Hey Kent ...
As always, enjoy your columns …
I met the "We Five" when I was the Announcer for Hullaballoo and they did a guest shot on the show … then, a couple of months later, they stopped by KYA to visit with me in San Francisco plugging You Were On My Mind ... terrific individuals and I knew immediately they had a big hit on their hands.
The Ron Riley interview you posted brought back memories of Ron and I working together at WHK in Cleveland … then Ron hosting Bowling For Dollars in Baltimore while I hosted Bowling For Dollars in Washington DC … he also became a terrific TV presence as a weatherman in DC and Baltimore … super guy and a super talent. Now I gotta track him down.
And, speaking of tags for commercials, I played the heck out of those Coke spots with Chuck Buell as the announcer doing the tags …
I had the pleasure of doing the opening line … “Now Jefferson Airplane” … for the commercials they did for Levi’s ... Pretty cool!
Stay well, Kent, and thanks for all you do to keep memories alive.
Johnny Holliday
Naturally, I contacted Ron Riley right away after I received this … and am thrilled to report that after at least fifteen years of losing touch with one another, he and Johnny DID reconnect that very same night by telephone and are now making plans to get together in person, too. (Turns out they only live about 40 miles from one another!!! How cool is THAT?!?!)
It’s moments like these that make me really appreciate what we can achieve here … and reconnecting two of Top 40 Radio’s GREATS made my day! Stay in touch, guys! (kk)
Hello, Kent,
Thanks for putting a couple of radio bygones together.
Ron Riley
Hi Kent:
Have really enjoyed your mammoth blogs this week. But I wanted most of all to write to you to congratulate you on six million page views, an awesome milestone. Here’s to the next 6,000,000!
Rick O’Dell
Thanks, Rick! (Now if I had only charged a dollar for each admission! Lol) kk
By the way, Me-TV-FM is saluting Novelty Hits this weekend. Stop by and … if you’re REALLY lucky … maybe you’ll get to hear “They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haa” or “Tip-Toe Thru The Tulips”!!! (kk)
The oldies have made you a millionaire!
Congratulations! (together; rejoice),
Phil
Oh, if only this were the case!!! (lol)
But I take great comfort in knowing that we have brought the joy of music into the lives of so many … so, at the very least, I can say “Atta, Boy … Mission Accomplished.” (kk)
Kent,
Thank you so much for mentioning our upcoming show at the Genesee Theatre in today’s Forgotten Hits. We are pretty excited about playing this kind of show! There may be some bumps, since it’s the first one, but hopefully it will be the beginning of a new format for us. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do, and something we can expand on.
The Buckinghams are still alive and well. Right now, our schedule starts in July, moving forward with about 17 dates, but I’m sure that will increase as the year progresses.
Thanks so much … and see you there!
Carl
I like the whole story-teller format … and you guys have got some great tales to tell. (One of my favorite Buckinghams shows ever was a couple of years ago when you, Nick and Dave Zane opened up for America … a very informal, acoustic set that sounded great and offered up the catalog in a completely different, stripped-down format. Ron Onesti had all of the Cornerstones guys doing that kind of show at The Pheasant Run Theatre a few years before that … and it really opens up the door for more interaction with the audience as almost a “living room concert.”)
Looking forward to catching up with you again on May 1st. (kk)
By the way, I spoke with Ray Graffia, Jr., of The New Colony Six earlier in the week, too, and he mentioned that four or five more Cornerstones bookings are in the works for when things start opening up again concert-wise. It’s been great hearing from all of you guys … and SO refreshing to see that everyone has kept their spirits up during what can only be described as the most trying times of our lives. Once again, another TRUE example of the power of music. (To quote John Sebastian, “The magic’s in the music and the music’s in me.) kk
>>>I'm just a guy who once applied for an on-air opening at CHUM-AM in Toronto during their heyday back then and they said "No, thanks." So, I ended up at WLS in Chicago instead. (Chuck Buell)
To Cola Boy, I woulda gladly passed up CHUM for the Big 89 any day!!!
Glad you found your "spot!" … In more ways than one, haha.
