Forgotten Hits Reader (and Music Historian) Ken Voss sent us this vintage WLS Survey from March 25th, 1968 ...
Exactly 54 years ago today ...
When Chicago's very own New Colony Six topped the WLS Hit Parade with their smash hit "I Will Always Think About You" (shown, for some reason, as "I'LL Always Think About You" on the WLS chart.)
That's right ... our local heroes beat The Beatles, The Monkees, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap ... and even The 1910 Fruitgum Company ... to capture the top spot on the Chicagoland countdown!
"I Will Always Think About You" was The New Colony Six's biggest hit here in Chicago. (Nationally, "Things I'd Like To Say" performed a little better, peaking at #13 in both Cash Box and Record World ... and #16 in Billboard.) "I Will Always Think About You" reached #19 nationally in Record World ... and #22 in Billboard and Cash Box.
In all, The Colony placed seventeen songs on our local charts (between WLS and WCFL), with EIGHT of them making The Top Ten. ("I Confess," #2, 1966; "Love You So Much," #2, 1967; "You're Gonna Be Mine," #8, 1967; "I Will Always Think About You," #1, 1968; "Can't You See Me Cry," #10, 1968; "Things I'd Like To Say," #2, 1969; "I Could Never Lie To You," #7, 1969 and "Roll On," #10, 1971.)
"I Will Always Think About You" clicked immediately with our Chicagoland audience.
From our 2012 month-long New Colony Six feature ... (yes, you read that right!!!) ...
'60's FLASHBACK:
It took them nearly six months to do so, but MERCURY RECORDS finally listened to the band and released I WILL ALWAYS THINK ABOUT YOU as a single. It shot straight up to #1 and, for the first time, caught fire across the country. THE NEW COLONY SIX FINALLY had their first National Top 40 Hit ... I WILL ALWAYS THINK ABOUT YOU peaked at #22 in both Billboard and Cash Box ... and topped both of our local charts as well. Unfortunately, since this was pretty much the first time the rest of America was able to form a real impression of the band, it was ALSO the beginning of their being typecast as a "ballads act."
In fact, nothing could have been further from the truth ... one simple listen to all the great music that led up to this point clearly showed their garage band roots and their 1967 pop period. However, follow-up ballads that year (CAN'T YOU SEE ME CRY ... #10 locally, #52 nationally ... and THINGS I'D LIKE TO SAY ... #2 in Chicago, #13 in Cash Box) only helped to solidify that banner. Hey ... whatever ... it got them noticed and suddenly, everything was working ... and soon THE NEW COLONY SIX were out touring with the likes of THE BEACH BOYS and appearing on nationally syndicated television shows like THE MIKE DOUGLAS SHOW, singing their latest hit record (to a pre-recorded backing track) for all the world to see ... or at least anybody in America home early enough to watch daytime TV!
RONNIE RICE: Songs like I WILL ALWAYS THINK ABOUT YOU and THINGS I'D LIKE TO SAY did real well and they afforded me a lot of excitement and good stuff and good memories and stuff. GOOD stuff. I WILL ALWAYS THINK ABOUT YOU is a great example of what makes a hit song. When you get a record that's debuted at 3:00 in the afternoon and it's the #1 REQUEST of that evening, what does that tell you? So that shows you that that kind of support makes it a hit. Most of our other records didn't have that kind of support behind them ... or THEY would have been bigger hit records, too. You just never know ... I mean, there are exceptions ... sort of like TV shows that need the time to grow on you .. I don't know ... but I WILL ALWAYS THINK ABOUT YOU and THINGS I'D LIKE TO SAY were IMMEDIATE hits ... I mean, a week later, I WILL ALWAYS THINK ABOUT YOU was #1 in Louisville.
FORGOTTEN HITS: I know you guys toured with THE BEACH BOYS and you did some television (Mike Douglas / Lloyd Thaxton)
RONNIE RICE: We did a few tv things in different states where they had their own little independent programs. Nationally, we did a thing on ABC and a show called Scene 70 ... I think that's what it was called. I think that was a summer replacement show ... for the Jerry Lewis Show as I recall .... and then the thing with Lloyd Thaxton, because he would bring out a new act every week ... and what's kinda funny about that is we sound like dogshit on that one! (LOL)
A friend of mine has a video of us in Hawaii ... he came with us when we played in Hawaii ... that had to be back in 1970-something. It'd be fun to look at some of that. And then I know there's that kinescope of The New Colony (Kiddie-A-Go-Go) from before I got into the band. I don't know what else there is ... that Mike Douglas thing would actually be kinda fun to see again because that thing came out pretty good. We used the actual band-track on that and then I sang lead along with the backing track ... I sang the lead live ... and it was pretty secure because you knew if you did it that way, you can't really fuck it up! (LOL) The background and everything was on tape and the lead singing was live and that was cool ... that turned out REALLY good.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: Some of these rare and vintage performances HAVE shown up on YouTube since this first series ran in 2012. - kk]
https://youtu.be/fokQ8yN9M7U?t=225
I WILL ALWAYS THINK ABOUT YOU and THINGS I'D LIKE TO SAY became the two songs the band became known for. BOTH were big national hits and, in hindsight, could have been even BIGGER hits had MERCURY been able to get some momentum behind these songs. Unfortunately (and we've seen this PLENTY of times before here in FORGOTTEN HITS), while I WILL ALWAYS THINK ABOUT YOU was racing up to #1 on our Chicagoland Chart, it hadn't even been added yet to the radio playlists in many other major radio markets. Once the other radio stations around the country began to pick the song up, it was already making its descent down our chart. Then, it'd shoot all the way to #1 in Louisville, Kentucky. Three weeks later, it'd be big in Detroit or L.A. ... but it just NEVER clicked in ALL the necessary markets at the same time ... thus never realizing the TRUE measure of how big a hit this song really was. The same can be said for THINGS I'D LIKE TO SAY, their BIGGEST national hit.
