ATTENTION!!! IMPORTANT
ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING HALL OF FAME!!! Yes, that’s right.
Tell all your
friends, tell the press, tell radio, TV, newspapers, why you can even tell The
Pres, Hillary, Trump, everyone.
I will make an important announcement on this
site after the New Year that will shock the WOOORRRLLDD!
Ok, maybe not the world
but at least maybe parts of the USA and Canada!
I'll have a statement that
will come from me and me only regarding my participation in The Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame.
Until then, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and I'll
speak to you shortly after New Year’s day with my earthshaking announcement
regarding the Hall Of Fame!
Ciao,
Peter
Seriously???
OK ... well now he's just being an asshole!!!
Checking Cetera's site (where this message was posted yesterday) there is absolutely NO prior mention of Chicago being selected for induction into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame ... NOTHING!!!
But now, midst all the hoopla and speculation, THIS is what he's posted?!?!?
Whatever ... we've been campaigning for Chicago's induction since Forgotten Hits first began in 1999 ... and consider it both a GROSS oversite on The Rock Hall's part that it took so long ... and a GREAT honor that they are FINALLY being recognized.
Chicago's music was revolutionary for its time. Many have argued that they degenerated into a soft rock band ... but it was those soft rock hits that gave them all their #1 Records and kept them on the map. (Technically, you can credit ... or blame ... most of this on Peter Cetera ... and his working relationship with David Foster!)
So we'll wait patiently for the big announcement (although by this point I have to confess that Peter may have aligned himself with The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame more closely than he imagined ... because now I simply don't care about EITHER of them!!!) kk
Kent,
We would all be disappointed if Cetera doesn't join in on this long
awaited celebration of the decades of accomplishments they all deserve! But, with
that said, you reach out to about anyone and everyone that cares, so remember
the quote: "You attract more flies with honey than you do vinegar". So, as a
fan I am hoping that if this reaches far enough, we would all be grateful to hear
the music in its truest form. Merry Christmas to all!! Laurie
Hoffman Estates
Hey, nobody was more excited than me to see them finally get in ... but Chicago is a BAND ... and has NEVER been about any one individual. Look at their history and you'll see that they survived the terrible loss of Terry Kath, perhaps one of the greatest and most underrated guitar players of our time ... and have still been going strong now for thirty years sans Cetera. I would LOVE to see them all reunited to accept this award and perform again as a unit in the true spirit of why they formed in the first place. (I feel the same way about drummer Danny Seraphine, who I've gotten to know a little bit thanks to the benefit concert for Marty Grebb earlier this year.) Rejoice in your accomplishments and remember what got you hear. The world wouldn't even know who Peter Cetera is were it not for his years with Chicago. Set it all aside and embrace the moment. (kk)
Despite ALL kinds of press to the contrary, founding CTA /
Chicago member Peter Cetera is now saying that he will NOT be performing at The
Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony next April with his former
bandmates.
I don't get it ... Chicago has waited FOREVER to claim their
rightful spot at The Rock Hall ... and now Cetera doesn't want to
participate???
While he has yet to make a formal statement to the press, I
expect much more to be said about all of this in the days to come. (Merry Frickin' Christmas!!!)
Members of
Deep Purple who are not being inducted by The Hall have been QUITE vocal of
late!)
Rumors that Cetera will soon be joining forces with Mike Love
of The Beach Boys in a new musical venture called The Spoiled Sports have not officiallybeen confirmed. (kk)
Congrats!: Congratulations to FH Reader (and MAJOR Davie Allan fan and supporter) Boobie Auten of Currie, North Carolina, who wins the Davie Allan two-fer ... his new CD's "Davie Allan and the Arrows 50th Anniversary" and "King Of The Fuzz Guitar" ... it couldn't have gone to a bigger fan or more deserving winner. Congratulations, Vibeman ... and thanks again, Davie, for making this Christmas so special. (kk)
John and Paul at The Grammys ... (Oops! Wrong Paul!!!): WHAT THE HEEEEEYYYYYY!!!
