The Friday Flash

So this year’s Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Inductees have been announced … 

And, instead of the usual five artists being inducted, The Rock Hall has opted to honor SEVEN artists this year … 

Def Leppard led the pack … also inducted were Stevie Nicks, Janet Jackson, Radiohead, The Zombies, Roxy Music and The Cure … 

Yet they STILL couldn’t find a spot for Todd Rundgren, who finished near the top of the Fan Vote.  (It’s a HUGE snub … even more so when one considers that The Nominating and Voting Committees found that the public would be better served if they inducted Stevie Nicks for a SECOND time rather than give Todd his due once!) 

Billboard opined that the list seemed selectively British this year … and we’ve also covered the point numerous times before about how The Rock Hall evidently doesn’t take the rock artists coming out of Canada very seriously in the scheme of things!  (Once again, The Guess Who have never even been so much as nonimated!!!) 

And FH Reader David Lewis told us that down in Nashville (which is where we're headed), musicians are “especially upset” about Todd being slighted again. 

The induction ceremony will take place in Brooklyn on March 29^th … and air shortly thereafter on HBO and over Sirius XM.  (kk)

kk …

I remember hearing Tony Orlando tell his story that Bobby Darin left him his rhythm section.

Tony Orlando was also with popular DJ Murray The K at the time of his death.

FB

Tony’s biography is a great read … this man has had some incredible highs and lows … and has been able to come back from all of it feeling truly blessed.  Pick up a copy if you get a chance … it’s a very interesting book.  (You’ll also hear how, after helping to kick-start Barry Manilow’s career, he was later blindsided by the artist on a royalties deal.)  kk

Thanks for the write up on my favorite, Tony Orlando! I'm looking forward to seeing him again in January, alas, without Telma and Joyce.

I was at the show in 1977 when he had his breakdown on stage over the death of Freddie Prinze, where he performed with Dawn for the last time for a very long time.

After all these years, he is still a great showman, always giving it his all, always thankful to his fans. His band is amazing - each a star in their own right. The crazy jams are my favorite part - when he gives each of them a time to shine.

Thanks for the pictures and the review!

Eileen Shank

Tony has always had an outstanding band … but they didn’t get to share the spotlight so much this time around … it was all about the music, the holiday spirit and the reunion.  (There was one point where keyboardist / guitarist Kerry Cole sang a verse of “White Christmas” in his Willie Nelson voice that brought a smile to all of our faces … but these guys typically REALLY cook on stage … and you’re absolutely right … Tony has always given them their own spot to shine.  (kk)

Here’s a review we ran on one of Tony Orlando’s show from a few years ago …

https://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2015/07/tony-orlando-live-at-arcada-theatre.html

And a little bit more of what I was talking about on the Manilow / Orlando front …

https://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2015/07/our-recent-reviews.html

And more!

https://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-sunday-comments-05-19-13.html

https://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2010/01/sunday-comments-01-31-10.html

I’m telling you … you could spend MONTHS going thru the Forgotten Hits website catching up on some of the cool stuff we’ve covered over the years!!!  (And this weekend might be a good time to do that since we’ll be out of town and unable to post anything new!)  kk

Hi Kent: 

Thoroughly enjoyed your Tony Orlando & Dawn review today.  And I wanted to thank you for including updates on the station in your past two newsletters.  There’s quite a bit of overlap between your readership and our listenership, I’m seeing, so you’re helping keep them informed.   

It’s interesting to see where people get their news.  When Comcast dropped us (as of December 1), we posted an announcement about that on social media and our home page.  Over a hundred people responded over the next few days.  Yet, I’ve been getting 3-4 notes each day since then from listeners asking, “Why can’t I get you on Comcast?”  Your newsletter is another way of filling the information gap.

Have a great day.

Rick O’Dell

Me-TV-FM

Kent, 

A few observations from the Tuesday evening Brian Wilson Christmas Concert in Sarasota, FL - -  

It never crossed my mind that I would one day hear the entire Beach Boys Christmas album live ... But tonight that’s what happened!  

From Little Saint Nick to Auld Lange Syne.

Plus, a little bit of church. We Three Kings (wise men and women) still seek Jesus …  and a stunning rendition of O Holy Night, beautifully sung by Blondie Chaplin.  

Added to The Man With All the Toys ...  let every heart prepare him room.  

Thank you, Brian, for inviting Jesus to this Christmas party!

Phil

Set-List:

Odds are that by the time you read this this morning we’ll already be on our way to Nashville, TN, for the weekend.  One of the highlights will be seeing Amy Grant and Vince Gill perform their Annual Christmas Show at The Ryman Auditorium Sunday Night.  (This will be our last concert of 2018 … which reminds me … we still have to put together our list of The Top Ten Concerts of 2018 when we get back … so be sure to stay tuned for that!!!)  We'll also meet up with a couple of long-time Forgotten Hits list members ... so this should be a fun fun fun weekend.  (Sorry ... I've still got Phil's Beach Boys comments in my head!)

