Friday, July 8, 2016

The Friday Flash

Jimy Sohns and The Shadows Of Knight
The other day we told you about a VERY special Shadows Of Knight gig coming up in August ...

Now, here are all the details ... courtesy of Jimy Sohns himself ...

Thanks, Kent, here's the info ...
You can purchase tickets here: http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?dispatch=loadSelectionData&eventId=6761785
Location of show:  
HOME - House of Music and Entertainment
1227 N Rand Rd.
Arlington Heights, IL
On August 20th, come celebrate this once in a lifetime event, with the reunion of four of the original Shadows of Knight.
For the first time in 49 years, JIMY SOHNS, JERRY MCGEORGE, HAWK WOLINSKI, and TOM SCHIFFOUR will be sharing the stage. ONE NIGHT ONLY.
Do not miss this amazing event. This will be an amazing birthday present for me.  
The flow of the show, in order: 
Kevin Lee and the Kings 
The Shadows of Knight (current lineup) 
The Shadows of Knight  (original lineup)  
Ticket Prices: 
General Admission (Standing Only):  $10 
Floor Seating  $15 
VIP Booth  $250 
Don't miss this VERY special event as Jimy Sohns returns to the stage! 
Hope to see some of you out there!  (kk)  

And, while we're on the topic of "Local Heroes", check out the brand new Jim Peterik video just sent into us by Jim for his new song "We All Bleed Red", commemorating the recent tragic Orlando shootings.  (Jim tells us his new "Caught Up In You" video will be ready in about three weeks ... so be sure to watch for that one here, too!)  kk  

Hi Kent!  
Beside my Facebook page, you are the first to receive my latest song and lyric video, We All Bleed Red. 
It is my reaction to the Orlando shootings and similar tragic events that have been happening all over the world. Feel free to post this.  Hope you like the song and message. 
Keep Rocking!
Jimbo



And don't forget Jim will be performing his new CD "The Songs", a reimagining of all his classics, at Space in Evanston on July 17th!  (kk)

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!
From Davie Allan ...  

"The Wild Angels" film was released 50 years ago this month (7-20-66) and the soundtrack hit it's peak (#17 in the nation) on 10-15-66. 
DA  
Davie Allan and The Arrows

>>>FIVE YEARS AGO (2011) :  2. Rolling In The Deep - Adele  (kk) 
This cracked me up - Rolling in the Deep was five years already????
It's like when I'm running my Melody games and say "This is a "newer song", and someone will say"Um, that was from 1988"
How quickly the years go by!!!
Eileen  


July 6th marked the 59th anniversary of the day that 16-year old John Lennon met 15-year old Paul McCartney for the very first time when Paul attended a Quarrymen concert at Church Fete in Liverpool.  Paul impressed John after the show when he performed Eddie Cochran's "Twenty Flight Rock".  John later admitted he had to make a difficult decision that day about inviting Paul to join his band ... did he allow someone to come in who was a better guitarist and better looking, who could potentially steal some of his thunder, for the overall good of the band.  Fortunately, John trusted his better instincts that day and together the duo became quite famous.  (kk)

This And That 
Hey Kent ...
Just a note to say thanks for the heads up on Joel Whitburn's 1955 - 2015 pop singles book.  Just received it today and MAN!!!!!!!!!  It's just loaded!
This is my 7th edition of the top 40 singles, and to me it's the best one yet ... just wish the printing was a bit larger.  It's a great book for anybody that's into Billboard top 40 record charts for the last 60 years. And its STILL great reading for an old radio jock like myself to enjoy.
I''m not a big fan of today's music ... but it's still nice to see who's leading the charts at any given era. So once again THANKS and as always THANKS for all you continue to do with FH!!
Pete Garrison (peteysmoke)
This is an EXTREMELY attractive looking revision ... the books get bigger and bigger due to the constant updating ... (if you think the type is small on this one, check out the new Top Ten books!  lol)  Expanding the page format to 8.5 x 11 has certainly helped ... but there is just SO much information that has to be contained between this covers, I imagine some creativity has to go into making it all fit.  Still, it's an AWESOME edition.
And, we'll be giving away a copy (a $90 value!) to one lucky Forgotten Hits Reader.  Just drop us a line in order to enter for your chance to win a copy.  Or, better yet, head on over to the Record Research website and order your copy today!  (kk)
Kent,
Enjoyed your commentary you had in today's FH. The writing and wording pertaining to the subject matter of a few days ago was great.  Reading it reminded me of one final record and that one record is the instrumental out of 1963 by a group known as the Busters and that was called BUST OUT.
Larry

