March 12th, 1965

60 YEARS AGO TODAY:

3/12/65 - The Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs' single “Wooly Bully” is released.  Although it will never hit #1 in Billboard, it will be named The Biggest Record of 1965 on their year-end chart.  (It will spend one week at #1 in Record World.)

In a year that included the #1 Hits "Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones, "Downtown" by Petula Clark, "Yesterday" by The Beatles, "My Girl" by The Temptations, "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" by The Righteous Brothers and "Like A Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan, that was REALLY saying something!!!

Also on 3/12, James Darren appears as the guest voice (of singer Jimmy Darrock) on the fifth season finale of “The Flintstones”

Tuesday This And That

ANOTHER HEART-BREAK ... FOR ANN WILSON:

Like Ann Wilson of Heart hasn't already had enough of a bad last year and a half ...

She's now performing onstage in a WHEELCHAIR!!!

(No, it's not what you think ... thank God!)

We told you the other day that Heart has already booked a follow-up tour to their Royal Flush Tour currently running, during which time they'll be performing two sets per night without a warm-up act.

This latest set-back has nothing to do with her cancer battle from last year.   As Ann explains it:

“I think some people thought that I was in a wheelchair because of cancer, which I just kicked its ass and I’m nice and clear now. It’s not about cancer.

“It’s about me being a klutz and missing a step and falling into a parking lot and busting my elbow in three places and then having to have it pinned back together with screws and all that kind of stuff.

“In other ways, I’m perfectly fine. It’s just I don’t have the use of my left arm right now. So it’s hard to navigate when you just have one hand and your other whole arm is in a sling …

“And you don’t have the same balance. So I had to get used to that. And singing on stage, I really think that the pain level is still way too high for me to take it out of the sling so I chose to sit because then I can just concentrate on singing and not on keeping my balance and having somebody out there catching me when I reel to the side.”

Wishing you a speedy recovery, Ann.  (I'm sure there was NO way Heart was going to postpone and reschedule dates again ... and Ann is still in fine voice ... so as long as this allows her to do what she LOVES to do, then more power to her!)  kk

MORE on "THE MICK":

Here's a fun site showing things you may not have known about Micky Dolenz in honor of his recent 80^th birthday (last Saturday, March 8^th):

https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=https://www.remindmagazine.com/article/26793/micky-dolenzs-5-fun-facts-monkees-80th-birthday/&ct=ga&cd=CAEYACoTNzMwNDkxMDg0MjQ1NTIzODU4ODIaMzY1MmUyODNjNWY2MDQ0ODpjb206ZW46VVM&usg=AOvVaw3wHTeze8n0sodEC79ytBBM

Birthday wishes to Micky Dolenz, seen here with daughter Ami at Le'Dome.

Jim Roup

And this from Gary Pig Gold:  

https://chatgpg.wordpress.com/2025/02/17/here-we-come-again/

Scroll back to last Friday’s page to see Harvey Kubernik with Micky from a few years back:

https://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-friday-flash-super-sized-edition.html

THIS AND THAT:

Happy Birthday 🎈🎂 to Peter Wolf, caught here at a Charlie Watts concert in Hollywood.  Neil Sedaka has a birthday coming up soon, too. Remembering Tommy Smothers and Steve Allen with wife Jayne Meadows, too!

 

Hi Kent! 

Saw The Platters around L.A. in the '70's always a good show. Zola and company were very nice.  

Happy Birthday 🎁 🎂 to Dean Torrence! Seen here with Jan at an event in Beverly Hills hosted by Noel Blanc, son of Mel "The Man of a Thousand Voices" Blanc. Jan and Dean met at my junior high in West L.A. 

Also Birthday 🎉 🎂 greetings to Robin Thicke pictured with his mother singer Gloria Loring.

 

AND A CLOSING SMILER FROM BUELL:

 

We can always count on Chuck Buell to end our day with a smile ...

