Thursday, May 31, 2007

Another Memorial Day Countdown

Since we're talking about 300 Memorial Day countdowns, here is one from KOLA, played this last weekend. I'll limit to the Top 40

The highlighted songs are ones that could have made one K/MEN Soundathon or another. Songs from 1972 or before. Hey, still no Stairway To Heaven-Led Zeppelin (many times #1 on these charts, not even in the top 400) The other #1 song in these countdowns in the last few years, Unchained Melody-Righteous Brothers made it to #132 on this chart.

MEMORIAL DAY TOP 40 COUNTDOWN
1 HOTEL CALIFORNIA-EAGLES
2 HEY JUDE -BEATLES
3 TAKIN' CARE OF BUSINESS -B.T.O.
4 SATISFACTION-ROLLING STONES
5 MAGGIE MAY -ROD STEWART
6 OLD TIME ROCK AND ROLL -BOB SEGER
7 YOUR SONG -ELTON JOHN
8 OH PRETTY WOMAN -ROY ORBISON
9 EVIL WAYS -SANTANA
10MONY MONY -TOMMY JAMES AND THE SHONDELLS

11 BRICK HOUSE -COMMODORES
12 TAKE IT EASY -EAGLES
13 IMAGINE -JOHN LENNON
14 BRANDY -LOOKING GLASS
15 TWIST AND SHOUT -BEATLES

16 YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET -B.T.O.
17 I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE -MARVIN GAYE
18 LISTEN TO THE MUSIC -DOOBIE BROTHERS
19 THAT'S THE WAY I LIKE IT -KC AND THE SUNSHINE BAND
20 PROUD MARY -CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL
21 LIGHT MY FIRE -DOORS
22 MARGARITAVILLE -JIMMY BUFFETT
23 JOY TO THE WORLD -THREE DOG NIGHT
24 YESTERDAY -BEATLES
25 CROCODILE ROCK -ELTON JOHN

26 BLINDED BY THE LIGHT -MANFRED MANN
27 SEPTEMBER -EARTH WIND AND FIRE
28 LANDSLIDE -FLEETWOOD MAC
29 DESPERADO -EAGLES
30 MY LIFE -BILLY JOEL
31 STAND BY ME -BEN E. KING
32 BANG A GONG -T REX
33 SUPERSTITION-STEVIE WONDER
34 FAITHFULLY -JOURNEY
35 BROWN EYED GIRL -VAN MORRISON
36 MAYBE I'M AMAZED -PAUL MCCARTNEY
37 STOP! IN THE NAME OF LOVE -SUPREMES
38 BABY HOLD ON -EDDIE MONEY
39 HONKY TONK WOMEN -ROLLING STONES
40 SOUNDS OF SILENCE -SIMON AND GARFUNKE
L

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

K/mentertainer Mayl 27, 1967





#1 Groovin'-Young Rascals
Pick of the week New York Mining Disaster 1941-Bee Gees oh yeah My World Fell Down too.

Notice the most requested hits the new Monkees album Headquarters








Monday, May 28, 2007

Soundathons 1967-1972

K/MEN Soundathons Top 5

Before I get into the Top 4, here are the top 5 from each individual K/MEN Soundathon



1967

1-Cherish-Association

2-Monday Monday-Mamas & Papas

3-The House Of The Rising Sun-Animals

4-Satisfaction-Rolling Stones

5-Yesterday-Beatles

1968

1-Light My Fire-Doors

2-Cherish

3-The House Of The Rising Sun

4-The Letter-Boxtops

5-Gloria-Them

1969

1-Hey Jude-Beatles

2-Light My Fire

3-Cherish

4-In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida-Iron Butterfly

5-Love Is Blue-Paul Mauriat

1970

1-Hey Jude

2-Light My Fire

3-Ler It Be-Beatles

4-Cherish

5-The Sounds of Silence-Simon & Garfunkel

1971

1-Hey Jude

2-Let It Be

3-Light My Fire

4-My Sweet Lord-George Harroson

5-Satisfaction

1972

1-Hey Jude

2-Joy To The World-Three Dog Night

3-Let It Be

4-Light My Fire

5-American Pie-Don McLean



Now the Top 4 (already did #5 earlier, see a previous post)

As predicted #1 #1 #1 #1

Back to the countdown!
K/men Soundathon Combo-Continuing with the compilation of the 1967-1972 Kmen Top 300 Soundathons

Not making you wait. So in the same order as the top five above, here are the remainding four.

