WHLO exclusives

[johnbasalla]

Back in their Top 40 days of AM640, with Todd "Turkey" Taylor as one of the guys who did their countdown shows. Do you remember any songs that you only heard on WHLO? I've got a good list with interesting stories to tell. Hope I'm not boring you. I have all of these records.

"PISTOL LEGGED MAMA" by Tommy Roe (ABC Records) (1970 - 1971). A song written by Tommy. An upbeat pop-rocker that never made the national charts. It came before his final Top 40 hit which was a remake of "Stagger Lee". It was a WHLO "Pick Hit of The Week", which means it was expected to make their Top 40 soon. I don't think it ever did. After a couple of weeks at the most, it was gone. I could never find a copy of this record in the stores at the time. Finally my brother went on-line and found a copy for sale from a store in Canada. So, after over 30 years of looking for it, I finally got it, although it's a promotional copy in Stereo/Mono without the "B" side.

"CHILD OF DECEMBER" by Larry Sanders (early 1970s). Alright! This is really cool! A local record on the Stone Head label of Mansfield, Ohio. A liesurely (sp) paced, emotional soft rock tune with a nice hook. Co-written by Larry Sanders with at least one (possibly two) guys who played on the Climax (Featuring Sonny Geraci) album that featured the mega-hit "Precious and Few". In fact, this song is the last song on side two of the Climax album. I first heard it by Larry Sanders and am quite sure his "45" was first. Larry Sanders version is better then Climax's, by the way.

"WE'RE ALL PLAYING IN THE SAME BAND" - by Bert Sommer. (Eleuthera Records, distributed by Buddah). Bert was the very first performer to take the Woodstock stage. Bert was one of those "critics favorites", who everybody said was destined to be a big star. Didn't happen. Eleuthera Records was a short-lived concern which also featured early music by Buzzy Linhart who was born in Cleveland and became somewhat popular on WMMS during their early hey-day in the mid 1970s.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edited version of "Hooked On A Feeling" by Blue Swede (1974). WHLO edited out the "Oogah-chucka, Oogah-Chucka" part. I only heard
it that way on WHLO.
What a Todd "TURKEY" Taylor thing to do.

 

[DToTheJ]

Edited version of "Hooked On A Feeling" by Blue Swede (1974). WHLO edited out the "Oogah-chucka, Oogah-Chucka" part. I only heard it that way on WHLO...

Blasphemy! That chant gives the song a unique flair! I wonder how they managed to edit out the chant on the parts where the lead singer sings lyrics over it!

 

[DToTheJ]

By the way: Not to throw out a cheap plug, but all of the sings listed in the initial posted are played on greatbigradio.com.

 

[dannykewl]

Wow, greatbigradio is great on what I hear so far! Thanks for the link, DToTheJ.

Unfortunately, back in the 60's and 70's, Garfield Hts., where I lived at the time, seemed to be in a null as far as WHLO is concerned, so I really didn't listen to them much. But I think I recall, they might have been a bit bigger on some of the lower charting Lou Christie tunes from around 1966 like "Outside The Gates Of Heaven", and "If My Car Could Talk". I also recall them playing Tracey Dey in the early 60's, such as "Teenage Cleopatra", only station I ever heard it on. I think WAKR was "big" on Lou Christie also, and they had a somewhat better signal in GH, but unlistenable at night, too much competing skip

WHLO now booms into Cleveland.

 

[SonoSational18]

I think WAKR was "big" on Lou Christie also, and they had a somewhat better signal in GH, but unlistenable at night, too much competing skip

WHLO now booms into Cleveland.

WHLO still has a null over most of Cleveland's eastern 'bubs, but they did increase power from 1kw to 5kw sometime in the '80's which mighe explain your improved reception.