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And The Stiffs Just Keep On Comin'

"And The Stiffs Just Keep on Comin" thread keeps on living. The Outsiders hit #5 with "Time Won't Let Me" in Febrary 1966 and "Respectible" at #15 in August of that year, fizzling out in October with "Help Me Girl" at #37. Eric Burden covered the tune the following year.
 
I can honestly say I've never heard "Rocket Ride" by Kiss before today as part of an AT Top 40. Peaking at #39, it was the lowest charting top 40 Kiss single.
 
Radknowski said:
If you thought this post might be be about stupid CEO's and greedy COO's, sorry to disappoint you.

No, this is another one of my goofy not-so-late-night posts about music. Unlike a previous post on the same topic, Genny pounders and paint thinner fumes play no part in this post. Not that this will make the post any better than the last music post.

I'm thinking about songs I heard on the radio over the years that were flat out stiffs, turntable hits or m id-chart hits. They weren't bad songs, in fact, some of them are my favorites... I even bought a few. But for the most part, some of the songs I'm about to describe might be thought of as stiffs.

Let's start with a song that brings back memories of being marooned at camp in the Poconos, listening at night to what probably was WABC, but could have been WARM Scranton or WILK Wiles Barre. I don't think this one made it on KB. It was 64 or 65 and "Mixed Up Shook Up Girl" was playing on my Zenith 8 transistor AM only radio. Patty and The Emblems sang the song and I thought she had a glorious voice. I also dug the horns. This is one of those songs you'd like to hear covered these days but only by a woman who can belt it out with a ten ton voice and do it justice.

Only last year, while walking through a shopping mall in Oneonta, New York did I hear this song again and it stopped me in my tracks. You know that slogan that oldies stations used every three minute, "Good Time, Great Oldies?" It was an immediate zone-out to the scent of mountain pines, cold showers (because the only hot water was in the kitchen) and all too heavy pancake breakfasts every day for a week. What a great sensation!

Next up, "Morning Girl" by the Neon Philharmonic, from around 69 or 70. This is one of those ersatz hook-up tunes that made guys wonder who the girl in the song might have been and what she looked like... just before turning it off. I liked the harpsichord intro and the over-orchestrated outro which was played by members of the Nashville Symphony. The lyrics were sappy.

Everybody knows Edwin Starr from his 1970 monster, "War" ("What is it good for? Absolutely nothin', huhhh! Say it again!"), but Starr also had a groovy little tune in 1965 called "Agent Double-O Soul." This song is full of bravado and it's a hoot. When I first heard it, I thought it was from the sound track of one of those Double-0-7 spy movies... later, when I became a little too hip for the room, I thought it was a parody. I've accepted that it's just a song. And a cool time piece song at that.

Then, there's a silky little song called "Suavecito" done by Jorge Santana, one of Carlos Santana's brothers playing with a group called Malo. This song may not have impressed many people, but I think its groovy latin riff and arrangement makes it a good cruisin'-late-at-night-with-the-windows-down tune.

"More" -Kai Winding. One of those songs that parents didn't mind listening to when it played on their kids' favorite Top 40 station. This song isn't any where near as aggressive as those great Ventures instrumentals, "Walk Don't Run" and "Perfidia." It's more uptempo than Santo & Johnny's elegant "Sleepwalk" and it has a similar drive as the Toronado's "Telstar." It just occurs that I've riffed through five pretty cool intrumentals in this paragraph. Here's number six, "Apache" by Jorgen Ingmann (and his guitar). The subtle flip-back on the guitar strings on the intro gives me the chills. It's just that cool.

Todd Rundgren has always been one of my favorite writers, producers and vocalists. Not a great voice, but a great singer-interpreter of lyrics, usually his own. I'd put him in the Marvin Gaye category in this regard. "I Saw The Light" is one of those absolutely superb energetic intro songs that all jocks like to talk up and then feel guilty about talking over atruly great part of the song. And does it ever sound great coming out of a jingle! This is a song that also had one of the better KB Pop Tops. "Hey there bay-bee, guess you're just listenin' to KB..."

