Ballot 4 may offer our most surprising results yet when it comes
to your selections. (Of course every
ballot is only as good as the alphabetical choices will allow … but if anything
proves that classic rock fans want more, THIS would be the evidence to show it!)
All the more reason why you should be voting ...
And why radio should be listening ... to these results ... if they want more of us to listen to them!!! (kk)
This is another really tough list!
Ron
Don’t make it harder than it has to be … vote for ALL
of your favorites by submitting two ballots … one listing your top ten
favorites, ranked from #1-#10 … and one checking off all of the other songs
that you feel absolutely belong on Classic Rock Radio Playlists cross the
country! (kk)
Ballot #5 is incredible! I could
have picked a Top 20! This is addictive, Kent. Thanks so much!!!
Rimjberger
You absolutely CAN pick a Top 20 … or a Top 50 … or a
Top 100 if you want to!
If you’re having trouble narrowing down these lists to
just ten choices, then pick your favorite ten tunes and rank them 1-10.
Then go back and assign a single vote to every other
song on each day’s list that you feel is worthy of inclusion in our final
countdown.
Don’t pass by your favorites just to pick ten … take
full advantage of BOTH voting methods … and make sure your favorites are well
represented on the final list.
Oh, and by the way … yes, Forgotten Hits is COMPLETELY
addictive and habit forming!!! (What are
you some of guys going to do when we run out of titles?!?! Lol)
Not to worry … there are 46 ballots in all … today
we’re releasing #7 … and then, after all the votes have been tabulated, you
still got our TOP 3333 MOST ESSENTIAL CLASSIC ROCK TRACKS OF ALL-TIME Countdown
to enjoy!!! (We’re not going anywhere
for a while! Lol) kk
I am truly amazed
at how deep your readers dug to get some of these tunes on the ballot. Great
tunes that never would have occurred to me thankfully occurred to others.
Really enjoying this, Kent!
Sher
Sometimes it takes a village … and we’ve got a pretty
incredible one here in Forgotten Hits.
And that was exactly our point and purpose all along …
to show everybody just how much great music is out there that isn’t even on
anybody’s radar anymore … and then try to get some of the classic rock stations
to play it. When the same 2-300 songs are jammed in our heads every single day, people tend to forget just how many more great options are out there.
Hopefully, this list will ultimately serve its purpose
and the playlists will improve … because with well over 730,000 votes, the
people have spoken … and THIS is the music they want to hear! (If nothing else, consider requesting some of these titles from your favorite classic rock station ... and see if you can get them to play them!) kk
Some of you are having a real ball with this ... a very FRUSTRATING ball at times ... but a fun time nonetheless. (That's why the rest of you need to get out and vote!!!)
From Ballot 6:
1. Catch Us If You Can - DC5
2. Cherry Bomb - The Runaways
3. Caroline - Status Quo
4. Celluloid Heroes - The Kinks
5. Cleveland Rocks - Ian Hunter
6. Cinnamon Girl - Neil Young
7. Can't Find My Way Home - Blind Faith
8. Chicago - Graham Nash
9. Can't You See - Marshall Tucker
10. Classical Gas - Mason Williams
Any one of these could be my #1 for this list, depending on
my mood. I'd love to see a couple of these score big time once the final list
is assembled. This could be your all time #1 feature, as pretty much everyone
has their own opinion of what should be #1.
Jack
From Ballot 5:
1. Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen
2. Born To Be Wild - Steppenwolf
3, Both Ends Burning - Roxy Music
4. Break On Through -The Doors
5. Boys Are Back In Town - Thin Lizzy
6. Breakup Song - Greg Kihn
7. Brass In Pocket - The Pretenders'
8. Bowling Green - Everly Brothers
9. Born On The Bayou - CCR
10. Can I Get A Witness - Marvin Gaye
This is the strongest lot of songs thus far. I can see my
top two ending up in the top 100.
Jack
From Ballot 4:
1.
Blitzkreig Bop –
Ramones (Could be an all time top five
for me)
It’s funny … when I first saw how
many votes this song was getting, not only was I amazed but I immediately
reflected back to a comment I made a couple of weeks ago about having heard
“More Than A Feeling” by Boston over 15,000 times on the radio over the past 45
years … yet I’ll bet you during that same amount of time, I haven’t heard
“Blitzkreig Bop” by The Ramones on the radio FIFTEEN times!!! And yet it has proven to be one of the top vote getters from
this ballot.
