The comments continue to runneth over ... so here are a few more!
re: The Saturday Surveys:
Kent,
The one thing I somewhat noticed in the surveys today was KPOI's song position #5 by Jan and Dean. Loved how they abbreviated the "B" side of the record. One of those songs I haven't heard in a long time. I am almost sure they probably abbreviated Ray Steven's song from 1961 with an almost like number of words.
Larry
You mean JPPUQDFAPTGAPP??? Probably so! (lol) kk
>>>In a rather unusual move, K-POI shows the popular new tracks for each of the 18 weeks ... and here is where The British Acts REALLY rule (kk)
Kent,
These unranked songs are still the current week's popular tunes below the top ranked ones. The dates are the dates the songs premiered originally on the KPOI chart.
Clark Besch
Kinda shocking to think that they'd still be playing songs that debuted in June into mid-October, especially at a time when the average chart length of a legitimate hit was maybe 7-8 weeks tops. "Tell Me" by The Rolling Stones is hardly what one would consider to be a "major hit". Even the tracks from "A Hard Day's Night" would have felt dated by then! (kk)
On this week's Saturday surveys, I, too, have never seen The Yardbirds at #1 and you don't want to know how many surveys have passed thru my hands over the years. Did you look closely at the KRLA survey? Dick Biondi was a jock there at the time. I'm wondering about the Monday Night Football TV listing at KOOK. It must have been a special occasion as MNF wasn't a regular feature yet.
Jack
I didn't notice that but you're right ... Monday Night Football first premiered in 1970 ... so seeing it on a chart from 1968 IS a bit of a shocker! (kk)
re: Diggin' Forgotten Hits:
Hi Kent -
Really enjoyed your "Massive Thursday Comments", especially the photos.
Long live Rock and Roll and All the Memories.
Carolyn
So "Lies" is by the Knickerbockers ... one more song (in a list that seems to be getting longer all the time) that I thought was a Beatles song. I have really been getting an education since I signed up on Forgotten Hits. Thanks, Kent.
Stacee
Kent,
Enjoyed immensely Thursday's FH. You said at the end that you had some ideas for what to do on Sunday, but wasn't sure. I am sure some of your readers will advise you on any ideas they may have. It seems to me that on my calendar I saw that today or possibly tomorrow, is national "bosses" day. But today or tomorrow is not Sunday. Sunday is the 19th of the month, so I hope you don't have some sort of NERVOUS BREAKDOWN over this. You know me and that if I can come up with any ideas (silly or otherwise), I'll e-mail you. If you decide at the last minute not to post anything this Sunday, and you do need a rest now and then, that is understandable. But if you decide not to do anything this Sunday, I just have one thing to say and that is SUNDAY WILL NEVER BY THE SAME without our weekend FH.
Larry Neal
Well, by now you know we went with our "open letter" Get Well Card to Freddy Cannon ... which I'm told made him VERY happy. So we done good! (lol) kk
UPDATE: Actually, we got a couple of BEAUTIFUL emails from Freddy and his wife Jeanette after our "Get Well Wishes" ran on Sunday ... which we'll share with you later in the week. Vintage Vinyl News also picked up our story on both Freddy's heart surgery and reconnecting with his original demo for "She's My Rock And Roll Baby" / "Tallahassee Lassie" ... so several brand new readers discovered Forgotten Hits for the very first time this week ... which is ALWAYS a good thing! (kk)
re: The Grass Roots:
Man, how VERY, very cool this had to be to see ... and at the LIBRARY no less!!!
FH Reader / Regular Contributor Tom Cuddy just sent us this bit of news from Pasadena, California:
Two original members of The Grass Roots took part in an unannounced reunion last night (Thursday). Creed Bratton and Warren Entner not only shared a stage for the first time in 42 years, they were joined for the first time ever by the singer-songwriter-producer who played a crucial role in band's story.
The free show took place at the South Pasadena (California) Public Library and was billed as PF Sloan and Friends. Sloan, who co-created and co-produced the group, also sang their first hit, "Where Were You When I Needed You." Needing a band to tour behind the song, he recruited the musicians who became The Grass Roots.
After Sloan performed solo, Bratton -- who was the original group's guitarist and singer but is better known these days for his role on TV's The Office -- did a short solo set. He was joined by Sloan and then Entner. Now a music manager who's worked with such groups as Quiet Riot and Rage Against the Machine, Entner played guitar and keyboards and sang in The Grass Roots until 1972.
The trio performed "Where Were You When I Needed You," "Temptation Eyes" and "Let's Live for Today." Afterwards, Sloan said, "What a thrill to be on stage with a group I started, but was never able to sing with. This is a dream come true for me."
