Month: April 2012

FLASHBACK POP MUSIC HISTORY: APRIL 25

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: APRIL 25

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1955: The United Nation’s Commission on Narcotics releases a report stating there is a “definite connection between increased marijuana smoking and that form of entertainment known as be-bop and re-bop.”

 

 

Rocker Eddie Cochrane in 1959. (Click on image for larger view).

1960: Eddie Cochran is laid to rest at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress, California.

1970: At today’s concert at Raleigh, North Carolina, the interracial band Pacific Gas and Electric Company is subject to verbal abuse while on stage. Later, as they leave, four bullets are fired in the van. No one is injured. no one is arrested.

1974: According to the new issue in Rolling Stone, “streaking” has become so popular that Yes and Greg Allman concerts have been interrupted by the fad. At a recent Beach Boys concert, the magazine says, the band was streaked by it’s own crew.

1977: Elvis Presley performs at the Civic Center in Saginaw, Michigan, with a mobile unit capturing what would be his very last recording, released on the RCA album Moody Blue.

1977: The musical variety television special Paul Anka — Music My Way, featuring Natalie Cole, The Savannah Band, and a host of cameos, airs on ABC-TV.

1981: Denny Laine leaves Paul McCartney and Wings, essentially leaving McCartney as a solo act once again.

1990: A London auction house sells the Fender Stratocastor on which Jimi Hendrix played the U.S. national anthem at Woodstock for $295,000.

1993: Legendary album artist Stanley “Mouse” Miller, designer of the Grateful Dead “skull and roses” logo, has his upcoming liver transplant financed by the band.

The Eagles Second Night Reunion Concert for April 28, 1994 on a promo CD cover. (Click on image for larger view).

1994: After an absence which lasted fourteen years, the Eagles perform at the Warner Burbank Studios for what will be the first of two reunion concerts chronicled on the live studio album Hell Freezes Over.

1994: A judge finds Michael Bolton’s 1991 hit “Love Is A Wonderful Thing” plagiarizes the Isley Brothers 1966 song of the same name, despite Bolton’s protest he’s never heard of the song.

2003: The parents of the late Doors lead singer Jim Morrison sue the remaining members of the band for touring with a new singer as “The Doors 21 Century” using the band’s image and logo.

2003: Nina Simone is laid to rest in Cary-Le-Rouet, France, with attendees including Miriam Makeba and gifts sent by luminaries like Elton John.

Billy Joel’s vehicle after second traffic accident in two years, this one in 2004. (Click on image for larger view).

2004: For the third time in two years, Billy Joel is involved in a traffic accident, driving his car into a home in Bayille, Long Island, New York. No one is injured.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….

 


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FLASHBACK POP MUSIC HISTORY: APRIL 24

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: APRIL 24

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1954: Billboard, taking notice in changes in music trends, publishes an article entitled, “Teenagers Demand Music With A Beat — Spur Rhythm And Blues.”

1959: After running on Saturday nights on radio for twenty-four years and TV for the last nine, the final installment of the musical countdown show Your Hit Parade airs on NBC-TV. The final Top Five: Elvis Presley, “I Need Your Love Tonight” (#5); Brook Benton, “It’s Just A Matter Of Time” (#4); Ricky Nelson, “Never Be Anyone Else But You” (#3); Dodie Stevens, “Pink Shoe Laces” (#2); and the Fleetwoods at No. 1 with: “Come Softly To Me.”

A young Bob Dylan performing inside a NY coffee house in 1961. (Click on image for larger size).

1961: Bob Dylan makes his first recording — playing harmonica on Harry Belafonte’s song “Calypso King.” He’s paid $50.00 — cash — for his efforts.

1961: Del Shannon’s “Runaway” hits No. 1 on the national charts.

1963: An 18 year-old Brenda Lee marries Ronnie Shacklett, one year her senior, in Nashville a mere six months after meeting him at a Jackie Wilson concert. Forty-six years later, the two are still a pair.

1965: Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders’s “Game Of Love” hits No. 1 on the charts.

1968: The newly-formed Apple Records decides not to sign a young audition who goes by the name David Bowie.