Carole King made a triumphant return to The UK last week where she performed her #1 Album "Tapestry" in its entirety, along with a string of other hits she has written over the years.   
FH Reader Tom Cuddy sent us this story from BBC.com ... 
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-36700451
 
Tom also sent us this piece of news ...
Stephen Bishop of "On and On" fame will release a new album, Blueprint, on July 29th. It includes a remake of his 1983 Tootsie soundtrack hit "It Might Be You" as well as a version of "Holy Mother," which he co-wrote with Eric Clapton in 1986.
I have always loved "It Might Be You" ... not sure it really needs to be remade ... but it's great to hear that Stephen has been back in the studio.  We missed our chance to see him here a few months ago ... that's a show I would have liked to attend.  (kk)

Sad to hear of the passing of Noel Neill, everybody's favorite Lois Lane from the old "Adventures of Superman" television series starring George Reeves.  She was the last surviving member of the classic cast.  (Young Jimmy Olsen left us last year at the age of 87 ... Noel was 95.)  Ironically, the anniversary of the death of George Reeves (still under suspicious circumstances although officially ruled at the time a suicide) was on June 16th ... that happened 57 years ago!  (kk)

That comment I made about Bobby Rydell using "some old studio guy drummer" on his Wild One record, that old studio guy just happens to be Gary Chester (I checked it out).  He's a fantbulously fantastic studio drummer of that period.  Pretty much the East Coast equivalents of Hal Blaine out on the Left Coast.   Gary also did the drum track for The Isely's Twist and Shout.
Any drummer who did those tracks is just fantastically OK with me.  Those are some of the best and most basic underlying rock and roll drum tracks of not only that whole period, but probably they set the example for the next 30 years for sure and still a large part today.
Hey - that's probably why I chose to use that type treatment all through The Fifth Estate's recent Time Tunnel album.  Especially on our Crazy Little Thing which is played "open handed" and phrased very much the way I imagine Gary would have played it on Wild One. 
But I was right on one thing in particular.  Gary was an "old studio guy".  When Wild One was recorded, he was 36.  Of course, looking at it from our teen age perspective then that was ancient.  Today I guess I'm the old guy.  Nevertheless I think I did get a couple of interesting wrinkles into our tune he never quite got to.  Well I guess I should have, I've had an extra 50 some years to figure that out!!!
Furvus

And, speaking of Furvus (our FH Buddy Ken Evans from The Fifth Estate) ... 
Got this from FH Reader Mickey Cooksey so I forwarded it to our buddy Ken "Furvus" Evans of The Fifth Estate ... just in case they might want the opportunity to pick this up for posterity's sake ...


Hey Kent,
I waiting on photos but I thought I would let you know that a friend has the original Harpsichord used in the Fifth Estate / "Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead" video, which he got it from the keyboard player years ago and he is now planning  on selling it. He offered it a while back to the members on the band and they sounded interested for history's sake but never followed through.
When I get the photos I will send with all the info.
Thanks
Mickey

Thanks, Mickey -
I passed along the information to Ken "Furv" Evans, who was the original drummer for The Fifth Estate, and has been a long-time Forgotten Hits contributor.  I told him that I didn't know if any further discussions ever took place in this regard (or if this had enough sentimental value to make it worth his while) ... I just hated to see it go, just in case any of the guys did have an interest.
Let's see if he gets back in touch with you ... keep me posted!  (Hey, and if HE doesn't want it, maybe somebody ELSE on the list might be interested!)  kk

