The Decades Channel ran a Dick Cavett episode the other night that featured Raquel Welch, promoting her then-new movie “Kansas City Bomber.”
It’s really kind of amazing what you USED to be able to say on television … so sad that the world has since lost its sense of humor …
It used to be a much funner place to live back in the day. Although I can ALSO see how much of this can be regarded as degrading and demeaning … something Raquel had to live with her entire life, simply because she was beautiful. But, that being said, she also capitalized on that beauty … and turned it into a lifelong career. (I’m sure that more than a few “perks” came along with the fact that she was charming and beautiful!) kk
In fact, Tom Cuddy sent us THIS pic of him and Raquel from the ‘70’s … along with a little story to go with it …
I worked with Raquel Welch three times over the years. One time, she was scheduled to do a phoner with our morning show at WPLJ / New York and the staff URGED me to convince her people to have Raquel come visit the station. Our crew was super excited about the possibility of meeting Raquel in person!
Raquel's publicist asked us to pick up the cost of transportation from her hotel to the station at 2 Penn Plaza. I offered to pay for a cab for her and her flack, but she said only a limo was acceptable, so we arranged a limo. Her visit was terrific. She was charming and happy to talk about her career and her latest project.
The next day the limo company called and said Raquel ended up taking the limo out for the entire day and they wanted the station to pay for it. I said no, because our arrangement was transportation for the morning show appearance only. It appears that Raquel had used her considerable charms and charisma to convince the driver that we had approved of her using the limo all day so she could enjoy some NYC shopping!
Tom
Still, I imagine there are worse ways to spend a morning! Lol
Raquel has a little bit of that "deer in the headlights" look in this pic ...
But still, how many of us can claim to enjoying this experience?!?!
Thanks, Tom! (kk)
kk …
The Bobby Darin Fan Club Is Reporting Death Of Stella Stevens.
She Was Bobby's Love Interest In "TOO LATE BLUES."
Saturday Night 10 PM Eastern WABC 77 AM Is Airing Tony Orlando's Tribute to Burt Bacharach. His Special Guest Will Be Dionne Warwick.
FB
Sad, but true. Another sexy ‘60’s siren passes. (I’ll always remember her most for her role in the original Jerry Lewis film of “The Nutty Professor” … which is evidently how FH Reader Timmy C remembers her, too!)
He sent us this photo and article …
Stella Stevens, Hollywood
Bombshell Who Yearned for More, Dies at 84
She starred alongside the likes of Elvis Presley and Jerry Lewis. But she
wanted to direct and write, and she felt held back by industry sexism.
Stella Stevens with Jerry Lewis in a publicity photo for one of her best-known films, “The Nutty Professor” (1963) Credit ... Photofest
A color photo of Ms. Stevens -- blond, in a brown dress and sitting
on a laboratory counter with her legs crossed. Behind her is Jerry Lewis, with
a comical expression, leaning over the counter with his eyeglasses perched on
the end of his nose.
Stella Stevens, whose turn as an A-list actress in 1960s Hollywood placed her
alongside sex symbols like Brigitte Bardot, Ann-Margret and Raquel Welch, but
who came to resent the male-dominated industry that she felt thwarted her
ambitions to be more than a pretty face, died on Friday at a hospice facility
in Los Angeles. She was 84. Her son, the
producer and actor Andrew Stevens, said the cause was Alzheimer’s disease.
Ms. Stevens was among the last stars to emerge from Hollywood’s studio system, an arrangement that guaranteed her work but, she often said, also limited her creative aspirations. She won a Golden Globe in the “most promising newcomer” category for her role in “Say One for Me” (1959), a musical comedy starring Bing Crosby and Debbie Reynolds, but felt coerced into joining the cast of “Girls! Girls! Girls!” (1962), an empty Elvis Presley vehicle.
Like Ms. Welch, who died on Wednesday, Ms. Stevens was ambivalent, if not
outright indignant, about being cast as a Hollywood sex symbol. She described
herself as introverted and bookish, and she sought to work with auteurs like
John Cassavetes, who cast her as the female lead in “Too Late Blues,” his 1961
drama about a jazz musician (played by Bobby Darin).
“I wanted to be a writer-director,” she told the film scholar
Michael G. Ankerich in 1994. “All of a sudden, I got sidetracked into being a
sexpot. Once I was a ‘pot,’ there was nothing I could do. There was nothing
legitimate I could do.”
She worked with many of the top directors and actors of the 1960s. She starred as the love interest of the title character, a timid college professor who undergoes a personality transformation, in “The Nutty Professor” (1963), which Jerry Lewis wrote, directed and starred in; “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father” (1963), a romantic comedy directed by Vincent Minnelli; and “The Silencers” (1966), a spy spoof starring Dean Martin.