#1 Hey Jude-The Beatles-Not much else to say. It was #1 for 7 weeks on KFXM, and the all time champ on K/MEN's Soundathons


Soundathon # 2

#2 Light My Fire-Doors-What can you say. Big hit, and at times is #1 on greatest hits of all times surveys. One of my wife's favorite songs.

Memorial Day 300 Soundathon K/MEN # 3

#3 Cherish-The Association-Their first huge hit. Myself I prefered Along Comes Mary and Looking Glass/No Fair At All by them, but this is the one that did it for them.


Memorial Day K/MEN Soudathon 300 # 4

and to conclude...

#4 Let It Be-Beatles-The title song from their 1970 soundtrack. In 1970 my family took a vacationto visit relatives in Kansas and Wisconsin. My Uncle in Kansas wanted to buy me an album. Let It Be was my choice. Thanks Uncle!


Sunday, May 27, 2007

Tomorrow- It's time for number 1!

Sorry, neither of these were #1...
I will do my best by tomorrow evening to put up the top 4 from the K/men soundation combo from the top 300 soundathons from the Memorial Day past. I'll also try to dig out the old original surveys from those soundathons to let you know what the #1 from each year was.


Until tomorrow!

KFXM Tiger Mag May 26, 1967

Standells and Charlie Walters on the cover of the Tiger Mag. They don't look that tough in this picture. Review of The Beatles Sgt Peppers, but only up to track 2 of side 2.

Bob Dylan controversy continues. A question of will he stay at Columbia Records or move over to MGM....

New #1 this week She'd Rather Be With Me-Turtles Highest Debut on the top 40 Light My Fire-Doors. #2 this week, the first big hit by the Grassroots, Let's Live For Today
My World Fell Down starting up the top 40. Rumor inside is that Sagittarius is the Beach Boys, not true.
Favorite new songs Come On Down To My Boat-Every Mother's Son and the rather obscure Sound of Love-Five Americans. Love that kind of music. Also a good song by Ray Charles, Here We Go Again.






Friday, May 25, 2007

Memorial Day Soundathon #7 #6 #5

#7 Yesterday-Beatles-The song that has the most versions recorded. It had the working title Scrambled Eggs. Only Beatle on the song is Paul McCartney. I've seen surveys listing the artist as Paul and not the Beatles. This was not a single in the 1960's in England, but part of a 4 song EP. #6 (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction-Rolling Stones-This is the copy I bought at Sages for .88 at he same time I bought Gloria by Them around 1967. Yes, I put my initials on it.

#5 The House Of The Rising Sun-Animals-As you probably notice, this is not the original single. It must be a bootleg. The flip side of this copy is Satifaction by the Rolling Stones





Thursday, May 24, 2007

K/mentertainer May 20, 1967

The first mention of the Top 300 Soundathon. Also an article about The Good Feelins.


#1 Groovin'-Young Rascals First appearance of Incense & Peppermints-Strawberry Alarm Clock
Also The Doors followup to Break On Through the forever future and always #1 Light My Fire. That is one of my wife's favorites, although I prefer Break On Through





Hey it was Little Richard at the Municipal Auditorium!

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

More My World Fell Down



Promo copy from KFXM, courtesy of a fomer KFXM DJ. Checking my surveys, it was #21 June 2, 1967. Also a copy someone probably bought new.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

My World Fell Down

In the last posting there were comments about the song My World Fell Down by Sagittarius which was a personal pick on the latest KFXM survey. Here's an article with some background information about the song. Including a comment about the bridge.

Sagittarius (band)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Sagittarius was a late-60s studio group devised by producer and songwriter Gary Usher. Usher had been involved with music as a songwriter since the early 60s (including writing lyrics for some of Brian Wilson's earliest songs), and soon branched out into production work. After considerable success as a producer, he eventually became a staff producer for Columbia Records. It was at this position that, during 1967, he found himself producing the pop group Chad & Jeremy. They had played him several songs, which he felt lacked any commercial potential. He had heard a demo around that time for a song called "My World Fell Down" (also recorded by British pop group The Ivy League), and he played it for them, thinking that it was a sure-fire hit. They balked at the idea of covering the song, and Usher felt that, if they weren't going to record it, he'd do it himself.

