows per day!!!  (kk)  

Kent, 
We're still in the planning stage, but some survey collectors and dealers are planning a get together this August in Macomb, IL. More details as we get everything confirmed. I thought I'd give all interested parties an early warning on it.   
Thanks. 
Jack 
Happy to pass this along.  Folks interested in participating should contact Jack Levin at 
rockandrollneverforgets@yahoo.com  (kk) 

You might consider going to this.  My wife and I are going again. 
DJ Stu Weiss

These types of shows are always fun.  Here's an old photo of me and my daughter Kris meeting the incomparable Julie Newmar several years ago. (To give you an idea, Kris is 26 now ... and I'm actually a couple of years older, too!)  kk

A brand new Elvis postage stamp will be available on August 12th.  Issued as a "forever stamp" this time around, it never expires, despite any future postal increases.
They have yet to release the official artwork to the public ... but once they do, we'll have it here in Forgotten Hits.  (kk)




Something's Got A Hold On Me. Etta James.  Great song. Carrie 
This one made a bit of a comeback a couple of years ... I agree ... great track.  (kk) 

Folks here in Chicago are still buzzing about the recent Marty Grebb Benefit Concert.  A new website dedicated to his has just been started on Facebook ... lots more pictures, comments, etc.  Here are all the details:  
As promised, we have just published a new Facebook page that is a portfolio memory book of the Chicago Music 60s Style - A Concert For Marty Grebb.  Please go to the page, like it, share it and enjoy it.Most photos are from Jack Mongan and as you will see they are a labor of love. If we missed anything please let us know as we would like to chronicle as much as we can of this amazing event! Feel free to add your own thoughts, photos, etc.  We will be closing down the existing concert page in the near future to avoid confusion. 
Pam Dixon  
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chicago-Music-60s-Style-Concert-Memory-Portfolio/570572479748606  

Hi Kent, 
Sorry to hear the concert in Peoria didn't do well with Jimy. People will be talking about "our" concert
here at the Arcada for years. Such a memorable experience that I was fortunate enough to attend. So many old friends ... songs ... wonderful!
Thanks for the updates, keep them coming. Have a good weekend!
Sue  

Kent, 
I noticed the blurb about Zaeger & Evans on the website.  I saw them perform in late 1970 and it was easy to tell why they were one-hit wonders.  I've seen more interesting and talented duets at karaoke bars than they demonstrated.  I've always wondered how they managed to get that song on RCA, with a full fledged production behind them.  Ah well, some things will always be a mystery and it is probably better that way.   
Jim (Southern) Pritchard

This just in from David Salidor, who handles the PR for Micky Dolenz ... GREAT news for Monkees fans all over the world!

7A Records are proud to present the first ever reissue of Micky Dolenz’s original MGM Singles. This beautifully packaged limited edition, 180G blue transparent vinyl gatefold set includes all of Dolenz’s original MGM singles. Micky Dolenz has done an exclusive interview for this project, which is included along with a 12 inch, 12 page booklet featuring extensive liner notes and never before published photos by legendary photographer Henry Diltz. All recordings have been transferred from the original master tapes, except for two tracks where the original masters could no longer be located. Those recordings have been meticulously restored from the original vinyl issues. This release is a must-have for any Monkees fan - even if you don't own a record player!
*Why put this package together?
These songs are an over looked part of Monkees history. They show Micky’s versatility as a songwriter, a musician and also show just how a good his voice has always been! They’ve never been put together in one compilation and have been unavailable for over 40 years. This is a unique opportunity for fans to get all of these tracks in one stunning package.
*How supportive has Micky been?
He’s been wonderful although he was more than a little surprised that two fans in the UK were doing this! As he said to the executive producers of this project I am incredibly surprised, and very flattered, and honoured – I am very glad that some of this stuff is being listened to! I liked it, at the time! And I’m glad that other people do. It’s fantastic’
*You interviewed Micky, how did that go?
It was great fun. Micky told some incredible stories about the early 70’s, including hanging out with John Lennon, Marc Bolan and other rock legends. He also suggested that Mama Cass could be singing on one of the tunes but this stuff happened over 40 years ago and as Micky says, his memory of the time is ‘…definitely a bit hazy!’ The full text of the interview appears in the gatefold sleeve.
*The booklet features several never before seen pics from the legendary rock photographer Henry Diltz, how did that come about?
Rather cheekily, I emailed Henry and his assistant Gary Strobl direct and explained our situation. They were so pleased to hear about this album that they very kindly went through their extensive vaults and sent us a load of pictures that had never been used. Fans will be amazed at the candid shots we managed to get hold of, these photographs are just incredible.
*Will it just be available as a vinyl record?
Once this vinyl run has sold out we will release the album as a digital download. Don’t worry, the 12 page booklet will also be available to download and we are investigating the possibility of bonus tracks.  One definite thing we can promise for the download version is the audio of the interview with Micky, another world exclusive. We are also looking at the feasibility of a CD release.
*Will it be available in the US, or just the UK?
7a Records is based in the UK but this is a worldwide release. Keep checking your online retailers and even your local record stores!
*What does the name of the label signify?
Monkee fans will get the reference – it’s the spoken intro to Daydream Believer. A very tired Davy Jones asking the producer ‘What number is this Chip?’ to be met by a sarcastic ‘7a!’
*What’s next for 7a Records?
More releases connected with The Monkees. We aim to supply material from various Monkees members, as well as those closely connected with them. We are currently talking to various people and sorting out licensing rights.

Micky Dolenz – The MGM Singles Collection
Cat No: 7A001
EAN: 5060209950013

Track Listing:

Side One:

1. Easy On You
2. Oh Someone
3. Unattended In The Dungeon
4. A Lover's Prayer
5. Johnny B. Goode (as Starship, Lead Vocal: Michael Lloyd)

Side Two:

1. It's Amazing To Me (as Starship)
2. Daybreak
3. Love War
4. Buddy Holly Tribute: Peggy Sue / Every Day / Maybe Baby / That'll Be The Day
5. Ooh She's Young

·         Special Limited Edition
·         Includes exclusive interview with Micky Dolenz
·         Mastered from the original master tapes where possible
·         12 page booklet with extensive liner notes and never before published pictures by Henry Diltz
·         Special Gatefold Sleeve
·         180g Blue Transparent Vinyl

This is some pretty rare, long out-of-print material ... this'll make a GREAT addition to any Monkees collection!  (kk)