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And The Stiffs Just Keep On Comin'

fryman said:
Anyone ever hear of Chan Romero's "Hippy Hippy Shake"
Click to expand...

Oh gosh, I can't believe you mentioned Chan Romero. By coincidence, at the station where I do production in Palm Springs, CA, he was just in last week with his daughter to sing a little homebrew jingle for her local pastry shop. (We're not really equipped to record music, but here in market 129 we do what we can to make it work).

I had never heard of Chan Romero. When the AE told me he was coming in and he had written "Hippy Hippy Shake," I figured it was a guy who used to be in the Swingin' Blue Jeans.

He's a sweet little guy, and I enjoyed working with him. He said he has a 4 piece band, and does still perform occasionally.

Nick Seneca
 
I found this thread yesterday thanks to Sean Ross "Ross On Radio"'s Flirtations discussion. And yes I read all 119 pages. Hey it beat watching the latest on Tiger and the Barbies.

Tiger and the Barbies...hmmm...

IMO there aren't too many titles missed here. "Hill Where The Lord Hides"...The Weekend (Trip)'s "Everyday" and "Together" (and yes I remember it being named by 'KB listeners as the greatest hit of all time in 1972) Seatrain's "13 Questions" and "Song Of Job"...McGuinness-Flint "When I'm Dead And Gone"...Gayle McCormick "It's A Cryin' Shame". Even Brownsville Station's long-forgotten "Let Your Yeah Be Yeah"...grab a copy of "Dig In" by Lenny Kravitz, a stiff from 2001, he had to have heard "Let Your Yeah Be Yeah" when he wrote it. Also there are a lot of titles here I've never heard before...

That said, allow me to offer a couple not listed here afaik...if anyone remembers them, Debaser, it'd be you since you were MD at 'KB in 1971 when these were out:

The Pincushions (Buffalo-area act)- "Share Your Love", "Milk And Molasses"
The Magic Lanterns - "One Night Stand". When Jack Armstrong left 'KB for 13Q/Pittsburgh in '73, during the week or two before...was it the Janitor? debuted on nights (I remember whoever it was he didn't last long and was replaced by Shane, another finalist in Jeff Kaye's brilliant "Great American Talent Hunt") Debaser hosted an evening with Albert Hammond and revealed that Hammond was in fact The Magic Lanterns.
Stories - "I'm Coming Home", "Darlin"
Lighthouse - "Hats Off To The Stranger", "Pretty Lady" (I think 13Q played this in Feb '74, a few months after it ran the table in the Northeast)
Uriah Heep - "Easy Livin'"
Mary Hopkin - "Temma Harbor" (follow up to "Goodbye" IIRC)
Mama Cass - "It's Getting Better"
Sugar Bears - "You Are The One" (Was this another Ron Dante deal like the Archies and Cuff Links?) I just remember that it had a killer drum track under it)

Here's one where I can't remember the artist...I think it was on Big Tree and I remember Armstrong noting the guy had been lead singer of the Road...song was out Jan '73..."Gillian Frank".

And I still have a decently-preserved copy of WKBW Klassics Volume II. (PURE DYNAMITE!!) No "30 Klassics 30" however. Gotta get a decent TT to archive the stuff into .wav files in my computer.

Finally, you Can-Con guys, just how big a record was Harlequin's "Innocence"? I remember they had a deal with CBS/Columbia in '82 and one of the guys in Loverboy had proclaimed them "the best band in Canada".
I played "Innocence" at WCFR/Springfield, VT in '82. I think it died before it even had a chance to bubble under the Hot 100.
 
Chan is from Billings, Montana...still lives here. I have one of his original Del Fi 45's with "My Little Ruby" and "I Don't Care Now". "I Don't Care Now" is a great tune but was never a hit outside of Montana...by the way, I believe Chan was on American Bandstand back in the late 50's/early 60's when he was a kid. Check out Chan's website.
 
Well, chas108, I am impressed! I didn't remember Albert Hammond telling me about him being The Magic Lanterns-thanks for the memory jog! I'd love to do a show with him now, btw, just to find out what he thinks of his son's band, which is pretty un-listenable to these old ears.

Gillian Frank was indeed done by The Road's Jerry Hudson. Some of you might be interested in a Road reunion CD that has just been released. The Project couldn't use the name "The Road" for legal reasons, so they call the CD, "One For The Road."

