One of The Top Ten Songs From The Summer of '69 here in Chicagoland was "Hurt So Bad" by The Lettermen, a GREAT remake of the old Little Anthony and the Imperials tune that they took all the way to #2 on both the WLS and the WCFL charts.
I asked Lettermen vocalist (and Forgotten Hits Reader) Gary Pike to tell us a little bit about the selection and recording of this tune so that we could share this little bit of history with our readers.
The Lettermen had been hitting Billboard's Pop Chart since 1961 ... but hadn't had a Top 20 Hit since 1965 when their vocal version of "The Theme From 'A Summer Place'" went to #16. In early 1968, they turned ALL of that around when they put together a medley of "Goin' Out Of My Head / Can't Take My Eyes Off You" ... it rose to #7 on the charts and, although in-between hits like "Sherry Don't Go" and "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" hovered in the #35-#44 range, their rendition of "Hurt So Bad" returned them to The Top 20 (with a #12 Billboard peak) in The Summer of '69.
Here is Gary's report:
Hi Kent,
I joined the group as a Letterman just before the fall tour of 1967 and before that I was the bass player with the "Wilson Brown Trio," a piano, bass and drum combo that was the permanent rhythm section that played behind "The Lettermen". During the shows I used to step up from behind the bass and sing one of the hits with them, "Theme from a 'Summer Place'".
When Bob Engemann decided to leave the group, my Brother Jim asked if I would like to take Bobby's place and I said: "Is this a trick question ?".
Anyway, since we had the hit with, "Goin' Out Of My Head / Can't Take My Eyes Off You" in 1968 and, of course, 'Outta My Head' had been a hit by Little Anthony, Jim said. "Let's take a look at 'Hurt So Bad'".
What a great song !!! Jim, of course, along with Wilson Brown, did the vocal arrangement and Mort Garson (who fairly recently passed away) did the orchestration. It went to #1 in Los Angeles, Boston and few other major markets. I think it peaked at #2 or #3 at WCFL in Chicago. It is what I call one of our reluctant hits because it was on again, off again, on again with the Capitol promoters. By the time it was #1 in Boston, it had already peaked in LA, so it didn't impact the national charts like it could have. Cash Box, I believe, had it peaking in the top ten and Billboard I think at #12 or #13.
We still received an RIAA certified gold record for our efforts. Some years after our success with the song we were talking with Linda Ronstadt and she was planning to record it. It was a hit for her, too. One of the great songs written by Teddy Randazzo.
Live Long and Prosper,
Gary Pike
Lettermen / Reunion
Thanks, Gary!
"Hurt So Bad" is a GREAT song ... and, actually, Bobby Hart co-wrote that one with Teddy Randazzo ... here's what he told me when I interviewed him for Forgotten Hits a few years back:
'60's FLASHBACK:
Hart eventually moved to New York as well, since that seemed to be the songwriting capitol of America at the time. It was here that Boyce and Hart finally wrote their first their first chart hit together. Twister Chubby Checker recorded their composition "Lazy Elsie Molly", and it became a Top 40 Record in 1964, peaking at #39 in Cash Box Magazine. Teamed with songwriter / producer Wes Farrell, they enjoyed their first Top Ten Hit together later that year when Jay and the Americans recorded the smash "Come A Little Bit Closer", a #3 National Hit that Fall. Shortly after this success, Boyce was offered a contract to become a staff writer for Screen Gems and took off again for the west coast. Hart stayed behind in New York City where he was signed to Teddy Randazzo's and Don Costa's publishing company. When Randazzo went to perform in Las Vegas, he offered Bobby a job singing background in his stage act. One night, Teddy and Don told him that they were looking for a song for Little Anthony and the Imperials to record ... something with a similar sound and feel to their recent Top Five smash "Goin' Out Of My Head", written by Teddy Randazzo and Bobby Wilding. Between sets, Hart, Randazzo and Wilding went upstairs to a conference room and wrote "Hurt So Bad", which quickly followed it into The National Top Ten! It looked like ... together or apart ... Boyce and Hart were on their way as successful songwriters!
Today, Bobby Hart considers "Hurt So Bad" his crowning achievement as a songwriter. It's been a Top 20 Hit THREE TIMES (#10 for Little Anthony and the Imperials in 1965, #12 for The Lettermen in 1969 and #8 for Linda Ronstadt in 1980.) However, he also recognizes the fact that, despite writing songs that were nominated for Emmys, Golden Globes and Academy Awards, he will always BEST be remembered as one of the guys who wrote the songs for The Monkees!!!
Earlier in this series, we told you that Bobby Hart says the best song he ever wrote was "Hurt So Bad", a Top 20 Hit three times for three different artists. When he was asked “What's the WORST song you’ve ever written”, Hart replied "The worst songs you'll never hear." He sites "Let's Dance On" (from The Monkees' first album) as being "pretty much of a throwaway", written as filler for the pilot television episode. However, that "throwaway" appeared on an album that sold MILLIONS of copies, so it was STILL heard by an awful lot of people!
KENT KOTAL: I know you’ve said on the record that you believe "Hurt So Bad" was your greatest achievement as a songwriter … but that one was a hit … what about another piece of music that you’re especially proud of that just didn’t make it? Is there any one particular song that you felt should have been much bigger than it was ... something that you really believed in that just didn't go over to the degree that you thought it would? And, on the other side of the coin, were there other songs that you were surprised to see become as big a hit as they did? Songs you considered more "throw-aways" that the public ended up loving?
BOBBY HART: I rarely look back. I feel very fortunate to have been a part of an important era in Pop music. I couldn’t ask for more than I’ve been given. I had big hopes for our Dolenz, Jones, Boyce And Hart material, "I Remember The Feeling", "Right Now" and "I Love You And I'm Glad That I Said It". We lost our champion at Capitol Records at just the wrong time. On the other hand, I was surprised at the success of "Come A Little Bit Closer".
For the record, "Hurt So Bad" peaked at #12 in Billboard and #14 in Cash Box and, here in Chicago, at #2 on WLS and #2 on WCFL. This is one of those rare remakes that did every bit as well as the original version ... and Linda Ronstadt's version made The Top Ten on both National Charts, too! It's a GREAT track that made our final "Top 50 Songs Of The Summer of '69 List" ... and we're happy to feature it here again today.
Hi Kent,
If you have never heard Reunion doing the Lettermen songs...you have got to hear this Lettermen Hits Medley that I have on a 45. It is outstanding! (enclosed) Mike Hartman
I was involved in a TV show that included Reunion in 1989 (however, it was never broadcast), and that same year I saw the 4 Preps / 3 Golden Groups on the KRTH Legends of R'n'R show and they were outstanding.
Gary E. Myers / Music Gem
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Comments
We've got enough here in the hopper for another Comments Page ... so here we go!
re: THE WLS CHARTS:
>>>The 1965 Silver Dollar Survey is strange. It seems it would have been noticed by one of us at the station ... and would have caused a response from listeners and the music industry. It would be interesting to check another survey from that same date. In other words, could this be a forgery? I don't remember the "Number One Hits" being part of a September survey. (Dex Card)
>>>Nope, this is the real deal ... I've been collecting WLS and WCFL Surveys for over 35 years now ... and there are at least a dozen of us fanatics on The Forgotten Hits Mailing List that can claim a COMPLETE collection of EVERY chart ever published. (kk)
I have at least two copies of this particular survey and, like you said, know of any number of people who have this week's survey as well. They all can't be counterfeit. I hadn't realized that Yesterday had not been officially released in the US yet. Thanks for your help on the 45s. Maybe someone will contact me.
Jack (Rock And Roll Never Forgets)
No, it's definitely authentic ... I've had it in my collection for FAR too long ... plus many of my WLS surveys have the name of the record shop where the surveys were originally distributed from stamped on them, too, and all of these places are LONG gone now!!! How cool, 'tho, that Dex Card would comment ... I hope we hear from him from time to time ... I used to race home from school every day to hear him count down Chicago's Top 40 songs ... even if they WERE the same ones he played the day before!!! (lol) Once we knew the charts, we knew where our favorites fell ... so we could actually PLAN our listening around the Dex's survey countdown show! (kk)
Kent,
I was hanging on every word and every song coming out of WLS in 1965. As soon as the sun was low in the afternoon, and in the morning before school, I was glued to WLS. Who would've thought that 44 years later I'd be reading email comments from the very jocks who claimed listeners in 40 states. Only in Forgotten Hits - the best music and radio publication found anywhere. Thanks for keeping this thing going!
David
Believe me, it is a REAL honor to have ANY contact with these guys ... back then many of these deejays were every bit as popular as the recording artists we listened to them play! I would LOVE to get ALL of the '60's Chicago jocks on the list to share their memories with our readers! (kk)
By the way, it looks like someone at WLS was messing with the chart just for fun. Did you notice they list "She Loves You" as "She Loves Me" instead?
David
Sadly, this wasn't at all uncommon ... they regularly misspelled titles and artist names ... hard to believe for such a radio giant!!! The old WJJD Charts used to do it on purpose ... often coming up with clever parody titles ... we'll be running some of those in the future, too! (kk)
re: AND MORE ON THE CURRENT STATE OF RADIO:
Kent,
A great article that points the finger of blame squarely where it belongs!
Clark Weber
The Power Of Radio People
By Jerry Del Colliano / September 4, 2009
On this Labor Day weekend, I thought it would be appropriate to reflect on the human asset that is often lost in the "business" of radio.
Radio people.
I've been on the outs with consolidators from the very beginning because I sensed that they coveted franchises more than the people who built them. And I said it loud and proud when I owned Inside Radio for many years.
In fairness, at the beginning, I was a "lonely boy," to borrow a phrase from Andrew Gold. The can-do spirit of radio people kicked into high gear even from the beginning when consolidators made promises to them that they couldn't keep. They said consolidation was a good thing.
It would make radio stronger.
Make the industry bigger.
Make our livings better.
You may remember the days.
One manager took over for two others to run three of the stations in a newly consolidated cluster. The promoted manager got a raise and big title. The consolidator saved a ton of money. Once the consolidator figured out they didn't have to give a big raise or title, it was all over.
That manager was not defeated. Far from it. He or she was up for the challenge. It bothered me that friends of mine were cut loose early on but there was at least a chance for them to get another radio job with different consolidators or with some of the independents still operating.
Over the years -- even before consolidators got caught up in impossible debt service -- there was a constant move to find "economies of scale" as they were called. You may also remember Mel Karmazin, Lowry Mays and others who reported to shareholders in their quarterly conference calls that they were acting to build "shareholder value."
Of course, as we discovered, shareholders were the second biggest losers in radio consolidation … after the listener.
Cost cutting took time and just as a cataract grows slowly to impair vision in one's eye, the snip-snip-snip of bean counters weakened the fabric of local radio. But many radio people couldn't see it. They just pushed on.
Today you see what we are left with.
Fires in LA but few people on the ground to ferret out the stories.
Local music scenes dying on the vine because radio no longer plays local music.
News became extinct.
Personalities are too expensive and thus expendable.
Local sales reduced to cockamamie policies inflicted by corporate people who have never distinguished themselves as sellers. In some cases, they never sold anything at all and yet they were telling qualified people how to do their jobs.
I've taken a lawsuit. I've been sharply criticized by the "establishment" for opposing radio's new future and I've grieved along with thousands of individuals I love and respect.
I call them … radio people.
Here's what radio people are to me:
1. The programmers, managers, talent, sales professionals, office staff and engineers (remember them?) who built radio into the industry that made Wall Street want to shell out billions to buy their stations. They weren't buying Lew Dickey's body of work. Or Fagreed Suleman's or John Slogan Hogans. If Jefferson Starship could sing "We Built This City on Rock and Roll" then radio was built on the backs of simple radio people. You know, the $100 million plus stations that consolidators lined up to buy as well as the local stations that were sold for prices never imaginable before. Guess who programmed, managed and monetized them?
2. The most loyal group of people who, no matter what their personal situation was, had the uncanny ability to put the interests and desires of their listeners ahead of themselves. Not once, but again and again. Not just in good times, but even when pretenders like Cumulus, Clear Channel and Citadel were making their lives hell.
3. Resourceful beyond belief. Until the past few years radio people were able to deliver high quality programming and sales on a lower budget and even with a lesser personal salary because they knew how to operate at a professional level more efficiently. Too bad Fagreed Suleman didn't look to his people, especially the ABC "assets" he purchased for mega billions, for help. Fagreed was a bean counter. But his people had answers. He just didn't know the value of asking questions. Citadel, with Sergeant-at-arms Judy Ellis at the helm, kept everyone in their place and quiet.
4. The conscience of the community. I have heard example after example of circumstances where local station people are giving back to the community, happily involved in activities with no additional pay to them. I heard the story recently of a New England sales exec -- and a damn good one -- who had to endure the cost-cuts and micromanagement of corporate by day, only to show up at community meetings at night and on the weekends. In no other industry that you could name, would a buyer inherit a workforce of people who obviously love their audience enough to put them first even when their employers couldn't do the same for them.
5. Creative creatures. Keep in mind radio people brought the industry back from the advent of television by reinventing it. Imagine how they could have reinvented radio content -- not just streaming terrestrial signals -- for the next competitors: the Internet, mobile and social networking.
6. Radio people are like family, but not Gordon Gekko's family. We competed against each other with the fervor of two sports team wanting to be the best but often in the end we remained or became friends with our adversaries. We fought on the field. Not in court.
