VARIOUS DJs and VARIOUS STATIONS aircheck year: 1962
___
NEW! A special THANK YOU to Bob Pratt, of Farmington Hills, MI, for recently donating this 1962 Detroit radio aircheck (Bob and Dan Murphy originally had recorded) with Motor City Radio Flashbacks!
___
* THE BOB PRATT/DAN MURPHY COLLECTION *
A MCRFB VIEWING TIP
ON YOUR PC? To fully appreciate this Billboard Hot 100 March 20, 1965 chart feature click on image 2x and open to second window. Click image anytime to return to NORMAL image size.
Click your server’s back button to return to MCRFB home page.
On your mobile device? Tap on chart image. Open to second window. “Stretch” chart across your device screen to magnify for largest print view.
These were the record singles you bought in 1965. Many went on to become the most popular radio airplays heard on AM radio in Detroit, March 1965, on Top 40 WKNR, WXYZ, CKLW, and conservative album-oriented, easy-listening WJBK and WJR radio.
From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1968
Redding Tops in Singles and LP Sales
NEW YORK – Otis Redding, who died in a plane crash last December, is achieving the success that eluded him during his lifetime. This week, Redding’s Volt record of “Dock Of The Bay” passed the one million sales mark and went into No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart. It marks the first single of Redding’s ever to hit a million. and according to Atlantic Records‘ sales executives. who handle the Stax-Volt line, sales are continuing at a strong pace.
Redding is also setting new sales marks with his album product. His new LP on Volt, “Dock Of The Bay,” which was issued about two weeks ago, had the largest advance order of any of his LP’s. One of the previously unreleased sides in the “Dock of the Bay” LP, called “Open the Door” is receiving such strong airplay that there is a possibility Volt Records may issue it as Redding’s next single.
Sales of Redding’s albums spurted shortly after his death. His albums are among the best-selling items at Atlantic, keeping pace with the firm’s other top artists. The Redding LP’s most in demand are “Otis Blue,” “Otis Redding Live In Europe,” “History of Otis Redding” and the newly issued “Dock Of The Bay.”
The interest in Redding’s career since his death has grown in the consumer press and TV. Virtually every important music magazine has written about Redding and new stories are in the works. A TV film made in England of Redding performing “Shake” and “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” has been used on many U. S. stations. Currently, two networks are preparing shows on Redding which will he ready in the spring. Also, a packager of TV shows is interested in doing a one-hour documentary on Redding.
Redding’s trip to Europe with the Stax-Volt show last spring was filmed and reports indicate that there will be a one -hour film compiled from the footage. It will be available for showing on either TV or as a regular film feature for distribution on the college circuit. END
___
(Information and news source: Billboard; March 16, 1968)
___
In conjunction with KHJ Boss Radio (Los Angeles), RKO General, and Drake-Chenault Enterprises, CKLW presented ‘The History Of Rock & Roll‘ in February – March 1969. This seminal, historic rockumentary comprised of 48 hours of programming from start to finish. Covering the first and second generation of rock, the program traces the early roots of rock ‘n’ roll from its origins in the early ’50s, of its influence impacting the hits of the ’60s. For four days, CKLW aired the Bill Drake HRR program in 12-hour blocks — 12 noon to 12 midnight — beginning Sunday, February 28 through Wednesday, March 3, 1969.
___
MISSED IT? For the first hour of the CKLW History of Rock & Roll GO HERE.
___
Motor City Radio Flashbacks
Presenting today the SECOND hour of ‘THE HISTORY of ROCK & ROLL’ as aired on CKLW 1:00 p.m. — 2:00 p.m., Sunday, February 28, 1969.
Original program concept conceived and created by Ron Jacobs, KHJ, Los Angeles. Produced by Bill Drake and Gene Chenault.
Above CKLW music chart courtesy of Mrs. Patty Griggs and the George L. Griggs estate.
Please take a moment to check the website’s blogroll for other featured links archived there as well!
THANK YOU! Special THANKS to Vaughn Baskin for contributing this Toby Arnold Associates (Dallas) urban contemporary jingle package with Motor City Radio Flashbacks!
From the MCRFB NEWS archives: 1965
Tamla-Motown Goes Outside To Get Talent; Changes Big Name Policy
DETROIT — The Tamla-Motown organization recently reversed it general policy of creating it’s own big names and has been adding standard acts to it’s own roster, including Billy Eckstine, Tony Martin and Connie Haines. Other big names — most of whom hadn’t had hit records for some time — are expected to be added to the fold.