So, he brought in the top Los Angeles session musicians, as well as drafting friends such as Beach Boys touring alumni Glen Campbell (who did the lead vocal on the track) and Bruce Johnston for vocals. He finished off the recording by adding a musique concrete bridge. He presented it to Columbia executives under the group name Sagittarius, named after his astrological sign.
The single, despite the uncommercial nature of the bridge, did manage to reach #70 in the national charts, and when there was pressure from Columbia for the group to tour, it was revealed that a group didn't exist. Usher did, however, start working on an album for Columbia under the Sagittarius name. Most of this work was done in conjunction with a young songwriter, producer and musician named Curt Boettcher.

Usher had met Boettcher when he was working with a group that he led and produced called The Ballroom. The group was signed to Warner Bros., and they recorded an album which wasn't released at the time. Usher, however, was impressed enough by Boettcher's talents that he utilized him as a songwriter, musician, and producer (indeed, two of the album's tracks were the same recordings made for the unreleased Ballroom album, though they appeared in stereo) throughout the album.

Prior to releasing an album, another single appeared, with the song "Hotel Indiscreet" as the a-side (it should be pointed out that the b-sides for some of the Sagittarius singles for Columbia consisted of instrumental jams that Usher had originally recorded for another studio project called The Astrology Album). As was the case with "My World Fell Down", the bridge featured an unrelated comedy bit by The Firesign Theatre, another recent Usher discovery, but unlike the previous single, it failed to chart.

In 1968, the Present Tense album was released, though it was a commercial failure. Due to the fact that Clive Davis disliked the usage of musique concrete in the two singles, Usher removed these segments from the album versions (though it is worth pointing out that the album version of "My World Fell Down" featured a few bars of additional music between the first and second verses that didn't appear in the single version, and both were mixed in stereo for the album).
However, in 1969, Usher made a bold move in deciding to leave his job at Columbia Records in order to start his own label, Together Records. Once again, Usher started work on another Sagittarius album, The Blue Marble, but this time, he contributed more as a musician, particularly as a vocalist. As he had done with the Byrds album The Notorious Byrd Brothers, he made extensive use of a Moog synthesizer throughout the record.

A cover of "In My Room", culled as a single from The Blue Marble, became a minor hit, peaking at #86 on the charts, though the album itself failed to chart. Several more non-album singles were released by Together Records, but the death of the label guaranteed the obscurity of later Sagittarius material.

Both Sagittarius albums have been reissued on CD, and both contain bonus tracks (including single versions of Sagittarius songs, which differ considerably from the album versions in some cases).
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_(band)"

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Soundathon Continues........

Back to the countdown!
K/men Soundathon Combo- Continuing with the compilation of the 1967-1972 Kmen Top 300 Soundathons

10 Sounds Of Silence-Simon & Garfunkel-Can't think of a good story about this record. Everyone knows about how the rock & roll background was added to the original release to make it a hit, and how Paul and Art didn't have anything to to do with that additional. When the hits are this big, everyone knows the stories.9 Joy To The World-Three Dog Night-Biggest hit for this group. Did you know huck Negron (one of the Three) did a solo medley of this with the Chistmas Carol "Joy To The World"?
8 Monday Monday-Mamas & Papas-This was a bigger hit than California Dreaming. When they voted, people seem to remeber this. My first copy of this record seem to have an electronic hum during the first ten seconds of the song. Anyone else have this problem? Was the vinyl causing this effect or did I have a rare version? Don't have that copy anymore, so I can't check again.




K/mentertainer May 13, 1967





#1 this week Groovin'-Young Rascals





Thursday, May 17, 2007

1 Year Ago Yesterday

One year ago yesterday I started this blog. I have had a lot of responses, and people are getting enjyment out of viewing KFXM and K/MEN surveys and related items. Thank you for stopping by!

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

To begin KFXM and K/MEN
Just a beginning. This will be about radio stations KFXM and KMEN in San Bernardino, California. Top40 radio of the 60's, 70's and even the 80's. More to come!What you see here are radio station stickers from the 60's. More info and pictures to come.


Sunday, May 13, 2007

KFXM Tiger Mag May 12, 1967







Groovin'-Young Rascals #1 This week local group Good Feelins-I'm Captured up to #2.



Higest debut #27 Flower Children-Marcia Strassman



Wednesday, May 09, 2007

K/mentertainer May 6, 1967

Finally! New pictures of the DJs. Now you can see who is exactly on the air.
Robert E. Walker, Fred Kiml, Johnnie Darin, Dave McCormick, T. Michael Jordon, Bobby West And Ron Christian
#1 This week Close Your Eyes-Peaches & Herb. Issue is May 6 even though it states previewed April 26th. Starting at this point, the date there will be two dates. The cover date is May 6.

I'm Captured-Good Feelins into the top ten
Everly Brothers have a new record this week Bowling Green.


