Look for a brand new documentary on Netflix later this month called "The Greatest Night In Pop."
It documents the story behind "We Are The World," the landmark recording featuring some of the biggest names in pop music at the time, banding together to create a charity video to raise money for starving children in Africa released a "USA For Africa" in 1985, some 39 years ago.
Immediately after The American Music Awards, artists like Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie (who wrote the song) along with Kenny Rogers, Diana Ross, Huey Lewis, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Loggins, Billy Joel, Tina Turner and many, many more got together in a recording studio, led by the great Quincy Jones, to commit this track to wax,
This new documentary (released first at The Sundance Film Festival ten days before) promises previously unseen footage from this event and will premier on Netflix on January 29th, nearly 40 years to the day that it all took place. (kk)
>>>Barry McGuire's "Eve Of Destruction" or Janis Ian's "Society's Child" in the '60's." (Ed Erxleben)
>>>Well, we certainly played them in Heavy to Regular Rotation at KIMN in Denver in their Days! Two of my least favorite songs. Became forever included "backup go-tos" in my personal on-air playlist list of "Bathroom Break Songs" (CB)
If you had worked at WLS Chicago at the time you would have had to find different "Bathroom Break Songs." WLS did play McGuire's "Child Of Our Times" and Ian's "Younger Generation," so they might have served the purpose.
Ed Erxleben
Yes, WLS was a bit more conservative back then … trying to steer clear of any potential conflict with their listeners. (kk)
Kent,
I don't know if you or any of your readers have heard of or remember Larry Collins. He passed away this past Friday in the state of California. Larry, along with his sister Lorrie, made a lot of records back in the fifties and sixties. They recorded under the name of the Collins Kids. They were from Tulsa, OK. They made a lot of records mostly rock-a-billy … records which were played along the top 40 radio stations at the time, especially here in the state of Oklahoma.
Larry
Despite never having a chart hit record, I guess they were pretty popular with their audience niche.
I got this from Bob Merlis, too, about Larry’s passing …
Larry and Lorrie Collins
LARRY COLLINS
October 4, 1944 – January 5, 2024
Rockabilly guitar great Larry Collins of the Collins Kids died at age 79 on Friday, January 5th, at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Santa Clarita, CA. His death from natural causes was announced by his daughter Larissa Collins.
With his sister Lorrie Collins, the Collins Kids were rockabilly royalty after joining the cast of Los Angeles television’s “Town Hall Party” in 1954 when Larry Collins was 10 years old, and his vocalist sister was 12. They were embraced by the nationwide country music community and nascent rock and roll scene as their talented teenage sensation.
On the weekly half-hour TV program, hosted by cowboy singer Tex Ritter, they appeared alongside country music greats of the era such as Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Lefty Frizzell and Marty Robbins, as well as young rock and roll musicians the show embraced like Gene Vincent, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis. The Collins Kids appeared as guests on the first televised broadcast of the Grand Ole Opry in 1956.
Not only was young Larry mentored by country music immortal Joe Maphis, also a regular on the show, but he continued to play the signature double-neck Mosrite guitar Maphis gave him the rest of his life. He and Maphis recorded an album of guitar instrumentals together in 1958. Surf guitar king Dick Dale studied Larry’s finger-picking style in early appearances on the TV show.
The Collins Kids recorded a string of rockabilly records for Columbia Records in the ‘50s – “Hop, Skip and Jump,” “Hot Rod,” “Whistle Bait” – at the time but are now considered classics of the genre and have been subsequently reissued. Their music also inspired and made fans outside the genre as well, like Bob Dylan, Lemmy Kilmister, and Jello Biafra.
The pair reunited to appear at a British rockabilly festival in 1993 and continued to perform occasionally until his sister retired in 2012. Lorrie Collins died of injuries from a fall in 2018 and was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame the following year.
Born outside Tulsa, Oklahoma, on October 4, 1944, Larry moved with his family to Southern California in 1953 after his sister won a talent contest in Tulsa and was advised by Leon McAuliffe, steel player for Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, to relocate.
As a songwriter in the years following the Collins Kids, Larry scored with the 1972 hit by Tanya Tucker, “Delta Dawn,” a number one pop hit and Grammy nomination the following year for Helen Reddy, and the 1981 David Frizzell – Shelly West country hit duet “You’re the Reason God Made Oklahoma,” a tribute to his home state, nominated for Song of the Year by the Country Music Association. He wrote songs with Mac Davis covered by Davis, Nancy Sinatra, and Lou Rawls, among others.
Larry Collins is survived by his daughter, Larissa; two grandsons and his sister Nicki Collins.
>>>And why am I not surprised that you would have had your door unlocked and hollered, "Come In!" (Shelley)
Us: "Unashamed, Unabashed Free Spirits! (CB)
Shelley, please don't be offended because I only mean this in the nicest possible way ... You can can be a member of our "Boys Club" any time you want!!! (kk)
I was laughing so hard it was difficult to respond! The laughter increased when I connected your cartoon with Connie Francis' song "Who's Sorry Now?" With that song playing, you and Chuck loading the dishwasher ... the look on my face WOULD have been priceless.
Unless you charge dues for your "Boys Club," I am not offended.
Shelley
60 YEARS AGO TODAY:
1/9/64 – The Temptations record “The Way You Do The Things You Do.” It will become their first Top Ten Hit on the pop charts.
