Saturday, April 14, 2018

April 7, 2018 - GJ - "Early April of the Nines"

  
Rockin' Remnants

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Date:  4/7/18
Host:  Gregory James
Feature:  Songs charting in the first week of April 1959, 1969, and 1979.


 Birthday Calendar

 April 1

Rudolph Isley                                        79
Jimmy Cliff (James Chambers)             70

April 2

Leon Russell                                         1942
Marvin Gaye                                          1939

April 3

Jeff Barry                                                 80
Wayne Newton                                        76
Tony Orlando                                           74
Don Gibson                                             1928
Jan Berry (Jan and Dean)                       1941
Billy Joe Royal                                         1942

April 4

Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield)    1915
Major Lance                                             1942

April 5

Allan Clarke (Hollies)                               78
Agnetha Faltskog (ABBA)                        68
Tony Williams (Platters)                           1928

April 7

Bill Kreutzmann (Grateful Dead)              72
John Oates (Hall and Oates                     69
Janis Ian                                                   67
Mongo Santamaria                                   1922
Ravi Shankar                                            1920

Playlist

All songs unless otherwise noted are from the spotlight date of FIRST WEEK OF APRIL 1959, 1969 AND 1979; yellow song titles are YouTube links; songs with * were requests; all chart information comes from the Billboard Top 100 (for chart dates before/during July 1958) or Billboard Hot 100 (for chart dates during/after Aug 1958) unless otherwise noted. Chart numbers are for the first week of April in their respective years.

OPENING THEME:  Good Old Rock ‘n’ Roll – Cat Mother & the All-Night Newsboys (1969, #29, produced by Jimi Hendrix)

1959    Almost Grown Chuck Berry          #96
Etta James and Marvin Gaye sing back up.

1969      Breakfast in Bed Dusty Springfield   #101
Written by Muscle Shoals songwriters Eddie Hinton and Donnie Fritts. Includes the lyric “you don’t have to say you love me.”

1979      Music Box Dancer       Frank Mills    #6
Record was meant to be sent to Canadian easy listening stations, but a copy found its way to pop station CFRA which put it on its play list and the record took off.

1959      Come Softly to Me       Fleetwoods   #2
Recording the song at home, the group sang it a cappella with the rhythmic shaking of car keys. The tape was then sent to Los Angeles where the sparse instrumental accompaniment was added.



1979      Happiness     Pointer Sisters     #49
On the Planet record label, the song was written by Allen Toussaint.

1979      Fire Pointer Sisters     #51
Written by Bruce Springsteen, this song went gold as a single and was an international hit.

1979      Crazy Love    Poco      #33
Poco’s biggest hit, their first single to hit the top 40



1979      Crazy Love    Allman Brothers    #39
The band’s second biggest hit in the Hot 100. Bonnie Bramlett sings backup.

1979      Reunited       Peaches and Herb      #15
It spent four weeks at number one on both the R&B singles chart and the Hot 100 singles chart in 1979 and sold over 2 million copies. 

1959      *Guitar Boogie Shuffle     Virtues      #10
By request!



1979      Rhumba Girl        Nicolette Larson   #73
 Larson was acclaimed Female Vocalist of 1978 by Rolling Stone which opined no one else could sound as if she were having so much fun on an album. "Rhumba Girl" just missed becoming a major hit for Larson

1969      Time is Tight        Booker T. and the MG’s     #33
The song was played in the early 1970s as the back up music to the weekly BBC chart rundowns.

1959      Where Were You on our    Lloyd Price    #23
              Wedding Day?  

                 

1979      Blow Away    George Harrison  #26
In his autobiography,  Harrison says that the song arose from feelings of frustration and inadequacy resulting from a leaking roof at his  home.

1959      Who’s That Knockin           Genies          #88
The group, the story goes, were discovered by Bob Shad of Shad Records while they were singing on the boardwalk in Long Beach, New York. 



1972      Tightrope      #11       
 Leon Russell (birthday 4/2/1942)                         

1971      Love the One You’re With     # 18                   
Isley Brothers  (Rudolph Isley birthday 4/1/1939)

1964      How Sweet It Is    Marvin Gaye        #11
(birthday 4/2/1939)  
The Funk Brothers were the side men.

1969      Many Rivers to Cross       #80
Jimmy Cliff (birthday 4/1/1948)                       
Cliff was only 21 when he wrote and recorded the song in 1969, stating he wrote the song due to the trouble he was having making it as a successful musical artist after originally finding tremendous success in his home of Jamaica beginning at age 14 before moving to the United Kingdom.



1967      Carrie Anne   Hollies    #9  
(Allan Clarke birthday 4/5/1940)                             
Recorded in two takes at Abbey Road studios.

