May 19, 2018 - JH: Mini-themes

Rockin' Remnants is broadcast from WVBR-FM Ithaca. Check out our webpage, like us on Facebook, and tune in to 93.5 or stream the show every Saturday night from 6-9pm! (Or download the WVBR+ app now available for iOS and Android!)


Date: May 19, 2018

Host: JH (Jan Hunsinger)
Feature: Mini-themes


Playlist

[Playing the #1 songs based on weeks at the top of the chart, from 1955 to 1975, in some years there were ties; 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]

6pm-7pm  

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

Mining Songs Mini-Theme

Timothy - The Buoys (1971 - #17: one-hit wonder for the group from nearby Wilkes-Barre, Pa; Rupert Holmes of The Street People and the Pina Colada Song was their composer/arranger)


16 Tons - "Tennessee" Ernie Ford (1955 - #1: song was a huge smash for Ford, staying at #1 for 8 weeks and on the charts for 27)

New York Mining Disaster - The Bee Gees (1967 - #14: the first of 43 Hot 100 singles for the brothers Gibb)


Working in the Coal Mine - Lee Dorsey (1966 - #8: Dorsey was a prizefighter known as "Kid Chocolate" in the early 1950s)

Big Bad John - Jimmy Dean (1961 - #1: song spent 5 weeks at #1 and won Dean a Grammy for Country Song; we heard the risque version which ends: "At the bottom of this mine lays one hell of a man, Big John") 


*Tracks of My Tears - Smokey Robinson and the Miracles (1965 - #16: listener called in to say that he read a mis-heard lyric of this song inspired The Zombies to record "Tell Her No"; song is #50 on the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs list)

*Poison Ivy - The Coasters (1959 - #7:big hit for "The Clown Princes of Rock" written by Lieber and Stoller; Jerry Lieber said that the song is a metaphor for an STD)

Rain Songs Mini-Theme

Buy for Me the Rain - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (1967 - #45: song from their first album that peaked on May 6 of 1967)

Don't Let the Rain Fall Down on Me - The Critters (1967 - #39: one of only two songs to make the Top 40 by th group out of Plainfield, NJ)


I Can Turn Off the Rain - The Grass Roots (1971 - UC: song was on the flip side of "Sooner or Later")

Rainy Jane - Davy Jones (1971 - #52: post-Monkees single for Jones; song was co-written by Neil Sedaka)


45 Corner

Rain - The Beatles (1966 - #23: the "B" side of "Paperback Writer" and the first song to feature backward tape loops; we heard the Odeon label 45 which was made in Germany)


Medicine Man - The Buchanan Brothers  (1969 - #22: the Buchanan Brothers were really Dennis Minogue ("Terry Cashman") and Thomas Picardo ("Tommy West"))

Fire - Crazy World of Arthur Brown (1968 - #2: Brown was born in Whitby, England; the band was known for its psychedelic rock and Brown's outlandish performances and is still touring in 2018)


I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight? - Boyce and Hart (1967 - #8: Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart wrote and produced for the Monkees but had this hit for themselves)

I Will Always Think About You - New Colony Six (1968 - #22: hit for the soft-rock group out of Chicago)


Birthday Calendar

May 13: 
Ritchie Valens (Richard Steven Valenzuela) born 1941 
Mary Wells - born 1943
Stevie Wonder (68)

May 14:
Bobby Darin (Walden Robert Cassotto) born 1936
Derek "Lek" Lekenby (Herman's Hermits guitarist) born 1943
Jack Bruce (Cream bassist) born 1943

May 15:
Eddy Arnold - born 1918
Trini Lopez (81)
Mike Oldfield (65)

May 16: 
Barbara Lee (The Chiffons) born 1947

May 17:
Malcolm Hale (Spanky and Our Gang guitarist) born 1941

May 18:
Big Joe Turner (Joseph Vernon Turner, Jr) born 1911
Perry Como (Pierino Ronald Como) born 1912
Albert Hammond (74)
Rick Wakeman (Yes keyboardist) (69)

May 19:
Pete Townsend (73)
Jerry Hyman (Blood, Sweat, & Tears trombonist) (71)

Fast Freight - Ritchie Valens (UC - 1959: posthumous release featuring Valens on Stratocaster guitar)


Two Lovers - Mary Wells (1962 - #7: Wells was the first artist to have a Top 10 and #1 single for Motown records)

A Place in the Sun - Stevie Wonder (1966 - #9: song was written by Ronald Miller and Bryan Wells)


Things - Bobby Darin (1962 - #3: Darin was with Bobby Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel on the night of his assassination in 1968)

