Thanks to Tom D for coming up with a copy of the
Southwest FOB recording. I agree … it starts off strong with the horns and then
it feels pretty dead by about the one-minute mark.
David Lewis
Kent,
What you mentioned of
Amazon Prime's music in the background is true. I also was not familiar with
the tune of Chuck Berry which was used. However,
that guitar riff at the beginning had to be no other than that of Chuck Berry.
I have seen two others, one of which was a tune by Nat King Cole and the other
one which I did not recognize offhand.
Jack asked the
question of how many 65 year old kids still have the original radio surveys
around … well, I know of one and that one is me. From August of 1958 up through mid-1980, I
have the weekly surveys for local station WKY-AM 930 here in OKC. That is the
year and month they were started to be printed and the year they ended.
Kent, you mentioned
the passing of singer Bobby Comstock. The biggest hit he had here in OKC was a
record he made in 1961 called the GARDEN OF EDEN. It was a Top 10 record as I
remember. Was his biggest hit nationally LETS STOMP?
Kent, you are right in
that I really don't remember hearing Southwest F.O.B.'s “Feelin' Groovy"
all that much on the radio, if at all ... but I can say that about a lot more
records. And yes, you are right ... I do have a copy of the record. It was on
the HIP record label with a flip of BEGGAR MAN, with the time of being 2:52.
Larry Neal
Bobby Comstock’s biggest national
hit was “Tennessee Waltz,” which peaked at #34 in 1959. (#52 in Billboard) “Let’s Stomp peaked at #57 in both Billboard
and Music Vendor, the precursor to Record World, in 1963.
Incredibly, “Garden Of Eden” didn’t
chart nationally at all!!! … but was also his biggest hit here in Chicago,
where it reached #10 on the WLS Chart.
By the way, as for the Southwest
FOB, I had a hunch you’d have the record!
I learned something in the process of all of this in that I never knew
that this band led to the hit ‘70’s pop duo England Dan and John Ford Coley,
who enjoyed six Top 40 Hits (four of which made The Top 10!) between 1976 and
1979. (So I guess in MY twisted mind,
that makes Southwest FOB more significant than Notorious BIG!!! But what do I know?!?!) kk
RUSH in Rio Live is my favorite live album. I have to get the video now.
They didn’t want to do another live album, although they allowed the
Brazilians, in a van, to record them. They
then brought the recordings back to Canada and digitally remastered them, making
a 3 CD set.
Alan Morgan
A
brand new Dave Clark Five Greatest Hits compilation CD will be released at the
end of this month.
More
details here … (but you may want to opt for the more-inclusive British import
on this one!) Still, there are several
deserving tracks missing from the list … you might do better to download your
personal favorites instead to make it a bit more of a complete collection.)
Vintage
Classic Rock points out that yesterday marked the 55th anniversary
of the death of rock and roll radio pioneer / legend Alan Freed.
For
a nice tribute and recap of his illustrious career, check out the following:
How about a true
picture of the bubblegum era? Thanks for the rest of the great lists on your
site. Keep up the great work.
Will Hagfors
I
guess we never really have covered things from that era in any great detail. (We’ve got everything from Garage Bands, to
Summer Songs, to Psychedelic Songs, to Instrumentals … even TV Themes.
But
I’m not quite sure how to define “the bubblegum era” … certainly for a couple
of years there Buddah Records cornered the market with great groups like The
Ohio Express and The 1910 Fruitgum Company and The Lemon Pipers, ALL of whom
enjoyed GREAT success on the charts in 1968 … but in hindsight the term “bubblegum”
has become associated with numerous other artists, too. (We ourselves have referred to Tommy Roe as “The
King Of Bubblegum” in these pages … but is that solely because of “Dizzy” or
does that mean we have to trace “the bubblegum era” back to “Sheila” in
1962? Because for me, “Sheila” was
always more of a tribute to the sound of Buddy Holly … so would that make most
of Buddy Holly’s hits bubblegum, too? (Depending
on how you define your criteria, I think it kinda does … listen to some of
Buddy’s best known work with that thought in mind an you can almost hear it!)
So
I’m up for putting together the ultimate bubblgegum list … but first I need
some feedback from you folks out there as to where we draw the line … and then,
once we’ve better defined it, maybe we’ll open up the polls again and see what
all of you think. (I’ll betcha we can
get a radio station or two interested in counting down The All-Time Biggest
Bubblegum Hits … because ALL of this is real good, feel good music! (kk)
Meanwhile,
you’ll find several of our OTHER special countdowns and fan polls here: http://forgottenhits.com/
