Because of so many pre-committed postings, we haven't been able to run anything "new" or current for a little while ...
So here are some of the things we've accumulated in the interim ...
Kent,
On behalf of The Buckinghams, we wish you a Happy, Healthy and successful New Year!
The Buckinghams
Thanks, Carl ... and right backatcha ... hope to catch up with you at a few shows again in 2019! (kk)
kk:
1969.
I just wanted to be the first one to send you a 1969 song.
It will look good on my resume.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQUMpTGdw8g
FB
It's comin' ... and before you know it, we'll be saluting 1969 ... another GREAT year in music ... so stay tuned! (kk)
Kent,
I saw a teaser about a new 1969 charts weekly feature. Will this be reproducing the weekly WLS charts? That'd be cool.
Clark Besch
You betcha ... we'll be running every WLS Hit Parade Chart from 1969 each and every Sunday in 2019. Much as you supplied all the charts for last year's Fifty Year Flashback Salute to 1968, this year's charts come courtesy of long-time Forgotten Hits Reader Jack Levin. And it all kicks off on January 6th ... so be sure to check back every Sunday in 2019 to see ALL the latest hits ... from exactly fifty years ago! (We've got lots of other great Fifty Year Flashback Features planned, too ... so keep us on your radar.) Like I always say, start your day with Forgotten Hits ... you'll always find something interesting here, even if it's just catching up on some of what you've missed over the years. (kk)
1969 was a GREAT year for music ... another one of my favorites. (Probably more so than '68 in fact!) Nothing will ever compete with 1967 in my mind ... my greatest musical memories come from that year ... 1964 and '65, of course, brought us The British Invasion ... and this is when I first went overboard with my lifelong obsession with the hits. 1966 signaled the first big change ... but 1969 gave us some GREAT pop classics that still loom very large in my heart. And we'll be featuring a whole bunch of 'em throughout the year ... so please check back regularly. (kk)
I have to say that '68 was my 2nd fave next to 1967 and then '66 and then '65, then '64 and '69 next. STILL, a great year indeed.
I had planned to draw a line from our starting survey point in January, '68, to each city thru end of year on a USA map, but never got to it. That woulda looked cool. Remembering '69 will be cool, but for me, now, it is a bit bittersweet. It was the end of the REAL Cryan' Shames and altho I did not realize it at the time, STEREO KEYN-FM was quickly replacing MONO WLS AM as my go to station. By mid-year, it was a done deal altho I did tape some in the latter part of '69 off WLS.
On my weekly personal charts, I had three songs reach #1 for five weeks and two were in 1969 and basically due to WLS. "Long Green" by the Fireballs was top 10 on WLS and one of my five week #1's. The other I taped off WLS the moment they played it first: "Barbara, I Love You," by the New Colony 6. They'd had two two week #1's in 1969 besides that.
BUT, I was taping in stereo on reel of KEYN-FM Wichita long distance in Dodge City and LOVING it. Looking back, I loved both times, but it took quite some time to go back to AM in a few years, except for Landecker nights.
Clark
Chuck Buell, who was a big part of the WLS line-up in '69, has already sent me some memorabilia from his personal collection to share with our readers this year ... (in fact, we ran an internal WLS congratulatory memo yesterday that I doubt ANYBODY has ever seen before!) ... and I've asked Kris Erik Stevens and Clark Weber to share some of their WLS '69 memories with us as well. (Chuck has become quite the contributor to our efforts and I think has become a big FH fan in the process. This provides the perfect format for him to reminisce a bit, too, so I'm really looking forward to hearing more from him moving forward.)