While The Grass Roots still exist, the current lineup has no original members. Sloan, who also wrote songs for The Turtles, The Mama's and the Papa's and others, was announced yesterday morning as one of this year's nominees for the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Mike McCann / Premiere Radio
Wouldn't it be something of Warren and Creed decided to get back together ... and put the 100% FAKE Grass Roots out of business once and for all?!?! (kk)
And, speaking of Nominees for The Songwriters Hall Of Fame, here is this year's list ...
2105 SONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME NOMINEES
Tom Petty, Vince Gill, Cyndi Lauper, Elvis Costello, Cat Stevens and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds are among the performing songwriters being considered for the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
The organization announced its 2015 nominees Wednesday. Other performers up for the honor are Gloria Estefan, Toby Keith, Steve Miller, Steve Winwood, Ann Wilson and Nancy Wilson of Heart, and Harry Wayne "K.C." Casey of KC and the Sunshine Band.
Non-performing songwriters being considered are Linda Perry, Allee Willis, Rod Temperton, Motown songwriter William "Mickey" Stevenson, Bobby Braddock, Bob McDill, Rudy Clark and Randy Edelman. Songwriting duos Mike Chapman & Nicky Chinn, Sandy Linzer & Denny Randell, P.F. Sloan & Steve Barri and Robert Hunter & Jerry Garcia will also compete.
Winners will be inducted next June at a New York gala.
The 2014 inductees included Ray Davies, Donovan, Graham Gouldman, Mark James and Jim Weatherly.
re: The 2015 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Nominees: >>>The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Chic (again), Green Day, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Kraftwerk, The Marvelettes, N.W.A., Nine Inch Nails, Lou Reed, The Smiths, The Spinners, Sting, Stevie Ray Vaughan, War and Bill Withers. (kk)
Just saw the latest group nominated for the Rock N Roll hall of (Sh)Fame ... no Chicago, Moodies, Raiders, New Colony 6, Montanas, Cryan Shames, Coachmen ... Chic is a second time nominee. UGH!!! Two disco hits??? Bill Withers???
ONLY because the Hall of Shame is supposed to include ground-breakers would I accept Kraftwerk and Joan Jett, but none of the others. Sting, maybe. I would NEVER consider those three IF they would nominate the GOOD artists still left out from 60's.
It WOULD be interesting to see Kraftwerk do "Transeurope Express" using Robots at the acceptance while performing LIVE in Germany simultaneously.
Clark Besch
Although I was never a fan, I can accept Chic's consideration if only because of Nile Rodgers' innovative contribution to the world of funk and R&B (and they actually had FIVE Top 40 Hits, including two #1 Records ... not that that has ANYTHING at all to do with getting into The Rock And Roll Hall of Fame ... add three letters to their name and you'll find a band from right here in The Windy City that has charted over fifty times and never even made the ballot!)
Rodgers is still relevant today, scoring a MAJOR hit record (and Grammy Winner) last year with Daft Punk's "Get Lucky", a merging of MANY different musical styles that created a sound all its own. (And they've already done the robot acceptance thing ... so they beat Kraftwerk to the punch there, too! lol) kk
Green Day could be the last relatively recent rock band to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Not one band / artist in the last 20 years comes to my mind as deserving, not that most of this year's crop deserve it either. I would vote for Green Day and Joan Jett for sure.
Jack Levin
When it comes to women who rock, I can't think of anybody more deserving than Rock And Roll Hall of Fame status than Heart ... we campaigned for them for years and they were finally inducted in 2013, twelve full years after they first became eligible for induction ... to me yet another GROSS oversight by the nominating committee. I swear Britney Spears will get in before many of our '50's, '60's and '70's favorites that are repeatedly snubbed year after year after year. (Meanwhile, noted "rocker" Bonnie Raitt was inducted way back in 2000 ... and we all know what a rocker SHE was!!!)
And yet The Rock Hall has absolutely NO trouble at all double-inducting the same artists again and again ... this year both Sting and Lou Reed are nominated for their second trip to the ceremony ... while HUGE, ground-breaking artists like Chicago, Blood, Sweat and Tears, The Moody Blues, Electric Light Orchestra, The Guess Who and early rockers like Chubby Checker, Paul Anka and Freddy Cannon have never even made the ballot. As I said, I see no reason to even watch the ceremony this year. (kk)
re: Maydja Laugh!:
Kent, now THAT's funny. Thanks for sharing. Rick Barr - New Colony Six / Shadows Of Knight
Rap is to good music as Spam is to fresh meat ... Brad
Hysterical!! Mitch Schecter / The Rip Chords
Hahahaha!! David Lewis
Great! Denny Flannigan
Love it! Clark Besch
Can somebody please destroy it!!! Ken Freck
LOL! Bob
Mildly funny and obvious Al Kooper
(Party pooper ... betcha Al forwarded this to 200 people after he saw it! lol kk)
Kent, Very good! Would you believe when I saw this, I immediately thought of the Venture's 1964 instrumental RAP CITY as well as Lou Christie's 1966 hit RhAPsody IN THE RAIN. Larry Neal
HA! All the best, Roger McGuinn
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Sam Boyd
Not very practical as a school instrument skill. It could be mastered in one semester. THEN what would we teach? :-D Shelley Sweet-Tufano
HA!!!! Perfect Kristy White
re: Glen Campbell:
As many in this group may know, Glen Campbell was with the Champs before his serious studio work began. I believe it was his stint with the Champs that 1st brought him to SoCal, as he joined them on the road.
