A Letter Addressed in Long Island, New York, Props Highly Tommy Shannon at CKLW Radio
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A RAVE FOR SHANNON
To the Editor,
Now that WINS in New York is no longer a music station, we in New York have lost another fine disc jockey in Joel Sebastian. Just recently, Murray the K left New York radio. Because of this lack of good disc jockeys and radio stations in New York, I, and many of my friends have been listening to some fine stations out of town.
MUSIC BUSINESS May 22, 1965
I’d like to call to the attention of those who read your fine magazine that there is one very fine disc jockey who is on CKLW in Detroit-Windsor. He is Tom Shannon, formerly of WKBW in Buffalo, and he is on every evening from 6:30-11:30.
He plays a good amount of new records, and he is very well informed about the pop music situation in the world. CKLW is at 800 on the radio dial, and it is a fine station.
I hope many people take note of Tom Shannon, the best DJ in the business. It is too bad that in New York, one station plays only 28 different songs a week, and the other is totally mediocre. Thank God there is a Tom Shannon and CKLW.
Sincerely, Jon Stroll 127 Circle Drive Roslyn Heights, L. I., N.Y. 11577
Tom Shannon passed away in Salinas, California, on May 26, 2021, while under hospice care for pancreatic cancer. He was 82.
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Information, credit, and news source: Music Business, May 22, 1965
Choreographers have brought the latest dances to the homescreen on “Hullabaloo,” “Shindig,” and “Hollywood a Go-Go”
HIP AND EXCITING. The hippest, the wildest, the most exciting and most avant garde dancing being done on TV-and perhaps anywhere else today-takes place every week on the rock and roll TV shows. We are talking about “Shindig”, “Hullabaloo,” “Hollywood a Go Go,” The Lloyd Thaxton Show, and local shows in large cities like New York, and Hollywood.
It’s true of course that TV has always featured dancing on the big time shows, starting way back with the old Sid Caesar-Imogene Coca show, the Jackie Gleason Show, and the Perry Como Show, for example. Gleason opens all his shows with the June Taylor tap dancers. But the choreography on these shows is old hat compared to “Shindig” or “Hullabaloo,” almost like comparing the Busby Berkley dances in the old Dick Powell movies to the Jerome Robbins dances in “West Side Story.”
It’s doubtful if even “Shindig” producer Jack Good envisioned the effect that the “Shindig” dancers would have on TV, and TV critics, when the pioneer live TV show kicked off last September. Up until then rock and roll TV shows, like the old Dick Clark daily bandstand show, featured youngsters doing the latest dances in a casual, almost amateur-like way.
“SHINDIG” STARTED IT. “Shindig” was different from rock & roll TV shows that had preceded it in many ways. It featured a large band, smart camera work, and a lineup of a dozen attractive young girls who performed up-to-date dances behind the singers and instrumentalists on the show. This was similar to the rock and roll TV shows that Good had put on in London for both the BBC and commercial TV.
“Shindig’s” success inspired “Hullabaloo,” a slightly different show in some respects but still adhering generally to the rock and roll format. “Hullabaloo” however, went “Shindig” one better. It not only featured a lineup of dancers, but the dancers were featured themselves in one or two routines each evening. And the premiere “Hullabaloo” show spotlighted a dramatic young lady named Joey Heatherton, whose dancing that night created press comment for the show from coast-to-coast!
While “Shindig” and “Hullabaloo” have their dance fans (and they are not all youngsters-the number of young adults who watch both to see the latest dances is huge) there is another show, “Hollywood a Go Go,” that is all out on the modern dance kick. This show, choreographed by Oscar Williams is also on the rock and roll format. It brings viewers up to date on the latest steps with a young group of dancers who may be the wildest yet. “Hollywood a Go Go” is really a swinging TV discotheque scene, presided over by young TV deejay Sam Riddle.
INSPIRED BY ROBBINS. The main inspirational force behind both “Shindig” and “Hullabaloo” derives, in a sense, from Jerome Robbins, who is almost universally acknowledged as the top modern choreographer, but he wasn’t too happy with the job. of the Broadway stage (“West Side Story”) and ballet theater (“Ballets, U.S.A.”). The choreographers of “Shindig”, Andre Tayir, and “Hullabaloo”, David Winters, both danced in the stage and film versions of “West Side Story,” and both are ardent Robbins disciples.