We'll be doing more spotlight features around specific events this year, kind of inline with the 1967 Series we did a couple of years ago, only not on a daily basis, but rather as a commemorative anniversary type of thing. Think about it ... the moon landing, the whole Cubs / Mets fiasco ... The Beatles' rooftop concert ... Woodstock ... I think it'll be a fun year ... I can't believe it's our 20th!!! (Who knew!!!) kk
That's great. I found my tape I made on Dec 1, 1969 when the first capsule drawings for the draft happened. It was 8 PM and we were in Dodge City and I taped off BOTH WLS and KEYN-FM that night. KEYN mentions it in the taping and WLS lists the numbers as they occur. My brother was up for the draft and got a number in the 200's I think. Since he was in college, that helped his status, too. He was never drafted. I just saw a Trump story today about HIM getting a high number in that same draft but because of bone spurs, he was excused. Then, it turned out that that was maybe fake news and his number wasn't high and he did not have spurs when he showed the columnist this past week. Go figure.
The moon landing AND Woodstock both happened when "2525" was on top, our Lincoln boys. I have a story on how they could walk down our main street and not be noticed exactly when the song was #1 nationally!
The Miracle Mets were memorable for me because MY Atlanta (Milwaukee until recently) Braves played them in the first round of the VERY FIRST playoffs BEFORE a World Series. We had two famous knuckleballers, Phil Neikro and Hoyt Wilhelm, as well as Hank Aaron, Rico Carty and Ralph Garr and Orlando Cepeda. Hank Aaron finally won a Gold Glove award that year! A great team after being most of the 60's a last place team. Suddenly, it was all over and the Mets went on to glory.
'69 had it's great moments. WLS did, too!
Clark
Lots of good stuff comin' ... stay tuned!!! (kk)
And, speaking of the 50th Anniversary of Woodstock, a new concert is now being planned on the same site as the original ... no official word yet on which artists will be participating ... but this story got quite a bit of press last week ...
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/woodstock-50th-anniversary-festival/?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=newsletter_15558585
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ct-ent-woodstock-50th-anniversary-concert-20181228-story.html?fbclid=IwAR1VbvCgNqHbox_9JF4ycO1ABc1lqRgfq8riPrFFW3wtAhgODGoPVJ0bXk0
And our salute to 1969 seems to be infectious ... Me-TV-FM kicked off a week-long celebration of the Music of 1969 on New Year's Day ... you can listen to it here thru their Milwaukee streaming station ...
Kent,
I saw a teaser about a new 1969 charts weekly feature. Will this be reproducing the weekly WLS charts? That'd be cool.
Clark Besch
You betcha ... we'll be running every WLS Hit Parade Chart from 1969 each and every Sunday in 2019. Much as you supplied all the charts for last year's Fifty Year Flashback Salute to 1968, this year's charts come courtesy of long-time Forgotten Hits Reader Jack Levin. And it all kicks off on January 6th ... so be sure to check back every Sunday in 2019 to see ALL the latest hits ... from exactly fifty years ago! (We've got lots of other great Fifty Year Flashback Features planned, too ... so keep us on your radar.) Like I always say, start your day with Forgotten Hits ... you'll always find something interesting here, even if it's just catching up on some of what you've missed over the years. (kk)
1969 was a GREAT year for music ... another one of my favorites. (Probably more so than '68 in fact!) Nothing will ever compete with 1967 in my mind ... my greatest musical memories come from that year ... 1964 and '65, of course, brought us The British Invasion ... and this is when I first went overboard with my lifelong obsession with the hits. 1966 signaled the first big change ... but 1969 gave us some GREAT pop classics that still loom very large in my heart. And we'll be featuring a whole bunch of 'em throughout the year ... so please check back regularly. (kk)
I have to say that '68 was my 2nd fave next to 1967 and then '66 and then '65, then '64 and '69 next. STILL, a great year indeed.
I had planned to draw a line from our starting survey point in January, '68, to each city thru end of year on a USA map, but never got to it. That woulda looked cool. Remembering '69 will be cool, but for me, now, it is a bit bittersweet. It was the end of the REAL Cryan' Shames and altho I did not realize it at the time, STEREO KEYN-FM was quickly replacing MONO WLS AM as my go to station. By mid-year, it was a done deal altho I did tape some in the latter part of '69 off WLS.