 

(He's not wrong!!!)  kk

The Fab Four

A week and a half ago I had to miss my chance to see Johnny Mathis at Foxwoods Casino due to a bad ice and snow storm that started on a Saturday afternoon and included the entire state. I cannot control the weather. I won't even try to pretend I do. It made my Thursday concert, February 27th, of The Fab Four in Ridgefield, CT, even more important to me. Thursday night or not, I need to get to this sold-out event.

 

To celebrate 60 years of The Beatles' "invasion" of the USA, a performance called 'USA Meets The Beatles' has been touring, not only the USA, but the world. The Fab Four have several options of shows that they perform and I believe I have seen them all ... until they started this new one. I gotta go! You want to come along?

There are 17 possible performers within The Fab Four. I have not seen all of them. Tonight I will see a "Paul" and "George" who are new to me. "John," "Ringo" and "Ed Sullivan" and I have met before. 

Why so many? They have become very popular, have outlasted other tribute bands, and now can take time off, be sick, or handle family issues without canceling concert dates. My first thought, and maybe yours, is that you have a hit or miss chance to see a good show. They have foiled me every time by making me BELIEVE before the intermission that they are:

     1. Excellent musicians

     2. Know the repertoire

     3. Are comfortable in character

     4. WANT to be here on stage, portraying these 4 fab talented human beings

Again ... a splendid time was had by all!

The first act is a recreation of The Ed Sullivan Show from February 9, 1964. Proper suits, bows after each song. The Brian Epstein presentation directive. A quick change, while 'Ed' and 60s commercials entertain us, into the black turtlenecks of the MEET THE BEATLES album.  We get the whole album performed. Songs I have never heard sung live, I remember instantly and sing along. The lady next to me says, "I can't remember who I talked to yesterday, but I remember every word they sing." As in real life, The Ed Sullivan Show is my conservative vantage point to watch and slowly decide on whether I like this group. The minute they emerge in the turtlenecks and show even more of the individual characteristics of John, Paul, George and Ringo, I am hooked! I needed this concert! I needed these songs.

All My Lovin'

Till There Was You

She Loves You

I Saw Her Standing There

I Want To Hold Your Hand

It Won't Be Long

This Boy

Don't Bother Me

Little Child

Hold Me Tight

I Wanna Be Your Man

Not A Second Time - Performed with The Beatles Cartoon moving behind them.

Twist and Shout - ALL get up and dance

The personalities come through and the jokes fly. After 'I Wanna Be Your Man', Lennon (Ron McNeil) says, "If you didn't like that song, we'll just give it to The Stones."

An intermission to give them time to grow mustaches and put on the Sgt Pepper suits. I love the brief Pepper Period of songs. Somehow, they all appear more like their characters. Is it the costumes, the choreography, the complicated musical interludes using all of the instruments on stage? The only answer ... YES. These actors/musicians are duplicating what The Beatles initiated/invented. I could not do what The Beatles have done, nor be able to imitate in any form. 

At one time I was able to copy Paul McCartney's autograph using my left hand. OK, I agree. Go home Shelley.

I am asked why John has left the stage. I reply that he is changing costumes while the other three play this "Who is loudest and wins the T-shirt challenge." She asks me, "Then what happens?" I casually remark, "John will have a solo time and then one by one, they will each come back out and ..." I falter ... my voice hesitates, I think my eyes have glassed over remembering. I finish by saying, "And it's magical." 

Imagine

I float through the remainder of the show, enjoying the progression from The White Album to Let It Be to Abbey Road. The personalities develop, as did the originals. The songs are as The Beatles performed and recorded them. Light-hearted or intense or controversial, but always The Beatles. As individuals and as a group. They perform always as The Beatles.

Thank you tonight's cast:

Ron McNeil as John Lennon

Neil Candelora as Paul McCartney

Robbie Berg as George Harrison

Joe Bologna as Ringo Starr

Jeff DeHart as Ed Sullivan

Shelley J Sweet-Tufano

NE Correspondent

Forgotten Hits

Clark Besch Dissects The Beatles Mono Box

This week, a new article was published regarding the making of the Beatles 1964 mono vinyl box set, including discussion of the Dexter issues and what they found when trying to recreate the original US LP versions for this box of LPs.  It's quite interesting. 

