A Few More Mid-Week Comments and Announcements

The 2023 Happy Together Tour is officially underway.

They kicked things off with a show Monday Night (June 5^th) in Durham, North Carolina … and there are LOTS more shows coming up this summer.

Don’t miss your opportunity to catch some REAL ‘60’s Gold.

On the bill this year are (of course) The Turtles (or at least Mark Volman of The Turtles, performing along with Ron Dante again, who also does a couple of his own hits from the ‘60’s), Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, The Cowsills, The Vogues, The Classics IV and first-timers Little Anthony and the Imperials.

The complete list of concert appearances can be found below. 

(Hey Shelley … can we look forward to a Westbury concert review???)  kk

June 5th – Durham, NC – Carolina Theatre
June 7th – Englewood, NJ – Bergen PAC
June 9th – Morristown, NJ – Mayo PAC
June 10th – Westbury, NY – NYCB Theatre at Westbury
June 11th – Hampton Beach, NH – Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
June 13th – Hyannis, MA – Cape Cod Melody Tent
June 14th – Cohasset, MA – South Shore Music Circus
June 15th – Jim Thorpe, PA – Penn’s Peak
June 16th – Staten Island, NY – St. George Theatre
June 17th – Lancaster, PA – American Music Theatre
June 18th – Lowell, MA – Lowell Memorial Auditorium
June 20th – Alexandria, VA – Birchmere
June 21st – Glenside, PA – Keswick Theatre
June 22nd – Union Hall, VA – The Coves Amphitheater at Smith Mountain Lake
July 8th – Coachella, CA – Spotlight 29 Casino
July 9th – Beverly Hills, CA – Saban Theatre
July 11th – San Diego, CA – Humphreys Concerts By the Bay
July 12th – Prescott Valley, AZ – Findlay Toyota Center
July 13th – Ojai, CA – Libbey Bowl
July 14th – Scottsdale, AZ – Talking Stick Resort
July 15th – Las Vegas, NV – The Smith Center
July 16th – Costa Mesa, CA – Pacific Amphitheater
July 27th – Red Bank, NJ – Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre at the Count Basie Center For the Arts
July 28th – Atlantic City, NJ – Ovation Hall
July 29th – Wallingford, CT – Toyota Oakdale Theatre
July 30th – Lynn, MA – Lynn Auditorium
August 1st – Albany, NY – Palace Theatre
August 2nd – Utica, NY – Stanley Theatre
August 3rd – Rochester, NY – Kodak Center
August 4th – Greensburg, PA – Palace Theatre (with Badfinger’s Joey Molland filling in for The Vogues)
August 5th – Owensboro, KY – RiverPark Center
August 6th – Northfield, OH – MGM Northfield Park
August 8th – Wabash, IN – Honeywell Center
August 9th – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
August 10th – Kettering, OH – Fraze Pavilion
August 11th – New Buffalo, MI – Silver Creek Event Center (without the Cowsills)
August 12th – Manistee, MI – Little River Casino Resort and Hotel
August 13th – Aurora, IL – Paramount Theatre
August 15th – Appleton, WI – Fox Cities PAC
August 17th – Milwaukee, WI – Pabst Theater
August 18th – Waukegan, IL – Genesee Theatre
August 19th – Saint Charles, MO – Family Arena
August 20th – Peoria, IL – Peoria Civic Center
August 22nd – Louisville, KY – Kentucky State Fair
August 23rd – Effingham, IL – Effingham Perf. Center
August 24th – Shipshewana, IN – Blue Gate PAC
August 25th – Wisconsin Dells, WI – Crystal Grand Music Theatre
August 27th – Deadwood, SD – Deadwood Mountain Grand
August 28th – St. Paul, MN – Minnesota State Fairegrounds
August 29th – Fish Creek, WI – Door Community Auditorium
August 30th – Wausau, WI – Grand Theater
August 31st – Des Moines, IA – Hoyt Sherman Place
September 1st – Evansville, IN – Victory Theatre

David Salidor has been feeding us updates and photos of Micky Dolenz's trip to London to participate in the Tribute to James Burton Concert ...