RONNIE RICE: THINGS I'D LIKE TO SAY
went Top Five in EVERY major market ... Los Angeles, New York, Chicago,
Detroit ... it just never hit The Top Five AT THE SAME TIME in any of
these markets.
And yet their BIGGEST hit very nearly never got played at all. Both RONNIE RICE and RAY GRAFFIA, JR. told me that the band did not want THINGS I'D LIKE TO SAY
released as a single ... they were concerned that they might never
break out of the ballads-band mold if the label released another slow
song. So, instead, the band pushed for COME AND GIVE YOUR LOVE TO ME to be the A-Side of the new single. (They reluctantly agreed to stick THINGS I'D LIKE TO SAY on the B-Side of the record.) COME AND GIVE YOUR LOVE TO ME
was a much harder-edged, rocker type song and the band felt that
releasing this as the new single would show the rest of the country what
the band was really all about ... that they had quite a bit of
diversity in their musical abilities and could do more than sing a
pretty love song. This time, it was the BAND who was wrong ... NOBODY
played COME AND GIVE YOUR LOVE TO ME. Legendary Chicagoland Disc Jockey LARRY LUJACK
finally convinced the boys that they were promoting the WRONG side of
the record ... flip the damn thing over and you've got another SMASH hit
on your hands. Amazingly, once the band agreed, they got their
promoters (PETE WRIGHT and HOWARD BEDNO) to get the word out to the rest of the nation and radio stations across the country listened and started playing the other side. THINGS I'D LIKE TO SAY
became an absolute smash, hitting #13 in Cash Box and #16 in
Billboard. (I still LOVE this story ... because to me ... just the
casual teenager sitting at home listening to the radio at the time ... THINGS I'D LIKE TO SAY sounds like the most PERFECT, natural follow-up single to I WILL ALWAYS THINK ABOUT YOU
anybody ever could have come up with ... you couldn't have PLANNED it
any better ... similar enough in sound and feel yet, just different
enough to take you in another direction. Growing up, I always felt that
these two tracks were INTENDED to follow each other up the charts ... never even
considering for a moment that ANOTHER great ballad ... CAN'T YOU SEE ME CRY ... actually separated the two by release dates.) I'm just talking about me as an observer at the time. Of course back then, we never knew all
the stuff that was going on behind the scenes. (kk)
RONNIE RICE: The B-Side Of THINGS I'D LIKE TO SAY was supposed to be the hit....COME AND GIVE YOUR LOVE TO ME ... 'cause we wanted to change things up a little bit. We wanted that to be the A-Side and we pushed the idea 'cause it had that rockin' beat and LUJACK, I think, said turn it over and we did and it was the right thing to do.
RAY GRAFFIA, JR.: In '68, when we released Come And Give Your Love to Me with a "B" side of Things I'd Like to Say, it was Larry Lujack who suggested we were pushing the wrong side of the record, which eventually led to our asking the stations to flip it - guess he was correct, eh?
FORGOTTEN HITS: Turned out to be your biggest hit!
RR: Yes it was ... that's a trip, ain't it? I remember we recorded THINGS I'D LIKE TO SAY and we didn't think it was that good ... I mean, we thought it was good but not THAT good ... we didn't think it'd be the biggest thing we ever did. I remember when it came out it went from #95 to #45 in one week and then we knew we had something.
FOR THE RECORD: Again, it's the chartaholic perfectionist in me, always in
pursuit of musical historical accuracy, that HAS to set the record
straight: In Billboard, THINGS I'D LIKE TO SAY
debuted at #100 on December 28, 1968. It then went to #96 and #82. Then, it made a HUGE leap to #58 (and earned its first "bullet") the
following week. Things slowed up a bit again ... #56, #50, #47 and then
a bullet again when it jumped to #37. Then #31 (no bullet) and #24
(bullet reinstated). It reached its peak three weeks later, going from
#24 to #23 to #17 and finally to #16 where it stayed for two weeks.
Three weeks later it was off the charts, having ridden a 16 week
chart run.
And I can't say that it performed any better in Cash Box ... in
fact, the OPPOSITE would be true. After a debut at #91, it went to #85
and then fell all the way back down to #96!!! The following week it was
up again, this time to #88 and then, earning its first bullet, jumped
to #70. #63, #50 (bullet) and #39 (bullet) followed. The record kept
rising: #34, #29 (bullet), #23 (bullet), #17 (bullet), #14 (bullet) and
then its peak of #13 (amazingly, NO bullet) before falling off the
charts. (#16, #51).
Extensive searching of Louisville, KY charts never showed "I Will Always Think About You" at #1 there either ... although Forgotten Hits Readers who grew up in the area say they do remember the record getting quite a bit of airplay. (kk)
