September 7, 2024 - JS - Back to School!

 

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:  9/7/24

Host:  John Simon

Feature:  Back to School!

 

 

 

Rock ‘n’ Roll Trivia

 

At some point this evening we’ll hear an instrumental break that has the same melody as the Supremes’ “Baby Love.” The first caller who gets through wins a pair of movie passes.

 

(scroll down to find the answer below the playlist – and to find a glossary of terms)

 

 

Playlist

 

 

·      YouTube links follow certain entries

·      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)

 

See You in September – The Happenings (7/66; #3 for two weeks – the NJ vocal group had signed with The Tokens’ production company and their new record label, and this reimagining of The Tempos’ tune propelled them straight to the Top 5. I had planned to close my last show with this one, but I’d run out of time.)

 

 

 

School Day – Chuck Berry (4/57; #3 Pop for three weeks, #1 R&B for five weeks – Chuck Berry kicks off our back-to-school special with this chronicle of a day-in-the-life of a high school kid. The closing line says “Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll,” and that became the name of Keith Richards’ concert film/tribute to one of his guitar heroes.)

 

 

 

Charlie Brown – The Coasters (4/59; #2 for three weeks – Leiber and Stoller wrote and produced this one and King Curtis plays the signature saxophone solo and outro. Those inner city schools must have been wild, I tell ya!)

 

*  Wonderful World – Sam Cooke (5/60; #12 Pop, #2 R&B – Sam Cooke was a writer, a record exec, an entrepreneur and one of the smoothest vocalists of his generation. This magical song would resurface as a hit for Herman’s Hermits a few years later, and as a stunning hit for Art Garfunkel in the mid-Seventies, when his friends Paul Simon and James Taylor joined him and added one more verse. Do yourself a favor and check out this cover of THAT version!)

 

 

To Sir With Love – Lulu (9/67; headed to #1 for four weeks – this was the title track for the Sidney Poitier film about a working class high school in London, and Lulu played one of the main roles in the film. Backing her musically is the British group called The Mindbenders, although they weren’t identified as such in the plot.)

 

 

*  Be True to Your School – Beach Boys (11/63; #6 – it was the flipside of this record that is among the group’s most cherished hits, although it only charted at #23. That would be the ballad called “In My Room.”)

 

 

Society’s Child – Janis Ian (6/67; #14 – Janis Ian was a high school kid from NYC’s HS of Music & Art when she was signed to Verve Records, although this song was already two years old at that point. It had been produced by Shadow Morton and recorded at Atlantic Records, but it was deemed too controversial at the time. Even after its release, certain stations refused to play it – including WLS in Chicago!)

 

 

Home of the Brave – Jody Miller (8/65; #25 – her first big hit was the novelty record called “Queen of the House,” but this is another topical record that called out the hypocrisy and narrow-minded thinking that clouded our public institutions. The writers were Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.)

 

 

Harper Valley PTA – Jeannie C. Riley (9/68; headed to #1 – this one came out of nowhere on the small Plantation Records label and topped both the Pop chart and the Country chart, where it spent three weeks at #1. It also won the CMA Song of the Year, and later became a made-for-TV movie.)

 

 

Mr. Dieingly Sad – Critters (8/66; #17 – we leave the “school songs” for a while here, and turn our attention to the changing weather and some of the sounds of Septembers past. These guys were from northern New Jersey and had a nice string of singles for the Kapp Records label before the draft broke the band up.)

 

 

The Dangling Conversation – Simon & Garfunkel (8/66; #25 – many a high school English teacher pounced on the lyrics of this song to encourage the young budding poets in their charge. Tonight we hear the mono 45 version, which has a steady percussive beat that isn’t heard on the LP version that so many people are used to hearing.)

 

 

Wonderful! Wonderful! – The Tymes (8/63; #7 – this was the follow-up to their big #1 smash “So In Love,” and it takes full advantage of lead singer George Williams’ ability to sound just like Johnny Mathis, who’d originally recorded this song.)

 

Hey Girl – Freddie Scott (8/63; #10 – this Goffin-King treasure became Freddie’s signature song, but Billy Joel recorded a stunning version in the mid-Nineties that gives it a run for its money!)

 

(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher & Higher – Jackie Wilson (8/67; #6 Pop, #1 R&B – Jackie’s career was revived when his producers hired Motown’s session players to come into the studio for this one. That’s James Jamerson on bass, and tonight we hear my original 45 from back in the day, clearly played too many times over the years!)

