Meanwhile, here are more of your comments, coming in at
a steady stream since this series launched on December 30th ...
Hey Kent,
I’m really enjoying this whole 1967
series! Brings back so many memories of that crazy year for The Buckinghams.
From having five top ten hits, to touring and playing 300 dates that magical
year.
I remember we rented a house in the
Hollywood Hills up on Mulholland Drive that summer, so we were there recording
our album Portraits and we also performed on some of those great TV shows at the
time. Great memories of playing the Hollywood Bowl with Donovan that summer.
The Sunset Strip was crazy that year.
Someone told us to check out this band playing at the Whisky a GoGo that
everyone was into … turned out to be The Doors!
Yeah, what a year! Seems like a lifetime
ago.
Carl Giammarese / The
Buckinghams
And one HELL of an education for a young kid not quite
yet twenty years old! (lol) Thanks, Carl! (kk)
Carl and Nick ... then ...
And now ...
The Buckinghams are performing "A Salute To The '60's"
on January 21st at Star Plaza in Merrillville, Indiana, and we're taking six of
our readers with us to see the show! (Congratulations to Judy Glatfelter,
Marlene O'Malley and Steve Sarley, who each won a pair of tickets to the
show!)
This is gonna be a good one!
Tickets are still available through the Star Plaza
Online Box Office here:
Hey Kent ...
Although 1967 wasn't much of a year for me
in the Billboard charts, I am loving your 67 blog.
I released "It's Now Winters Day" in 1967,
which I had great expectations for, but it never really caught on chart wise.
1966 was a big "Bubblegum" Year for me
with "Sweet Pea" and "Hooray For Hazel," and I didn't get back into the
Billboard Top 10 until 1969 with "Dizzy, which went to number 1, and stayed at
the top of the Billboard chart for four weeks. I guess you might say In 1967,
and 68 I was lost in chart wilderness until I got back on my "Bubblegum"
train.
However, I must say
I am really enjoying the comments of all the great artists who did have chart
success during this period of music history, many of them friends of mine and
some who I have never had the privilege of meeting ... but all deserving of
great respect.
Loving it! Great job my
friend!
Your
pal,
Tommy (Roe)
"It's Now Winter's Day" was a Top 20 Hit here in Chicago
(#11 on the WCFL Chart and #14 on WLS) and I always liked this song ...
definitely a departure for you ... not sure you'd ever really done a ballad
before as a single.
Plus, looking at the calendar, you spent a lot of time
that year appearing on "Where The Action Is", which every one of us kids raced
home to see after school each weekday afternoon.
Please help us to spread the word to some of the other
artists you're still in contact with ... would LOVE to share some of their
comments with our readers along the way. Thanks, Tommy! (kk)
Hi Kent,
Hey, Buddy ... here's one I stumbled onto in my old folder ... I believe this was '78 or '79 while we were clubbing ... we were trying to put together a "new" Royal Guardsmen album at that time ... but you know how stuff goes sometimes ... lol ... still, it's a fun tune.
Be safe, mi Amigo.
Barry (Winslow / The Royal Guardsmen)
Hey, Buddy ... here's one I stumbled onto in my old folder ... I believe this was '78 or '79 while we were clubbing ... we were trying to put together a "new" Royal Guardsmen album at that time ... but you know how stuff goes sometimes ... lol ... still, it's a fun tune.
Be safe, mi Amigo.
Barry (Winslow / The Royal Guardsmen)
Thanks, Barry! (kk)
Hey kk,
Great reading! I
especially enjoy hearing from WLSCLARK, the great fan from out on the Plains.
Will you be doing a piece on the great concerts and shows, even at some of the 'teen clubs'. Some unbelievable stuff was happening then.
Keep up the work,
Jimmy P (Pilster / The Cryan' Shames)
Will you be doing a piece on the great concerts and shows, even at some of the 'teen clubs'. Some unbelievable stuff was happening then.
Keep up the work,
Jimmy P (Pilster / The Cryan' Shames)
Hi Jimmy! Happy New Year!
Would love to share ANY memories you'd care to send
along. Have already received quite a few emails from James Fairs with some
really good stuff and hoping that more is on the way. Heard from Tom Doody, too
... so keep it all coming! Special dates ... highlights ... photos (?) ...
whatever you guys can come up with. To have THREE of the original Cryan' Shames
represented is incredible! (VERY big year for you guys!) Thanks!
(kk)
Speaking of James Fairs, here is some very heavy insight
from The Cryan' Shames' guitarist and chief songwriter ...
My name is James Fairs ...
I graduated High School in 1966, and by
the spring of that Summer, 'Sugar and Spice' was a hit; huge on WCFL and WLS,
and played in every possible city and town in the Midwest and somewhat
throughout the nation.
Our band was a hit. Did it happen too
fast? Yes and no. We weren't 'seasoned', but that was part of the 60's process.
And I was hungry to get into the studios where all those great records were
being made. I had more ideas than I had songs; a formula which has somewhat
reversed over time.
The most astounding thing was the intense
energy of the audience. They were beyond ecstatic to be alive, and were way past
plugged in. A song would be released, and everyone would be discussing and
describing it in school. The same thing is happening now with Virtual Reality,
and in the future, millennials will be writing articles just like this
one.
