Tuesday This And That

Well, AOL made good on their threat this morning … 

I can no longer access my account unless I’m willing to pay $5 per month in order to continue their crappy and erratic service.

So PLEASE … direct ALL of your email to kk@forgottenhits.com from this point forward … so neither one of us miss each other!!!  (kk)

Tommy Scheckel of Paul Revere's Raiders sent us this cool photo of himself with none other than Chubby Checker from the high seas as the two tour together as part of the Alaskan Where The Action Is Cruise.

You should be here!!!  (Next one for sure!)

Here’s Chubby and I setting sail with Gary Puckett, Peter Rivera (Rare Earth), The Lettermen, The Box Tops, Lovin’ Spoonful and The Raiders. Kent, let’s work on getting you and some (or all) of your readers on our Alaskan cruise in September (great band lineup for that one, too!) or NEXT year’s Caribbean cruise!

I enjoyed you review of Chubby’s show … he’s great isn’t he? I also like that he’s part of a select club of people who only need one name (Oprah, Cher, Chubby).
Tommy Scheckel (but you can call me Cap’n Slappy when we’re on the high seas!)
Paul Revere’s Raiders

Would LOVE to have been part of this … and we really should put together some type of Forgotten Hits Cruise after all these years.  (Of course, I no sooner type this than hear about an Alaskan earthquake that is now expected to cause a tsunami!!!  WTF?!?!?!?)

Safe travels, my friend … let us know that you’re ok!  (kk)

Kent,

You mentioned that you were surprised how much of the "Beautiful" story revolved around Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.  Actually, when the show was first envisioned, it was not supposed to be "The Carole King Story" at all.  Instead, the producers wanted it to concentrate on the rivalry between Goffin / King and Mann / Weil. 

The story goes that when the test audiences saw the early version of the show, they were critical of the fact that Carole's songs from "Tapestry" were not included.  So, to make room for those songs, the producers cut back on the rivalry storyline.

Anyway, glad you enjoyed it.

Keep up the great work. 

Ian Berger

P.S. Your 1967 tribute was simply amazing!

We watched an A&E Special on The Brill Building the night after we saw the show … which was pretty cool because Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann were all there “in the present day” to talk about it. (Obviously filmed several years ago … but still lots of VERY cool vintage footage.)  I know there’s a book available, too, but I’m guessing it’ll follow closer to the storyline of the musical we saw.

Still, very enjoyable … and unbelievably moving when you consider how much incredible music these two duos gave us … literally hit after hit after hit after hit after hit. 

“Beautiful” ends this weekend at The Cadillac Palace Theatre.  (kk)

We saw Beautiful two years ago ... loved it.  

Carole King is a hero of mine.    

Jim Peterik

South African Jazz Master Hugh Masekela, who topped the pop charts with “Grazing In The Grass” back in 1968, has passed away yesterday from prostate cancer. 

And this from Ken Voss, by way of Scott May of The Ides Of March, who had just performed as part of The Moody Blues Cruise (along with The Zombies) … and then also submitted by at least another dozen Forgotten Hits Readers …

Some sad news announced by our Ides friend Scott May, who just gigged with him …

Horrible news.  JIM RODFORD of the Zombies (and Kinks and Argent) flew away this morning.  Was just with him on the Moodies Cruise.  A great bassist and singer, plus one of the nicest guys you could meet.  A true British Gentleman.  It’s no secret I’ve become a drooling Zombies fanboy in the past few years, so this one hit me hard.  The Zombies are a warm and familial bunch and I can’t imagine the grief and pain they are bearing right now.  Jim has been an inspiration in that he was on the far side of 70 years and still kicked serious ass onstage.  I’m grateful to have been in his orbit the past few years.  Rock on, Jim.  Well done!

-- Scott May

 

Ah crap … more sad news.  I saw Jim twice with the Zombies … excellent bass player!

Jim Rodford, a founding member of Argent and bassist for the Kinks and the Zombies, died Saturday at the age of 76.

Mike DeMartino

Sad news indeed … The Zombies are due back at The City Winery in February … in fact, I’m supposed to meet with them before the show.  They’ve been enjoying making music longer this time around than they did when they originally formed! (And they lost their bid for Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction recently, too … another gross oversight by The Rock Hall.)  kk

Neil Diamond (celebrating his 77^th Birthday tomorrow on the 24^th) announced an end to touring after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.  He hopes to stay active by continuing to write and record.  (kk)

Hola Kent,

As a new birthday looms and I am closer to experiencing firsthand "Hillbilly Heaven" and "Rock 'n Roll Heaven," my short term memory fails me ... so could you please resend the link to the FH67 'blogumentary' so that I may revisit it from time to time?  I've bookmarked FHBLOGSPOT.COM and neglected the other as you advised in a prior email / post.