Hey Kent -
You should be out having a fantastic Fourth Weekend not worrying about our old harpsichord!!??  But appreciate the effort for sure. 
I think I heard from this fellow a couple of years ago and I asked the guys if we wanted it back.  After all it probably is the first "traveling" rock and roll harpsichord ever.  We even played with The Left Bank several times and they never traveled with anything but an electric piano that I ever saw.  And when we played a date at the Alabama Memorial Auditorium with the Turtles and The Lovin Spoonful, John Sebastian's auto harp would not work so he did the show on Wayne's piano and harpsichord.  That was the last, as I understand it, full show The Spoonful ever did together in their original form.  That is also the show where we are doing and Wayne is singing Corina Corina on our Live, Loud and Lo-Fi album.  That was the final night of The Spoonful.  They were having some great rift between them.  Their equipment wasn't working right and that harpsichord was right in the middle of all that.  So it has some history - if that was the real exact one?
But when the guys said they wouldn't mind recovering it and I spoke with the fellow who had it, I had him describe it to me and by the color, which he said was original and the dimensions - it didn't appear to be the true one - Wayne and I built!  The one in the video - film actually then.   So we didn't do anything about it.
Now these days the band just did a very successful show to a full house and standing O, two Saturdays ago at Stage One in Fairfield, CT.
We have a great keyboardist with us now and do a good deal of that sort of thing again - BUT (unfortunately for me - because I'm a true, true realist in music - nothing a band itself didn't play on themselves counts to me as a hit or even music by that band at least - and that leaves out 80% of the old hits - and that applies to the instruments being original as well - I'm not a fan of the replace them with electronic SOUND) and that means that harpsichord as well.  I really like the original sound of the original instrument, not the cheap or not so cheap electronic imitation.  But that is what the band is using these days - as it stays in tune at least when carrying it around.
So I don't think the band is interested in what he has.  Although, if it were the real one, there might be something to it???   I guess I should talk with him again.  Maybe he can send me an image of it?
That Mickey who wrote you isn't Mickey Cooksey by any chance??  He's been in touch any number of times.  But I didn't think he was the rockin harpsichord fellow.
Furv
PS - Do you know what in the old days we called a standing O.  We called it a "Standing Ovulation."  We got a lot of those.  But that was a while ago wasn't it?? We're probably past all that now.  I don't know though - feels like yesterday to me.  AND I think there was one the other night.
I've had artists tell me that getting a Standing O today means SO much more than it did back then ... because we all realize how much harder it is to get up and down out of our seats these days!  (lol)  I'll hook you and Mickey up and you can hammer out the logistics of whether or not this is even the real deal.  Good luck!  (kk)

Kent ...
Check out the strange case of Buddy Holly vs. Bobby Darin and "Early In The Morning."
Frank B.
http://www.udiscovermusic.com/the-strange-case-of-buddy-holly-vs-bobby-darin

We described it this way in our Bobby Darin series, now permanently posted on the other Forgotten Hits website ...
http://forgottenhits.com/the_bobby_darin_story

'60's FLASHBACK   
A couple of other ATLANTIC singles failed and soon BOBBY was in jeopardy of losing his recording contract again.  He knew that time was running out and the pressure was on, so he went out to try to sell himself to another record label.  This time it was BRUNSWICK RECORDS (ironically, a subsidiary of DECCA!) who responded but, due to BOBBY still being under contract with ATLANTIC, they decided to release a single under the name of THE DING DONGS.  It looked like BOBBY's next release would be his own tune, EARLY IN THE MORNING.  However, before this single hit the streets, fate was about to step in.  
While that single was being readied for release, BOBBY was down to his last shot at ATLANTIC.  One day, at MURRAY KAUFMAN's apartment, MURRAY THE K received a call from his mother JEAN MURRAY, who also just happened to be a songwriter.  Over the phone, she suggested the song title of SPLISH SPLASH, TAKE A BATH.  KAUFMAN groaned and then laughed ... nobody could write a song with THAT title ... and went off to take a shower.  The ever-determined BOBBY DARIN said that HE could write a song with that title and, less than an hour later, had composed his first hit record!  DARIN knew that he had captured the teen sound and excitedly took the song to ATLANTIC.  Virtually EVERYBODY there hated it ... co-founder HERB ABRAMSON, who had produced all of BOBBY's ATLANTIC releases to date, said he'd take a pass.  JERRY WEXLER, one of the greatest ears in music history, called it garbage.  But AHMET ERTEGUN decided to produce the record himself and when they were done, BOBBY felt that, while it may not be a great song ... or even a great recording ... it WAS what the kids wanted to hear in 1958.  He was right ... SPLISH SPLASH shot up the charts, eventually hitting #2 in Cash Box Magazine.  (It peaked at #3 in Billboard).  BOBBY was on his way.  (ERTEGUN wasn't taking any chances on DARIN's last chance, however ... at a recording session already booked for MORGANNA KING, AHMET brought the musicians in a little early and had her rhythm section back BOBBY on three tracks, trying to capture more of the excitement BOBBY had shown him while banging on the piano outside ERTEGUN's office ... something he felt HERB had been unable to capture on record at this point.  In 90 minutes, DARIN cut three tracks, including both SPLISH SPLASH and QUEEN OF THE HOP, his first two Top Ten Hits!  Time well-spent indeed!)  As soon as SPLISH SPLASH hit the charts, BRUNSWICK rushed out EARLY IN THE MORNING, trying to cash in on DARIN's hot sound.  However, due to contract stipulations (and the common sense that ATLANTIC would most certainly sue them if they tried to release a record with BOBBY DARIN's name on it), they chose to release the single as THE DING DONGS.  Nobody at ATLANTIC RECORDS was fooled ... they KNEW it was BOBBY on the recording, and quickly put a halt to the release and purchased the master for their own label.  So as not to conflict with the momentum of SPLISH SPLASH's chart performance, ATLANTIC released the tune as being by THE RINKY DINKS!!!  EARLY IN THE MORNING finally peaked at #24 on the Billboard Chart.  Still believing the song was a hit, DECCA released a nearly identical arrangement and had their OWN teen sensation BUDDY HOLLY record a version, which was quickly released on the CORAL label, striking while the iron was still hot.  BUDDY's version peaked at #25 in Cash Box!  (Incredibly, HOLLY, known for composing some of the greatest music ever to come out of rock's early years, would have hit singles with songs written by fellow teen idols BOBBY DARIN ... EARLY IN THE MORNING ... and PAUL ANKA ... IT DOESN'T MATTER ANYMORE ... early in his career!)  Amazingly, the B-Side of BOTH the DARIN single and the HOLLY single was NOW WE'RE ONE ... another BOBBY DARIN original composition!  (By the way, an original BRUNSWICK pressing showing THE DING DONGS as the recording artist is worth well over $100 today!)  Once it became common knowledge that EARLY IN THE MORNING was really a BOBBY DARIN record, later pressings showed the artist as BOBBY DARIN AND THE RINKY DINKS.  Despite any implied competition between the two, BOBBY DARIN did several dates in early 1959 with BUDDY HOLLY AND THE CRICKETS ... and was even invited to join them on their fateful winter tour ... BOBBY had to decline because of previous commitments.  (In hindsight, none of Bobby's health issues would have had any impact on the outcome of that flight.)  BOBBY DARIN toured with a virtual who's-who of late '50's rock stars ... besides BUDDY HOLLY, he also hit the road with FRANKIE AVALON, THE COASTERS, DUANE EDDY, DION AND THE BELMONTS, JIMMY CLANTON, girlfriend JOANN CAMPBELL and CLYDE McPHATTER.  And that's fellow '50's teen pop star NEIL SEDAKA playing piano on BOBBY DARIN's hit DREAM LOVER ... as well as its B-Side BULLMOOSE.  (kk)
 