On Andlesar Records out of Athol Springs (one of my favourite-ever town names for obvious reasons).
 
Thanks Debaser. BTW what is Albert Hammond's son's band?

Honestly it was Jack Armstrong's death that brought it all back. A good friend here in Pittsburgh had been corresponding with Jack via email, apparently he was close to finishing a tell-all book that I only hope his daughter Devon completes and publishes. Anyway...I started perusing the net and found David Fill's 'KB tribute...then linked to Rock Radio Scrapbook and turned up this composite:

http://rockradioscrapbook.ca/air1972.html There's another funny KB aircheck further down the page...Armstrong's late for his shift and berns with an "e" is having fun at his expense...

I'm shocked by what I remember...but after reading this thread I don't feel alone anymore.

Now a few more stiffs/lost hits and semi-hits I don't think have been mentioned here yet, all from the late 70's - 80's:

Randy Meisner w/Kim Carnes - "Deep Inside My Heart"
John Waite - "Tears"
Walter Egan - "Fool Moon Fire"
Dave Edmunds - "Slipping Away", "Information"
Donnie Iris - "This Time It Must Be Love", "Injured In The Game Of Love"
Chris DeBurgh - "Don't Pay The Ferryman"
 
You guys.......(and ladies I suppose) PART I

I just found this thread today, and am looking for the following stiffs:

LOVING YOU THE WAY I DO/Sue Vickers ( on same label as the Moody Blues circa 1972)
MODERN DAY MAGIC/Marie Cain/Columbia/1975
GROOVIN OUT ON LIFE/Newbeats/1969
COME AND GET IT/Magic Christian/1970
ROSANNA/Dennis Yost & Classics IV

And now...two far-fetched requests. I'm allmost certain this record is by Al Green, and have only heard it on CHUM or CFTR, when I lived in Rochester or Buffalo. The song trails out with the background singers singing:

Light up, light up your love, your luh-ove
Light up, light up your love, your luh-ove
 
YOU GUYS AND LADIES I SUPPOSED PART II

In 1982 when I was PD at WHAM, one of the other stations in the market changed format to Country, and played this song over and over for 24 hours prior to the flip. These are the lyrics: Help..I'm blushing like hell.

YEAH THATS A TEAR ROLLIN DOWN MY CHEEK, IM ASHAMED TO TELL YOU SO
MY BABY'S GOT A ONE WAY TICKET, AND I CAME TO WATCH HER GO
YEAR THATS A TRAIN ROLLIN DOWN THE TRACK, ITS TAKIN HER AWAY
BLANK BLANK BLANK BLANK, BLANK BLANK, BLANK,BLANK BLANK TODAY

SHES GOT A ONE WAY TICKET, SHE'S LEAVIN ME
AND THAT ONE WAY TICKET'S GONNA PUT AN END TO THE LOVE THAT USED TO BE
YEAH THATS A TEAR ROLLIN DOWN MY CHEEK I'M A POURIN OUT THE BLUES
TRAIN'S PULLIN OUT AND IM JUST LOOKIN AT A HEARTBRAKE CABOOSE
 
I remember the Albert Hammond show on KB - was it just one show or did he stay in town for several? I sort of remember there being a week or two after Jack Armstrong left that they had different guest DJs - that was well over 30 years ago, so a little hard to remember.
 
Albert Hammond was Don Berns' guest that night, but that was a fill night amongst the finalists for the "Great American Talent Hunt" in early 1973 to replace Jack Armstrong. Three of the finalists were the Greaseman, the Janitor, and Brother Shane. I think Janitor got the gig but departed quickly and was replaced by Shane. A few months later WKBW became "a thing of the past" as they rolled out "KB-15", their take on the "Q" format.

I've got enough trivia from those days to frighten the *(&^! out of anyone who worked there.

F'r example: Fall '71, 'KB aired a "Champion/Challenger" weekend contest. 1x/hour, the Champion plays, followed by the Challenger, then you called 883-1520 to vote for your favorite. The contest ran as designed exactly one hour...883-1520 was overloaded and blew out.

Not long after, during the "Saturday Night Lonely Hearts Club", Berns comes on with "remember...this...number. 6!" The new request line was rolled out over the next week, one digit per day. 644-9850. Only years later did I figure out they had to have gotten it from their FM sister who obviously had no use for it back in 1971.

