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FOURTEEN WEEKS on the singles chart, “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” by Simon & Garfunkel peaked at #1 on February 28 (6 weeks) on the Billboard Hot 100. Week ending February 28 through April 4, 1970. (Source: Billboard)
For our previous Billboard Number One U.S.A. Hits 1970 go HERE
NUMBER 1 IN AMERICA * FEBRUARY 28-APRIL 4, 1970
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THIRTEEN WEEKS on the singles chart, “Thank You” by Sly & The Family Stone peaked at #1 on February 14 (2 weeks) on the Billboard Hot 100. Week ending February 14 through February 21, 1970. (Source: Billboard)
For our previous Billboard Number One U.S.A. Hits 1970 go HERE
NUMBER 1 IN AMERICA * FEBRUARY 14-FEBRUARY 21, 1970
— A SOUL ENCOUNTERED —
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In closing out the year, we pay homage to WJR broadcasting legend Mike Whorf, who passed away in November, at the age of 88.
In wake of his passing, Kevin Collard, former producer at WJR for over 16 years, created and produced a special two hour tribute to the award-winning “Kaleidoscope” program host. We found Kevin’s tribute he featured on his ‘Soul Encountered‘ podcast page (see our Blogroll link) just four days after Mike’s passing, on November 14.
Kevin Collard also worked with over 30 hosts at WJR (not to mention Mike Whorf) including: Paul W Smith, Ken Calvert, David Newman and wrapping up his career there working with Frank Beckmann in 2009. Kevin also stated he did production work for Larry Patton, John McCullough, Kevin Joyce, Mitch Albom and other luminaries affiliated with Detroit radio as well.
Earlier this month, Kevin shared his ‘A Tribute to Mike Whorf’ podcast with Motor City Radio Flashbacks. A professed “fan and follower of the site”, we are truly honored to share this beautifully produced, Mike Whorf rememberance, here, on our web page today.
Thank you, Kevin Collard
For more on the passing of this WJR broadcasting legend, go HERE
Mike Whorf was on WJR from 1964 to 2003.
Mike Whorf, longtime radio host of the Peabody Award-winning WJR program Kaleidoscope, died in Detroit on Tuesday, November 10th. He was 88. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Whorf spent his childhood and teen years in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Whorf attended Provincetown High School and upon graduation in 1950, enlisted in the United States Air Force where he trained as a radio announcer on the Armed Forces Network.
After military service, Whorf worked on the radio in Massachusetts and in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, where he met and married his wife of 49 years, Barbara Ann Brown. From the 1960s through the 90s, Whorf was part of a WJR Detroit line-up of radio personalities known throughout the Great Lakes region. Whorf’s Kaleidoscope topics ranged from politics to religion, from the arts to sports. In 1968, he was recognized with one of the world’s top media honors: the George Foster Peabody Award for his documentary on the life and work of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Mike Whorf also served during the mid-1980s as program director of classical station WQRS-FM in Detroit. While with WQRS, Whorf created the program “Quest for Excellence,” a juried music competition show for aspiring young talents broadcast live before a studio audience.
In 2008 he was inducted into the Michigan Broadcasting Hall of Fame by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters.
Aside from broadcasting, Whorf’s greatest joy was his life as a family man. He and his beloved wife Barbara and their son and daughters enjoyed traveling to the Eastern US for visits with many relatives. In their golden years, Mike and Barb were blessed to alternate time between overseas trips and watching their grandchildren grow.
Michael’s wife Barbara preceded him in death in 2006. He is survived by son Peter (Jennifer), daughters Sarah, Jennifer (Quinn), Suzannah (Ian) and grandchildren Daniel, Annemarie, Michael, Noelle, Jack, Sean, Nate, Noah and Olivia.
Private services have been held.
Memorials appreciated to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, Pain & Palliative Care Center, 44405 Woodward Ave., Pontiac, MI 48341.
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Obituary (view online) courtesy of:
Lynch & Sons Funeral Directors | Clawson, MI.
A SOUL ENCOUNTERED: A TRIBUTE TO MIKE WHORF
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FOURTEEN WEEKS on the singles chart, “My Sweet Lord” by George Harrison peaked at #1 this month (4 weeks overall) on the Billboard Hot 100. Week ending, December 26, 1970 through week-ending January 16, 1971.
(Source: Billboard)
For our previous Billboard Number One U.S.A. Hits go HERE
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‘The 25th Day of December’ is a Christmas album by American singer Bobby Darin, released in 1960. The heralded “Christmas Auld Lang Syne“, written by Manny Kurtz (d. 1984; wrote over 250 songs) and co-written by Francis Philip Military, made its debut on this album, and with backing of Darin’s vocals is the Bobby Scott Chorale. The track also was released on the Atco label as a single (6183) and released for the Christmas Holidays, debuting on Billboard, October 31, 1960.