A Must to Avoid - Herman's Hermits (1965 - #8: song was written by P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri, who also wrote "Secret Agent Man" and "Eve of Destruction")

Badge - Cream (1969 - #60: song was co-written by Eric Clapton and George Harrison; Clapton mis-read Harrison's note of "Bridge" on the sheet music and said, "What's Badge"?, giving the song its title)

The Cattle Call - Eddy Arnold (1955 - #69: the first pop chart record for "The Tennessee Plowboy")


If I Had a Hammer - Trini Lopez (1963 - #3: one of 13 Hot 100 chart singles for the folk singer who was also in the movie "The Dirty Dozen")

Tubular Bells - Mike Oldfield (1974 - #7: theme song for the movie "The Exorcist"; album version was 49 minutes long)


I Have a Boyfriend - The Chiffons (1963 - #36: song that was playing on Dallas radio station KLIF that was interrupted with the bulletin that President John F. Kennedy had been shot)

Like to Get to Know You - Spanky and Our Gang (1968 - #17: Hale was the musical genius for the group and his death led to them breaking up)


Honey Hush - Big Joe Turner (1959 - #53: influential blues shouter from Kansas City)

It's A Good Day - Perry Como (1955 - UC: song was co-written by Peggy Lee in 1946; Como's version was used in the 1999 movie "Blast From the Past")

I'm a Train - Albert Hammond (1974 - #37: Hammond has enjoyed great success as a songwriter, writing "Little Arrows" for Leapy Lee and "The Air That I Breathe" for the Hollies, among others)


Morning Has Broken - Cat Stevens (1972 - #6: Rick Wakeman played the distinctive piano part on the song)

The Kids Are Alright - The Who (1966 - #85: would later be used for the title for a documentary of the band in 1979)

God Bless the Child - Blood, Sweat, & Tears (1968 - Jerry Hyman provided the trombone solo for the group's cover of the classic song)

 Grass Songs Mini-Theme

Grazing in the Grass - Friends of Distinction (1969 - #3:  song was an instrumental hit for Hugh Masekela in 1968; Friends band member Harry Elston added the lyrics)


Green Green Grass of Home - Tom Jones (1966 - #11: Jones recorded the song after hearing Jerry Lee Lewis's 1965 recording)


Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You - Wilson Pickett (1971 - #17: song was a million seller for 'Wicked Pickett')

And the Grass Won't Pay No Mind - Mark Lindsay (1970 - #44: cover of a Neil Diamond song by the former Paul Revere and the Raiders frontman)



The Other Man's Grass Grass Is Always Greener - Petula Clark (1967 - #31: another Clark hit by writer Tony Hatch)

Green Grass - Gary Lewis and the Playboys (1966 - #8: Gary now lives in nearby Rochester and makes occasional appearances there)

*Green-Eyed Lady - Sugarloaf (1970 - #3: original single was 5:58 in length, but it was trimmed to 3:33)


*Have I the Right? - The Honeycombs (1964 - #5: part of the British Invasion, the group featured a rarity of the time - a female drummer)

Shape Songs Mini-theme:

Shapes of Things - Max Frost and the Troopers (1968 - #22: group only existed in the studio, created for the movie "Wild in the Streets")

Love's Lines, Angles and Rhymes - 5th Dimension (1971 - #19:  title track from the 1971 LP)


Shapes of Things - The Yardbirds (1966 - #11: Jeff Beck used guitar feedback on the song, which was co-written by Keith Relf; when the Yardbirds broke up Relf went on to form Renaissance, group which appeared at the Hangar Theater on May 12)


Bend Me, Shape Me - The American Breed (1967 - #5: song was originally recorded by The Outsiders)

Can't Get Enough of Your Love - Barry White (1974 - #1: White wrote, recorded, and produced this big hit)


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

Host Next Week: (5/26) - Kim Vaughn (KV).

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.

May 12, 2018 - JS - Mother's Day Weekend

Rockin' Remnants




Rockin' Remnants is broadcast from WVBR-FM Ithaca. Check out our webpage, like us on Facebook, and tune in to 93.5 or stream the show every Saturday night from 6-9pm! (Or download the WVBR+ app now available for iOS and Android!)







Date:  5/12/18
Host:  John Simon
Feature:  Mother's Day Extravaganza



The luck of the draw: I get the Mother's Day Weekend show tonight on Rockin' Remnants, 2 1/2 months after losing my own mom. Time to turn lemons into lemonade: tonight will be all about the mamas! Maternal advice, mamas' comfort, motherly love, the wrath of the protective lioness/mom.... 6-9 p.m. on 93.5 FM or wvbr.com.

