Tuesday, July 16, 2024

Tuesday This And That

Boy, tough weekend for celebrities ...

Former President Donald Trump got shot in the ear in an assassination attempt ... Actress Shanon Doherty succumbed to a years' long battle with breast cancer ... we lost fitness guru Richard Simmons (who kept many of our girlfriends, wives, mothers and grandmothers Sweatin' To The Oldies) ... Super Bowl Champion Jacoby Jones of The Baltimore Ravens ... famed sex therapist Dr. Ruth (Westheimer) left us at the age of 96 ...

Tough weekend indeed!  (kk)

Dr. Ruth ... and RINGO ... photo courtesy of Timmy ...

(Damn!  And Ringo was always the short one!)

kk …

Cousin Brucie Was About To Interview Darlene Love --- 

When The News Room Broke In With News About Trump Being Shot.

His Christmas In July Interview Has Been Postponed Till Next Saturday’s Show.

Cousin Brucie Was Reflecting Back On How Many Times He Was On The Radio During Tragic Events ...

The Shooting Of J F K Being One Of Them.

FB

The Eagles have expanded their stay at The Sphere to TWENTY shows now, stretching into January of next year.

Meanwhile, Bob Dylan shows no signs of slowing down …

After he completes his portion of the Outlaw Musical Festival Tour in September, Dylan departs for Europe, where he’ll do a series of concerts through October and November, country-hopping from The Czech Republic to Germany, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the UK. 

Most of these are multi-night appearances … and, for the benefit of our foreign Forgotten Hits Readers (and we’ve got quite a few!), here is a quick recap of what’s been scheduled so far …

October 4th, 5th and 6th – Prague, Czech Republic – O2 universum
October 8th – Erfurt, Germany – Messehalle
October 10th, 11th and 12th – Berlin, Germany – Uber Eats Music Hall
October 14th – Nurnberg, Germany – Frankenhalle
October 16th, 17th and 18th – Frankfurt, Germany – Jahrhunderthalle
October 21st – Stuttgart, Germany – Porsche Arena
October 22nd – Saarbrucken, Germany – Saarlandhalle
October 24th and 25th – Paris, France – La Seine Musicale
October 27th – Dusseldorf, Germany – Mitsubishi Electric Hall
October 28th – Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg – Rockhal
October 29th – Antwerp, Belgium – Lotto Arena
November 1st – Bournemouth, UK – BIC Windsor Hall
November 3rd – Liverpool, UK – M&S Bank Arena
November 5th and 6th – Edinburgh, UK – Usher Hall
November 8th – Nottingham, UK – Nottingham Arena
November 9th and 10th – Wolverhampton, UK – Civic Hall
November 12th, 13th and 14th – London, UK – Royal Albert Hall

That’s a pretty hectic pace tour for anyone …

But Dylan just turned 83 years old a couple of month ago … and this adds up to 28 shows in just 41 days! 

More power to him!  (kk)

Here’s one we missed …

Saturday, July 13th, marked the 60th Anniversary of the release of The Beach Boys’ “All Summer Long” album …

And there was plenty of celebrating going on from The Boys themselves here:

https://thebeachboys.com/blogs/news/july-newsletter-all-summer-long-anniversary?utm_campaign=544224_07.12.24_HBDSummeralbum_All_231868_US&utm_medium=email&utm_source=dotmailer&dm_i=4YWS,BNXC,77QGNQ,1R4F1,1

FH Reader Tom Cuddy points out another anniversary that occurred earlier this week ... albeit not as pleasant a one ...

On This Day: The Everly Brothers Break up on Stage in 1973, Complete With Guitar-Smashing
https://americansongwriter.com/on-this-day-the-everly-brothers-break-up-on-stage-in-1973-complete-with-guitar-smashing/

Best Classic Bands has a new piece out saluting the radio stations (and television show) that showcased The Beatles here in America in 1963 BEFORE they ever appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, again crediting Dick Biondi and WLS here in Chicago for being the first to play … and chart … the Fab Four … then such a big name already that their names was misspelled on the record label … and The WLS Silver Dollar Survey.

One error to point out, however …

“From Me To You” did NOT make The Top 30 here in Chicago on WLS in 1963 …

It was Del Shannon’s version that made the charts, the first “official” cover of a Lennon and McCartney song to chart in America.  (Most radio stations opted to give airplay to the established name rather than some upstart group of guys from England that nobody had ever heard of yet.)  Shannon’s version would ultimately peak at #67 in Cash Box (#77 in Billboard), largely because of all the airplay it was getting in Los Angeles.

Still it makes for an interesting article …

https://bestclassicbands.com/beatles-america-1963-7-13-24/

And for even more details, check out our piece from over twenty years ago … http://forgottenhits.com/who_played_the_very_first_beatles_record_in_america

From our Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction Department comes this revelation, as reported by Noise 11 ...

In 1972 after The Beatles had broken up, John Lennon asked Paul McCartney if he would do a benefit show with Wings, The Stones and The Plastic Ono Band.

