Record World – Motor City Radio Flashbacks

RECORD WORLD | JOHN LENNON PLANS GIANT PEACE FEST . . . JANUARY 10, 1970

Toronto Site July 3, 4, 5; 25% of Gross to Peace Fund

TORONTO — John Lennon has announced what could be the biggest pop music festival in history, with 25-per cent of the gross receipts going to a newly formed Peace Fund to be administered by a newly-formed Peace Council, which already includes John and Yoko Lennon, Dick Gregory, Rabbi Abraham Feinberg, and Jerry Wexler, Executive VP of Atlantic Records.

The Lennons spent a week in Canada at the invitation of a group of “Canadian friends.” Two press conferences – in Toronto and Montreal – were held during the stay, during which the couple announced the Peace Festival to take place at Mosport Park, near Toronto, on July 3, 4 and 5.

John Lennon, peace activist, circa 1970 *(Photo Credit: Harry Goodman)*

Lennon also took time out to reveal a new chain of peace radio stations, an international peace vote, Year One A. P., and an intimate Canadian involvement in his positive peace persuasion campaign.

Lennon also met with Canada’s Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, the country’s Health Minister, John Munro, and representatives from the Commission into Drug Use, which is considering marijuana legalization in Canada.

The couple arrived on Tuesday (Dec. 16) and stayed at Ronnie Hawkins’ farm on the outskirts of Toronto for the duration of their visit. The day after their arrival, the Lennons outlined plans for the Peace Festival at a press conference.

“We have a strong group of people here in Canada to act on our behalf. One of them is John Brower, who produced the successful Toronto Pop Festival in June and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival in September, which the Plastic Ono Band played at,” Lennon said.

The local press asked John if the Beatles would be playing. “Of course I’ll try and hustle them out. Maybe I’ll get one or two of them. I got George in London the other night for the UNICEF concert. But I can’t speak for all the Beatles because I’m only me. But if I can get them, if I can get Elvis, I’ll try. I’ll try and get all of them. We want everybody who’s anybody in pop music to be up there on that stage in July.”

Lennon was quick to point out that the Peace Festival is only a charity affair after-the-fact. “We want to pay everybody involved because there’s no point in asking people to do something for nothing. If you’re to depend on people, they must be paid.”

Lennon also announced a network of peace radio stations, an event initiated by Canadian broadcasting magnate, Geoff Stirling. Stirling’s dozen stations were the first to join the network, and were quickly followed by ABC’s FM Love network and some affiliated ABC stations.

Any interested station can contact John Brower in Toronto (36 Elgin Avenue) for free radio peace station breaks by John and Yoko, and a tape of the regular John and Yoko peace report.

In conjunction with Brower’s Canadian company, the Lennons have launched an International Peace Vote. Ads will start appearing in music magazines shortly. People will be asked to vote for either war or peace.

Lennon said everyone interested in peace should regard the New Year as Year One A. P. (for After Peace).

Atlantic Records offered its phone services on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 29, 30, 31, for transmission to key radio stations coast to coast of John and Yoko’s Year One welcome message. The message was broadcast by peace stations and scores of other stations on New Year’s Day.

The Peace Council will be responsible for administration of monies earned at the Festival, but it has already been pointed out that conventional charities will not be used. “We’re setting up our own scenes, to make sure that the job gets done,” Lennon said.

Noting that it had only been two weeks since he and Brower and another friend had got the concept together, Lennon said there had been no time to organize the talent lineup for the Festival. But apart from he and Yoko and the Plastic Ono Band, which would probably feature Eric Clapton, Lennon said the organizers had received confirmations on Led Zeppelin, the Who, Ronnie Hawkins, the Band, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Joe Cocker and Grand Funk Railroad. He again stated that he would be personally inviting “everybody who’s anybody.”