7. Proud of our industry. Clear Channel's Lowry Mays may have been willing to sell his industry down the river for a few huge paydays but I doubt the average radio person would want that legacy at any price. Turning a local business into a cheap network of national repeater stations may do wonders for consolidators and their bottom lines, but a person with pride couldn't do that to their listeners or even sponsors who support them.
This is Labor Day weekend.
A time that signals the traditional end of summer and it is a casual holiday with little meaning to most people outside of organized labor.
But to radio people, every day is labor day … when they have to work harder to make less money, when their commissions are cut in a punitive fashion because they can't outperform a recessionary economy.
On Tuesday, Cumulus workers will have to resume enduring those spy-in-the-sky meetings in the conference room from which many come away demotivated and embarrassed.
Radio people are often forgotten.
Their advocates are gone.
Radio & Records, the heart and soul of this industry for more than 30 years, has been silenced, itself a victim of greedy consolidators. Others who could speak up are kissing the establishment's butt in hopes they can survive the fate that their silence has purchased.
On the occasion of this Labor Day when the handful of mighty consolidators who have run the radio industry into the ground are on their yachts and expensive getaways, it is fitting to remember and pay respect to the people who put them there by their dedication and hard work.
Radio people.
re: CASABLANCA RECORDS:
Just got this from our bloggin' buddy Artie Wayne ... should make for some VERY interesting reading!!!
My Casablanca piece will run in the next week or so. In the meantime, I'm doing some pre-promotion on YouTube :-)
A friend of mine interviewed me about the inspiration behind the project.
You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdJXcYnb2KU
At 41,000 words, it's the longest piece I've ever written so it will probably run over a week. I will e-mail you the article once it's up.
Talk with you soon!!
Christian
The promo is excellent! You should have your own show. I'm not blogging until September, but I'll get the details about when your article will run to Kent Kotal at Forgotten Hits http://forgottenhits.com
Can't wait to read it!
Regards,
Artie
And here it is!!! (lol) Thanks, guys, for including me in this ... sounds like a VERY interesting piece! (kk)
Kent ...
How ya' doin'? I just wanted you and your readers to know about a five part series on my late friend Neil Bogart and the anniversary of Casablanca records! Christian John Wikane has written a brilliant piece for POP MATTERS on one of the greatest icons of the music industry! http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/109836-part-two-painting-the-building-1975-1977/
Regards,
Artie Wayne
http://artiewayne.wordpress.com
Here's a link to the piece we mentioned above ... interesting reading to be sure! (kk)
... and, tying nicely into this, is some recent correspondence that we received from Joe Klein ... who we had the pleasure of meeting at Schaumburg's September Fest this past weekend!!! (kk)
Hey Kent,
Joe Klein here (the guy from Laughlin, NV, who was introduced to you and your newsletter by my old "partner in rhymes" from the 70's and 80's, Artie Wayne).
I will be in Chicago over the Labor Day weekend for a family event. (I was born in the Windy City but moved to L.A. with my family in 1958). I arrive in Chicagoland Wednesday afternoon, September 2 and will be staying with my life-long friend and current partner, Bill Bussiere (aka Bill Fortune, aka Bill Taylor) for a couple of nights. Bill is a former deejay and radio news anchor (WCFL, WBBM and others) and he and I have hundreds of old pals in radio and records that we came to know over the years. We'll be hanging out, going to a few clubs and restaurants and visiting old friends and colleagues.
Being a regular reader of your newsletter / blog, I'd like to meet you if you have time and will be in town when I visit. (Maybe we could meet for a meal or at a cool music club??) Get back in touch if you're interested in getting together with us and yakking oldies and old radio, as all of us share that in common!
The news about the Schaumburg SeptemberFest Music Festival is pretty wild, in that I actually hired Bobby Kimball to sing lead on a couple of radio station jingles I produced back in the seventies! Back in 1976 I came up with a concept to produce radio station jingles (for several different formats from CHR to AOR to Urban) that were like "miniature hit records." The jingles ran about a minute long. Each jingle was a very cool song unto itself (written by my partner at the time, jazz musician John LaSalle and a really hot L.A. lyricist from that time named Norma Helms). Each "song" had nothing to do with the station that would be running it. That is, the lyrics were just like the lyrics from a standard pop, rock, r&b or urban song of that era. The only difference was the length (about a minute) and that the BACKGROUND vocals would not only answer the lyrics as background vocals usually do, but would also sing the station call letters as well! The "records" were written to be very "hooky" and to be included in regular rotation just like other songs. With repetition, they, like other hits, would become familiar but listeners would also hear the stations call letters in this current "hit."
Joey Reynolds tried a similar concept in the late sixties. I forgot what he called the package, but we would mix in extra background vocals at the front (usually the intro) of actual hit records. That idea, actually tested and used on a few of the Drake stations was quickly panned and ridiculed. That's why I thought recording original songs was a cool twist that just might catch on. I produced a package of about ten jingles for the ABC radio chain (which, back in the mid-seventies, had several different music formats). I spent nearly $20,000 on this package (between musicians, singers and top-end studios). My old friend Russ Terrana, the chief engineer and primary mixing wizard for Motown Records mixed the final tracks for me. They turned out great. Bobby Kimball sang on two of the rock jingles. This was, I believe just a year or two before Toto! I saw him a few more times afterward, including hanging with him a couple of times when Toto was "riding high!" I'd love to see him again.
Also, I'm going to be sending you an update for the newsletter / blog in the next day or two. I may have an AWESOME SCOOP for you to break. It's a REALLY REALLY big deal in the world of music and oldies ... but I want to handle this one just right.
I also want to tell you about an incredible story that was just posted online. It's an in-depth account of the rise and (relatively brief) huge run of success enjoyed by Casablanca Records. I produced HUNDREDS of ads for the label from 1977 until 1980 and contributed to the article.
And, regarding Russ Terrana, the Motown engineer I mentioned above, I just spoke with him over this past weekend and I have a TERRIFIC scoop from him! I want to speak with him one more time again and get more details to include in this "breaking music news" story which I am sure you and your readers will enjoy hearing!
Hope to hear back from you. Meanwhile, keep up the great work with the newsletter and blog. It's always quite the read! Only problem for me is making the time to read it ALL!
Regards,
Joe Klein
OK ... now you've got us all warmed up for the big announcement with your "tease"!!! (lol) Can't wait to hear more about this!
We ran one of those Radio Station / Hit Song Jingles a while back ... and you're absolutely right ... once you hear it played this way, it sticks in your head and you start to hear it as PART of the actual hit song!!! (I've included MY personal favorite, the WMAK / Grass Roots version of "Sooner Or Later". Forgotten Hits List Member David Lewis sent me three or four of these ... but to my ears, this was the BEST use of this technique in the bunch ... and every time "Sooner Or Later" comes on the radio now, I sing the WMAK Jingle over the intro!!! Would LOVE to hear a few of yours, too, Joe, if you've got some to send along ... and I know that our readers would, too!)
As for the Casablanca Records Story, I've been hearing some really good things about it. While I haven't read the whole article yet, I did print it out for later reading. (Which means that it's probably sitting in my bathroom waiting for me as I type this!!! lol) kk
Yeah I think that Grass Roots thingy WAS, in fact, one of Joey Reynold's jingles. Damn! What did he call that package??? I ALMOST remember the name of the jingle product, but just can't pull it out of my brain!
Another one of my old, old friends (going all the way back to high school) named Ken Levine (who deejayed for a while and then went on to become a very successful writer and executive producer for television ... plus a play-by-play baseball announcer, host of Dodger talk in L.A. and blogger) was a jingle collector back at the end of the sixties and early seventies. On a trip to KYNO in Fresno (the radio station that Gene Chenault, Bill Drake's partner actually owned if full) back in 1970, I managed to run off copies of reel after reel of Drake / Johnny Mann Singer jingles. All the big station packages plus tons of production music and even recording sessions of Bill Drake voicing the imaging elements. Harry Miller (who later became Eric Chase and finally Paul Christie in Houston) was the PD of KYNO at the time. Anyway Ken freaked out when I returned to L.A. and called him to let him know I had dubbed off so many Drake jingles from the actual masters! A couple years later Ken and a friend of his (whose name I can't remember) produced a brilliant PARODY of the Joey Reynolds jingles! He called his spoof package "Septic Singovers" and used totally wacko records like "Surfin' Bird" and "Laura." It was just hilarious! He pressed up a few hundred demos on rainbow colored 7" records (that I recall were 33 1/3 RPM with small holes) and mailed them out to shitloads of radio station PD's. I think his parody fueled all the ridicule that was heaped on the concept but, as you pointed out, many of those records with the station's call letters were memorable. Only a few of them were well produced, IMHO and most of them sounded pretty amateur.
I may have that "Septic Singovers" record stashed away somewhere and, about two years ago, I did locate a copy of the jingles I produced for ABC back in 1976. I just don't currently have a decent reel-to-reel machine in good working order (as I am now totally digital). At one point in the eighties I owned FOUR Ampex ATR machines (two four-tracks and two two-tracks) that, before they stopped making them, were selling for upwards of $10K EACH! I need to get a nice tape machine and some good quarter-track and half -track head assemblies so I can start transferring lots of my old stuff to digital!
Meanwhile, one of these days, I'll try to get those jingles of mine copied over.
Joe Klein
And then a bit more from Joe Klein, exclusively for our Forgotten Hits Publication:
Hi Kent!
Hope you and all your readers have had a decent summer. Condolences, of course, to you, for the loss of your brother and prayers for all those we've lost so far this year. As time marches forward, more and more of our friends and family are moving on. But that's a part of life, and life, itself goes on as well!
Since last chiming in with "the class" last spring, Laughlin, NV (just across the river from where I live in Bullhead City, AZ) has seen quite the fair share of oldies artists roll through town for performances. I last wrote in about shows from Bill Medley and Tommy James. Since then, Eric Burdon, Felix Cavaliere, Davy Jones and Gary Puckett have appeared in town. Billy J. Kramer will be playing in Laughlin on September 5 and later in the month Jay & The Americans are doing a show. Freddy Fender, Bobby Vinton and Ben Vereen will be appearing in October.
While I did catch part of Eric Burdon's show and most of Felix's, I missed Davy and Gary's gigs because I was out of town. Eric Burdon's show was during our big annual "Laughlin River Run" motorcycle rally and, having friends in town, didn't have a chance to write a review and send it in, but it was a decent show, considering all the rowdiness and madness that was going on in town. Felix's show was great. Still sings up a storm (love this guy's unique voice) and, of course, the set was fully loaded with Rascals faves. But, alas, I arrived a little late and forgot to bring my camera to that gig! (Near senior moment, I suppose!) So, sadly, I didn't get a chance to speak with Felix or get a shot of him or the show. Darn!
All the shows I just mentioned (except for Bill Medley) were (and will be) at the Tropicana Express Hotel which, for the last couple of years, seems to have cornered the "oldies" market here, hosting nearly all the "major" oldies acts that play the Laughlin "strip." The casinos and shows of Laughlin and, especially, the Tropicana Express Hotel, market heavily to us baby boomers and, far more than Las Vegas, welcome visitors in their fifties, sixties and seventies (featuring many acts from those same decades). Laughlin is a lot like Branson but with casinos -- and the Colorado River -- and is pretty accessible from most of the southwest. Laughlin is located just above the "tip" of Nevada, right next to the river, 25 miles north of the I-40 and 90 miles south from Las Vegas. The rooms, meals and shows in Laughlin are VERY inexpensive and, let's face it, gambling is gambling, wherever you play. The clubs in Laughlin may lack the eye-popping glitz and glam of the hot Vegas mega-resorts (the hotels here are more like the older joints in Vegas) but, for us boomers, it's a relaxing and inexpensive good time, old-school style! BTW, all the casino / hotels feature entertainment, with acts from country to comedy. There's also a very cool lake nearby, called Lake Mohave. (It's the next lake and dam down river from Lake Mead.)
Here's a link to the Tropicana Express entertainment page:
http://www.tropicanax.com/content/pages.php?pg=entertainment_overview
Or, check out the main tourist info page for Laughlin here:
http://www.visitlaughlin.com/ltourism/index.jsp
I'm in town most of the year and would love to welcome and personally meet any FH reader or oldies fan who ventures to Laughlin! Email me at: j.klein@newmediacreative.net
and, if I'm in town, I'll do my best to meet and greet!
In other news, I am sure that you all have read the countless items sent in by FH alum Artie Wayne. Artie and I worked together as partners in rhyme for about fifteen years from the mid-seventies to the late-eighties. During many of those years, I produced well over A THOUSAND radio and television commercials for major labels, starting with Casablanca Records and then, later, for several other labels including Warner Brothers, Chrysalis, EMI-America, Capitol, Ariola-America, Motown, Penthouse Records (they had their own label for a few years) and, yes, even K-Tel!
Producing hundreds of ads for Casablanca Record and Filmworks during their heyday (from 1977 through 1979) was a non-stop whirlwind of wild experiences that I'll never forget. Early this past spring, a writer named Christian Wikane got in touch with me (referred to me by Artie) and asked if he could interview me about my days working with Casablanca. I agreed and, about a week later, we spent nearly three hours on the phone talking about my own Casablanca experiences. Chris' ambitious endeavor turned into what can only be described as a MONUMENTAL accomplishment, a 40,000 word detailed overview of the rise and reign of Casablanca Record And Filmworks.