Winters describes his choreography for “Hullabaloo” as “A combination of jazz ballet and the Watusi,” and he says that his staccato style is strongly influenced by Robbins. The 25 -year -old perfectionist auditioned 700 dancers before he selected the chorus of boys and girls currently featured on the show. He thinks all 10 are great but is particularly enthusiastic about the “standout talent” of Donna McKeckney.
BORN IN LONDON. Winters was born in London, England, and came to this country when he was 13. The sandy-haired dancer, who looks considerably younger than 25, has the likable, pugnacious features of a young James Cagney (also a chorus boy in his youth.)
After appearing in 140 TV shows as an actor and nine Broadway productions (including “Gypsy” and “West Side Story”) Winters opened a dance studio in Hollywood. One of his pupils was Ann-Margret and it was due to her recommendation that he landed his first film choreography job on the Elvis Presley picture, “Viva Las Vegas.”
Today, Winters is probably the best known choreographer in the rock and roll field. His numerous movie credits include Doris Day’s “Send Me No Flowers,”Presley’s “Get Happy” and “Tickle Me” and the highly successful teen-musicals with Annette and Frankie Avalon.
He won particular praise for his exciting dance routines on the TAMI “Teen Age Command Performance” in Electronovision. In addition to choreographing the show, writing songs, and being a recording artist, Winters appears on “Hullabaloo” himself every few weeks to perform a special dance interpretation of a best-selling tune. Winters was “Shindig’s” first choreographer, but he wasn’t too happy with the job. “I got bored,” he says. “All they wanted was somebody to do the Pony every week. Only a kid could choreograph that show.”
WOULD DISPUTE WINTERS. Andre Tayir would undoubtedly dispute that statement, and with justification. Tayir puts in almost 50 hours a week working up routines for “Shindig’s” 10 chorus girls and visiting guests.
“As soon as one show is in the can, I have to forget the dances we did and come up with new routines for the next,” says Tayir. “It requires a great deal of work, but it’s not a chore. Everything moves at such a furious pace-no set routine to restrict you. Something new to work with every week.”
Tayir, a native of Alabama, dances solo on the show occasionally, but his “first love is still acting.” He first impressed “Shindig” producer Jack Good when he did the choreography for Good’s “Around The Beatles” special. When Winters moved over to NBC, Good had Tayir waiting in the wings.
POLISHED OR CASUAL. The principal difference between the choreography on “Hullabaloo” and “Shindig” is that the former is exciting in a polished, disciplined fashion, while the latter is equally exciting in a frantic, off-the-cuff style.
The “Shindig” dances appear to be more simple than those on “Hullabaloo.” However, this could easily be a case of artful deception. “Shindig’s” fast moving, near-chaotic pace was carefully conceived by Good, and it is possible-in fact quite probable-that he shrewdly decreed the chorus not appear too professional lest they make the young disc artist-guests look unduly awkward.
Winters rarely has this problem on “Hullabaloo,” because the show’s sizeable budget enables him to work with such show-wise stars as Sammy Davis, Paul Anka, Jack Jones, Trini Lopez, and Joey Heatherton.
THAT DANCE! Winters created a special “Hullabaloo” dance (“an extension of the Jerk”) for Joey on the first show. It was that dance-or rather Miss Heatherton’s uninhibited interpretation of it-that sparked some of the wild comments from TV critics, and viewers. The dancing on “Hullabaloo,” “Shindig,” even the Lloyd Thaxton TV Show, have now replaced the Rolling Stones as the favorite target of the TV critics.
In a way it’s like the old days when Elvis Presley showed off the Presley Twist an the Jackie Gleason and Ed Sullivan Shows. That caused nervous indignation among many TV viewers. The dancing on the swinging rock and roll TV shows is doing it again.
David Winters takes it all in his stride. He says of TV critics and their dance comments, “That’s their problem. Evil is in the eye of the beholder. Adults are doing the same dances now in Clubs. Maybe it’s just the shock of seeing it on the TV screen.”
