Wow! Is it REALLY February already?!?!
That means our new 1967 Series is already
8% over!!! (Scroll back to see any postings you may have missed along the
way ... and remember that a brand new calendar page hits the site EVERY SINGLE
DAY at 6 am Chicago time!) http://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/
Meanwhile, we're already up to our SIXTH
Bonus Page ... so read on!
I am loving the 1967 series!
The year I got married!!
Fantastic Reading!!!!
Carolyn
Hola
Kent,
This is great, I’ll bet your ‘Hits’ are growing exponentially!
FH1967 is super.
Keep up the good work,
CharlieOFD
This is great, I’ll bet your ‘Hits’ are growing exponentially!
FH1967 is super.
Keep up the good work,
CharlieOFD
Kent,
Looking through today's surveys you posted, would you believe just
last night I got out Lowell Fulsom's TRAMP and played it. It was listed in the
bottom 10 of WCFL's survey.
On the WLS survey, song #17 by Bob
Crewe had an alternate version listed and played here in OKC, that by Al Hirt on
RCA. Also on WLS's survey at song position #22 proved that Sam the Sham had
other records besides WOOLY BULLY and LITTLE RED RIDIN' HOOD.
FYI, here in OKC back on January
29, 1967, the #1 record was Ed Ames' MY CUP RUNNETH OVER with the pick hit at
the bottom being FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH.
Love going to your site every
day.
Larry
Folks need to start their day with
Forgotten Hits ... make us your first stop of the day ... and be brought
COMPLETELY up to date on ALL of the day's current events ... from exactly fifty
years ago today! SO many great memories ... don't miss a day! (kk)
Just saw your Robbs / Bittersweet
message / posting a few minutes ago.
I 'forget' to look at 'forgotten hits'
some days ... and then catch up on 2-3 days I may have missed when I do
so.
Excellent series.
Brad
That's another way to do it ... we don't
care HOW you go ... just go!!! (For me, the most fun is rediscovering the
events on the 50th anniversary of the exact day that they happened ... but hey,
you guys do what works for you ... and please help to spread the word!) SO much
work went into this ... and most of what you're reading today was actually
written at least a year ago ... so I'm having fun, too, redisovering these
anniversary posts.
(kk)
Hi Kent
...
What a project you have taken on! I am LOVING every day of 1967 all over again!
What a project you have taken on! I am LOVING every day of 1967 all over again!
Here is a
more current picture of Dolores Erickson, Herb Alpert's Whipped Cream Lady ...
She is
about 81 now!
All the
best :)
Robin
Robin
Thanks for showing the Ron Riley Silver Dollar Survey for January
20th, 1967 and for flashing back the good old memories. I was in my 20s and I
recall those mid-winters in Chicago and how freezing it was walking across the
Michigan Avenue bridge to Wacker Drive where the WLS studios were trenches in. I
could deal with the cold in those days because "my hair was on fire" and I
suppose I felt somewhat invincible at this point In my life.
Speaking of 1967 I'm attaching a pix of a piece from the Sunday
Chicago American Magazine section from March, 1967 - part of a larger montage of
my history in the second picture that fans made up and presented to me when I
left the station in 1969.
Cheers!
Ron Riley
WLS "60s dj"
Hi Ron -
SO glad to hear from you ...
MAJOR fan here from back in the day ...
You were part of nearly EVERY night for me growing up
here in Chicago ...
I'm sure you've heard it thousands of times before, but
you have NO idea how important a part of our lives you guys were back
then.
Yeah, I know ... it was just a radio show ... but man,
you put your ALL into yours and it showed night after night after night. I'll
bet even now, some 50 years later, you'd admit to having every bit as much fun
doing it as we listeners had listening to and enjoying it. It truly was a
magical time. (kk)
The snowstorm of '67. My
uncle drove a Brinks truck at the time and was stranded on Lake Shore Drive,
buried in drifts of snow. There were several pictures taken that ran in the
local papers including The Chicago Tribune showing the stranded and abandoned
vehicles on The Drive and some of them showed his truck.
Brinks had a policy that,
because they carried cash in the truck, they could not leave the vehicle. There
were three men in that truck that day and they took shifts walking to get 2 1/2
gallon containers of gasoline in the hopes that once the roads were clear they
could get moving again. (Not knowing how long they might be stranded there,
they had to let the engine run just to keep warm because company policy said
they could not leave the vehicle ... so they kept running out of
gas!)
When all was said and done,
they were stuck out there for two days. He used to tell us all about that
experience for years to come ... but he sure was proud of seeing HIS truck in
the newspaper!
Edward
In hindsight, it's tough to
remember The Monkees becoming as big as they did, as fast as they
did.
Their television series
premiered in September of 1966 and by January of 1967 - just four short months
later - they were already enjoying having two #1 hit singles and two #1 albums -
as well as appearing as the cover story twice the same week in Daily Variety and
The Saturday Evening Post. Your 1967 series paints a far more accurate picture
of history as it happened than I remembered - and I was there at the time! This
new series is off to a great start. Thanks so much for reminding us of all
these special events.