The feature, entitled "Play It Again," was six months in the making and, finally, published online last week at the Pop Matters website. The article was so in-depth that it released in no less than FIVE installments! I've just finished reading the article myself (which includes many stories and quotes from Artie and me) and it is truly an EPIC piece. Whether or not you were a fan of KISS, Donna Summer, The Village People and the many other acts -- and movies -- this incredible label promoted and released, it's an amazing story and a great read! Huge kudos to Christian for a job so very well done!
This is really a piece of music history that is worth checking out. You can "Play It Again," in its entirety, here:
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/special/section/casablanca-records-play-it-again/
Meanwhile, I'll try and do better in the months to come to bring FH more news and reviews about great oldies shows here in Laughlin and even try to get a few exclusive interviews from acts when they play here! I'm off to Chicago next week where I hope to meet up with our fearless leader, Kent, at the annual Schaumburg SeptemberFest over Labor Day Weekend and catch a performance of Starship along with special guest, Bobby Kimball (former lead singer of Toto). Bobby and I worked together back in 1976 when I hired him to sing a couple of radio station jingles I was producing! This was about a year or so before Toto and hard to believe it was over 33 years ago! Whoa!
That's all for now, kiddies! I hope to have one more item to pass along in the next few days before my trip, a "big scoop" of sorts! If I can confirm the news, I'll surely get it out to you all!
Have a great Labor Day!
Joe Klein
We were fortunate enough to meet up with Joe and Bill at our Schaumburg September Fest (and caught a great show by Starship featuring both Mickey Thomas and Bobby Kimball ... see our review below). By the way, you won't be seeing Freddy Fender performing in Laughlin any time soon ... he passed away about three years ago! (More than a few folks in the crowd thought that Bobby Kimball resembled Freddy just a little bit the other night! lol) Anyway, we had a great time and hope to catch some of these oldies acts that are still performing in and around the Vegas area on our next trip out that way. And please DO send your "Exclusive Scoop" to me so that we can break the story in Forgotten Hits! Thanks, Joe! (kk)
re: AIRPLAY:
We're looking forward to the Chicagoland screening of "Airplay", coming up on the 18th of September at The Music Box Theatre up in Wrigleyville. Tickets are available at the theatre box office ... or in advance through www.theunitedfest.com/chicago. (Dick Biondi will also start giving tickets away next week on his WLS-FM Program, 94.7.) Hoping we can meet some of our readers at the show. (kk)
LOL ... and I loved THIS one from Ron Smith ... after we offered up his abode for anyone visiting Chicago, wishing to catch the "Airplay" screening ...
>>>If I sign up for The Airplay Tickets Contest & win ... is it possible for you to fly me out to Chicago and let me stay at your house for a week or so? If you say no, I'll try Ron Smith. Lol (Frank B.)
>>>Actually, I'm offering to put up EVERYBODY who entered this contest over at Ron Smith's House ... even if you DIDN'T win tickets!!! (kk)
Be careful about offering my place to stay. I think Woodstock was cleaner than my apartment is right now.
-- Ron Smith
... and, speaking of great documentaries ...
re: WAGES OF SPIN:
Just a reminder that the Shawn Swords / Paul Russo film "Wages Of Spin" will make its L.A. premier on Saturday, September 19th, at The James Bridges Theatre / UCLA School Of Theatre, Film and Television, 102 East Melnitz Hall in Los Angeles with TWO screenings: 7:30 pm and 9:15 pm. If you haven't yet seen this film, an expose of the early Philadelphia Days of Rock And Roll, and happen to be in the area that night, this is one you'll really enjoy. (kk)
re: THE BEATLES:
Lots of Beatles-fuss this week ... with the re-released, remastered versions of ALL of their recordings ... and the new Rock Band video game, you can expect to hear a WHOLE lot more Beatles music on the radio for the next several weeks! And you'll ALSO enjoy reading about The Fab Four's first visit to Philadelphia, too, back in 1964. It's all up on Sam Lyt's Hy Lit Website ... which can be found right here:
The Beatles Philadelphia Story, Pictures, September 2nd Newsletter click here.
And this from Sam Lyt, too ...
Kent,
Check out the footnote on the newsletter:
Hy took to the stage to introduce the Beatles. The crowd immediately enveloped into a roaring frenzy for the entire duration of the concert. In fact the cheering and the screams were so loud and at times there was such emotion that it was difficult to even hear the Beatles sing.
When the concert was over the security issue facing the Beatles getting into Philadelphia confronted them again.
It was determined that all the hotels in town were being staked out by frantic girls, and that secure lodging would be a problem. So the Beatles were secretly whisked to Hy's house where they were able to spend the night and get some r&r before traveling to the next city.
Once the Beatles left, Hy created a clever contest. He would give away the sheets and pillowcases that the Beatles slept on in a major WIBG Radio contest, which sent the city into a frenzy once again.
-- Sam Lyt
Yes, I remember reading about this at the time ... a pretty clever promotion to be sure! (kk)
A pioneer in the world of Beatles’ radio, Woody Lifton, was the creator of the magic “Pop Go the Beatles” that graced the airwaves and internet for years. In fact, Woody came up with an idea for a radio show that would do something NO other show had ever done. Then ... big business intervened ... and everything changed in a heartbeat.
Read Woody’s exciting story at: http://www.ontherockbooks.com/meet15/WoodyLifton.html
It’s VERY interesting Labor Day reading, and the pics are so cool! Thanks to Tim Coulter, my wonderfully talented webmaster for another great issue of Meet the Beatles Fans!!
And find out what Woody has planned for the future!!! It’s exciting!!
Happy Labor Day Weekend! J
Jude
Jude Southerland Kessler
http://www.ontherockbooks.com/
Here's a goofy quiz from the pages of AOL ... might be intresting for all the readers.
Mike
btw ... They told me I was George
http://www.spinner.com/2009/09/01/which-beatle-are-you/
re: MARSHALL LYTLE:
Hi again,
Do you have contact info for Marshall Lytle? The last e-mail address I have for him was from back when he was living in Tampa. He was in my "Wildwood Days" documentary. What a terrific guy ... we had a great time with him. He even sang me his Viagra song. I'm so sorry to hear about his problems.
Thanks,
Carolyn
I double checked with "Rewind" Host Jimmy Jay, who's been giving us all of our Marshall Lytle updates these past few weeks ... and he tells me:
I spoke with Marshall he said that you can give this e-mail address out to anyone who wants to contact him ... and that he is thankful for all the cards he has been getting at the hospital. His e-mail is: marshall-tommy@suddenlink.net. Today he sounded very upbeat and positive. Have a great weekend. Please remind everyone about his new book that came out last week "Still Rockin' Around The Clock" by Marshall Lytle, available now at Amazon.com.
Jimmy Jay
www.RewindShow.com
We've heard from a few of our readers who have sent their Well-Wishes to Marshall, who we wish a very speedy recovery. (Marshall had his foot amputated last week after some complications.) Now other folks on the list can send him a Get Well Greeting, too! Thanks, Jimmy! (kk)
re: MERRY CHRISTMAS:
Wow, Summer hasn't even ended yet and we're already getting Christmas news!!! Seems Bob Dylan has recorded a few tracks for what many believe will be his first Christmas Album ever! Rolling Stone Magazine reports that Dylan recently laid down tracks for "Must Be Santa", "Here Comes Santa Claus", "I'll Be Home For Christmas" and "O Little Town Of Bethlehem." Whodathunkit?!?!? At this rate, the next thing we'll be hearing is that rocker Rod Stewart is recording an album of standards ... or that Phil Collins is making music for a Disney cartoon!!! (kk)
re: IN CONCERT:
We saw a SMOKIN' show by Randy Bachman at this year's Schaumburg September Fest ... Bachman put together a killer 90-minute show that featured pretty much all of the hit material he wrote or co-wrote while still a member of The Guess Who mixed with pretty much the entire hit catalog of Bachman-Turner Overdrive. The set included an absolutely AMAZING version of "American Woman" where Bachman played part of his extended guitar solo with a drumstick! (It truly has to be seen to be believed ... and it sounded incredible! I tried to find a copy of this on YouTube but didn't see anything there that did this performance justice ... all I can tell you is that it was simply amazing!) The band also strung together a couple of fun hit medleys, including one that merged BTO's own hit "Hey You" with "All Right Now" by Free, "Rock'n Me" by Steve Miller, "Hot Legs" by Rod Stewart, "You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC and "Wild Thing" by The Troggs! By the end of the night the whole crowd was up on its feet, singing and dancing along to the music. It sounds like the band is headed back to Canada now ... but anyone who came to the concert disappointed that Bachman was touring without Burton Cummings this time around left the show thoroughly entertained and satisfied. (kk)
Dear Kent,
Last week I had the pleasure of seeing Chicago and Earth Wind and Fire together in concert at the Great Allentown Fair in Allentown, Pa. They put on a fantastic show. Not only did their musical styles blend very well, but they clearly enjoyed performing together very much, the energy was sky-high and the audience loved every minute of it. They started out by playing a couple of songs together, then EWF played their set. After a break, Chicago played their set, and they concluded by playing all together. The combined sets were my favorites. They just blew the audience away. My two daughters in their late 20s went with me, and they had a great time. Of course, they liked Chicago's 80s songs the best because that's what they heard growing up, but they really enjoyed the whole show as much as I did. One great thing they announced was that they were helping local food banks. In exchange for cans of food at the concert or, if you want to make a donation online, you can download three new songs recorded by the two groups. Here's the website for it: http://www.ewfandchicago.com/
They announced that was their last concert for the season, but if they tour together again, I would highly recommend this concert for folks of all ages who enjoy a big sound and a great time.
Debbie in PA
We have a live concert DVD of these two acts performing together and you're right ... they put on a TREMENDOUS show! Two more of our local acts who've been able to carve out a decades-long career in the music business. (We saw Earth, Wind and Fire alone last year at a sold-out performance at The Chicago Theater and were blown away by how good they sounded ... our first time seeing them live.) Definitely a show worth seeing! Thanks, Debbie! (kk)
Two of the most dynamic voices of the late '70's and early '80's teamed up for a show at Schaumburg's September Fest this past weekend. Officially billing themselves as "Starship, starring Mickey Thomas - featuring Bobby Kimball, the original lead singer of Toto" ... wow! that's a mouthful! ... these guys rocked the house this past Sunday Night. With an incredibly tight back-up band (and a female vocalist named Stephanie Calvert very ably handling all of the old Grace Slick parts), this was a non-stop hit assault. (Incredibly, as hard as the band rocked on some of these numbers, the two highlights for me that night were Thomas doing "Sara", a #1 Starship hit from 1986 and Bobby Kimballs' rendition of "Africa", the #1 Hit for Toto back in 1983.) While Kimball's high-end range was a little lacking at certain points during the show, Thomas sounded just as good as he did when he first reached our consciousness with "Fooled Around And Fell In Love" back in 1976 as the lead vocalist in Elvin Bishop's band. (His performance of this tune Sunday Night was another concert highlight.) One forgets how many hits Starship had with Thomas at the helm ... three #1's, in fact ... the ONLY #1's in the band's long-standing career ... and "Sara", "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" and the encore of "We Built This City" had the crowd up on its feet. He also quite capably handled some of Marty Balin's leads on "Count On Me" and "Find Your Way Back" (which is STILL playing in my head some 14 hours later as I type this!!! lol). One of OUR favorites, "Miracles", fell a little flat ... although one of Jefferson Starship's biggest and best-know hits, the substition of BOTH lead singers (Slick and Balin) just didn't make this song sound right. Kimball, on the other hand, did a GREAT job of running through a number of Toto's hits ("Hold The Line", "I'll Supply The Love", the aforementioned "Africa", "I Won't Hold You Back" and the big crowd-pleaser "Rosanna") in his abbreviated sets within the show. All-in-all, a GREAT night of musical entertainment ... a great WEEKEND, in fact! (kk)
Bobby Kimball
Bobby Kimball
Mickey Thomas and Bobby Kimball
Mickey Thomas and Bobby Kimball
Joe Klein and Bobby Kimball (after the show)
Bill Fortune, Kent Kotal and Joe Klein
re: THE WLS CHARTS:
>>>The 1965 Silver Dollar Survey is strange. It seems it would have been noticed by one of us at the station ... and would have caused a response from listeners and the music industry. It would be interesting to check another survey from that same date. In other words, could this be a forgery? I don't remember the "Number One Hits" being part of a September survey. (Dex Card)
>>>Nope, this is the real deal ... I've been collecting WLS and WCFL Surveys for over 35 years now ... and there are at least a dozen of us fanatics on The Forgotten Hits Mailing List that can claim a COMPLETE collection of EVERY chart ever published. (kk)
I have at least two copies of this particular survey and, like you said, know of any number of people who have this week's survey as well. They all can't be counterfeit. I hadn't realized that Yesterday had not been officially released in the US yet. Thanks for your help on the 45s. Maybe someone will contact me.