In between, though, she had to take a series of mediocre roles in mediocre
movies, and critics came to view her as a star who was perpetually kept away
from realizing her full potential.
Two exceptions came in the early 1970s: She acted opposite Jason Robards in “The Ballad of Cable Hogue” (1970), a comic western directed by Sam Peckinpah, and as part of an all-star cast assembled for “The Poseidon Adventure” (1972), joining Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters and Gene Hackman in an overturned ocean liner.
By then her sex-symbol days were fading, and Ms. Stevens hoped to have the time
and reputation to become a director. But female directors were almost unheard-of
at the time, and her attempts to get support for what she called “a marvelous
black comedy” that she wanted to make met repeated dead ends.
“Every man I’ve gone to for four years has smiled at me and then
double‐crossed me,” she told The New York Times in 1973. “Every man I’ve talked
to in every office in this industry has tried his best to discourage me from
directing. They don’t want me to find out it’s so easy because it’s supposed to
be terribly hard.”
Stella Stevens was born Estelle Caro Eggleston on Oct. 1, 1938, in Yazoo City,
Miss., though she often told interviewers she was from a town called Hot
Coffee, a nearby community. Her agent said anything sounded better than
“Yazoo.”
Her father, Thomas, worked for a bottling company in Yazoo, and her mother,
Estelle (Caro) Eggleston, was a nurse. When Stella was still young, they moved
to Memphis, where her father worked in sales for International Harvester.
Stella dropped out of high school at 15 to marry Herman Stephens.
They had one child, Andrew, and divorced in 1956. (She later changed her
surname to Stevens because, she said, it was easier for people to pronounce.)
She worked with many of the top directors and actors of the 1960s, but she also
had to take a series of mediocre roles in mediocre movies.
She returned to school after the divorce and earned a high school
diploma. She enrolled at Memphis State College, now the University of Memphis,
with plans to become an obstetrician.
She also took up theater. A role in a college production of William
Inge’s “Bus Stop” brought an invitation to audition in New York, and by 1959
she was in Los Angeles, on a three-year contract with 20th Century Fox.
She finished three movies in six months, including “Say One for
Me,” but the studio dropped her soon after. With a young son to feed, she took
an offer from Playboy to pose nude for $5,000. After the shoot, she said, Hugh
Hefner, the magazine’s publisher, would pay her only half and told her that she
had to work as a hostess at the Playboy Mansion to earn the rest.
Before the photos ran, she signed a new contract with Paramount. She asked Mr. Hefner to cancel the magazine feature, but he refused, and she appeared as Playmate of the Month in the January, 1960 issue, a few months before winning her Golden Globe.
“People don’t realize how horrible men can be toward a beautiful woman with no
clothes on,” she told Delta magazine in 2010.
Her relationship with Playboy remained complicated. Despite her
anger at Mr. Hefner, she posed nude for the magazine two more times. She then
sued Mr. Hefner and Playboy in 1974, citing several instances of invasion of
her privacy, but the case was thrown out because the statute of limitations had
expired.
In 1998, Playboy named Ms. Stevens 27th on its list of the 20th
century’s sexiest female stars, just behind Sharon Stone.
In addition to her son, Ms. Stevens is survived by three
grandchildren. Her longtime partner, Bob Kulick, died in 2020.
Despite her career’s post-1960s fade, Ms. Stevens remained eager to
work. She turned to television and had roles in some 80 episodes over the next
four decades. Most of them were guest appearances on shows like “Murder, She
Wrote,” “The Love Boat” and “Magnum P.I.,” though she was also a member of the
regular cast of several shows, including the soap opera “Santa Barbara.”
When she did return to film, it was often for soft-core erotic
thrillers and campy horror movies, like “Chained Heat” (1983), in which she
played a prison warden, and “The Granny” (1994), in which she played a wronged
grandmother who comes back to life to get revenge on her scheming family.
She eventually did get into the director’s chair, for “American
Heroine,” a 1979 documentary, and “The Ranch,” a 1989 comedy starring her son.
She also wrote a novel, “Razzle Dazzle” (1989), which featured a thinly
fictionalized version of herself.
“I don’t feel I’ve been successful yet,” she told The Vancouver Sun in 1998. “I’m still waiting to be discovered. I see myself as a work in progress. I keep trying to work and improve and do things I’m proud of.”
How cool is it that Raquel and Stella both appeared in Elvis movies?!?!