We also still have to give away copies of Mark Bego’s newly revised Aretha Franklin biography … so if you haven’t entered for your chance to win a copy yet, do it NOW because the deadline will be next Tuesday, December 18^th.  We’ll announce the winners by week’s end!  (kk)

And how about this ...  

Boy, Forgotten Hits is EVERYWHERE this week!!!  

Wednesday Night we watched “The Goldbergs” Fall Finale on ABC … and during the course of that half hour broadcast they showed (in order) the Brook Benton “I Want To Be With You” / Lincoln car commercial … followed by the Elvis impersonators “There’s Always Me” Verizon commercial … and then, during the very next break, an Amazon commercial that features Bunny Siegler’s “Let The Good Times Roll.”  

Then, watching “The Connors” On Demand (man, I am REALLY digging this show … they’ve done some GREAT character development now that Roseanne is out of the way … they did a bit at the bar between John Goodman and Katy Sagal, who were making plans to go to Ravinia (a very popular outdoor music venue here in Chicago) to see “a bunch of oldies bands” … or at least “what’s left of them” … like Gladys Knight and the Pip … The Two Tops … a Righteous Brother … and One Dog Night!  (Boy, how many times have we covered THIS topic?!?!)  There’s also a nice shout-out to Baby Huey and the Babysitters and their non-hit single “Messin’ With The Kid.”  (Now how cool is THAT?!?!?)  

Good clean fun with some great music references this week on ABC!  (kk)  

Check out this YouTube link …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UR1f9Ef8C4

One of the comments says “The Connors brought me here”!!! (Too funny!)

More and more being said every day about the banning of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” … FH Reader Frank B sent us these two cartoons he saw on Facebook …

Even Rolling Stone Magazine has gotten in on the action …

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/baby-its-cold-outside-controversy-holiday-song-history-768183/

kk …

Dino's back on the charts.

Frank B.

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/8489768/dean-martin-let-it-snow-first-hot-100-entry-50-years?fbclid=IwAR0kJqFhrPiePGqXSv3J35JZppc6LnAmDEn7jbpZzy_6fK4UTP8q-n7ikN0

Yep!  In fact, we scooped Billboard Magazine with their own chart this week by about seven hours when we ran our list of Christmas Music making a comeback in this week’s Hot 100 list!  (How the heck did THAT happen?!?!)

Because the first thing I did Tuesday Morning was check the new Hot 100 Listing to see where Christmas Music fell on this week’s chart. I posted my findings right around 6:30 am … and Billboard didn’t release their OWN findings until 1:30 PM … so, incredible as it may sound, we beat them to the punch!!!  (kk)

This person may not mean a lot to the folks who were *fans* of pop music in the 60s and 70s, but he did help a lot of *makers* of pop music who were making the scenes.  The host of the Upbeat Show (based in Cleveland, but quickly syndicated around the country), Don Webster, has passed away on Thursday 12/13 at the age of 79. 

This article here (includes last TV performance of Otis Redding, days before his fatal plane crash):  https://www.cleveland.com/news/2018/12/don-webster-one-of-clevelands-most-popular-tv-personalities-has-died-at-79.html

-- Tim Kiley

“Upbeat” was must viewing for fans of ‘60’s music … we have covered this program many times in the past … in fact, we even pushed to have some of these vintage video released again so that the public could see them again for the first time in decades!  (I know they license clips … at a premium rate, I might add … for musical documentaries and such … but it’s the REAL fans out there who want to see them … and not just some 20-second edited clip either!  Most of our Chicagoland Local Heroes appeared on this program one time or another, too.  The musical guest list over the years is out of this world … literally, a Who’s Who of talent.  (kk)

CONCERT REVIEW: Tony Orlando And Dawn - The Arcada Theatre - St. Charles, IL - December 11th, 2018

As Tony Orlando told us Tuesday Night at The Arcada Theatre, he has spent the past 58 years of his life in show business.  Some artists last 58 days ... some 58 minutes ... but Orlando has been able to sustain a successful career doing what he loves best ... and that longevity is not lost on him as he looks back over a pretty remarkable career.

Tony had his first chart hit at the ripe old age of 17 in 1961 when "Halfway To Paradise" (#17 Cash Box / #39 Billboard) and "Bless You" (#11 Music Vendor / #15 Billboard) reached The National Top 20.  (In fact, Forgotten Hits Favorite Bobby Darin was an early mentor.)