Eddie
1967 was, in EVERY sense of the word, "The
Year Of The Monkees". In a year where "Sgt. Pepper" turned the world upside
down, The Monkees outsold The Beatles ... and were even their guests in the
studio, in their homes, and out to dinner and clubbing when The Pre-Fab Four
made their first trip to England together later that year.
No, they didn't write their own
hits.
No, they didn't play their own instruments
... but not many artists did back then.
(That's what The Wrecking Crew was for ...
to make HIT RECORDS!!!)
You'll find more of this in our very
special Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart Series (Chapter 7) here:
Hey, Kent!
Interesting synopsis about the sad history and great
music of the "Manufactured Monkees" in Saturday's "Forgotten Hits!"
As you pointed out, in
January, 1967, Michael Nesmith of the Monkees was quoted as saying, "Do you know
how debilitating it was to have to duplicate somebody else's
records?"
During the Summer of '67, I was just a young, enthusiastic on-air radio personality on a vacation in Los Angeles. I
wanted to see everything related to Radio and Records in Hollywood that I
could then – radio stations, recording studios, Hollywood and Vine, Sunset
Boulevard and anything else!
At one point, as I was walking around in the warm
Southern California Sunshine – and Wow! There was Davy Jones just standing
in front of the RCA Records building wildly gesturing, ranting and raving with
someone I did not recognize. I thought it best not to approach him at this
particular moment and, as I walked by him, he looked up at the building with
anger in his eyes, gave it a high one-finger salute and shouted out in that
famous Teen Girl Fan, Heart Melting English accent, "Fook you,
RCA!"
Whew! There was definitely
unrest in "Pleasant Valley (on) Sunday!" And the rest of the days
of the week, too, no doubt!
And pretty well confirmed to me at that point too!
~~~ Chuck Buell
And pretty well confirmed to me at that point too!
~~~ Chuck Buell
Hey Kent -
A rare spoken word record, "Gallant Men," charted in early '67. It was a poem written and recited by Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen at the height of the Vietnam War. The background music was co-written by CBS news guy Charles Osgood, using his real name of Charles Wood III. Of course, the only member of Congress that ever had a #1 record was Rep. Sonny Bono!
- Larry Cave
50yearsagoonthehot100.blogspot.com
A rare spoken word record, "Gallant Men," charted in early '67. It was a poem written and recited by Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen at the height of the Vietnam War. The background music was co-written by CBS news guy Charles Osgood, using his real name of Charles Wood III. Of course, the only member of Congress that ever had a #1 record was Rep. Sonny Bono!
- Larry Cave
50yearsagoonthehot100.blogspot.com
We've got that one coming up - it got quite
a bit of airplay here in the State of Illinois (where it became a #24
hit.)
Dirksen was a well-respected political
figure from coast-to-coast and, as you'll hear on this record ... but
who knew he was also an earlier innovator of rap! (kk)
Cat Stevens released "Matthew
And Son" in January, 1967. I always thought it was a big hit until I looked it
up in Joel Whitburn's charts. It was top 10 at the Florida radio station where
I worked. It reached UK #2 but wasn't even in the top 100 nationally here. Cat
wrote "Here Comes My Baby" which was a hit for the Tremeloes in 1967. His "Wild
World" in 1971 was the first big hit for him in the US. But I will always
remember Jimmy Cliff having a top 10 hit with it months earlier in 1970 in
England.
Cat's beautiful 1972 hit
"Morning Has Broken" wasn't written by him but was adapted from an old
children's hymn he remembered. My favorite Cat song is "Boy With A Moon And
Star On His Head" from the 1972 Catch Bull at Four album. It's more complex than
"I love my dog as much as I love you" from 1966. But heck I even liked that one.
I always was a big Cat Stevens fan.
Mike G
Mike G
Regarding The Electric Prunes: Circa '79, I took a weekly ASCAP songwriting workshop from Annette Tucker, co-writer of "Too Much To Dream ..." and now a facebook friend.
Gary E. Myers /
MusicGem
Hi Kent,
On January 25th you asked about the Felice Taylor song "It May Be Winter Outside (But In My Heart It's Spring)". I barely remember that song but it sounded a lot like The Supremes. Living in London in the late sixties, I do recall her big 1967 UK#11 hit "I Feel Love Comin' On" also sounding like Diana Ross. I've always liked that song and have it on an old reel-to-reel tape. It's considered a Northern Soul classic in England.
Northern Soul is akin to Beach Music in the Carolinas. I understand that she was discovered by a
young Barry White and he wrote and produced her songs. In the seventies he recorded them all
over again with Love Unlimited and Orchestra.