And Bob Kulick, referred to above as “her longtime partner,” played lead guitar for both Alice Cooper and Meatloaf! They lived together from 1984 until his death in 2020. (kk)
Hi Kent,
Charlie Ricci recently stated that Glenn Miller had the first "gold record" with "Chattanooga Choo Choo" and he's technically correct (see attached photo). Prior to the formation of the RIAA's official program, record companies often awarded their own gold records. Of course, the companies used their own accountants to verify sales, which is what eventually prompted the RIAA to assign independent accounting firms to keep the companies honest. Unfortunately, this led some labels (such as Motown) to not open their books and participate in the RIAA program until years later.
So Perry Como did indeed receive the very first "official" gold record. (And yes, I knew that "Disco Lady" was the first platinum single. It was one of my favorite songs as a 10 year-old in 1976 … and I still love it to this day.)
Paul Haney
Record Research
I kind of suspected this might be the case.
And I’m glad you mentioned the Motown thing …
I almost got into that when I wrote my first response, but ran out of time.
Motown often DECLINED gold record status as the label didn’t want their artists to know how many copies they were selling … and, more importantly, how much money they were earning for the label … for fear of them potentially wanting a bigger (and more rightful) share of the pie. For all of Berry Gordy’s accomplishments, this policy certainly casts him in a different light.
Interestingly enough, you initially had to sell ONE MILLION COPIES of a single in order to earn a gold record. That was later changed to just 500,000 copies in order to qualify. Album certification wasn’t based on number of copies sold but rather the wholesale amount of money sales generated … so even if you took the “wholesale” price of a $12.98 “list price” album, which would be around $4.98, you really only had to sell about 200,000 copies of that album to qualify, which isn’t very impressive at all in the scheme of things. (As you’ll read below, this criteria was also changed over the years.) And, quite unfairly, a double record set earned TWICE as much in the way of sales because they were counted as two LP’s purchased. (That’s why The Beatles’ White Album ranks so high on the all-time list, ahead of other albums by them that actually sold more copies.)
The criteria for certification has changed over the years, making it somewhat difficult to equally rank and compare sales from the bygone era of physically having to get up off the couch, get into your car and drive to a record store to purchase a record to then bring home to play … vs. today being able to lie in bed and download an entire album’s worth of material from your hand-held phone and listen to it immediately.
From the ALWAYS reliable Wikipedia (of course I jest!) ... but in this case the official and accurate report, here is how the certification is broken down … and has changed over the years, according to the RIAA Foundation:
A Gold record is a song or album that sells 500,000 units (records, tapes, and compact discs.)
The award was launched in 1958; originally, the requirement for a Gold single was one million units sold and a Gold album represented $1 million in sales (at wholesale value, around a third of the list price.)
In 1975, the additional requirement of 500,000 units sold was added for Gold albums.
Reflecting growth in record sales, the Platinum award was added in 1976, for albums able to sell one million units, and singles selling two million units. The Multi-Platinum award was introduced in 1984, signifying multiple Platinum levels of albums and singles.
In 1989, the sales thresholds for singles were reduced to 500,000 for Gold and 1,000,000 for Platinum, reflecting a decrease in sales of singles.
In 1992, RIAA began counting each disc in a multi-disc set as one unit toward certification. Reflecting additional growth in music sales, the Diamond award was instituted in 1999 for albums or singles selling ten million units. Because of these changes in criteria, the sales level associated with a particular award depends on when the award was made.
Streaming of Rihanna’s music enjoyed a 140% spike after her appearance at The Super Bowl Halftime Show.
Not that she was any type of a slouch BEFORE her concert aired …
In the week prior to her appearance, music where Rihanna was featured as the main featured artist experienced just under 26 million streams. In the week since, that number skyrocketed to a little over 62 million streams.
Leading the pack were “Umbrella” (#1 for seven weeks in 2007) followed by “Diamonds” (#1 for three weeks in 2012.) Through 2018 (the most recent Whitburn book published), Rihanna has had ELEVEN #1 records on The Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles Chart. Others include “SOS” (#1 for three weeks in 2006), “Take A Bow” (2008, 1 week), “Disturbia” (2008, 2 weeks), “Rude Boy” (2010, 5 weeks), “Only Girl In The World” (probably my favorite by her, #1 for one week in 2010), “What’s My Name” (featuring Drake, #1 for one week in 2010), “S&M” (with Britney Spears, 1 week, 2011), “We Found Love” (#1 for TEN weeks in 2011) and “Work” (2016, another pairing with Drake, #1 for nine weeks)
Here's a scary article I came across last week ...
