Sept. 28, 2019 - JS - 1967

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!)

Thanks to our sponsors Island Health & Fitness and Rasa Spa for their support every week!

Date:  9/28/19
Host:  John Simon
Feature:  Late September 1967

T-minus 35 minutes to Rockin' Remnants on WVBR-FM (or wvbr.com). I hope I remember how to do it (my last one was August 10th!). We'll kick things off with late September 1967. Great b'day calendar, too! Stop on by! 6-9 pm Eastern time.

  





Playlist

·      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

·      a glossary of terms is below the playlist

6-7pm 



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

You Know What I Mean - Turtles (peaking at #12 this week - this was the third consecutive Turtles single from the pens of Gary Bonner and Allan Gordon, who could do no wrong in 1967. String arrangement by Jack Nitzsche was just icing on the cake!)

 

 
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher & Higher - Jackie Wilson (about to peak at #6, this record also spent two weeks at #1 on the R&B chart. Members of Motown's "Funk Brothers" providing instrumental backing here. I defy you to not get swept up by it all!)

Everlasting Love - Robert Knight (debuting at #83, headed to #13 - this was the first chart appearance of this song, but it would chart agian in the Seventies for Carl Carlton and in the Eighties for Rex Smith and Rachel Sweet.)

Your Precious Love - Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell (at #31 this week, headed to #5 Pop and #2 R&B for five weeks! - this follow-up to their debut single as a duo pretty much cemented their reputation as Motown's "Sweethearts of Soul," although they apparently were never romantically involved.)

You're My Everything - Temptations (down to #13 from a peak at #6 Pop, #3 R&B - these guys were at the peak of their powers when David Ruffin [L] and Eddie Kendricks [R] alternated as their lead singers. This is a rare case where they BOTH sing lead.)

* Pata Pata - Miriam Makeba (bubbling under at #122, headed to #12 - the request came from a guy who speculated that she had "the shortest hair of anybody" else on the chart this week. This was her highest charting single and still holds up fifty years later.)


* Reflections - Diana Ross & The Supremes (at #5 this week, down from #2 - in an attempt to fit in with the sounds of the times, Motown added a cool synthesizer effect to embellish the intro. They also picked this as the first 45 to give Diana top billing. It was a hit!)

Put Your Mind At Ease - Every Mothers' Son (peaking in its third week at #46 - just six months earlier, these wholesome-looking guys made a splash with "Come On Down To My Boat." This one unleashes their more adventurous side: psychedelic and weird!)

Dandelion - Rolling Stones (at #20, headed to #14 - everybody was trying to keep up with the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band LP, including their "rivals" the Rolling Stones.)

Wonderful Summer - Robin Ward (11/63; #14 - as we bid adieu to summer, we'll break out this whimsical confection. The original single had fewer sound effects and background vocals, but this one is a gem.)

Summer Symphony - The Jack Gold Sound (9/70; dnc - this song first appeared as a B-side for Lesley Gore and comes courtesy of Neil Sedaka, songwriter. It failed to chart with the teenagers, but reached #10 on the Adult Contemporary chart.)

45 Corner:  Fever - Little Caesar & The Romans ( 9/61; dnc - b-side of  Memories of Those Oldies But Goodies, which stalled at #101. A cool treatment of a song that's become something of a Pop "standard," relegated to the B-side of an unremarkable song.) 

Angel On My Shoulder - Shelby Flint (12/60; #22 - she was allegedly 14 years old when she wrote this one, and Valiant Records released it without much embellishment. It's sweet and spare and it stays with you for a while.)

You've Made Me So Very Happy - Brenda Holloway (at #74, headed to #39 - Blood Sweat & Tears would cut their own version of this about a year later and it was their first big hit. Here's the source material that they based it on, with music provided by the Motown session amalgam called The Funk Brothers.)

Why Do Fools Fall In Love - Happenings (at #64 this week, headed to #41 - this New Jersey quartet was finding great success with re-makes of older songs, and this one almost cracked the Top Forty. For some inexplicable reason, they spliced a manic ending onto the song. Click here to hear it at about the 2:43 mark.)

* Boogaloo Down Broadway - Fantastic Johnny "C" (bubbling under at #110, headed to #7 Pop - some blistering R&B from the gang at "Filet-of-Soul" Records, which was really the rhythm section called The James Boys. They'd eventually form the nucleus of MFSB and provide back up on some of Philly's biggest hit records.) 

 

7-8pm

 Birthday Calendar


September 23 – Bruce Springsteen – age 70
            – Ray Charles – born in 1930
           
September 25 – Ian Tyson – age 86
            
September 26 – Olivia Newton-John –age 71
            – Marty Robbins – born in 1925
           
September 28 – Ben E. King (Drifters) – born in 1938

                

Save the Last Dance for Me - Drifters (10/61; #1- the Drifters had a string of lead singers, starting with Clyde McPhatter and including Johnny Moore, but Ben E. King was the star of this one.)

 

She's Gone Again - Ben E. King (8/65; dnc - after leaving the Drifters, King had a string of solo hits on the Atco label as late as 1968. This one mysteriously failed to chart, but it's a beauty.)

 

Don't Worry - Marty Robbins (1/61; #3 - Marty Robbins was one of the smoothest C&W vocalists, best known for his "story songs" like El Paso and Big Iron. This record is best known for the "fuzz bass" solo, played by an uncredited Grady Martin.)

Banks of the Ohio - Olivia Newton-John (10/71; #94 - who knew when this record surfaced that she'd go on to record five #1s, 40+ chart hits on the Pop chart and even more on the Country charts??!?)