On my weekly personal charts, I had three songs reach #1 for five weeks and two were in 1969 and basically due to WLS. "Long Green" by the Fireballs was top 10 on WLS and one of my five week #1's. The other I taped off WLS the moment they played it first: "Barbara, I Love You," by the New Colony 6. They'd had two two week #1's in 1969 besides that.
BUT, I was taping in stereo on reel of KEYN-FM Wichita long distance in Dodge City and LOVING it. Looking back, I loved both times, but it took quite some time to go back to AM in a few years, except for Landecker nights.
Clark
Chuck Buell, who was a big part of the WLS line-up in '69, has already sent me some memorabilia from his personal collection to share with our readers this year ... (in fact, we ran an internal WLS congratulatory memo yesterday that I doubt ANYBODY has ever seen before!) ... and I've asked Kris Erik Stevens and Clark Weber to share some of their WLS '69 memories with us as well. (Chuck has become quite the contributor to our efforts and I think has become a big FH fan in the process. This provides the perfect format for him to reminisce a bit, too, so I'm really looking forward to hearing more from him moving forward.)
We'll be doing more spotlight features around specific events this year, kind of inline with the 1967 Series we did a couple of years ago, only not on a daily basis, but rather as a commemorative anniversary type of thing. Think about it ... the moon landing, the whole Cubs / Mets fiasco ... The Beatles' rooftop concert ... Woodstock ... I think it'll be a fun year ... I can't believe it's our 20th!!! (Who knew!!!) kk
That's great. I found my tape I made on Dec 1, 1969 when the first capsule drawings for the draft happened. It was 8 PM and we were in Dodge City and I taped off BOTH WLS and KEYN-FM that night. KEYN mentions it in the taping and WLS lists the numbers as they occur. My brother was up for the draft and got a number in the 200's I think. Since he was in college, that helped his status, too. He was never drafted. I just saw a Trump story today about HIM getting a high number in that same draft but because of bone spurs, he was excused. Then, it turned out that that was maybe fake news and his number wasn't high and he did not have spurs when he showed the columnist this past week. Go figure.
The moon landing AND Woodstock both happened when "2525" was on top, our Lincoln boys. I have a story on how they could walk down our main street and not be noticed exactly when the song was #1 nationally!
The Miracle Mets were memorable for me because MY Atlanta (Milwaukee until recently) Braves played them in the first round of the VERY FIRST playoffs BEFORE a World Series. We had two famous knuckleballers, Phil Neikro and Hoyt Wilhelm, as well as Hank Aaron, Rico Carty and Ralph Garr and Orlando Cepeda. Hank Aaron finally won a Gold Glove award that year! A great team after being most of the 60's a last place team. Suddenly, it was all over and the Mets went on to glory.
'69 had it's great moments. WLS did, too!
Clark
Lots of good stuff comin' ... stay tuned!!! (kk)
And, speaking of the 50th Anniversary of Woodstock, a new concert is now being planned on the same site as the original ... no official word yet on which artists will be participating ... but this story got quite a bit of press last week ...
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/woodstock-50th-anniversary-festival/?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=newsletter_15558585
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ct-ent-woodstock-50th-anniversary-concert-20181228-story.html?fbclid=IwAR1VbvCgNqHbox_9JF4ycO1ABc1lqRgfq8riPrFFW3wtAhgODGoPVJ0bXk0
And our salute to 1969 seems to be infectious ... Me-TV-FM kicked off a week-long celebration of the Music of 1969 on New Year's Day ... you can listen to it here thru their Milwaukee streaming station ...
https://player.radio.com/listen/station/me-tv-fm#.XCriJ817nct
So if the Saturday Surveys are moving to Sunday, will the Sunday Comments move to Saturday?
God bless you, and God bless Clark Besch (and all the contributors, commenters, and friends of FH).
So if the Saturday Surveys are moving to Sunday, will the Sunday Comments move to Saturday?