Is this how future generations are going to view the music of The Beatles?
https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/5-famous-beatles-songs-werent-singles.html/
Some of my favorite lines:
Some of The Beatles’ songs that became huge hits are mostly forgotten today.
Of “A Day In The Life”: Much of the song’s lyrics revolve around mundane things like going to the movies or combing one’s hair. The music turns horribly sinister at several points in the track. Perhaps the song is about how so many horrible things lie behind banality.
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” proves The Beatles could rock hard, even though they also gave the world a lot of cute songs like “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Michelle.”
>>>Rainbow’s “Since You’ve Been Gone” (one of my VERY
favorites!) appeared in the commercial plugging the new “Guardians Of The
Galaxy, Volume Three” movie, which ALWAYS feature great ‘70’s music as part of
their soundtracks (with a few surprises like this one) kk
I agree that Since You Been Gone is a great song … however, the version by Head East has always been more popular around here. They were a midwestern group that played many shows in Wisconsin. I think it is a better version, however, both are good. I look forward to finding out the rest of the Guardians soundtrack.
Phil – WRCO
Head East’s version performed slightly better on the charts than Rainbow’s (I didn’t realize that they recorded it first until I looked it up this morning!) … but Rainbow’s version really rocks … and that’s the one I heard first (which inspired our band to perform it as well.)
While doing a bit of research of my own, I found this posting from ten years ago, acknowledging Russ Ballard for writing and first recording this song. (I see that part of my information is incorrect in that post … Ballard was the guitarist in Argent, Rod Argent’s band after The Zombies split. He was NOT part of the Zombies’ line-up.)
And we DID find the Brian May version mentioned way back then, too. Now THAT one rocks!!! (Both are featured here today) kk
‘60’s FLASHBACK:
Since You Been Gone was MAYBE
played on US Classic Rock radio stations; not sure. I assume this is the same
[England] Rainbow group that barely made US Top 40 in 1981. At least the
Polydor / Mercury record labels make sense. Pretty good song, I feel! Maybe a
UK hit, maybe even a Japan hit, since that is where I found it on audio CD!
Jersey John
This is a GREAT song ... in fact, I used to play this one with my band Blind Spot in the '80's ... The Rainbow version is actually a cover of a song written and first recorded by Russ Ballard of The Zombies ... whose version never charted ... but it was a modest US Hit for Rainbow (#56 in Cash Box, #57 in Billboard) in 1979 ... and it got a TON of play here in Chicago on the Classic Rock stations. You still hear it once in a while, alternated with the Head East version, a #46 hit the year before. (Although Head East had the bigger hit version, it seems to be the Rainbow version that is best known ... and they do a KILLER rendition. Possibly because of Ritchie Blackmore's involvement ... Blackmore, of course, best known for his time with Deep Purple.) kk
Thanks, Mr. K! Yeah, I noticed the
song writing credit (what isn't in Japanese) didn't match any Rainbow members.
Thanks for the Chicago radio info, too!
Best,
John
I wasn't really familiar with the Russ Ballard version so I downloaded it to check it out.
Sounds like everybody stayed pretty true to the original ... and, to my ears, any one of these COULD have been a hit. According to Wikipedia, it was also covered by The Brian May Band ... now THAT might be an interesting one to hear ... which featured Cozy Powell on drums ... Powell also played drums on the Rainbow version. (Maybe Tom Diehl can put his hands on that one for us!) Versions were also recorded by Clout, Cherie Currie, Master Blaster and Impellitteri. The Rainbow version was also featured in a T-Mobile commercial, filmed at Liverpool Street Station in London, England in 2009. (kk)
This is all I could find ... a live
version from 2009.
Tom
This'll work. Thanks, Tom! (Wikipedia also says that May has professed his love for this song numerous times over the years ... and even called it one of his "desert island discs" ... and he's not the only one. In a VH-1 "Best Hard Rock Songs Ever" poll, "Since You Been Gone" came in at #82!!! Not bad for a non-Top 40 classic!) kk
UPDATE: By the way, in our own poll of THE TOP 3333 MOST ESSENTIAL CLASSIC ROCK SONGS OF ALL TIME, “Since You’ve Been Gone” by Rainbow came in at #833. The Head East version didn’t make the list. (kk)
From the ever-thoughtful Chuck Buell on Friday …
Today is "National Random Acts of Kindness Day!"
For my Main Act of Kindness Today, I'm coming over to your house and snapping these Spindle Adapters in all your 45s!
HA!
CB!
And, speaking of Chuck Buell, curious minds want to know …
How come our buddy Chuck Buell didn't sign his message "CB,
which stands for Chinese Balloonboy"? ;-)
Mike
