Hi Kent:
Just wanted to let you know that I love the idea of highlighting
1967 this whole year.
Carol Kaye
Thanx for
all your 1967ness, when I was 22. One of the luckiest things that ever happened
to me is being born in 1945 and being at just the right age in 1955 to
experience the HUGE rock'n'roll boom heard 'round the world and following it
thru to the present. It would have been lovely had I been paid for it, but I do
believe you could set me down anywhere on earth and I'd find a way to be happy
as long as I had access to my music. That's reason enough for me to ask God to
continue to Bless America!
Patti
Kent -
From your 1967 update
today:
>>>"Penny Lane" / "Strawberry Fields Forever", described as a "double A-side", is released by The
Beatles. It will top the charts in America a few weeks later. (Thanks to
"Release Me" by Engelbert Humperdinck, it did NOT reach #1 in the UK).
kk
That’s me, 49 years later, with the actual
mellotron (and, as we know, a very new and experimental instrument at the time)
used on Strawberry Fields Forever.
One of my faves from the R&R HOF -
Cleveland 2016.
I’m really enjoying your daily 1967 updates …
Thanks for the memories!
Mike Stineman
2.17.17
Fabulous WSPT / Stevens Point
chart. I never knew they had their own
surveys.
Tony
Waitekus
Great read. I liked hearing the Gary
& the Hornets ad as well. I'd never heard that before.
Rebel Baker
Despite the concerns of Herman's Hermits' record
label, Gary and the Hornets never really caught on ... their biggest chart hit,
"Hi Hi Hazel", peaked at #92 in November of 1966. The best that their version
of "There's A Kind Of Hush" could do was "bubble under" at #114 in Cash Box ...
it stopped at #127 in Billboard during a three week chart run. So yeah, I'd say
that commercial is pretty rare! (kk)
Hope all is good with you, Bro ...
Stumbled on to this pic ... first
tour with Tommy James, Sam the Sham, and Keith and the Wild
Kingdom ... man,
youth was fun! ... lol.
Enjoy the week, my friend
Later -
Barry
Winslow / The Royal Guardsmen
Good morning, Kent,
Seeing the photo of Mickey Dolenz as “Circus
Boy” was a nice surprise. When I was a kid, I watched Mickey Braddock (as he
called himself then) playing Corky that TV program (which aired in 1956 and
’57). According to IMDB, the TV show producers decided to send Mickey on a
singing tour to promote the show, and prepared him by first enrolling him in
guitar lessons. By the way, Mickey attended and graduated from U.S. Grant High
School in Van Nuys, Calif. — the same school from which Barry “the Fish” Melton
of Country Joe and the Fish graduated in 1965.
Best regards,
Jeff
March
On Friday, 2/24/67, ABC and WLS-TV
aired a show about the teen music situation called "The Songmakers."
Here's a clip from the show showing
the Wrecking Crew working with the Mamas & Papas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q3mL3QhfKY
Hi
Kent -
Love your '67 blog.
Though I'm residing in New York City now,
I lived my halcyon days in Utica, NY, where I listened to WLS after 10 PM at
night, when I received the signal via my transistor radio.
I told my friends
about these groups, and all of us fell in love to these sounds. 'Scratch in the
Sky' is still my favorite album, and 'You Wouldn't Listen to Me' is still my
favorite single.
Because of these guys, I became a singer / songwriter with
a Grammy nomination. My new CD is entitled 'Celebrate'. My artist name is Joseph
G. The 12 songs of 'Celebrate' and 18 of my oldies are available on i-Tunes, Spotify, Google / Play and YouTube (search Top Tracks - Joseph G.)
... or just go to my secret website for free listening:
josephguidera.com
I have always wanted to come
Chicago for music and a visit to The Oriental Institute to view its magnificent
Egyptian wing (my Grammy nominated song, 'You're a Treasure', contains a
reference to Akhenaten and his queen Nefertiti).
If
I am fortunate enough to win the tickets to the Cornerstones show, I will make
plans to come to Chicago to see this show and fulfill a lifetime dream to see
your beautiful city.
Thanks for the memories,
Joseph G.
Would love to see you fulfill that dream ...
so good luck, Joe! (We probably received at least two dozen ticket requests on
Day One ... and still don't know for certain how many we'll have to give away
... so stay tuned ... fortunately the show is still three months away so we'll
see what we can come up with in the meantime!)
kk
>>>Lovin’ the attention to ’67! Looking’ forward to
more! (Jerry Reuss)
Is Jerry Reuss the same Jerry Reuss
who pitched in the major leagues? That would make sense on many levels because
as I recall he was a competent musician during his playing days.