Hey Kent,
Last Saturday night, we decided to take in a concert at the local casino of The Marshall Tucker Band. To be honest, I've not been a real fan the band, or any Southern rock groups over the years for that matter, but I was very curious to hear what the old guys sounded like these days. On each side of the stage, there were big lighted posters of the band's members and, in the center, there was no doubt who the leader, Marshall Tucker, was. The players were all accomplished musicians and I have no regrets attending. They were also fun to watch and the leader was funny and had good interaction with the audience. When he would tell a joke, I'd ask my girlfriend if she heard what Marshall just said! My only complaint was that some of the songs became long jam sessions, especially between the two guitarists and I would have preferred more songs, shorter in length. "Can't You See" was their last song, and everybody was waiting for them to do it. I thought they would come back for an encore to play "Heard It In A Love Song", as it was the lead singer's (and band's) biggest hit, but it didn't happen. I don't know if the casino gave them a time restriction or if it was the fans who didn't cheer them back on that prevented their return to the stage.
When I got home, I tried to learn as much about the group as possible because I knew NOTHING about them. I found out that the lead singer's real name is not Marshall Tucker, but Doug Gray! He is the only original member who's still in the band. When the group was first formed, they rented a space for rehearsal, that was previously rented by a blind piano tuner named Marshall Tucker, and his name was engraved on the key of the door lock. The guys thought the name had a nice ring to it, so they went with it. In the future, when Gray decides he's had enough of touring, I wonder what the other five players will do. They can't legally use the name that's in place now, without at least one original member still in the group. Let me suggest, "The Tucker Marshall Band"! Here is a video featuring the REAL Marshall Tucker; a pretty neat guy and very good musician, himself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz8KAGVNurw
- John LaPuzza
How does The Marshall Tucker Band perform a concert and NOT play their all-time biggest hit, "Heard It In A Love Song"?!?!  That just doesn't make ANY sense!!!  "Can't You See" may have proven to be the all-time classic over time, but even releasing it a couple of times as a single still never achieved better than a #70 chart showing.  (Kind of like "The Weight" by The Band ... this is the song they're best known for today but when it was first released as a single, it didn't even crack The Top 50.)  "Heard It In A Love Song", however, was a bonafide Top Ten Record in 1977.  (I've told the story before about how the first few times I heard that song I thought they were singing "Purty Little Love Song" as kind of a southern drawl take on "Pretty Little Love Song" ... and I swear I STILL hear it that way today ... or at least that's what I sing when I sing along!!!)  Listen to it with that thought in mind the next time you hear it and see if you don't see how it fits, too!  Interesting story about how the band got its name ... I had not heard that one before.  (kk)


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