Hi Kent -
As you and many others, I enjoyed the Murray the K show!
What talented people! I was especially surprised with the dancing by Little Anthony and the Imperials!!! They stole the show for sure.
I was fortunate to meet him when I was at one of TJ Lubinsky's shows in Pittsburgh. What a thrill that was.
And mentioning that song "Stay Awhile" ...
WOW! You never hear that song on the radio!!!
That is one record I do not have, but I did like the tune. I will have to find a 45 copy for my juke box!
Carolyn
I’ve seen Little Anthony and the Imperials a couple of times now over the past few years … and they still sound great. (I sure never saw them make moves like THIS before!!!)
I got to meet him backstage at The Arcada at one of those shows … and we even took a picture together.
(Clearly, I was out of uniform!) kk
Little Anthony and the Imperials were coming off of two VERY big hits in early 1965 when they did The Murray The K Show … “Goin’ Out Of My Head” peaked at #4 as the year followed … and they followed that up with “Hurt So Bad,” a #10 record, a couple of months later. Both have proven to be 1960’s classics … and part of the universal song book of greatest hits.
The group continued to chart through 1978 … but only hit The National Top 40 two more times: First with “Take Me Back” (#16, 1965) and then “I Miss You So” (#32, 1965.) Ironically, their show stopper “I’m Alright” never charted as a single.
Anthony is a VERY personable man … and a GREAT storyteller. A true pro. (Well, I guess he oughta be … he’s been doing this since 1958!!!)
Earlier smashes include “Tears On My Pillow” (#4, 1958), “Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Ko-Bop” (#19, 1959) and “I’m On The Outside Looking In” (#15, 1964)
If you get the chance to see them again, do yourself a favor and check ‘em out.
(But I don’t think you’ll be seeing Little Anthony doing the splits again any time soon! Lol) kk
Hi Kent:
It was great seeing the Murray the K special all cleaned up and sharp. There are bootlegs floating around, and some of the clips have been circulating for a while. My main complaint would be, Why did they edit the show? Anybody know a reason? Jan & Dean, I believe, opened the show, The Dave Clark 5 was edited, Bill Cosby, and maybe a couple more and some of Herman Munster was cut!! What the Hell!!
PS - I hated “Stay Awhile” by The Bells! Still Do
Ken
First I’ve heard about anything being edited out. If you listened to the John Landecker interview with TJ Lubinsky, it took YEARS of scouring through tapes to piece this thing together … and then clean everything up for this special broadcast. But seriously, how much more could there have been? It was only a one hour show to begin with, wasn’t it? Minus commercials.
Peter Noone referred to Herman’s Hermits as “the token British act” … so I’m not so sure about The Dave Clark Five … maybe they were on a different Murray The K special??? It would have been cool to see vintage Bill Cosby circa 1965 … before he was pushing Jello, wearing ugly sweaters and drugging women!!! I was a MAJOR fan of his stand-up comedy act at the time. When he got cast in “I Spy” and then got nominated for an Emmy, I couldn’t have been happier for him.
Sadly, far too many of our heroes seem to be going down in flames lately. (Have you watched any of this Woody Allen / Mia Farrow documentary?!?!) Man, I thought Woody was an absolute GENIUS!
It’s kinda like reviewing this Phil Spector Series … there is NO question that this man had a gift unlike any other … but he was also a true psycho. I firmly believe that there’s a trade-off built into the dna of these people. You get the genius gift … but then you’re secretly a child molester or shooting guns at people. It’s just been happening FAR too often … with some of the most elite of heroes. (kk)
P.S. Toldja “Stay Awhile” was a “love it or hate it” tune. (lol)
kk …
I watched the Murray The K show Saturday Night and Sunday Afternoon. (I also watched the original airing in 1965.)
A few years ago, I saw a clip of Murray The K and Bowzer on one of those morning shows teaching a new dance. I can't find it now. They must've removed it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkEBgk78I2w
FB
Hi Kent,
Happy to "hear" you say good things about Murray the K. For radio listeners and Top 40 fans in the New York area, Murray was the real deal.