There was no 'killer' technology in 1967 that might compare to what we have today ... but there is a form of comparison:
There was no 'killer' technology in 1967 that might compare to what we have today ... but there is a form of comparison:
We were at the front edge ... multi-tracking instruments
and vocals, trying new techniques for adding layers of instruments, and pushing
what was at the time an 'immediate marketing response' with radio call-ins each
night for fab responses to new songs.
The first two albums were based on hit material, with
songs like 'Sugar and Spice', I Wanna Meet You', 'Up On The Roof', 'First Train
to California', It Could Be We're In Love', and more stacked into the song
collections.
We played some amazing live gigs, but also played some
questionable gigs, where we couldn't hear what one another were playing. One
night in a gymnasium in Iowa stands out. The PA wasn't set to overcome the
cavernous space ... just to enhance what we played, and it was great (!) In my
mind, it showed what we could do when the circumstances were
right
All the best,
James
(The Cryan'
Shames)
Me-TV is keeping the '67 Anniversary alive
...
Here's their latest quiz (see how YOU
do!!!)
For What It’s Worth, here are my
Top 7 of ’67 at the time.
Here Comes My Baby -
Tremeloes
Itchycoo Park - Small
Faces
Who Do You Love -
Woolies
For What It’s Worth - Buffalo
Springfield
Pushin’ Too Hard -
Seeds
Talk, Talk - Music
Machine
It’s Cold Outside - The
Choir
Ken
I've got SO many favorites from
1967 I'm not sure I could scale it down to a Top 200! But I've been trying to
get a couple of the jocks on the list to pick six of their favorites and feature
them alongside six of MY favorites and devote and hour to talking about the new
series on the air.
Still no takers yet ... but I'm still hoping
to get a few willing participants! (kk)
Kent,
Your posting of BEND IT in today's FH reminded me that that version
didn't chart here in OKC. For the week of February 16, 1967, the song made its
initial chart position by a local group called the Noblemen. They were one of
the top garage bands to come out of the state of Oklahoma. Their version was on
CJL records with a flip called STOP YOUR RUNNING AROUND. A month later, for the
week of March 16, the record peaked here in OKC at song position #2. Couldn't
topple Mitch Ryder's SOCK IT TO ME.
Some extra added information for
you ...
The first week in January, 1967,
here in OKC, the record at the bottom of the survey, affectionately known as the
PICK HIT OF THE WEEK, was your own KIND OF A DRAG. SNOOPY VERSUS THE RED BARON
was #1 for the second week in a row.
Larry Neal
Although Dave Dee,
Dozy, Beaky, Mick And Tich never made much of a chart impression here in The
States ("Zabadak" was their biggest hit in 1968 ... and it peaked at #52), they
were quite huge back home in The UK, scoring eight Top Ten Hits (and five others
that made The British Top 40). Amongst the biggest were "The Legend of Xanadu"
(#1, 1968); "Bend It" (#2, 1966); "Zabadak!" (#3, 1967); "Save Me" (#3, 1967);
"Hold Tight" (#4, 1966) and "Okay!" (#4, 1967).
In the book "Guinness
World Records: British Hit Singles And Albums", they are referred to as a
"quirkily named UK quintet, very popular in the late 1960's", charting for a
total of 141 weeks between December of 1965 and December of 1969. That puts
them on the chart for 67% of that time period! (kk)
Hi Kent -
I just wanted to send you this quick note on how much
I'm enjoying the 1967 Super Charts. The latest week ending January 14 edition
has two low charters that are favorites of mine and my family going all the way
back to that year, "Oh Yeah!" by the Joe Cuba Sextet and "At The Party" by
Hector Rivera. Those two tracks really took me back to the days of our
huge family basement parties in Passaic, NJ with all of my relatives.
P.S. Stay warm (if you can)!
Santiago Paradoa
Miami, Florida
It's funny because I had never heard "At The Party"
before ... and then Mark Dawson played it on his "Making Noise" / Our
Generation radio program Thursday Night when he saluted many of the hits from
the first week of 1967. That was a new one on me!
Glad you're enjoying the series and the charts. I know
a lot of work went into these so kudos again to Randy Price for putting these
together ... we'll be running EVERY single Super Chart for 1967 in Forgotten
Hits! (And be sure to catch Randy's radio program this Wednesday Night on Top
Shelf Oldies).
Links for BOTH programs are provided
below:
Kent,
Got a comment or two to make about
your chart ending January 14. Song position #90 is by Sergio Mendes and Brasil
'66. I haven't really heard that group mentioned in a long time Wonder if
nowadays they are known as Sergio Mendes & Brasil '17? In a way I am half
joking and also half serious. Also, I noticed in THE NEXT TEN that Bobby Darin's
song of LOVIN' YOU came in at #110. Later on here in OKC, the flip AMY, made it
to number one.
Larry
Actually Sergio Mendes was just here a few months ago
but we couldn't get tickets.
Stay tuned for a special feature on "Lovin' You",
culled from our month-long Bobby Darin series. It seems that "Amy" got played
in a LOT of cities ... but still never charted. (kk)
Kent,
Kent,
Don't forget to mention Illinois politician Senator Dirksen's reading of
"Gallant Men" being a top 40 hit. He got lots of play in the Chicago area and
was on the radio talking constantly. BTW, CBS' "Sunday Morning" TV former host,
Charles Osgood wrote that top 40 hit! Charles Wood is his real name.
Clark Besch
To quote Paul McCartney (who had a pretty good 1967
himself ... you may remember a little album called "Sgt. Pepper"!), "it's comin'
up!"
(kk)
