Friday, January 13, 2023

FRIDAY the 13th

Here’s something we’ve never done before …

No, it’s not a tribute to horror movies …

It’s looking back at EVERY Friday the 13th during The Top 40 Rock Era!!!

They don’t happen as often as you might think …

Most years only have one or two.

In fact, between 1955 and 1989, a span of 35 years, we had exactly 61 Friday the 13th’s …

And here is the #1 Record for each and every one of them!!!

(I love doing these time sweeps … as they show you just how much music changed over a specific period of time!)

What's especially cool about THIS list is that it is totally random ...

Friday the 13th's fall at different times each year.

For example:  1955, 1958, 1960, 1965, 1966, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1986 and 1988 each only had ONE Friday the 13th all year …

While 1956, 1959, 1970, 1981, 1984 and 1987 each had THREE!!!

You can check out EVERY Friday the 13th #1 Record below ...

May 13, 1955 Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White - Perez Prado 
January 13, 1956 Sixteen Tons - Tennessee Ernie Ford
April 13, 1956 The Poor People Of Paris - Les Baxter
July 13, 1956 The Wayward Wind - Gogi Grant
September 13, 1957 Diana - Paul Anka
December 13, 1957 You Send Me - Sam Cooke
June 13, 1958 The Purple People Eater - Sheb  Wooley
February 13, 1959 Stagger Lee - Lloyd Price
March 13, 1959 Venus - Frankie Avalon
November 13, 1959 Mack The Knife - Bobby Darin
May 13, 1960 Stuck On You - Elvis Presley
January 13, 1961 Wonderland By Night - Bert Kaempfert
October 13, 1961 Hit The Road Jack - Ray Charles
April 13, 1962 Johnny Angel - Shelley Fabares
July 13, 1962 The Stripper - David Rose
September 13, 1963 My Boyfriend's Back - The Angels
December 13, 1963 Dominique - The Singing Nun
March 13, 1964 I Want To Hold Your Hand - The Beatles
November 13, 1964 Baby Love - The Supremes
August 13, 1965 I'm Henry VIII, I Am - Herman's Hermits
May 13, 1966 Monday, Monday - The Mamas and the Papas
January 13, 1967 I'm A Believer - The Monkees
October 13, 1967 The Letter - The Box Tops
September 13, 1968 People Got To Be Free - The Rascals
December 13, 1968 Love Child - Diana Ross and the Supremes
June 13, 1969 Get Back - The Beatles
February 13, 1970 Venus - Shocking Blue
March 13, 1970 Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon and Garfunkel
November 13, 1970 I'll Be There - The Jackson Five
August 13, 1971 How Can You Mend A Broken Heart - The Bee Gees
October 13, 1972 Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me - Mac Davis
April 13, 1973 The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia - Vicki Lawrence
July 13, 1973 Will It Go Round In Circles - Billy Preston
September 13, 1974 Having My Baby - Paul Anka
December 13, 1974 Kung Fu Fighting - Carl Douglas
June 13, 1975 Thank God I'm A Country Boy - John Denver
February 13, 1976 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover - Paul Simon
August 13, 1976 Don't Go Breaking My Heart - Elton John and Kiki Dee
May 13, 1977 Hotel California - The Eagles
January 13, 1978 How Deep Is Your Love - The Bee Gees
October 13, 1978 Kiss You All Over  Exile
April 13, 1979 I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
July 13, 1979 Ring My Bell - Anita Ward
June 13, 1980 Funkytown - Lipps, Inc.
February 13, 1981 Celebration - Kool and the Gang
March 13, 1981 I Love A Rainy Night - Eddie Rabbitt
November 13, 1981 Private Eyes - Daryl Hall and John Oates
August 13, 1982 Eye Of The Tiger - Survivor
May 13, 1983 Beat It - Michael Jackson
January 13, 1984 Say Say Say - Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson
April 13, 1984 Footloose - Kenny Logins
July 13, 1984 When Doves Cry - Prince
September 13, 1985 St. Elmo's Fire - John Parr
December 13, 1985 Broken Wings - Mr. Mister
June 13, 1986 Live To Tell - Madonna
February 13, 1987 Open Your Heart - Madonna
March 13, 1987 Livin' On A Prayer - Bon Jovi
November 13, 1987 I Think We're Alone Now - Tiffany
May 13, 1988 Wishing Well - Terence Trent D'Arby
January 13, 1989 Every Rose Has its Thorn - Poison
October 13, 1989 Miss You Much - Janet Jackson

Wednesday, January 11, 2023

 


Guitar Legend Jeff Beck has passed away.
 