And ... although from today's perspective, I can understand your negative opinion on how he "latched on to The Beatles when they first hit New York City" … back then his connection to them was a very big deal (that word again) with his listeners.
Murray was a classic old-time hustler and he did it well. But also, he backed up his bravado ... delivering on air and on stage in a way that was uniquely his: something especially important for a station competing against a clear channel powerhouse like WABC.
As for Little Anthony and the Imperials: I saw them that year. They opened with an a cappella version of "Brazil" (Talk about balls: no instruments and an American Songbook big band standard for an audience of rock 'n' roll-loving college students.) They finished with "I'm Alright" which - as you saw in the documentary - was a blistering standing-ovation finale.
Cheers!
Ed Osborne
From the Chicago Tribune archives - "Ali trained for his boxer / wrestler matchup against Antonio Inoki in 1976 by mixing it up with two pro wrestlers at the International Amphitheatre as ABC's "Wide World of Sports" cameras rolled."
I was working in personnel for Andy Frain when we got an emergency order for a crew of ushers and security guards to work the next afternoon at the Amphitheatre for a Muhammed Ali vs. wrestler exhibition match. As it was on a weekday, we had to really hustle to find people available to work on a school / workday on such short notice. We accomplished our task.
The next morning at 8:00, my phone rang in the office. It was Bob Luce from the Chicago Wrestling Club. Bob had arranged the Ali event. He was in a panic and was screaming, "Oh my God! I've got Ali appearing in a few hours and I never got the word out to the public about it. I let the press know and they will all be there. It's a free event but the place will be empty because I forgot to announce it to the public. I'm desperate, Steve. I don't know what to do. Do you know any place I can rent one of those trucks with a loudspeaker on top to go up and down the streets on the south side telling people about this free Ali show this afternoon? I can't think of anything else I can do." Remember there was no Internet or social media in 1976.
I told Luce I'd come up with something. I thought about the problem and decided to call the two black-oriented radio stations in Chicago at the time. I think they were WVON and WGCI. I explained what I was calling for and they both put me on the air live, virtually immediately. "Hi, I'm Steve Sarley from the Chicago Wrestling Club, and I'd like to invite all of Muhammed Ali's fans to come out and see him for free today at the International Amphitheater. The champ will be taking on a couple of our wrestlers in exhibition matches at 1:00. If you love the champ, come on out to 42nd and Halsted to say hello to Muhammed Ali. Don't forget - it's free!"
The event drew a fairly decent crowd on such short notice but would have been held in an empty hall if not for my quick thinking.
As Paul Harvey would say, "And that's the rest of the story!"
Thank you
Steve Sarley
Too funny! I wish I could have seen him at some point (but thought that whole wrestling thing was an embarrassing farce.) I’m not exaggerating when I say that I looked up to Ali as an idol … I even wrote papers on him in school. Just a one of a kind character … so unique, personable and memorable. (kk)
Yeah, Zoomer has been around awhile, but is at 740, not 750 on AM. You don't hear oldies often on AM, but we get that one here in Lincoln, too.
Clark Besch
Kent,
I've been listening to what is now Zoomer Radio irregularly since the late ‘90s. BTW, their frequency is 740 not 750, as was stated yesterday.
CFZM is a Class A clear-channel radio station, licensed in Toronto, Ontario,
Canada, which airs at 740 AM, and in downtown Toronto at 96.7 FM. The station airs an oldies format branded as Zoomer Radio, with the slogan "Zoomer Hits."
Its studios are located in the Liberty Village neighbourhood, while its transmitter is located in Hornby.
Jon M
St. Charles
I listened for a little while over the weekend, just to check it out, and truthfully wasn’t all that impressed.
There was a considerable amount of Canadian content … and nearly all of tracks that I wasn't familiar with didn’t even come close to measuring up to the other hits they were playing. (Then again, if they listened to some of OUR chart-toppers from the mid-‘60’s, where groups like The New Colony Six and Ides Of March and such were scoring Top Ten Hits locally, they might feel the same way. Nah … I don’t think so … those records ROCKED and were every bit as good as anything on the air at the time!)