First marketed as a teen idol, Orlando wouldn't have another Top 20 Hit for nearly ten years.  (As a "ghost vocalist" on the 1969 hit "Make Believe," released under the band name Wind, he would hit #17 in Record World / #28 in Billboard) ... and he filled those in-between years working in other areas of the record business to make ends meet and keep his foot in the door, singing jingles, doing promotional work for the labels (and a guy by the name of Clive Davis) and helping young artists get their start in show business.  (Barry Manilow, anyone???)

Along the way, he pretty much learned all the ins and outs of the record business ... but NOTHING could have prepared him for the success he would enjoy after teaming up with two young soulful background singers, Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent, in the group Dawn.  (When asked after the concert how they came up with the name "Dawn," Tony explained that it was a very calculated move.  They had learned that one of the big record company executives at Bell Records, who had signed the group, had a daughter named Dawn ... and they figured that if their band also had that same name, he just might push a little bit harder to make them successful.)

It worked.  Their first two singles, "Candida"* (1970) and "Knock Three Times"* (1971) both went straight to #1, selling millions of copies.  More Top 20 Hits followed ("I Play And Sing," #20, 1971; "Summer Sand," #19, 1971; "Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose*," #3, 1973; "Who's In The Strawberry Patch With Sally," #13, 1973; "Steppin' Out (Gonna Boogie Tonight)," #7, 1974; "Look In My Eyes Pretty Woman," #11, 1975; "Mornin' Beautiful," #14, 1975 along with two more #1 Hits, "Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round The Ole Oak Tree*" (1973) and "He Don't Love You (Like I Love You")*, 1975.  They also hosted a very successful hit television variety series, which ran from 1974 to 1976.  

The trio split up in 1977 and have only done a handful of reunion shows since ... but this full-blown reunion was woven around a Christmas Program Theme. (In fact, a good 80% of the songs featured Tuesday Night was Holiday Music.)  [Songs shown above with an asterisk* were the hits from their own catalog that they performed Tuesday Night.]

Accentuating the positive ... (because I will admit that there were a few cringe-inducing moments where I was hoping that Santa would bring the trio an auto-tune machine this year for Christmas!) ... it was a VERY touching and moving show.  You could feel that the love between these three performers was genuine ... and that they were truly appreciative of the fans and the success that they've all enjoyed over the years ... and will forever treasure the memories.  (Truth be told, I never watched their show ... it was a little bit too cornball for a hip 20 year old kid like me ... but the ratings were stupendous.  Still, I understood and appreciated the significance and importance of this reunion ... and wouldn't have missed it for the world.  Tony Orlando and Dawn were, without question, one of the most popular and successful music acts of the '70s.)

Telma Hopkins, who has never really been off television since ... and will be starring in TWO new Netflix series next year, said that their debut program attracted an incredible 39 million viewers!  And Joyce Vincent, who probably had the strongest and most consistent vocals throughout the night's performance, just got back from England where she now performs as a member of the current line-up of The Supremes ... having come full circle after singing background vocals on SO many Motown hits of the day back in the late 1960's.

We've seen Tony Orlando a couple of times before and he always puts on an entertaining show ... the guy's a seasoned pro ... so there was no way we were going to risk missing what likely will be a once-in-a-lifetime reunion at this stage of the game.  (They had a ball ... I kept thinking that they should have filmed the entire show to air as a Christmas special on television ... it would have been a welcome return for such a prime act ... and probably a ratings bonanza!)  

VERY special thanks to Arcada CEO Ron Onesti for having us as his guests for this very special, one-of-a-kind performance ... and to Arcada Theatre House Photographer Luciano Billotti for sharing these great photos with our readers from this very special event.  (kk)

More Of Your Mid-Week Comments

Thanks for the story on the car commercial that uses that obscure Brook Benton track. I've seen it several times and figured the singer had to be Brook but could never figure out the name of the song. 

Santiago Paradoa

It’s not a bad track!  (kk)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LchvmRf3Nw    

I think what's happening with obscure songs popping up on current commercials is that the people producing them are from a generation not locked into only appreciating the songs that were most popular from their personal youth memory bank, but are embracing what they like of older songs.  They also could have heard them when entire albums were played on home stereo systems, which is less likely to happen now.  You could likely take one week of any albums popular up thru the 80s and play them; and younger people who've never heard them would go nutz with joy and rush to buy them. 

I'm glad Brook Benton is still being discovered ... always liked him. 

Thanx for keeping on keeping on.  R&R forever!

Patti   

Kent,

Thanks for posting the information on Brook Benton doing the background music on the Chrysler commercial. What gets me is that I've heard this commercial many times on television but somehow I could not come up with Benton's name as singing it. I knew the artist, but it was one of those that was "on the tip of my tongue".

