After a week off last week (due to our monthly SWEET 16 Feature), Phil Nee is back again this week with another batch of interview from his archives ...
This time looking back to The Summer of '72 ... exactly fifty years ago ...
I have lots of great memories from the Summer of 1972. Top 40 radio was a big part of those days. Today I am going back to a couple of heroes from the radio that year.
Brandy (You're A Fine Girl) hit number one for the Looking Glass. Singer/guitarist Elliot Lurie joined me on WRCO in 2001 and we talked about that fine song.
The Looking Glass is often mentioned as a 'one hit wonder group'. Their next charted record came one year later in the Summer of 1973.
Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne charted at #33 in Billboard. Those of us that grew up
in the midwest heard that song played as much as Brandy the year before. It was a monster hit in Madison, Wisconsin, and made it to number 2 on WLS.
Another of my Summer of '72 radio heroes is Chi Coltrane.
Her tune Thunder and Lightning made it to number 17 on the Billboard charts.
She joined me on the show in 2002 on the 30th anniversary of her song being
on the radio.
We talked about her Wisconsin roots and her debut album.
We have been very fortunate over the years to have had both Chi Coltrane and Elliot Lurie participate with Forgotten Hits.
I'm one of those rare birds who actually prefers "Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne" to "Brandy." ("Brandy" may just be a bit too over-played for me at this point ... I'm sure I'd enjoy hearing it again if I simply heard it played less often, if that makes any sense. I believe that would make it come as a more welcome surprise.)
Elliot is right about the group's name being "Alice In Wonderland twice removed" ... Paul McCartney and John Lennon in particular were huge Lewis Carroll fans growing up as kids ... you'll find lots of Carroll's imagery in both "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" and "I Am The Walrus." (kk)
Elliot still sounds great and a couple of years ago we ran a clip of him performing the song a cappella during the Covid lockdown that soon got airplay on radio stations all over the country. I'm including that video today, too.
And while Chi Coltrane may have been born in Racine, Wisconsin, she made her name playing the clubs here in Chicago ... so much so that she adopted our city as part of her name! (After running away from home, she joined the music scene here in Chi-Town and actually called her band Chicago Coltrane for awhile.)
"Thunder And Lightning" went all the way to #4 on the WCFL Chicagoland Chart ... yet another hit featured here today that did better on our local charts than it did nationally. (kk)
You can listen to Phil's THOSE WERE THE DAYS radio program every Saturday Night from 6 pm til Midnight right here on the WRCO Website ...
