What are the chances???
Fans taking The Magical Mystery Bus Tour thru Liverpool yesterday had a chance encounter with Paul McCartney, who just happened to be driving by in a passing car.
But wait ... it gets even better than this ...
Paul rolled down his window to greet the fans ... and then show them that he was currently face-timing with Ringo Starr at that exact moment!!!
(Photo: Neil Morton, the tour bus driver):
The Magical Mystery Tour is Liverpool’s original Beatles sightseeing tour. Established in 1983 by Cavern City Tours, the owners of the world‑famous Cavern Club, it has played a pioneering role in shaping the Beatles tourism industry, offering scheduled tours to all the key sites in Beatles / Liverpool folklore.
It had to be a one in a billion chance happening ... imagine being onboard for the momentous occasion! (kk)
The new Rolling Stones album “Foreign Tongues” went to #1 in the UK in its second week on the chart. It became their 15th album to top the British album chart, which ties them with The Beatles for second place on the all-time list.
Wait … what?!?! SECOND place?!?!? Who comes in ahead of The Beatles and The Stones on the UK chart???
Would you believe Robbie Williams?!?!
Robbie scored his 16th #1 LP across the pond earlier this year. (Here in The States, he’s had ZERO #1 LP’s. In fact, his highest charting album to date, “The Heavy Entertainment Show,” peaked at #100 in 2016.)
For the record, The Beatles have topped the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart 19 times, which is enough to lead the pack. (They also lead the list with 20 #1 Singles.) The Stones trail them with only nine #1 LP’s: Out of Our Heads (1965), Sticky Fingers (1971), Exile on Main St. (1972), Goats Head Soup (1973), It's Only Rock 'n Roll (1974), Some Girls (1978), Emotional Rescue (1980), Tattoo You (1981) and Hackney Diamonds (2023). As I type this, “Foreign Tongues” sits at #7, where it premiered this week. Now that could quickly change, I suppose, but will it hit #1??? That still remains to be seen. (kk)
Hi there Kent,
If you were in the Boston area like I was, you would have heard this song a whole lot. Bend It was a major hit in Boston and both AM top 40 stations, WBZ and WMEX, played that song quite a lot, and it was probably also played on WRKO FM. But by the time WRKO 680 AM was launched on March 13 of 1967, it would have been a recent oldie. Anyway, this song was never a rare song to me.
The song entered the charts on WMEX 1510 in Boston the week of December 11, 1966, at #25. On December 18th, it rose to #15. During Christmas week, it rose to #12. During the first week of 1967, Bend It went all the way to #3, and that was its highest position on the WMEX survey.
On the chart for the week of January 8, it slipped down one notch to #4. During the week of January 15, the song dropped to #8. That was the final week that Bend It was on the charts on WMEX.
On WBZ, the song entered the charts the same week on December 10 at #24. On December 17, it rose to #17. On the December 24th WBZ survey, Bend It rose to #8. On the December 31 survey, it rose to #4. On the January 7, 1967, survey, the song rose to #3. ON January 14, it slipped down to #6. During the January 21 survey, it slipped a couple of points down to #8, which is pretty respectable for a song that had been on the charts for six weeks. It was still hanging on on the WBZ survey the week of January 27 at #18. It was still on the survey of February 4 at #25.
Even on February 11, the song was still hanging in there at #27. Finally, during the week of February 18, Bend It dropped off the charts.
And yet, even though this song was in the top five on both radio stations in Boston, which was a major radio market, it didn't even make the top 100 in any of the three national trade publications. I guess not very many other U.S. cities shared Boston's enthusiasm for Bend It. This just shows how very different local radio station's surveys were at the time.
During this same time period, both of Boston's top 40 stations were playing a version of Gimme Some Lovin' by the Jordan Brothers which went all the way to #2. I always liked this version much better than the Spencer Davis Group's version, possibly because I heard it first, but to my ears, it was just a better version.
Now WBZ had a top 30 survey and WMEX had a top 25. You may be asking yourself, "Why would WMEX want to have five fewer songs on their survey than their competition?” That's a fair question, but they tied their survey to their frequency of 1510, so they called their survey, the top 15 and 10. So that's why they only had 25 songs on their survey.