Regards,
Rich
Klein
I dunno ... let's ask him! (kk)
Hi Kent,
Yes, I’m the former
pitcher.
I’ve enjoyed your blog for some
years now. You as well as many of your readers have provided much insight into
the world of music and rock ’n’ roll that I can’t get anywhere else. I
appreciate all the time and effort that goes into it.
Keep up the good work as I look
forward to my daily read!
Jerry
Wow! Now how cool is THAT?!?!
And Jerry knows a thing or two about 1967 ...
that's the year he was drafted by The St. Louis Cardinals.
He pitched for 22 major league seasons, spending
time with our very own Chicago White Sox from 1988 - 1989 as well as stops with
The Houston Astros (1972 - 1973), The Pittsburgh Pirates (1974 - 1978), The Los
Angeles Dodgers (1979 - 1987) as well as The Cincinnati Reds, The Milwaukee
Brewers and The California Angels.
Along the way he won 220 games and struck out
1907 hitters - was a two time All Star, a 1981 World Series Champion and pitched
a no hitter against The San Francisco Giants on June 27, 1980! In 1988, while
with The Chicago White Sox, he became the second pitcher in Major League History
to win 200 games without ever having a 20-Win Season. (The first was Milt
Pappas)
After baseball he did commentary nationally for
ESPN as well as for The California Angels and Los Angeles Dodgers.
Welcome aboard, Jerry ... and thanks again for
the very kind words! (kk)
Kent:
I'd like to mention a couple of
Florida regional top 10 hits in February 1967 that never charted nationally.
The Tropics was a Tampa group that
got a Columbia recording contract after winning a 1966 battle of the bands in
Chicago. Their single "Time" always reminded me of Colin Blunstone and the
Zombies.
Grady Lloyd's "Lay Down Your Arms"
was a cover of Arthur Alexander's "Soldier Of Love" from 1962. The Beatles
recorded it in 1963 and it can be found on their Live At The BBC album. Both of
these singles were big hits in the sunshine state.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s__JuqoLyxM
Mike G
The 1967 Grammy Awards were handed
out on March 2nd in four different cities. Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville and
New York all had ceremonies handing out the trophies for best music of 1966.
The Beatles' "Michelle" won the Best Song of the Year.
Local Mercury Records was
disappointed by only one win out of eight nominations.
Although Chicagoland locals, the
Buckinghams, had been number one on Billboard's Hot 100 the previous week ...
however, the song would not have been eligible until the following Grammy year
and was never nominated for anything. "Up Up & Away" took most trophies
home that year.
The only time a Best New Artist
award has not been given out (since The Grammy's inception in 1959) was
1967! Maybe the Bucks SHOULD have been given the
award?
The Buckinghams, however, can say
they had a Grammy night performance! They actually opened the Chicago Grammy
Awards Program by performing "Kind Of A Drag" live onstage! How cool!
BTW, the Mercury Records winner
that night? The best "Contemporary (Rock & Roll) Recording" went
to "Winchester Cathedral"!!!! Contemporary must have meant 1920's to the
Grammys?
Lots of things have not changed.
Last night, the late David Bowie won four Grammys for his song "Blackstar",
including best rock song. Hmm, 40 year old sounding song wins in 1967 and 50
years later a rock star from 40 years earlier wins, too?
Interesting!
Here's the lowdown as Billboard
presented it in their 3/11/67 issue for the Chicago part of the
presentations:
and the nominees and
winners:
Sure, nowadays, you can get all the
Grammy nominees on a CD by going down to Target, BUT.....
50 years ago, that was not the
case. The closest was this EXTREMELY rare DJ LP that stations were supplied
with. It's almost like a 1967 - 69 montage of the biggest hits of the years.
OK, so it's all Columbia Records artists, but still. It's like Clive Davis and
Joel Whitburn combined on an album project based on Billboard
charts!!
The album is titled: "Columbia
Records Hall of Fame 1967 - 1968 - 1969." At the top of the album, it proudly
proclaims: "All selections contained in this album hit Billboard's Top 10 in the
years 1967 - 1968 - 1969."
As you can see below, side one is
chock full of Buckinghams hits (tracks 3, 6, 8!).