The Canadian media met Lennon’s peace campaign with sympathy and full support, with one reservation. They suggested John and Yoko should also consider unleashing their campaign behind the Iron Curtain. “Sure,” Lennon retaliated, “and we want to. It’s just a matter or deciding the best way to do it. Right now our U.S. business manager, Allen Klein, is working on taking the Peace Festival, or a nucleus thereof, to Russia after the Canadian debut.”

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Information, credit and news source: Record World, January 10, 1970

John Lennon and Yoko, 1970. *(Photo Credit: Anthony Cox/Keystone/Getty Images)*

RECORD WORLD | JOHNNY RIVERS ON THE A ‘GO-GO’ . . . . DECEMBER 5, 1964

Hot Imperial Artist Starts, Spreads Coast Club Craze

NEW YORK — “Young kids were always coming up to me on my tour and asking, ‘What’s the Whiskey a Go Go like? I’d sure like to go there.’ ”

Johnny Rivers performing on stage at the Whisky, 1964

Imperial Records’ hot Johnny Rivers speaking, and while what he’s saying may or may not be the best sign sociologically, it’s a good indication of how important the a Go Go in general and Johnny in particular have become on the music scene. The a Go Go has certainly played a major role in Johnny Rivers’ go going career, ending 1964 at its highest level.

“That’s where it all started,” Johnny said recently while stopping here at the windup of a 33 -city cross-country tour.

“The Whiskey a Go Go on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. Everybody drops in – Natalie Wood, Jayne Mansfield, Mamie Van Doren, Tuesday Weld. Steve McQueen is there a lot – he’ll host my ‘welcome back’ opening there Dec. 8.”

Steve’s a big booster of Johnny’s, it was learned. He recently took Johnny’s records to a European discotheque, had them played and then took them back when he left the place, it was noted by Lou Adler, head of Dunhill Productions and Johnny’s record producer, who was also visiting New York and sitting in on the interview.

Memphis Tour Highlight

Johnny’s earlier recording of “Memphis” brought him a parade and the key to that city from the mayor during his recent travels, perhaps the high -light of the tour for the slight entertainer looming large in show business.

Just what is the a Go Go sound? (Johnny’s songs have all been recorded before, but he’s given them life.) “Well, it’s hard to say if there is a Go Go sound per se,” Johnny explained. ‘Most of my records, like ‘Memphis’ and ‘Maybelline’ and the albums, ‘At the Whiskey a Go Go’ and ‘Here We a Go Go Again,’ are done live at the Whiskey a Go Go, although the new one, ‘Mountain of Love,’ was cut in a studio, with three girls plus my regular backing, bass player Mickey Jones and drummer Joe Osborne (I play guitar).

“My music has been compared to the Detroit Sound, although I’m told I have a somewhat happier sound.” At which point Adler said: “Johnny has brought the young feeling of dancing — the watusi, the frug, etc., to adults in clubs. They can relate to him musically. He’s blues-oriented, and adults have always been able to relate easier to blues than to rock ‘n’ roll.”

Johnny’s favorite artists are B. B. King, Ray Charles, John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed and Muddy Waters – the latter a natural preference for an artist named Johnny Rivers. Among the femmes, he prefers Nancy Wilson. attracted to that particular sound.”

Promoting Johnny Rivers. A Lou Adler/Imperial Records ad from December 1965.

Johnny also believes the British groups will be popular for quite a while yet. “Too many are making it now,” he felt, “and it’ll come down to The Beatles, the best groups, the best material.” His convictions in this area are not influenced by the fact that Brian Epstein (called the fifth Beatle by some, the first by others) handles Johnny’s European engagements.

Johnny, 23, has been recording since he was 15 and now makes his home in California. According to Adler, “Johnny’s finally found his own style and sound. Recording live at the Whiskey a Go Go with just a trio turned the trick, I think. Instead of his complementing the band as he’d been doing for years, they’re complementing him. . . “.