From Andy Williams reaction coming back on stage, something non-allowable at the time, in the way of vocal exchange must have happened in those pre-empted seconds. It was obviously NOT a legitimate news break. OK, someone find out for us ... I am curiouser and curiouser each day that goes by.
Shelley Sweet-Tufano
A little bit of digging ('cause I'm quite sure I would have remembered something a momentous as this!!!) shows that somebody cut together two completely separate Grammy pieces ... John Lennon and Paul Simon presenting an award in 1975 (with Art Garfunkel showing up to accept on behalf of Olivia Newton-John ... that part was legit) and then, after Lennon's comment, "Where's Linda", they cut away to an audience shot of Paul and Linda McCartney coming up to accept an award on behalf of The Beatles' recording "Let It Be" (which is why THAT is the song you hear playing in the background as they come up to and leave the stage) from the 1971 ceremony. Then, whoever created this video, spliced in a fake News Report to make it look like the official reunion of John and Paul was pre-empted and lost forever, meaning the whole world (other than the "live in studio" audience) missed it ... but, as you surmised, the break-in was fake. By the time it cuts back, you see Paul and Linda leaving the stage ... from four years earlier. Mystery solved ... but a GREAT piece of work, I must say!!! (And Paul and Art are hysterical!!! PAUL SIMON: "I thought I told you to wait in the car." ART GARFUNKEL: "Writing much, Paul?" Fantastic!) Mystery solved. (kk)
Here is the uncut video of the actual footage from 1975:
FH Reader Paul Haney corroborates our findings ... and even provides the footage from 1971 when The McCartneys surprised everyone by being on hand to accept the Grammy for "Let It Be. Hi Kent,
That clip of Paul Simon and John Lennon at the 1975 Grammy Awards with the “CBS News Special Report” (which actually has no news content) was quite obviously doctored . there was NOT a John and Paul reunion on that night. Somebody just pasted in footage of Paul and Linda McCartney from the 1971 Grammy Awards on the way to and from the stage accepting the award for the Let It Be album.
Paul Haney
This was still a pretty momentous occasion ... I would have NEVER expected John Lennon to go along with this ... and yet he looks like he's having a ball up there. (I guess I would have expected something like this during his "Lost Weekend" period ... but Yoko was right there with him, sitting in the audience.) And Andy Williams was in top form having a little fun at his ex-wife Claudine Longet's expense ... also completely out of character for the guy who hosted so many Family Christmas Television Specials over the years! Still, he cracked me up. (He describes their relationship as starting out with "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and ending with "Bridge Over Troubled Waters"!!!) A year later Longet would shoot and kill her lover, Spider Sabich, while skiing in Aspen, Colorado. The 1975 Grammy Awards still had a few awkward moments ... Olivia Newton-John winning multiple awards for "I Honestly Love You", a song I find virtually unlistenable to today. (I wasn't a big fan of it back then either!) It won for both Record of the Year AND Best Pop Female Vocal Performance. Then ... as they still do to this day ... they read the awards presented the day before for what I like to call "the least crowd pleasing categories" ... and, in what can ONLY be described as a COMPLETE lack of good judgement, they announced first The Best Childrens' Recording as "Winnie The Pooh and Tigger, Too" ... and then followed that by awarding The Best Comedy Recording to Richard Pryor's "That Nigger's Crazy"!!! (Perhaps somebody thought Tigger and Nigger flowed off the tongue with some sense of poetry??? Who knows!!!) Ironically, Paul McCartney and Wings won for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a duo, group or chorus. (Now THAT would have been a cool award to have Lennon present!!!) kk
Kent,
I’m pretty sure the end of the video, suggesting that Paul
and Linda McCartney came onto the stage where John Lennon and Paul Simon were
presenting, is fake.
From the research I’ve done on the web, there’s no indication
that Paul and John reunited that night. In fact, the official Grammy website
says Paul wasn’t even there: “Ironically,
while an absent Paul McCartney won a GRAMMY at the 17th Annual GRAMMY Awards
(Best Pop Performance By A Duo, Group Or Chorus forBand On The Run), this should go down
as an extremely winning night for the very present John Lennon, too.”