The back cover has a montage of the
artists:
And notes by Billboard contributor,
Joe Teras!
The Buckinghams
synopsis:
TAKE THAT, Adele!
Neil Diamond did car karaoke last
night at the GRAMMYS??? Hard to believe, but true.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fyLYdWDHr8
Here's what he was doing in 1967
and I think our FH member Chuck Buell is doing the announcer voice
overs!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnJ36n1AVtU
WLSClark
Thanks Clark
... Interesting observation.
I saw an article about the first
Grammy Awards event out here in LA. I think it was in the ballroom at a Holiday
Inn or something.
Even though there were fantastic
artists at the time with number one records, Andy Williams and Henry Mancini won
everything. Crazy.
Unfortunately at the time,
“popular music and rock n’ roll” (don’t even mention R&B) wasn’t considered
a worthy art form as compared to the movies and the Academy
Awards.
It was extremely political.
Everyone on both of those voting boards (Oscars & Grammys) were old,
establishment white folks.
With that said, you can see why
“Winchester Cathedral” with their
mega-fone vocal trak and the poetic lyric of “Oh bow-dee-oh-dough” would garnish
an award. (ha, ha)
I stopped watching the Oscars when
“Talk To The Animals” won for best song of the year over
“Alfie”.
Back in the day, generally
speaking if you were a minority artist or on a small, indie label you weren’t
going to be acquiring many votes. They wouldn’t know who the hell you
were (?)
Marshall C. winning an award for
R. Lewis was an exception. Leonard and Phil over the years probably donated a
boatload of money to NARAS. (ha, ha)
In hindsight with Kent’s
(Forgotten Hits) recent acknowledgement of the Bucks and the “horn sound”, you
would’ve thought a light would’ve gone on in the heads of the folks on the board
at least in Chicago.
That tells you how out-of-touch
those people were with the music of the day.
Isn’t there a story that Elvis, The Beatles and God knows
who else NEVER earned a Grammy?
James Holvay
If there is, it simply isn't true ... although Elvis'
recognition came for his religious albums rather than his contribution to the
evolution of rock and roll. Incredibly The King Of Rock And Roll only one THREE
Grammy Awards ... and he didn't win his first one until 1967 when he took home
the honors for Best Scared Performance for his "How Great Thou Art" album. He
won again in 1972 for "He Touched Me" (Best Inspirational Performance) and in
1974 (for "How Great Thou Art" again) for Best Inspirational Performance,
Non-Classical.
The Beatles (both as a group and individually) have won a
TON of Grammys over the years.
Here is a recap we did almost exactly nine years ago today,
significant because it was the VERY FIRST Forgotten Hits web page post (February
9th, 2008) ...
http://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2008/02/is-music-of-beatles-still-relevant.html
By the way, as related to our 1967 Series, "Sgt. Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band" won two 1967 Awards (presented in 1968) - one for Best
Contemporary Album and the other for Album Of The Year.
The very first Grammy Ceremony was held at The Beverly
Hilton (slightly more upscale than The Holiday Inn! lol) You can read all
about it here: https://www.grammy.com/awards/1st-annual-grammy-awards
The first TELEVISED ceremony came a year later ... that's the one we talked
about in our Bobby Darin Series as it pitted Bobby up against Frank Sinatra in
four categories. (They each won two ... Bobby took his home for Best New Artist
and Song Of the Year ... "Mack The Knife")
You're right ... for the longest time the winners were
determined by a group of old fuddy-duddys, who had absolutely NO clue when it
came to the new sound sweeping the nation, rock and roll. Today, however, the
voting panel seems far more in tune with the latest contemporary sounds. (kk)
As we're seeing on a daily basis, 1967 was a revolutionary
year in music. While it was "Sgt. Pepper" that garnered most of the attention
that year on the album charts ... it literally changed the way albums were made
and conceptionalized overnight ... there were a number of OTHER albums released
this year that raised the bar ... they just weren't recognized as such at that
moment in time.
One such album would have to be "The Velvet Underground and
Nico".
Another would have to be "Days Of Future Passed" by The
Moody Blues ... in which full orchestrated rock and roll music ... presented in
almost a classical vein ... were merged for the very first time. (Incredibly,
despite initiation this HUGE leap forward in the rock arena, The Moody Blues
STILL have not been inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame!)