Jack (Rock And Roll Never Forgets)
No, it's definitely authentic ... I've had it in my collection for FAR too long ... plus many of my WLS surveys have the name of the record shop where the surveys were originally distributed from stamped on them, too, and all of these places are LONG gone now!!! How cool, 'tho, that Dex Card would comment ... I hope we hear from him from time to time ... I used to race home from school every day to hear him count down Chicago's Top 40 songs ... even if they WERE the same ones he played the day before!!! (lol) Once we knew the charts, we knew where our favorites fell ... so we could actually PLAN our listening around the Dex's survey countdown show! (kk)
Kent,
I was hanging on every word and every song coming out of WLS in 1965. As soon as the sun was low in the afternoon, and in the morning before school, I was glued to WLS. Who would've thought that 44 years later I'd be reading email comments from the very jocks who claimed listeners in 40 states. Only in Forgotten Hits - the best music and radio publication found anywhere. Thanks for keeping this thing going!
David
Believe me, it is a REAL honor to have ANY contact with these guys ... back then many of these deejays were every bit as popular as the recording artists we listened to them play! I would LOVE to get ALL of the '60's Chicago jocks on the list to share their memories with our readers! (kk)
By the way, it looks like someone at WLS was messing with the chart just for fun. Did you notice they list "She Loves You" as "She Loves Me" instead?
David
Sadly, this wasn't at all uncommon ... they regularly misspelled titles and artist names ... hard to believe for such a radio giant!!! The old WJJD Charts used to do it on purpose ... often coming up with clever parody titles ... we'll be running some of those in the future, too! (kk)
re: AND MORE ON THE CURRENT STATE OF RADIO:
Kent,
A great article that points the finger of blame squarely where it belongs!
Clark Weber
The Power Of Radio People
By Jerry Del Colliano / September 4, 2009
On this Labor Day weekend, I thought it would be appropriate to reflect on the human asset that is often lost in the "business" of radio.
Radio people.
I've been on the outs with consolidators from the very beginning because I sensed that they coveted franchises more than the people who built them. And I said it loud and proud when I owned Inside Radio for many years.
In fairness, at the beginning, I was a "lonely boy," to borrow a phrase from Andrew Gold. The can-do spirit of radio people kicked into high gear even from the beginning when consolidators made promises to them that they couldn't keep. They said consolidation was a good thing.
It would make radio stronger.
Make the industry bigger.
Make our livings better.
You may remember the days.
One manager took over for two others to run three of the stations in a newly consolidated cluster. The promoted manager got a raise and big title. The consolidator saved a ton of money. Once the consolidator figured out they didn't have to give a big raise or title, it was all over.
That manager was not defeated. Far from it. He or she was up for the challenge. It bothered me that friends of mine were cut loose early on but there was at least a chance for them to get another radio job with different consolidators or with some of the independents still operating.
Over the years -- even before consolidators got caught up in impossible debt service -- there was a constant move to find "economies of scale" as they were called. You may also remember Mel Karmazin, Lowry Mays and others who reported to shareholders in their quarterly conference calls that they were acting to build "shareholder value."
Of course, as we discovered, shareholders were the second biggest losers in radio consolidation … after the listener.
Cost cutting took time and just as a cataract grows slowly to impair vision in one's eye, the snip-snip-snip of bean counters weakened the fabric of local radio. But many radio people couldn't see it. They just pushed on.
Today you see what we are left with.
Fires in LA but few people on the ground to ferret out the stories.
Local music scenes dying on the vine because radio no longer plays local music.
News became extinct.
Personalities are too expensive and thus expendable.
Local sales reduced to cockamamie policies inflicted by corporate people who have never distinguished themselves as sellers. In some cases, they never sold anything at all and yet they were telling qualified people how to do their jobs.
I've taken a lawsuit. I've been sharply criticized by the "establishment" for opposing radio's new future and I've grieved along with thousands of individuals I love and respect.
I call them … radio people.
Here's what radio people are to me:
1. The programmers, managers, talent, sales professionals, office staff and engineers (remember them?) who built radio into the industry that made Wall Street want to shell out billions to buy their stations. They weren't buying Lew Dickey's body of work. Or Fagreed Suleman's or John Slogan Hogans. If Jefferson Starship could sing "We Built This City on Rock and Roll" then radio was built on the backs of simple radio people. You know, the $100 million plus stations that consolidators lined up to buy as well as the local stations that were sold for prices never imaginable before. Guess who programmed, managed and monetized them?
2. The most loyal group of people who, no matter what their personal situation was, had the uncanny ability to put the interests and desires of their listeners ahead of themselves. Not once, but again and again. Not just in good times, but even when pretenders like Cumulus, Clear Channel and Citadel were making their lives hell.
3. Resourceful beyond belief. Until the past few years radio people were able to deliver high quality programming and sales on a lower budget and even with a lesser personal salary because they knew how to operate at a professional level more efficiently. Too bad Fagreed Suleman didn't look to his people, especially the ABC "assets" he purchased for mega billions, for help. Fagreed was a bean counter. But his people had answers. He just didn't know the value of asking questions. Citadel, with Sergeant-at-arms Judy Ellis at the helm, kept everyone in their place and quiet.
4. The conscience of the community. I have heard example after example of circumstances where local station people are giving back to the community, happily involved in activities with no additional pay to them. I heard the story recently of a New England sales exec -- and a damn good one -- who had to endure the cost-cuts and micromanagement of corporate by day, only to show up at community meetings at night and on the weekends. In no other industry that you could name, would a buyer inherit a workforce of people who obviously love their audience enough to put them first even when their employers couldn't do the same for them.
5. Creative creatures. Keep in mind radio people brought the industry back from the advent of television by reinventing it. Imagine how they could have reinvented radio content -- not just streaming terrestrial signals -- for the next competitors: the Internet, mobile and social networking.
6. Radio people are like family, but not Gordon Gekko's family. We competed against each other with the fervor of two sports team wanting to be the best but often in the end we remained or became friends with our adversaries. We fought on the field. Not in court.
7. Proud of our industry. Clear Channel's Lowry Mays may have been willing to sell his industry down the river for a few huge paydays but I doubt the average radio person would want that legacy at any price. Turning a local business into a cheap network of national repeater stations may do wonders for consolidators and their bottom lines, but a person with pride couldn't do that to their listeners or even sponsors who support them.
This is Labor Day weekend.
A time that signals the traditional end of summer and it is a casual holiday with little meaning to most people outside of organized labor.
But to radio people, every day is labor day … when they have to work harder to make less money, when their commissions are cut in a punitive fashion because they can't outperform a recessionary economy.
On Tuesday, Cumulus workers will have to resume enduring those spy-in-the-sky meetings in the conference room from which many come away demotivated and embarrassed.
Radio people are often forgotten.
Their advocates are gone.
Radio & Records, the heart and soul of this industry for more than 30 years, has been silenced, itself a victim of greedy consolidators. Others who could speak up are kissing the establishment's butt in hopes they can survive the fate that their silence has purchased.
On the occasion of this Labor Day when the handful of mighty consolidators who have run the radio industry into the ground are on their yachts and expensive getaways, it is fitting to remember and pay respect to the people who put them there by their dedication and hard work.
Radio people.
re: CASABLANCA RECORDS:
Just got this from our bloggin' buddy Artie Wayne ... should make for some VERY interesting reading!!!
My Casablanca piece will run in the next week or so. In the meantime, I'm doing some pre-promotion on YouTube :-)
A friend of mine interviewed me about the inspiration behind the project.
You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdJXcYnb2KU
At 41,000 words, it's the longest piece I've ever written so it will probably run over a week. I will e-mail you the article once it's up.
Talk with you soon!!
Christian
The promo is excellent! You should have your own show. I'm not blogging until September, but I'll get the details about when your article will run to Kent Kotal at Forgotten Hits http://forgottenhits.com
Can't wait to read it!
Regards,
Artie
And here it is!!! (lol) Thanks, guys, for including me in this ... sounds like a VERY interesting piece! (kk)
Kent ...
How ya' doin'? I just wanted you and your readers to know about a five part series on my late friend Neil Bogart and the anniversary of Casablanca records! Christian John Wikane has written a brilliant piece for POP MATTERS on one of the greatest icons of the music industry! http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/109836-part-two-painting-the-building-1975-1977/
Regards,
Artie Wayne
http://artiewayne.wordpress.com
Here's a link to the piece we mentioned above ... interesting reading to be sure! (kk)
... and, tying nicely into this, is some recent correspondence that we received from Joe Klein ... who we had the pleasure of meeting at Schaumburg's September Fest this past weekend!!! (kk)
Hey Kent,
Joe Klein here (the guy from Laughlin, NV, who was introduced to you and your newsletter by my old "partner in rhymes" from the 70's and 80's, Artie Wayne).
I will be in Chicago over the Labor Day weekend for a family event. (I was born in the Windy City but moved to L.A. with my family in 1958). I arrive in Chicagoland Wednesday afternoon, September 2 and will be staying with my life-long friend and current partner, Bill Bussiere (aka Bill Fortune, aka Bill Taylor) for a couple of nights. Bill is a former deejay and radio news anchor (WCFL, WBBM and others) and he and I have hundreds of old pals in radio and records that we came to know over the years. We'll be hanging out, going to a few clubs and restaurants and visiting old friends and colleagues.
Being a regular reader of your newsletter / blog, I'd like to meet you if you have time and will be in town when I visit. (Maybe we could meet for a meal or at a cool music club??) Get back in touch if you're interested in getting together with us and yakking oldies and old radio, as all of us share that in common!
The news about the Schaumburg SeptemberFest Music Festival is pretty wild, in that I actually hired Bobby Kimball to sing lead on a couple of radio station jingles I produced back in the seventies! Back in 1976 I came up with a concept to produce radio station jingles (for several different formats from CHR to AOR to Urban) that were like "miniature hit records." The jingles ran about a minute long. Each jingle was a very cool song unto itself (written by my partner at the time, jazz musician John LaSalle and a really hot L.A. lyricist from that time named Norma Helms). Each "song" had nothing to do with the station that would be running it. That is, the lyrics were just like the lyrics from a standard pop, rock, r&b or urban song of that era. The only difference was the length (about a minute) and that the BACKGROUND vocals would not only answer the lyrics as background vocals usually do, but would also sing the station call letters as well! The "records" were written to be very "hooky" and to be included in regular rotation just like other songs. With repetition, they, like other hits, would become familiar but listeners would also hear the stations call letters in this current "hit."
Joey Reynolds tried a similar concept in the late sixties. I forgot what he called the package, but we would mix in extra background vocals at the front (usually the intro) of actual hit records. That idea, actually tested and used on a few of the Drake stations was quickly panned and ridiculed. That's why I thought recording original songs was a cool twist that just might catch on. I produced a package of about ten jingles for the ABC radio chain (which, back in the mid-seventies, had several different music formats). I spent nearly $20,000 on this package (between musicians, singers and top-end studios). My old friend Russ Terrana, the chief engineer and primary mixing wizard for Motown Records mixed the final tracks for me. They turned out great. Bobby Kimball sang on two of the rock jingles. This was, I believe just a year or two before Toto! I saw him a few more times afterward, including hanging with him a couple of times when Toto was "riding high!" I'd love to see him again.
Also, I'm going to be sending you an update for the newsletter / blog in the next day or two. I may have an AWESOME SCOOP for you to break. It's a REALLY REALLY big deal in the world of music and oldies ... but I want to handle this one just right.
I also want to tell you about an incredible story that was just posted online. It's an in-depth account of the rise and (relatively brief) huge run of success enjoyed by Casablanca Records. I produced HUNDREDS of ads for the label from 1977 until 1980 and contributed to the article.
And, regarding Russ Terrana, the Motown engineer I mentioned above, I just spoke with him over this past weekend and I have a TERRIFIC scoop from him! I want to speak with him one more time again and get more details to include in this "breaking music news" story which I am sure you and your readers will enjoy hearing!
Hope to hear back from you. Meanwhile, keep up the great work with the newsletter and blog. It's always quite the read! Only problem for me is making the time to read it ALL!
Regards,
Joe Klein
OK ... now you've got us all warmed up for the big announcement with your "tease"!!! (lol) Can't wait to hear more about this!
We ran one of those Radio Station / Hit Song Jingles a while back ... and you're absolutely right ... once you hear it played this way, it sticks in your head and you start to hear it as PART of the actual hit song!!! (I've included MY personal favorite, the WMAK / Grass Roots version of "Sooner Or Later". Forgotten Hits List Member David Lewis sent me three or four of these ... but to my ears, this was the BEST use of this technique in the bunch ... and every time "Sooner Or Later" comes on the radio now, I sing the WMAK Jingle over the intro!!! Would LOVE to hear a few of yours, too, Joe, if you've got some to send along ... and I know that our readers would, too!)
As for the Casablanca Records Story, I've been hearing some really good things about it. While I haven't read the whole article yet, I did print it out for later reading. (Which means that it's probably sitting in my bathroom waiting for me as I type this!!! lol) kk
Yeah I think that Grass Roots thingy WAS, in fact, one of Joey Reynold's jingles. Damn! What did he call that package??? I ALMOST remember the name of the jingle product, but just can't pull it out of my brain!