Soundathon #30-11

#30-11
K/men Soundathon Combo- Continuing with the compilation of the 1967-1972 Kmen Top 300 Soundathons


30. Louie Louie-Kingsmen-On KFXM the Kingsmen and Paul Revere & The Raiders version were both listed on their survey as the artist after the title of the song. It was also (on KFXM) the last #1 before the Beatles hit with I Want To Hold Your Hand. Nationally Bobby Vinton had that honor.







29. Michelle-Beatles An album cut, but probably more popular than a lot of singles at the time.

28. Suspicious Minds-Elvis Presley-This song was a lot different than Elvis’ previous singles. Maybe that is why it was so popular. The next single for him was Don’t Cry Daddy which was typical Elvis.

27. American Pie-Don McLean-The first time I heard this song I was pulling into a 7-11 store and it sounded interesting. I wanted to hear the rest of it. I figured it was about over since it was about two minutes into the song. So I waited and listened to the song sitting in the parking lot. Since they were playing the whole song, it was a long wait.

26. Something-The Beatles-Flip side of #32. George Harrison had the more popular side!

25. Sunny-Bobby Hebb-I started to listen to the radio on a regular basis in 1966. This 1966 song is the first song that I got tired of hearing too much of on the radio.

24. Happy Together-Turtles-I won contests on KFXM and KMEN. Usually I won movie passes. I finally won a couple of records. This was the first one I won on KMEN. It was a promo with the same song on both sides. Unlike most of my records, I don’t have it anymore. The first record I won on KFXM was Kind Of A Drag by the Buckinghams. I still have that one.

23. This Guy’s In Love With You-Herb Alpert-This was always promoted as Herb’s first hit as a singer. But didn’t he sing on the 1966-67 hit Mame? I think so.

22. Good Vibrations-Beach Boys-Their highest ranking on this soundathon, but actually not their biggest national hit, but it seems like it is.

As we listen closely, you will hear the soothing sounds of our easy listening friends.

21. Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head-B.J. Thomas-From Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid.

20. Close To You-Carpenters-The first of many smash hits by the Carpenters. Someone once told me that he had a relative who lived in Downey, Ca. who used to call the police because for them disturbing the peace. I guess they played loder then.

19. Bridge Over Troubled Water-Simon & Garfunkel-The first of four hits from this album.

18. My Sweet Lord-George Harrison-When this album was released Johnny Helm on K/MEN played it all the way through one evening. That was something I had to listen to and record.

Back to 60s Rock & Roll!

17. Help!-The Beatles-Even though I didn’t really listen to the radio much in 1964 and 1965. I did go to the theater to this movie and also A Hrd Day’s Night.

16. Proud Mary-Creedence Clearwater Revival-Their biggest hit (but they never had a national #1) You couldn’t get away from this song in 1969 (or today, either). Personally I liked the flip side better, Born On The Bayou (see #110 am I repeating myself?), which was played here a lot, but I don’t think it was listed on the weekly surveys.

15. California Dreaming-Mamas & Papas-Everyone thinks of this song when they think of the Mamas & Papas. Good song.

14. Theme From A Summer Place-Percy Faith-Amazing how long this record has hung on. Until a few years ago, you could hear this on a regular basis. PS there is still another instrumental coming up.

13. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida-Iron Butterfly-There is the LP version which is a whole side of an album, plus the single version which has about a ten second drum solo. The version I liked best was the one KFXM played. It must have had a minute and a half drum solo. It gave more of a feel for what the record was really like. Anyone know if this was from a promo record or a creation of the radio station?

12. The Letter-Boxtops-The single was less than two minutes long. No there wasn’t a 15 minute album version.

11. Love Is Blue-Paul Mauriat-The Highest rated instrumental on this survey. It almost made the top ten.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

The Hits Just Keep A'Coming!

#50-31 K/men Soundathon Combo- Continuing with the compilation of the 1967-1972 Kmen Top 300 Soundathons



On with the countdown!

50. Day In The Life/Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band-Beatles-Not released as a single in the 60s, but always seemed to make this list. In 1978 Capital records released a single of Sgt Pepper’s lonely Heart Club Band-With A Little Help From My Friends and the flip side was A Day In The Life Of.

49. I’ll Be There-Jackson 5-Michael Jackson has been having hits for a long time. But will he have any more hits? Maybe he should remake this one.

48. Born To Be Wild-Steppenwolf-First hit by this group. You still hear this song everywhere you go. Classic rock stations, oldies stations. OK they don’t play it on country or jazz stations. But somebody will redo it in that format.