But, as I said, the album went virtually unnoticed at the
time. The following year "Tuesday Afternoon" was edited down for single release
and it went to #24 on the pop charts. The big #1 Hit from the album, however,
wouldn't realize its significance on the pop charts until 1972 ... a full five
years later ... when "Nights In White Satin" hit the #1 spot on both the Cash
Box and Record World Charts. (It peaked at #2 in Billboard).
Upon its first release in 1967, it "bubbled under" in
Billboard and Record World and barely caused a ripple with its #93 showing in
Cash Box. (It was on and off the chart in just two weeks!) I guess the world
just wasn't ready for this revolutionary landmark. (Hey, America paid no
attention to The Beatles in 1963 either ... timing, as they say, is
everything!)
Well now The Moody Blues are going out in full support of
their landmark LP with a 50th Anniversary Tour of "Days Of Future Passed",
performing a two set extravaganza with a full orchestra ...
Set One will consist of all their greatest hits (and they've
had PLENTY ... everything from "Question" (#19, 1970); "The Story In Your Eyes"
(#14, 1971) and "I'm Just A Singer In A Rock And Roll Band" (#8, 1973) to
"Gemini Dream" (#12, 1981) and "The Voice" (#15, 1981).
Vintage Vinyl News is reporting it this way ...
The Moody Blues will return to North
America in June and July to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of their album
Days Of Future Passed.
The show will be
divided into two halves with their greatest hits during the first act and a full
playing of Days Of Future Passed in the second.
Released in November of 1967, Days Of Future
Passed was The Moody Blues second album and their
first where they merged rock music with a full symphony orchestra. Credited as
an early example of progressive rock music, the band only performed at
the same time as the orchestra in the last section of Nights In White
Satin. Otherwise, they were alternating passages.
At
the time of its release, Nights In White Satin was not a hit in
the U.S. and peaked at 19 in the U.K. The follow-up, Tuesday
Afternoon, went to 24 on the Hot 100. Nights was
re-released in 1972 to much greater success, going to 9 in the U.K. and 2 in the
U.S.
Justin Hayward said of the album "Little did we know when we made
Days Of Future Passed that it would eventually change our lives — it took five
long years to make it the top of the charts. But we mustn’t take all the credit
for this remarkable project — there were many creative minds who contributed at the time, and who believed in us when we
were young and inexperienced. We just wrote the songs — about every-man. My
dearest wish is that maybe the album has made the world a better place. It will
be a joy to return to it, live."
The
Dates:
06/03 - Rancho Mirage, CA - Agua Caliente
Casino
06/04 - Pala, CA - Starlight
Theater
06/06 - Saratoga, CA - The Mountain
Winery
06/07 - Saratoga, CA - The Mountain
Winery
06/09 - Portland (Troutdale), OR -
Edgefield
06/10 - Seattle (Woodinville), WA - Chateau Ste.
Michelle
06/11 - Seattle (Woodinville), WA - Chateau Ste.
Michelle
06/17 - Los Angeles, CA - Hollywood
Bowl
06/18 - Murphys, CA - Ironstone
Amphitheatre
06/20 - Denver (Englewood), CO - Fiddler’s Green
Amphitheatre
06/27 - Minneapolis, MN - Orpheum
Theatre
06/28 - Milwaukee, WI - Milwaukee
Summerfest
06/30 - Chicago (Highland Park), IL - Ravinia
Park
07/01 - Dayton (Kettering,) OH - Fraze Pavilion for the
Performing Arts
07/02 - Cleveland (Northfield), OH - Hard Rock
Live
07/06 - Toronto, ON - Sony Centre For Performing
Arts
07/07 - Toronto, ON - Sony Centre For Performing
Arts
07/09 - Wallingford, CT - Toyota Presents the Oakdale
Theatre
07/10 - Boston, MA - Blue Hills Bank
Pavilion
07/12 - Wantaugh, NY - Nikon at Jones Beach
Theater
07/13 - Holmdel, NJ - PNC Bank Arts
Center
07/15 - Philadelphia, PA - Mann Center for the Performing
Arts
07/16 - Saratoga Springs, NY - Saratoga Performing Arts
Center
07/18 - Bethlehem, PA - Sands Bethlehem Events
Center
07/19 - Baltimore, MD - Pier 6
Pavilion
07/20 - Vienna, VA - Wolf Trap
07/22 - Nashville, TN - Ryman
Auditorium
07/23 - Atlanta, GA - Chastain Park
Amphitheatre
