On August 3, 1967, my eighth birthday, I got a transistor radio. As I remember it, my dad said, “Here, I’ll turn it to a station you’ll like” and tuned it to 1300 KOL—in retrospect I’m not sure why he chose them over KJR, the giant of Seattle radio. (But I don’t have the KOL survey for that week.) Also as I remember it, I didn’t touch that dial for about two years, until I became obsessed with Johnny Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue,” started searching the dial because KOL wasn’t playing it often enough for me, and ended up on KAYO, beginning my country phase. Anyway, here's KJR's Fab 50 for the week of August 4:
1.Come Back When You Grow Up—Bobby Vee
Bobby Vee descended into teen idol irrelevance in 1964 and this was his big comeback. Things changed so quickly in the 60s that ’64 and ’67 were about a decade apart (and ’63 and ’67 were about two decades apart). Is the music, or pop culture in general, of 2008 noticeably different from that of 2005? Doesn’t seem like it to me, but then I’m a bit out of the loop.
2.Ode to Billie Joe—Bobbie Gentry
I remember counting the number of times I heard this song (on KOL) in one day, and it seems like it was ten.
3.All You Need is Love/Baby You’re a Rich Man—The Beatles
I’m very glad, to the point of smugness I suppose, to have been born when I was and to have gotten into music/TV/etc at an early age. I particularly enjoy the fact that I can remember hearing new music by the Beatles on the radio.
4.Pleasant Valley Sunday—The Monkees
Another one of my birthday presents that year was the Monkees' Headquarters album, which is still one of my all-time favorites. It didn't contain any singles, though, and this song appeared on their next album.
5.Light My Fire—The Doors
This, #2 and #40 are the songs I associate most with listening to the radio during this period.
6.Carrie-Anne—The Hollies
The most trebly kinds of music I can think of are bluegrass and the Hollies.
7.Silence is Golden—The Tremeloes
The Four Seasons released this as a b-side in 1964, and that’s the more familiar version for me, thanks to it appearing on the LP The Four Seasons Story, which I bought in high school.
8.Brown-Eyed Girl—Van Morrison
If I keep trying to think of something to write about every song I'll never finish this.
9.Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie—Jay & the Techniques
10.Little Bit o’ Soul—The Music Explosion
11.I Was Made to Love Her—Stevie Wonder
12.Happy and Me—Don & the Goodtimes
I think of this as “The Little Dog Death Song,” due to its opening lyrics, “Remember when your little dog died/And upon my shoulder you cried.” Nationally, this record peaked at #98 (in Billboard magazine), but at #11 at KJR. The group was from Portland, Oregon.
13.Fakin’ It—Simon & Garfunkel
14.Try, Try, Try—Jim Valley
This one didn’t make the Billboard Hot 100 at all, coming up just short at #106 on the Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart. Jim “Harpo” Valley was a Seattle boy, a member of local group the Viceroys, then joining Don & the Goodtimes and then, briefly, Paul Revere & the Raiders. This was around the time he left the Raiders.
15.A Girl Like You—The Young Rascals
16.Lovely Rita—The Beatles (LP)
Usually Top 40 stations only played songs released as singles, but sometimes exceptions were made, especially for Beatles or Monkees songs.
17.White Rabbit—Jefferson Airplane
My mom hates this song.
18.I Thank the Lord For the Night Time—Neil Diamond
19.Let the Good Times Roll—Bunny Sigler
20.Soul Finger—Bar-Kays
I’m not sure which finger is the soul finger. The song is an instrumental, other than a bunch of kids yelling “soul finger!,” so it doesn’t really help.
21.Lovin’ Sound—Ian & Sylvia
#101 in Billboard, #17 at KJR (facts like that fascinate me). They were Canadian.
22.The World We Knew (Over and Over)—Frank Sinatra
23.To Love Somebody—Bee Gees
24.Omaha—Moby Grape
The word “Omaha” does not actually appear in the song, which a lot of people probably thought was called “Listen My Friends.”
25.Reflections—Diana Ross & the Supremes
This was the record where they changed from “The Supremes” to “Diana Ross & the Supremes.”
26.San Francisco—Scott McKenzie
You know, the flowers in your hair and the gentle people there.
27.Baby I Love You—Aretha Franklin
28.Can’t Take My Eyes Off You—Frankie Valli
Frankie had kind of a double career going on at this time—while the Four Seasons were trying to keep up with what was going on in rock music, he was also going in the opposite direction with more easy-listening-leaning solo records. Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere & the Raiders did something similar a couple years later.
29.Mercy, Mercy, Mercy—The Buckinghams
I love the Buckinghams.
30.Windy—The Association
31.You’re a Very Lovely Woman—The Merry-Go-Round
#94 Billboard, #17 KJR. I don’t think things like that happen anymore; that is, it seems like the hits in one city are the same as in another, unless one city has a sports team that makes a rap record or something.
32.San Franciscan Nights—Eric Burdon & the Animals
This is the one where the cop’s face is filled with hate, but it’s an American dream that includes Indians too.
33.Society’s Child—Janis Ian
When Janis Ian was 24 years old, she had her second big hit record, “At Seventeen,” which was about having been an unpopular, ugly loser as a teen. But when she was seventeen she had already had her first big hit record, this one. I always thought that was kind of weird.
