March 15th

Chart Movers earning bullets this week include "Western Union" by The Five Americans (up 23 places from #67 to #44), "Sweet Soul Music" by Arthur Conley, up from #80 to #58, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" by The Buckinghams, which climbs 24 places from #93 to #69 and "For He's The Jolly Good Fellow" by Bobby Vinton, up to #75 from #99.  (Does ANYBODY even remember this recording???)  

Tommy Roe and Sopwith Camel are back on "Where The Action Is".  

George Harrison begins recording the then-untitled "Within You, Without You".  It will ultimately bump the intended inclusion of his track "Only A Northern Song" from the "Sgt. Pepper" album.  No other Beatles appeared on this track, which was recorded exclusively by George along with numerous Indian musicians.  

Today is The Ides Of March, 1967 ... and although the group from Berwyn, Illinois, continued to record for Parrot Records well into 1967, none of these records made the national or local charts.

Here's one that absolutely should have ... it stands up there with their very best work ... "My Foolish Pride" from 1967. (Unique, too, for its early use of horns, something that would put them on top of the charts a few years later with the HUGE national hit "Vehicle".)  Notice, too, a similar guitar intro to the Jimi Hendrix song "Purple Haze" ... which wouldn't come out here in The States for another five months!  Hmm ... kinda makes you wonder ... which came first?!?!?  (Honestly, this track sorta feels like The Jimi Hendrix Experience Meets The Baja Marimba Band, no???)  All I know is this is a GREAT track that deserved a FAR better fate than it got!  It ranks amongst my all-time favorite Ides Of March tracks!

I've never seen The Ides Of March perform this song live ... but I think it would make a GREAT addition to their set list ... it really is unlike anything else they've ever done.
(You can catch our week-long, in-depth tour through The Ides Of March box set simply by scrolling back to July 7th of 2015 and then working your way forward from there.  Here's a quick link to take you there:  http://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-ides-of-march-50th-anniversary-box.html)

Don Kirshner files a $35.5 million dollar lawsuit against Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, Columbia Pictures' President Abe Schneider, Screen Gems' Executive Vice President Jerry Hyams and Monkees television show creator Bert Scheider, claiming breach of contract and conspiracy behind is discharge from all things Monkees-related on February 27th.

*****

While The Ides Of March failed to chart in 1967, that didn't mean they were sitting home twiddling their collective thumbs.

In fact, they recently came across an amateur recording of a Labor Day Concert that The Ides did on September 2nd, 1967, at Father Cornell's Corpus Christi Church in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.

Here's a shot of the glamorous stage at Corpus Christi Church in Sturgeon Bay where the Ides of March played the show you are hearing excerpts of on September 2nd, 1967. Thanks to Bill Knipfer for the recordings and the photos!
This was a lost chapter in Ides live history.  
Jimbo 

The recording was made by Bill Knipfer, a high school student, of Sturgeon Bay, who recorded it on his Sony model 530.  (Jim Peterik would like to thank Sherrill Blackman for hooking us up with Bill.)

In Jim's words, "It's rough - but the Ides are all there with harmony and vibe."  (It IS a little rough ... but for historic value alone, not to mention the sheer rarity that a tape like this still exists, definitely makes it worth a listen!)

Larry Millas of The Ides remastered and mixed the fifty year old tapes and the final results will appear on "The Ides Of March Lost Tapes, Volume 2", due out later this spring ... but we've got the World Premier right here in Forgotten Hits!

How fitting that we're featuring The Ides Of March ON The Ides Of March!!!

March 14th

The new Beatles videos for "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" are shown on "Where The Action Is".  

The body of President John F. Kennedy was moved to its permanent home (just a few feet away from his original burial site) in Arlington National Cemetery.

DIDJA KNOW:   William Taft is the only other U.S. President interred at Arlington National Cemetery.

March 13th

Horns are added to The Beatles' recording of "Good Morning, Good Morning", courtesy of the group Sounds, Incorporated, who toured America with The Beatles as one of their back-up acts in 1964 and 1965.  