Actually the dancers on the rock and roll TV shows are all young and attractive, and their dancing usually expresses jubilant high spirits, not the near -orgy suggested by some TV critics. A lot of viewers too think that the dances are exciting and personify today. And more than that, they’re fun to watch. END
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Information, credit, and news source: Music Business, April 3, 1965
Lada Edmunds, Jr., the star go-go dancer on the brand-new, teen-oriented music and dance show, Hullabaloo, on NBC-TV. (Credit: Music Business, April 3, 1965)
Their Smash Hit “Twine Time” Has Sparked the Biggest Teen Dance of the Year, the Twine
THE LITTLE STEPS. Jerry Lewis called them the Little Steps (Step Brothers) when he hired them for his Sands Hotel Show in Las Vegas. Disc Jockey Robert “B. Q.” on KATZ, St. Louis, called them the Crawlers (“the crawl is a dance, man”). Alvin Cash and his group still go under both names (depending on whether it’s records or night club work you’re talking about) and Cash has the distinction too of having the only group that’s basically in the dance business, with a hit record under its belt.
The record, “Twine Time,” on the Mar- V-Lus label out of Chicago, is still moving up this week, and, among other things, it again highlights the record power of a dance title. “I’ve been dancing for quite a few years,” Alvin Cash said this week, as he took a break between photograph sessions of him and his group doing the Twine, “And the group has been going for two years. We still really just dance. “I have a good band on the records and we do a little singing and shouting. I guess that’s what really makes it.”
Cash is 23 and from St. Louis. His group consists of crawlers Charles Tait, 17 and Edward Lance (no relation to Major) 19, plus Cash’s two younger brothers, George and Robert, when they are not in school.
STARTED IN CHICAGO. “The twine dance started at Dunbar Vocational High School in Chicago,” added Chicago -born Charlie Tait, and Andre Williams wrote the tune for our record which we did real quick after hearing about the dance. We don’t do much of our own writing but Alvin did write one called ‘The Bump’ for the album we just recorded.”
“It has all the dances you could want,” continued Eddie Lance. “We like to feature the dances at our own shows and we do the same in our first album. It’s got ‘Shake a Tail Feather,’ The Shake,’ The Jerk,’ `The Twine,’ The Bump,’ (which started as a dance in Louisville before Alvin wrote a tune to go with it), and ‘The Barracuda.’
“The Barracuda will probably be our next single to follow up `Twine Time.’ It’s another strong dance and when the record comes out, we’ll feature it in our shows. Right now we’re getting ready to do a series of one-nighters in the East.
JERRY LEWIS MOVIE. “We’ve been asked to do a movie with Jerry Lewis. He saw us on the Hollywood Palace show last December with Ginger Rogers and he signed us for his Las Vegas show at the Hotel Sands. The Step Brothers were on the show and since we danced the real modern teen dances while they did their own dances, they called us the Little Steps. Now he says he wants us iN his next picture.”
Also on tap for the three-man (sometimes augmented to five) group are taping for the two top teen TV shows, “Hullaballoo” and “Shindig.” The former was due almost immediately; the latter will come when the boys tour their way back to the Coast.
In addition, according to Alvin, “We’re hoping to go into the Apollo Theater in with the Righteous Brothers.
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That’s supposed to be March 12 and we’re waiting for the final word right now. I hope we can make it there and I think we will because we’ve had a lot of practice working for an audience. Back home we often appear at a place called the Budland Club. It’s a teen age spot at 64th and Cottage Grove Avenue in Chicago. It’s been great experience for us, especially for working out new things.”
ST. LOUIS DAYS. “I had in-person experience even before that,” Cash continued, recalling his earlier years in St. Louis. “At least five years ago, I got a real break from E. Rodney Jones. He’s a famous deejay and he’s on WVON in Chicago today, but then he was in St. Louis. He booked me and a group onto the Jackie Wilson show and later on, we did our first TV show with Rodney.
“When we’re home in Chicago, we try to listen to Rodney on the air. He’s an old friend. But if I’m not listening and not working, well then, I like bowling and horseback riding. I like seeing stars like Nancy Wilson, the Impressions and the Temptations too.”
