Many of the above titled Billboard ‘Top 40’ R&B singles were also the most popular radio plays heard on Detroit’s soul stations 1400WJLB and 1440 WCHB on the AM dial, February-March, 1966. The featured R&B Top 40 hits list was the nation’s most popular R&B singles, as charted by Billboard, 54 years ago.
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The above WJLB chart was digitally restored by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
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— SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT —
The above WJLB 2-24-69 music chart survey is courtesy of Greg Innis. Greg Innis is our Motor City Radio Flashbacks senior contributor.
Family, Friends, Industry Bids Farewell to a Music Giant
LOS ANGELES – Some 400 friends and relatives of Nat King Cole attended funeral services at St. James Church here (Thursday) (18) in a final tribute to the artist who died of lung cancer Monday (15) at St. John’s Hospital, Santa Monica. Another 3,000 persons waited outside the Episcopal church.
Nat King Cole 1959
A caravan of limousines brought such celebrities as Jack Benny, Frank Sinatra, Jerry Lewis, Edie Adams, Gene Barry, Jose Ferrer, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Thomas, Vic Ramone, Sammy Davis, Eddie Rochester) Anderson, Frankie Laine and George Jessel to the church.
When the silver hearse pulled up to the church, pallbearers of the bronze coffin included James Conkling, former president of Warner Bros. Records; Glenn Wallichs, chairman of the board of Capitol Records; Harold Plant, the artist’s business manager, and Henry Miller, his agent.
Jack Benny, who delivered the eulogy, called Cole “a great professional who gave so much and had so much to give.” He added: “Here I stand, a man granted so many years of life, good health, a measure of contentment, delivering a eulogy for a man whose span of life was so short. Nat Cole was an institution, a tremendous success as an entertainer, but an even greater success as a man, husband, father and friend.”
After the funeral services, the procession proceeded to Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale for brief interment ceremonies.
Honorary pallbearers included Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Jack Benny, Ricardo Montalban, George Burns, Nelson Riddle, Gordon Jenkins, Peter Lawford, Edward G. Robinson, Gov. Edmund G. Brown of California, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy of New York and Count Basie. Cole leaves his widow, Mrs. Maria Cole; a son, Kelly, and four daughters, Timolin and Casey (twins), and Carol and Natalie. He also leaves two brothers, Edward and Fred, and a sister, Evelyn. END
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Information and news source: Billboard; February 27, 1965
Ed McKenzie guest star Nat King Cole on his WXYZ show in 1955.
RECORD WORLD 100 TOP POPS (week ending) February 19, 1966
RECORD WORLD 100 TOP POPS (week ending) February 19, 1966
— RECORD WORLD —
Record World became one of three weekly music trade magazines (Billboard; 1894, Cash Box; 1942, being the other two) when it began its publication in 1946 as Music Vendor. The MV title was changed to Record World, April 1964, and so remained under that banner until it ceased its publication, April 1982.
Above singles and albums charts courtesy of Record World, as issued, for the week ending, February 19, 1966.
The above RW charts were digitally imaged by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
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— In MemoryofGeorge Griggs —
A SPECIAL THANK YOU
___
A sincere, thank you, Mrs. Patti Griggs. This featured presentation would have not been possible without you.
Above WCHB music chart courtesy of Mrs. Patti Griggs and the George L. Griggs estate.
ABC RADIO PRESENTS: ‘MALCOLM X. MISFIT OR MESSIAH?’
(As aired on ABC affiliate WXYZ 1270, Detroit, Sunday night, February 21, 1965)
THE KILLING OF MALCOLM X
—FEBRUARY 21, 1965—
February 22, 1965
On Sunday, February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was preparing to address the OAAU in Manhattan’s Audubon Ballroom when someone in the 400-person audience yelled, “Get your hand outta my pocket!” As Malcolm X and his bodyguards tried to quell the disturbance, a man rushed forward and shot him once in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun and two other men charged the stage firing semi-automatic handguns. MalcolmX was pronounced dead at 3:30pm, shortly after arriving at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. The autopsy identified 21 gunshot wounds to the chest, left shoulder, arms and legs, including ten buckshot wounds from the initial shotgun blast.
One gunman, Nation of Islam member Talmadge Hayer (also known as Thomas Hagan), was beaten by the crowd before police arrived. Witnesses identified the other gunmen as Nation members Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson. All three were convicted of murder in March 1966 and sentenced to life in prison. At trial Hayer confessed, but refused to identify the other assailants except to assert that they were not Butler and Johnson. In 1977 and 1978, he signed affidavits reasserting Butler’s and Johnson’s innocence, naming four other Nation members of Newark’s Mosque No. 25 as participants in the murder or its planning. These affidavits did not result in the case being reopened.
(In 2020, the Netflix docuseries Who Killed Malcolm X? explored the assassination, which launched a new review of the murder by the office of the Manhattan District Attorney. The series is currently streaming on the network.)
Malcolm X 1963 (click on image 2x for larger view)
Butler, today known as Muhammad Abdul Aziz, was paroled in 1985 and became the head of the Nation’s Harlem mosque in 1998; he maintains his innocence. In prison Johnson, who changed his name to Khalil Islam, rejected the Nation’s teachings and converted to Sunni Islam. Released in 1987, he maintained his innocence until his death in August 2009. Hayer, who also rejected the Nation’s teachings while in prison and converted to Sunni Islam, is known today as Mujahid Halim.He was paroled in 2010.
The public viewing, February23–26 at Unity Funeral Home in Harlem, was attended by some 14,000 to 30,000 mourners. For the funeral on February27, loudspeakers were set up for the overflow crowd outside Harlem’s thousand-seat Faith Temple of the Church of God in Christ,and a local television station carried the service live.
Among the civil rights leaders attending were John Lewis, Bayard Rustin, James Forman, James Farmer, Jesse Gray, and Andrew Young.Actor and activist Ossie Davis delivered the eulogy, describing MalcolmX as “our shining black prince. . . who didn’t hesitate to die because he loved us so” . . .
Malcolm X was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. Friends took up the gravediggers’ shovels to complete the burial themselves.
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(Source: Malcolm X; Wikipedia)
THE ABC RADIO NETWORK. 55 YEARS AGO TODAY
February 21, 1965
Detroit Free Press Monday, February 22, 1965
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—ACKNOWLEDGEMENT—
The above presented ABC Radio recording is courtesy of (the outstanding)pastdaily.com website and its site’s curator, Gorden Skene.
(please see Past Daily link in this site’s blogroll).
