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And The Stiffs Just Keep On Comin'

Yes, I remember it. In fact I was at KB for a week as a high school senior. It was mid-October 72. Two other classmates and I watched and learned.

Meetings with Tom Cronk, Norm Schrutt, Jeff Kaye (Wednesdays were the day to meet with record reps and listen to their latest offerings), and we even watched both you and Sandy in action on the air. For some reason, Jeff didn't want us to watch Danny (according to Jeff, he didn't like an audience).

We all had to write a :30 spot for Keyhole Fashions with a Halloween theme.

At the end of the week we were asked what job we thought we would aspire to....My two classmates wanted to be Leroy Fiedler, and I just wanted to be on the air.

You guys made being "cool" seem effortless.

But I digress....this is after all the Stiffs discussion, so I leave you with this one:

1972 - The Nickle Song from Melanie
 

'KB played "Speak To The Sky" in the fall of 1972.
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Did we? I was MD then and don't remember that song at all.
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Personal process of elimination, DB.

I was 15 in 1972, living in Brattleboro VT which meant I heard the end of Sandy Beach on thru the night. I only listened to the local Top 40 when I couldn't get 'KB in, and by that time 'KB and the local Top 40 were my only listening choices.

What I don't remember is if was you or Armstrong championing "Speak To The Sky" but here's what I do remember:

1) Rick Springfield was a big star in Australia.
2) "Speak" had been #1 there.

True you didn't play it long and for my hometown station to have shared that kind of content would have been way out of character, as time, temp and "The Hits Jest Keep On A-Comin'" were about all you could expect...well, except for the AM Drive guy whose thick Vermont accent made "Southern Vermont Radio" sound like "Seven Vermont Radio".

As a native Pittsburgh "yinzer"...I thought that was a hoot.

Nitro, Melanie's "The Nickel Song" was part of a two-fer of competing Melanie singles on different imprints in early 1972.
"Nickel" was on her original label Buddah. Here's the other one, which was on her "Neighborhood Records", "Ring The Living Bell".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf5PnEEmOTw

This is the album version. 'KB played the single edit, which if you listen to the last 2:00 of this, becomes obvious why.

Neither got above #30. Got that from my copy of Whitburn.

FWIW DB, for all the minute details I remember about those 'KB days, there are tunes I added a dozen years later as a music director myself that I've long forgotten. My wife will remember a title and ask "remember that when we were in (one of the three markets where I was an MD)?" and I'll just give her a blank smile.
 
Well, your memories are obviously waaaay better than mine ???, although I do remember Melanie's The Nickel Song.
Not too surprising, but Jeff took a much much more active role with the interns (high school kids) than any other PD I've ever worked with. Most interns these days fetch coffee and help out with promotions, but never really learn anything.
 
Debaser said:
Well, your memories are obviously waaaay better than mine ???, although I do remember Melanie's The Nickel Song.
Not too surprising, but Jeff took a much much more active role with the interns (high school kids) than any other PD I've ever worked with. Most interns these days fetch coffee and help out with promotions, but never really learn anything.
Click to expand...

My cluster's had a decent record with interns...a few of them over the years have ended up doing some great things - some in, some out of the business. But most of the time, your assessment is embarassingly close to the mark.

Here's another song I remember from that Summer of '72...one I'm not sure you played, I associate this one with "Seven Vermont Radio"...

"Small Beginnings" by Flash.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eez171keOJo

The original single had a cold end. Dang K-Tel!
 
John C said:
From the AT40 - The 80s archive, I give you Ringo Starr's final top 40 entry. "Wrack My Brain" hit #38 in late 1981.
Click to expand...

I played that at WCFR in Springfield VT. Remarkably ordinary, yet mediocre. Definitely not "It Don't Come Easy" or even "Back Off Boogaloo".

And in case I didn't mention it before...there's "Allies" by Heart. Fall '83. One of their last on CBS/Epic.
 
I have a part of the KB 1975 countdown on cassette where Hank Nevins and Jon Summers were discussing the worst songs of the year. "Run Joey Run" was the "winner" ;) but they also mentioned a "follow up" to "Mr. Jaws" which was "Santa Jaws". Not sure if KB (or anyone else) actually played it or not but either way it qualifies as a "seasonal stiff". ;D
 
Not sure if The Stiffs are on it's last legs in the desperate lunge to 100,000 views or just in the doldrums but Steve Miller's "Winter Time" seems like a timely stiff.
 
For your reggae dancing pleasure, a song that I cannot recall seeing in the previous pages and wasn't sufficiently motivated to check. It reached #1 on the UK charts, even charted Top 10 in Australia... but in the US? Big on AOR stations, but a Billboard chart stiffarello. From 1979, The Police, "Walking on the Moon."

Complete with Casio digital watch, stand-up stick bass, tehcni-color shirts, Shure SM-58's and 80s hair a-plenty. Heh... the 80s. The new Oldies.
 
That's a new one on me, JPB.

And the title reminds me of an REM stiff...their tribute to Andy Kaufman, "Man On The Moon".
 
Definitely remember "Walking on the Moon". Got lots of airplay in Buffalo. I also remember The Police playing Harvey & Corky's Stage One on Main near Transit.
 
Here's a song that qualifies as a stiff with an asterisk. It was the Spinners' first single release after they switched from Motown to Atlantic in 1972, a nice ballad called "How Could I Let You Get Away." The Spinners had changed labels to try to revive a stalled career after almost a decade of frustration and near misses at Motown...and this one almost wound up as another disappointment when it stiffed out at #77 on the Billboard singles chart..

The story does have a happy ending, however; some jocks at major market stations checked out the "B" side on the single and started giving it airplay. That "B" side was the future classic "I'll Be Around" which shot to #3 on the hot 100, was flipped to the "A" side by Atlantic in a fresh round of promotion, and launched a decade of hits for the group.
 
That reminds me of one that I probably already posted, Diana Ross and The Supremes and The Temptations. On the flip side of "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" was their version of "A Place In The Sun". It was a nice bit of forgetfulness on the part of the people who were selling the record player at the Knights of Columbus annual sale. Original Motown label, and the record was in good shape.
 
Buried in Jack Armstrong's MySpace blog postings...many dealing with his time as MD at WIFE/Indy...is an entry outlining his being pitched a Spinners' stiff from 1976, "Love Or Leave".

During the pitch, Yo Leeeder needle dropped a couple other tracks on that Spinners album and discovered "Rubberband Man", telling his Atlantic guy if they release it he'd add it out of the box.
 
I don't think that this "stiff" has been listed before. It only made it to #75 on the "Hot 100", but has become a Southern Rock staple, and deservedly so.

Can't You See - Marshall Tucker Band

In fact, they only had one "hit" - "Heard It In a Love Song" - which got to #14. Still, the Marshall Tucker Band soldiers on without the Caldwell Brothers and still puts on a heck of a show.
 


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