As for Charlie Tait and Eddie Lance, both live at home, but both also have their own interest. “I like to draw cartoons and I spend a lot of time doodling at it,” said Charlie.
Ed, on the other hand, is a sports fan and enjoys playing pick-up basketball games at Chicago’s Jackson Park Field House. “I dig the Harlem Globetrotters too,” he admitted. “But the way things are going now, I guess I won’t be having too much time for basketball.” END
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Information, credit and news source: Music Business, February 20, 1965
Audio digitally remastered by Motor City Radio Flashbacks
Alvin, Simon and Theodore-and David Seville have their hottest selling album in years with the new “Chipmunks Sing The Beatles Hits”
The biggest-selling new album in the U.S. at this moment is a Liberty LP called “The Chipmunks Sing The Beatles Hits.” It was released less than two weeks ago, and has already passed the 250,000 mark.
According to Liberty executives it is the fastest selling Chipmunk product in its initial weeks since the little creatures’ first hit, “Witch Doctor”, about four years ago. Say Liberty spokesmen, “It is selling like a single.” The firm had ordered 250,000 jackets in front before the LP was issued. They have since ordered another 250,000 jackets.
Long in the works
Liberty Records CEO Al Bennett with Chipmunks creator Ross Bagdasarian. (Photo: Music Business)
The Chipmunks-Beatles LP has been in the thinking stage for a long time. A while back, the versatile and imaginative Ross Bagdasarian, whose record name is David Seville, did a takeoff on the English sound on a single record. He called the group The Bed Bugs. Not much happened with the record, mainly because teens aren’t interested in satire of their record heroes, but that’s when the idea to record The Chipmunks singing Beatles’ hits was born.
The Obvious appeal of the Chipmunks-Beatles LP is the power of the two names. In addition to that is the fact that the album is not a satire. The Chipmunks, those immediately identifiable electronic voices, sing all of the songs straight. This keeps them in good with their own youthful fans (often reckoned as ranging in age from three to seven) who also appreciate The Beatles. (Their appeal is much wider than that of The Chipmunks, ranging to the late teens, but it also reaches down to the tricycle and scooter set.)
Even before Bagdasarian started working on the Chipmunks album, requests were coming in from the field for Alvin, Simon and Theodore to do The Beatles hits. Since the album has come out and hit with such a tremendous impact requests are coming on from the field for the next album to be “The Chipmunks Sing The Dave Clark Five Hits” or the Rolling Stones or some other English group.
Even F. A. O. Schwartz
The Chipmunks LP is not only selling well in traditional record outlets and department stores and racks, but is getting action in outlets that do not usually carry records. F. A. O. Schwartz, the posh children’s toy store on New York’s Fifth Avenue, has ordered a substantial quantity of the LP. The Korvette chain has made the album a key display item. And Woolworth’s has made it the LP to be played on phonographs in record departments of its immense chain.
The most played bands in the album by the top radio stations to date are: “Do You Want To Know A Secret,” “All My Lovin’,” “Twist And Shout,” and “From Me To You.” However, at this time Liberty has no intention of issuing any of the bands as a single. “Why hurt our album sales?”, they ask.
Liberty-Imperial comeback
Smash sales of the Chipmunks-Beatles LP on Liberty is another giant step on the remarkable comeback trail of Liberty and its subsidiary label Imperial. Less than a year ago Liberty-Imperial was far down from its peak period of two and three years back. President Al Bennett had just bought the firm back from Avnet, the electronics firm that had purchased the company in 1962.
Since then Liberty has come back with hot releases with Jan and Dean’s “Dead Man’s Curve” and “Little Old Lady From Pasadena,” and Vic Dana’s “Shangri-La” and “Love Is All We Need.” On Imperial the firm came up with a smash with Johnny Rivers’ “Memphis.” On the album level Liberty has had solid acceptance with its new fall line, especially with its new Johnny Mann, Julie London, Martin Denny, and Si Zentner LP’s. The Johnny Rivers album “Memphis” Vol. II, is also doing very well. END
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Information, credit and news source: Music Business, August 29, 1964
Indie singles label, now grossing close to $3 million annually, readies domestic and international LP lines.