Mike G
On January 25th you asked about the Felice Taylor song "It May Be Winter Outside (But In My Heart It's Spring)". I barely remember that song but it sounded a lot like The Supremes. Living in London in the late sixties, I do recall her big 1967 UK#11 hit "I Feel Love Comin' On" also sounding like Diana Ross. I've always liked that song and have it on an old reel-to-reel tape. It's considered a Northern Soul classic in England.
Northern Soul is akin to Beach Music in the Carolinas. I understand that she was discovered by a
young Barry White and he wrote and produced her songs. In the seventies he recorded them all
over again with Love Unlimited and Orchestra.
Mike G
Kent,
You asked the question today if
anyone remembered the record by Felice Taylor. I remember it because I knew I
had a copy of it and it made our local survey. I don't remember what it sounds
like and didn't really care to put it on the old turntable to see what it sounds
like. I did pull the record and the flip was a song called WINTER
AGAIN
Larry
FH Readers Randy Price (who compiled all of the
Super Charts you see featured each week on the site) and Tom Diehl (who
regularly contributes rare tracks you just can't find anymore) both contributed
copies of "It May Be Winter Outside" for us to share today. (So did Mr. Hil!
Thanks, all!)
Hardly what I would consider to be "hit
material", this is one of those songs that defies ALL chart logic. It peaked at
#39 in Record World and #77 in Cash Box ... that's like an entire Top 40 between
these two listings! (It stopped at #42 in Billboard)
This is another reason why The Super Charts are
so important ... they collect ALL of the information from ALL of the
publications and research and from that COMPLETE data and, as such, compile a
FAR more accurate listing of each record's relative popularity at the time. Who
knows ... we just may rewrite music history in the process! (kk)
Hola
Kent,
In
honor of FH1967, I offer a photo of my 1967 Cutlass Supreme Holiday Coupe 442.
Saffron Yellow. I was very fortunate to take possession of this car it was used
in General Motors Autorama 1966 promoting the '67 models. Amazing car with
special accessories and 455 engine.
This was the basis of my friendship with
Rich (RVB442), may he rest in peace.
CharlieOFD
CharlieOFD
Kent man -
Furvus here and really digging the '67 thing ... right down to the "fan" quoting Nietzsche to hype a song, even as good a song as it may be!!!
I doubt what the "fan" had to say as much as I've always doubted most of what Nietzsche had to say. After all - most believe Nietzsche died of syphilis while alone in a cave ... two things I have been trying to avoid all my life!!! So far, so good.
Kent, don't believe anything anyone who quotes Nietzsche has to say. The fact is you and Forgotten Hits will now last as long as the internet and cyberspace exists - maybe longer - if we really care to think about it and how things will be by then.!!?? So you are carved in stone, man!!! At least!!! Not to worry!!!!!
But let's get back to now ... which is the end of January, 1967, I believe, isn't it? Seems to me.
And we, The Fifth Estate, are recording an album at Select Sound Studios, 21st floor (penthouse), 1790 Broadway, NYC.
The first session went on for 17 hours. Other sessions were necessarily interspersed with the constant touring we were doing, including trips to Chicago and playing some of the blues clubs in Old Town.
When we put the "Witch Is Dead" tune down, Mickey Eichner, label president, was running up and down the hallways shouting, "It's a hit!!! It's a hit!!!" From there, they steered the album material more toward that song and market rather than the live touring material we were doing like "Bright Lights, Big City", "Back Door Man", etc. and the Greenwich Village stuff we were doing, which was completely original and slightly more Fuggish for lack of a better likeness.
To complete the album once we had a hit twp months later (ahh the good old days), a number of our home recordings were tweaked a little and used to fill out the album. One of our semi-commercial Greenwich Village tunes, which we had home recorded, did get on there that way with just Wayne's lead vocal doubled in NYC ... otherwise that is just us playing in our basement studio with very few mikes. Same with "Lost Generation" and a few others on that album.
Fun days! Long days! 50 years ago - TODAY!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZLJNFcu2mw&list=PLeBGWJGGjvqmYCYuBV3zCGa1kThEN2pB4&index=5
Amen,
Furvus
(Ken Evans / The Fifth Estate)
If not a permanent record for the rest of civilization to enjoy, I'd like to think all my efforts are at least etched in Jello!!! (Then again, maybe it's all just a disposable / consumable best enjoyed when served hot off the stove ... who knows!) In either event, thanks for the kind words. (I've got to make this work now that my life-long Plan B is off the table ... there's no more circus to join!)
I found these photos in the archives ... something you had sent me AGES ago ... from the program booklet of the Gene Pitney Tour you guys did with The Buckinghams. (I remember sharing other photos ... and lots of fun memories from this tour back in the day ... probably all long since lost to numerous computer crashes since then.) These, however, survived ... and I'm guessing THEY'RE all from 1967 as well ... so enjoy (again) as we continue our trek through this incredible year! (I especially like the "group shot" showing many of the participants of this fun tour!) kk