Michelle - The Beatles (1965; dnc - this Paul McCartney ballad from the Rubber Soul LP could've and should've been released as a single. Tonight it goes out to Michelle in Newfield, with a birthday tomorrow!)

Mickey's Monkey - The Miracles (8/63; #5 Pop - Smokey Robinson wrote some of the sweetest ballads of the era, but could also cut a dance record like nobody's business. This one goes out to Michelle and her dance party!)

In the Heat of the Night - Ray Charles (peaking at #35 Pop, #20 R&B - Ray Charles charted over 80 R&B singles over a 40 year span. This one didn't garner much attention, but it was on the chart this very week in 1967. So was the Sidney Poitier motion picture!)

The River - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band (1980; dnc - Bruce had enough material to fill four sides of vinyl. Columbia Records picked Hungry Heart for the hit single, but the title track of The River was a masterful bit of storytelling and a most compelling track.)

* Folsom Prison Blues- Johnny Cash (5/68; #32 Pop, #1 C&W for four weeks - the caller enthusiastically referenced Ken Burns' documentary on Country Music that aired this past week. This particular record won Johnny Cash a Grammy Award in the "Male Vocal" category.)


Hush - Billy Joe Royal (peaking at #52 this week - written by Joe South, who plays the opening guitar licks, this would become a Top Ten hit for Deep Purple just a year later!)

45 Corner:  Save the Country - Sugar Shoppe (8/68; dnc - inspired by the recent murder of Robert F. Kennedy, songwriter Laura Nyro's version stalled at #135 at about the same time that this version came out. The Fifth Dimension would crack the Top 20 with it two years later.)

Kitty Doyle - Dino, Desi & Billy (at #115, headed only to #108 - Dean Martin's, Lucille Ball's and Mrs. Hinsche's sons cut a pretty nice string of records in the mid-Sixties. This was one of their last  -  and one of their best. The public, however, never quite "got" it and it failed to crack the Hot 100.)

The Rain, The Park and Other Things - Cowsills (debuting at #90, headed to a peak of #2 - this family group was the prototype for the Partridge Family TV show. Three of the siblings are still performing. Catch a stunningly good recent performance here!)

8-9pm




* Oh Girl - Chi-Lites (5/72; #1 Pop and R&B - a mournful harmonica, a tortured lead vocal from Eugene Record and the rich back-up vocals of the other guys took this one all the way to the top.)

Joanne - Mike Nesmith and the First National Band (8/70; #21 - many people thought that the end of the Monkees was the end of the line for "Wool Hat" Mike, but his musicality would continue to flourish when he was given free rein.)

Boogie Nights - Heatwave (9/77; #2 - this record came out in the height of the Disco era, and he had all of the elements that spelled "H-I-T." They could also deliver a tasty ballad, as they did with "Always and Forever.")

Mini-Spotlight on Canadian Songwriter Ian Tyson, with a birthday just three days ago:


Lovin' Sound - Ian & Sylvia (7/67; #101 - this is the closest they came to cracking the Hot 100. His greater success was in writing songs that other people recorded, as you're about to hear.)

Someday Soon - Judy Collins (2/69; #55 - this haunting gem was written by Ian Tyson. The record was arranged by Stephen Stills, who played bass on it. James Burton played the guitar licks, Buddy Emmons played pedal steel, Van Dyke Parks played the piano and Jim Gordon on drums! Whoa!)

Four Strong Winds - Neil Young (2/79; #61 - the third in our Ian Tyson trilogy, this one comes from from fellow Canadian Neil Young's Comes a Time LP.)

Misty Blue - Dorothy Moore (3/76; #3 for FOUR weeks - Melissa Manchester also recorded a hit version, but this one is sublime. A little bit of research shows that it got stuck behind Silly Love Songs and Silver Connection's Get Up and Boogie - at #s 1 and 2 for four weeks back in June of '76.)


Smoke From a Distant Fire - Sanford Townsend Band (9/79; #9 - these guys were truly a one-hit wonder: they had only this one charting single, but it was a doozy!)


The Fever - Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes (8/76; dnc - from the pen of birthday boy Bruce Springsteen, this was the flipside of I Don't Want to Go Home. It became a staple of college radio back in the day, when Johnny & the Jukes were working the college circuit.)

45 Corner:  Another Cruel Love - Marshall Tucker Band (6/74; dnc - this was pulled as a single from the A New Life LP, but never went anywhere. This is from a radio station promo 45, and may even be an alternate take of the album version. In any case, it's a full minute shorter than the album track.)

 

* Still the One - Orleans (7/76; #5 - the band has multiple ties to the Ithaca area, and a bunch of people consider this "their song." In this case, the caller's been married to his wife for 43 years and this one goes out to Wendy!)


Maggie May - Rod Stewart (9/71; #1 for five weeks - "It's late September and I really should...." play this record while it's still September! This is a B-side that defied the label's predictions, and became one of Rod's  -  and The Faces'   - most successful recordings.)

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





Glossary of Terms:

dnc = did not chart

nr = not released as a single at the time

AC = Billboard’s chart for “Adult Contemporary” records

BB = Billboard Magazine, which publishes the Hot 100 chart (previously known as the Top 100), along with several other charts

Bubbling Under = songs that were ranked but fell below the top 100

C&W = Billboard’s chart for “Country & Western” records

R&B = Billboard’s chart for “Rhythm & Blues” records

RRHOF = Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
RS500 = Rolling Stone Magazine’s ranked list of the top 500 singles of all-time




Host Next Week (10/5/19):  John Simon & Gregory James with a spotlight on records that sound like other records!



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.

Thanks again to our sponsors Island Health & Fitness and Rasa Spa for their support every week!