Tomorrow (November 26th) marks the 23rd Anniversary of the very first issue of Forgotten Hits, an emailed news letter that I sent out to 35 people I had met in the AOL Oldies Music Chat Room.
I remember asking the musical question at the time:
"If I wrote about some of these great songs and artists that we all know and love but just don't get to hear anymore, would you read it?"
You see, my thing, even back in 1999, was letting people know about all of the GREAT songs that radio wasn't playing anymore. Back then, a typical radio station's playlist was about 200-300 songs ... and so you pretty much heard the EXACT same songs, over and over, day in and day out, day after day. Internet Radio was still in its infancy ... and all we were asking radio, programmers and disc jockeys to do was push the envelope a little bit further. Don't insult and underestimate your audience ... because we DO remember these tunes!!! We grew up on them!
It took a little while ... and, in some cases, a LONG while ... but thankfully, radio began to expand their playlists ... and now some of the more creative stations boast a library of 3000 - 5000 songs ... a far cry from that old 200-300 song rut we all had to endure 23 years ago.
What was the very first song we ever featured in Forgotten Hits?
Oh c'mon, you guys know it ... we've been talking about it for the past 23 years!!!
SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME by MAX FROST AND THE TROOPERS from the 1968 teensploytation film "Wild In The Streets" starring Christopher Jones ...
The concept of which was wipe out everybody over the age of 30. (Damn, some of us would have checked out nearly fifty years ago if that concept ever caught on!!!)
The idea back then was that we were the generation that was going to change the world ... and the truth is, we did ... just not necessarily in the way we thought we would.
Still, as we creep closer and closer to our 25th Anniversary ... and especially in light of the fact that this is Thanksgiving Weekend ... I just wanted to thank you all once again for sticking with us for all these years.
Some of you have been with us for over twenty years now ... and that's really saying something.
It's the love of this great music that binds us ... and we appreciate you!
Check out these guys!!! Pretty damn good for a neighborhood BBQ Band!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrPLLu_0QDQ
Hi Kent ...
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
I voted for my Top 10 Songs with Rewound Radio ... another exciting time of year for Allan Sniffen and friends.
Big #23 coming up.
Great job of keeping our favorite music up front for all of us to remember. Thanks for all you do ... I love this stuff!
Here's a review of the Micky Dolenz Concert from last Sunday Night at The Des Plaines Theater by our old FH Buddy Andy Argyrakis.
(How's it going, Andy?!?! We haven't run into you at a show in a long, long time! Great review of a great show. We were there that night, too, and Micky was in fine form. With the sell-out crowd, it would have been hard to find you! lol This was especially satisfying to see since Micky had just played the nearby Arcada Theatre the night before!)
I like the way the new show interweaves video of all four Monkees from back in the day ... and Micky's storytelling has become much more interesting and on point ... and, quite honestly, more truthful ... it REALLY used to bug the shit out of me when he would talk about visiting The Beatles in the studio in 1967 while they were making their "Sgt. Pepper" album and then go on to perform the song he heard them do that night ... "Oh! Darling" (from "Abbey Road" ... which came out over two years later!!!) At least this time he did a short segment of the "Sgt. Pepper" title tune!!! lol)
And I'll tell you, I have seen Micky probably at least thirty times over the years ... and this is the first time I have EVER heard him perform "Don't Do It" live on stage! ("Don't Do It" was an attempt by Challenge Records to cash in on Micky's newfound Monkees fame by releasing a record he recorded a couple of years earlier before anybody had a clue who he was. Nationally, it charted at #75 in 1967 ... and got played here for about a week on WCFL ... but I sure remember it!)
Micky played to a full house and got a number of standing ovations throughout the night, including one for just taking the stage.
As the last Monkee standing, he has taken on the task of performing ALL of their hits ... and is still in fine voice. (He's a natural born performer and genuinely loves every minute he's on stage.) Next year he'll be performing The Monkees' complete "Headquarters" album on stage to help celebrate the brand new release of the Deluxe Edition, just out this past week.
https://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/search?q=headquarters
Andy's full review ... and a few concert pics ...