The Hollywood Whiskey a Go Go will get some more publicity when Johnny (along with other cast members) does scenes for his first movie a la maison. “I’ve had some offers for pictures before, but I held out for a really important property. This looks like it. Right now it’s called ‘Community Property,’ and the stars are Frank Sinatra, Deborah Kerr, Dean Martin and Ann Margret. It starts shooting in February, with many of the scenes to be locationed at the Whiskey a Go Go, and I’ll have a speaking part plus three or four numbers in it. It’s basically a comedy-the title may be changed to ‘Divorce-American Style’.

(One of the films offered Johnny was Sam Katzman’s “Watusi a Go Go,” which, perhaps when they couldn’t get Johnny, was changed to “The Swingin’ Set” and now has become “Get Yourself a College Girl.”

Johnny has also appeared on TV’s “Shindig,” on Red Skelton’s show (in a skit about the “Skelton a Go Go”) and in a documentary Jack Paar filmed on the craze for a Go-Gos around our country (and, presumably, in France, the actual birthplace of the name if not the nuance).

“The Whiskey a Go Go people on the Coast are looking for a spot in New York to open a new a Go Go,” Johnny confided. Which would make Christmas merrier for “little kids” hereabouts; and, of course, for the countless watusi wacky adults who relate to Johnny’s a Go Go, man, go rhythms and sounds.

Another Christmas gift ouch: Johnny Rivers dolls — you wind them up, and, as Lawrence Welk would say, they ah, go, go, go. END

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Information, credit and news source: Record World, December 5, 1964

Audio digitally enhanced by Motor City Radio Flashbacks

RECORD WORLD | THE McCOYS! 1965 RECORD 45 AD: BANG RECORDS

Audio digitally remastered by Motor City Radio Flashbacks

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From the pages of Record World, date noted. The featured 1965 Bang Records ad was digitally restored and re-imaged by Motor City Radio Flashbacks

RECORD WORLD | NAPOLEON XIV: 1966 AD! WARNER BROS. RECORDS

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From the pages of Record World, date noted. The featured 1966 Warner Bros. Records ad was digitally restored and re-imaged by Motor City Radio Flashbacks

RECORD WORLD | ROSE BROOKS: 1966 AD! SOUL CITY RECORDS

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From the pages of Record World, date noted. The featured 1966 Soul City Records ad was digitally restored and re-imaged by Motor City Radio Flashbacks

RECORD WORLD | THE BEATLES! ‘A HARD DAY’S NIGHT’ ADS: UNITED ARTISTS RECORDS, JULY 1964

From the pages of Record World magazine, ads dated, as noted. The featured United Artists Records 1964 ads was digitally restored and re-imaged in it’s entirety by Motor City Radio Flashbacks.

The American version of the album was released on 26 June 1964 by United Artists Records in both mono and stereo, the fourth Beatles album in the United States. The album went to number one on the Billboard album chart, spending 14 weeks there, the longest run of any album that year.United Artists rushed the album into stores over a month before the film’s US premiere; as a result, the Beatles had both the number-one album and number-one single in the country when A Hard Day’s Night opened on 11 August 1964.

All seven songs from the film, the first side of the UK album, were featured along with “I’ll Cry Instead”, which, although written for the film, was cut at the last minute. The American version also included four orchestral instrumental versions of Lennon and McCartney songs arranged by George Martin conducting an orchestra of studio musicians: “I Should Have Known Better”, “And I Love Her”, “Ringo’s Theme”, and “A Hard Day’s Night”. After EMI acquired United Artists Records, this album was reissued in August 1980 on the Capitol label, catalogue SW-11921.

Credit Source: A Hard Day’s Night (Album) | Wikipedia

Audio digitally remastered by Motor City Radio Flashbacks

RECORD WORLD | SON OF JERRY LEWIS OR, THE FAMILY JEWEL . . . APRIL 3, 1965

Gary Lewis a Star On First Disk

NEW YORK — It’s a lot easier for interviewers nowadays, with all these second generation show biz youngsters like Gary Lewis taking over. (Indeed, youngsters in general.) You have your stet questions—with a 19-year-old you can’t talk rack jobbing, you can’t rummage his past, you can’t ask him how he handles drunks in night clubs, etc.