Another one of my old, old friends (going all the way back to high school) named Ken Levine (who deejayed for a while and then went on to become a very successful writer and executive producer for television ... plus a play-by-play baseball announcer, host of Dodger talk in L.A. and blogger) was a jingle collector back at the end of the sixties and early seventies. On a trip to KYNO in Fresno (the radio station that Gene Chenault, Bill Drake's partner actually owned if full) back in 1970, I managed to run off copies of reel after reel of Drake / Johnny Mann Singer jingles. All the big station packages plus tons of production music and even recording sessions of Bill Drake voicing the imaging elements. Harry Miller (who later became Eric Chase and finally Paul Christie in Houston) was the PD of KYNO at the time. Anyway Ken freaked out when I returned to L.A. and called him to let him know I had dubbed off so many Drake jingles from the actual masters! A couple years later Ken and a friend of his (whose name I can't remember) produced a brilliant PARODY of the Joey Reynolds jingles! He called his spoof package "Septic Singovers" and used totally wacko records like "Surfin' Bird" and "Laura." It was just hilarious! He pressed up a few hundred demos on rainbow colored 7" records (that I recall were 33 1/3 RPM with small holes) and mailed them out to shitloads of radio station PD's. I think his parody fueled all the ridicule that was heaped on the concept but, as you pointed out, many of those records with the station's call letters were memorable. Only a few of them were well produced, IMHO and most of them sounded pretty amateur.
I may have that "Septic Singovers" record stashed away somewhere and, about two years ago, I did locate a copy of the jingles I produced for ABC back in 1976. I just don't currently have a decent reel-to-reel machine in good working order (as I am now totally digital). At one point in the eighties I owned FOUR Ampex ATR machines (two four-tracks and two two-tracks) that, before they stopped making them, were selling for upwards of $10K EACH! I need to get a nice tape machine and some good quarter-track and half -track head assemblies so I can start transferring lots of my old stuff to digital!
Meanwhile, one of these days, I'll try to get those jingles of mine copied over.
Joe Klein
And then a bit more from Joe Klein, exclusively for our Forgotten Hits Publication:
Hi Kent!
Hope you and all your readers have had a decent summer. Condolences, of course, to you, for the loss of your brother and prayers for all those we've lost so far this year. As time marches forward, more and more of our friends and family are moving on. But that's a part of life, and life, itself goes on as well!
Since last chiming in with "the class" last spring, Laughlin, NV (just across the river from where I live in Bullhead City, AZ) has seen quite the fair share of oldies artists roll through town for performances. I last wrote in about shows from Bill Medley and Tommy James. Since then, Eric Burdon, Felix Cavaliere, Davy Jones and Gary Puckett have appeared in town. Billy J. Kramer will be playing in Laughlin on September 5 and later in the month Jay & The Americans are doing a show. Freddy Fender, Bobby Vinton and Ben Vereen will be appearing in October.
While I did catch part of Eric Burdon's show and most of Felix's, I missed Davy and Gary's gigs because I was out of town. Eric Burdon's show was during our big annual "Laughlin River Run" motorcycle rally and, having friends in town, didn't have a chance to write a review and send it in, but it was a decent show, considering all the rowdiness and madness that was going on in town. Felix's show was great. Still sings up a storm (love this guy's unique voice) and, of course, the set was fully loaded with Rascals faves. But, alas, I arrived a little late and forgot to bring my camera to that gig! (Near senior moment, I suppose!) So, sadly, I didn't get a chance to speak with Felix or get a shot of him or the show. Darn!
All the shows I just mentioned (except for Bill Medley) were (and will be) at the Tropicana Express Hotel which, for the last couple of years, seems to have cornered the "oldies" market here, hosting nearly all the "major" oldies acts that play the Laughlin "strip." The casinos and shows of Laughlin and, especially, the Tropicana Express Hotel, market heavily to us baby boomers and, far more than Las Vegas, welcome visitors in their fifties, sixties and seventies (featuring many acts from those same decades). Laughlin is a lot like Branson but with casinos -- and the Colorado River -- and is pretty accessible from most of the southwest. Laughlin is located just above the "tip" of Nevada, right next to the river, 25 miles north of the I-40 and 90 miles south from Las Vegas. The rooms, meals and shows in Laughlin are VERY inexpensive and, let's face it, gambling is gambling, wherever you play. The clubs in Laughlin may lack the eye-popping glitz and glam of the hot Vegas mega-resorts (the hotels here are more like the older joints in Vegas) but, for us boomers, it's a relaxing and inexpensive good time, old-school style! BTW, all the casino / hotels feature entertainment, with acts from country to comedy. There's also a very cool lake nearby, called Lake Mohave. (It's the next lake and dam down river from Lake Mead.)
Here's a link to the Tropicana Express entertainment page:
http://www.tropicanax.com/content/pages.php?pg=entertainment_overview
Or, check out the main tourist info page for Laughlin here:
http://www.visitlaughlin.com/ltourism/index.jsp
I'm in town most of the year and would love to welcome and personally meet any FH reader or oldies fan who ventures to Laughlin! Email me at: j.klein@newmediacreative.net
and, if I'm in town, I'll do my best to meet and greet!
In other news, I am sure that you all have read the countless items sent in by FH alum Artie Wayne. Artie and I worked together as partners in rhyme for about fifteen years from the mid-seventies to the late-eighties. During many of those years, I produced well over A THOUSAND radio and television commercials for major labels, starting with Casablanca Records and then, later, for several other labels including Warner Brothers, Chrysalis, EMI-America, Capitol, Ariola-America, Motown, Penthouse Records (they had their own label for a few years) and, yes, even K-Tel!
Producing hundreds of ads for Casablanca Record and Filmworks during their heyday (from 1977 through 1979) was a non-stop whirlwind of wild experiences that I'll never forget. Early this past spring, a writer named Christian Wikane got in touch with me (referred to me by Artie) and asked if he could interview me about my days working with Casablanca. I agreed and, about a week later, we spent nearly three hours on the phone talking about my own Casablanca experiences. Chris' ambitious endeavor turned into what can only be described as a MONUMENTAL accomplishment, a 40,000 word detailed overview of the rise and reign of Casablanca Record And Filmworks.
The feature, entitled "Play It Again," was six months in the making and, finally, published online last week at the Pop Matters website. The article was so in-depth that it released in no less than FIVE installments! I've just finished reading the article myself (which includes many stories and quotes from Artie and me) and it is truly an EPIC piece. Whether or not you were a fan of KISS, Donna Summer, The Village People and the many other acts -- and movies -- this incredible label promoted and released, it's an amazing story and a great read! Huge kudos to Christian for a job so very well done!
This is really a piece of music history that is worth checking out. You can "Play It Again," in its entirety, here:
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/special/section/casablanca-records-play-it-again/
Meanwhile, I'll try and do better in the months to come to bring FH more news and reviews about great oldies shows here in Laughlin and even try to get a few exclusive interviews from acts when they play here! I'm off to Chicago next week where I hope to meet up with our fearless leader, Kent, at the annual Schaumburg SeptemberFest over Labor Day Weekend and catch a performance of Starship along with special guest, Bobby Kimball (former lead singer of Toto). Bobby and I worked together back in 1976 when I hired him to sing a couple of radio station jingles I was producing! This was about a year or so before Toto and hard to believe it was over 33 years ago! Whoa!
That's all for now, kiddies! I hope to have one more item to pass along in the next few days before my trip, a "big scoop" of sorts! If I can confirm the news, I'll surely get it out to you all!
Have a great Labor Day!
Joe Klein
We were fortunate enough to meet up with Joe and Bill at our Schaumburg September Fest (and caught a great show by Starship featuring both Mickey Thomas and Bobby Kimball ... see our review below). By the way, you won't be seeing Freddy Fender performing in Laughlin any time soon ... he passed away about three years ago! (More than a few folks in the crowd thought that Bobby Kimball resembled Freddy just a little bit the other night! lol) Anyway, we had a great time and hope to catch some of these oldies acts that are still performing in and around the Vegas area on our next trip out that way. And please DO send your "Exclusive Scoop" to me so that we can break the story in Forgotten Hits! Thanks, Joe! (kk)
re: AIRPLAY:
We're looking forward to the Chicagoland screening of "Airplay", coming up on the 18th of September at The Music Box Theatre up in Wrigleyville. Tickets are available at the theatre box office ... or in advance through www.theunitedfest.com/chicago. (Dick Biondi will also start giving tickets away next week on his WLS-FM Program, 94.7.) Hoping we can meet some of our readers at the show. (kk)
LOL ... and I loved THIS one from Ron Smith ... after we offered up his abode for anyone visiting Chicago, wishing to catch the "Airplay" screening ...
>>>If I sign up for The Airplay Tickets Contest & win ... is it possible for you to fly me out to Chicago and let me stay at your house for a week or so? If you say no, I'll try Ron Smith. Lol (Frank B.)
>>>Actually, I'm offering to put up EVERYBODY who entered this contest over at Ron Smith's House ... even if you DIDN'T win tickets!!! (kk)
Be careful about offering my place to stay. I think Woodstock was cleaner than my apartment is right now.
-- Ron Smith
... and, speaking of great documentaries ...
re: WAGES OF SPIN:
Just a reminder that the Shawn Swords / Paul Russo film "Wages Of Spin" will make its L.A. premier on Saturday, September 19th, at The James Bridges Theatre / UCLA School Of Theatre, Film and Television, 102 East Melnitz Hall in Los Angeles with TWO screenings: 7:30 pm and 9:15 pm. If you haven't yet seen this film, an expose of the early Philadelphia Days of Rock And Roll, and happen to be in the area that night, this is one you'll really enjoy. (kk)
re: THE BEATLES:
Lots of Beatles-fuss this week ... with the re-released, remastered versions of ALL of their recordings ... and the new Rock Band video game, you can expect to hear a WHOLE lot more Beatles music on the radio for the next several weeks! And you'll ALSO enjoy reading about The Fab Four's first visit to Philadelphia, too, back in 1964. It's all up on Sam Lyt's Hy Lit Website ... which can be found right here:
The Beatles Philadelphia Story, Pictures, September 2nd Newsletter click here.
And this from Sam Lyt, too ...
Kent,
Check out the footnote on the newsletter:
Hy took to the stage to introduce the Beatles. The crowd immediately enveloped into a roaring frenzy for the entire duration of the concert. In fact the cheering and the screams were so loud and at times there was such emotion that it was difficult to even hear the Beatles sing.
When the concert was over the security issue facing the Beatles getting into Philadelphia confronted them again.
It was determined that all the hotels in town were being staked out by frantic girls, and that secure lodging would be a problem. So the Beatles were secretly whisked to Hy's house where they were able to spend the night and get some r&r before traveling to the next city.
Once the Beatles left, Hy created a clever contest. He would give away the sheets and pillowcases that the Beatles slept on in a major WIBG Radio contest, which sent the city into a frenzy once again.
-- Sam Lyt
Yes, I remember reading about this at the time ... a pretty clever promotion to be sure! (kk)
A pioneer in the world of Beatles’ radio, Woody Lifton, was the creator of the magic “Pop Go the Beatles” that graced the airwaves and internet for years. In fact, Woody came up with an idea for a radio show that would do something NO other show had ever done. Then ... big business intervened ... and everything changed in a heartbeat.
Read Woody’s exciting story at: http://www.ontherockbooks.com/meet15/WoodyLifton.html
It’s VERY interesting Labor Day reading, and the pics are so cool! Thanks to Tim Coulter, my wonderfully talented webmaster for another great issue of Meet the Beatles Fans!!
And find out what Woody has planned for the future!!! It’s exciting!!
Happy Labor Day Weekend! J
Jude
Jude Southerland Kessler
http://www.ontherockbooks.com/
Here's a goofy quiz from the pages of AOL ... might be intresting for all the readers.
Mike
btw ... They told me I was George
http://www.spinner.com/2009/09/01/which-beatle-are-you/
re: MARSHALL LYTLE:
Hi again,
Do you have contact info for Marshall Lytle? The last e-mail address I have for him was from back when he was living in Tampa. He was in my "Wildwood Days" documentary. What a terrific guy ... we had a great time with him. He even sang me his Viagra song. I'm so sorry to hear about his problems.
Thanks,
Carolyn
I double checked with "Rewind" Host Jimmy Jay, who's been giving us all of our Marshall Lytle updates these past few weeks ... and he tells me:
I spoke with Marshall he said that you can give this e-mail address out to anyone who wants to contact him ... and that he is thankful for all the cards he has been getting at the hospital. His e-mail is: marshall-tommy@suddenlink.net. Today he sounded very upbeat and positive. Have a great weekend. Please remind everyone about his new book that came out last week "Still Rockin' Around The Clock" by Marshall Lytle, available now at Amazon.com.
