The other day I mentioned the first time I ever heard a Top 40 Countdown. (Scroll back to Monday's post to see it if you missed it.)
This was a big moment for me ... discovering something new as a way to listen to the radio ... and monitor the biggest hits of the day.
For anybody out there who kept their own charts back then (whether they be personal favorites like Clark's or a consensus of what the REAL charts were saying at the time ... sort of the PRE Super Charts, if you will), I think you'll enjoy Clark's recap of pop music, circa 1964 - 1965. (kk)
I'm on a chart roll after seeing the great Record Research Top Pop book sale (ending today btw.) 1964/5 were awesome personal chart times for me and my
brothers.
This week's
Super Chart of combined Billboard, Cash Box and Record World charts for the last week of June '64. Just
incredible choices. HOW does anyone decide what to buy here? Just
incredible choices! My memory of what me and my brothers had AT THAT
TIME from buying or birthday presents, etc. IF there is an asterik*, it
means I think they had it and others I am 99% sure they had at the
time.
Roger -- aged 14
1/2 -- was buying nearly every Beatle 45 as it came out. He was working at
The Dodge City TV shop that young, I think! I distinctly remember Rog
buying #104 "Four by the Beatles" EP in hard cover at Lincoln's Gateway
store, and turned out to have TWO EP's in the cover, so I got the non-sleeve
one. We both still have them!
Besides The Beatles mentioned above, he also had: #1*, 13/15*, 87
Steve -- aged 13 1/2 -- owned #18*
and Clark
(ME) -- aged 8 -- owned NONE that I see.
I WAS buying when I had any money,
tho, and making my surveys. Brother Steve sometimes printed them really
fancy and I dictated choices.
Bill -- aged 4 1/2 -- owned #9/36. Bill also had his own fake radio surveys and Steve also did one or two of THOSE too!
CHECK OUT BELOW SUPER CHART BELOW!!!
DAD -- aged 48 1/2 -- owned #44 (on LP). He would get the Roger Miller Greatest Hits when it came out later.
And,
of course, we had many others recorded off local and KOMA and WLS radio,
too. Steve was also notorious throughout the 60s for borrowing all his
friends' 45s and recording them off record.
Just for fun, I dug out some of me and Bill's first ever
charts as future radio stars. We ALL were, in 1965, after meeting the
KOMA DJs in Oklahoma City in June. ALL of us a year older than listed
above. Dale Wehba, Ronnie Kaye, Don Wallace, Paul Miller, Bobby Davis,
Ron Riley, Dex Card, Art Roberts -- all stars for us!
First, my first April '65 typing tries:
My
clever numbering system of a #ZERO above #1! Bill and I were also a
pop group called the 4 Cuples! This was actually the "Four Couples," but
I had no idea how to spell couples. Why "couples"? No, it's not four men
and women -- it was four train car couplings! Dodge City was a train town
with eleven tracks to rattle over when driving from north to south Dodge
then. No idea what these two songs sounded like, but we had a snare drum
and sang to hits. I was 8 and Bill was 4. I had no idea of borders or
how to correct mistakes. "KLMS Nifty Fifty" I stole from the Lincoln
station at the time.
I owned #1 (and flip) and Bill owned the Kinks record listed.
Typed likely a bit later, I typed Bill's chart and he decided his hit numbers and told me what to type. Bill owned #7, 11 and 19 at the time. Note the Beatles VI tracks. KOMA and WLS were blaring those new ones when we were in OKC May - July, '65.
"Barny Bird Song"??? ...
Well, that was our parakeet!
HERE, brother Steve, like his brothers, are landlocked in OKC in the Summer of '65, with little to do but play some ball and listen to the radio in the daytime, so he decided to fancy up our surveys one day as we dictated them to him:
This time, my own original station calls dial, watts, "Silver $ Survey" (ala WLS). Steve was 14, so forgive him for "manger" misspelling. haha.
GEEZ, wonder why I always call "Beatles VI" my all-time fave Beatles LP? Because the memories are so vivid of this time. I now had Pick Hit as the TOP song of week above "O" and "1." That "KLPK Top 5" (which only listed 4?) was based from WLS having their Top 5 requests played nightly. NOTE that I must have wanted more in open space so I personally added "Great No. X," which was an old 45 I owned for a few years already.
I owned #7 and 10.
And Steve did Bill's chart then, too:
Steve owned #1, 7 and Roger #8 and "Beatles VI."
OUR June '65 Gods of the Radio daily in OKC were KOMA / WKY local stations and WLS at night.
For
Your Love was #1 for the Besch kids and would be in OKC, too, leading to
the Yardbirds opening their 1965 first US tour ever IN OKC due to the
song only hitting #1 THERE!
WKY, actually the TOP station in OKC then despite KOMA being nationally known for its 50,000 watt signal!
WLS ...
