FORGOTTEN HITS: 11/29/15

Friday, December 4, 2015

The Friday Flash

re: The Cornerstones Of Rock:
If you have Comcast, The Cornerstones of Rock is now listed on the guide, in case you want to record it ... both nights are listed ...

(Bill Hengels)

Cornerstones of Rock

Cornerstones of Rock is a new concert series filmed in WTTW’s intimate Grainger Studio where the groundbreaking music series Soundstage began more than 40 years ago. The first special in the series will bring together Chicago area’s iconic rock groups of the 1960s and ’70s for a once-in-a-lifetime concert special.

Cornerstones of Rock: American Garage
WTTW’s Grainger Studio, Chicago
October 16, 2015 (taping)

Cornerstones of Rock: American Garage is a nostalgic celebration of the local “garage bands” that rose to national prominence in the 1960s and ’70s, and remain as favorites today with their sing-along hits. This special shines a spotlight on the local groups from the Chicago area who defined this era as they rose through the teen clubs all the way to national prominence.

Jim Peterik of The Ides of March (the house band for the evening, playing their chart-topping hit “Vehicle”) and WGN radio personality Wendy Snyder will host this historic reunion, as many original members of these popular bands return to the concert stage to play their greatest hits, including:

The Buckinghams – Carl Giammarese and Nick Fortuna with special guest and original singer Dennis Tufano (“Kind of a Drag”)
The Cryan Shames – Tom Doody, James Fairs, and Jim “J.C. Hooke” Pilster (“Sugar and Spice”)
The New Colony Six – Ray Graffia and Ronnie Rice (“I Will Always Think About You”)
The Shadows of Knight – Jimy Sohns with Dennis Tufano and Ted Aliotta (“Gloria”)
The McCoys – Rick Derringer (“Hang On Sloopy”)
The American Breed – Gary Loizzo, Al Ciner, Chuck Colbert, Jr., and Lee Graziano (“Bend Me Shape Me”)

The concert will close with two special tributes:

Tribute to "Get it On" by Chase – performed by The Ides of March, powered by four trumpets and an historic appearance by Chase member Dartanyan Brown
Tribute to the late Mitch Aliotta – featuring The Ides of March, Ted Aliotta, and all of the groups performing the legendary Chicago anthem “Lake Shore Drive”

Yep, we've already set our DVR for this ... can't wait to see it (since we had to miss the live taping) ... now less than a week away! Good press so far ... and hopefully the first in a series of new WTTW / PBS Concert Specials. (This is how Soundstage started you know!!!) kk

As previously reported on CRM, WTTW-TV taped the very first episode of a possible new live music series entitled "Cornerstones of Rock" this past October. That debut episode, "Cornerstones of Rock: American Garage" now has a confirmed air date. The show will be premiered on December 10th at 7:30 pm. Encore airings will be that same night at 9:30 pm, and again on December 12th at 9:00 pm. Additional airings are expected during upcoming pledge drives. Other PBS stations in markets outside of Chicago could pick up the special for airing beginning in the spring of 2016. Should this episode be well-received, new episodes of WTTW-TV's "Cornerstones of Rock" will be created in 2016.

Chicagoland Radio and Media

Thanks ... I’ve been looking forward to this since summer, when the plans were in the works.
Jogging my memory ... I saw the New Colony Six at a Friday night “social” (You good Catholics will remember these from high school) at St. Joan of Arc Parish in Skokie circa 1967/68 - They played an amazing version of the relatively new “A Day in the Life” … Yes, it’s true;
Saw the Cryan' Shames at Patten Gym / Northwestern University circa 1968/69. I’ve seen The Buckinghams and Jim Peterik in some much later configurations, but for me they don’t hold the same fondness of memory, having not seen them “in the day”. Nice shows though for sure.
A friend I grew up with in Evanston is on the cover of the first American Breed album. He’s the Indian on the bottom left side.