Also recorded on this date:  "Sunday Will Never Be The Same" by Spanky and Our Gang (recorded at Bell Sound Studios in New York City, despite their being a Chicago band) and "Lay Some Happiness On Me" by Dean Martin, recorded at United Recording Studios in Hollywood, California.

March 12th

It only took The Beatles four weeks to reach the top of the chart with their latest, "Penny Lane".  (During that time it climbed from #62 to #28 to #6 to #1).  "Ruby Tuesday" by The Rolling Stones holds at #2 for the third week in a row (after a week of its own in the #1 position) and The Turtles make BIG inroads on their way to the top of the chart with their latest, "Happy Together", leaping from #11 to #3 this week.  

"Baby I Need Your Lovin'" loses some steam for Johnny Rivers, falling from #3 to #4 this week … and The Supremes fall all the way from #1 to #7.  The only other new entry into The Top Ten belongs to The Mamas and The Papas, who climb from #15 to #10 with their latest, "Dedicated To The One I Love".  

Big movers within The Top 40 this week include "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield (up to #12 from #19), "I Think We're Alone Now" (up ten places from #29 to #19 for Tommy James and the Shondells), "California Nights" by Lesley Gore, cracking the Top 20 at #20 (up from #27), "The Return Of The Red Baron" by The Royal Guardsmen, which continues its climb up the chart from #30 to #21, a HUGE leap for Petula Clark, who jumps from #51 to #24 (that's 27 places) with "This Is My Song", "The 59th Street Bridge Song" by Harper's Bizarre (up 22 spots from #48 to #26), "Jimmy Mack" by Martha and the Vandellas (up to #27 from #46), "I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)" by Aretha Franklin, up to #29 from #53, "Bernadette" by The Four Tops, up 31 places from #61 to #30 and "Beggin'" by The Four Seasons, who climb fifteen spots from #50 to #35.  

The Monkees continue their stranglehold on the top of the LP chart as "More Of The Monkees" earns its sixth week in the #1 spot.  

Speaking of albums, a brand new release is virtually ignored when "The Velvet Underground And Nico" hits record store shelves.  It would take years for them to become the cult heroes they later became.  

Number One at the Box Office:  How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying

March 11th

The New Vaudeville Band appear on The Hollywood Palace performing their former #1 Hit "Winchester Cathedral" along with their brand new single "Peek-A-Boo".  

Northern Songs, who publishes The Beatles' songs written by the song-writing team of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, announce that in the eighteen months since The Beatles first recorded it, their song "Yesterday" has now been recorded by 448 other artists.  

Billboard Magazine publishes a three-page article regarding The Monkees' sudden success in Europe.

Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March tell us ...

The Buckinghams achieved the distinction of having two singles debut on two different labels on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on the same day -- March 11, 1967. On that date, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" on the U.S.A. label and "Don't You Care" on the band's new label, Columbia, both hit the chart. "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" (spelled Laudy Miss Claudy" on some pressings), an energetic horn-driven celebration of Lloyd Price's 1952 R&B hit, peaked at No. 41 and was on the chart for six weeks. "Don't You Care" went higher and stayed longer -- reaching No. 6, with a 14-week run on the chart. 

Saxophonist Clifford Scott, who played for R&B great Bill Doggett on his 1956 hit "Honky Tonk," had influenced the musical tastes of Buckinghams saxophone and piano player Marty Grebb. "Where I grew up, if you couldn't play that song, you couldn't be in the good bands," he told authors Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March for the Buckinghams chapter in their book "Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone? Volume 2." Marty continued, "I still have an autograph from Bill Doggett from when I was 16. He took music in a certain direction from where it was and he filled a gap; he crossed over from sort of a swing-jazz thing into an R&B thing that created a certain step toward rock and roll."

 

March 10th

Sonny and Cher appear on tonight's episode of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.  

