Category: Flashbacks

FLASHBACK POP MUSIC HISTORY: JUNE 22

From the MCRFB music calendar:

Events on this date: JUNE 22

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Young teens Paul and John as the Quarrymen in 1957.

1957: Liverpool skiffle group the Quarrymen, later to morph into the Beatles, play their first major gig at a fete by performing on the back of a coal truck. Four years later to the day, the Beatles (with Pete Best on the drums) would have their first formal recording session, performing “My Bonnie,” and other numbers. The sessions, produced by Bert Kaempfert in Hamburg, Germany, also features “Ain’t She Sweet.”

1961: Elvis Presley’s seventh movie, a serious drama called Wild In The Country, opens nationwide in theaters across the country.

1964: Barbra Streisand signs a $200,000 ten-year contract with the CBS Television Network for a series of TV specials.

1968: The Jeff Beck Group makes it U.S. stage debut in New York’s Fillmore East Theater.

Bob Dylan and The Band: The Basement Tapes cover. (Click on image for larger view).

1968: Rolling Stone first reports on the existent of an unissued Bob Dylan album recorded with The Band during his extended convalescence at Woodstock, New York in 1967; it would finally see the light of day in 1975 as The Basement Tapes.

1975: Eric Clapton joins the Rollin Stones for a version of “Sympathy For The Devil” during the band’s Madison Square Garden concert in NYC.

1981: John Lennon’s murderer pleads guilty to his crime and is sentenced to 20 years to life in New York’s Attica State Prison. He has since been up for parole five times, and has been denied every time.

1988: Peter Tosh’s murderer, Dennis Lobban, is sentenced to hanging by a court in his native Jamaica. Lobban, who was known to Tosh, and two others had murdered the reggae star in his home the previous year after a failed robbery.

1990: Billy Joel performs a concert in Yankee Stadium, the first rocker ever to do so.

1996: Diana Ross’ brother, Motown songwriter Arthur Ross, is murdered along with his wife by two robbers in his home in Detroit.

 

 

Deaths: 1969: Judy Garland. 1990: Kripp Johnson (Del Vikings).

Releases: 1959: “Maybelline,” Chuck Berry. 1963: “Wipeout,” The Surfaris. 1969: ‘Blind Faith,’ LP; Blind Faith.

Recordings: 1967: “How Can I Be Sure,” The Young Rascals.

Charts: 1959: “I’m A Tiger,” Fabian; enters the charts. 1963: “Fingertips (Pt. 1),” Little Stevie Wonder; enters the charts. 1968: “This Guy’s In Love With You,” Herb Alpert hits No. 1 on the charts. 1974: ‘Sundown,’ LP; Gordon Lightfoot  hits No. 1 on the album charts.

 

 

 

 

And that’s just a few of the events which took place in pop music history, on this day…. JUNE 22.

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WABX-FM PULLS IN DISK AD DOLLARS . . . OCTOBER 12, 1974

From the MCRFB news archives: 1974

Progressive FM Radio Reaping Millions from Recording Industry

 

 

 

 

LOS ANGELES — The record industry is spending untold millions of dollars in advertising records and recording artists on FM progressive radio and there is speculation there is even more being spent on in the AM Top 40 advertising market across the country.

One of the largest record retailing chain in California is spending $1.5 million alone in radio and television — with a large part of the tab more than likely is being shared by the record companies who are promoting more of their respective product.

The retail chain is spending that much in California and one station alone claims to be earning $140,000 of that. Tower Records, another West Coast chain, is also labeled a “big hitter” by FM progressive radio managers.

One major U.S. market radio station reports that seven record labels all have contracts each of $100,000 or more for the year.

In a general survey of FM progressive radio stations, the percent of total advertising at each station with a record company or concert promoter source range from a low 10 per cent to a high of 40 per cent. The percentage has been higher in years past. Now, with FM growing in popularity with other products, the percentage may be down, but the dollar amount is even higher.

In Detroit, one major major record company is doing $40,000 in advertising this year with WABX-FM, managed by John Detz. Only about 12 percent of his station’s business is record-oriented; “if you’re doing as much as 20 percent in a market like this, it’s because you haven’t developed other market resources.”