You meet a Gary Lewis, son of comedian Jerry Lewis ( the biggest thing to hit Paramount Pictures since Cecil B. De-Mille and the bathtub scene), and a lad whose first record, “This Diamond Ring” (with his vocal-instrumental group, the Playboys), climbed to No.1 nationally, and it’s still early enough to ask:

Question: How did the record come about?

Answer: Snuff Garrett, my A&R man at Liberty Records, met Dad and hoped to sell him on a record idea he’d had for along time. But Dad’s film schedule was too heavy, so he suggested that our group might interest Snuff. My mother acted as our agent and financed the recording session for “This Diamond Ring”.

Question: How did your group get together?

Answer: I’d had a set of drums for about five years, but I didn’t started playing them in earnest until about a year ago. I was attending the Pasadena Playhouse at the time, and pretty soon I was joined by A1Ramsay, on bass guitar; John R. West, cordavox; Dave Walker and Dave Costell, guitarists.They were all from Pasadena. We played parties and then spent a good deal of last summer performing at Disneyland.

Question: Has it been easier to make the grade having a famous and influential father?

Answer: It’s been harder, I think. Maybe he could open a door for us but then we really had to show something. People would think, oh, he’s Jerry Lewis’ son—what does he think he can do? Then we were really on our own. (The answers sound as familiar as the questions after a while.)

Question: How does your father feel about your entering show business?

Answer: He approves. My Dad gives me advice and counsel more as a father than as a performer. This makes it rather easy because when he’s home he’s “Dad” and on the screen he’s Jerry Lewis the movie star.

Question: What next?

Answer: Well, we did a movie some time ago at Universal called “Swingin’ Summer” that is just coming out. And I’m going back to the Coast now to do a cameo role in Dad’s current film, “The Family Jewels.” We’ll do part of a musical number for this sight gag bit Dad has dreamed up for us. Incidentally, Dad plays seven different people in this picture, and they all get together in one scene! We’re also doing a Dick Clark road tour and more TV.

(Gary had just done the Ed Sullivan Show” and was wondering how all the teens who had been phoning and dropping by had found out where he was staying while visiting New York. Then he remembered he had signed an autograph for a teen-age female at the Sullivan theater on the only thing he had available: a matchbook from the Americana Hotel.)

Question: Have you done any other films?

Answer: Yes, several years ago I sang “The Land of La La La” in my father’s “Rock-A-Bye Baby.”

Question: Have you studied acting?

Answer: Yes, at the Pasadena Playhouse, where I did things like “Mourning Becomes Electra.” I think they’ve helped prepare me, too.

Question: Do you want to be a comedian?

Answer: I’d have to be awfully good, or have a completely different style from my father’s. I don’t know. Everyone says my seven-year-old brother, Chris, will be the next comedian in the family. (There are six Lewis children, all boys. Gary’s the oldest.)

Question: What are your latest records?

Answer: The album, “This Diamond Ring,” and the new single, “Count Me In.”

He’s a likeable individual, flexible of slender face and body, quick to smile with a natural propensity toward clowning, resembling Jerry a few pounds ago when he first came along in those “My Friend Irma” movies but with enough embryo Gary to speak well for his future. He moves a lot in his hotel suite, from couch to chair to phone table to wall, like a kind of an itch.

The same kind of itch, perhaps, that brought the five-year-old Jerry Lewis to a borscht belt stage singing “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?” Hmmm. Son Gary’s first hit was “This Diamond Ring.” Yes, times have certainly grown easier for everyone, especially now that things are looking up for Gary Lewis. END

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Information, credit and news source: Record World, April 3, 1965

**Gary Lewis & The Playboys** on Hullabaloo, with his dad, Jerry Lewis, hosting the show (late 1965).

RECORD WORLD | DETROIT VISIT FOR THE BEATLES? . . . APRIL 3, 1965

In U.K., Gordy Slated to Personally Pitch Detroit for Beatles’ Second North American Tour

Detroit — Teenagers here may still be able to see the Beatles “in person” this summer.