But hey, I’m willing to give it another shot. I know on Monday that featured all women jocks for the day … and I’m guessing I’ll like their countdown shows more, referencing the ‘60’s at 6 and ‘70’s at 7 that were previously mentioned.
I guess my first reaction was one of … “Great to hear another station embracing the oldies … but there are several others that are simply doing it better.”
Again, my “go to” choices have to be Rewound Radio, Me-TV-FM and WCFLChicago.com. (kk)
If you’re a fan of The Sound Of Philadelphia, the reissue campaign has started.
United Souls, a UK label, is reissuing EVERY album released by Philadelphia International Records in chronological order in honor of the label’s 50th Anniversary. (I think I’ll wait for the blow-out singles package that you just know is inevitably coming at some point in time, too!)
The first release features these eight LPs:
Billy Paul, Going East (Philadelphia International Z 30580, 1971); Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes, I Miss You (Philadelphia International KZ 31648, 1972); The O’Jays, Back Stabbers (Philadelphia International KZ 31712, 1971); Billy Paul, 360 Degrees of Billy Paul (Philadelphia International KZ 31793, 1972); Dick Jensen, Dick Jensen (Philadelphia International KZ 31794, 1973); The Intruders, Save the Children (Gamble KZ 31991, 1973); MFSB, MFSB (Philadelphia International KZ 32046, 1973); and Billy Paul, Ebony Woman (Neptune NLPS-201, 1970 – reissued Philadelphia International KZ 32118, 1973), all housed in a beautiful box set. (The set is rounded out by a 12-inch vinyl single of the O’Jays’ “Back Stabbers” b/w MFSB’s “Back Stabbers” and an exclusive poster.)
More information here: https://theseconddisc.com/2021/03/08/people-all-over-the-world-join-hands-united-souls-announces-first-philadelphia-international-records-albums-box-set-get-on-board-the-love-train/
Speaking of new releases, here’s one that should appeal to Monkees fans everywhere.
On April 30th, Second Disc Records in conjunction with Real Gone Music, will release “Different Drum: The Lost RCA Victor Recordings” done by Michael Nesmith with The First National Band. The disc will feature 22 previously unreleased tracks from their early sessions, recorded shortly after Nez split from The Monkees.
It includes the title track (the breakthrough hit for Linda Ronstadt) as well as alternate versions of “Some Of Shelly’s Blues” and remakes of tracks originally cut with The Monkees like “Circle Sky,” “Listen To The Band,” “Tapioca Tundra” and “Magnolia Simms.”
Coming on May 21st is the long-awaited “Dolenz Sings Nesmith” album, consisting of Micky Dolenz singing a catalog of hits written by his former bandmate (and recent tourmate.) You’ll find new versions of “Different Drum,” “Circle Sky” and “Tapioca Tundra” on this one, too, available thru 7A Records, the label specializing in and committed to keeping the music of The Monkees alive. (Look for a copy of the official press release below)
And, since we’re here, let’s not forget the live album of “The Mike And Micky Show,” recorded a couple of years ago while the two were out on tour together. (kk)
7a Recprds announces the release of a brand new solo album by Micky Dolenz on May 21st
“Dolenz Sings Nesmith” – the songs of Michael Nesmith, performed by his long-time friend and Monkees colleague, Micky Dolenz
7a Records announces the release of ‘Dolenz Sings Nesmith’ – Micky Dolenz’s first new solo studio album in nine years. The album is comprised of songs Michael Nesmith wrote throughout his career, all beautifully reimagined. Produced by Nesmith’s son, Christian Nesmith, this is the album Monkees fans have waited years to hear.
Micky Dolenz is an American entertainer, best known for his role as the lead vocalist and drummer in the 1960s series The Monkees. As a recording group, The Monkees sold more than 65 million albums worldwide and outsold the Beatles and the Rolling Stones between 1967-1968.