Jimmy Jay
www.RewindShow.com
We've heard from a few of our readers who have sent their Well-Wishes to Marshall, who we wish a very speedy recovery. (Marshall had his foot amputated last week after some complications.) Now other folks on the list can send him a Get Well Greeting, too! Thanks, Jimmy! (kk)
re: MERRY CHRISTMAS:
Wow, Summer hasn't even ended yet and we're already getting Christmas news!!! Seems Bob Dylan has recorded a few tracks for what many believe will be his first Christmas Album ever! Rolling Stone Magazine reports that Dylan recently laid down tracks for "Must Be Santa", "Here Comes Santa Claus", "I'll Be Home For Christmas" and "O Little Town Of Bethlehem." Whodathunkit?!?!? At this rate, the next thing we'll be hearing is that rocker Rod Stewart is recording an album of standards ... or that Phil Collins is making music for a Disney cartoon!!! (kk)
re: IN CONCERT:
We saw a SMOKIN' show by Randy Bachman at this year's Schaumburg September Fest ... Bachman put together a killer 90-minute show that featured pretty much all of the hit material he wrote or co-wrote while still a member of The Guess Who mixed with pretty much the entire hit catalog of Bachman-Turner Overdrive. The set included an absolutely AMAZING version of "American Woman" where Bachman played part of his extended guitar solo with a drumstick! (It truly has to be seen to be believed ... and it sounded incredible! I tried to find a copy of this on YouTube but didn't see anything there that did this performance justice ... all I can tell you is that it was simply amazing!) The band also strung together a couple of fun hit medleys, including one that merged BTO's own hit "Hey You" with "All Right Now" by Free, "Rock'n Me" by Steve Miller, "Hot Legs" by Rod Stewart, "You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC and "Wild Thing" by The Troggs! By the end of the night the whole crowd was up on its feet, singing and dancing along to the music. It sounds like the band is headed back to Canada now ... but anyone who came to the concert disappointed that Bachman was touring without Burton Cummings this time around left the show thoroughly entertained and satisfied. (kk)
Dear Kent,
Last week I had the pleasure of seeing Chicago and Earth Wind and Fire together in concert at the Great Allentown Fair in Allentown, Pa. They put on a fantastic show. Not only did their musical styles blend very well, but they clearly enjoyed performing together very much, the energy was sky-high and the audience loved every minute of it. They started out by playing a couple of songs together, then EWF played their set. After a break, Chicago played their set, and they concluded by playing all together. The combined sets were my favorites. They just blew the audience away. My two daughters in their late 20s went with me, and they had a great time. Of course, they liked Chicago's 80s songs the best because that's what they heard growing up, but they really enjoyed the whole show as much as I did. One great thing they announced was that they were helping local food banks. In exchange for cans of food at the concert or, if you want to make a donation online, you can download three new songs recorded by the two groups. Here's the website for it: http://www.ewfandchicago.com/
They announced that was their last concert for the season, but if they tour together again, I would highly recommend this concert for folks of all ages who enjoy a big sound and a great time.
Debbie in PA
We have a live concert DVD of these two acts performing together and you're right ... they put on a TREMENDOUS show! Two more of our local acts who've been able to carve out a decades-long career in the music business. (We saw Earth, Wind and Fire alone last year at a sold-out performance at The Chicago Theater and were blown away by how good they sounded ... our first time seeing them live.) Definitely a show worth seeing! Thanks, Debbie! (kk)
Two of the most dynamic voices of the late '70's and early '80's teamed up for a show at Schaumburg's September Fest this past weekend. Officially billing themselves as "Starship, starring Mickey Thomas - featuring Bobby Kimball, the original lead singer of Toto" ... wow! that's a mouthful! ... these guys rocked the house this past Sunday Night. With an incredibly tight back-up band (and a female vocalist named Stephanie Calvert very ably handling all of the old Grace Slick parts), this was a non-stop hit assault. (Incredibly, as hard as the band rocked on some of these numbers, the two highlights for me that night were Thomas doing "Sara", a #1 Starship hit from 1986 and Bobby Kimballs' rendition of "Africa", the #1 Hit for Toto back in 1983.) While Kimball's high-end range was a little lacking at certain points during the show, Thomas sounded just as good as he did when he first reached our consciousness with "Fooled Around And Fell In Love" back in 1976 as the lead vocalist in Elvin Bishop's band. (His performance of this tune Sunday Night was another concert highlight.) One forgets how many hits Starship had with Thomas at the helm ... three #1's, in fact ... the ONLY #1's in the band's long-standing career ... and "Sara", "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" and the encore of "We Built This City" had the crowd up on its feet. He also quite capably handled some of Marty Balin's leads on "Count On Me" and "Find Your Way Back" (which is STILL playing in my head some 14 hours later as I type this!!! lol). One of OUR favorites, "Miracles", fell a little flat ... although one of Jefferson Starship's biggest and best-know hits, the substition of BOTH lead singers (Slick and Balin) just didn't make this song sound right. Kimball, on the other hand, did a GREAT job of running through a number of Toto's hits ("Hold The Line", "I'll Supply The Love", the aforementioned "Africa", "I Won't Hold You Back" and the big crowd-pleaser "Rosanna") in his abbreviated sets within the show. All-in-all, a GREAT night of musical entertainment ... a great WEEKEND, in fact! (kk)
Hey Kent,
Bill Fortune and I had a blast finally meeting the "Forgotten Hits Guy" and attending SeptemberFest 2009 with you and your wife Frannie! We were very impressed by the magnitude of this event that the Village of Schaumburg has been staging for the last 39 years!
It's always great to visit Chicago (the city where I was born) every few years, visit family and, of course, hang out with Bill, my pal of 40 years (who deejayed at WCFL back in the seventies and anchored radio news at WMAQ for many years back in the nineties).
We really enjoyed the concert featuring Starship with Mickey Thomas joined by my old friend Bobby Kimball. It was great to see Bobby perform (and then hang out with him backstage after the show). I haven't seen Bobby since the early Toto days in L.A.! I hired Bobby to sing on a couple of radio station jingles I produced back in 1976 and he did a great job on those.
Here are a few pix from the event, including a rather bizarre shot of Bobby and me where the digital camera decided to make Bobby appear a bit like a "ghost of Toto's past!"
Enjoy ... and, hey, the fireworks show following the concert was totally kick ass! One of the best we've ever seen! Props once again to the folks of Schaumburg who staged the event. A real holiday weekend treat for us all, to be sure!
See you soon!
Joe Klein
Bobby Kimball
Bobby Kimball
Mickey Thomas and Bobby Kimball
Mickey Thomas and Bobby Kimball
Joe Klein and Bobby Kimball (after the show)
Bill Fortune, Kent Kotal and Joe Klein(Rockin' on a Sunday Night, right after the show)
Hi Kent!
Some great shots here, Joe ... thanks for sharing them with our readers. Too bad we didn't stick around to meet Bobby after the show ... but it sounds like he's got some neat stuff coming up.
re: HELPING OUT OUR READERS:
>>>I was watching the KTLA morning news here in LA and Ron Dante performed "Sugar Sugar" in their studios this morning. He's gonna be appearing at the Normandie Casino in Gardena, Ca on Saturday Sept 5th. Just thought I'd pass it along to the Southern California readers of Forgotten Hits! (Mike Mertes)
Kent ...
Was the Ron Dante that Mike Mertes wrote about the same Dante who recorded "Something Happens" under the name Dante & Friends? Such a great forgotten Doo Wop.
Bob Hughes
No ... Ron Dante was the voice of The Archies, who scored one of the biggest hits of the '60's, "Sugar Sugar". He also was the lead vocalist behind the hits "Tracy" by The Cuff Links and "Leader Of The Laundromat" by The Detergents ... and produced all of Barry Manilow's early albums, too. He's a long-time Forgotten Hits member and, over the years, has kept us up to date on all of his latest activities. You'll find one of MY favorite Ron Dante recordings on our website tribute to my brother Mark, coming up later this week. (kk)
Kent -
I tried contacting Hit Parade Radio to ask when Larry Lujack will start airing - both starting date and time slot - but got a confusing answer about Chicago not yet having a station. Will Uncle Lar not be on the internet stream? If he will be on the stream, do you know the starting date and time slot for him?
Thanks, Kent.
Steve Davidson
I sent your question right to the source ... and here's what I got back from Hit Parade Radio founder John Rook:
Our affiliate relations guy has received interest in Hit Parade Radio from broadcasters there in Chicago, but nothing has been decided yet. A Hit Parade Radio sample of the music that includes some of Larry Lujack and Wink Martindale is currently on the internet and Wi-Fi radio worldwide. Larry's biggest ratings were from his time in afternoon drive at WLS and WCFL when I was his program director in those days, so don't be surprised if we have a major announcement to make on that subject in the not to distant future.
I'll keep you posted, Kent.
John Rook
www.hitparaderadio.com
Here's another forgotten hit. Even though not a hit, it's a piece of music I miss: The wonderful "Dallas 1963 - New York 1968" with Eric Burdon and the Animals, from the album "Every One Of Us". Would you like to include it in your list?
Regards,
Erik Dybdahl
Seljord, Telemark
Norway
I'm not familiar with that one at all ... and, obviously not a hit ... but if you'd like to send it along, I'd be happy to listen to it and see if it's something we'd like to share. Thanks, Erik! (kk)
>>>I was watching the KTLA morning news here in LA and Ron Dante performed "Sugar Sugar" in their studios this morning. He's gonna be appearing at the Normandie Casino in Gardena, Ca on Saturday Sept 5th. Just thought I'd pass it along to the Southern California readers of Forgotten Hits! (Mike Mertes)
Kent ...
Was the Ron Dante that Mike Mertes wrote about the same Dante who recorded "Something Happens" under the name Dante & Friends? Such a great forgotten Doo Wop.
Bob Hughes
No ... Ron Dante was the voice of The Archies, who scored one of the biggest hits of the '60's, "Sugar Sugar". He also was the lead vocalist behind the hits "Tracy" by The Cuff Links and "Leader Of The Laundromat" by The Detergents ... and produced all of Barry Manilow's early albums, too. He's a long-time Forgotten Hits member and, over the years, has kept us up to date on all of his latest activities. You'll find one of MY favorite Ron Dante recordings on our website tribute to my brother Mark, coming up later this week. (kk)
Kent -
I tried contacting Hit Parade Radio to ask when Larry Lujack will start airing - both starting date and time slot - but got a confusing answer about Chicago not yet having a station. Will Uncle Lar not be on the internet stream? If he will be on the stream, do you know the starting date and time slot for him?
Thanks, Kent.
Steve Davidson
I sent your question right to the source ... and here's what I got back from Hit Parade Radio founder John Rook:
Our affiliate relations guy has received interest in Hit Parade Radio from broadcasters there in Chicago, but nothing has been decided yet. A Hit Parade Radio sample of the music that includes some of Larry Lujack and Wink Martindale is currently on the internet and Wi-Fi radio worldwide. Larry's biggest ratings were from his time in afternoon drive at WLS and WCFL when I was his program director in those days, so don't be surprised if we have a major announcement to make on that subject in the not to distant future.
I'll keep you posted, Kent.
John Rook
www.hitparaderadio.com
Here's another forgotten hit. Even though not a hit, it's a piece of music I miss: The wonderful "Dallas 1963 - New York 1968" with Eric Burdon and the Animals, from the album "Every One Of Us". Would you like to include it in your list?
Regards,
Erik Dybdahl
Seljord, Telemark
Norway
I'm not familiar with that one at all ... and, obviously not a hit ... but if you'd like to send it along, I'd be happy to listen to it and see if it's something we'd like to share. Thanks, Erik! (kk)
Hi Kent!
Simple Trivia - Name These '50's Hits! This should be simple to some people!
A Medley, even in Stereo!
However, there's a catch with this trivia!
Welcome to The Spanish Invasion! ... http://www.angelfire.com/empire/abpsp/images/espanol.mp3
Good way to learn Español!Se habla español!!!
Good luck! :-)
Best,
John
How about some info on and credit to PJ Proby? He worked during that time period at Liberty records and did some interesting session work as well as demos for Presley, before becoming a star and falling from grace in Britain and the US.
Roger Leahy
Proby's name has come up a few times before over the years ... he's a tough call because he really only had one U.S. Hit ("Niki Hoeky" went to #23 back in 1967 ... and we've featured that one a couple of times now. It certainly falls into the Forgotten Hits category ... you're not likely to hear it on the radio anytime soon!) Over in the U.K., however, the Texas-born singer scored nearly a dozen Top 40 Hits, including four titles that reached Great Britain's Top Ten: Hold Me (#3, 1964); Together (#8, 1964); Somewhere (#6, 1964) and Maria (#8, 1965). If you're up to writing a short piece on him, I'd be happy to feature it. (kk)
'60's FLASHBACK:
Here is a brief piece I found on PJ Proby in The Forgotten Hits Archives:
Proby's name was kicked around quite a bit in the mid-'60's around the time of The British Invasion. He seemed to always be making appearances on the popular music shows of the day like Shindig, Hullabaloo and The Lloyd Thaxton Show, despite only having one Top 40 Chart Hit. (Niki Hoeky, #23, 1967, which we featured a couple of years ago in Forgotten Hits.)