Earlier this afternoon The Hardly Worth It Players appear on "Where The Action Is" to perform their novelty hit / Senator Bobby version of "Wild Thing".  

The very first Pink Floyd single is released in England, where it peaks at #20 on the UK Singles Chart.  "Arnold Layne" goes absolutely nowhere here in The States, however ... but the band will go on to become one of the most influential artists in music.  Their 1973 album release, "Dark Side Of The Moon", would stay on Billboard's Top 200 Album Chart for 741 weeks, a little over fourteen years.  

Hardly considered a "singles band", they did, in fact, score two Top Ten Hits here in The States, including the #1 Single "Another Brick In The Wall" in 1980.  Back home in Great Britain, after a follow-up 1967 single called "See Emily Play" peaked at #6, they wouldn't hit the singles chart again until 1979 with the aforementioned "Brick" from their #1 LP "The Wall".  (Apparently "Money", a #10 US Hit, wasn’t released as a single in The UK.)

March 9th

You've got to look all the way down to #71 to find this week's top debut … it's "Wade In The Water" by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.  Other notable newbies include "Detroit City" by Tom Jones, premiering at #77, Arthur Conley's soon to be soul classic "Sweet Soul Music", which debuts at #80, "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" by The Buckinghams, released by USA Records trying to capitalize on their recent #1 Hit "Kind Of A Drag" (still in The Top Ten at #7 … meanwhile The Bucks have already signed a bigger deal with Columbia Records, a major label that will take them out to New York to record their next album and single) and (speaking of trying to cash in on some recent success), Challenge Records has released a solo record by Micky Dolenz of The Monkees, recorded before he joined the group … "Don't Do It" debuts at #83 this week on our Super Chart.  

The Monkees win big today at the National Association of Record Merchandisers Awards (NARM) Ceremony, besting The Beatles for most "calculated sales" for best selling album, best selling single and best selling American vocal group.  (Not bad for a bunch of actors pretending to be musicians!)  The group is in the studio this evening working on "You Told Me" and "I'll Spend My Life With You" for their next album.  

The Beatles begin recording "It's Getting Better" for their new album.  

In the wee hours of the morning, Elvis Presley falls in the bathroom, causing yet another delay in the filming of his next motion picture, "Clambake".

March 8th

Buffalo Springfield ("For What It's Worth") and Bobby Rydell ("Forget Him") perform on "Where The Action Is".

Here's a great stereo version of my favorite Bobby Rydell track ...

A Top 20 Hit here in Chicago ...

And the local acts are out in full force this week, too ...

You'll find The Cryan' Shames, The Riddles (sounding an awful lot like The Cryan' Shames and their hit "Sugar And Spice"), The New Colony Six, The Flock and The Buckinghams all represented on this week's charts.







And check out a few of these recent novelty hits that charted well here in Chicago.  (Rumor has it that "Mechanical Man" by Bent Bolt is actually singer Teddy Randazzo ... while George Carlin is nearly as famous for the seven words you CAN'T say as he is for what he actually said along the way!!!)  "Mairzy Doats" dates back to the 1940's ... but this revival by Innocence (while not a big national hit) performed quite well here in Chicago.)

March 7th

Other big movers on the chart this week include "The Dis-Advantages Of You" by The Brass Ring, up from #50 to #41, "Jimmy Mack" by Martha and the Vandellas, which climbs from #60 to #46, "Sit Down, I Think I Love You" by The Mojo Men, up nine places from #56 to #47, "The 59th Street Bridge Song" by Harper's Bizarre, which moves from #63 to #48, "Beggin'" by The Four Seasons, last week's top debut, climbing nineteen places from #69 to #50, "This Is My Song" by Petula Clark (up from #77 to #51, a move of 26 positions), "I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)" by Aretha Franklin, up 28 places from #81 to #53, "Dry Your Eyes" by Brenda and the Tabulations, which climbs eighteen spots from #78 to #60, "Bernadette" by The Four Tops, leaping 38 places from #99 to #61, "Travelin' Man" by Stevie Wonder, up from #98 to #63, "The Loser (With A Broken Heart)" by Gary Lewis and the Playboys, leaping from #100 to #66, a jump of 34 places, "Western Union" by The Five Americans, climbing 22 spots from #89 to #67 and "Kansas City" by James Brown, up 27 spots from #95 to #68.  