God bless you, and God bless Clark Besch (and all the contributors, commenters, and friends of FH).
Good luck to all of you in the New Year.
Bob Frable
The Sunday Comments (our most-read weekly feature) is going on hiatus for a year ... comments will be interspersed with our regular posts throughout 2019 ... all the more reason to get into the habit of checking the site every day. (And we're hoping ALL of you will share some of YOUR 1969 memories with our readers!) kk
Did you listen to the week-long celebration of Rewound Radio's Countdown of The Top 77 All-Time Oldies Favorites? (Top 77??? In all, they tabulated over 3200 songs that earned votes as fan favorites!!!)
Well, you can now view and download the complete list.
At Noon Eastern Time on New Year's Day, they posted this download link to print out your own "suitable for framing" copy of the final results. (Suitable for framing if you've got about a hundred frames lying around!!! lol Actually, my copy took 72 pages to print!) You can check it out here:
https://musicradio77.com/2018FreeTop77.html
Seriously, who doesn't love a good countdown???
I remember the "big reveal" of the year's biggest hits always came on New Year's Eve ... and throughout my last two years of high school and beyond, we always made it a point to stop by as many New Year's Eve parties as possible so that nobody would be offended. (You just had to plan ahead of time where you wanted to end up at midnight for the big midnight kiss!)
And along the way, we had WLS on, counting down The Big 89 of whatever year it happened to be. EVERYBODY was listening to the year-end countdown. And when you got to the next party, odds are it was playing there, too. (And if it wasn't, you'd put it on, just so you wouldn't miss any of your favorites and find out where they ranked.)
We've carried that tradition along for the next 50+ years ... one visit to the other Forgotten Hits website will show you all of tabulated charts, most with the help of our readers to determine "the best of everything" without any personal bias. (These make for great radio station countdowns, too ... and several of the jocks have featured these charts over the years.)
In fact, may I suggest that ANYBODY involved with programming radio today (whether it be the whole station or their own personal show) take a good look at the Top 3200 songs ranked by the fans ... the actual listeners ... showing you what THEY really want to hear. It'll give you a pretty good idea as to what songs you might want to consider adding to your own play list. (As with any play list, you can probably throw about 20% of these tracks by the wayside as either not fitting your particular format or not being especially listener-friendly ... but that still leaves you with over 2500 GREAT suggestions that you could easily add to your list as "crowd pleasers." (kk)
Thank you for another year’s full of good content, Kent!
Did you listen to the week-long celebration of Rewound Radio's Countdown of The Top 77 All-Time Oldies Favorites? (Top 77??? In all, they tabulated over 3200 songs that earned votes as fan favorites!!!)
Well, you can now view and download the complete list.
At Noon Eastern Time on New Year's Day, they posted this download link to print out your own "suitable for framing" copy of the final results. (Suitable for framing if you've got about a hundred frames lying around!!! lol Actually, my copy took 72 pages to print!) You can check it out here:
https://musicradio77.com/2018FreeTop77.html
Seriously, who doesn't love a good countdown???
I remember the "big reveal" of the year's biggest hits always came on New Year's Eve ... and throughout my last two years of high school and beyond, we always made it a point to stop by as many New Year's Eve parties as possible so that nobody would be offended. (You just had to plan ahead of time where you wanted to end up at midnight for the big midnight kiss!)
And along the way, we had WLS on, counting down The Big 89 of whatever year it happened to be. EVERYBODY was listening to the year-end countdown. And when you got to the next party, odds are it was playing there, too. (And if it wasn't, you'd put it on, just so you wouldn't miss any of your favorites and find out where they ranked.)
We've carried that tradition along for the next 50+ years ... one visit to the other Forgotten Hits website will show you all of tabulated charts, most with the help of our readers to determine "the best of everything" without any personal bias. (These make for great radio station countdowns, too ... and several of the jocks have featured these charts over the years.)