WABX-FM has diversified over the years; Ford is an advertiser, for example. “From the standpoint of dollars, however, record company and concert business is bigger than ever. I would have expected a cutback because of the vinyl shortage or general economic conditions, but record company dollars’ sales increase every year than the year before.”

Off the top of his head, Detz, a progressive radio veteran, feels that the top FM progressive stations so far as dollars are concerned — especially from record labels — are: WNEW-FM, New York; KMET-FM, Los Angeles; KSAN-FM, San Francisco; WABX-FM, Detroit; and WBCN-FM in Boston.

Which label is the biggest advertiser?  Notes Detz: That’s hard to say. “Warner Bros. Records just had an unbelievable release… 15 big winners in it’s September release. And so they’ll be on with a lot of advertising right now. Columbia Records, on the other hand, didn’t do much in advertising because they were sort of dry.”

Though WABX-FM has diversified its sources of advertising revenues, Detz says: “We still consider record companies a very strong revenue source. Why? Because we talk to the people — our specific demographics — who buy most of the albums today.”

Record company advertising, of course, is not the total support or even half the support of an FM progressive station that could be surveyed. However, considering the gross of many stations cashing in, including WABX-FM in Detroit, the amount of money reasonably being spent by record labels is well into the millions and millions of dollars in promoting further their product. END.

WABX-FM 99.5 (Information and news source: Billboard; October 12, 1974).

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FLASHBACK POP MUSIC HISTORY: JUNE 21

From the MCRFB news archives:

Events on this date: JUNE 21

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1962: As part of manager Brian Epstein’s plan to get the band wider exposure by having them open for established acts, the Beatles open for Bruce Chanel of “Hey Baby!” fame at the Tower Ballroom in New Brighton, England.

The Stones in 1966. (Click on image for larger view).

1966: The Rolling Stones sue fourteen New York City hotels who have refused to admit the band during their North American tour, disingenuously accusing them of “discrimination on account of national origin.”

1967: San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park celebrates the Summer Solstice with a free concert with entertainment by the Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and Quicksilver Messenger Service.

1968: Influenced by the recent assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, Steve Binder, director of Elvis Presley upcoming NBC-TV special, asks musical director Bones Howe to write a “socially conscience” song for Elvis’ closing number, which had been slated to be the standard, “I’ll Be Home For Christmas.” Howe writes the replacement song, “If I Can Dream,” that afternoon; after hearing it a half-dozen times, Elvis agrees the end with it.

1970: Who guitarist Pete Townsend, while waiting for his flight in Memphis, likens the band’s latest album, Tommy, to the atomic bomb, causing officials who misheard the remark to search the facilities for a real bomb.

1973: The band Bread, already having decided to break up, play their last live gig ever in Salt Lake City after one of its tour trucks flips over and destroys most of its gear and sound equipment.

1975: Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore leaves the rock band to form Rainbow.

1981: After a number of lawsuits, deaths, and accidents, the band Steely Dan break up, not to fully reform onstage until 2000.

1988: The Rascals reunite onstage for the first time since 1970.

1990: Little Richard is awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame at 6840 Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles.

2003: Johnny Cash makes a surprise appearance live on stage in Hiltons, Virginia, near the birthplace of his recently-deceased wife June Carter Cash, saying “I don’t hardly know what to say tonight about being up here without her… the pain is so severe, there’s no way in describing it.”

2007: After dating her for a full eighteen years, Tony Bennett marries teacher Susan Crow.

 

Deaths: 1980: Bert Kaempfert; 2001: John Lee Hooker.

Releases: 1955: “Hey Porter,” Johnny Cash. 1958: “Splish Splash,” Bobby Darin.

Recordings: 1961: “Take Good Care Of My Baby,” Bobby Vee. 1966: “She Said She Said,” Beatles. 1967: “He’s Your Uncle, Not Your Dad,” Elvis Presley. 1968: “Revolution 1,” Beatles. 1968: “It Hurts Me,” “Little Egypt,” “Trouble,” “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child, “Where Could I Go But To The Lord?,” Elvis Presley.

Charts: 1975: “Love Will Keep Us Together,” Captain and Tennille hits No. 1.

Certifications: 1972: “Outta Space,” Billy Preston, is certified gold.

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

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