There were a couple of interesting differences between the two stations. For example, WMEX had the New Vaudeville Band's version of Winchester Cathedral featured on their survey, but WBZ was playing the New Happiness's version.
Well, for you Bend It fans out there, I hope this has been interesting.
Sam Ward
Due to the heavy competition between our own Top 40 giants, we found that WLS and WCFL often featured different versions of the same songs on their respective surveys. (The first couple that come to mind are “Son Of My Father” by Giorgio (WLS) and Chicory (WCFL) and “Beautiful People” by Bobby Vee (WLS) and Kenny O’Dell (WCFL).
We did a long feature on The Jordan Brothers 20-something years ago in Forgotten Hits. It was the first time I had ever heard of them and/or their version of “Gimme Some Lovin’.” In fact, one of the Jordan Brothers even contacted me about featuring their tune.
I found this after a quick search of the website …
https://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2009/05/gimme-some-lovin.html
And this link will take you to several mentions of The Jordan Brothers (along with quite a few other obscure memories) …
https://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/search?q=jordan+brothers
CBS Sunday Morning ran a piece on Freddy Cannon this morning but I have to wonder … is this insane or another huge CBS mistake?
They played a Freddy song in mentioning his passing on their national Sunday Morning show that I had NEVER heard! "You Know" from 1959. Turns out it was the B side of his hit "Tallahassie Lassie," which reached #6. What the hell did they play this unknown song for him? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDWUE_hNGMw
When I worked with Varese, they did a Freddy greatest hits CD. I told Cary I could supply stuff, but he said Freddy wanted all mono, he owned the tapes, he controlled the booklet info and everything. Partly why he seldom allowed his music for CD comps, I suppose.
A good friend sent me what he considered one of Freddy's rarest songs, even ‘tho the 2-sided A side only DJ copies are easily found.
Below attached is a B side very hard to get on 45 and not on CD. Not sure why as it's good and incorporates his song titles into a look back at Freddy's glory years. The 45 came out in 1972. He even works in a couple of his "whoo"s.
The song was written by Michael Z. Gordon, who also wrote "Out of limits" and the oft recorded (Astronauts, Gary Lewis, etc.) cool A side 45, "Main Street"! Interesting also, MZG was the co-writer of Sagittarius' "Hotel Indiscreet"! He had no idea where the spoken word part came from in the 45 issue. Likely due to the success of such in "My World Fell Down." The LP version did NOT have it.
The A side of the attached is "If You've got the Time," a rewrite of the Miller beer commercial crediting Michael also along with a Miller ad exec for good measure, I suppose. I think they chose the WRONG A side here. Song attached.
"Take Me Back," the B-side of his sole 45 on Metromedia
Clark Besch
No telling how they ended up running such an obscure track ... didn't look like it was their intention since the caption under Freddy's picture said "Palisades Park!" It almost seems like a mistake that nobody on their end caught (or was knowledgeable enough to catch in the first place!)
Freddy was always very proud of the fact that he owned all of his own masters. That’s why it was such a shock when we uncovered a 78 pressing of his demo recorded BEFORE “Tallahassie Lassie” but using essentially the same backing track. Freddy didn’t even have a copy in his own collection … so was VERY pleased to be reunited with it thanks to FH Reader Eric Lee. (kk)
UPDATE: Clark googled (which is now just an automated A.I. response) the reason for selecting "You Know" for the CBS segment ... and here is the response he got ...
- Obscure Selection: "You Know" is a largely unknown B-side track from the single release of his famous breakthrough hit, "Tallahassee Lassie." [1, 2]
- Viewer Backlash: Fans and music historians criticized the segment on platforms like WFMU, pointing out that the show featured a completely obscure song rather than honoring Cannon's massive signature hits like "Palisades Park" or "Tallahassee Lassie". [1, 2, 3]
Odder still that the caption that ran with Freddy's picture said "Palisades Park," which was probably their intended track. Amazing that no one on staff was sharp enough to catch the mistake before letting it go out on the air. (That's always been one of my biggest fears ... who's going to ensure that our music is properly presented to the public once all of us are gone!) kk
During all the years I worked at West Coast Music, Freddy was the sales rep for one of the major labels ... he would come in like once a week or so ... easily one of the nicest guys ever in that business!!!!!