Like a rocket that’s just dropped off its first stage and is quickly moving into orbit is one way of picturing the present stage of the developing Scepter -Wand Records operation.
Stage One for Scepter — its old office at 1650 Broadway — has just floated away into space. Stage two has begun in a luxurious new suite of offices incorporating the entire sixth floor at 254 West 54th Street in New York. Another kind of Stage One, the pre-occupation with singles, has also been put aside in favor of currying a more or less all-round singles-album label image.
In another sense, the second phase has started in full sway. Previously, the company has devoted itself strictly to domestic r. and b. oriented product. Now, under an experienced hand in the overseas scene, a new emphasis is being placed on the international area.
The company began, in a sense, in nearby Passaic, N. J., the home at the time of the head of the company, Florence Greenberg. It has grown from a vision in Mrs. Greenberg’s mind, in the late ’50s, to a firm which today is grossing at a rate of close to $3,000,000 annually, and a company which has its own artist management set-up, an international division and a handsome new recording studio, due for completion soon.
“My son, Stan, who is 26 today and earned a Ph.D in music, had written a song called ‘Nightbeat’,” Mrs. Greenberg recalled last week. “We hired a singer and went into a studio and recorded it. We didn’t know what we were doing at all but we enjoyed the experience. My daughter was in high school at the time. In her class was a group of girl singers who had written a song and we recorded them too. We called them the Shirelles. The recording, “I Met Him On A Sunday,” was finally put out by Decca.
“They didn’t become anything big and we finally got a release from Decca and cut another thing, “Dedicated To The One I Love,” which George Goldner distributed for us through his Gone-End company.”
Shortly before this activity, Mrs. Greenberg had met Marvin Schlachter, a young advertising salesman for Cash Box Magazine. Ultimately, the two decided to open their own company. Joining them in the venture were Luther Dixon, a songwriter -producer and Goldner’s accountant, Jerry Roth. It was the start of Scepter and the first release was the Shirelles’ “Tonight’s The Night,” which was followed shortly by the group’s first smash hit, “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.”
“It was all pretty nutty,” Schlachter said last week. “We had an awful lot to learn about making records and selling them, and artist contracts and even keeping books. It’s really something that we were able to keep going. But we’ve developed something that can last a long time. We don’t have very many artists but the ones we do have we work with all the way.
“Look at Dionne Warwick, for example. She’s been on this scene for only about a year. But she was the featured singing star of the Cannes Festival last month and she has a schedule of top engagements lined up in the months to come here and in Europe.
Chuck Jackson, “getting great money on personal appearances.”(MUSIC BUSINESS)
“Look at Chuck Jackson. He hasn’t had many big hits but he sells well in the r. and b. areas and he’s getting great money on his personal appearances. Chuck makes $3,500 to $4,000 a week. The point is that we’ve made him into an artist who will be around for a long time to come.
“To do this we started our Wand Management firm. Paul Kantor, who used to be in the agency business, is the head of this. We do everything we can to teach an artist to perform properly. The record business is full of one-shot hit artists who don’t know what to do on a floor. Actually, we don’t make any money directly out of managing. We plough the income right back into the artist’s career, so it’s a form of insurance that we’re buying with the money.
“We’ve been almost completely a singles company so far. But now that we’ve been able to really establish our artists we’ll be moving more and more into albums. We’ll be very selective because you can get ruined fast by spending a lot of money to turn out an album that won’t pay its own way. Now, we’ve reached the point where we have 10 albums ready to go and we’ll probably hire a merchandising man soon.
“We take masters of course. We had a great success with the Kingsmen and “Louie Louie.” And we’ve had others, but we honestly prefer being able to have the artist right with us, so we can help build the career rather than working through outside producers.
“That pays off with record sales as well as personals because when you build the career, you also build a hard core of fans for the artist even if they don’t get the top hits. The Shirelles album that came out two and a half years ago, still sells about 1,000 albums a month, a nice catalog item. Chuck Jackson may not make the charts every time out but he sells a minimum of 75,000 to 100,000 singles on every release, which isn’t bad in today’s market.”