 

 

Your Precious Love – Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell (9/67; #5 Pop, #2 R&B for five weeks – this one also features Motown’s session players, but it IS a Motown record. This follow-up to the duo’s first big hit would be the second of a string of about five sublime records that would end when Tammi tragically succumbed to brain cancer.)

 

 

 

7-8pm

 

 Birthday Calendar

 

 

Sept. 1 – Archie Bell (Drells) – age 80

            – Barry Gibb (Bee Gees) – age 78

            – Greg Errico (Family Stone) – age 76

             – Conway Twitty – born in 1933

 

Sept. 2 – Jimmy Clanton – age 86

            – Billy Preston – born in 1946

            – Bobby Purify – born in 1939

        – Joe Simon – born in 1936

     – Hugo Montenegro– born in 1925

 

 

Sept. 3 – Al Jardine (Beach Boys) – age 82

            – Don Brewer (Grand Funk) – age 76

 

 

Sept. 4 – Gene Parsons (Byrds) – born in 1934

 

 

 

Sept. 5 – Al Stewart – age 79

            – John Stewart – born in 1939

 

 

Sept. 6 – Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) – age 81

 

 

           

Sept. 7 – Gloria Gaynor – age 75

            – Chrissie Hynde (Pretenders) – age 73

             – Buddy Holly (Crickets) – born in 1936

 

 

Hot Fun in the Summertime – Sly & The Family Stone (9/69; #2 for two weeks – this record came out hot on the heels of their show-stopping performance at Woodstock, and has since become a summertime classic.)

 

 

I Can’t Stop Dancing – Archie Bell & The Drells (8/68; #9 Pop, #5 R&B – Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff wrote and produced this record, and lifted the melody line right out of Holland-Dozier-Holland’s “Baby Love,” which becomes apparent during the horn break in the middle. It was the follow-up to the Tighten Up, and it was very good to them!)

 

 

Lonely Blue Boy – Conway Twitty (12/59; #6 – his greatest fame would come as a Country star, but he started out as a rockabilly rebel with an “Elvis” vibe. He also became the prototype for the pompous rock star character in the smash musical Bye Bye Birdie, “Conrad Birdie.”)

 

 

To Love Somebody – Bee Gees (7/67; #17 – their first five singles would’ve been good enough to call it “a career,” but they were just getting started. This was their second hit here in the States. Nina Simone would have a hit with it in the UK.)

 

 

Venus In Blue Jeans – Jimmy Clanton (9/62; #7 – a cascade of horns, a swirling harp and a driving beat add up to a big hit record for this kid from rural Louisiana. He’d have a few more, but this was his best.)

 

 

I’m Your Puppet – James & Bobby Purify (9/66; #6 Pop, #5 R&B – they really were cousins but only one was really named “Purify.” This was written by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham from, and has become a shining example of the Muscle Shoals sound as laid down by the studio players known as “The Swampers.”)

 

 

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly – Hugo Montenegro & His Orchestra (2/68; #2 Pop, #1 UK for four weeks – this is the ultimate “Spaghetti Western” soundtrack tune, and you can’t NOT think of Clint Eastwood when you hear it.)

 

 

San Francisco Is a Lonely Town – Joe Simon (9/69; #79 Pop, #29 R&B – Nashville writer Ben Peters had a hit with this one on Country radio, but soulful Joe Simon put his own stamp on it and brought it to a wider audience.)

 

 

Nothing From Nothing – Billy Preston (10/74; #1 Pop, #8 R&B – this was the second #1 record for the composing keyboardist, unless you include The Beatles’ “Get Back.” He’d actually gotten his start as a young teen playing on records with Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and others, and it was on tour with Little Richard that he first struck up a friendship with George Harrison. The rest is history.)

 

 

Help Me, Rhonda – Beach Boys (5/65; #1 for two weeks – Al Jardine got to sing lead on this one, but he was an integral member of the band throughout its existence. There are several versions of this song. Tonight we hear the one with the fade in/fade out ending.)

 

 

Some Kind of Wonderful – Grand Funk (12/74; #3 – drummer Don Brewer brought this one to the band. The original was by The Soul Brothers Six, whose version spent one week on the chart back in 1967. These guys gave it the exposure it deserved.)