Also, don’t The McCoys sort of mess up the pure Chicago “Cornerstones” concept / spotlight? They were from Union City, IN, on the Ohio border. I also thought “Hang On Sloopy” was a pretty weak song when I was a kid … and it still hasn’t grown on me, with my sophisticated taste in music forty years hence. ;-)
Enjoy,
Mike S.

It would have been really nice if they had held the line-up for this first show to our local Chicagland talent ... they easily could have expanded things later on to include more of the popular garage bands of the day. But I'm still looking forward to seeing it. Anxious to see the pledge prizes, too ... from what I'm told some pretty extensive stuff in the way of additional footage, interviews, a live CD of the entire concert as well as a "greatest hits" CD that includes the original hit versions of all these tracks as they were first released. Mark your calendars ... the first airing is next week on December 10th.

Unfortunately, I was too young to catch many of these '60's Local Legends at the time ... other than The Ides Of March who played my high school (which was also THEIR high school) numerous times.
As for The Ides Of March and The Buckinghams, I will say this ... they're still well worth checking out in the live concert setting. The Ides still have ALL of the original members that formed in that Berwyn Basement 50+ years ago ... how many other groups can you say THAT about?!?! And they sound better than ever. (They truly do kick ass in concert!)
And Carl Giammarese and Nick Fortuna have kept The Buckinghams in front of audiences for 35 years now ... they tour regularly and have been part of The Happy Together Tour numerous times and have performed on many of the cruise ships, too. (kk)

Speaking of great shows ...

re: More Arcada Shows:
We had no sooner posted our list of upcoming "new year" shows at The Arcada when Ron Onesti announced the next batch of acts just signed for appearances ...

AIR SUPPLY - January 22nd

BLUE OYSTER CULT - March 25th

RANDY BACHMAN - April 16th

THE STYLISTICS - October 7th

And let me tell you ... there are a WHOLE bunch of new acts to be announced in the days to come ... so stay tuned!!!

Other 2016 show already booked include

Jefferson Starship - January 30th

The BoDeans - February 12th

Chuck Negron and Mark Farner - The Voices Of Rock - February 13th

Tommy Roe and Chris Montez - March 13th

Steven Wright - April 9th (saw him last year at The Genesee and he was hysterical)

Crystal Gayle - May 6th

Alan Parsons - May 7th

Frankie Avalon - May 8th

Paul Anka - May 19th

Peter Noone and Herman's Hermits - June 4th

Norm McDonald - September 16th

re: Just For Fun:

Check out this video that DJ Stu Weiss sent us ...

You cannot help but smiling watching this one!!!

The Rocky Fellers went on to have a Top 20 Hit of their own in 1963 with "Killer Joe". (kk)

re: Bobby Darin:

Kent ...

Great stuff. Very interesting. Love it.

The only way you'll be able to top this --

Find out who really killed Bobby Fuller.

I love Big Jay ... listen to him every Friday and Saturday on my clock radio. I did write to him to defend my position.

Looking forward to next week's edition of Bobby Darin.
November 20, 1994 = Wild Wayne interviewed Dodd Darin.

We know that Bobby and Sandra didn't get along at first. Marriage lasted seven years. He said his parents grew apart because his mother led a sheltered studio life and Bobby was pursuing a high powered career. He was also changed by Viet Nam and the Civil Rights movement.

Frank B.

Not really planning on running weekly installments ... I keep wanting to get the whole thing up on the other site but there is SO much work involved with that (and SO little time to spend on it!!!) But one of these days we'll make it happen. We cover all of that stuff ... Bobby and Sandy (and how he first wooed and won over Sandy's mothe!) ... his involvement with Bobby Kennedy and the Civil Rights movement ... now you've got ME wanting to read it all again!!! (lol) kk

Loved the Darin piece you posted Thursday. The tracks were nice for comparison. Super job as usual.

David Lewis

It was very well-received when we first ran it ... the Official Bobby Darin Website even picked it up ... in fact, I thought there might still be links to the complete original piece but I can't find any. Years later I was invited to the Flamingo Hotel ceremony in Las Vegas when they put his star on the walkway and got to meet a lot of these people. It was an exciting time. (kk)

Hola Kent,

Charlie from deflateville, revenge is sweet !