Although I remember his name being involved with these programs, I evidently didn't pay much attention ... I think he was pretty much just there as eye-candy for the teenage girls anyway ... in fact, I discovered his biggest hit "Niki Hoeky" by way of the Burton Cummings cover version several years later when it appeared on Cummings' first solo album. But apparently he made quite an impact on other artists of the day, such as Cummings and Van Morrison. That may be because his greater popularity came in England (despite the fact that Proby, real name James Marcus Smith, was born in Houston, Texas!) P.J. Proby had eleven Top 40 Hits in the UK ... and, ironically, "Niki Hoeky" wasn't one of them! (He's also one of those artists "famous for" releasing an early Lennon - McCartney composition NOT recorded by The Beatles, "That Means A Lot", which hit #30 in the UK in 1965.) Working as a singer and (stage and film) actor in England, Proby also used the stage names Jett Powers and Orville Wood. (In the late '50's, he formed a band called The Moondogs, which included future members of The Teddy Bears, Canned Heat and The Mothers Of Invention!!!) All of these early recording ventures failed, however, and Proby didn't receive his first wave of success until he appeared on the British television special "Around The Beatles", where he reportedly had the girls squealing in the audience nearly as loud as the headliners! A single ("Hold Me") was quickly released and went right to #3 on the British Charts, the biggest hit of his career. (It went to #70 here in the States, where Proby was heavily promoted as part of The British Invasion ... hence the aforementioned TV appearances.) Some of you on the list may recall (from our earlier FH PJ Proby article) his "trouser-splitting" performance that got him banned from television screens around the globe at the time! Unfortunately, I couldn't find this earlier article to include in today's '60's Flashback ... but the jist of the whole trouser splitting incident is as follows: On February 1, 1965, after PJ Proby performed his first number at The ABC Luton Beds, his trousers split, causing the manager of the theater to close the curtain, stop the show and refund the audience's money! Future concerts in three other music halls ALSO ended in controversy ... (sounds like P.J. was now incorporating this bit into a regular part of his stage act!!! And we thought Jim Morrison of The Doors was bad!!! lol Ol' P.J. predated Morrison's incident by a good four years!) As a result, Proby was banned from any future British Concert Hall appearances. TV soon followed suit, in effect making it IMPOSSIBLE to see P.J. in any capacity throughout Great Britain! While all of this media attention certainly helped to fuel his following ... and P.J. WAS able to get some gigs in some of the U.K. Independent Theaters where he was NOT banned ... he suddenly began to exhibit very erratic behavior, often not showing up for appearances or walking off the stage mid-concert. When he was invited to appear on "Ready, Steady, Go", the popular British pop music television series, in July, they faded out his song during his second number and he swore that he'd never appear on the program again. In the '70's, he would again gain noteriety portraying Elvis Presley in a stage production at London's West End Theater, where it won Best Musical Of The Year in 1977. He continued to record and do theater work into the '90's with mixed success. (kk)
How about some info on and credit to PJ Proby? He worked during that time period at Liberty records and did some interesting session work as well as demos for Presley, before becoming a star and falling from grace in Britain and the US.
Roger Leahy
Proby's name has come up a few times before over the years ... he's a tough call because he really only had one U.S. Hit ("Niki Hoeky" went to #23 back in 1967 ... and we've featured that one a couple of times now. It certainly falls into the Forgotten Hits category ... you're not likely to hear it on the radio anytime soon!) Over in the U.K., however, the Texas-born singer scored nearly a dozen Top 40 Hits, including four titles that reached Great Britain's Top Ten: Hold Me (#3, 1964); Together (#8, 1964); Somewhere (#6, 1964) and Maria (#8, 1965). If you're up to writing a short piece on him, I'd be happy to feature it. (kk)
'60's FLASHBACK:
Here is a brief piece I found on PJ Proby in The Forgotten Hits Archives:
Proby's name was kicked around quite a bit in the mid-'60's around the time of The British Invasion. He seemed to always be making appearances on the popular music shows of the day like Shindig, Hullabaloo and The Lloyd Thaxton Show, despite only having one Top 40 Chart Hit. (Niki Hoeky, #23, 1967, which we featured a couple of years ago in Forgotten Hits.)
Although I remember his name being involved with these programs, I evidently didn't pay much attention ... I think he was pretty much just there as eye-candy for the teenage girls anyway ... in fact, I discovered his biggest hit "Niki Hoeky" by way of the Burton Cummings cover version several years later when it appeared on Cummings' first solo album. But apparently he made quite an impact on other artists of the day, such as Cummings and Van Morrison. That may be because his greater popularity came in England (despite the fact that Proby, real name James Marcus Smith, was born in Houston, Texas!) P.J. Proby had eleven Top 40 Hits in the UK ... and, ironically, "Niki Hoeky" wasn't one of them! (He's also one of those artists "famous for" releasing an early Lennon - McCartney composition NOT recorded by The Beatles, "That Means A Lot", which hit #30 in the UK in 1965.) Working as a singer and (stage and film) actor in England, Proby also used the stage names Jett Powers and Orville Wood. (In the late '50's, he formed a band called The Moondogs, which included future members of The Teddy Bears, Canned Heat and The Mothers Of Invention!!!) All of these early recording ventures failed, however, and Proby didn't receive his first wave of success until he appeared on the British television special "Around The Beatles", where he reportedly had the girls squealing in the audience nearly as loud as the headliners! A single ("Hold Me") was quickly released and went right to #3 on the British Charts, the biggest hit of his career. (It went to #70 here in the States, where Proby was heavily promoted as part of The British Invasion ... hence the aforementioned TV appearances.) Some of you on the list may recall (from our earlier FH PJ Proby article) his "trouser-splitting" performance that got him banned from television screens around the globe at the time! Unfortunately, I couldn't find this earlier article to include in today's '60's Flashback ... but the jist of the whole trouser splitting incident is as follows: On February 1, 1965, after PJ Proby performed his first number at The ABC Luton Beds, his trousers split, causing the manager of the theater to close the curtain, stop the show and refund the audience's money! Future concerts in three other music halls ALSO ended in controversy ... (sounds like P.J. was now incorporating this bit into a regular part of his stage act!!! And we thought Jim Morrison of The Doors was bad!!! lol Ol' P.J. predated Morrison's incident by a good four years!) As a result, Proby was banned from any future British Concert Hall appearances. TV soon followed suit, in effect making it IMPOSSIBLE to see P.J. in any capacity throughout Great Britain! While all of this media attention certainly helped to fuel his following ... and P.J. WAS able to get some gigs in some of the U.K. Independent Theaters where he was NOT banned ... he suddenly began to exhibit very erratic behavior, often not showing up for appearances or walking off the stage mid-concert. When he was invited to appear on "Ready, Steady, Go", the popular British pop music television series, in July, they faded out his song during his second number and he swore that he'd never appear on the program again. In the '70's, he would again gain noteriety portraying Elvis Presley in a stage production at London's West End Theater, where it won Best Musical Of The Year in 1977. He continued to record and do theater work into the '90's with mixed success. (kk)
Monday, September 7, 2009
1969: A Time Line
In his excellent new book, "1969: The Year Everything Changed", author Rob Kirkpatrick put together a Timeline for 1969. Here are some of the highlights, many of which we covered in our month-long salute to '69:
JANUARY
1 - Ohio State defeats USC in The Rose Bowl, 27-16
3 - Ted Kennedy is voted Majority Whip in Congress
7 - The trial of Sirhan Sirhan, assassin of Kennedy's brother Robert, begins
12- Super Bowl III - The New York Jets defeat The Baltimore Colts, 16-7
13 - Led Zeppelin releases their first, self-titled LP ... also released today was the classic "Dusty In Memphis"
30- The Beatles perform their "Rooftop Concert" above Apple Studios in London ... it will be the last time all four Beatles perform together live.
FEBRUARY
9 - The Boeing 747 takes its maiden flight
MARCH
1 - Mickey Mantle retires from baseball; Jim Morrison "allegedly" exposes himself during a concert by The Doors in Miami
3 - Apollo 9 launches
10 - "I Am Curious (Yellow)" opens in U.S. theaters
28 - Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower dies (just nine years after leaving office)
APRIL
4 - Dr. Denton Cooley performs the first artificial heart transplant
MAY
18 - Apollo 10 launches
23 - "Tommy", the first Rock Opera, is released by The Who
25 - "Midnight Cowboy" premiers in New York City. It will go on to become the first (and only) X-Rated Film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
JUNE
17 - "Oh! Calcutta!" opens in New York City. It is believed to be the first live stage performance to feature full frontal nudity.
20 - Jimi Hendrix headlines at The Newport Pop Festival.
JULY
3 - Brian Jones, founder of The Rolling Stones, is found dead in his swimming pool in Sussex, England.
6 - Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull and Sly and the Family Stone all perform at The Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island. (What do ANY of these acts have to do with jazz?!?!? Was Jann Wenner somehow involved in booking these acts?!?!?)
9 - New York Mets Ace Pitcher Tom Seaver loses his perfect game in the 9th inning against The Chicago Cubs. Heartbreaking as that was to watch, The Mets achieved the ultimate revenge by pulling off a 17 game reversal of the standings, leaving The Cubs a distant second as they went to The World Series for the first time.
14 - "Easy Rider" premiers in New York City
18 - Mary Jo Kopechne drowns in the Ted Kennedy / Chappaquiddick incident.
20 - Man walks on the moon for the very first time.
25 - Ted Kennedy pleads guilty to leaving the scene of an accident ... despite the death of his passenger, Kennedy is never tried for this crime nor does he face any criminal charges of any kind. (It is believed that a large settlement arrangement was made with Mary Jo's family.)
31 - The Zodiac Killer mails coded messages to the editors of The San Francisco Chronicle, The San Francisco Examiner and The Vallejo Times Herald.
AUGUST
8 - Members of the so-called "Manson Family" murder Sharon Tate and several others at the home of Roman Polanski.
9 - The Manson Family strikes again, this time killing Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. Ironically, on the same date, The San Francisco Chronicle publishes the solution to one of The Zodiac Killer's cipher message.
15, 16, 17 - The Woodstock Music And Art Fair (three days of peace, love, music and mud!!!)
17 - Hurricane Camille hits the coast of Mississippi
SEPTEMBER
6 - Lt. William Calley is formally charged for his role in the My Lai massacre.
10 - The Mets move into first place for the first time in the team's history.
17 - "Bob And Carol And Ted And Alice" premiers at The New York Film Festival.
23 - "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" opens in limited release.
24 - The Chicago 8 Trial begins. The Mets clinch The National League Eastern Division Title on the same day.
26 - The Beatles release "Abbey Road", the last LP they recorded together as a band (although "Let It Be" would be released later ... those tracks were from the January, 1969, sessions that inspired the rooftop concert mentioned back in January.) Also on the 26th: "The Brady Bunch" premiers on ABC! (And it hasn't been OFF the air ever since!!!)
OCTOBER
16 - The Mets win The World Series by defeating The Baltimore Orioles. AMAZING!!!
22 - Led Zeppelin II is released
29 - Bobby Seale is bound and gagged during The Chicago 8 Trial. (Graham Nash will later write a song about it, titled "Chicago"!) Also on this date, the very first message via ARPANET is sent ... it is the predecessor of the Internet ... without it, you wouldn't be reading Forgotten Hits today!!!
NOVEMBER
10 - "Sesame Street" debuts on Public Television (then called The National Educational Television Network.) Big Bird, Oscar The Grouch, Cookie Monster and Bert and Ernie have now been part of our lives ... and our childrens' lives ... and our GRANDchildrens' lives for forty years!!!
17 - SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) talks begin between The United States and The Soviet Union. (Our WHOLE lives growing up we were warned about The Russians ... who ever even THOUGHT about Iraq or Iran?!?!?)
19 - Apollo 12 lands on the moon's Ocean Of Storms.
20 - The Cleveland Plain Dealer publishes photos of the My Lai massacre. Members of Indians of All Tribes seize Alcatraz Island.
DECEMBER
4 - Black Panther Party leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are killed during a raid by The Chicago Police.
6- The Rolling Stones headline a free concert at The Altamont Speedway ... it turns into a complete disaster when a fan is murdered by their hired Hell's Angels bodyguards.
24 - Curt Flood of the St. Louis Cardinals files as a free agent.
31 - Jimi Hendrix and the Band of Gypsys perform a New Year's Eve Concert at New York's Fillmore East.
What a year!!!
Thanks for sticking with us for our '69 Salute! We hope you have enjoyed the show!
kk
JANUARY
1 - Ohio State defeats USC in The Rose Bowl, 27-16
3 - Ted Kennedy is voted Majority Whip in Congress
7 - The trial of Sirhan Sirhan, assassin of Kennedy's brother Robert, begins
12- Super Bowl III - The New York Jets defeat The Baltimore Colts, 16-7
13 - Led Zeppelin releases their first, self-titled LP ... also released today was the classic "Dusty In Memphis"
30- The Beatles perform their "Rooftop Concert" above Apple Studios in London ... it will be the last time all four Beatles perform together live.
FEBRUARY
9 - The Boeing 747 takes its maiden flight
MARCH
1 - Mickey Mantle retires from baseball; Jim Morrison "allegedly" exposes himself during a concert by The Doors in Miami
3 - Apollo 9 launches
10 - "I Am Curious (Yellow)" opens in U.S. theaters
28 - Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower dies (just nine years after leaving office)
APRIL
4 - Dr. Denton Cooley performs the first artificial heart transplant
MAY
18 - Apollo 10 launches
23 - "Tommy", the first Rock Opera, is released by The Who
25 - "Midnight Cowboy" premiers in New York City. It will go on to become the first (and only) X-Rated Film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.
JUNE
17 - "Oh! Calcutta!" opens in New York City. It is believed to be the first live stage performance to feature full frontal nudity.
20 - Jimi Hendrix headlines at The Newport Pop Festival.
JULY
3 - Brian Jones, founder of The Rolling Stones, is found dead in his swimming pool in Sussex, England.
6 - Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull and Sly and the Family Stone all perform at The Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island. (What do ANY of these acts have to do with jazz?!?!? Was Jann Wenner somehow involved in booking these acts?!?!?)
9 - New York Mets Ace Pitcher Tom Seaver loses his perfect game in the 9th inning against The Chicago Cubs. Heartbreaking as that was to watch, The Mets achieved the ultimate revenge by pulling off a 17 game reversal of the standings, leaving The Cubs a distant second as they went to The World Series for the first time.
14 - "Easy Rider" premiers in New York City
18 - Mary Jo Kopechne drowns in the Ted Kennedy / Chappaquiddick incident.