The company also is involved in publishing, with such firms as Zann and Flo-Mar-Lou, both BMI, and Mary Jane (ASCAP) and named after Mrs. Greenberg’s daughter. Ludix Music (BMI) is wholly owned by Luther Dixon, who has been with the company since its start except for one sallying forth into other areas for about a year (he had one working arrangement with Capitol for a time) and who has since returned to Scepter as executive a. & r. producer.
The personnel line-up includes Mrs. Greenberg as president, Schlachter as vice president on the sales and merchandising front, Dixon as vice president in charge of a. & r., Kantor as general manager of Wand Management, and Joe Zerga, formerly of Transglobal Music, in charge of publishing and the International Department. In addition there are nearly 30 employees in the office and the warehouse across the street.
“We’re going in for a big expansion in the international field,” Schlachter continued. “Joe Zerga is in Europe now, setting up a number of releasing agreements for our product over there and for release by us in this country of various albums from Europe. Pye distributes us in England now and Joe is on the pointing of completing distribution in some of the other countries.
“We expect to introduce the Scepter International album line in September. Joe has already arranged for us to put out six LP’s in our first release of albums from Ireland, Greece, Germany, Italy, France and Norway. We’ll have an album of Sophia Loren reading poetry, to give you an idea. Our income from overseas release of our records just this year will probably be close to $250,000. We expect that to be increased this year from these new deals we have.”
Dionne Warwick, the label’s big new star, poses with two of the Kingsmen.(MUSIC BUSINESS)
The overall Scepter Music Corporation, contains, in addition to the Scepter and Wand labels, the management and the publishing firms, a new studio now being fitted out. “We haven’t decided yet whether that will be a separate corporation but it probably will,” said Schlachter.
“We have a young engineer, John La Kata, installing the equipment. When it’s finished it will be worth close to $100,000. We’ll confine it mostly to our own use. Some other firms may be cutting here too but it’ll be on a limited, controlled basis.
“Another artist we are working with now is Big Maybelle. We’ve recorded some great things with her and they’ll be coming out soon.” “She is such a fine artist, and we’re willing to work hard with her,” Mrs. Greenberg added. “We think we can do a lot with her and for her, just as we have with the others. We’ve never lost an artist that we’ve signed. This isn’t called the Scepter family for nothing.
We’re basically r. and b., I guess you’d say. And I doubt if we’ll get too far away from that. It’s what we know and love. A shoemaker sticks to his last. Or you can put it another way and say if you know how to sell $3.98 dresses, you stay with that and forget about the $25 ones. We like to think of ourselves as another Atlantic Records. But I’ll say that I have a great admiration for Kapp Records and we watch what they do all the time too,” said Mrs. Greenberg. END
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Information, credit and news source: Music Business, July 11, 1964
Happy Scepter-Wand executives present The Kingsmen with gold discs for their smash hit, “Louie Louie”. From left to right (standing) Marvin Schlacter; Bob Levenson, of Bay State Distributors, Boston, who first broke the record; Florence Greenberg; Pete Garris and Luther Dixon. Seated are The Kingsmen.(MUSIC BUSINESS)
Gary Stevens, Top-Rated Deejay From Detroit, Has Become the Fifth Good Guy on New York’s WMCA. This Is What It’s Like
THE NEW SCENE. What’s it like for an out-of-town deejay to move into New York and try to become part of a team of Good Guys on a highly rated station in the big town? How does he react to the change of climate, change of scene, change of audience and a change of hours? How does he feel about four -sheets posted all over town reading “Is Gary Stevens really a good guy? No. He’s a great guy!”
WKNR MUSIC GUIDE featuring Gary Stevens (3-7 p.m.) April, 1964
Gary Stevens is the new Good Guy in New York. He comes from Detroit, from station WKNR where he was a top-rated disc jockey. He is now with Station WMCA in the 7 to 11 p.m. slot, the big slot, make or break slot.