Ironically, he had just wrapped up a short tour with Actor Johnny Depp, with whom he recorded an album last year ... and who was at his bedside when he died.  (Beck recently contracted viral meningitis and went quickly.)
 
While Beck never ran up a string of hits under his own name, he put his signature on everything he ever played ... and was the guitarists' guitarist.
 
He did a short stint with The Yardbirds, replacing Eric Clapton before being replaced himself by Jimmy Page (who actually recommended him for The Yardbirds gig in the first place) ... and helped pay the bills in the '60's by touring with and doing session work with some of the biggest artists of the day.  His greatest chart success came as a sideman performing on recordings by Donovan ("Goo Goo Barabajagal," #36, 1969) and Rod Stewart ("People Get Ready," #48, 1985.)  A key album cut that also earned him a bit of notoriety would have to be "Beck's Bolero" from 1967.
 
He was one of the most respected guitarists of our era.  He is a two-time Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Inductee, first as a member of The Yardbirds in 1992, and then again as a solo artist in 2009.  Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him as the fifth greatest rock guitarist of all time.  He recruited Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood as members of his Jeff Beck Band and the trio recorded two albums together in the late '60's:  "Truth" and "Beck-ola."  (kk)

Jeff Beck died.
'Nuff Said.
ABC just had a short story and what song did they play?  
FOR YOUR LOVE!  
Jeff did NOT play on that!
Clark Besch

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Tuesday This And That

Good morning, Kent:

Just a minor correction for you and your readers:

Kent wrote:

>>>While Bowie never got the chance to sing with Elvis, he DID do a very memorable duet with Bing Crosby in 1982!  (Several rock critics at the time made the remark "OK ... now I've seen EVERYTHING!!!")  kk

Please don't forget Bing died in October of 1977. The duet was recorded just prior to his death for a holiday special that aired for Christmas of that same year. 

Santi Paradoa

Miami, Florida

OMG, do you think the shock of singing with Bowie is what killed him?!?!
Sorry … totally my bad …

I checked Joel Whitburn’s Top Pop Singles book as I didn’t think their holiday duet ever charted …

And it absolutely shows the year as 1982, so I just went with it without checking … so shame on me for that.

If it’s even possible that anyone out there hasn’t seen this yet, we present it again as part of our post-Christmas cheer (No, we have NOT taken our tree down yet!!!  But last year we left it up until May … so I think we’ll be SLIGHTLY prompter this time around! Lol)  kk

 

 

And have you seen this spot-on tribute put together by Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly???  It'll blow you away.  (kk)

 

Best Classic Bands has collected quotations from some of the biggest names in music history as a way of paying tribute to the impact and influence of Elvis Presley in honor of what would have been The King’s 88th birthday …

https://bestclassicbands.com/elvis-presley-influence-8-15-17/

 

Love your sheet!

One of the things that makes music so special is the fact there is to time limit associated to it … no expiration date …

Music is good whenever and however you discover it …

That’s why hearing a song from the ‘60’s for the very first time today still makes it relevant … not only for every NEW listener … but also for every other person who grew up exposed to it along the way.

In the words of Me-TV-FM, this is what makes this music “timeless and memorable” … no matter WHEN you discover it.  Or, to paraphrase John Sebastian, “the magic’s in the music and the music’s in me.”

Matt

 

Because of our increasingly challenging schedule of late, we didn’t have a chance to plug Clark Besch’s “Strictly ‘60’s” radio program last week …

But if you’d like to hear it, the replay is posted here:

https://wfmu.org/archiveplayer/?show=123206&archive=229252

 

So we watched the 3-Part Soft Rock special on Paramount + this past weekend ...

It covered a lot of ground ... but in many cases only offered a couple of seconds of music by several of the artists it featured ... in between they also squeezed in a few lengthier profiles on several others (The Carpenters, The Captain and Tennille, Air Supply and Rupert Holmes to name just a few.)

