We have a local AM station, KOKO in Warrensburg, Mo that plays a wide selection of oldies, and has that feature "Forgotten oldie of the day". Just the other day they played back to back, "Nathan Jones" by The Supremes, "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You" by Sugarloaf, and "I Wanna Be With You" by the Raspberries.
This was the time span when ELO placed the first of seven songs in a row on the Top 20. This features Jeff Lynne doing his best psychedelic Lennon impression.
I've noticed that even Sirius XM repeats their playlist about every six hours. A song will get into rotation for about two or three months, then disappears. In that sense, they are no better than commercial stations.
Now yer talkin'! Ah! I don't need oldies radio or XM. I have my own oldies radio right here. I can play anything I want at any time from my own collection...and play the correct hit version, too!
Nice. Was (and still am) a big fan of ELO when I was in jr. high and in high school. Another of many great acts (like Springsteen, CCR, Steely Dan, etc.) which scored many hits, but never a No. 1.
That's a good mix. I find the locally-owned stations in the smaller markets do much better serving their listening audiences than the corporate-owned stations in the bigger cities.
If I'm not mistaken, that is on 1050 or 1060 AM. I use to receive it when my wife and I lived in Independence, MO, home of Harry Truman (No. 13, 1974, Chicago ) and a Kansas City "suburb."
With all the recent discussion of the great Neil Sedaka No.1 (Laughter in the Rain), thought I'd post another great, but lesser-charting Neil side. On Casey Kasem's American Top 40 rerun today, he introduced this great song, which, this week in 1975, was in the Top 30. "Neil Sedaka has had 22 hit single records...." Casey said, introducing the great artist. The song peaked at No. 27. Neil would soon score another No. 1.
You're No Good She's so good, she's so good, she's so good.... baby, she's so good! Back in the day, Linda Ronstadt was so ubiquitous she was almost like wallpaper. Songs like this one, Blue Bayou, When Will I Be Loved and It's So Easy were played all the time, and it seemed hardly a day went by where you didn't hear or see something about Linda Ronstadt. It's hard to overstate just how big she was. But by the time I got old enough to really understand how singers fit into a cultural context, she was gone from the charts. I never really have disentangled her from my youthful memories and assessed her as a talent until I started listening to some of her stuff in anticipation of this chart topper. And my verdict? She is incredible, an absolute powerhouse in a tiny frame. How does such a little woman DO that? Anyway, I like most of the songs from her run of hits, but the one that absolutely floored me on revisit was Long Long Time. This wasn't one of her bigger hits by the time I started listening to the radio, but I was familiar with it. In this ode to lost love, the ache in her voice is absolutely palpable. She makes me believe she is suffering from the loss of a love that cannot be; it's her most effective performance in my opinion and one of the true landmarks from that time. No darn wonder she became such a star after this. Here's a wonderful rendition of the song from the Glen Campbell show; she then joins Glen for a nifty cover of James Taylor's Carolina in My Mind. How seventies can you get?
Heard this one a lot as a kid, and I didn't remember it at all until I heard it here. Thanks for the reminder!
The other day I was listening to the Classic Rock station in town, and they played Paradise City by Guns n' Roses (!). Huh? I guess it is twenty+ years old, but still...
Pick Up the Pieces So THAT'S the name of this song. Heard it a bazillion times as a kid. It's not a favorite, but I don't hate it either.
Sign of the times. And my age. 1988 was thirty years ago. My youngest went over someone's house this weekend to watch "old" movies. In my head I expected 40's or 50's....she meant the 1980's.
On the heels of AWB came this song from the Brecker Brothers which sounds like they got their inspiration from PUTP. Sneakin' Up Behind You
The Eagles must have wondered if they were ever gonna see the inside of the Top 10 again by the start of '75. On The Border, their 3rd studio album , seemed to be going down the same path as Desperado as far as hit singles go. Already Gone mustered a #32 showing while James Dean fizzled out at #77. In fact, since they came on the scene in '72, they only had one Top 10 to their name - Witchy Woman (#9), so by this point, they must have figured it was over as well for this album. OTB was fraught with it's own troubles as the band wasn't happy with producer Glyn John's efforts and brought in Bill Symzyck and Joe Walsh to give things a more rock flavor. Ironic then, that it was one of John's songs that finally gave them a chart topper. And their fortunes were about to change big time!
Yeah it's weird to think of it but "Paradise City" at 31 years is considerably older than the oldest songs featured on the Classic Rock format that debuted around that time. The common 'cutoff' for early Classic Rock Stations in the mid 80's was 1965 (Stones, Who, Animals, Rubber Soul era Beatles) though you'd occasionally hear something older. The meat and potatoes was always '69-'79 which coincided perfectly with the length of Led Zeppelin's careeer
How satisfying that must have been for Johns after the infighting and turmoil he experienced with the Eagles, specifically Glenn Frey! Btw, Joe Walsh doesn’t play on an Eagles album until Hotel California although there has been speculation that he *might* have dropped by during some of the On the Border recordings. At any rate, the Eagles owe a great deal to Michigan radio DJ Jim Higgs for playing the album track and giving it airplay, and the song proved to be so popular that Asylum rushed out a single version without the band members’ approval. JD Souther was hanging out at Peter Asher’s house in L.A. when he received a call from Don Henley to fly out to London to help flesh out the song. He wrote the bridge and didn’t hear the final version until months later. I definitely have memories of hearing this song back then, although I naively believed this to be more of a love song than it really was. This song is a terrific vehicle for those great harmonies and shows a glimpse into Henley’s lyrical gifts.