20 - Man walks on the moon for the very first time.
25 - Ted Kennedy pleads guilty to leaving the scene of an accident ... despite the death of his passenger, Kennedy is never tried for this crime nor does he face any criminal charges of any kind. (It is believed that a large settlement arrangement was made with Mary Jo's family.)
31 - The Zodiac Killer mails coded messages to the editors of The San Francisco Chronicle, The San Francisco Examiner and The Vallejo Times Herald.
AUGUST
8 - Members of the so-called "Manson Family" murder Sharon Tate and several others at the home of Roman Polanski.
9 - The Manson Family strikes again, this time killing Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. Ironically, on the same date, The San Francisco Chronicle publishes the solution to one of The Zodiac Killer's cipher message.
15, 16, 17 - The Woodstock Music And Art Fair (three days of peace, love, music and mud!!!)
17 - Hurricane Camille hits the coast of Mississippi
SEPTEMBER
6 - Lt. William Calley is formally charged for his role in the My Lai massacre.
10 - The Mets move into first place for the first time in the team's history.
17 - "Bob And Carol And Ted And Alice" premiers at The New York Film Festival.
23 - "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" opens in limited release.
24 - The Chicago 8 Trial begins. The Mets clinch The National League Eastern Division Title on the same day.
26 - The Beatles release "Abbey Road", the last LP they recorded together as a band (although "Let It Be" would be released later ... those tracks were from the January, 1969, sessions that inspired the rooftop concert mentioned back in January.) Also on the 26th: "The Brady Bunch" premiers on ABC! (And it hasn't been OFF the air ever since!!!)
OCTOBER
16 - The Mets win The World Series by defeating The Baltimore Orioles. AMAZING!!!
22 - Led Zeppelin II is released
29 - Bobby Seale is bound and gagged during The Chicago 8 Trial. (Graham Nash will later write a song about it, titled "Chicago"!) Also on this date, the very first message via ARPANET is sent ... it is the predecessor of the Internet ... without it, you wouldn't be reading Forgotten Hits today!!!
NOVEMBER
10 - "Sesame Street" debuts on Public Television (then called The National Educational Television Network.) Big Bird, Oscar The Grouch, Cookie Monster and Bert and Ernie have now been part of our lives ... and our childrens' lives ... and our GRANDchildrens' lives for forty years!!!
17 - SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) talks begin between The United States and The Soviet Union. (Our WHOLE lives growing up we were warned about The Russians ... who ever even THOUGHT about Iraq or Iran?!?!?)
19 - Apollo 12 lands on the moon's Ocean Of Storms.
20 - The Cleveland Plain Dealer publishes photos of the My Lai massacre. Members of Indians of All Tribes seize Alcatraz Island.
DECEMBER
4 - Black Panther Party leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are killed during a raid by The Chicago Police.
6- The Rolling Stones headline a free concert at The Altamont Speedway ... it turns into a complete disaster when a fan is murdered by their hired Hell's Angels bodyguards.
24 - Curt Flood of the St. Louis Cardinals files as a free agent.
31 - Jimi Hendrix and the Band of Gypsys perform a New Year's Eve Concert at New York's Fillmore East.
What a year!!!
Thanks for sticking with us for our '69 Salute! We hope you have enjoyed the show!
kk
A FEW OF YOUR FINAL '69 COMMENTS AND MEMORIES:
WOODSTOCK:
Kent,
All of the 1969 memories have been awesome! What a great year for music. I used to think that 1967 was my favorite year for music of the 60s, but now I am not sure. Over the years I have been lucky enough to interview many of the greats of music. I have included a portion of a 1994 interview from my show with Ritchie Havens about his legendary Woodstock appearance.
Phil Nee
Wrco Fm 100.9
Richland Center Wisconsin
re: POINT / COUNTERPOINT:
The last of our political commentary, we promise ... and sans comments from me ... just one last back-and-forth on Kennedy ... and even a blurb on Letterman's Squeaky Fromme bit from the other day! (kk)
I saw the Letterman clip. As with any good joke, it's only funny if there is a hint of truth to it. It seems the media is now determining what is truth so we don't have to think for ourselves. Dube
>>>I think kicking Teddy Kennedy around about Chappaquiddick at this point is about as useful as stoning a dead horse. (John Krug)
I think this discussion is inappropriate in this forum, yet I feel compelled to reply.
Through time, there are people who have gotten away with serious things and there are other people who have gotten caught for lesser things. While he didn't go to jail, in his farewell memoir, Senator Kennedy apologized for the event and revealed his ongoing anguish over it. The “court of conscience” is a harsh judge, and courtrooms and prison are not the only way to extract justice. I think all the good Senator Kennedy did has far overshadowed his faults, which he acknowledged and for which he atoned with a life of dignified and dedicated public service. To my mind, justice has been served by Teddy serving his country long and well.
A quote credited to George Carlin says: "We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often." Who among us is without some kind of blame or sin? It's surely not me; if it's you, then go ahead and cast that first stone. But if it's not you, let it go and celebrate the good - in Senator Kennedy and in yourself. Life is too short to be bummed out, and a chip on one's shoulder grows exponentially heavier over time. Just my opinion; others may vary.
"Country Paul" Payton
The real answer to the Teddy K?
Is that "A lot of Money buys a lot of silence"!
Ken
Things only a Kennedy could get away with
By Mark Steyn
We are enjoined not to speak ill of the dead. But, when an entire nation — or, at any rate, its "mainstream" media culture — declines to speak the truth about the dead, we are certainly entitled to speak ill of such false eulogists.
In its coverage of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's passing, America's TV networks are creepily reminiscent of those plays Sam Shepard used to write about some dysfunctional inbred hardscrabble Appalachian household where there's a baby buried in the backyard but everyone agreed years ago never to mention it. In this case, the unmentionable corpse is Mary Jo Kopechne, 1940-1969. If you have to bring up the, ah, circumstances of that year of decease, keep it general, keep it vague. As Kennedy flack Ted Sorensen put it in Time magazine: "Both a plane crash in Massachusetts in 1964 and the ugly automobile accident on Chappaquiddick Island in 1969 almost cost him his life …"
That's the way to do it! An "accident," "ugly" in some unspecified way, just happened to happen — and only to him, nobody else. Ted's the star, and there's no room to namecheck the bit players. What befell him was … a thing, a place. As Joan Vennochi wrote in The Boston Globe: "Like all figures in history — and like those in the Bible, for that matter — Kennedy came with flaws. Moses had a temper. Peter betrayed Jesus. Kennedy had Chappaquiddick, a moment of tremendous moral collapse." Actually, Peter denied Jesus, rather than "betrayed" him, but close enough for Catholic-lite Massachusetts. And if Moses having a temper never led him to leave some gal at the bottom of the Red Sea, well, let's face it, he doesn't have Ted's tremendous legislative legacy, does he?
Perhaps it's kinder simply to airbrush out of the record the name of the unfortunate complicating factor on the receiving end of that moment of "tremendous moral collapse." When Kennedy cheerleaders do get around to mentioning her, it's usually to add insult to fatal injury. As Teddy's biographer Adam Clymer wrote, Edward Kennedy's "achievements as a senator have towered over his time, changing the lives of far more Americans than remember the name Mary Jo Kopechne."
You can't make an omelet without breaking chicks, right? I don't know how many lives the senator changed — he certainly changed Mary Jo's — but you're struck less by the precise arithmetic than by the basic equation: How many changed lives justify leaving a human being struggling for breath for up to five hours pressed up against the window in a small, shrinking air pocket in Teddy's Oldsmobile? If the senator had managed to change the lives of even more Americans, would it have been OK to leave a couple more broads down there? Hey, why not?
At the Huffington Post, Melissa Lafsky mused on what Mary Jo "would have thought about arguably being a catalyst for the most successful Senate career in history … Who knows — maybe she'd feel it was worth it." What true-believing liberal lass wouldn't be honored to be dispatched by that death panel? We are all flawed, and most of us are weak, and in hellish moments, at a split-second's notice, confronting the choice that will define us ever after, many of us will fail the test.
Perhaps Mary Jo could have been saved; perhaps she would have died anyway. What is true is that Edward Kennedy made her death a certainty. When a man (if you'll forgive the expression) confronts the truth of what he has done, what does honor require? Six years before Chappaquiddick, in the wake of Britain's comparatively very minor "Profumo scandal," the eponymous John Profumo, Her Majesty's Secretary of State for War, resigned from the House of Commons and the Queen's Privy Council and disappeared amid the tenements of the East End to do good works washing dishes and helping with children's playgroups, in anonymity, for the last 40 years of his life. With the exception of one newspaper article to mark the centenary of his charitable mission, he never uttered another word in public again.
Ted Kennedy went a different route. He got kitted out with a neck brace and went on TV and announced the invention of the "Kennedy curse," a concept that yoked him to his murdered brothers as a fellow victim — and not, as Mary Jo perhaps realized in those final hours, the perpetrator. He dared us to call his bluff, and, when we didn't, he made all of us complicit in what he'd done. We are all prey to human frailty, but few of us get to inflict ours on an entire nation. His defenders would argue that he redeemed himself with his "progressive" agenda, up to and including health care "reform." It was an odd kind of "redemption": In a cooing paean to the senator on a cringe-makingly obsequious edition of NPR's "Diane Rehm Show," Edward Klein of Newsweek fondly recalled that one of Ted's "favorite topics of humor was, indeed, Chappaquiddick itself. He would ask people, 'Have you heard any new jokes about Chappaquiddick?'"
Terrific!
Who was that lady I saw you with last night?
Beats me!
Why did the Last Lion cross the road?
To sleep it off!
What do you call 200 Kennedy sycophants at the bottom of a Chappaquiddick pond?
A great start, but bad news for NPR guest-bookers!
"He was a guy's guy," chortled Edward Klein. Which is one way of putting it.
When a man is capable of what Ted Kennedy did that night in 1969 and in the weeks afterward, what else is he capable of? An NPR listener said the senator's passing marked "the end of civility in the U.S. Congress." Yes, indeed. Who among us does not mourn the lost "civility" of the 1987 Supreme Court hearings? Considering the nomination of Judge Bork, Ted Kennedy rose on the Senate floor and announced that "Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit down at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution."
Whoa!
"Liberals" (in the debased contemporary American sense of the term) would have reason to find Borkian jurisprudence uncongenial but to suggest the judge and former solicitor-general favored resegregation of lunch counters is a slander not merely vile but so preposterous that, like his explanation for Chappaquiddick, only a Kennedy could get away with it. If you had to identify a single speech that marked "the end of civility" in American politics, that's a shoo-in. If a towering giant cares so much about humanity in general, why get hung up on his carelessness with humans in particular? For Kennedy's comrades, the cost was worth it. For the rest of us, it was a high price to pay. And, for Ted himself, who knows? He buried three brothers, and as many nephews, and, as the years took their toll, it looked sometimes as if the only Kennedy son to grow old had had to grow old for all of them. Did he truly believe, as surely as Melissa Lafsky and Co. do, that his indispensability to the republic trumped all else? That Camelot — that "fleeting wisp of glory," that "one brief shining moment" — must run forever, even if "How To Handle A Woman" gets dropped from the score.
The senator's actions in the hours and days after emerging from that pond tell us something ugly about Kennedy the man.
That he got away with it tells us something ugly about American public life.
-- submitted by The Joneses
OK, OK ... I said I wouldn't comment ... but I just HAVE to!!! I had forgotten all about the whole neck brace thing ... when Kennedy attended Mary Jo Kopechne's funeral, he was wearing a collar ... reportedly the ONLY time he was EVER seen wearing it after the accident (but coincidently, the entire time the cameras were rolling!!!) In his book "1969: The Year Everything Changed", author Rob Kirkpatrick writes "Kennedy attended Kopechne's funeral on July 22 in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, wearing a brace around his neck. Doctors had reportedly said that he suffered a concussion, but many people looked upon the neck brace cynically, suspecting that he'd worn it to remind people that he, too, was a victim in this tragedy."
Kennedy's biography is quoted a couple of times in the two emails above ... here's another quote from biographer Robert Sherrill: "One can expand this nightmare to Kopechne hanging on for hours, slowing dying of terror and asphyxiation, while Kennedy tossed and turned on his bed in the Shiretown Inn and grumbled about the noises from the party next door, worrying about his own comfort and his political future." The fact that he would ... or could ... EVER joke about this incident is beyond my comprehension!!! (kk)
re: THE '69 CHARTS:
Kent,
Although "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" was the No. 1 album for 1969 on the Billboard year-end chart, in Cash Box it finished second to the cast LP from "Hair."
The complete Cash Box year-end chart can be viewed here: http://cashboxmagazine.com/archives/60s_files/1969YEAP.htmlBTW, reagrding The Top 50 Songs Of Summer, 1969, you might want to point out that the differences in the chart dates contribute in part to the differences in the rankings of some songs. The dates on the local charts are based on when they debuted, whereas the national charts were dated a week later than published... so records that hit their peaks in late May / early June received points for an extra week on the national charts, while records that hit their peaks in late August / early September got credit for an extra week on the local charts. The effect of this can be seen by comparing the rankings for "Get Back," which was No. 1 at the beginning of the eligibility period, and "Honky Tonk Women," which was No. 1 at the end of that period.
– Randy Price
So noted ... thanks, Randy! (kk)
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