I'm not sure that I totally agree with the whole concept that Hip-Hop saved Soft Rock (and begat Yacht Rock.)  In all fairness,  I've never listened to enough Hip-Hop to accurately or objectively comment one way or another ... but Gilbert O'Sullivan suing Biz Markie for sampling "Alone Again (Naturally)" hardly points to a trend of rappers and other contemporary hip hop artists resurrecting the best music of the '70's and early '80's and saving it from extinction.

Still, the special makes the point that Soft Rock had been all but stomped out by the mid-'80's until some of these contemporary artists started feeding it back to us with their own embellishments, supposedly because THEY grew up listening to (and loving) this music when they were still living at home and listening to their parents' record collection!

Hey, it's a good enough excuse to hear some of our soft rock favorites from over the years ... and you'll see David Pack from Ambrosia, LOTS of Air Supply, Dan Hill (whose hit "Sometimes When We Touch" became the title of this expose), the guys from Pablo Cruise, Player, Orleans, Hall and Oates and many more.  (Hey, what happened to Firefall???)

It's currently running On Demand on Paramount + ... and there are worse ways you could blow three hours.  (kk)

 

The new Lily Tomlin / Jane Fonda flick “80 For Brady” (which opens in theaters next month) will feature a new Diane Warren track called “Gonna Be You,” performed by what is being described as “The Ultimate Girl Group.”

Participants include Dolly Parton, Cyndi Lauper, Gloria Estefan, Belinda Carlisle and Debbie Harry!

The film itself depicts four long-time best friends (Tomlin, Fonda, Sally Field and Rita Moreno) who embark on a road trip to watch Tom Brady and the New England Patriots compete in Super Bowl.

The track will become available on Friday, January 20th, while the film opens in theaters the following month.  (kk)

 

Tom Cuddy sent us this new interview with Huey Lewis, who talks about his life today and the status of his hearing loss …

Huey Lewis - The Power of Love | new interview: talks about his hearing loss

https://youtu.be/eKE4PEyFCaQ

 

Here’s one from Chuck Buell for the more “Senior” Forgotten Hitters among us ~~~


Do you remember what Lawrence Welk suggested naming his twin granddaughters?

Anna 1, Anna 2!

G’nite, Ever’body!   

No, but I remember when Uncle Joe told one of the pregnant Petticoat Junction girls that if she had a girl, she should name it Denise …

And if it was a boy, Denephew! 

(ba-da-bump)  kk

Chuck also tells us … (as part of his on-going duties as our Public Service Director) …

Since Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest during an NFL Game recently, knowing how to correctly perform CPR has returned to the forefront.

First Response Training International says keeping the required chest compressions of 100-120 beats per minute is essential. Humming certain Forgotten Hits with those beats can be extremely helpful in performing the technique properly.

Without going into the dozens of songs they suggest, I will point out, as you may already know, the “Number One” song on theirs and almost every other “CPR Lifesaving Playlist” is, appropriately enough, “Staying’ Alive” by the Bee Gees!

Another FRTI suggestion is “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor. Good songs both!

BUT!!  I’m not sure what mixed emotions I'd might feel coming to with someone hovering over me performing CPR while singing either of a couple of other approved songs on their list, --- Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky” or Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust!”

CB  (Cardio Boy)

 

*Look For New Posts on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday*

Sunday, January 8, 2023

The Sunday Comments ( 01 - 08 - 23 )

It's our first SUNDAY COMMENTS Page of the new year ...

(Time's been scarce ... and so have we ... but as pointed out yesterday, there are still THOUSANDS of articles here on the site available to read ... check 'em out!!!)

And we DO have a couple of things planned for this week as well ... including a special Friday the 13th feature ... and a double feature on Saturday, the 14th as well ... 

So please continue to stop by ... 

And if you don't see something new, check out some of our "oldies but goodies!"

Heart and The Supremes are just two of the artists who will be honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards at a special Grammy Awards Ceremony being held on February 4th at The Wilshire Ebell Theatre.

Also receiving recognition this year for outstanding achievement are Nirvanna (seriously?), producer Nile Rodgers and photographer Henry Diltz, who shared photos and entries from his personal journals with our readers last year, thanks to his curator, Gary Strobl! Recently passed Stax Records co-founder Jim Stewart and artists Bobby McFerrin, Ma Rainey, Slick Rick “The Ruler” and Ellis Marsalis round out the list.