Gary E. Myers / MusicGem
Hey Kent,
What a powerful and sad video you showed of Glen Campbell's, "I'm Not Gonna Miss You". A few years back, singer / songwriter, John Stewart, composed one of his last songs about his experience with Alzheimer's, "I Can't Drive Anymore". When he was first diagnosed, his doctor, by law, had to report John's condition to the DMV, that in turn, automatically revoked his driver's license. It's interesting that you included Bobbie Gentry's "Ode" video, too, as she and Campbell made a successful duet album together.
- John LaPuzza
Most of us grew up with the music of Glen Campbell, a true "cross-over" artist in every sense of the word ... and just such a likeable guy. (It was painful to watch his "lost years" of drug abuse and Tanya Tucker!) I can't wait to read this book to see his life from one of his child's perspective. That video is SO emotional ... hard to watch, but impossible not to. The documentary "I'll Be Me" opens in limited release next week (just in time to qualify for Oscar consideration) ... it'll open wide several weeks later ... and I, for one, cannot wait to see it ... an emotional roller coaster ride to be sure. (kk)
Kent:
Thank you so much for the great display in Forgotten Hits. This has been an incredible week for Debby Campbell and I. We had a wonderful turn-out for our book signing on Monday evening at the Santa Monica Barnes & Noble on the Third Street Promenade. And that was also the day that we found out that the book hit the Top Ten Best-Sellers list in the Nashville daily newspaper "The Tennessean." "Life With My Father: Glen Campbell" is now officially a best-seller: the fourth one of my writing career.
In addition, Debby and I will be presenting Glen's story live on stage in the Toronto area for three dates we will be doing in November. Debby and I will be narrating and saluting the key events of Glen's life and career, and we will be accompanied by a full band who will perform his Greatest Hits.
I am attaching the poster below. Many thanks from Debby Campbell and myself for being so supportive of this book. It is a fascinating look at Glen's complicated and eventful life, and a sympathetic tale about how a daughter of divorce has remained an active part of her father's life, in spite of a lot of family conflict and drama.
The video you ran is definitely a sad ending to an amazing career ... so touching.
Cheers,
Mark Bego
re: This And That:
Tim Hauser, a founding member of The Manhattan Transfer (an the only original member still performing with the band) passed away last week. And '60's Motown recording artist Jimmy Ruffin has been reported as "gravely ill" and hospitalized in Las Vegas. (Jimmy's brother David was famously in The Temptations ... by Jimmy had a mega-hit of his own in 1966 with "What Becomes Of The Broken-Hearted". (He reached The Top Ten again in 1980 with "Hold On To My Love" on RSO.) kk
Chet may want to hear some more Pearl Jam, but where I live, the only difference between Pearl Jam and Steve Miller, is that Steve Miller has a 20 year head start on being overplayed. That being said, you never hear any of his music prior to The Joker (late 1973/early 1974).
Jack
It must be me ... big as they were, I've heard virtually NO Pearl Jam on the radio over the past twenty years ... kinda like Nirvanna ... the ONLY track you EVER hear by them is "Smells Like Teen Spirit". (Not that I'm complaining, mind you!) kk
Kent,
On Thanksgiving Day we are going to have a special show! Karl Green, an original member of the rock group Herman's Hermits, will be touring the US doing a series of concerts and has agreed to visit with us on In a Nutshell in the WRLR studio. This should be a blast! Thought you'd like to know.
WRLF Producer / Host Al Weissman
Click here: WRLR 98.3FM - The Voice of Lake County - Program List
We missed Karl the last time he made the rounds through Chicago so this should be fun to listen to. Meanwhile, Herman's Hermits Starring Peter Noone, The Grass Roots and The Buckinghams have teamed up to give us "A Salute to the '60's", which makes its way to The Star Plaza in Merrillville, Indiana, on February 7th ... tickets are already on sale now. (kk)
Hi, Kent.