Today of course the FM sister has it back...it's the request line for Kiss 98.5 WKSE.

Ok I digress. Any of you old KB alumni, please feel free to correct me. Here are two more long-forgotten shoulda-beens:
Van Stephenson - "Modern Day Delilah" (1984)
Men Without Hats - "Pop Goes The World" (1987)
 
WKBW was a stand-alone AM in 1971 as Kiss 98.5 didn't come under the same roof until years later. Many of those "trunk" exchanges back in the day were assigned by the phone company at random after stations like WYSL, KB, WGR and even WBEN put more demands on the dial tones than the phone company was able to handle. Additionally, WGRQ utilized the "instant ripoff" type of phone contesting that put even more stress on phone line availability.

In the interest of public safety, the phone company designated a separate trunk line, 644 9***, to specifically serve radio stations and their contest needs. In many cases, the only difference between "dialing" one station and another was one or two digits: 644-9870, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, etc. Which of course lead to "some" jocks at more than one station telling callers who mistakenly called to play another station's contest, "You just ripped me off for a crisp one thousand dollar bill!"
 
Thanks for the correction Jim. I remember you from the old KB days doing weekends, 1973-74. Nowadays when I drive thru Buffalo on "the 90" I have WYRK or Kiss on. I've spent the last 20 years in Country (and loving it!) but still pay some attention to CHR.

We've had the same dedicated line deal here in Pittsburgh for decades: 412-333-****.

At my current station, WDSY (Y108), one of our rollover lines corresponds to either the calls or name of our Hot AC sister. People occasionally dial it by mistake instead of their actual request line and get us instead...meaning we'll get calls for Kings Of Leon while George Strait plays in the background. Of course we can fill their Dave Matthews request as he appears on Kenny Chesney's I'm Alive. Or simply default to Taylor Swift.

It's all part of the fun.
 
Once again Debaser, I've learned something from you. You were always the king of musical knowledge at 'KB, between you and Armstrong's "listen to these lyrics" or "Check out the guitar solo"...you've both been an influence in my on-air presentation, and I thank you. Passion for the music is so missing these days, and PPM is showing listeners like content about the music and their favorite artists.

I'm sure I've heard the Strokes...I've heard of them anyway, in a gaggle of early-2000's era "back-to-basics" garage-style bands. The Vines, the Hives and the White Stripes are the others. I think the White Stripes are the only ones who gained any traction...Jack White has become a musician's musician in his own right...but I liked the song the Hives had out...sounded like the Kinks "All Day And All Of The Night" channeled thru an early-2000's mindset.

When my ears feel old is when my kids play some of that hardcore/metalcore/grindcore underground stuff. Can only take that in really small doses and even then...hearing a melody amongst the thrashing is a real plus. Then again I ponder to my wife: is this how "Rock Around The Clock" sounded to our grandparents??
 
Maybe not so much "Rock Around The Clock," but certainly "Hound Dog" and "Johnny B. Goode." I find that there ARE some newer artists who are exciting and accessible for my older ears. Have you heard The Killers? or Ben Folds? Spectacular music happening there.

And for those of you thinking of continuing this idea, it would perhaps be better suited in its own thread.

Just so I can't be accused of being hypocritical to the spirit of the Stiffs, I offer up this one: "Cinnamon Square" by The Moovees.
 
Familiar with The Killers and I know a song or two by Ben Folds, Debaser. I agree, good stuff. There's also the Australian band Jet, whose 2003 "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" has a 1965 feel to me.

That said, you got me stumped on The Moovees...and I don't want to be hypocritical either, so:

The Animals - "The Night", Three Dog Night - "It's A Jungle Out There" (both 1983)

Now some wayyyy more recent stiffs I wish had been hits:

The Tuesdays - "It's Up To You" (1998) Worth it for the female Beatlesque harmonies when they "wooo"
Eleanor McEvoy - "Precious Little" (1997)
Oasis (speaking of Beatle wannabes) - "Don't Look Back In Anger" (1997)
 
Winter rolled into Buffalo sometime after noon today, giving us the fewest minutes of daylight and long nights, so what about "Slippin' Into Darkness" by War. This was a cool track that a lot of progressive rock stations and a few Top 40s too, but I don't think it made much of a dent.
 


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