Again … radio … PLEASE pay
attention!!!
Ballot #4 was the most eclectic and
surprising yet …
Take your listeners’ wants and needs
into consideration and throw them a surprise WOW! Track once in awhile … it’ll
keep them tuned in … and because of that, they’ll tell others to listen, too! (kk)
It has been great to see the first ballots.
There are a few 'Who the hell voted for that song?', and many
more 'I wish I would have thought of that one.'
That is what makes it fun.
I am not surprised that Ballroom Blitz by the Sweet got a
decent amount of votes. That has been one of my most asked for songs
through the years. Little Willy,
Blockbuster, and especially Fox On The Run often show up during
the request
shows. Folks even call for Love Is Like Oxygen, but
never know the name of the group that sang it. I remember hearing WLS
play the Sweet song Action more than any of their other songs.
According to Ron Smith's Chicago Charts book, Love Is Like Oxygen never
charted in Chicago. Billboard had it charting at number eight.
Phil – WRCO
Sweet did ok here in Chicago with
three Top Five Hits (“Little Willy,” “Ballroom Blitz” and “Fox On The Run,”
those last two going all the way to #1.
Across town at WCFL all three of those songs made it all the way to
#1!) I remember hearing “Love Is Like
Oxygen” but it was probably on Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 because I don’t
think it got played a whole lot here at the time. (kk)
BALLOT #4 Results:
Top Ten Vote-Getters:
#1 - Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen (as expected ... it leads the whole pack in overall votes, too ... and has for quite a while now)
#2 - Behind Blue Eyes – The Who
#3 - Beginnings – Chicago
#4 - Bitch – The Rolling Stones
#5 - Bell Bottom Blues – Derek and the
Dominoes (“Layla” isn’t the only great
track on this album. While it’s true you
do hear this song once in a while, these results prove that classic rock fans love it … so
you can afford to spin it a little more often to break up the monotony of
playing “Layla” 45 times this week!)
#6 - Black Is Black – Los Bravos (who would have thought that this one would
have finished so high! Great tune ‘tho!)
#7 - Black Magic Woman - Santana
#8 - Blitzkrieg Bop – The Ramones (Say what?!?! Right up there with The Who, Santana, Queen
Chicago and the Rolling Stones?!?! Yep …
that’s what the fans say!)
#9 - Birthday – The Beatles
#10 – Bitter Sweet Symphony – The
Verve (another one that doesn't get enough airplay in this format)
It's interesting how some songs have gained in stature over
the years. If this poll were taken 40 years ago, I don't think Bohemian
Rhapsody would have done as well as it will in the final tally. I think Behind
Blue Eyes has remained steady.
Jack
Other tracks of note:
All of these tracks did extremely
well on Ballot #4 -
Black Betty – Ram Jam
Bloody Well Right – Supertramp
Blow Away by George Harrison (a bit of a surprise)
Blue Bayou – Linda Ronstadt (ditto ... classic rock fans consider Linda one of their favorites)
Blue Money – Van Morrison (a nice change of pace from Brown Eyed Girl, if nothing else!)
Blue Suede Shoes – Elvis Presley (voters continue to prove that they want more of the core, "roots" artists spun once in a while ... it's where the rest of classic rock came from!)
Boogie Wonderland by Earth, Wind And
Fire with the Emotions (I sure didn’t expect to see THIS one here!!! Doesn’t fit the Classic Rock mold for me …
but you guys out there are evidently ok with it … there are quite a few EWF tracks nominated)
Behind The Wall Of Sleep – The
Smithereens (this is one I didn’t know at all … but you guys sure seem to like
it!)
Beware My Love – Paul McCartney (to me, a deep track ... but it got a lot of votes in Ballot #4)
Beware Of Darkness – George Harrison (ditto)
Big Log – Robert Plant
Big Yellow Taxi – Joni Mitchell
Billion Dollar Babies by Alice
Cooper (this one really surprised me! But "Be My Lover" scored pretty well, too ... so maybe classic rockers want more Alice)
And, speaking of great Classic Rock ...
Congratulations to The Drive …
They’re now the #2 station in town …
And our FH Buddy Bob Stroud is now tied for 1st
Place on mid-days
Offering a better variety of rock,
this is the station to listen to locally for the very best in Classic
Rock. WTG, guys! (kk)