In fact, may I suggest that ANYBODY involved with programming radio today (whether it be the whole station or their own personal show) take a good look at the Top 3200 songs ranked by the fans ... the actual listeners ... showing you what THEY really want to hear. It'll give you a pretty good idea as to what songs you might want to consider adding to your own play list. (As with any play list, you can probably throw about 20% of these tracks by the wayside as either not fitting your particular format or not being especially listener-friendly ... but that still leaves you with over 2500 GREAT suggestions that you could easily add to your list as "crowd pleasers." (kk)
Thank you for another year’s full of good content, Kent!
Looking forward to 2019!
Surf’s Up,
Phil
Phil
kk ...
Here's an example of the shows I use to go to.
FB
Yeah, you don't see line-ups like THIS anymore!!! (kk)
Speaking of upcoming shows, you'll have to move fast to grab tickets to The Chicago Experience's appearance at The Metropolis Performing Arts Centre in Arlington Heights, IL, on January 25th 'cause they're going fast.
We've raved about these guys many times before ... and I've gone so far as to say that they do Chicago better than CHICAGO does Chicago!!! (And why not ... half of those guys are gone now, too!)
The biggest difference is the fact that The Chicago Experience brings some new and youthful energy to their stage performance ... and shows a REAL appreciation of this music ... so if you happen to live here locally ... and are free on Friday Night, January 25th, be sure to catch this show ... but again, you'll have to act FAST!
You'll find more information here ...
https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?actions=37&p=1
Also coming to The Metropolis Performing Arts Centre (this Sunday, January 6th, as a matter of fact) is a new one-man show featuring Skip Griparis, recounting the history of rock and roll. (Skip was the last lead singer of The New Colony Six when they decided to call it quits in the early '70's. He then went on to have a successful comedy career as well as star in a few movies. This should be a good one to see!)
You can find information about THIS show via the Metropolis link above, too. (kk)
And, speaking of The New Colony Six, Clark Besch sent us this link to a program Ronnie was on this past weekend, celebrating the Steve and Johnnie Show!
Meanwhile, Frank B. also tells us ...
Speaking of upcoming shows, you'll have to move fast to grab tickets to The Chicago Experience's appearance at The Metropolis Performing Arts Centre in Arlington Heights, IL, on January 25th 'cause they're going fast.
We've raved about these guys many times before ... and I've gone so far as to say that they do Chicago better than CHICAGO does Chicago!!! (And why not ... half of those guys are gone now, too!)
The biggest difference is the fact that The Chicago Experience brings some new and youthful energy to their stage performance ... and shows a REAL appreciation of this music ... so if you happen to live here locally ... and are free on Friday Night, January 25th, be sure to catch this show ... but again, you'll have to act FAST!
You'll find more information here ...
https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?actions=37&p=1
Also coming to The Metropolis Performing Arts Centre (this Sunday, January 6th, as a matter of fact) is a new one-man show featuring Skip Griparis, recounting the history of rock and roll. (Skip was the last lead singer of The New Colony Six when they decided to call it quits in the early '70's. He then went on to have a successful comedy career as well as star in a few movies. This should be a good one to see!)
You can find information about THIS show via the Metropolis link above, too. (kk)
And, speaking of The New Colony Six, Clark Besch sent us this link to a program Ronnie was on this past weekend, celebrating the Steve and Johnnie Show!
I was listening to WGN AM last night when I went to bed before midnight. They had a live TV feed on the internet, but it was cool that Ronnie Rice was in the studio singing songs live (all 50's styled like his shows) with guitar between the talking segments. You can hear it here:
https://wgnradio.com/2019/01/01/steve-and-johnnies-cheap-date-life-after-dark-nye-12-31-18/
https://wgnradio.com/2019/01/01/steve-and-johnnies-cheap-date-life-after-dark-nye-12-31-18/
Clark
Meanwhile, Frank B. also tells us ...
Watch for a brand new Sly and the Family Stone documentary in 2019. I think he had a reputation for not showing up for concerts.