 

Birthday Calendar


May 6 – Bob Seger – age 73
           

May 7 – Jimmy Ruffin – born in 1940
            
May 9 – Tommy Roe – age 76
            – Billy Joel – age 69
            – Dave Prater (Sam & Dave) – born in 1937

May 10 – Larry Williams – born in 1935     


May 11 – Eric Burdon – age 77
           
May 12 – Burt Bacharach – age 90

            – James Purify – age 74
            – Steve Winwood – age 70







Playlist


[songs in bold are from the spotlight date of DATE; 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]





6-7pm 



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

Shop Around - The Miracles (1/61; #2 Pop, #1 R&B for eight weeks - the first million-seller for the Motown family of labels AND its first Billboard #1. Berry Gordy named Smokey a "vice president" at Motown because of this record!)

Mama Didn't Lie - Jan Bradley (1/63; #14 - she had one hit and this was it!)

Only The Strong Survive - Jerry Butler (3/69; #4 Pop, #1 R&B - from the pens of Gamble & Huff AND Butler and featuring the mighty Philadelphia studio band MFSB. Good motherly advice here!)

Mother & Child Reunion - Paul Simon (2/72; #4 - his first solo hit. Many would follow, but this one is just right for tonight's theme.)

*  Mama Said - Shirelles (4/61; #4 Pop, #2 R&B - classy NYC girl group smash)

Hey Leroy, Your Mama's Callin' You - Jimmy Castor (12/66; #31 Pop, #16 R&B - Latin-tinged NYC novelty record on the Smash Records label)

Clapping Song (Clap-Pat-Clap-Slap) - Shirley Ellis (3/65; #8 - one of a string of novelty dance records from the pen of Lincoln "Bo Binkin" Chase. "My mama told me if I was good-y...")

 

* Have You Seen Your Mother Baby - Rolling Stones (10/66; #9 - psychedelic rocker complete with horns and exotic instruments and irreverent lyrics. The Stones were just warming up at this stage but they were already on fire!)

You Can't Hurry Love - Supremes (9/66; #1 Pop and R&B - one of a string of four consecutive #1's for the girls from Detroit, who could also do no wrong at this point.)

45 Corner:  I'll Always Love My Mama, Pt. 1 - Intruders (6/73; #36 Pop, #6 R&B - co-written by Gamble, Huff, McFadden & Whitehead and delivered by one of Philly's finest vocal groups, backed by the blazing instrumentation of MFSB, the house band.)

* Take Time to Know Her - Percy Sledge (4/68; #11 Pop, #6 R&B - recorded in Muscle Shoals, this one was actually played by Percy Sledge himself at Steven Van Zandt's 1982 wedding!)

* Lady Madonna - Beatles (3/68; #4 Pop, #1 UK - Paul McCartney wrote and played this one in the style of Rock 'n' Roll pioneer Fats Domino. Ironically, Fats' final charting single would be a cover of this very record!)

  

Whatever Will Be Will Be (Que Sera) - Doris Day (6/56; #2 for three weeks - the wholesome and lovely Ms. Day had a big hit with this whimsical slice of motherly advice. Two other acts took a crack at it and landed on the charts. Keep listening....)

 

Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be Will Be) - Five Keyes (7/63; #47 - this rather raunchy version stood the song on its head  -  and inverted the title.)

* Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys - Waylon & Willie (2/73; #42 Pop, #1 C&W for four weeks - this superstar duo won a Grammy for this performance in the C&W Duet category.)

* Mama Tried - Merle Haggard (7/68; #1 C&W for four weeks - this was a smash on the Country charts that never even scraped onto the Pop chart. The Grateful Dead would cover it in many a live show, though....)

7-8pm

Slow Down - Larry Williams (4/58; dnc - this was the b-side of his "Dizzy Miss Lizzy," and one of the Beatles clearly bought this record - they'd record both sides, making Larry Williams a wealthy man!)

Gonna Give Her All the Love I've Got - Jimmy Ruffin (4/67; #29 Pop, #14 R&B - great dance record about redemption and determination on Motown's "Soul Records" imprint)

Hold On, I'm Comin' - Sam & Dave (4/66; #21 Pop, #1 R&B - featuring the Memphis Horns and Stax Records' studio band Booker T & The MG's.)

Mainstreet - Bob Seger (4/77; #24 - a biographical tune about growing up, with guitar work from studio player Pete Carr.)

Heather Honey - Tommy Roe (4/69; #29 - follow-up to the #1 smash Dizzy with many of the same studio players, but not nearly as successful as its predecessor.)