"All I Want" Toad The Wet Sprocket. This is a song that was a hit around 1991. It has a neat cord progression (or what I think is a cord progression, I'm not a musician) and I always associate it with picking up a good friend (who has four college degrees) from re-hab and bringing him home after he falls off the wagon (again.) While listening to the song on a Rochester FM station, we both sing the chorus, "All I Want" and he modifies the lyrics and sings "is one more brew" then says introspectively, "I wish I could drink only one," and continues with the AA mantra, "but one's too many and a hundred's not enough." Last I checked, this guy is sober and teaching at one of the colleges. His students don't know how lucky they are to have this guy imparting information to them.

"Voices" -Russ Ballard, around 1983-84. Didn't even break the Top 100, but what a neat arrangement and driving bass, nicely married to a crisp drum in this song. Horns in the bridge and on the outro. It was used in an episode of Miami Vice, that "MTV with cops" program which feature Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas... high powered speed boats and lotsa ladies with very little clothing.

That's it. Hope you've enjoyed the ride. This is where I get off. Feel free to add to the list or rip the writer. Yeesh, these songs are so all over the road that I may have started another Legends thread.
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Wow! A hundred and 89 pages and 12 years later and this thread is still alive. I wonder what ever happened to this house painter guy named Radknowski. As I recall, he was someone who was a radio biz outsider, but he sure used to come up with some interesting posts. I wonder what he thinks of radio today if he's still around and listening.
 
Around November 1989, Poco had a good album out called Legacy. A few CHR stations in the Midwest played "Call It Love" from that LP. The single may have made it into the Billboard Top 20, but IIRC not much higher.
 
Rusty Bridges said:
Around November 1989, Poco had a good album out called Legacy. A few CHR stations in the Midwest played "Call It Love" from that LP. The single may have made it into the Billboard Top 20, but IIRC not much higher.
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We played it in Las Vegas, I remember adding it when I was MD of then-Hot AC KMZQ-FM.
 
In 1967, Jackie Wilson scored a major comeback hit with the No. 6 "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher." His follow-up singles -- "Since You Showed Me How to Be Happy," "For Your Precious Love" and "Chain Gang" -- peaked at 32, 49 and 84, respectively, and didn't even do particularly well on the soul chart. Oddly enough, the only one of these stiffs I remember hearing on WRKO Boston in 1967-68 was "Chain Gang." And a quite memorable remake it was!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FgovYtCOfk
 
The station I work for still plays 'Call It Love' by Poco. Comes up about once a week.

I was running a part 15 until about 1978. As of 1975 I was working in a record store and became Assistant Manager within a few months. Since I was ordering music, the record reps paid attention to the manager and me. I let it be known I had a part 15 station and for a time a weekly show on KCHU in Dallas (that became KCBI's upgraded signal but KCHU evolved to KNON). So, all the reps handed me every single and album they could get their hands on for my record collection.

There was some really good stuff out there. Billy Squire played guitar in Piper (on A&M) and I went on "Can't Wait", a power pop adolescent tune not too far from Eric Carmen & The Raspberries in sound. Was playing "Girl named Jesse James" by Earthquake, I Wanna Love You by Treasure and many others. Even at my first radio job I played a tune called New Romeo by Tim Goodman (Southside Johnny did a version as it was just perfect for them). Ironically in the isolated town I was in, it became a minor hit and stay in the recurrents before being forgotten.

The biggest stiffs that I heard were on a daytime suburban station at a time before true adult contemporary. I heard and bought Hawk by Sunny Daze and the rather bubblegum-ish "Riding With The Milkman by Oshun. Both were around 1968. I actually found the guy that did Hawk. He was working at Metromedia Records (Bobby Sherman was their hitmaker at the time). They let him record and release a single. He thinks the only station that reported to the trades as adding it to their charts was an AM in Tyler, Texas. One day on Amazon I found the Oshun song on a forgotten top 40 CD from England...maybe it had some airplay there.
 