It's all part of Grammy Week next month.

Tommy Roe's new CD is now available (but only thru Solar Music ... see the link below)


It includes the title track from his last LP, "Devil's Soul Pile" (which is a GREAT track) along with a few more new cuts (and a great remake of his 1969 smash "Heather Honey."

Here are a couple of promos he sent me ...

Order your copy here:  solarmusic.com/tommy-roe/

Of course, January 8th is Elvis' birthday (incredibly, he would have been 88 years old today!) ...

But it is ALSO David Bowie's birthday.  (Hard to believe that we lost David SEVEN YEARS AGO!!!  How is this even possible?!?!)  He died two days after his 69th birthday in 2016.

FH Reader Mike Wolstein sent us this cool GIF of Bowie's ever-changing look throughout the years ...

I'm calling it "David Bowie:  CHANGES" ...


While Bowie never got the chance to sing with Elvis, he DID do a very  memorable duet with Bing Crosby in 1982!  (Several rock critics at the time made the remark "OK ... now I've seen EVERYTHING!!!")  kk 

[Look for a VERY special Elvis Presley piece this coming Saturday, the 14th, as part of our Saturday Double Feature!!!]

It’s a fear I’ve addressed several times before …

What happens when today’s rather misinformed generation is responsible for keeping our music alive but without the “I LIVED this song” aspect to help them do so?

Sure enough, this week’s Billboard Magazine talks about the significant increase in streams and downloads for The Beatles’ White Album track “Glass Onion” thanks to its use in the latest Netflix “Knives Out” mystery.

Except they COMPLETELY blew it when they said “ ‘Looking through the bent-backed tulips / To see how the other half lives / Looking through a glass onion,’ Paul McCartney sings on The Beatles’ White Album classic “Glass Onion” …

Paul McCartney didn’t sing this song … John Lennon did!  In fact, it’s a John Lennon song all the way, referencing previous (and even then-current) Beatles tunes in his lyrics.  (For the record, it has since been fixed … but my God, if Billboard Magazine doesn’t know this stuff, we’re all doomed!!!  Let's face it ... They’ve already published chart data falsely establishing Drake, Taylor Swift and The Cast of Glee as bigger hit recording acts than The Beatles as it is!!!  And now THIS?!?!  My guess is they got flooded with letters pointing out their error and then went back and made the correction … but when you’re Billboard Magazine, which we’re all supposed to accept as “The Music Bible,” this sort of thing just isn’t supposed to happen!!!)

The article goes on to say that “Glass Onion” experienced a 167% increase in weekly U.S. on-demand streams during the week of Dec. 23 - 29, jumping to over 160,000 streams after earning a little over 60,000 the previous week.  Thanks to the same Netflix series, David Bowie’s track “Star” (which was used in a dance sequence featuring Kate Hudson’s character), was up 60% during the same week, while The Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody” (which was featured in its original version in the film), scored a 37% bump, up to nearly 259,000 streams during the week ending Dec. 29.

And the Christmas Hits just keep setting new records (although all of that should stop now that we’ve passed the first of the year, leaving the charts safe for at least the next ten months until this year’s blitz kicks in.)

Billboard also reports that Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” has just logged its 12th week at #1 … while Nat “King” Cole’s “The Christmas Song” returns to The Top Ten some 59 years and six months since his last Top Ten Hit!

And here’s an interesting statistic …

Mariah Carey’s hit becomes only the second holiday hit to hold down the top spot for four consecutive weeks … and it is the first to do so in 64 years, after “The Chipmunk Song,” by David Seville & the Chipmunks, spent four straight weeks at No. 1 beginning in December of 1958.

https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/mariah-carey-all-i-want-for-christmas-is-you-12-weeks-number-one-nat-king-cole-top-10-1235192947/#recipient_hashed=fa7e92da6f6e66bffcf0bcbf863670c6eb37d7159eb4d0ea1e44fecd5ec87eeb&recipient_salt=3a1d6b09af3b92ad7e38f8327cf18febeb049fd1c9a251b66957a07d9375735c