The Album: Dolenz got the idea for the album a long time ago. As Micky says “I think I first mentioned it to Nez years ago, I don’t know where the idea came from, maybe from my friend Harry Nilsson and his Nilsson Sings Newman album. I thought to myself, ‘Wow, Dolenz Sings Nesmith’”. The new album, which was recorded between September, 2020 and February, 2021, features songs written throughout Nesmith’s long career, including many from the critically acclaimed Michael Nesmith & The First National Band albums, as well as a few Monkees deep cuts. And who better to produce the album than Nesmith’s son, Christian Nesmith, who has done an incredible job in coming up with fresh and completely new arrangements for all of the songs.
Working with Micky Dolenz: 7a Records have worked with Micky Dolenz on a number of different music projects during recent years. However, this is the first time that they have gone into the studio and recorded a brand new album together. According to Glenn Gretlund of 7A Records, this project has always been high on their wish list. “We were hoping Micky would record this album and I’m absolutely delighted that we could help make it happen. I believe the end result is Micky’s best solo album to date and a worthy follow-up to Good Times [The Monkees Top 20 album from 2016]”.
Availability: 7a Records is based in the UK but Dolenz Sings Nesmith is a Global release, available to pre-order now through all good online retailers and local record stores. The album will be released on 180g Coloured Vinyl, on CD, as well as on all Digital platforms. The release date is May 21st worldwide.
About 7a Records: 7a Records is an independent record label based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 2015, the label's releases are mainly focusing on rare and unreleased solo recordings by members of the 1960s group The Monkees. 7a has previously released the critically acclaimed Michael Nesmith & Red Rhodes’ Cosmic Partners album and recently released Micky Dolenz Live In Japan, an unreleased concert from Dolenz’s tour of Japan in 1982.
For more info visit www.7arecords.com
Some early recordings made by George Martin just prior to signing The Beatles in 1962 are seeing their first-time release on CD. The single “Time Beat” / “Waltz In Orbit” was first released on the Parlophone label in April of 1962 under the name of “Ray Cathode” and will be available in an EXTREMELY limited pressing. (kk)
On Michael Stanley:
Said PR-pasha David Salidor, “When I worked at the legendary My Father’s Place eons ago, Stanley was a regular and what a great guy. Always terrifically affable. His music maybe never hit the bar of say, Springsteen, but each show he did was packed. He’d hang out with the staff before and after. Great memories for sure and am sorry he has graduated to the next plane. Stellar fellow for sure! RIP Michael!”
https://t2conline.com/the-glorious-corner-181/
GREAT piece on Michael Stanley via the Glorious Corner link above. (kk)
I really like the way you complied the list for the Top 200 songs of the “Beatles Era.” I love that you used all three publications as opposed to just Billboard.
Do you think you could do something like that for the decade of the 70’s as well? 😊
Eddie Spencer
Actually, I’ve toyed with the idea of doing The All-Time, Ultimate List of #1 Records, based on using this same standard of measurement … the total number of weeks spent in the top position based on all three music trades. It’s just always been kind of a back-burner idea … but would cover the key rock era of 1955 – 1985. (Since Record World ceased publication in 1982, I would have to fill out the rest of this time period by using the Radio And Records data.) Thanks to Joel Whitburn’s INCREDIBLE library of chart information, all of this is very doable … the biggest issue is time … of which I always seem to be in extremely short supply.
But who knows … it could happen somewhere down the line! (And just think about what a great countdown show it would make ... The Top 1000 #1 Records Of All-Time, 1955 - 1985!!!) kk
And now, this Special Public Service Announcement from our Forgotten Hits Public Affairs Manager, Chuck Buell ~~
If you, or any other Forgotten Hitter you know, ever wore your hair in a style like any of these, let them know they're in the next demographic group for their Virus Vaccination!
And Frannie sent this one in …
TOTALLY cracked me up!
(And what a GREAT shot, too!!!)