He came into New York after the biggest radio night time shakeup in Gotham in the memory of most record and station people. The big guns, the big names who used to hold down the top posts and who made New York still seem like the swinging rock town it was when Alan Freed was creating all kinds of excitement at WINS in the mid -1950’s, have vanished.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW. Murray the K is no longer on WINS. WMCA’s B. Mitchell Reed, who had captured a big segment of the kid audience, has left to return to his old post at KFWB in Los Angeles. Scott Muni has been long gone from WABC. Only Bruce Morrow, the cousin Brucie of the laughs and the gimmicks is still swinging at night. The other big night names have fled, and the kids get their sounds via TV.
WINS has turned to news. WMCA let its night time slot be filled by swing-shifting its other good guys for almost two months. WNEW’s new policy of playing slightly more raucous records has led some radio-record people to intimate that the station might go rock all the way, a possibility that seems as distant as the moon landings.
The Good Guys at WMCA give away sweatshirts, appear in funny costumes, play baseball with the Playboy Bunnies, make all trade functions and are probably the closest group of guys working together since the Harlem Globetrotters.
Gary Stevens has been through all this before. He was a Good Guy at WFUN in Miami, which helped to originate the Goody Guy format. So he knows.
NEW YORK KIDS. What has surprised him is the New York kids. “They’re more hip than the kids in Detroit,” he said a while back at a luncheon at Sardi.” A lot of the things I used to do in Detroit have not made out here. I guess it’s because the kids are more sophisticated.
“It’s all part of being in New York, I think,” continued Gary Stevens. “In other cities you look for things that are happening–here anyone or anything that happens comes to you.
“I get calls from kids who want to talk to me about my show. They use words like gimmick and format, words you wouldn’t hear used in Detroit by anyone except radio people. One youngster called me up a few days after I started at WMCA and said “Man, you need more gimmicks.”
WKNR Gary Stevens, early-1965
NEED TO BE TALKED TO. “Yet, in spite of all this, New York kids still need to be talked to, like normal youngsters anywhere. I’m willing to alter my style to fit the market, but I still want to be myself.
I’ll use my own gimmicks, the Wooleyburger, a ferocious animal that doesn’t talk, only growls. I have to interpret what he says. I’ll also introduce the Frog. He growls too, and I’ll have to explain what he is saying.
“And I won’t play Joe Nice-Guy, just because I’m in New York. Some jockeys come to the big city and try to please everybody. Not me. I’ll be me.
“Even though the New York kids are more sophisticated about things, they are not more hip musically. In fact they are not as aware of many of the new records as the youngsters in Detroit. That could be because they have so many radio stations in New York with all kinds of different formats. It also could be because there are so many things here to distract them from records.”
SHOW A MIXTURE. Stevens’ show is a mixture of up-to-date and on the way up rock discs, a mixture of rock and rhythm and blues that lies more in the old Alan Freed tradition than that of his predecessor B. Mitchell Reed. He intersperses his commercials and straight announcements with gags and sort-of-one line put-ons. He doesn’t sound like anyone else in town, so he has to make it on his own.
With the help of the Good Guy image that is.
Is Gary Stevens a Good Guy? Can he bring to his shows that mixture of freshness and audience appeal that WMCA wants to make that night time slot the top-rated of the pop music stations? He’s trying hard, with the Wooleyburger, one-liners, and smartly paced programming.
He’ll probably learn a lot from those smart New York kids. And they might learn a lot from him. If they like him he’ll be a Good Guy for a long, long time to come. END
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Information, credit and news source: Music Business, May 15, 1965
The English Group, whose leader, — “the one with the tooth” — is only 17, has themselves a smash, and another on the way — Music Business
IT JUST FIT. “I mean–Hermit fits so well with Herman, that there was nothing more to it. We became Herman’s Hermits. And just in case you don’t know who I am, I’m Herman-the one with the tooth. Actually, my real name is Peter Blair Dennis Bernard Noone. It’s really a bit much. Herman’s so much easier, don’t you think?”
Peter Noone of the Hermits
Sometimes Herman plays a little piano. Other times he claps a bit. Most times he makes hit records, like “I’m Into Something Good”, and now “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat”. There was also a record called “Show Me Girl”, which was never released here, but nonetheless hit the British charts.