International Talent Management Incorporated (ITMI), the booking agency arm of Detroit’s Motown Record Corporation, will attempt to add an appearance in Detroit to the tentative schedule already announced for the British foursome’s second American tour, which begins later in the year, Aug. 15. Berry Gordy Jr., Motown President, is currently in London and will meet with Beatles manager Brian Epstein to this end.

During their first visit to Detroit last September, the Beatles named many Motown recording artists, including the Miracles, the Supremes, as their personal favorite performers. The Beatles have also recorded many of the songs which had first reached popularity as recordings by Motown artists.

A spokesman for ITMI said, “If we are able to bring the Beatles to Detroit, it will be Motown’s way of saying ‘Thank you’ to Detroit; and to the teenagers of Detroit, for the constant support that they have given to Detroit’s recording artists.” END

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Information, credit and source (as published): Record World, April 3, 1965

**THE BEATLES** at the Detroit Olympia, Sunday, September 6, 1964.

RECORD WORLD | DOZIER, HOLLANDS: THEY’RE THE TOP . . . JANUARY 15, 1966

Three Years in the Making, Holland, Dozier, Holland, Established Top Hit Makers at Motown Records Today

The team of Lamont Dozier-Brian and Eddie Holland produced nine releases in 1965 and “8-eight-8,” I said eight of these records, made the Top 10, both pop and R&B.

In the last three years, they have produced (and written) a minimum of “15 fifteen-15 Top 10″ pop and R&B” records. The sales on “I Can’t Help Myself” by the Four Tops are over one million, four hundred thousand; sales on “Where Did Our Love Go” by the Supremes are over one million-two hundred thousand. Berry Gordy himself, who scored in the poll, did one hit on his own last year – “Shotgun.” So now Motown made Brian Holland a Vice President – to me, it’s all three together. I just went out to Detroit and they told me how they do it.

Brian and Lamont sit down at a piano to riffle a taste. They keep thinking and thinking, and reaching and searching for a definite melody line – the “handle.” They usually work together this way for about a half an hour. They will discard quite a few ideas, and then will take out anything that they feel is extraneous. Their goal is always naked simplicity, and when they achieve that, then they strip that down even more, if possible. The basic criterion is always “pleasantness to the ear.” Then they turn the melody and a “working title” over to Holland. Different situations will vary from time to time.

The soul emanates from within them as they write. The soul is the quintessence of all they ever were and are. They draw upon a “Soul Fund” that includes: familiarity with ALL classical and semi-classical music; their cultural heritage as Negroes; and much of the Hebraic-Judaic musical literature.

As children, they sang in church choirs, and thus know almost all the spirituals and work and folk song of their people. They benefited from a cultural enrichment program that has existed in the Detroit school system for years. Their teachers took them to many classical concerts.

I was reminded of the great autobiographical play by the Welsh actor, Emlyn Williams, “The Corn Is Green,” when Eddie Holland said to me, “Kal, the first time I heard Brahms and Beethoven, I felt as if a giant force had lifted me up from the poverty and misery around me, up a steep wall, until I could see stretching out in front of me an expanse of green grass and a whole new world of beauty.”

They will thrill all their lives to the greatness and genius of these music titans of centuries past. They cannot pinpoint any particular melody of theirs to any one source. However, the emotional mainspring that drives their creativity is evolved from the “most hurtin’, tore-up peoples that the world has ever known.” I asked VP Brian Holland which of their songs move them the most. He told me that he is still moved to tears by: “I Can’t Help Myself”; “Stop In The Name Of Love”; and especially “I Hear A Symphony.”

I asked them who is their favorite writing team. I knew before they answered that they would say “Music by Burt Bacharach and words by Hal David.“

KAL RUDMAN’S ‘MONEY MUSIC‘

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Information, credit and news source: Record World, January 15, 1966