FB
Yes, he caused quite a riot here in Chicago when he didn't show up for his scheduled appearance at Grant Park many years ago. Still, this should be a pretty interesting documentary.
It wasn't the first show Sly Stone hadn't shown up for ... but this one certainly hit home when he left upwards of 100,000 people in the lurch at Chicago's Grant Park for what was supposed to be a free concert on July 27th, 1970. (I was actually headed downtown to hear it when news broke of complete pandemonium ... it was completely out of control! I quickly turned around and headed back home ... and couldn't believe what I saw on the news that night and read in the newspapers the next day.) And then these guys then had the balls to release an album called "There's A Riot Going On" a short while later!!!
Actually, if you read all of the reports, Sly Stone maintained that he was there ... and offered several times to take the stage to see if he could calm down the out-of-control crowd ... but wasn't allowed to do so by Chicago Police, who feared for his own safety.
Because of several instances like this, Stone began to earn a reputation as Rock / R&B / Funk's version of "No Show Jones," the moniker attached to country superstar George Jones, who was also famous for missing performances. (I seem to recall Jerry Lee Lewis doing quite a bit of that, too, back in the day!)
I think this should make for some pretty interesting subject matter for a documentary ... so I can't wait to see it! (kk)
Meanwhile, here are a couple of news clips from The Chicago Tribune, spelling out just how crazy all of this really got ...
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/history/ct-grant-park-rock-fest-riot-fest-flashback-0726-jm-20150722-story.html
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/photo/vintage/ct-grant-park-riot-1970-sly-family-stone-photos-20150721-photogallery.html
It wasn't the first show Sly Stone hadn't shown up for ... but this one certainly hit home when he left upwards of 100,000 people in the lurch at Chicago's Grant Park for what was supposed to be a free concert on July 27th, 1970. (I was actually headed downtown to hear it when news broke of complete pandemonium ... it was completely out of control! I quickly turned around and headed back home ... and couldn't believe what I saw on the news that night and read in the newspapers the next day.) And then these guys then had the balls to release an album called "There's A Riot Going On" a short while later!!!
Actually, if you read all of the reports, Sly Stone maintained that he was there ... and offered several times to take the stage to see if he could calm down the out-of-control crowd ... but wasn't allowed to do so by Chicago Police, who feared for his own safety.
Because of several instances like this, Stone began to earn a reputation as Rock / R&B / Funk's version of "No Show Jones," the moniker attached to country superstar George Jones, who was also famous for missing performances. (I seem to recall Jerry Lee Lewis doing quite a bit of that, too, back in the day!)
I think this should make for some pretty interesting subject matter for a documentary ... so I can't wait to see it! (kk)
Meanwhile, here are a couple of news clips from The Chicago Tribune, spelling out just how crazy all of this really got ...
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/history/ct-grant-park-rock-fest-riot-fest-flashback-0726-jm-20150722-story.html
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/photo/vintage/ct-grant-park-riot-1970-sly-family-stone-photos-20150721-photogallery.html
IMPORTANT NOTE:
I was SHOCKED to find over 1800 unread emails, dating back over the last several MONTHS!
PLEASE ... you MUST update your contact information for me to only show kk@forgottenhits.com ... I am not using ANY of the other emails that you may have on file for me ... and, as you can see, I rarely if ever check them.
Hundreds of potential timely comments and announcements were lost ... so please update this information RIGHT NOW while you're thinking about it ... and delete anything else you may have on file for me.
Apologies to anyone who may have felt that their emails were ignored ... as this isn't the case ... I just never knew that they existed!!! (Speaking of which, if you DO have something coming up that you'd like me to help promote, please get me this information as soon as possible. Since much of this year will be spent doing Fifty Year Flashbacks to 1969, our "open time" to run new information will be extremely limited ... so please give me as much notice as possible so that I can properly help to spread the word.
Thank you very much. (kk)
