K/men Soundathon Part 8---THE TOP TEN

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 instumentation was added to the original release to make it a hit, and how Paul and Art didn't have anything todo with it. 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 Chuck 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 remember 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 no proof.

#7 Yesterday-Beatles-The song that has had the most versions recorded. It had the working title Scrambled Eggs. Paul sang that version with Jimmy Fallon on his show a few years ago. The only Beatle on this 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.

 

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-Let 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

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

Not making you wait.  The Top 5

and to conclude...

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

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

 

Memorial Day 300 Soundathon K/MEN # 3

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

 

Soundathon # 2

#2 Light My Fire-Doors-What can you say?  Big hit, and many times it is #1 on greatest hits of all times surveys. One of my wife's favorite songs.  The 45 is of course the short version.

 

 

#1 #1 #1 #1

 

#1 Hey Jude-The Beatles

-Not much else to say. It was #1 for 9 weeks nationally, 7 weeks on KFXM, 4 weeks on K/men, and the all time champ on K/MEN's Soundathons. On KRTH's Firecracker 300 it took turns with Light My Fire and Stairway To Heaven as the #1 song.

K/men Soundathon Combo Part 7

Soundathon #30-11

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

30. Louie Louie-Kingsmen-In 1963/64 on KFXM the Kingsmen and Paul Revere & The Raiders version of this song,  were both listed on their survey as the artist on their weekly survey. It was also  the last #1 before the Beatles hit with I Want To Hold Your Hand on KFXM . 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 this seemed 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 album version, 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, because it was played too often on the radio.

24. Happy Together-Turtles-I won contests on KFXM and KMEN. Usually the prize was a movie pass. I finally won a couple of records. This was the first record 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.  I sold it to a friend of mine from school for a quarter.  Do you still have it, Tim?  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 most people believe 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 the band played too loud, and was disturbing the peace.

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

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 had to  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 Hard 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 on K/men and KFXM  a lot, but I don’t think it was listed on their 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 the radio 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.  The single pictured above, purchased from Gillettes Records in Riverside.

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

K/men Soundathon Combo Part 6

Soundathon # 50-31

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 the Soundathon.  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. Here's a big one with his brothers.

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 may 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 hit.

46. Mrs. Robinson-Simon & Garfunkel-When I originally wrote this comment, I said "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."  But now there aren't many oldies stations around, but I'm still not interested in hearing this song.

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 didn’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 amount of money. . 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 I normally spent on records, 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. Today I want like to hear Gloria, followed by this song.

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) and my wife is in the room she says give that man a throat lozenge.

39. You’ve Got a Friend-James Taylor-Written by Carole King. Nice song, but 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's the Light My Fire complex on 60's radio.  If its over 4 minutes then shorten it.

36. Town Without Pity-Gene Pitney-What happened to Gene Pitney songs? 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 (Made it to #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. Other 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.