Loved the Bobby Darin stuff, a great singer-crooner-performer. I was always fascinated by his appearance on a PBS Special (maybe not, could have been just a video) of his "Simple Song of Freedom" performance during which he appears very uncomfortable singing a 'Peace / Folk' song and ending by giving a slyly subtle peace symbol with his hand.

A great trivia question compares Bobby Darin and Tim Hardin as to who wrote the songs they both sang "Reason To Believe" and "Simple Song of Freedom", many will guess the reverse.

It speaks to his versatility and desire to more than a "Teenage Heartthrob" plus I may have missed this (getting 'senior' ha ha) but didn't he also write "My Way" for Frank(?) another neat connection.

Hey to Larry, the 'Cruisin' Series' allowed us all to experience all the great Disc Jockeys around the country while enjoying the hits through the years, along with the jingles and commercials. I hope you get a kick out of this:

A super compilation collection.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and then gave thanks once again after recent events we are the greatest country in the world.

Speaking of Thanksgiving a minor tradition is enjoying Arlo Guthrie's ballad "Alice's Restaurant" and subsequent iterations with family and passing it on. A wonderful statement was shared by Arlo during one of his many performances, when visiting the church years later to purchase and restore it, he was asked by a townsman what he was doing in a church to which he replied "I'm going to establish a 'Bring your own God' Church so all can celebrate their own beliefs in harmony" (I may have abridged it a tad but the essence remains).

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all and Happy Holidays to the politically correct! And thank you, Kent, for the forum.

CharlieOFD

You're confusing Bobby Darin with Paul Anka on Sinatra's "My Way". (In fact, Anka has probably rewritten the lyrics to that tune at least two hundred times since in order to fit it into the context of whatever he happened to be doing at that moment in time!)

Darin went full steam into the folk scene ... we had a couple of chapters in our series devoted to his transformation from Vegas lounge lizard into hippie, blue-jean clad Bob. (Damn, I guess I AM going to have to run this again ... it took a WHOLE lotta work so I hate to just see it sit here in the archives! Maybe after the first of the year I can devote some time to resurrecting it.)

I listen to "Alice's Restaurant" every Thanksgiving ... in fact, there are a couple of radio stations here in town who play it twice on Thanksgiving Day. (TV used to run the movie, too, but it's AWFUL!!!) Instead, PBS ran an Arlo Guthrie concert and I watched a bit of that ... but it was painful to see Arlo try and recreate his masterpiece all these years later ... I ultimately had to turn it off. The song was both a blessing and a curse ... but now that the whole world knows the story (or at least the whole world as it pertains to the audience at an Arlo Guthrie concert), he's pretty much just going through the motions ... all the little "wink wink, nod nod" moments that made it so clever and unique the first time around are gone. That being said there are STILL lines that crack me up and make me smile even 46 years later. (Thank you to cousins Amy and Ina-Alice for first turning ME on to this record way back when at one of YOUR Thanksgiving dinners!) kk

Hey Kent,

After reading all the things about Bobby Darin, this morning in FH, I couldn't resist sending this Ernie Kovacs clip. Ernie was a one-of-kind comedian. No one has ever been like him, even by today's standards. When "Three Penny" was playing on his show, I thought, "How could they do this to Bobby Darin"hit?"

