A focus toward young adults doesn't mean no teens were listening. Even before that, certainly there was no expectation that teens were buying cars from Merolis Chevrolet or buying the week's groceries at Farmer Jack's.
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Why are big hits "lost?"
- Thread starter tall_guy1
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True, but in the instance David is specifically referencing, even the teens, hearing "One Bad Apple" for the first time, would not know that both they and the Jackson 5 would have cartoon shows---say it with me now---one year later, which tbolt somehow thought was relevant.
That could be legend. But reports I've seen say Berry was the one who rejected the song because he wanted to own the publishing (which he did for most Motown hits). Berry is listed as one of the writers on ABC and I'll Be There. He was credited as one of the writers in "The Corporation" that wrote & produced the J5 songs. One exception is "Never Can Say Goodbye," written by actor Clifton Daniels, who originally pitched the song for The Supremes.
The other story I'm researching is why the Osmonds chose to record the song in Muscle Shoals Alabama instead of LA. Mike Curb and MGM Records were based in LA. Why would they choose to work at FAME Studios?
What I've read is that Mike Curb had just signed the Osmonds, who had just left Andy Williams' Barnaby Records label and Curb wanted a hit. The Osmonds had never had so much as charted---album or singles.
He wanted Rick Hall to produce, but was afraid he'd turn the project down if he knew who it was. So Curb flew Hall to Las Vegas and took him to see the Osmonds' live show (likely opening for Andy Williams--their first Vegas gig was in 1965 at the Sahara opening for Shirley Bassey) and Hall had the idea of producing them like the Jackson 5 records.
George Jackson had already submitted "One Bad Apple" to Motown with the idea of the Jackson 5 recording it (as you said, Berry Gordy rejected it because he wanted the publishing rights). George Jackson was a FAME studios writer, working for Rick Hall, so that was easy.
Hall's son says (and this is no more supported by evidence than the Berry Gordy meeting with his own A&R man) that his dad got a telegram from Gordy that read "Stop ripping off my f***ing sound".
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Harvey_Dogg
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Donny recorded this song after his voice changed.
It's almost the same melody as this Sam Cooke song.
It's almost the same melody as this Sam Cooke song.
That was the on missing part of the story. I know that Bob Seger (who recorded Jackson's other hit) recorded at FAME too.
That's because it's a 15th Century English folk song, originally titled "I Gave My Love A Cherry".
Being long in the public domain, Jerry Livingston and P.F. Webster adapted it, except for the bridge, and Johnny Mathis hit #9 with it in 1957. Donny was covering Johnny:
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Harvey_Dogg
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Sam Cooke was the father of soul but he also liked old folk songs
And Little Donny should never be mentioned in the same post as Cooke or Mathis again!
Well, clearly. But "Twelfth of Never" is actually the Osmond record that offends me least. Donny's voice had changed and Mike Curb and Don Costa went for a very MOR, un-gimmicky production of an MOR song. I could play that on the radio at the time without feeling like I was derailing the whole show.
Maybe I meant back then. But I didn't know which group was which. For all I knew "One Bad Apple" COULD have been The Jackson 5 because that's who they sounded like. At the time I had never heard them perform in the style they did on Andy Williams' show. I had never even seen that show. He was just someone who sang on my parents' Christmas records.
I can't understand songs that weren't top 40 hits originally but get played like they were. "Tempted" by Squeeze, "What I Like About You" by The Romantics, and "I Melt With You" by Modern English just to mention 3 top of mind.
For some reason there are a smaller number of songs that don't become huge hits at the offset but which actually grow in music test scores today when people hear them and are asked if they'd like too hear that one on the radio today.
That reminded me of the quandary I went through when programming one of the earlier "real AC" stations, WERC (AM) in Birmingham, in the earlier 70s: Do we play "Ben"?
The Jacksons had a teen image. We were a 25-49 station. "Ben" was, on listening to the lyrics, about a pet rat... or mouse... or whatever (It was from that "Willard & Ben" movie...). So it took our music director and me a while to decide that the song had adult appeal and we played it.
There are always decisions to be made when a song seems right but the artist has an image that does not quite fit the format. I'm sure a bunch of country stations back in the day had interesting discussions about playing Charlie Pride; we know that the first press release did not contain a photo. But he had something like 50 Top 10 country chart songs!
That's easy. Many songs get a second life when featured in a movie or commercial. "I Melt With You" was used in a Burger King ad and became super popular. Chart success in the past isn't relevant. Beach Boys "God Only Knows" only got to #39..!!! It's considered one of the best tracks of all time. Van Morrison's song MOON DANCE did nothing when first released. It became huge 7 years later...
"I Melt With You" is 41 years old, "Tempted" is 42 , and "What I Like About You" is 44. People who are in their 30s and 40s now (the target audience) have no idea how they charted on release.
Same reason modern audiences don't know or care that "It's A Wonderful Life", "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" and "The Princess Bride" bombed at the box office.
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Not all of them. Remember a movie that might contain such a song will be seen at most by just a small percentage of the total listening public. More often we see songs that have a long shelf life.
But the issue here is whether your station's listeners want to hear it today.
"Moondance" was the title track to a Van Morrison album that was very big on AOR and what remained of the free-form/progressive stations in the early '70s, but what really helped it become a radio staple was the beginning of the soft rock format, which initially played a lot of album tracks, including "Moondance." Several album cuts by format mainstays like Carly Simon, James Taylor, Billy Joel and Cat Stevens also found late success in that format.
I always assumed that "Ghost" was the sole reason for the revival of interest in "Unchained Melody," a Righteous Brothers hit that had been largely ignored by oldies and AC stations for years before that movie's release. Their "long shelf life" songs had been "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" and "Rock and Roll Heaven."
Yeah, but let's remember that oldies and AC at that moment (30-ish years ago) were catering to an audience that remembered it from the first time. Different situation from playing early 80s songs for people in their 30s and 40s today.
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