Clark Besch
Check out this photo sent in by Chuck Buell …
It’s always fun to find out who’s been reading Forgotten Hits … and we are sometimes surprised by the little things we see and hear. Funnily enough, after all our “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing” chatter, I heard the song played on two different radio stations this past week. (Sometimes it’s just a little bit hard to chalk things up to coincidence! Lol)
But that’s ok … that’s EXACTLY what we’ve been pushing for the past 22 years …
Step outside the box a little bit and play the unexpected. Trust me, there isn’t ANYBODY who grew up during this era that’s not familiar with this song … it was a Top Ten Song … and the fact that most people haven’t heard it in awhile is what makes hearing it now, out of the blue, so appealing! (kk)
Just ran across this historic gem: Young Brian Hyland on To Tell The Truth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKwCbHlIjs4
Regular host Bud Collyer was away from the show that week.
David Lewis
NOTABLE FORGOTTEN HITS:
Here are some of the tunes we heard this past week that you just don’t hear every day that qualify for Forgotten Hits status …
First up, “Easy Livin’” by Uriah Heep – first heard on Bob Stroud’s Rock And Roll Roots Program last Sunday … and then again four days later on Rewound Radio.
We featured this one as part of our TOP 3333 MOST ESSENTIAL CLASSIC ROCK SONGS OF ALL TIME feature last year … and it really deserves at least an occasional spin on any quality classic rock station … yet you virtually NEVER hear this one … so here it is again today …
And we can also credit Rewound Radio with airing two other great forgotten gems this past week …
“Falling” by LeBlanc and Carr was a beautiful Soft Rock Hit in 1977 that reached #11 on the pop charts …
And one of my all-time favorite New Colony Six songs, “I’m Just Waitin’, Anticipatin’ (For Her To Show Up),” a big local hit here in 1967 that was written by Tony Orlando, who was working as a promotions man for Cameo / Parkway Records at the time (who just happened to distribute The New Colony Six’s Sentar record label!) This one would only “bubble under” nationally … but was a #12 hit here in Chi-Town.
And how about one from the ‘80’s?!?!
It sure was great to hear Juice Newton’s “Love’s Been A Little Bit Hard On Me” on Sirius/XM’s ‘80’s at 8 Channel the other morning on the way to work.
I always liked the sound of Juice’s voice … and she racked up five straight Top 20 Hits in 1981 and 1982. This one went all the way to #7.
HELPING OUT OUR READERS:
Hi there Kent,
Congratulations!!! That is a truly amazing goal to have reached six million hits on your most entertaining and informative Forgotten Hits website. Again, congratulations.
My God, have you ever got a lot of amazing things happening on your site right now! I can't wait to get into your Phil Spector special, which I know you've been working very hard on lately. As a serious music collector, I know I will thoroughly
enjoy this feature. Also, your We Five and Simon and Garfunkel WCFL audio interviews will be great to listen to as well, that's for sure.
Now, there are a couple of things that I am looking for.
Murray the K's name has been bantered around a bit lately because of his June 28, 1965, "It's What's Happening, Baby" TV show being featured on many U.S. PBS
stations recently. I wonder if anyone has his original WINS theme song from 1958. I know of a site where it did exist once, but my browsers are saying that the site is not safe now, and I don't really know if the audio file is still there to download or not. So that's one thing I'm looking for.
Also, I am very interested in somehow contacting Brad Howard about his Coke spots because he may have two Coke commercials in particular that I have been looking for for years now. I have been trying to find both Bobby Curtola's and the Guess Who's mid-sixties Coke spots, and I figure that being from Ottawa, there's a good chance that he may have them. So Kent, could you please give him my E-mail address, and that way, if he wishes to contact me, he can. Alternatively, if he just wants to post those spots to your blog, that would be fine as well.
And finally, I am looking for a 1966 Four Seasons commercial for Nupercayno cream. I'm not sure that's actually spelled correctly. Anyway, it's a Nupercayno cream sun tan commercial, and I have a very poor copy of the commercial on a July, 1966 WMEX aircheck with Dan Donovan. It's a microphone recording, and if anyone has a nice clean copy of that Four Seasons spot, that would really be awesome to get. I have their Cousin Brucie theme on WABC, their Joey Reynolds theme on WKBW in Buffalo, and their Coke and Beachnut gum commercials with pretty decent quality.
Anyway, Kent, again, you are really doing a truly amazing job with this blog and website.
All the best,
Sam Ward
Anybody able to help Sam track down this Four Season cut? (I believe Brad Howard has already been in touch with you about the Coke commercials you mentioned.) Thanks! (kk)
