Next Saturday Night (June 24th) I’ll be back on Phil Nee’s WRCO “Those Were The Days” radio program … this time counting down The Top 50 Chicagoland Biggest Hits from The Summer Of Love.
A few years back we asked our FH buddy (and frequent contributor) Jack Levin to compile a list of the 50 Biggest Records for the months of June, July and August, 1967, by computing each record’s ranking on both the WLS and WCFL Charts. (Chart Guru Randy Price did the same thing, utilizing his Super Charts, to determine the 50 Biggest National Summer Of Love Hits.)
Both lists are permanently posted on The Forgotten Hits Website … http://forgottenhits.com/the_summer_of_love_countdown_the_biggest_hits_of_summer_1967
And next week Phil and I will count down the
Chicago chart. (I’ll also be posting
clips of this broadcast so that those beyond the listening range of Richland
Center, Wisconsin’s WRCO can also enjoy the list. In fact, we’ll have it up for your listening pleasure
the same time the program is going out live on the air!)
We’ll send you new links once everything is
all set to go.
This is a who’s who list of songs and artists,
many of whom have become regular Forgotten Hits readers and participants over
the years. (Phil has also interviewed a
number of these folks … and he’ll be splicing in memories from many of them
along the way.)
A quick shout out to The Turtles, The
Buckinghams, Tommy James and the Shondells, The Rascals, The Monkees, The Association,
The Cryan’ Shames, The Grass Roots, Davie Allan, Paul Revere and the Raiders, The
Hollies, The Fifth Estate, The Mauds, Yellow Balloon and The Beach Boys, ALL of
whom will be featured during the countdown … along with The Beatles, The Four
Seasons, The Doors, Bobbie Gentry, Jefferson Airplane, Van Morrison, The
Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Wilson Pickett, The Fifth Dimension, Johnny Rivers,
Spanky and Our Gang, Petula Clark, Aretha Franklin, Procol Harum and more.
Be sure to check it out … next Saturday, June
24th. (kk)
FH Reader Clark Besch sent us this vintage report on The Monterey Pop Festival, written as it happened back in 1967 (so totally IN the moment of the festival)
I think you'll find some cool stuff here. Thanks, Clark. (kk)
I am sure
that Forgotten Hits will be featuring (arguably) the biggest "LIVE"
event of 1967, which happened June 16 - 18, 1967!
The show
has been chronicled, criticized, glorified and examined in detail through all
the audio and film footage taken then and released over many years in many
forms of media.
Below is
an item that I really loved reading when I bought the Down Beat Magazine dated
August 10, 1967, just six weeks after the First EVER Monterey Pop
Festival became reality and launched many a great career.
The
photos below are from the magazine and the pages housing the article to follow.
Unlike many reviews of the show, this article goes through the show
chronologically day by day and gives a first hand account of what went on
onstage without the 20/20 hindsight we can use today to reshape the thoughts or
happenings as we may have wished to over the years.
You can
learn more about those "other" acts that were onstage, but no one
really talked about later.
I have
DVDs and CDs of much of the shows presented during the great three-day event
and there are some terrific performances and some bad ones.
So, in 50
year old hindsight, I think this is the best piece I have ever read on this
monumental event. I especially thought the mention of how Steve Miller's
band used a tape recorder with sound effects to be interesting, as he went
into the Hall of Fame after a career of using electronic sounds to help make his
music popular for decades.
Oh yeah,
one more cool thing was the AUTHOR of this piece. Barry Hansen went on to
great fame and gave us many odd pieces of music that we likely would never have
heard without him. Barry
Hansen eventually became better known as "Dr. Demento"!!!
P.S. Chet Coppock might see
that the cover of Down Beat features an article on the great Chicago jazz
legend, Red Saunders. Red appealed to all and his local TV show never
quite got off the ground, BUT the Cryan Shames taped "Up On The Roof"
(if I remember correctly) for airing on the show!
Kent,
You'll also find a good retrospective
also here:
Clark Besch
And I've
got to recommend again Harvey Kubernik's book, which covers every event of the
festival, day by day, with comments from many of the fans and artists who were
there at the time. It's the most detailed
account I've ever seen … and once again BRILLIANTLY illustrated with amazing
color and black and white photography … a true "coffee table book" in
every sense of the word. (kk)
By the
way, when I searched for a cover photo of Harvey’s Monterey Book I googled
“images A Perfect Haze” … and pages and pages and pages of beautiful, naked
girls came up. I was shocked … and
wanted to let Harvey know right away … but it took a little bit longer to
contact him than I had expected because, you know, it takes a long time
to look thru all those naked photos!!! (kk)
Wanna
meet Harvey Kubernik?
He’ll be
making an appearance Tuesday Morning, June 20th, at 11:30 am, at The
California Historical Society in San Francisco.
After a short lecture on the 1967 scene, he’ll be available for book
signings. Pick up a copy of his new book
while you’re there … and tell him Forgotten Hits sent you! (kk)
Great
newsletter!
I was contacted by a friend who is sending me a new 3-CD set called The Summer of Love .
I was contacted by a friend who is sending me a new 3-CD set called The Summer of Love .
The sleeve notes are
by journalist Keith Altham … Very well known in the UK … he was the last
one to interview jimi Hendrix five days before his death.
Regards
Geoff
Yeah, I
think we’ve plugged this one a few times now.
(kk)
Hey Kent:
One of the
records that most reminds me of the summer of 1967 is "(I Wanna)
Testify" by The Parliaments. Back then I assumed they were British just
like I first thought that about The Buckinghams. But apparently, they took the
name of an American cigarette brand.
First charting
in Cashbox on June 17, 1967, the single took two months to reach it's #18 peak
in August (Billboard #20). The group had its beginnings in 1955 singing doo-wop.
Their leader, George Clinton, was originally from Kannapolis, NC, (where I also
pent my early youth). Clinton later became a songwriter and producer in
Detroit. As The Parliaments’ lead singer he reorganized the group and released
"Testify" on a minor record label.
On stage they wore
shark-skin suits and emulated The Temptations. It seems to me the song was on
the radio ALL that summer and I never grew tired of hearing it.
I can't find it
on Chicagoland charts, but it was top three in Detroit, Cleveland, and NYC. It
was HUGE in the Southeast, especially the Carolinas.
Clinton went on
to become a funk music legend. In 1997, he was inducted into the Rock And Roll
Hall Of Fame along with other
Parliament - Funkadelic members. I'm not sure I've heard “Testify" on the radio in fifty years!
Mike G
Parliament - Funkadelic members. I'm not sure I've heard “Testify" on the radio in fifty years!
Mike G
No, this one didn’t make any
of our AM Pop Charts … but it’s a GREAT record so I’m happy to feature it again
here today. Thanks, Mike! (kk)
Kent,
You might want to replace the version of "Carrie-Anne"
you currently have up with the attached, which is a much better stereo mix.
– Randy
I can’t
keep going back to previously published pages and updating them … as a rule,
nobody’s really looking at them once we’ve moved on to the next day’s post …
but what I CAN do is post these tracks here so folks still get a chance to hear
them. (kk)
BOB FRABLE
Actually, somebody did … and we addressed this a few weeks ago … but for those who need to hear it again, here is the superior single mix. (kk)
We also replaced our version of “No Fair At All” (a Warner Brothers re-recording apparently) with the original Valiant single mix … so we might as well rerun that one now, too! (kk)