Gimme Some Lovin' - Spencer Davis Group (4/67; #10 - written by the organ-playing singer Stevie Winwood when he was still a teenager. Tonight we hear a new stereo mix.)

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood - Animals (4/65; #15 - lead vocal by the scrappy young Eric Burdon.)

* Big Shot - Billy Joel (2/79; #14 - a hard-rockin' tune by the Long Island piano man. The DJ had intended to play Captain Jack by request and hit the wrong button and incorrectly back-announced the record. Sheesh!)

* Always It's You - Everly Brothers (5/60; #56 - this was the B-side of their very first single for their new label. The A-side went all the way to #1 for four weeks! It serves as a dual request: to Bill's wife Gail, and to listener Abby's mother.)

I'm Your Puppet - James & Bobby Purify (9/66; #6 - a stone-cold Soul classic by the two cousins from Florida)

* Come and Get Your Love - Redbone (1/74; #5 - soulful Native American Rock hit, going out by request. If we've got 'em, we'll play 'em for you.)

* Music Box Dancer - Frank Mills (1/79; #3 - this orchestral instrumental from the Canadian pianist was a favorite of the caller's mother. Her name was Muriel Rose and she had nine children in eleven years. Dance on, Muriel!)

* Mama Told Me Not to Come - Three Dog Night (7/70; #1 for two weeks - two people called in to hear this zany piece of motherly advice from the pen of Randy Newman. That ain't the way to have fun, son!)

* Baby Love - Mother's Finest (8/77; #58 - late-Seventies funk on the Epic Records label for Mother's Day! Cool request.)

8-9pm



*  Too Many Fish In the Sea - Marvelettes (1/65; #25 Pop, #15 R&B - the Funk Brothers were at their rollicking best on these mid-Sixties hits. This one was called in from Virginia!)

* Your Mother Should Know - Beatles (1968; dnc - from their Magical Mystery Tour LP. Cryptic yet catchy!)

* I Can Never Go Home Anymore - Shangri-Las (11/65; #6 - a slice of angst-driven mother/daughter tragedy, called in by our own Jazz man. Listener Betsy says "The Shangri-Las were a badass group. Way before their time." Agreed!)

 

* The Look of Love - Dusty Springfield (7/67; #22 - from the pens of Burt Bacharach and Hal David, written for the film Casino Royale. Today was Burt's 90th birthday. Let's show him some love.)

* Pieces of April - Three Dog Night (11/72; #19 - pretty ballad from the pen of Dave Loggins, requested by a listener who has his finger on the pulse.)

Rock 'n' Roll Lullabye - BJ Thomas (2/72; #15 - a moving tribute to teen mothers who were barely babes themselves. This is a stunning record!)

Dry Your Eyes - Brenda & The Tabulations (2/67; #20 Pop, #8 R&B - another tearjerker about a young single mother trying to comfort her baby while she tries to do all of it alone.)

What's Going On - Marvin Gaye (2/71; #2 Pop for three weeks, #1 R&B for five weeks - the title track of his groundbreaking LP addresses grand themes like War and Poverty and Racism - with a beat! "Mother, mother...there's far too many of you cryin'.")

Que Sera, Sera - Mary Hopkin (7/70; #77 - Paul McCartney played guitar and bass, Ringo played the drums and young Mary Hopkin added a mournful twist to this old chestnut.)

  

Home of The Brave - Jody Miller (8/65; #25 - a mother's plaintive lament about schools and bullying and the hard realities of institutional inflexibility.)

Harper Valley PTA - Jeannie C. Reilly (9/68; #1 - an out-of-the-blue anomaly: a crossover C&W hit about the day an angry mother "socked it to" the hypocrites in charge of the local PTA. Look for Pat Paulsen in the short film version of the song  -  one of the first music videos on record!)

 

45 Corner:  Harper Valley PTA Gossip - Effie Smith (11/68; #43 R&B - Harper Valley PTA sparked a made-for-TV movie, along with this spoken-word novelty record by the Black comedienne.)

* Those Were the Days - Mary Hopkin (10/68; #2 for three weeks BB, #1 for six weeks in the UK - this was technically the first single released on the new Apple Records label  -  simultaneously with The Beatles' Hey Jude. The Beatles down held down the top slot here in the States for nine weeks, but not in their native land. The caller said that this had been her mother's favorite song. We'll let it close the show tonight.)

 

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











Host Next Week (5/18/18):  Jan Hunsinger with a series on "mini-themes"





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 at wvbr.com/listen.