Calvin Lynch,
who holds court on Saturday Nights on MemoryLaneOldies.com, will be playing
selections from our list of The Top 200 Biggest Two-Sided Hits of All-Time on
his program this Saturday Night.(It
airs Saturday Nights at 10 pm Eastern and runs for three hours)
Cal sent us this opening teaser to share … it picks
up right after he opens his show with Herman’s Hermits singing “There’s A Kind
Of Hush” … the #100 single on the list ...
Please help us to spread the word!(kk)
This review of Paul McCartney’s show Down Under in
Australia is quite glowing …
In the critic’s own words, “even his voice was
better” …
He was in
fine form tonight, very chatty with the crowd, much chattier than on the 2017
Australian tour. His voice was also better too. In 2017 his voice took about
four of five songs to settle. This time the vocal cords were there right from
the start.
The review is well-written and puts into
perspective all that McCartney has done since he first played Australia as a 22
year old Beatle in 1964.
Might I get a chance to see Heart live in concert after all?
It was just announced that Ann and Nancy Wilson are reforming Heart for a special performance on New Year's Eve in the band's native Seattle. Are more shows coming?
For right now, this is just a one-off concert ...
It'll be The Wilson Sisters' first full-on performance since 2019. (Nancy did join Ann on stage a couple of weeks ago to perform their hit "Barracuda" ... so hopefully they're working some things out.) They have supposedly also been working on some NEW material together ... and what better excuse to tour than having a new album to promote???
Hang tight, Heart fans ...
We'll let you know as soon as we hear more! (kk)
Billboard Magazine recaps some of its past Rolling Stones
articles as the band moves into their SEVENTH decade with a smash new album,
“Hackney Diamonds” …
>>>Billboard
Magazine recently named "Crimson And Clover" one of The Top 500 Greatest Pop Songs Ever … but I
disagree … this isn’t a “pop song” … it wasn’t crafted with that purpose in
mind.(kk)
To build
on this point, Tommy James felt that he had been out of touch for a little
while with the current trends in music … he spent much of 1968 campaigning for
Hubert Humphrey in his presidential bid.Although he hit The Top Three with “Mony Mony” earlier that year, he
hadn’t really seen the chart success like he had seen early on in his career
with the hits “Hanky Panky” and “I Think We’re Alone Now,” both of which ARE
great pop songs.He felt like music was
maybe starting to pass him by …
So he dug
deep down into his soul and came up with a psychedelic classic …
So much
so, in fact, that you guys voted “Crimson and Clover” as the NINTH Greatest
Psychedelic Song of All-Time in a poll we ran in 2005.(2005?!?!MAN, we’ve been doing this for a long time!)
To my ears, this song was so completely unique and
unexpected from Tommy at the time that you couldn’t help but fall in love with
it.(kk)
Here's an interesting take ... especially for Billboard ...
Last week the magazine counted down their Critics' Picks for The Best 500 Pop Songs Of All-Time (we ran links for the whole list ... scroll back to see them if you missed anything ... but be forewarned that these are EXTREMELY slow-loading pages!)
Now THIS week their staff have come up with The Best 100 Pop Songs to never make The Hot 100 Chart. (It's a bit of a misnomer, truth be told ... the fact that so many of these songs were never released as singles, a necessary criteria at the time, explains away the lion's share ... but still there are some interesting titles to be found here ... including some songs that have grown in stature by leaps and bounds since they were first released.)
Still, if I'm allowed to throw just ONE song into the ring, let me cast my vote for "I'm Just Waitin', Anticipatin' (For Her To Show Up)" by The New Colony Six.
You're not going to find a craftier piece of music than this one ... which only managed to "Bubble Under" at #128 in Billboard in the Summer of '67. You'd be hard-pressed to come up with a catchier tune or arrangement ... our buddies got totally robbed on this one. (And wouldja believe the song was written by none other than Tony Orlando?!?! Who was working as a Cameo/Parkway Distribution Rep at the time? The Colony's Sentar Records was distributed by CP at the time.) kk
We’ve been beating the drum for Icons,Idols and Idiots of Hollywood,
the rollicking memoir of Bruce Belland, sole surviving member of the Four
Preps who hit the Billboard chart 13 times between 1957 and 1964.
Both Bruce, who just celebrated his 87th
birthday, and the book are delightful and most revelatory. Bruce was recently
a guest of Michael Shelley’s on WFMU. We urge you to click on the link and
listen to this mostly mirthful encounter. We’ve brokered quite a few
interviews with Bruce, but none has been as insightful as this one.
“The book tells the history of America in some ways, a look
into the window of show business . . . The Four Preps were on the cusp
of rock ‘n’ roll but had one foot in that night club show business world.”