Bill Hayes
Another passing … this from Tom Cuddy …
Joe Melson, 91, Dies; Wrote ‘Only the Lonely’ and Other Hits With Roy Orbison
Freddy Cannon (89) & Joe Melson (91) -- two legends gone now. Despite Joe's great success with Roy Orbison, his composing "Run Baby Run" by Newbeats is better than those. Joe even had ties to the Kansas group, the Classmen, writing and producing this 1967 B side shown below!
Clark
The article above says that Melson wrote over 200 songs with Roy Orbison ... so clearly that is what he was known for ... so I'd consider this one to be a rarity for sure! (kk)
DJ Bobby Jay Said That Cleveland Still Of The Dubs Died Last Night.
FRANK B.
Kent,
I have been neglectful in letting you know about Vern Shank of The Cherry Drops and Flagler Beach radio. He has been hospitalized for almost a month now, having been released and readmitted a week ago. His current condition is that he is on dialysis.
His words ... “My kidneys are shot.” He is also scheduled for open heart surgery as soon as he is stabilized.
Shelley
David Salidor sent me this link regarding author Mark Bego …
https://www.thenyindependent.com/music/1708419/mark-bego-qa-village-people-madonnamichael/
We’ll be running a very special piece with Mark regarding his following The Jacksons on their Victory Tour … more detail to come! (kk)
Kent,
Considering YOU are the pied piper of Forgotten Hits, can you in any way explain HOW “Pied Piper” has risen to #4 in six weeks on Super Chart this week? Don’t get me wrong, the song is OK and maybe top 40 worthy at best, but "Where Were You When I Needed You" is #36 after six weeks (where Pied Piper SHOULD REACH), The Ides Of March are #44, also six weeks in! I guess when you look at the huge number of novelty songs on the chart this week, it tells us anything is possible. Maybe, even, The Cryan’ Shames could reach the Super Charts one day!!! ;)
Clark Besch
The stats are correct … it’s your “guestimation” as to where these songs should land that’s incorrect.
Nationally, “The Pied Piper” peaked at #2 in Record World and at #4 in both Billboard and Cash Box … it wouldn’t be the #36 song in your analogy … “Where Were You When I Needed You” only made it to #26 nationally (again, in Record World) and #28 in Billboard and #33 in Cash Box … so it’s right where it ought to be on The Super Chart. As for The Ides, what SHOULD have been a Top 40 Pop Classic (“You Wouldn’t Listen) only made it to #41 in Record World, #42 in Billboard and #47 in Cash Box.
As for The Cryan’ Shames, you absolutely WILL see them on The Super Charts in the weeks to come. (If you look closely, you’ll see that they premiered this week at #98.) Their first chart hit (“Sugar And Spice”) reached #39 in Record World, #49 in Billboard and #52 in Cash Box. (Odd that ALL of the songs you’re asking about peaked highest in Record World … our Chicago charts must have had a much greater impact in their popularity calculations!!!
Just to keep things on the up and up, I checked each of the weekly charts for these tunes for the week ending July 23rd, 1966, as depicted by this week’s Super Chart and this is what I found:
THE PIED PIPER – BB #4 / CB #5 / RW #3 / SC #4
WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I NEEDED YOU – BB #29 / CB #44 / RW #37 / SC #36
YOU WOULDN’T LISTEN – BB #42 / CB #50 / RW #41 / SC #44
SUGAR AND SPICE – BB #92 / CB #xx / RW #86 / SC #98
All of these tunes seem to rank at a perfect average of the three major trades …
Again, as I have stated for 20+ years now, making The Super Chart the most ACCURATE representation of the music scene at the time, factoring in ALL of the data collected by all three major trades and then publishing the REAL rankings of where these songs fell in the mix of any given week. (kk)
From Harvey Kubernik ...
THE MONKEES COMIC BOOK BOOK TO BE RELEASED ON THE MONKEES’ 60th ANNIVERSARY
“Here we come …
Hey Hey! It’s The Monkees!”