But evidently yesterday's shot fell off the page somehow!

So today, we recap some real rock royalty ...

Micky with Brian May of Queen ...

With Ron Wood ... 

And rehearsing with (from left to right Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, the legendary James Burton, Brian May and Albert Lee.

(Micky performed "I'm A Believer," "Randy Scouse Git" ... how appropriate for a British audience ... and "Daydream Believer")

Astrud Gilberto, the Girl from Ipanema, goes walking no more. She died Monday at age 83. No other details at this time.

And it's a Two For Tuesday RIP.  

While George Winston is known primarily as a instrumental jazz pianist, he has sold in excess of 15 million albums since his solo debut in 1972. He lost a ten year battle with cancer on Sunday. He was 73.

Jack (The Duke Of Death)

 

"The Girl From Ipanema" was a massive hit in 1964, making The Top Five in Billboard and Cash Box ... and winning over OUR hearts in the process.  (It was just such an unusual track to come out during the early onslaught of The British Invasion, introducing us all to a whole new genre of music in the process.  This is another track I have never grown tired of.)

And can you believe that this song is the very first song that Astrud Gilberto ever sang and recorded???

Incredibly, she just happened to be along at her husband's recording session with jazz great Stan Getz, who started off singing the song in Portuguese.  Midway thru, they thought it might be interesting to hear a girl's voice sing a verse in English ... so Astrud stepped up to the mic and, in a sultry, whispering voice, began to sing the English lyric.  Before you knew it, her husband's voice was wiped off the recording, Astrud sang a bit more and a million seller was born.  (One report I read today said that, next to "Yesterday," "The Girl From Ipanema" is the second most-recorded song in history.  I find that to be a bit hard to believe ... but it sure is a good one!)  The success of the record also helped to launch a movie career ... Astrud starred in "Get Yourself A College Girl" in 1965.  (It also went on to win the Grammy Award for Record Of The Year that same year.)  kk

 

Joni Mitchell’s appearance at The Newport Folk Festival last year was headline making news …

And next month you’ll be able to enjoy that performance on the brand new “Joni Mitchell At Newport” CD, produced by Brandi Carlile.  (Also available on vinyl, this concert album will be released on July 28^th)

The Fugees’ planned reunion tour a few years ago was cancelled due to Covid … but last Saturday (June 3^rd) they made a surprise appearance at The Roots Picnic in Philadelphia and performed a set of sixteen songs from both their album “The Score” as well as Lauryn Hill’s “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.”  (It was only their second live appearance since 2006.

The event was planned as a Lauryn Hill concert … but after performing ten songs from her solo album, Wyclef Jean and Pras Michel came out to join her on stage and, all of a sudden, The Fugees had reformed!  (It was quite the surprise!)  No other planned appearances have been announced at this time … but it is clear that they all seem anxious and excited about working together again.

Lauryn and The Fugees both earned Top 40 Hits in the 1990’s with a couple of remakes of classic hits from the ‘60’s and ‘70’s …

The Fugees scored first with their #2 version of Robert Flack’s “Killing Me Softly” in 1996, while Lauryn reached #38 a couple of years later with her hip hop reading of the Frankie Valli hit “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”  (She earned a #1 Record with “Doo Wop [That Thing]” later that same year.)  kk

I am taking any interested riders back to the late 60's this Saturday (June 10^th) at 5 PM for an hour again on my WFMU drop in radio show, "Strictly 60's II." 

If you wanna go back with me, jump on the ride here by clicking on this pop-up here at the below site at 5 PM Central time and pushing play button!:

https://wfmu.org/playlists/D1

IF you missed show #1 on Jan 7, you can still listen here:

https://wfmu.org/archiveplayer/?show=123206&archive=229252

A Chicago slant always …

Clark Besch