Actress Sandra Dee is granted a divorce today from her husband Bobby Darin.  

The Monkees work on five tracks for their upcoming LP today but only one will make the final cut on the album … "Forget That Girl", one of my all-time Monkees favorites.  They'll work on this track some more tomorrow night as well as spend some more time on "Randy Scouse Git".  

Tommy Roe, Don and the Goodtimes and P.J. Proby all appear on "Where The Action Is".  

The musical "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" premiers in New York City.  

Alice B. Toklas, the life partner of writer Gertrude Stein, dies In Paris, France at the age of 90.  

Convicted Teamster Boss Jimmy Hoffa begins an eight year prison sentence at Lewisburg Federal Prison in Pennsylvania for defrauding the union and jury tampering.  President Nixon will commute the sentence on December 23, 1971.  Hoffa disappeared on July 30, 1975 and has never been accounted for since.  He was declared dead "in absentia" seven years later on July 30, 1982.

March 6th

After recording the horns for the "Sgt. Pepper" title track on March 3rd, Paul decided it would be cool to hear this "fictitious band" warming up in the studio prior to the actual start of the song, much as a real orchestra would do prior to beginning their concert.  Although there was no orchestra present that night, they didn't need to look far to find an appropriate orchestral warm up … it had been captured at the session for "A Day In The Life" back on February 10th … so this was simply spliced into the beginning of the track.  The remaining background sounds were taken from the EMI archives, most notably the sounds of audience murmuring, applause and laughter from a 1961 tape called (appropriately enough) "Applause And Laughter".  The screams that are part of the segue into "With A Little Help From My Friends" were borrowed from the then-unreleased live Beatles concert at The Hollywood Bowl!)  

The "Alias Micky Dolenz" episode airs tonight on The Monkees' television series. Songs featured include "The Kind Of Girl I Could Love" and "Mary Mary".  The Monkees will win their timeslot for the sixth consecutive week as this program is watched by over eleven million fans.  

President Lyndon Johnson announces his plan to start a draft lottery.  

Former Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin's only daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva asked for, and was granted, political asylum in the United States.  She approached the United States Embassy in New Delhi, India, and stated her desire to defect in writing.  US Ambassador Chester Bowles offered her political asylum and a new life in The United States and notified Washington "Unless you instruct me to the contrary, I'm putting her on the one am plane for Rome, where we can stop and think the thing through.  I'm not giving her any commitment that she can come to The States.  I'm only enabling her to leave India, and we will see her to some part of the world -- The US or somewhere else -- where she can settle in peace.  If you disagree with this, let me know before midnight."  (India did not want to face any repercussions from The Soviet Union so they sent her to Rome.  From Rome she was sent immediately to a six week tour of Switzerland prior to coming to The United States.  She arrived in New York City on April 21, 1967, and denounced both her father and The Soviet Union during a pre-arranged press conference.)  

Although she soon became a naturalized citizen of the United States (where she became known as Lana Peters), she returned to The Soviet Union in 1984 and thereafter divided her time between Cambridge, England and Richland Center, Wisconsin, (home of our WRCO Radio Buddy Phil Nee!), where she died of complications from colon cancer in November of 2011.

Singer / Actor Nelson Eddy dies at the age of 65 following a stroke.  

Mark Twain Tonight, starring Hal Holbrook, premiers on CBS Television tonight.  

Earlier this afternoon you could catch Neil Diamond ("You Got To Me"), Alvin Cash ("Twine Time") and Steve Alaimo ("The Green Green Grass Of Home") on "Where The Action Is".