1970: Having been invited to a White House dinner by Tricia Nixon, daughter of President Richard Nixon, the Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick brings the radical Abbie Hoffman with her, in an attempt to dose Tricia with LSD during the dinner. Hoffman is turned away at the door by the Secret Service and Slick decides to leave with him instead.

WKNR Keener 13 Bumper Sticker1972: Detroit Top 40 radio legend WKNR-AM conducts what will be it’s last 24-hour broadcast day. Unbeknownst to listeners of any immediate changes at the station, WKNR signed off before 8:00 a.m. the following morning and signed on playing an all-instrumental “beautiful music” format as the new WNIC-AM.

1976: In a parody of recent offers, Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels goes on the air and offers the Beatles the whopping sum of $3,000 if they agree to to reunite on the SNL show. And it almost happens: Paul, visiting John at his New York apartment for what would turn out to be his last time, is watching the skit with John, and both consider going across town to the studio live. However, the duo by that time decide they’re too tired.

Jerry Lee Lewis and 22 year-old Kerrie McCarver weds in 1984. (Click on image for larger view).

1984: With questions still lingering about the death of his fifth wife, Shawn Stephens, Jerry Lee Lewis marries his sixth, Kerrie McCarver, the 22 year-old president of his fan club.

1992: The Cleveland Orchestra sues Michael Jackson for $7,000,000 upon discovering the singer used part of their recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on his album Dangerous.

1992: In his hometown of Inglewood, New Jersey, Wilson Pickett drives his car through the mayor’s front yard, yelling death threats at the house and accidentally running over an 86 year-old man. He is arrested and found with open containers of brew strewn about inside his car.

2007:  President George W. Bush is denied a luxury suite at the Imperial Hotel in Vienna when Mick Jagger, in town with the Stones on a tour, gets the ‘presidential’ treatment instead by booking it first.

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….

 

 

 

 

 

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OLDIES 104.3 * WOMC & JOHN FREIST

Tom Ryan, Mindy, John Freist & Elaine Hewitt

John Freist worked for WOMC from 1984 – 2001.

He now has retired from radio but has a

Home Production Studio that he works out of.

WOMC – John Freist Show – January 28, 1995.mp3

WOMC – John Freist Emergency Tape.mp3

WOMC – John Freist Show – Request Show 1 -1994.mp3

WOMC – John Freist Show – Request Show 2 – 1994.mp3

W K N R Keener Podcast – Scott Westerman Talks About John Freist.mp3

WOMC

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FLASHBACK POP MUSIC HISTORY: APRIL 22

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: APRIL 22

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1959: The Alan Freed “Rock and Roll” movie, Go, Johnny, Go! premier in New York City. The movie features Chuck Berry, Jackie Wilson, Ritchie Valens, Eddie Cochran, The Cadillacs, and The Flamingos.

1962: Jerry Lee Lewis loses his first son, Steve Allen (named after the TV host and good friend), in a tragic drowning accident at the age of three.

Go, Johnny, Go! Actual theater billboard poster; circa 1959. (Click on image for larger view).

1964: The President of England’s National Federation of Hairdressers makes headlines when he offers a free haircut to the next rock group who reach Number One.

1966: A young Bruce Springsteen gets a boost when his band The Castiles wins a battle of the bands at a roller rink in Matawan, New Jersey. The first prize? Opening for the Crystals and the Ad Libs at next week’s show.

1966: The Troggs “Wild Thing” was released today.

1967: Elvis Presley’s 23rd motion picture Easy Come, Easy Go premiers in Hollywood.

1968: Herb Alpert sings a Burt Bacharach composition, “This Guy’s In Love With You,” to his wife on the Tijuana Brass television special, Beat Of The Brass. It would spark a national demand for the song, which results in the song being released a few weeks later. It will become a million-seller later in the year.

1969: Herb Alpert’s A&M Records signs The Carpenters.

1969: On the roof of Apple headquarters at 3 Sevile Road in London, John Winston Lennon changes his name to John Ono Lennon.

1969: Today is Tommy Day. The Who performed their new rock opera Tommy for the first time on stage in its entirety at a concert in Dolton, England; five years later to the day, the group begins filming the movie version, and, on the same date in 1993, the Broadway play based on the album opens in New York.