The new box set edition of Lennon’s ‘Mind Games’ includes the correspondence from John Lennon to Paul McCartney requesting a benefit gig at Madison Square Garden.

“Right on brother and sister! Now what do we do with “The Luck of the Irish” and ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday”? Would you do a Madison Square Garden with Wings, Plastic Ono and Stones? We’ve already talked to Mick. Also in three weeks actually go to Ireland (again possibly with Stones). Let's forget our past and save some people. Good luck anyway, we’re proud of you”.

It was signed ‘Sonny and Cher O’Lennon’.

Hard to believe that this actually ever happened ... and harder still to imagine what the world may have been like thereafter if it had actually taken place!

As Noise 11 points out, Wings hadn't even played their first live gig yet ... and the big hits (and their monster breakthrough with "Band On The Run") was still 22 months away.

I'd never have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes!  (kk)

 

LA’s famed Record Plant is closing after 55 years as one of the industry’s most in-demand recording studios.

To give you some idea of its stature at the time, after The Eagles finished recording their “Hotel California” album there, Fleetwood Mac booked the studio next for what would become their “Rumors” album.  (The hits just don’t get much bigger than those two!)

New York’s Record Plant closed their doors in 1987.

Want some great history lessons on radio and TV? 

My buddy Carl Mann has six great books now out.  Three depict the History of Omaha Radio titled "Towers on the Prairie" and are great as well as a weekly chronological NATIONAL radio survey Top 40 charts, complete with stories about the market moves made involving the stations' surveys shown in each page.  SEE early star DJ stations and their stories are told on the same pages. 

Samples and index of surveys in each book are on Amazon links below:

https://www.amazon.com/Books-Carl-Mann/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3ACarl+Mann

IF YOU WANT GREAT FREE RADIO INFO:


There are so many great books on radio, but these of his are great.  IF you ever want to read a spectacular book (actually three!), you can, for FREE online.  It's a total of 1712 pages.  I have all three very heavy books and if you wonder about ANYTHING dealing with radio, it is likely in there.  Tons of radio station histories (not just US, but worldwide, too), DJ histories (Murray, Brucie, Wolfman, etc.) to ... whomever you like), networks, CBC, McClendon and Storz, Australian Broadcasting, etc., music artists, radio in the wars, wireless, political and FCC moves for radio, Voice of America, AT40, Larry King, Paul Harvey, King Biscuit Hour, Union stations, museums, magazines, sound effects, sonovox, jingles, short wave, pirate ships, ARRL, public radio, XERB, WOR, WWL, MTV, Hindenburg, Hee Haw and other TV shows, Gavin Report, Radio & Records, Billboard and all the trades, antennas, invention of call letters, even the YMCA radio class I took at our local KFOR in 1972!  BEST of all is that there is a great INDEX starting page 1607 and ending 1712 so you don’t have to search all over for your want-for info!  THESE BOOK have more info than you could EVER absorb, but when you think "What is Grand Ole Opry's history," just look in the index for it.  "When did the Gospel Music Network begin?"  "Gale Gordon was a radio star before The Lucy Show?"  "How did the Goon Show come about?"  "I want entire history of Public radio,"  "How did talk show 'Car Talk' become a thing?"

You get the idea.  SO MUCH.  It IS alphabetically designed by articles, BUT to capture every instance the wanted subject is mentioned, the index works best.  These books originally sold for $300 I think.

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Encyclopedias/Archive-Encyclopedia-of-Radio/Encyclopedia-of-Radio-Complete.pdf

Would you like a play by play history of radio -- large and small?  Imagine a book like the "Beatles Day By Day" type books!  Well, another mag I have is Broadcasting (great mag in itself) Magazine from November, 1970, where they look back at all the major and minor events that happened in radio starting in 1895 and running through to 1970!  When did the US require passenger ships to carry wireless equipment:  6/24/1910.  When did AC Neilsen acquire Hooper ratings: 3/6/1950.  CBS demonstrates color TV on its new UHF station: 2/4/1946.  FCC moves FM band to 84-102 mc (despite old frequency radios already sold!): 1/16/1945.  Some radio stations ban cigarette ads: 2/3/1964 (Beatles didnt help? haha).  NCAA football stays with ABC network for 16.5 million for two more years: 1/2/1968.  1 minute commercials on network TV highest rates are $69,000 for Mayberry RFD and $68,000 for Laugh-In: 3/2/1970. 

There are also TONS of articles, pics, etc., that are added special for big events.  There's great ads for stations around the nation that you will love, too.  THIS is a pdf and the History starts at page 74.  ENJOY!!!  

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1970/1970-11-02-BC.pdf

Of course, MOST of these events are expanded on when they happened and you can locate those issues of Broadcasting here:

BROADCASTING MAGAZINE - Business magazine from 1931 to 2002

AFTER that, you can try the TV Encyclopedia which is not as good and no index, but is alphabetical at least. 

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Encyclopedias/Encyclopedia-of-Television-New-York-Times-Brown-1977.pdf

Clark Besch

 

60 YEARS AGO TODAY:

7/16/64 – Senator Barry Goldwater accepts his party’s nomination as their presidential candidate