Thankfully, as a result of your fine efforts, my long term memory is sharp and the glorious formative days of my youth are 'so well remembered' (Doug Lapham).

Much success in 2018 and I promise warmer weather is on the way.

All my best,

CharlieOFD

For the time being anyway, you can catch the ENTIRE 1967 Series right here … http://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/ … you just have to use the links at the bottom of the blog to take you back to whatever month you happen to be looking for.  (The series kicked off on December 28, 2016, and ended on January 2, 2018.)

Eventually, the entire series will be moved here …

http://forgottenhits1967bonus.blogspot.com/ … which is where we ultimately posted all of the “extras” along the way.  This site will become the permanent home of all things ’67 … but that’s still a LONG way off as this is a TREMENDOUS project that I have yet to make a single dent in, trying to keep up with our current posts and new Saturday Surveys feature … but once it’s there (hopefully by year’s end) we will let EVERYBODY know.

Thanks, Charlie!  (kk)

Anybody able to help with this one?

Hi,

I've been told there is a song called 'Heartache' that Roger Cook had a hand in writing. I don't know who performed it, but I wonder if you can confirm its existence. I've scoured the web for an answer but no luck.

Thanks.

Darren

Here are a couple of 1968 surveys that I found ...

Jack

Hi Kent,

Not sure if I missed it, but did you ever get the radio issue with your new vehicle resolved? 

Also, I wanted to thank you again for previously mentioning that I offer the service of transferring cd's to flash drives and passing this information along to the world! 

Thank You for all you do for the music community.

Art Walicki

No, for right now I am still living without Me-TV-FM in the car (but getting by with what I’ve been finding on Sirius / XM.)  I just haven’t been able to get an appointment yet to get the car into the dealer to see if my current radio can be updated or upgraded to pick up 87.7 FM.  Every time I’ve called, they’ve had no openings on a Saturday, which is the only day I can bring it in.  Then I got busy with other Saturday commitments and never had the chance to reschedule. (To make matters worse, we haven’t been able to listen in my wife’s car lately either because her antenna was snapped off at the car wash a few weeks ago … and we weren’t able to get THAT fixed until this past Saturday!)  See the way my luck runs?

But it’s still on my “To Do” List.  No guarantees, of course, that they’ll be able to fix it … but definitely something I want to look into as I truly do miss the station.  (kk)

Speaking of Sirius / XM - I've found "The Beatles Channel" to be my go-to channel of late ... which really surprises me.  I figured this would be the place I would turn to when I couldn't find anything of interest anywhere else ... but this station is SO well programmed and creatively put together that it seems I find something interesting and exciting EVERY TIME I turn it on ... no matter HOW familiar the music may be.  They keep finding new and interesting ways to present it ... and you can tell the time, thought and effort that goes into putting together a station like this.  Well done!  (kk)

I appreciate and love all that you do. Please keep up the great work!

Thank you,

Joe Malin

Hi Kent,

I'm not sure the Genesee calendar is quite correct. Dennis Diken, of the Smithereens will be touring w/ Dave Davies. Former Smithereens front man, Pat Dinizio, passed away in late 2017.  What a great band they were. 

Keep up the great work. Wish I were in the Chicago area, lots of great shows.

Ted Gstalder

They’re still showing it as “The Smithereens” in their ad so I wondered about that, too, after the passing of Dinizio.  So now I’m wondering if each artist is performing separately with their own band or if they “share” a band and perform together (?)

Hopefully somebody on the list is going to the show and can fill us in!

Thanks, Ted!  (kk)

Hi Kent,

I wouldn’t miss your web updates daily for anything. They are a great read.

Kindly include me on your notifications list as well as a shot at the Fab Four tickets.

I was fortunate to have three younger siblings in the 60’s and we WERE the Beatles!

My brother Jon was George, sister Jill was John, sister Kara was our drummer and went by the name Ringo and I, of course, was the cute one -- Paul.

Having three older siblings buying all their records and bringing them home helped our career greatly ... lol.

Jay Grizzle

North Aurora

My two brothers and I put on a performance of “She Loves You” for my Grandmother after The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show … if you imagine the three of us … 10, 9 and 7 … jumping around and singing the song live while strumming imaginary guitars.  (Damn It!!!  I invented Air-Guitar in 1964 and never got credit for it!!!)

What I DO remember is that we shook our crew-cutted heads so vigorously during this performance that we had to lie down afterwards … dizzy and nauseous from our over-zealous performance! 

As for the Fab Four tickets, your name is in the hat … we’ll pick the winners next weekend for their February 9^th show at the Arcada Theatre.  If you’re lucky enough to attend, I promise you that they won’t disappoint … they’ve got this thing down (and, with a little luck … plus the fact that they’re experts … shouldn’t pass out after they take us thru The Beatles’ career with some amazing musicianship.)  Stay tuned for our list of winners … out next weekend.  (kk)