I didn't know a thing about the history of the Sinatra vs. Darin "feud". Every time Bobby appeared on TV, my dad would say that he was always trying to copy Frank's style, but I wondered where Dad got that idea. What did I know?- John LaPuzza

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=hfB3jj8vKlo

Here are some other cool Bobby Darin links sent in by FH Reader Frank B ...

http://www.bobbydarin.net/calendar-CalPage.html

And from the Bobby Darin edition of "This Is Your Life" (first broadcast on December 2nd, 1959 ... which I see Vintage Vinyl News has ALSO posted links to this week!!!), check out THESE cool clips ... which just celebrated their 56th anniversary! (kk)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rrd_imBLbkc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3bUo_sjZmU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qovxyR2INhs

re: The Huffy Radio Bike:

Hey Kent,

I sure like the photos of the Huffy Radio Bike. In those days, we thought Huffys were cheapies compared to Schwinns, but I just saw a photo of a GREEN Huffy Radio Bike, and I would have found a way to get one! I remember that the closest we could get to a something like that was to hang a transistor radio from the handle bars, by its strap. The radio would swing back and forth, as we peddled, so the reception would fade in and out. Then, we would resort to taping it down! (Not very attractive.) I didn't know that they made radios designed especially to be mounted on bikes, until I saw this page. So, they made Radio Bikes and Bike Radios.

- John LaPuzza

http://www.stevenjohnson.com/bicycleradios/index.htm

Bicycle Radios - Steve's Antique Technology

Larger Image - Bicycle Radio History - Bicycles predated consumer radios by at least 50 years but as soon as radios and their battery cases became physically small ...

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Look Out Ol' Mackie Is Back

Kent ...

One thing I noticed listening to Wild Wayne's 40th Anniversary Interviews ... Jack Scott, Clarence "Frogman" Henry, Duane Eddy, Hank Ballard, Bruce Belland (the Four Preps) and Fred Parris (the Five Satins) all tell similar stories ... their hit song started out as a B-side before they figured out how good it was.

I was listening to another one of those countdowns on tape.
1991 = WCBS-FM's Top 101 Songs Of The 1950's.

The #1 song was "Mack The Knife" by Bobby Darin.

DJ Bob Shannon said that Bobby listened to Louis Armstrong's version of the song and made the same mistake that Louie made. The name Lottie Lineard wasn't supposed to be in the song. She wasn't a character in the "Three Penny Opera." She was the songwriter's wife.

I was wondering if you came across this information when you did your Bobby Darin Series?

By the way, on December 1, 1960, Bobby Darin and Sandra Dee got married. It lasted seven years.

http://www.bobbydarin.com/scoopart.html
Frank B.

Ironically I was working on a piece over the long Thanksgiving Weekend and, as part of my reseach, saw that Sandra Dee was granted her divorce on March 7, 1967.

As for "Mack The Knife," here's the way we covered Bobby's biggest hit in our 30-Day Salute to Bobby Darin:

'60's FLASHBACK:

Chapter 5: Darin Crosses Over

Despite all his pop chart success, Bobby wanted more. The truth is, in his heart, Bobby didn't believe that rock and roll would last. Like many of the older generation, he felt that rock was just a fad that would eventually peter out. (Keep in mind that by 1959, Elvis was in the army, Buddy Holly had died in a plane crash, Jerry Lee Lewis had already been forsaken by his fans after marrying his cousin, Little Richard had left rock and roll for the church and several new poster-boy teen idol wannabes like Fabian, Frankie Avalon and Bobby Rydell were now prominently on the scene.) Bobby knew that the key to a successful, long lasting career was to capture the hearts of the older audience as well ... and if he could take the kids along with him, all the better.

Darin would be criticized throughout his career for using rock and roll as a stepping stone to a bigger musical career. Indeed, some of his own comments early in his career would indicate that he wasn't particularly fond of the genre ... but there is no question that he could write it and sing it and connect with the young teenage audience. (After recording "Splish Splash", Bobby told his long-time friend Richard Behrke, "You'll vomit when you hear it.") He always said that it wasn't a great song ... but that it captured what the kids wanted. Lyrical references to Peggy Sue and Good Golly Miss Molly insured its place alongside these other early classic rockers. He as much as admitted to his master plan in an interview with Down Beat Magazine in 1960: "Pat Boone was using rock and roll as a device ... which is all well and good. It's exactly what I did."