2026 marks the 60th anniversary of The Monkees’ first television episode, which aired on NBC TV September 12, 1966. With The Beatles growing up musically and socially, pop music and pop culture was ripe for a new musical force with personality, and some very astute producers created an entertainment entity based around four actors and musicians: Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Mike Nesmith, and Peter Tork. Like any network sitcom or AM radio hit band, the story should’ve ended there, right? Not even close. The songs were too good, the members of the band were too talented and charismatic, and the fan base was too large. Not only didn’t it end there, but the four members continued on as a true band, touring, recording, and winning over new generations of fans. Their legend lives on as new releases come out, and lead singer Micky Dolenz is enjoying another successful national tour.
Not unlike The Beatles, Monkeemania saw the band members gracing the covers of all the teen magazines, with endless merchandise. Out of print and out of circulation for more than half a century, The Monkees’ comic books were iconic pop-culture gems that graced newsstands during the silver age of comics. Alongside classic titles of Superman, Spiderman, and the rest of the DC and Marvel Universes, the Monkees comic books presented readers with the energy and joyous personalities of the foursome, while capturing their likeness and zaniness. At three stories per comic, and at twelve cents a copy, the comics were true treasures for Monkees fans and collectors, each issue delivering the fun, innocence, and good times of the era. However, they have been out of print for nearly six decades and are very scarce.
Other books have been written about the history of The Monkees, and other works have analyzed their sustained popularity, but this book takes one aspect of their history, and depicts the fans' love of their phenomena.
THE MONKEES COMIC BOOK BOOK Reference Book and Price Guide from authors Mark Arnold and Charles F. Rosenay!!!, examines the 17 editions, 16 of which were completely original, and one of which was a reprint. Seventeen celebrities, including a few Monkee superfans and archivists, analyzed and shared their opinions on either specific comic editions, or on The Monkees in general. Included in the list of celebrity contributors are: Butch Patrick, best known as television’s “Eddie Munster,” who appeared in one of the Monkees’ TV episodes; musician/composer (and Monkees songwriter/musical director) Bobby Hart of “Boyce & Hart,” who just recently passed away; Monkees producer Chip Douglas; child actor/singer Paul Peterson; actress Valerie Kairys Venet, who appeared in more Monkees episodes than anyone aside from the Monkees themselves; musician/composer Bill Chadwick, whom many considered to be the “5th Monkee;” actress/singer Deana Martin (Dean Martin’s daughter), who appeared in a Monkees TV episode; child actor Jon (“Lassie”) Provost; film and media maven Jerry Beck; Victor Willis, lead singer of the Village People, who also recently passed away; Monkees author and expert Ed Reilly; and others.
Another dozen notables – from famed DJ Cousin Brucie to rocker Suzi Quatro to rapper Darryl McDaniels (Run DMC) to MTV’s Martha Quinn to musician Thomas Dolby – offer further commentary on the success and unique musical history of The Monkees.
Along with the chapters, readers will not only view examples of how the original comics appeared when they came out from 1966 through 1968, but what they look like now with today's state-of-the-art digitized remastering. The book will also feature unpublished sample master sheets of art, a timeline of the band, an original Monkees comic page designed exclusively for the book, plus a never-before-published interview with the late artist Jose Delbo, who illustrated these treasured Monkees comic books in the mid-sixties. There is a comprehensive index, complete price guide, and a Foreword by a Monkees’ friend and contemporary, singer Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits.
Authors Mark Arnold (Long Title: Looking for the Good Times; Examining the Monkees Songs, One by One and Headquartered: A Timeline of The Monkees Solo Years) and Charles F. Rosenay!!! (The Book of Top 10 Beatles Lists and The Book of Top 10 Horror Lists) have collaborated again to cover the music and memories of The Monkees in this deluxe release. The two authors previously collaborated on another music book, Not Just Happy Together: The Turtles A-Z (AM Radio to Zappa).
A must for Monkees aficionados, pop-culture collectors, and comic book appreciators, THE MONKEES COMIC BOOK BOOK Reference Book and Price Guide, will be enjoyed by fans worldwide. Published by Genius Books, it will be a treat for both first-generation Monkeephiles as well as newer fans who are discovering what the hoopla was all about.
The 320-page deluxe release will be available from Amazon on the exact date of The Monkees’ anniversary, September 12, 2026.
Open the doors to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and to your library to add this book. This Monkees compendium is as unique as The Monkees themselves.
This sound awesome! Can't wait to see a copy! (kk)
From Timmy …
THRIFT SHOP APPAREL OF THE DAY