[I suggest that you read the article Clark is referring to prior to reading his notes and coments - you'll find the link below - kk]

 

The Beatles in Mono According to Kevin

 

This is a very good and INTERESTING article, covering many topics that we already knew a lot about, but they put more into this article than many, and yet explain none of the questionable things Capitol did.  I started listing things below as I read through it and all these came off the top of my head as to all the Capitol miscues.  Please note that some may not coincide with your thoughts and may be totally off base ... and some may not be Capitol's fault (?)

 

Taking things point by point ...

As to Lennon's "lousy harmonica," one COULD argue that those parts at times in "Thank You Girl" and even in "Love Me Do" COULD have been re-recorded to get a couple of places played better where he kind of half-plays notes in a place or two. (Dexter "fixed" Thank You Girl for The Beatles 2nd Album by adding MORE Lennon "lousy" harmonica???)  STILL, the UK sales should have flagged him.  If not, WHY did he release MULTIPLE 45s by Gerry & the Pacemakers and Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas in the fall of 1963 ON CAPITOL in the US and not the Beatles?  

 

I'm thinking that Brian's constant badgering might have been part of it and yet, both the Pacemakers and Kramer were Epstein artists, too.  Plus, Capitol kinda set a precedent when two-time UK hit-maker Frank Ifield, had two US HITS starting in 1962 and still over a year later was still on VJ here.  In the fall of 1963, Capitol finally saw the light of day when VJ released the then UK #1 hit "I'm Confessin'."  In short order, Capitol decided to issue it on top of VJ's release and got a US hit out of it instead of VJ!  That closed VJ's door on any more Ifield releases.  Add to that, the fact that Del Shannon's "From Me To You" charted in June of 1963 on the Hot 100 and was STILL bubbling under in September!  That could have been the Beatles making money for Capitol!  

 

What about "You Were Made For Me?"  Did Capitol play with that US 45, too?  The UK 45 had parts edited and moved around for the US 45 version!  Both it and "I'm Telling You Now" were early Capitol US issued releases, but did nothing, so Capitol relegated them to subsidiary Tower Records for reissue in 1965 and both were hits.  Of course, Capitol also released all those VJ Beatles hits on Capitol Starline 45s (6 in total, all at once) in the fall of '65 and created (or tried to) a new Beatlemania with WABC, WLS and stations all over playing (and the Hot 100 CHARTING) Starline issued "Boys" / "Kansas City" as a CURRENT hit along with their then current hits "Help!" and "Yesterday" (not a 45 in UK!)  "Boys" being plugged as a new 45 was stopped BY Capitol after I think the group complained.  There was much more hanky panky going on than just adding echo to Beatles songs and changing LP lists. 

My fave Beatles LP, "Beatles VI," still slays me.  You could NOT look at the LP's back cover for what song was coming next as you played it!  Sure, it was a conglomerate of two releases plus the still UK-unissued "Bad Boy" to begin with, but the LP LISTED all the songs NOT in their correct running order.  The front cover even had the gall to say in print below the titles "See label for correct playing order" (below).  WHAT?  How can I read that when the LP is revolving around?  

 

 

Then, there's those US COVERS he says they worked so hard on.  "Yesterday & Today" had the butcher cover BECAUSE the boys were mad at Capitol!  SO, Capitol comes back at their biggest artist with that horrible trunk cover?  Again, an LP that was a mishmash of UK tracks not yet issued here and added echo to some.  In fact, so many US LPs were basically issues with half the tracks being OLD 45 hits:  Beatles 2nd, Something New (most were issued on soundtrack a month earlier PLUS "Hold Your Hand" in German), Early Beatles, Yesterday and Today AND remember that this article is not correct in saying the US stopped changing things after Sgt Peppers ... Magical Mystery Tour was NEVER an LP in UK.  It was a double EP of NEW tracks, while in US, they concocted the LP version again of half old 45s.  