47. Never My Love-Association-They played the flip side of this on the radio-Requiem For The Masses. That is probably why I bought the single. Obviously Never My Love was the bigger hit.

46. Mrs. Robinson-Simon & Garfunkel-I’m really tired of hearing this song. I know! If you listen to the oldies stations you’re going to hear the same songs over and over again, so it’s my own fault.

45. Make It With You-Bread-I’m surprised that this song had done so well on the Soundathon charts. This was on the Elektra label, same as the Doors.

44. Theme From Shaft-Isaac Hayes-Hey! Here’s a single I did not buy when it was new. What was wrong with me? It was a big hit. I think I bought Brand New Key by Melanie instead. In 1971 I guess I was more into buying albums, but I din’t buy the album either.

43. Gloria-Them-I wanted this record in 1967. Since it wasn’t on the charts I couldn’t find it for 59 or 69 cents. I went to Lyle’s Record City and it was either 1.49 or 1.79. I couldn’t afford that much. I was used to paying 39 or 49 cents at Woolsworth. I went to Sages record dept. They had oldies that were 88 cents. I bought this single and Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones. I spent a little more than normal, but I was happy.

42. Love Theme from Romeo & Juliet-Henry Mancini-This is a nice instrumental. Amazing the diversity of the hits during this time. I want to hear Gloria then this song without a break.

41. One-Three Dog Night-No it did not make #1 on the national charts. I was watching KMEN and KFXM for it to be number one, but that didn’t happen either.

INTO THE TOP 40

40. Maggie May-Rod Stewart-Ever time this song plays (or any Rod Stewart song plays) when my wife is in the room my wife says give that man a throat lozenge.

39. You’ve Got a Friend-James Taylor-Written by Carole King. Nothing really exciting about this song.

38. Wipeout-Surfaris-The flip side Surfer Joe never made the Soundathons, although I think it was played just as much as Wipeout

37. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes-Crosby, Stills and Nash-There was the single version that was played on the radio at first. I guess it the Light My Fire complex, if its over 4 minutes then shorten it.

36. Town Without Pity-Gene Pitney-What happened to Gene Pitney? They stopped playing him on the radio years ago. Used to hear It Hurts To Be In Love, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Only Love Can Break Your Heart all of the time. #36 shows he used to be popular.

35. Sherry-Four Seasons-Their first hit as the Four Seasons (#1). They had a minor hit as the Four Lovers, so the name change did them some good. I actually had heard Big Girls Don’t Cry before I heard Sherry and I thought for a while that Sherry was the sound-a-like hit rather than the other way around.

34. I Want To Hold Your Hand-Beatles-There are seven more Beatles songs higher than this one. Personally, I’d rather listen to this one than some of the ones higher up.

33. Surfer Girl-Beach Boys-This is the highest surf related song on this list by the Beach Boys. Higher on the survey than Surfin’ USA. Since I have your attention, I’m going to tell you about a summer school class I took in the 8th grade. It was a class called Creative Writing. We had to write an article/story and read it to the class. I don’t remember what I wrote, but there was a girl in the class that wrote a story about the differences between boys and girls (stop me if I told you this before). She based it on music and preferences of boys and girls. If you liked the Beach Boys you were most likely a boy. If you liked the Beatles, you were most likely a girl. The details I don’t remember, but it got the class laughing.

32. Come Together-Beatles-From Abbey Road. I want to know why there wasn’t an American picture sleeve for this record. Almost all other Beatle 45s had picture sleeves.

31. Windy-Association-I’ve heard there was a real Windy, but he was a guy, rather than the girl in this song.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

KFXM Tiger Mag May 5, 1967

Miss 16 winners. Anyone out there know any of them? Sharon Brugliera, Kathee Doyle, Jerrie Herzig, Patricia Ann Philpott, Tonio Miller.
Read the article about the Monterey Pop Festival in BITS & PIECES. Is there a concert expert out there who can if all the planned groups (as listed)performed at the concert?

Groovin'-Young Rascals is the new #1 this week


All of the KFXM-Squad Personal Picks are songs I liked when they came out. Sunday Will Never Be The Same is a Cashman, Pistilli & West composition. Girls In Love that I bought a couple years later for a nickel at Thriftys. On A Carousel, a really good Hollies song, which strange enough, both of my daughters like. Flower Children, strange song, but headed for number one here. It also bugs my wife. Round Round, you'd have to hear it to appreciate it.