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(Source: Wikipedia; AllMusic)
— Christmas Memories From the Soundtrack of Your Life —
DECEMBER 25 * 01 * BOBBY DARIN
‘THE CHRISTMAS SONG NAT KING COLE‘
— ABOUT THIS LP —
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‘The Magic of Christmas’ is a 1960 album by Nat King Cole, arranged and conducted by Ralph Carmichael. This was Cole’s only complete album of Christmas songs, although he had recorded several holiday singles earlier in his career. One of these, “The Christmas Song”, originally recorded in 1946, was re-recorded for the 1961 album The Nat King Cole Story. In 1963 The Magic of Christmas was reissued under the title The Christmas Song, with that recording added to the track list in place of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”, and with new cover art. It is the best-selling Christmas album released in the 1960s, and was certified by the RIAA for shipments of 6 million copies in the U.S. The 1963 version reached number 1 on Billboard’s Christmas Albums chart and remained for two weeks.
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(Source: WiKipedia)
— Christmas Memories From the Soundtrack of Your Life —
Click on (COMPLETE LP) for the complete track listing on this album.
THE CHRISTMAS SONG NAT KING COLE (COMPLETE LP) * 1963
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For three consecutive years in the 1970s, ‘The First Christmas‘ aired on 98.7 WBFG-FM in Detroit during the holiday seasons, 1975, 1976 and 1977. At the time ‘The First Christmas’ first aired, WBFG was Detroit’s only premiere station known for it’s all-religious broadcasting format. The call letters WBFG was also the station’s heralded acronym as well. The calls represented their out-going religious radio content heard daily 24/7 on the FM side, “We’re Broadcasting For God.”
This special holiday recording, “The First Christmas,” was conceived, created, produced and narrated by Bob Pratt.
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“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6
A special THANK YOU to Bob Pratt for sharing this special holiday program with Motor City Radio Flashbacks
— Christmas Memories From the Soundtrack of Your Life —
THE FIRST CHRISTMAS * DECEMBER 24, 1977 * WBFG
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33 CONTINUOUS HOURS of CHRISTMAS MUSIC and MEMORIES
((((( LISTEN LIVE HERE )))))
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STARTS TODAY! 3:00 P.M., CHRISTMAS EVE through 12 M. CHRISTMAS DAY
SPECIAL MESSAGE TO MOTOR CITY RADIO FLASHBACKS’ FRIENDS
— ABOUT THIS LP —
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‘The Andy Williams Christmas Album’ is the first Christmas holiday album released by singer Andy Williams and his twelfth studio album overall. It was issued by Columbia Records in 1963, and it would prove to be the first of eight Christmas albums released by Williams. Though it was also the album that introduced Williams’ perennial holiday classic “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”, Columbia instead opted to release Williams’ cover of “White Christmas” as the album’s promotional single at the time. From 1963 to 1973, Billboard published special weekly Christmas Albums and Christmas Singles sales charts. For all five weeks that these special charts were published in 1963 (for the weeks ending November 30, 1963 through December 28, 1963), The Andy Williams Christmas Album was the number one selling Christmas album, while Williams’ cover of “White Christmas” was the number one selling Christmas single. The Andy Williams Christmas Album spent three weeks as the number one selling Christmas album during the holiday season of 1964, and one week as the number one selling Christmas album during the holiday season of 1965.
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(Source: Wikipedia)
— Christmas Memories From the Soundtrack of Your Life —
Click on (COMPLETE LP) for the complete track listing on this album.
THE ANDY WILLIAMS CHRISTMAS ALBUM (COMPLETE LP) * 1963
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‘The Christmas Song’ (commonly subtitled “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” or, as it was originally subtitled, “Merry Christmas to You“) is a classic Christmas song written in 1945 by Robert Wells and Mel Tormé. The Nat King Cole Trio first recorded the song in June 1946. At Cole’s behest – and over the objections of his label, Capitol Records – a second recording was made in August utilizing a small string section, this version becoming a massive hit on both the pop and R&B charts. Cole again recorded the song in 1953, using the same arrangement with a full orchestra arranged and conducted by Nelson Riddle, and once more in 1961, in a stereophonic version with another full orchestra arranged and conducted by Ralph Carmichael. Cole’s 1961 version is generally regarded as definitive. Fourth recording: Recorded at Capitol Studios, New York City, March 30, 1961. This rendition, the first recorded in stereo, is widely played on radio stations during the Christmas season, and has become the most popular/familiar version of this song. Label credit: Nat King Cole (Nat King Cole, vocals; Ralph Carmichael, orchestra conductor). The instrumental arrangement is nearly identical to the 1953 version, but Cole’s vocals are deeper-sounding and more focused. Originally done for The Nat King Cole Story (a 1961 LP devoted to stereo re-recordings of Cole’s earlier hits), this recording was later included in a reissue of Cole’s 1960 holiday album The Magic of Christmas replacing “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”. Retitled The Christmas Song, the album was issued in 1963 as Capitol W-1967 (mono) / SW-1967 (stereo) and today is in print on compact disc.
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(Source: Wikipedia)
— Christmas Memories From the Soundtrack of Your Life —
DECEMBER 24 * 02 * NAT KING COLE
