>>>Scott Shannon will be playing back The Top 200 Favorites in OUR poll throughout the Labor Day Weekend on The True Oldies Channel (beginning at Noon on Friday, September 4th, and running straight thru till Midnight on Labor Day Monday, September 7th.) kk
Thank you, Scott. I will be there for as much as possible. (This thing called “school” is much undecided)
Shelley J Sweet-Tufano
Thousands more votes have come in since we reopened the polls for a couple of weeks, causing several tracks to shift positions significantly ... this is going to be a VERY interesting list this time around, with over 70 years of music represented.
You've got till Friday (the 14th) to get your votes in.
We will most likely dedicate a special website to the Top 200 Countdown so as not to interrupt our on-going Forgotten Hits postings ... so stay tuned for more information on that. (kk)
As I was reading today's FH, I realized
that today (8-9) is Bob Sirott's birthday. Happy b-day to my classmate
Bob!
Mike Wolstein
Double-checked your date (you understand!) and it was, in fact, Bob Sirott’s birthday on August 9th … Happy 71st, Bob! (How is that even REMOTELY possible?!?!? The guy still looks 40!!!) kk
Hi Kent:
I may be a little younger than the rest of you survey geeks, but I got my first taste of WLS surveys in August of 1963. I was 7. I remember tuning the dial to 89 and hearing tunes like “Bust Out” & “Rev Up”! I became a fan for many moons!
Ken
WLS
in the early days was known as a station that could break hits … it was not at
all uncommon to find some tracks (usually in the bottom half of their Top 40
countdowns) that were hits unique to the Chicagoland area only.
I’ve been told several times over the years that The Top 20 pretty much
accurately displayed the actual sales and airplay requests for any given week …
the bottom 20 were new releases or songs working their way down the
countdown. As such, many tunes were
given a chart position for a week or two to see if they caught on or not. This gave many of our local acts a shot at
some airplay and more gigs in the area.
A tune like “Rev-Up” by Manuel and the Renegades never made ANY of the national Top 100 lists. (It did “bubble under in Cash Box for four weeks in 1963, peaking at #108, largely because of the airplay and exposure it received on WLS.) “Bust Out” by The Busters fared a little better, peaking at #25 in Billboard in 1963 … but there were probably a couple hundred songs played during those early years (1960 – 1967) that were unique to the WLS chart.
By the early-to-mid ‘70’s, the exact opposite was true. By 1974-1975, a song often didn’t show up on the WLS Chart (now GREATLY scaled back to about 15-20 positions) until it had already gone Top Ten nationally. Instead of an industry leader, we were often a late-to-the-game trend FOLLOWER … which ultimately led to the downfall of the station. (kk)
By the way, “Rev-Up” peaked at #5 and “Bust Out” at #12 on our local charts.
The Elliot Lurie “Brandy” video was out of this world. I shared it on the MeTVFM Facebook page, and the reaction we got was so gratifying. The video made people’s day. And has there ever been a song so universally embraced as “Brandy?” We never get tired of hearing it. And it’s as fresh today as it was when it came out nearly five decades ago. I would never have known about the video without your post.
Have a great week.
Rick O’Dell
That updated version of Elliot Lurie singing Brandy was top notch. Boy, that voice!
But my favorite was the sign from Chuck Buell about your vinyl resting place!
Tom
LOTS of feedback on Elliot's new a capella version, which has been popping up all over the place ... something like 80,000 new views since we (and several others) posted it on Sunday.
And, speaking of Chuck Buell ...
>>>We were TOTALLY state of the art in the ‘60’s … we had one of those 3/color clear plastic screens that went over the tv to show blue skies, pink faces and green grass – which worked perfectly for about ten minutes a week of Bonanza! (kk)
A Follow-up from Chuck Buell about Old TVs …
Hey, Kent!
Inspired by your comments in FHs about your old Black and White TV and how you used to try and "adjust" your picture ~~~
I had to manipulate this for you as I imagine you today!
CB ( which stands for “Contrast Boy!” )
kk:
How About Answer To Flying Saucer ?
FB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBnB8RU56M4
Clip of the Week?
An INCREDIBLY hot Ronnie Spector performing with the Ronettes on the old Sha Na Na TV show. (Unfortunately you have to sit thru 2 ½ minutes of some GOD AWFUL schtick by Sha Na Na to see it … but SO worth the wait once Ronnie takes center stage!) kk
