Sad to hear about the passing of Val Kilmer …
He portrayed icons Jim Morrison AND Batman on film and was always a highly respected actor.
And Johnny Tillotson ...
kk …
THE STORY BEHIND THE HIT:
“POETRY IN MOTION," Written By Paul Kaufman & Mike Anthony
Mike Said That The Inspiration For The Song Came From Looking Up From Their Work And Seeing A Procession Of Young Ladies From A Nearby School Pass By On The Sidewalk Outside Each Afternoon.
FB
Johnny had quite a career, even after his big hits of the early 60s. He was VERY popular into the 1980's. He visited Lincoln and much of Nebraska in the 70s for several years as host and emcee of our PBS Cerebral Palsy Telethon every year from 1973 - 76. I think. Somewhere I have a photo of him being greeted by the entire University of Nebraska band as he deplaned at the airport! At the same time, he was playing Vegas those years, too.
The Satellite Club in Lincoln held almost 2000 people when Johnny played there in 1973. Below, he is being held over another week! Great artist with big heart.
Clark Besch
Johnny had one of the most likable and believable voices and vibe of anyone on planet earth. He is Poetry In Motion.
Rock on!!
Jimbo
Kent,
I was notified about the same time as you were apparently about the passing of Johnny Tillotson. I remember locally here in OKC, he would come and be a part of a telethon for a weekend on one of the local stations for MD. Or maybe it was MS, can't remember exactly. This occurred around the years 1959-1963, give or take in January. One of my all time favorites was a record he made in 1959 called TRUE TRUE HAPPINESS. I checked and TRUE TRUE HAPPINESS entered the weekly survey for the week of July 22, 1959 at the bottom of the survey as the PICK HIT OF THE WEEK. And eventually peaked at #14 for the week of August 20, 1959.
Larry
See Clark's note above regarding Johnny's annual telethon appearances.
“True, True Happiness” was a mid-chart hit nationally, peaking at #49 in Cash Box and #54 in Billboard. (It stalled at #77 in Music vendor) It would be another year before he really hit paydirt with “Poetry In Motion,” a #2 hit on all three charts in 1960. (kk)
Here’s a great vintage photo from Timmy …
Johnny Tillotson, Gene Pitney and Brian Hyland backstage, back in the day.
(God, everybody looks so YOUNG!!!)
Johnny and Gene are gone now … but Brian Hyland is still making new music … and coming to Chicago for a concert this summer! (kk)
Speaking of photos, here are a few more from Jim Roup …
Happy Birthday 🎈 🎂! to Emmylou Harris! Seen here with artist/producer Daniel Lanois at The Troubadour club in Los Angeles.
Happy Birthday 🎂🎉 Greetings to Wayne Newton, seen in concert at a Hilton Hotel event. Also having a birthday is Eddie Murphy, filming Beverly Hills Cop 3 in, where else but in Beverly Hills, California.
Jim Roup
Hey Kent,
Not sure if you're aware, I'm working on a book of radio station surveys that were issued from 1965 to 1970 ... expect to have it out in May. I've already published books covering 1955-1960 and 1960-1965 and am attaching info on both with this email.
While researching WLAV in Grand Rapids, Michigan for its entry in the book, I came across an interesting study called "R-E-S-P-E-C-T: The Role of Race, Gender, and Radio Consultants on Radio Airplay in 1960s Chicago, IL and Grand Rapids, MI." It outlines how those stations were programmed in the 1960s. Here's an excerpt:
Interestingly, the Grand Rapids station WGRD did not play 17 songs by black artists that peaked at #1 nationally. Those songs include Hit the Road Jack by Ray Charles, Pony Time and The Twist by Chubby Checker, Save The Last Dance For Me by The Drifters, and one of the most recognizable songs from the 1960s, Respect by Aretha Franklin. Respect was not played by WLAV either.
Here's the link:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10691898.2018.1506953#abstract
I thought this was some interesting insight that you and your readers might find useful.
Also, if it's within your standards, could you please mention the survey books? Radio survey enthusiasts, I think, would find them interesting. Will keep you in the loop regarding the third volume.
Enjoying your blog. I read it every Friday.
Best wishes,
Carl Mann
Cedar Rapids, IA
Hey Carl, great to hear from you –
I've mentioned your books and provided links a few times already -
I'm a big chart collector as well (and I know Clark Besch is a major fan of your work and he has "talked them up" in our pages as well.)
WLS definitely slighted Black artists in the '60's - big national hit records only peaking in the lower region of their Top 20 – and often not even added to the playlists until (or unless) they became big Top Ten hits nationally … quite surprising, really as Chicago has a VERY large Black population (but they also had their own major radio station to listen to back then - THOSE would be some interesting charts to review!)
Happy to continue to spread the word about the new volumes! (kk)
>>>I just finished listening to Fred Winston Part 2 on Rewound Radio and absolutely loved it. Fred has always been one of my favorite radio personalities. Unfortunately, I missed Part 1 last week as I was on a cruise in Asia. If you happen to know of anyone who recorded part one, could you send it to me using a link on Google drive? It saddens me that I missed part one, but you are my only hope of hearing it. I thank you for everything you do for all of us fans of "Forgotten Hits" who absolutely love the work you do for us keeping our memories alive. (Bill Tietz)
>>>I don't personally have a copy ... but am putting it out to the list to see if we can snag you a copy ... so don't give up hope ... the folks on our list LOVE these kinds of programs ... and I'm sure SOMEBODY out there has a copy of Part One that they'd be willing to share. Stay tuned! (kk)
Hello Kent,
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
I successfully downloaded Fred Winston from the link you so graciously sent me and trimmed it up with Audacity. I listened to it this morning and it was wonderful both in quality and, of course, content.