I agree with Tony's assessment in that I wonder who and how these people come up with these songs to be used in these ads. I did some checking and this song came from an LP by Benton called MOTHER NATURE, FATHER TIME, the title track from which was released as a single on RCA.

Even though Brook Benton had a lot of famous songs in the past, I WANNA BE WITH YOU was not one of his HIT RECORDS.

Larry Neal

In all, Benton made The National Top 40 an incredible 31 times … but the only one of those hits you’re likely to hear today is “Rainy Night In Georgia” from 1970 … and that’s a shame.  (kk)

kk …

12/12/2018 = This is the first song Scott Shannon played on WCBS-FM.

Everybody is getting in on the act.

With all this attention, I wonder if this song will make it back on the Billboard Chart?

FB

Idina Menzel with Special Guest Michael Buble on Xfactor Dec 7 2014 - YouTube:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS9J775vacg

That wouldn’t surprise me at all … in which case the people will have spoken! 

Incredibly on this week’s chart, Wham’s “Last Christmas” made The Top 40 for the very first time! 

Now part of that is due to the fact that Billboard has been charting Christmas music separately for decades now … but due to the new criteria, if downloads and youtube views increase substantially, all of a sudden these Christmas Classics have been given a new life.

This week’s Hot 100 shows “All I Want For Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey at #7; “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” by Andy Williams at #16; “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee at #21; “Have A Holly Jolly Christmas” by Burl Ives at #22; “Jingle Bell Rock” by Bobby Helms at #26; “The Christmas Song” by Nat King Cole at #29; “Last Christmas” by Wham at #34; “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” by Gene Autry at #36 and “Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow” by Dean Martin at #41.  That’s NINE songs in the Top 41 … begging the question once again … if all this great variety can be played side-by-side at Christmas time, why can’t that same philosophy hold true throughout the rest of the year.

This has been our argument for YEARS now … and I guess Me-TV-FM is finally proving that it CAN.  (kk)

And, speaking of Me-TV-FM …

Lots of Me-TV-FM news this week.

The other day we told you about a new podcast where Neal Sabin and Rick O’Dell discuss the station’s evolution and programming strategy.

And about ten days ago we told you how the simulcast broadcast on Xfinity / Comcast had been dropped.  (They had been Channel 877 for years.)

Well apparently public outcry has been so strong (both in comments directed to the radio station and the cable company) that some “reconsiderations” may be in order.

Robert Feder tells us more here:

https://www.robertfeder.com/2018/12/11/robservations-may-hope-tv-fm-returning-comcast/?utm_source=new%20post%20alert&utm_medium=email&utm_content=main%20content&utm_campaign=%2F2018%2F12%2F11%2Frobservations-may-hope-tv-fm-returning-comcast%2F

kk …

The Royal Philharmonic strikes again.

I haven't heard about this one, till now.

FB

https://shop.carpentersofficial.com/products/carpenters-with-the-royal-philharmonic-orchestra-limited-edition-lp-signed-litho?variant=16145070555209

WE told you about it at least three weeks ago!  (See ... this is why you have to read Forgotten Hits every day!!!) 

Sorry, but I’ve got NO interest in this one …

Unless they do a Beach Boys follow-up, I think I’m done on the Royal Philharmonic remakes.  (In fact, if you want my copy of the second Roy Orbison pairing, let me know and I’ll drop it in the mail to you … that’s something I know I’ll never listen to again!)  kk

We’ve had a GREAT response to our Mark Bego / Aretha Franklin book give away.

We’ll continue to accept entries through the middle of next week.  (We’re off to Nashville for a long, four-day weekend so we’ll start tabulating again when we get back next Tuesday ... and then pick our winners by next Friday, the 21^st.)

If you’re interested, all you need to do is drop me an email at kk@forgottenhits.com … put “Aretha Book” in the subject line … and include your name and mailing address … and we’ll throw your entry into the hat.

It’s really as simple as that …

Although a little bit of begging is ALWAYS appreciated …

DID I WIN?!  DID I WIN?!!

AM I THE NINTH CALLER?!!!

OR THE NINTH EMAILER?!!!!

I'M SO EXCITED!!   I'VE NEVER WON ANYTHING BEFORE!!!!

I READ YOU ALL THE TIME!!!!!

FORGOTTEN HITS IS MY FAVORITE, YOU KNOW, WHATEVER IT IS, IT'S JUST EPIC!!!!!!!!!

CHUCK BUELL

Hi Kent-

Happy Anniversary to you and my daily lunchtime blog read ...

Forgotten Hits is the best!

Mike Lane

Minneapolis, MN