“One of the reasons these artists hadn’t had hit product lately,” Vice-President and Sale Manager Barney Ales said, “is that they haven’t been recorded with an appeal to the record-buying public. We want to give them our sound.”
The “Detroit Sound” has been tremendously successful; the firm’s batting average is the envy of the industry. As of this week, President Berry Gordy, Jr. can point to 9 singles on Billboard’s Hot 100 charts (another just dropped off last week) and four of these were in the top 20. Two weeks ago, the Detroit recording firm had 12 singles on the charts. The label also now has seven LP’s in the top of the chart. “Where Did Our Love Go,” by the Supremes, has been on the LP charts for 51 weeks.
What makes this all fantastic, however, is that the firm released very few singles so far this year — only 32, according to Phil Jones, marketing and research director for Motown. “Five of these records were million-sellers,” he said, “Ninety percent of these Motown Detroit recordings hit the charts.”
Five singles turned out by Gordy reached No. 1 on the Top 100. These included three by the Supremes, one by the Four Tops and one by the Temptations. Jones said that “I Can’t Help Myself” by the Four Tops sold a million and a half records. “But we have 10 or 12 artists that constantly have hits,” Jones said. “I feel we’ve made more artists than any other label.”
It was felt that the present splurge of signings, which included Jack Soo, the Lewis Sisters and Barbara McNair, the firm was branching more into the album product. Jones said that Tamla-Motown first intended to give these new signings a hit single. “They seem to be able to sell more albums that way.”
“We’ve been putting out a limited number of albums — 12 or so this year. Out of that, 10 have been on the charts and seven are still on,” Jones had said. “All these albums have proper timing — the artists are hot. I don’t consider it any sense to turn out catalog product; it’s to difficult to compete with the budget lines.
What we’re doing in signing people with talent that will fit in with material we’ve already got on hand. Our success can be attributed in part to the great producers we have working for us. For instance, the songwriting and producing team of Brian Holland, Eddie Holland and Lamont Dozier have turned out six or seven releases this year, of which four have reached the No. 1 position on the chart and two or three reached the top 10.”
Smokey Robinson, the lead singer with the Miracles, also writes and produces, and Jones said that studio music director Mickey Stevenson “has also come up with quite a few hits.”
The label recently expanded overseas, and Jones and Ales had left this past Sunday, August 29, to meet with EMI officials in England to discuss establishing closer ties and more effective marketing for the label. “What we hope to do,” Jones stated, ‘is make all our artists as successful in England as the Supremes are over there.” END
___
(Information and news source: Billboard; September 4, 1965)
___
Blooming Hits was a studio instrumental album by Paul Mauriat and His Orchestra. The LP was released in 1967 and hit the number one spot in 1968. The single “Love Is Blue” hit number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 on February 4, 1968.
Mauriat’s album “Blooming Hits” stayed 2 weeks on top the Billboard LP chart from March 23, 1968 through April 5, 1968.
His single, “Love is Blue”, and the album Blooming Hits, each sold over one million copies. The single was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America in March 1968. (Source: WiKipedia and AllMusic)
___
A MCRFB Note: For the complete track listing from this album GO HERE.
ONE OF THE MOST analyzed records of all time is Don McLean’s “American Pie.” While it’s commonly agreed that the song is an ode to the deaths of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper, it’s nuances are still debated.
The closest McLean came to explaining it’s meaning was in his 2000 video, Starry Starry Night. “I’m very proud of the song,” he said. “It is biographical in nature and I don’t think anyone has ever picked up on that. The song starts off with my memories of the death of Buddy Holly. But it moves on to describe America as I was seeing it and how I was fantasizing it might become, so it’s part reality and part fantasy but I’m always in the song as a witness or as even the subject sometimes in some of the verses.”
While Don McLean never fully discussed it’s meaning, many of us have tried. The best analysis I’ve read was written by WKNR and WCFL veteran, Bob Dearborn.
Here is my breakdown of American Pie as broadcast on KRKE and XM/Sirius in 2010.
— Scott Westerman February 1, 2012
American Pie. Revisited.
A special THANK YOU to Scott Westerman for sharing his special Sirius XM ‘American Pie: Deciphered’ (2010) with Motor City Radio Flashbacks.
For more on the events of February 3, 1959, on this website, GO HERE.
TOM CLAY CKLW aircheck date: Wednesday, June 17, 1964
___
NEW! A special THANK YOU to Bob Pratt, of Farmington Hills, MI, for recently donating his CKLW radio aircheck (unscoped!) to Motor City Radio Flashbacks!
___
* THE BOB PRATT COLLECTION *
A MCRFB Note: Tom Clay’s very last show on CKLW was Friday, June 19, 1964.