- Michael Shelley
Regarding his career in entertainment, Bruce notes, “It was
destined to happen. I never took ‘no’ for an answer.” He recalls an early
career highlight, “Here I stand with Crosby on my left and Sinatra on my
right.”
Another Sinatra was key in the saga of “26 Miles (Santa
Catalina),” the group’s breakthrough hit. “I was dating a girl who was in
Nancy Sinatra‘s social club at University High School. One night the Preps
went over there and sang “26 Miles” for them. Two weeks later Nancy asked,
‘When are you guys going to record that great song?’ I went back to Capitol
and told them that Frank Sinatra’s daughter and her whole girls club will
buy this record and they finally agreed to release it – as a B-side!” Nancy
wasn’t the only famous friend who helped launch the Preps. As Bruce, who
became a regular on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet playing a
character named “Bruce,” tells it, “Ricky Nelson was the one that turned us
on to (guitarist) Joe Maphis who you hear on ‘26 Miles.’”
Unlike other vocal groups of the time who tended to play it
straight, The Four Preps’ secret weapon was humor. Bruce told Michael, “If
there’s one thing that distinguished us from all the other groups is that
we put on a well-rounded show with as much comedy as music.” Evidence of
this is heard in their parody of early rock ‘n’ roll groups titled “More
Money For You and Me.” It’s included in the Spotify playlist that is linked
below.
The Preps’ career was flying high when world events
interceded. Bruce says, “The Berlin Crisis [of 1961] happens and suddenly
we’re on active duty [with the Air National Guard] in Van Nuys while
co-headlining in Las Vegas.” The group commuted nightly by plane to fulfill
their obligation to share the bill with George Burns and Carol Channing,
donning tuxedoes in the evening and cleaning out air transport toilets by
day.
Towards the end of the Four Preps’ initial run they
confronted the Beatles phenomenon with another funny take in “Letter To The
Beatles.” The record started to rise when Capitol Records the label at
which both The Four Preps and the other four from Liverpool were under
contract – put an end to the fun. “We did an imitation of the Beatles that
is spot-on and then we got a call from our producer who asked, “Are you
sitting down?” He broke the bad news to the group and, as Bruce tells
Michael, “within 24 hours, they’d issued a cease and desist and the record
was gone, it disappeared.”
There are many more great stories in the broadcast and in
the book. Please get in touch if you’d like to cover it
You can hear many of The Four Preps’ hits (and misses)
including “26 Miles” and “Letter To The Beatles” on this Icons, Idols
and Idiots of Hollywood Spotify playlist
ICONS, IDOLS AND IDIOTS OF HOLLYWOOD:
MEMOIR OF FOUR PREPS’ BRUCE BELLAND OUT NOW
HIT RECORDS, CONCERTS, NIGHT CLUBS, TV
AND FILM APPEARANCES TAKE TEEN VOCALISTS TO THE TOP OF THE CHARTS AND
JUXTAPOSE THEM WITH HOLLYWOOD LEGENDS IN THE EISENHOWER AND KENNEDY ERAS
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again …
This is a REAL fun book to read … highly recommended.
Pick up a copy and relive a magical time in pop music
history.
You’ll learn things you never knew (I did!) … and you’ll
come away with a much greater appreciation of the “pop sounds” of the ‘50’s and
early ‘60’s.(kk)
This just in ... Richard Roundtree, star of the film "Shaft" has passed away.
(Can you dig it?) kk
And, it was also just announced that Tracy Spiridakos (Hailey Upton on Chicago P.D.) will be leaving the series after the 11th Season. (Truthfully, with her television husband Jay Halstead gone, there may not be enough left to do with her character ... but I will say that she was sure given some meaty scripts to handle these past few seasons.)
Does it spell the end of the series? It wouldn't surprise me. (The context has changed quite a bit over the years with numerous cast changes ... but the idea of Dirty Cop Hank Voight becoming more of a mentor with a conscience never really hit home for me ... he was a FAR more interesting character when he was working out his own little side deals ... and bending the law to suit his own needs.)
Not sure how many Chicago P.D. fans we have out there in Forgotten Hits land but one day we took a drive out to find the Silos (we found 'em!) as well as the front of the station used for all their exterior shots. (We even took a cautious drive thru Pilsen!!!) lol (kk)
>>>IDENTITIES OF PREVIOUSLY SECRET
FORGOTTEN HITS HALLOWEEN CHARACTERS JUST REVEALED!
Exercise Extreme Caution if this Trio of Trick or Treat
Candy Extortionists appear at your door!(CB)
He spoiled it!
It was a SECRET,CHUCK!
a SECRET!!!!
Here come the villagers with their torches
again ...