There was no question that Bobby wanted to branch out and do more musically. When he first talked about doing an album of standards, his contemporaries told him it was career suicide. Close friend Dick Clark pretty much spelled it out for him ... he would lose his audience and alienate his fans if he even TRIED to change his style. Bobby felt that if he simply stuck with rock and roll, he'd just be one of a thousand other singers ... but if he could continue to polish up his stage act ... and reach a broader, more mature audience, he could take his career to levels never even dreamed of ... and sustain a much longer lasting career than any flash-in-the-pan rock star.

Darin was determined to prove the cynics wrong. Despite all the advice he received to the contrary, he went in and cut the standards album he wanted to make. With that thought in mind, "That's All", for all intents and purposes, may very well have been the very first concept album. Bobby wanted to show his versatility as an artist and when the unlikely pop / rock candidate "Mack The Knife" was selected as his next single, it blew the lid off EVERYTHING else that was out at the time. It shot straight to #1 and stayed there for nine incredible weeks. Besides several other previous chart appearances (most often as "The Theme from 'ThreePenny Opera'" or "Moritat"), Bobby made the song his own ... to the point that every "eek" he ad-libbed in the studio have now become permanently etched as part of the lyrics of the song ... you end up singing along with each and every one of them every time you hear it. Richard Weiss did an INCREDIBLE arrangement and the song took on a whole new life of its own. "Mack The Knife" was a radio SMASH, crossing over to ALL genres of music ... even the JAZZ stations played it!

Bobby was rewarded a few months later when he was nominated for four Grammy Awards. In the Music Industry's second-ever (and first televised) ceremony, "Mack The Knife" was nominated for Best Arrangement. (Richard Weiss lost to Billy May, who had done the arrangement on Frank Sinatra's hit "Come Dance With Me".) Darin and Sinatra (and the same two songs) faced off again in the Best Vocal Performance Male category and Sinatra also won THAT award. But then Bobby rebounded with the Best New Artist award and topped off the evening by winning The Record Of The Year Award for "Mack" (which just happened to beat Sinatra's "High Hopes" recording.) By now, the comparisons to Frank Sinatra had really started to escalate and would follow him for most of the rest of his career. (How ironic that these two crooners would go head-to-head in so many categories at that year's Grammy Awards!)

At the end of the evening, whether he was pumped up by the excitement of the day's events or overcome by his own massive ego, exhilaration and / or exhaustion, BobbyY made a comment that would haunt him for the next several years. When pressed by UPI's Vernon Scott about challenging Sinatra in all four categories (and winning in two), Darin reportedly said "I hope to surpass Frank in everything he's done." Soon newspapers all over the country were talking about the cocky young kid with the big mouth, who was WAY out of line for even hinting that he deserved to mentioned in the same breath as "Old Blue Eyes" ... despite the fact that those same newspapers had been playing up the comparisons for months already.

While Darin would spend the next several years denying or down-playing the remark, Sinatra refused to comment. In hindsight, it seems to have been more of a feud fueled by the press than anything personal between the two artists. Photos circulated of Sinatra and Dean Martin using a Bobby Darin album cover as a dartboard .... but the truth is that Darin was close with fellow rat-packer Sammy Davis, Jr., most of his life. (In fact, the liner notes for Bobby's big crossover album "That's All" even reprinted a telegram sent by Sammy Davis, Jr. stating "I've just heard the dubs for your new album. What can I say? They're so good I hate you! But seriously, Bobby, I think the album's another step in a career that I feel will last a long time.") Bobby also remained on excellent terms with Sinatra's daughter Nancy and her then-husband Tommy Sands. There are even reports that suggest that after Sinatra broke away from Capitol Records to form his own record company, Reprise Records, Bobby was approached about jumping ship from Atlantic to record for Ol' Blue Eyes. (Darin reportedly turned down the offer, feeling he'd be the lost, forgotten artist amongst Sinatra's rat-pack pals also signed to the label ... in fact, Bobby signed with Capitol to record alongside his other idol Nat King Cole, hoping to fill some of the void left by Sinatra's departure!) Another well recounted incident tells that after one of Bobby's nightclub engagement, Jerry Lewis approached Darin and told him that he was all alone in the league ... Frank, Dean, Sammy and Jerry were all several years older ... and NOBODY else was doing what Bobby was doing ... he had the whole arena to himself. The only one who could louse it up for him was Bobby himself ... otherwise, there was NOBODY out there that could touch him. Bobby took the advice to heart.