 

[In all fairness, the "Magical Mystery Tour" LP became the standard for all Beatles releases moving forward once their catalog was released on CD for the very first time.  It is probably the one real feather in Capitol's cap.  That being said, I can't tell you how many times I've rea over the years that fans worldwide seem to prefer the US version of "Rubber Soul" over its British counterpart. - kk]

AND what about Capitol's "Great" sound mixes?  Duophonic was horrible and then there was the "I'm Looking Thru You" leaving the opening start flub on the US version? Look at the US covers they made "so much better"?  Beatles VI is a boring cover with "Beatles VI" print almost as big as the fabs' photo!  "Early Beatles" cover makes their faces look like ghosts.  The "Help!" cover reduces the UK cover group photo to such a small part of the US cover.  Look at the US 45 picture sleeves.  12 of their 1964-66 sleeves had the exact same "THE BEATLES" block printing at the top.  The UK releases always had innovative design ideas for the group name on the 45s, while the US was just "plug it in" again.  Later on, look at how cool the US pic sleeve for "Hello Goodbye" was followed by the atrocious "Lady Madonna" one.

 

US Capitol tried to cash in on the Fabs right away with Capitol HITS "My Boyfriend Got a Beatle Haircut" and "A Letter to the Beatles," both making fun of the label's band and making Hot 100 noise reaching #83 and #85 respectively ON CAPITOL!  BOTH were the label's last chart records for both artists.  Of course, the UK had the "Pop Goes The Workers" 45s, cashing in on the Fabs, BUT those were on Columbia and not the UK Beatles' Parlophone label.  Then, the embarrassment of US Capitol getting a front page story in Billboard in February, 1964, when WLS was singled out for playing a song the Beatles did not have out here in ANY form on vinyl:  "Roll Over Beethoven."  It wasn't on "Meet" or "Introducing" or on any VJ or Capitol 45!  The Billboard article finally says they don't know WHERE WLS got that song from!  It was actually a NEW 45 issued by CAPITOL of CANADA in December, 1963 (between "She Loves You" in September, 1963 and "I Want To Hold Your Hand" in January, 1964)!  Capitol US did not know where it came from?  38 songs being played constantly on the air here in the US and NO ONE had issued this one track yet?  Along with "All My Loving," Capitol of Canada had TWO 45s being imported to the US and hitting Billboard Hot 100 reaching #68 and #45 before US Capitol put the clamps on those.  Toss in all the money made off old Capitol rejected songs issued as hits on Tollie, VJ, Swan, Atco and MGM and Capitol left a goldmine behind due to their shortsightedness.

As pointed out in Lawyer Bruce Spizer's Beatles books, had VJ made one move in court in the Beatles hearings of Capitol vs VJ and VJ could have locked the Beatles up thru the Sgt Peppers LP era in the US! 

How about those four 45s issued from "A Hard Day's Night???"

"I'll Cry Instead" and "Slow Down" were released as A sides on two of these?  HOW could you NOT choose "Things We Said Today" as an A side over those two choices?  It would have helped sales of 'Something New", as this song was NOT on the Soundtrack LP.  "Slow Down" / "Matchbox" were covers and also only on "Something New" AND gained no publishing royalties for Lennon-Macca like "Things We Said Today" would have! 

As far as the mono/stereo issue, I find that almost every day, playing songs in stereo on my home stereo or in my car, there is always some song that needs the balance moved or something sounds off when I hear stereo in the speakers.  YES, it is very cool to hear things coming out of different speakers and often it is a true revelation, but those odd moments when I can't hear what I should be hearing in a song make me want the mono much more often.

Scotch 201 tapes?  Well, if these are the same 1/4" tapes I used as a kid on my reel to reel, they are really bad for drop out today (60+ years hard labor) with stretching and breakage.  However, I taped and re-taped on them as a kid, so I cannot say how bad they were then, but now, they are not what I would ever issue as quality on an LP.  There are lots of tapes where I recorded line recordings off 45s then and they do have lots of drop out now.  IF you baked them, likely they would disintegrate!  I'll stop here!