1974: Rebone’s “Come And Get Your Love” is certified gold.

1976: Johnnie Taylor goes platinum with his No. 1 disco-hit, “Disco Lady.”

The Blues Brothers performs “Soul Man” on SNL; April 22, 1978. (Click on image for larger view).

1978: On tonight’s Saturday Night Live, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd team up to debut two new characters called “The Blues Brothers,” who performs a cover version of Sam and Dave’s “Soul Man.”

1979: The Rolling Stones play two concerts in Oshawa, Ontario, for the Canadian Institute for the Blind, as a result of a court-ordered community service for guitarist Keith Richards, who was busted two years earlier for heroin possession.

1981: Eric Clapton is involved in a car crash near Seattle, Washington, and is hospitalized with bruised ribs and lacerations, just two days after he was released from a Minneapolis, Minnesota hospital after treatment was administered for an ulcer disorder.

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day….

 

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FRANK SWEENEY PUSHES MONUMENT RECORDS AFTER WKNR . . . DECEMBER 11, 1965

From the MCRFB news archives: 1965

Recording Industry’s Record Personnel, Station Management cited for ‘Communication Blackout’ by Frank L. Sweeney, Promotion Director; Monument Records

 

 

 

NEW YORK — The recording music industry is suffering from a tremendous lack of understanding between record personnel (simply known in the industry as “record men”) and radio people at the management level, according to Frank L. Sweeney, former music director at WKNR, now national promotion director with Monument Records and Sound Stage 7 Records. Sweeney (known as Swingin’ Sweeney on the air in Detroit) left WKNR mid-August to join Monument Records.

“I don’t think most record people truly know how radio station people operate — and conversely, more so — precious few people at the management level understand the record business. I would like to see better liaison at the management level between the radio and record industry,” he said. “When I call at a station, besides the music librarian and the program director, I’d like to see the station manager. After all, I represent an industry which supplies him with 87.7 per cent of his product — the percentage of programming that’s based on records.”

Frank L. Sweeney, former WKNR air-personality in 1965. (Photo cropped from back of a 1965 “Keener 13” music guide).

Sweeney felt that many radio men had a generally low regard for record people that wasn’t warranted. “This relationship between radio and the record industry just sort of grew — like Topsy.” That is why he believes that a national promotion man today has to be very aware of public relations. “I want to call on a station, to get to know everybody there, even if I don’t have a record to plug with me. I want the station to think constantly, and favorably, of Monument. I want to create a new image for me and Monument — we’re sort of synonymous now. I would hope that myself, as an air-personality going into the record industry, might contribute to a better understanding between the two businesses.”

The Problem with radio, he said, is that on most modern radio stations which program the Top 40 format, the only criteria used in programming a particular record is sales… not the merit of the record itself. “We’re feeding an industry it’s programming — and free.” He said he’d once figured that an ordinary station had used roughly $2,700 in records during a year at retail prices. It isn’t that the record industry is supporting broadcasters… $2,700 probably means little over-all in broadcasting costs over a year’s time, he felt. The wrong is that station managers very seldom pays that much attention to what their station is playing. It’s immaterial to a large number of them.

“Management in radio are good hard-working people. But the truth is most of them had their basic training in sales rather than music. Some of management have precious little knowledge of programming. They say ‘Hell, we’ll play top 40’ and we’ll either do one of two things: Hire a young man  whose basic job is not programming, but tabulating. Or get an old pro and turn everything over to him.

“But either way, there’s very little communication, or a lack of, between management and the man who does the programming.” The old cliche about radio stations not being in business to sell records may be, or may not be, true, he said. “But it was the choice of radio stations that records be used as the bulk of their product.”

To improve public relations between record companies and the radio business, Sweeney feels he’ll have to spend a lot of time on the road. “I can’t say the things I’ve said, and then hang around Detroit (his present headquarters) or in Nashville (headquarters of Monument Records)…. I’ve got to get out and see radio people — hopefully not only those who program the music, but the managers themselves.” END

(Information and news source: Billboard; December 11, 1965).

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