Day: February 29, 2012

A TEENER’S ‘DAYDREAM.’ DAVY JONES REMEMBERED

HIS FIRST PROFESSIONAL ACTING gig happened when he was eleven. He was a star on the BBC’s Coronation Street at age 16. And when he was 20, Davy Jones was picked from a casting call of thousands to be part of a made-for-television rock band that became one of the most popular acts of the decade.

After seeing the film  A Hard Day’s Night, Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider decided to create a TV show that would feature what they hoped would be America’s answer to the Beatles. Their first choice was to sign John Sebastian’s Lovin’ Spoonful, but that group already had a record contract. So they ran an ad in  Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter in the fall of 1965 to find their musicians.

Americans Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork, and Brit Davy Jones were ultimately hired and under the guidance of Don Kirshner, the Monkees were born. The group had help from some of the best writers in the business including Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart, Neil Diamond and the Brill Building team of Gerry Goffin, Carole King. They charted  13 times on the WKNR Music Guide, with hits like “Last Train to Clarksville“, “I’m A Believer“, “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone“, “Pleasant Valley Sunday” and “Daydream Believer.” They held down Keener Hit Number One five times.

While each Monkee had his fan base, Davy was a particular favorite. With the British Invasion in full swing, his English accent and Beatle hair cut put him at the forefront. 38 years later,  Yahoo Music named him “Number 1 teen idol of all time.”

At the height of the Monkee’s popularity, Davy Jones talked with Bob Green about life in the Hollywood spotlight.

Jones continued to pursue a show business career after the Monkees broke up in 1971, touring with Dolenz, Boyce & Hart and various other side men. His stage and television credits include starring with Dolenz in Harry Nilsson‘s play The Point in London and appearances on, The Brady Bunch, My Two Dads, Here Come the Brides, and Love, American Style. He continued to record, releasing his last album in 2009.

His last performance happened on February 19th in Oklahoma, just ten days before he died in his sleep of a massive heart attack at age 66.

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CKLW-TV 9 ADDS TEEN SHOW . . . JULY 31, 1965

A MCRFB NEWS brief: 1965

CKLW-TV Bows Show for Teens

 

 

 

DETROIT — A Canadian TV station, CKLW-TV, which also serves Detroit, has kicked-off an hour daily variety show for teenagers called ‘Swingin’ Summertime.’ Host of the show, which features both live and taped segments, is Robin Seymour. 

Among the artists appearing on the first show were the Rolling Stones, Gene Pitney, Dwayne Hickman, Paul Anka, Deborah Walley and Harry Belafonte. The show is telecast live before a teen audience at the CKLW television studios in Windsor, Ontario. END

 

 

(Information and news source: Billboard; July 31, 1965)

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IN DETROIT IT’S ‘SWINGIN’ TIME’ CKLW 9 . . . APRIL 2, 1966

From the MCRFB news archives:

Bandstand TV Scene Bears Watching — The Detroit Scene

 

 

 

CKLW-TV host Robin Seymour host “Swingin’ Time,” 1965.

HOLLYWOOD — Teen-age bandstand TV shows come and go–and a couple of important ones met their demise during the past few months — but over-all they seem more popular than ever. Especially at the local level. A quick check of some of the nation’s major bandstand shows found them not only doing well from the advertising sponsorship angle, but in audience ratings.

“Shebang,” for instance, has been sold out the past few months and has a waiting line of advertisers, said producer Bob Burnett. And, though the Los Angeles show is no longer in syndication, it reaches a minimum of more than 4 million daily via CATV distribution throughout Southern California.

The Everly Brothers appearance on “Swingin’ Time” in 1965.

Among those national bandstand shows that became drop-outs were ABC-TV’s network “Shindig” show. “Shivaree” dropped out of syndication, but the producers are working on a new format to have it back in syndication next month. The show is now seen in the Los Angeles area.

For the national shows, formats tell the story. A local show can usually do quite well because, as talent-coordinator Art Cervi of “Swingin’ Time” in Detroit puts it, “From the local standpoint, you got a raison d’etre because you’re hitting the people–the kids–who can and do appear on the show. You have an audience participation factor that let’s people identify with you.” The Detroit show out pulls national shows in the market, said Cervi.

The Detroit Scene

“Swingin’ Time” on CKLW-TV, Detroit, is an hour bandstand show during weekdays and the Saturday hour show concentrated on featuring record artists.  But so many artists are now seeking to be on the show that talent-coordinator Cervi is using them on weekdays too.

Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels guest-appeared on “Swingin’ Time” in 1966.

Sponsorship for the show is good. The show is supporting itself and “it looks like its going to do much better,” Cervi said. “I think there’s room for a show like this in every big market. The only trouble some shows run into in various markets is that the markets are saturated with such shows. But we’re doing so well locally that Robin Seymour has given up his radio shows to concentrate on “Swingin’ Time.”

Cervi said his show reaches 85 to 90,000 homes a weekday and around 125 to 130,000 homes during the Saturday show. END

(Information and news source: Billboard; April 2, 1966)

A MCRFB Note: Here’s several videos of ‘Swingin’ Time,’ hosted by Robin Seymour on CKLW-TV 9 in the 1960s. A young Johnny Rivers and Bob Seger enhances as highlights as they appeared on the show. The complete shows features the Supremes and the Rationals when they first appeared on the popular Detroit/Windsor TV dance show.

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FLASHBACK POP MUSIC HISTORY: FEBRUARY 29

From the MCRFB Music Calendar

Events on this date: FEBRUARY 29

 

 

 

 

 

 

1960: Just four years into his career, Elvis Presley becomes the biggest-selling recording artist of all time, with 18-million records sold, according to an article published today in Billboard. “The King” would go on to sell one billion records in the United States and world-wide.

The Beatles’ sheet music for 1967 “Sgt. Pepper.” (Click on image for larger view).

1968: The 10th annual Grammys are held in New York, and the Beatles take home a Grammy for Album Of The Year for their ground-breaking work LP Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band for 1967. The Jimmy Webb composition “Up, Up And Away,” recorded by the 5th Dimension, wins both Record And Song Of The Year honors. Bobby Gentry also won big with Best New Artist and two Grammys for her hit, “Ode To Billy Joe.” The biggest winner of the night was Glen Campbell with two vocal awards for “By The Time I Get To Phoenix” in the Best Vocal and Male and Best Contemporary Male Solo Vocal. Campbell was also awarded two more Grammys for “Gentle On My Mind” in the Country and Western Solo Vocal and in the Male and Country and Western Recording categories, not to mention an award was presented to the songwriter for Best Country and Western Song. Aretha Franklin nabbed two awards for “Respect” in the Rhythm and Blues category.

1968: Florence Ballard, having just legally settled during her break-up with the Supremes, marries her first husband, former Motown-chauffeur Thomas Chapman, in Detroit.

1972: John Lennon’s temporary visa expires, leading Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina to send a memo to the Nixon White House suggesting that deporting John Lennon might be “a strategic-counter measure” against his increasing anti-war activism.  Around the same time, CIA Director Richard Helms sent a memo to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover about Lennon’s upcoming “anti-war” tour, which kicked-off a three-year battle for Lennon to stay in the United States.

1977: While staying at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, Lynyrd Skynrd get in a heated argument with members of London’s Metropolitan Police, whose boxing team is staying at the same motel. A fistfight ensued, in which two members of the band are knocked unconscious.

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(Pop Music events source: oldies.com/)

 

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