Ian Berger
No, we've figured it out ... see above for a more detailed explanation. I still say it would have been AWESOME to have John Lennon ... COMPLETELY out of his element appearing on a show like this ... have to present the Grammy to Paul McCartney and Wings!!! Now THAT would have made a few headlines! (kk)
Chicago
From a new interview with Robert Lamm regarding The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony ... sent in by FH Reader Tom Cuddy ...
Obviously Terry Kath was such a huge part of the band first decade. Will someone from his family be representing him at the ceremony?
The only person who is interested in Terry’s career is his daughter, who has beenworkingon a documentary on himfor the last few years, but it’s really about her discovering who he is. That would be the only person I could think of who would be relevant.
What about Peter Cetera and [original drummer] Danny Seraphine – are they going to attend?
They will.
Will they perform with you?
Oh yeah.
So, if people buy a ticket to attend the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, they’ll see Chicago with Danny Seraphine on drums and Peter Cetera singing, if not playing bass.
I'm sitting here
listening to Wild Wayne's 40th Christmas show and catching up with Forgotten
Hits.
12/19/1958 =
Bobby Darin records "Mack The Knife."
12/ 20/1973 =
Bobby Darin dies after heart surgery.
This time of the
year we can hear Bobby Darin's 1960 Christmas hit "Christmas Auld Lang
Syne."
I'm thinking your
subscribers want to know more about Bobby Darin.
What do you think? Frank B.
It's pretty rare
to even hear Bobby's Christmas tunes anymore. (Kinda weird in hindsight that he
died almost exactly fifteen years to the DAY after recording his biggest hit,
"Mack The Knife"!!!)
Bobby's Christmas
single (released in 1960) was actually a two-sided hit ... "Christmas Auld Lang
Syne" performed a little better on the charts, peaking at #32 in Music Vendor
(despite a #51 showing in Billboard). The flipside (which, I believe, was
actually the intended A-Side), "Child Of God", didn't get that high ... #72 in
Music Vendor and #95 (for all of one week) in Billboard.
I thought that if
time permitted over the holidays, I would FINALLY try and get the Bobby Darin Series posted to the
other site. As usual, I've already fallen behind ... but I haven't completely
given up hope yet.
Typically this
time of year our mail slows down as everybody has all kinds of holiday plans ...
so we'll see what we can do. If by some miracle, I can actually make it, you'll
be amongst the first to know!!!
Thanks, Frank ...
and Merry Christmas to you and yours. And thank you for your ongoing support of
Forgotten Hits! (kk)
UPDATE: Current Goal -- THE BOBBY DARIN STORY -- posted on January 1st, 2016!!! (We're getting REALLY close ... Stay Tuned!)
On The Radio
Kent,
Since you mentioned
you are wrapping up the 50-Year flashbacks for a while, I figured I'd share this
with your internet fans:
50 years (+ several days ago), what was
one of Cleveland's biggest radio stations hit the radio
airwaves.
WIXY-1260 was a 5000 watt station that covered a good
part of Northeast Ohio during the day and a limited area overnight. Their only
real AM competitors at the time were WHK-1420 and the 50,000 clear channel
station KYW/WKYC. Yet the little station that could, did, and soon became the
most listened to station in Cleveland soon after it came out of the gate. Even
the Big 8 / CKLW, with their 50,000 wattage from across Lake Erie, couldn't come
close for years.
Though like most AM Top-40 stations, WIXY faded
into the sunset in the mid-to-late 70s.
However the spirit of WIXY lives
on ...
There is a internet radio site called wixy1260online.com. For several years now, they have
successively recreated the essence of WIXY with jingles, call-in giveaways, old
commercials, snippets of the real WIXY, and even some occasional Chickenman
episdes. And they do make personal appearances!!! They also boast of having
enough music in their library that most songs (outside of requests) are heard
only ONCE ... A ... WEEK! And what a deep library it is.