 

 

Midnight Wind – John Stewart (8/79; #28 – this was one of three singles released from his critically-acclaimed Bombs Away Dream Babies LP, where co-producer Lindsey Buckingham added lots of guitars and vocal support, and brought singer Stevie Nicks in to join the mix.)

 

 

Gunga Din – The Byrds (11/69; NR – Byrds drummer Gene Parsons also played guitar and banjo and did some of their songwriting before leaving to join the Flying Burrito Brothers. This was one that he brought to the band, and it’s a stand-out track from their Easy Rider LP.)

 

 

Time Passages – Al Stewart (9/78; #7 – this was the Scottish singer’s highest-charting record here in the States. Tonight we hear the 45 version, that takes two minutes off the version that gets heard on the radio these days.)

 

 

 

8-9pm

 

 

That’ll Be the Day – The Crickets (9/57; #1 Pop, #2 R&B – Buddy Holly would die two years later at the tender age of 22, but he left an indelible mark on the world of popular music. The Beatles had picked their name partly as a tribute to The Crickets, and The Hollies went one step further!)

 

 

Stop Your Sobbing – The Pretenders (6/80; #65 – this Kinks cover was the follow-up to their breakthrough single here in the States, and Chrissie Hynde would go on to actually have a child with Kinks founder Ray Davies. She was a true Rock Star.)

 

 

Never Can Say Goodbye – Gloria Gaynor (12/74; #9 – this song had been a massive hit for the Jackson 5 in the spring of 1971, but the emerging genre called Disco made it fair game for a re-imagining. Four years later she’d release the worldwide anthem “I Will Survive.”)

 

 

Another Brick in the Wall (Pt. II) – Pink Floyd (3/80; #1 for four weeks – Rolling Stone ranks this at #384 in its list of the 500 greatest singles of all time. The guitar solo still takes my breath away.)

 

 

No Surrender – Bruce Springsteen (6/84; NR – this track from the Born In the USA album is one of its few songs not released as a single: the LP boasted five charting hits! This one is a loving tribute to the power of the three-minute song, and to the magic playing music with one’s friends.)

 

 

Kodachrome – Paul Simon (5/73; #2 for two weeks – any doubts that Paul could survive without Art Garfunkel were quickly put to rest when his very first solo single went to #2. This one opens with the line “when I look back on all the crap I learned in high school…” and our return to school continues!)

 

 

Little Green Apples – O.C. Smith (9/68; #2 – Roger Miller also had a charting version of this song, and the song ended up winning the coveted Song of the Year at that year’s Grammy Awards.)

 

 

Come Monday – Jimmy Buffett (5/74; #30 – this is the only Top Forty hit I know of that mentions Labor Day. Jimmy died last year on September 1^st, and I thought about him a lot on Labor Day this year, which fell on the 2^nd. His next three records would all get stuck in the Bubbling Under chart. That would change when “Margaritaville” broke through and reached #4.)

 

 

Where Is The Love – Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’77 (7/73; dnc – word came around that Sergio passed away yesterday after a struggle with long Covid, and that led me to dig out this lost treasure. It was released on Bell Records about a year after Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway had the big hit with it, but this quote from a friend of mine rings true: “This song sounds as if it were written for Sergio, plays right into his wheelhouse with the rhythm of the melody.”)

 

 

September – Earth, Wind & Fire (11/78; #8 Pop, #1 R&B – this one seems to leap out of the speakers every year at about this time, and it demands to be cranked at full blast.)

 

 

Spooky – Atlanta Rhythm Section (9/79; #17 – several core members of The Classics IV went on to form a studio band, and then started recording under this new name. They dusted off this oldie from their old group and turned it into a nice hit all over again – and this is how I’ll end tonight’s show. See you next month!)

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

Trivia Answer

 

 

Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff borrowed the melody of Baby Love and turned it into Archie Bell’s I Can’t Stop Dancing.

 

Congratulations to Denise from Groton, for correctly answering the question and winning a pair of tickets to Cinemapolis!

 

 

 

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 (9/14/24):  Jan Hunsinger with a spotlight that he’s calling “Golden Oldies”

 

 

 

Thanks for tuning in - and for voting us Ithaca's Best Local Radio Show in the most recent Ithaca Times Readers' Poll! 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, too, to our sponsors Island Health & Fitness and Rasa Spa for their support every week!