Here's a song that came up in discussion today on a collector's forum. "Wavelength" from Van Morrison. Peaked at #42 in 1978 and doubtful there was much airplay back then. S T I F F.
 
eriedj said:
Here's a song that came up in discussion today on a collector's forum. "Wavelength" from Van Morrison. Peaked at #42 in 1978 and doubtful there was much airplay back then. S T I F F.
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It got played on WHBQ Memphis. I remember hearing it while I was living in Arkansas at the time.
 
eriedj said:
Here's a song that came up in discussion today on a collector's forum. "Wavelength" from Van Morrison. Peaked at #42 in 1978 and doubtful there was much airplay back then. S T I F F.
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If you take a look at Sir Van's discography, he really only has two bankable hits: Brown Eyed Girl and Domino. After that, he got played on AOR radio. I don't think there was a chart for AOR at that time.
 
TheBigA said:
If you take a look at Sir Van's discography, he really only has two bankable hits: Brown Eyed Girl and Domino. After that, he got played on AOR radio. I don't think there was a chart for AOR at that time.
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Ever heard of "Moondance"? It was never a hit on the charts, but it's been in power rotation on Radio playlists for 40 years. Morrison has sold millions of records, so he has "banked" quite well. "Wavelength" got a lot airplay on California stations. "Tupelo Honey", "Jackie Wilson Said", "Wild Night", and countless other album tracks were staples on FM Rock Radio...
 
tbolt909 said:
Ever heard of "Moondance"? It was never a hit on the charts, but it's been in power rotation on Radio playlists for 40 years. Morrison has sold millions of records, so he has "banked" quite well. "Wavelength" got a lot airplay on California stations. "Tupelo Honey", "Jackie Wilson Said", "Wild Night", and countless other album tracks were staples on FM Rock Radio...
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"Wild Night" was a single and is another Van song I remember hearing on Top 40 radio.
 
tbolt909 said:
Tupelo Honey", "Jackie Wilson Said", "Wild Night", and countless other album tracks were staples on FM Rock Radio...
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That's what I said about Wavelength. Moondance peaked at #92, and was released as a single right before Wavelength. But it was the title of an album released in 1970, so rock stations played it then. As I said there were no rock charts at the time, so no real scientific way to calculate its airplay. Except perhaps to dig into the BMI royalty information.

CTListener said:
"Wild Night" was a single and is another Van song I remember hearing on Top 40 radio.
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Peaked at #28. Not what I'd call a hit. But like the other Van songs, it got rock radio airplay in the 70s. Ronnie Montrose played the guitar lick.

Warner Brothers was very smart at the time and really marketed some of their artists for AOR radio. It paid off with album sales, not hit singles.
 
TheBigA said:
Peaked at #28. Not what I'd call a hit. But like the other Van songs, it got rock radio airplay in the 70s. Ronnie Montrose played the guitar lick.
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Never said it ("Wild Night") was a hit, just that it got Top 40 airplay. Maybe not for a dozen weeks like the chart-toppers did, or in power rotation, but it was out there for five or six weeks, getting three or four spins a day.

And maybe it did better in certain markets than in others. That used to happen a lot in the '60s and early '70s, remember? Classic local example I like to cite: "No Good to Cry," by the Wildweeds, a Connecticut group headed by future NRBQ frontman Al Anderson. No. 1 in Boston, No. 1 in Hartford, No. 1 in Providence, Worcester, Springfield. Nowhere anywhere else, including New York. I believe it managed to slip onto the Billboard 100 for a couple of weeks in the bottom 15 or maybe just the Bubbling Unders. So it is very possible that a song like "Wild Night" had much greater Top 40 presence and popularity with listeners than a typical a No. 28 song in quite a few places, just apparently not where you were at the time. I wouldn't be surprised if Morrison were far more popular in East and West Coast markets than in the heartland.
 


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