I attached the WLS song intros as promised. I may have sent them to you a long time ago. My memory just isn't what it used to be.
Thanks again for the link and above all, for your website. You bring a lot of joy into so many of our lives with all the hard work you do on Forgotten Hits.
Sincerely,
Bill Tietz
I’ve heard these types of intros before, but I really don’t remember WLS doing this … and I know I was still listening in 1971 and 1972. That being said, they’re really quite awful!!! (lol) But thanks for sending … sharing here with the group.
A big thank you to Ted Smucker for helping us out with copies of the program … they are much appreciated.
Fred has always been one of my favorites … I always felt he was underappreciated and never really got his due … but to my mind, he’s one of the greats. Hopefully, several other Rewound Radio listeners got to discover this great talent thanks to the recent DJ Hall Of Fame feature. I heard he was quite touched by it as well. (kk)
Hi Kent,
Well, it’s been a week since we concluded with Part 2 of our Rewound Radio DJ Hall of Fame featuring Fred Winston. My co-producer Bill Shannon and I have heard from radio fans from across the nation … slightly mirroring the original nighttime pattern of WLS. We sometimes forget that “The Big 89” had listeners from nearly coast to coast after the sun went down, so it’s a reminder that its fans are not limited to Chicago and the Midwest.
Back to our story … we heard from a number of Fred’s WLS co-workers, such as Tommy Edwards, Chuck Knapp, Chuck Britton, Lyle Dean, Chuck Buell and Kris Erik Stevens. Comments included, “AMAZING!,” “I remember this about Fred,” “It took me right back to wonderful memories,” “Excellent quality and great presentation,” and many references to the legendary reverb on WLS. Longtime fans of Fred mentioned that they loved hearing the very early shows from him from back in Dayton, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Other folks appreciated Fred’s later works on stations following WLS. One commenter mentioned that he loved hearing “Floyd Diesel” on Country Music WMAQ.
But the comments we appreciated most came from Fred Winston himself. Fred was humbled and honored that we took the time to feature his days on the radio. He called me just 15 minutes after the first episode aired and thanked us for putting that tribute together. He mentioned that his friends were coming out of the woodwork, sharing old stories and memories from working with him at WLS and other stations. I then had the privilege of Fred going in depth on some very funny behind-the-scenes meetings, as well as learning of some “complications” due to comments he made on the radio.
Regardless of whether you were a longtime listener or someone who was recently introduced to Fred Winston, his talent and versatility are highly revered. Today’s music radio is void of spontaneous personalities such as Fred's, and when you hear those original shows played back many years later, you realize now what is missing. As Joni Mitchell once sang, “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.”
Ted Gorden Smucker
A great review of Herb Alpert’s new Tijuana Brass / Whipped Cream concert tour. (Makes you wanna go, doesn’t it?!?!) kk
Bruce Springsteen is releasing a 7-album set of previously unreleased material.
True to it’s name, “Tracks II: The Lost Albums, 1983 – 2018, is a treasure-trove of material for serious Boss fans. Release date is June 27th and the package will be available as either a 7 CD or 9 LP set, each coming with a 100 page, cloth-covered, hard-bound book chronicling the origins and original intentions of these records.
Lots more info here: https://theseconddisc.com/2025/04/03/bruce-springsteen-tracks-2/
Speaking of new releases, The Fifth Estate (those crazy guys who scored a hit with “Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead” back in 1967) are back with a new release called “Then And Now.” (I guess they didn’t want anybody confusing it with “The Last Beatles Single” that came out last year! Lol)
Seriously, though, as we’ve shown you NUMEROUS times over the years, The Fifth Estate were a WHOLE lot more than a novelty act … they were a hard-rockin’ garage band that also delved into psychedelia and other rock genres over the years … and kudos to these guys for keeping it going for all these years.
From our buddy Ken “Furvus” Evans, “There should be all kinds of places online where you can listen to it” … so be sure to check it out. (kk)
Timmy sent us this GREAT ad for a days-of-old Monkees contest that we had to share!
>>>And on Monday (4/7), don't miss our one-on-one interview with John Cafferty!
Cafferty is a sensational guy. I was programming a couple of radio stations in Providence at the time of Eddie and Cruisers and was happy to support our local RI band that deserved the national recognition!
Tom Cuddy
We All Know What A Great Job you Do With FORGOTTEN HITS …
How About Putting Together A Top 10 List Of The Worst Things That Happened To You? Like The Story You Just Told Us About Johnny Tillotson. You Know How Much I Love Countdowns!
FB
The Johnny Tillotson story is one of my all-time favorites … a humbling experience, for sure! Fortunately, there haven’t been too many others quite like it! (Well, except maybe that one time Peter Noone told me to Fuck Off!!!) kk