2001      Counting Up the Years   Janis Ian (birthday 4/7/1951)      

                       

1983      One on One    Hall and Oates   #7  
(John Oates birthday 4/7/1949)              
This track has been used in commercials for the National Basketball Association.

1976      Dancing Queen    Abba      #1
(Agnetha Faltskog birthday 4/6/1950)            
This was their only track to hit number 1 in the US. They performed it for the King and Queen of Sweden, which begs the question, “Is Queen Silvia of Sweden literally a dancing queen?”



1979      Bustin’ Loose  Chuck Brown & The Soul Searchers     # 34
From the opening of Nationals Park in 2008 until the 2015 season, the song was played after every home run the Washington Nationals hit.

1959      Turn Me Loose    Fabian           #79
Written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman upon the request of the managers of teen idol, Fabian Forte. The song became Fabian's first hit record.

1959      Tall Paul       Annette Funicello #24
Mouseketeer Annette was the first female singer to reach the top ten for a rock 'n roll single. It was the highest-charting song by Annette Funicello and also one of the shortest, clocking in at 1 minute and 38 seconds.

1979      Roller            April Wine     #43
Founded in Nova Scotia, April Wine’s "Roller" started its momentum in Michigan and soon was a popular hit across the U.S., finding its way into the Billboard Hot 100 where it stayed for eleven weeks.

1959      Six Nights a Week       Crests           #76
The Crests were the first interracial Doo Wop group. The Crests were discovered in 1956, while singing in a New York subway.



1969      Traces          Classics IV    #8
The band formed in Jacksonville FL and Traces was their highest charting single.

1969      More Today Than Yesterday   Spiral Staircase    #88

The group formed in Sacramento, the record sold over a million copies and was certified gold.

1979      Rubber Biscuit     Blues Brothers     #37
Dan Akroyd and John Belushi covering the original version by The Chips.  A "wish sandwich" is when one has two slices of bread and wishes for meat in between the slices.

1959      I’ve Had It             Bell Notes     #9
Hailing from Long Island, they performed regularly in the Bronx. “I’ve Had It” was recorded at a Times Square studio for $50.



1959      The Beat              Rockin’ R’s    #68
The Rockin R’s was a garage band from Metamora Illinois. "The Beat" made it to many Midwest hit parades and ultimately made a strong placing in Billboard, earning the band a spot on American Bandstand.

1959      Happy Organ               Dave Baby Cortez       #35
The song originally featured lyrics and was intended to be sung, but Cortez decided to play the melody on a Hammond B3 organ instead, one of the first such uses on a rock record.

1979      Stumblin’ In   Suzi Quatro & Chris Norman    #11
The song was Quatro's only US Top 40 hit and Norman's lone US charting effort

1979      Take It Back         J. Geils Band               #67



1969      Blessed is the Rain     Brooklyn Bridge   #45



1959      Since I Don’t Have You      Skyliners       #17
On the Calico label, the song features counterpoint between Jimmy Beaumont’s falsetto and Janet Vogel's soprano on the final chorus when Beaumont repeats the word "YOU" 13 times. 



1969      Will You Be Staying After Sunday    
Peppermint Rainbow   #52
              
A sunshine pop group from Baltimore, this record sold over a million copies and was certified gold.



1969      You’ve Made Me So Very Happy     #4
              Blood Sweat and Tears     
Originally recorded by Motown singer Brenda Holloway, Blood, Sweat & Tears closed their Woodstock set with this song.

1979      I Need You    Euclid Beach Band      #84
This Detroit area band featured Eric Carmen.

1969      Only the Strong Survive     Jerry Butler   #7
This was Butler’s most successful single and a certified platinum record. Also known as The Iceman, Mr. Butler has served as a Cook County Commissioner since 1985.



1969      I’ll Try Something New       #28
Supremes and Temptations       
Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and various Los Angeles area musicians

1969      In the Bad Bad Old Days    Foundations         #77




1959      Yeah Yeah (Class Cutter)  Dale Hawkins              #57
Hawkins also wrote Susie-Q. He was a pioneer of swamp rock boogie.

1959      Please Mr. Sun    Tommy Edwards  #11
After “It’s All in the Game,” "Please Mr. Sun" was his second biggest hit.

1969      Only You       Bobby Hatfield     #103
A cover of the 1955 Platters version by one half of the Righteous Brothers.

1959      Tell Him No   Travis and Bob    #47
This was the Alabama duo’s only hit single, originally released on Sandy Records, then picked up by Dot records for national distribution.



CLOSING THEME:  Sleepwalk – Santo & Johnny (1959, #1 for two weeks)


Host Next Week (4/14/18):  Kim Vaughan with a spotlight on All Occasion Oldies.



Thanks for tuning in! You can listen to Rockin' Remnants every Saturday night from 6-9pm on WVBR (93.5 FM in Ithaca, NY) or streaming here.





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