Because apparently charging $5000 for a concert ticket isn't a quick enough way to make money, Bruce Springsteen is releasing a five album set of previously unreleased material that he recorded in the '90's.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Bruce said "I have a box set of five unreleased albums that are basically post-1988. People have always wondered ... people look at my work in the '90's and they go 'The '90's wasn't a great decade for Bruce. He was kind of doing this and he wasn't in the E Street Band ...' I actually made a lot of music during that period of time. I actually made albums. For one reason of another, the timing wasn't right or whatever. I didn't put them out."
Springsteen explained that he recently "cleaned out the vault" and would be putting the collection out shortly. Meanwhile, don't forget to catch his very revealing and in-depth interview with Howard Stern, airing this Sunday, the 27th. (kk)
And publishers Simon and Schuster are in a bit of trouble after advertising 900 copies of Bob Dylan's new book as "personally signed" by the author ... when, in fact, the signatures were computer-generated. Each and every consumer who purchased a copy will be receiving a full refund. (Simon and Schuster?!?! Really?!?! Aren't they one of the most reputable book publishers of all time? Or let me rephrase that ... WEREN'T they one of the most reputable book publishers of all time??? Jeez ... is nothing sacred anymore???) kk
Did anybody watch Elton John's US Farewell Concert at Dodger Stadium the other night???
We TRIED ... but for whatever reason, every time we put on Disney+ it played for about a minute and a half and then went dead ... I'll betcha we tried it fifteen times before finally giving up. I even called the cable company, who admitted that they were having "interruption and outage issues." (Yeah, but I'll betch they have no plans of refunding our eight bucks for this month's Disney+ subscription!) I guess now we'll have to watch it On Demand ... which kind of defeats the whole idea of a "last live performance" ... but maybe we can do that this weekend.
And even here there's a bit of back-pedaling going on ...
Now Elton's Husband/Manager David Furnish is saying that while Elton won't be TOURING anymore, he WILL still be performing this one-off concerts ... and maybe even some residencies in the future ...
He just doesn't want to be away from his family for long periods of time anymore.
Here's the set list ...
Bennie and the Jets
Philadelphia Freedom
I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues
Border Song (Dedicated to Aretha Franklin)
Tiny Dancer
Have Mercy on the Criminal
Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going to Be a Long, Long Time)
Take Me to the Pilot
Someone Saved My Life Tonight
Levon
Candle in the Wind
Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
Burn Down the Mission
Sad Songs (Say So Much)
Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word
Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me (with Brandi Carlile)
The Bitch Is Back
I’m Still Standing
Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (Elton John & Kiki Dee cover) (with Kiki Dee)
Crocodile Rock
Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting
Encore:
Cold Heart (with Dua Lipa) (PNAU remix)
Your Song
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Introduced his family and Bernie Taupin)
Best Classic Bands remembers the night Jerry Lee Lewis crashed (literally!) Graceland, trying to see Elvis ...
https://bestclassicbands.com/jerry-lee-lewis-arrested-graceland-11-23-155/
Love that Billy Hinsche Danelectro guitar! My all-time second favorite!
David Salidor
Speaking of Dino, Desi and Billy (which I guess we kinda are!), I'm still making my way through the 67 hours of WLS/WCFL/Rewound broadcast and I heard a 1967 Dino, Desi and Billy tune that WCFL played that I had never heard before called "Kitty Doyle." It was never a hit (#98 in Cash Box, #108 in Billboard and #117 in Record World ... but 1967 they were pretty much an after-thought) ... but it's not a bad tune ... so I'm sharing it with you today. (By the way, you'll find in the new Gavin Report book published by Record Research, that Bill Gavin thought enough of "Kitty Doyle" to list it for a week at #33!) kk
REMINDER: And, speaking of the new Gavin Report book and Record Research, The Joel Whitburn Trivia Contest ends at NOON on Sunday, November 27th, so get your answers in quickly in order to be a contender to win a copy of the Record Research book of your choice! (kk)