And, while vintage Christmas tunes have been ruling the charts for the last month of the year for several years now since Billboard “relaxed” their chart methodology, now allowing holiday songs to chart alongside the current hits of the day, there were TEN songs in particular that experienced significant gains in sales, airplay, downloads and streams from last year to this …

These include Gene Autry's "Here Comes Santa Claus" (up about 53.5% over last year with just over 70 million on-demand streams), Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas" (up nearly 49%), "Deck The Halls" by Nat "King" Cole (up 41%), "This Christmas" by Donny Hathaway (up 53.5%), "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" by Dean Martin (up about 32%), Frank Sinatra's version of "Jingle Bells" (up 31%), Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas" (up just under 30%) and Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree," which enjoyed almost 203 million streams!

Even Mariah Carey's seasonal chart-topper "All I Want For Christmas Is You" experienced a 29.5% increase over last year.  Amazing!

Congratulations to FH Reader Colin Donahue ...

He just won a copy of Davie Allan's brand new CD "Turn It Up!"

You can order YOUR own copy of Davie's new disc here:

The official release date for my latest recording is today, 1/6/23
And it's on Compact Disc this time!

More info here:  http://davieallan.com

TURN IT UP!
$13.00 EACH
(Includes U.S. Shipping & Handling)

MAKE CHECKS OR MONEY ORDERS PAYABLE TO:
DAVIE ALLAN (PLEASE SPELL THE NAME RIGHT!)
AND MAIL TO:

DAVIE ALLAN
230 Cantor
Irvine, CA 92620

Or:  SEND PAYPAL TO: melodicgrunge@yahoo.com 
   

For over a decade, Carole King was perfectly content to write hits (and we're talking about some VERY MAJOR HITS here!) for other artists ... with only minor aspirations to perform her music herself.  (A fluke Top 40 Hit in 1962, "It Might As Well Rain Until September" was her only successful solo venture on the pop charts ... until "Tapestry" hit in 1971 ... and turned her entire world as she knew it upside down!)

Shyness about performing in front of an audience was also one of the reasons given for her reluctance to pursue the limelight as a recording artist ...

So imagine the condition of her nerves when, in 1973, she found herself as the featured performer at a Free Concert in New York's Central Park in front of about 100,000 fans!!!  (Hers was the first-ever Free Concert in Central Park, an ongoing tradition for decades now!)

That moment was captured on film and is now being made available again through various streaming services for all to enjoy.

More details here:  https://theseconddisc.com/2023/01/06/way-over-yonder-carole-kings-1973-central-park-concert-coming-to-theatres-streaming/

kk:

You Didn't Mention My Favorite Version Of "WHAT ARE YOU DOING NEW YEAR'S EVE" by DANTE & THE EVERGREENS (12/31/1960)

I Saw A You Tube Clip of The Beatles On The Jack Parr Show (On Film) From January of 1964 Before Appearing On The Ed Sullivan Show in February of 1964 (Live)  Jack Filmed Them In England Because He Thought They Were Funny, Not Because Of The Music. He Went On To Say That He Didn't Think Ringo Got A Full Share Of The Profits.

Here's Another Countdown I Have Problems With ...

Rolling Stone's Top 200 Singers

Here Are A Few Examples:

#71 = Roy Orbison; #154 = Dion; #174 = Buddy Holly

FB

Sean Ross tells us about a new three-part Soft Rock Documentary that's running on Paramount + ...

I will admit to likely a fair amount of this music back in the day ... it certainly beat Disco at the time (although once disco hit, I leaned more toward the hard rock side of things)  Still, after my British Invasion phase, spilling over into heavier rock by the late '60's, I did enjoy the soft rock / singer-songwriter era of the early '70's.

But today I can't listen to "Yacht Rock" ... I just can't embrace the concept.  (This is especially true on Sirius/XM ... yet I can listen to their channel "The Bridge" all day long, especially since they've been adding many of the stories behind the songs, told by the artists themselves.)

Still, we WILL have to check out this new series ... it sounds like it is very well done.  (kk)

https://radioinsight.com/blogs/246571/review-sometimes-when-we-touch-the-reign-ruin-and-resurrection-of-soft-rock/

(That being said, I will ALSO admit that Dan Hill's "Sometimes When We Touch" is probably one of my LEAST favorite songs of this genre!!!  lol!)  kk