I invite your
audience to listen for a refreshing change of pace. Though they mostly
broadcast live on nights and weekends, their "jockless" hours of overnight and
daytime run circles around corporate radio stations.
Happy 50th to
WIXY 1260!!!
Tim Kubat
Sounds great, Tim ... I listened for a little while last night. And how great to be able to promote a play list that deep!!!
We have (had?) a station here in Chicago that attempted (and claimed) to do the same thing using the old WCFL call letters ... but it never even came CLOSE to recreating the sound and feel of this era. I would think a radio station with that kind of legacy (assuming they still had access to their old library of shows, jingles, promotions, etc) would make for a GREAT addition to the AM dial ... especially if they could air it at the same frequency as way back when. I know that if done properly, I would definitely listen ... if only to hear the vintage clips of the jocks who dominated that station back in its hey-day! (kk)
This And That
Hey Kent, I stumbled upon this video and HAD to send it to you! One of the members of
"The Wrecking Crew" was the great mallet percussionist, Julius Wechter. He
played marimba, vibes, drums, tympani, xylophone, and other instruments on TONS
of recordings. One of his most famous is the vibraphone and tympani work he did
on The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" ("Lets Go Away For Awhile"). He can also be seen
on "The Wrecking Crew" documentary film, being interviewed with other members of
the crew. He played marimba and vibes on all of Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass
tracks. Because of this and his friendship with Alpert, The Baja Marimba Band
was formed. Herb thought that having another 'South of the Border' recording
act, on his A&M record label, would be popular at the time. He was right.
Wechter assembled a group of studio players, who also could be very funny, to
release albums and make TV appearances. Here is a sample of how entertaining the
band was, doing a cover of "Taste of Honey". What fun to be in a group like
that! A big part of the number is the drum solo by Frankie DeVito (who happens
to be Danny DeVito's first cousin). I've never seen a funnier routine, behind a
set of drums. - John LaPuzza
Dean Ford should do “Rainbow” again as well! A nice follow up
tune. I always liked that one too. I think a Dean Ford & the Gaylords re-do
might be pushing it though!
Ken
Marmalade had a pretty impressive string of hits in The U.K.,with some great tracks on the list. I'm really not sure why some of those didn't cross over here in America. Coming off a record as big as "Reflections Of My Life", they would have had a built-in radio audience waiting to hear what else they could do. (If you've never heard Marmalade's Greatest Hits, pick up a copy ... some GREAT, overlooked tracks on this one ... from an American perspective anyway. Back home in Great Britain, they had a dozen Top 40 Hits!) kk
Wow! Check it out ... Another VERY ambitious Top 50 Chart from KAKC! But not only do they list this week's Top 50 Hits, they ALSO have 22 "extras" spread out between this week's Pic Hit, the Up And Comers list and The Fifty Oner's!!! Amazing! Not a whole lot of surprises here on the main chart ... but there are a few ... "Mr. Guitar Man" by The Band, charting three years before their first national hit. (Are these the same guys???) Brook Benton sitting at #20 with "Mother Nature, Father Time" (and that's DOWN from #14 last week, so obviously a pretty good-sized hit in the Tulsa, OK area ... it peaked at #40 nationally. A Bing Crosby record at #49 ... in 1965?!?! Once again, they're showing "Day Tripper" as the A-Side of the new Beatles single ... and I believe that's the way it was played here in Chicago as well ... I seem to remember hearing this one a lot more often than "We Can Work It Out" although both tracks received very heavy airplay. As for featured music this week, how about just a couple ... The Four Seasons (masquerading as The Wonder Who) are at #26 with their version of a Bob Dylan tune, "Don't Think Twice" ...
And, believe it or not, I've always been partial to Al Martino's hit "Spanish Eyes", which premiers on the chart this week at #47. (Al personally called me once to thank me for featuring his new release on the website ... talk about unexpected! What a nice guy ... sadly, he passed away just a few months later.)