The most-famous comment Sinatra ever made on the subject when asked what he thought of Bobby Darin was: "I sing in saloons. Bobby Darin does my prom dates." Darin called it "one of the greatest single lines of all time" and said that he was only too happy to play his prom dates ... until graduation!

ISN'T IT IRONIC?: Years later, Frank Sinatra would cut his OWN version of "Mack The Knife", using a virtually identical arrangement to Bobby Darin's!!! In fact, on his 1984 album "L.A. Is My Lady, Sinatra added a lyric paying tribute to some of the previous "Mack" hit-makers: "Satchmo Louis Armstrong, Bobby Darin and Lady Ella, too ... Old Blue Eyes can add nothing new."

DIDJAKNOW?-1: Against the best wishes of his musical colleagues and his record label, Bobby Darin released his "That's All" album in March of 1959. Atlantic Records didn't know what to do with the record ... it was SO different from anything else that Bobby had recorded ... and, in fact, different than anything the label had released up to this point. Coming off the heels of Bobby's smash hit single "Dream Lover", they didn't know what to release next ... all they knew was it had to be big. The decision was pretty much made for them ... radio jumped on the lead LP track and started playing "Mack The Knife" ... in fact, it quickly crossed over into EVERY style of music, getting played not only on the rock and roll stations but also the pop / contemporary stations, the big bands stations, the jazz stations and everything in between. It was, by ALL definitions, an across-the-boards SMASH. Atlantic had no choice but to release it as a single ... which they did in August of that year ... incredibly, a full FIVE MONTHS after the song first hit the streets as an LP track!

DIDJAKNOW?-2: Bobby Darin was criticized by some for "glamorizing" the character of Mac Heath ... it was basically a song about a murderer! Bobby most patterned his arrangement after the Louis Armstrong hit from 1956 but the musical "ThreePenny Opera" was also making a comeback in the theater at the time Bobby's song hit. One of the characters mentioned in the lyrics was Lotte Lenya ... who was actually the widow of Kurt Weill ... one of the original songwriters of "Moritat" ... which became "Mack The Knife"! In fact, Lotte was starring as Jenny in the off-Broadway revival of "ThreePenny Opera" at the time that Bobby's record hit! Ironically, Lotte Lenya had discussed the possibility of recording some of her late husband's songs with Atlantic Records label head Ahmet Ertegen ... when Bobby came to Ertegen with the idea to record "Mack The Knife" for his new album of standards (a song he had already been performing in concert for months) it was a COMPLETE coincidence.

Lotte Lenya

WHAT DID MACK THE KNIFE SOUND LIKE BEFORE BOBBY DARIN?:

"A Theme from 'The ThreePenny Opera'" was a Top 20 Hit three times in 1956. Richard Hayman and Jan August took their instrumental version to #12. It was surpassed by the similarly named Dick Hyman Trio (actually called "The UNFORGETTABLE Sound of the Dick Hyman Trio" on the single) who released the similarly sounding "Moritat ... A Theme from 'The ThreePenny Opera'". Their version went all the way to #7 in Cash Box. (Hey, didn't they use to play this on the old Ernie Kovacs television television series all the time?!?!?!) In fact, three MORE instrumental versions also reached the charts that year when released by Lawrence Welk, Billy Vaughn and Les Paul. Finally, Louis Armstrong took his vocal version to #20 that year as well. It's the Bobby Darin version, however, that's become the definitive take ... and most certainly his signature tune.) However, this IS Forgotten Hits ... so today you get several of the highlighted versions!

FORGOTTEN HITS

Friday, December 4, 2015

The Friday Flash

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Look Out Ol' Mackie Is Back

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