Herman is only 17–honest, it’s no publicity gimmick. But already he and the Hermits have made one trip to the U.S., and he’s due back again next month to go out with the group as special guest stars on the Dick Clark package.
ALMOST AN ACTOR. At one time he was going to be an actor. He even got roles in two television shows, and appeared in two children’s plays, but since he became a singer, he’s given up all thoughts of pursuing an acting career. “I didn’t like the people anyway”, he says. “On the other hand, of course, if it would be a movie, then that’s something else.
“I believe there’s a possibility of a film for MGM as soon as a suitable script can be found. I’d like a dramatic role, and it has to be a supporting one. A starring part would be a little beyond me right now.”
Herman, who is fascinated by such unlikely things as Afghanistan steaks and launderettes (he would like to open a cross country chain of them when he’s made enough money), was a little uncertain about the success of his first record, “I’m Into Something Good”, released here on MGM.
KNOCKED OUT. “I felt sick when I first heard it. I went flat on one of the notes in the song. Wanted to go over it again, but when I discovered it would be another four hour session, we had to leave it as it was. Because we weren’t confident about it was why we were so knocked out when it happened”. (The record stayed at the top of the British charts for three weeks, and went top twenty here).
Herman had more faith in his second British release, “Show Me Girl”, but said he realized why it didn’t get higher than 20 in their charts, when he heard it on the radio for the first time. It was never released here. Instead, MGM came out with “Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat”, his current smash. Strangely enough, this record has been covered for England by an American group, “Goldie and the Gingerbreads”, and is their first hit in the British charts. However, Herman’s recording of it was never released over there, and he and his group are happily holding down the current number 4 slot with “Silhouettes”.
With all these records flying about, even Herman could be forgiven for getting a little confused. But what do you do, when, having experienced success in two different countries, with a variety of different discs, you have the added problem of a hit track from your first L.P.
MRS. BROWN TRACK. “Introducing Herman’s Hermits”, came out here a little more than a month ago. Already in the top hundred, just last week a flush of radio stations all over the country, decided to lay on “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter” and use it as a single track on their station playlists. MGM is now faced with the dilemma of whether or not this track should be issued as the group’s new single. At press time there had been no definite decision, but it would seem like a good idea.
Getting back to the group, Herman’s Hermits present line up has been together about six months. They were called the Heartbeats and playing the local Manchester, England, scene, when Herman joined them, and had a pretty big following even then.
Herman’s name is derived from a British TV series called “The Bullwinkle Show”. In it, there’s a character called Sherman, who bears a strange resemblance to Peter Noone. The Heartbeats mistook the name, called their new lead singer Herman, and changed their name to the Hermits.
Their record producer is Mickie Most, who signed them after having traveled North especially to watch one of their concerts. The rest of the group comprises of Karl Green (bass guitar), Derek Leckenby (lead and rhythm guitar), Barry Whitwarn (drums) and Keith Hopwood (lead and rhythm guitar).
DECIDED IDEAS. Herman has very decided ideas on lots of things. Speaking frankly, a little while after his first hit, he said “Of course our initial success has knocked us out, and the extra money has been very useful. But I’m jealous of ne groups that keep cropping up. They make things harder”.
Herman says that he loves what he’s seen of show business, and never wants to leave it. Realizing that trends are forever changing, he says he hopes he and the Hermits will always be able to adapt their style to fit in accordingly.
He’s looking forward tremendously to his next trip here, next month, and figures that although the Dick Clark tour is going to be pretty exhausting, the experience, and exposure will be worth it.
“I mean, it’s great to be the first ever British group on a Dick Clark package”, he says. “We hear so much about it in England, and how successful it is, that it’s a terrific honor to be invited to go on it. Of course, we’ve worked and traveled with American acts at home, but traveling in the U.S. will help us get a real feel for their music, and ours. It’s also encouraging to know that this is known as a very successful show, which makes it all the better”. END
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Information, credit and news source: Music Business, March 27, 1965
Herman and his Hermits with New York’s Murray the K.
A Letter Addressed in Long Island, New York, Props Highly Tommy Shannon at CKLW Radio