I wonder what that MOR station you were listening to while in Normal visiting your daughter was. Is it possibly the former WAKC, which was a country station I worked at in Normal in 1972-3 while an ISU student? The only stations licensed to the twin towns of Bloomington and Normal at the time were WJBC AM and FM in Bloomington, WAKC in Normal and the college radio station WGLT (on the ISU campus in Normal). I'm impressed that the format of whatever station you were listening to includes ANY New Colony Six material as most small stations like that only run syndicated formats with very limited playlists consisting of only top nationally charted hits. "Long Time To Be Alone" is also one of my favorites by the NC6, a first-rate band I got to host in concert. Even though The New Colony Six never managed to become huge hitmakers coast to coast, Midwestern radio stations played them a lot and I have salted NC6 tracks into some of the various artists CD box sets I've compiled over the years for Reader's Digest and others. While their upbeat hits like "Roll On" and "I'm Just Waitin' (Anticipatin' For Her To Show Up") were excellent, the NC6 will always best be remembered for their sensitive songs of romantic introspection, from "I Want You To Know" and "Can't You See Me Cry" to "I Could Never Lie To You," "Things I'd Like To Say" and "I Will Always Think About You." It's funny how a lot of us bought those records as young teens because of the way they SOUNDED. It was only later, after we'd hit a few bumps in our own rocky roads to love, that we fully understood the portraits of feelings their words and music painted. And for some of us, the stories in those NC6 songs came true.
Gary Theroux
I never heard them give the call letters ... listened for about 45 minutes before the over abundance of instrumentals made me change over (although I did hear a really cool instrumental jazz-arrangement of the Roberta Flack hit "Where Is The Love".) It was a pretty eclectic mix of music ... everything from The Lettermen to The Critters' "Mr. Dieingly Sad" to a back-to-back pairing of "The Very Thought Of You" by Nat "King" Cole into "Think Of Laura" by Christopher Cross. But when I heard "Long Time To Be Alone" come on, I was TOTALLY shocked! Here in Chicago, you're likely to hear a New Colony Six song or a Cryan' Shames song at Portillo's Restaurant ... but that's about it ... they don't even play them on the radio here anymore. From coast to coast if you were going to hear a New Colony Six song at all, I'd expect it to be one of their two biggest national hits, "I Will Always Think About You" or "Things I'd Like To Say" ... but that'd be about it. To hear a song that peaked at #93 nationally was quite a shock (to say the least!) kk
How about little sample of the music that "Rocked Your Socks" back in the ooooold days?
Clark Weber
PS: Even my friend the other Clark named Dick on Bandstand would have approved of this one!
I love it! In the past week, we've reported about getting Freddy Cannon's original demo recording of "Tallahassee Lassie" back into his hands, a fan returning Bobby Rydell's notebook and now, big news about Billy J. Kramer's socks!!! (lol) Read on ...
50 years ago, Dee Elias was having the time of her life trying to meet the Beatles and she recorded all of her adventures in her diaries from 1964 - 1966. Along the way, she had encounters with Sonny & Cher and Simon & Garfunkel. But what happened when her and her friends stumbled upon a sleeping Billy J. Kramer in his hotel room? You’re not going to believe what you’re about to hear! Watch Dee meet Billy J. on stage at the Fest for Beatles Fans in L.A. this past weekend:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5675AoXM7YA&feature=share
For more information on Dee Elias and her book, go to: www.ConfessionsOfABeatlemaniac.com.
Jennifer Vanderslice
>>>And that, in a nutshell, is the "gray area" of One Hit Wonders. You're right ... Roy Head DID hit The Top 40 again with "Apple Of My Eye" (#23) and "Just A Little Bit (#37), both in 1965 ... but is there ANYBODY out there who knows or could sing a line or two from either of these songs? Sadly they're both forgotten AND forgettable ... not really the kind of songs anybody's going to miss. In this day and age where radio programs at best 200-300 songs ... and we're pushing for 9000 ... quite honestly, NEITHER of these "hits" would make our play list either! (kk)
Well, that's a real shame because Just A Little Bit is perhaps my second favorite Roy Head record (and the first isn't Treat Her Right!).
Tom Diehl
Be watching for a brand new album by pop songstress Dionne Warwick ...
LEGENDARY SINGER DIONNE WARWICK TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM: “FEELS SO GOOD” AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE ON MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2014
ALBUM FEATURES DUETS WITH WORLD-RENOWNED GUEST ARTISTS ...
REPERTOIRE IS “CLASSIC DIONNE”
New York, NY (October 16, 2014) – Legendary Grammy Award-winning singer, Dionne Warwick, is set to release a star-studded duets album entitled, “Feels So Good”, on Monday, October 27, 2014 through Bright Music Records / Caroline. The 14-track album features an anthology of Warwick classics written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach, with each song reborn as a duet with a refreshing and vibrant twist, as well as four new original duets with some of music’s brightest star.
DIONNE is touring the world during 2015 in support of this new release.
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