34.Anything Goes—Harper’s Bizarre
#43 Billboard, #9 KJR.
35.There is a Mountain—Donovan
First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is. The lock upon my garden gate’s a snail, that’s what it is. Caterpillar sheds his skin to find the butterfly within. Oh Juanita, I call your name. The snow will be a blinding sight to see as it lies on yonder hillside.
36.Cold Sweat—James Brown
On the other hand, this was #7 Billboard, #35 KJR.
37.You Know What I Mean—The Turtles
38.Don’t Sleep in the Subway—Petula Clark
39.I Dig Rock & Roll Music—Peter, Paul & Mary
It never occurred to me at the time, but this is obviously an anti-rock & roll song. Just listen closely! They even come right out and tell us they’re being sarcastic—“But if I really say it/The radio won’t play it/Unless I lay it between the lines.” But radio either didn’t get it or didn’t care, and neither did the fans. But listen!
40.The Letter—The Box Tops
How many other songs have contained the word "aeroplane"?
41.It’s the Little Things—Sonny & Cher
42.Run, Run, Run—The Third Rail
Vocal by Joey Levine, who also sang the Ohio Express hits (“Yummy Yummy Yummy,” “Chewy Chewy,” etc.), “Life is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)” by Reunion, and two early 80s commercial jingles I remember well:
Wanna have some fun, here’s an aisle of candy bars
So many flavors good to eat
Wanna have some fun, here’s a fountain of Slurpees
Flowing icy cold and sweet
Wanna have some fun, something something
Something something something
Wanna have some fun, wanna have some fun
At Seven-Eleven fun is waiting for you!
And
Orange you smart
For drinking orange juice
Pure refreshment every taste [or something like that]
Hey orange you smart
For drinking to your body’s content
A taste that only nature could invent
Hey! Orange you smart!
43.You Were on My Mind—Crispian St. Peters
44.Things I Should Have Said—The Grass Roots
45.Cry Softly Lonely One—Roy Orbison
It may seem kind of funny to see Roy Orbison on the charts in the summer of ’67, but he had been hanging on with a string of (generally pretty cool) minor hits ever since his last big one, “Oh, Pretty Woman” in 1964. This one hit #52 in Billboard and #42 at KJR, and was his last appearance in the Hot 100 until his 80s comeback.
46.Heroes and Villains—The Beach Boys
I’ve been in this town so long that back in the city I’ve been taken for lost and gone and unknown for a long long time.
47.Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead—The Fifth Estate
48.More Love—Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
49.In the Chapel in the Moonlight—Dean Martin
50.Out & About—Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart
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What a great (and interesting) top 50. It looks like Moby Grape did better here than in the rest of the country. I wonder if that was because of their local connection?
ReplyDeleteCould be--it hit #20 at KJR vs. #88 in Billboard. It hit #1 in Reno, though.
ReplyDeleteThat's very funny your father turned on your new transistor radio and put on KOL! That would be like if you were in San Francisco he would of put on KYA instead of KFRC, Los Angeles-KRLA instead of KHJ, San Diego-KCBQ over KGB, Phoenix KRUX over KRIZ, Chicago WCFL over WLS, Louisville WKLO over WAKY, Philadelphia WIBG over WFIL, and New York WMCA over WABC. You see what I mean.
ReplyDeleteYes, exactly! Maybe he was sticking up for the underdog, but I don't know.
ReplyDeleteKJR was one of a handful of stations that "broke" records back then, records often hit the Fabulous 50 before they charted in most other cities. Seattle's taste in Top 40 music was different from what was reflected in the national charts, a big reason was that, according to Pat O'Day, KJR's program director, rhythm and blues did not sell well in Seattle until the late 1960's. As a result, records by white artists generally charted higher in Seattle, especially not so well known artists, and follow up records often did much better in Seattle than on the national charts.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't noticed that about follow-up records, but yes, soul music definitely did pretty consistently worse in Seattle than nationally. Thanks for the comment!
DeleteI was twelve then, and I remember the Seattle music scene well. One of the first REALLY big "soul" hits was Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine", in 1968. I had never even HEARD of Marvin Gaye before that, even though he'd had several national charting hits before that one. Those records just didn't get much airplay in Seattle in the mid-sixties. KJR didn't play much Wilson Pickett either. The Supremes" "You Can't Hurry Love" and the Four Tops' "Reach Out, I'll Be There" were examples of rhythm and blues records that did make it big in Seattle in 1966, probably because, to Pat O'Day, they sounded more like "pop" records than "soul" records. A complaint that was lodged against O'Day was that he wouldn't play anything that sounded "too black". Of course, the GIANT "soul" records got played, and did as well in Seattle as they did nationally. It was the "not so big" black records that KJR and KOL sort of swept under the rug. That, I believe, is one of the reasons why a record like Ian and Sylvia's "Lovin' Sound", did so much better in Seattle in Seattle than nationally, less competition from "soul" records in general. The fact that they were from Vancouver, B.C., not far from Seattle, was also a factor.
DeleteThanks a lot for the comment. You might be interested in my other blog, kjrfab50.blogspot.com
DeleteYet another reason was the huge number of Northwest artists that got airplay in Seattle, like the Sonics, the Wailers, the Daily Flash, the Springfield Rifle, the Bards, the Liverpool Five, Ian Whitcomb, the Viceroys, the Kingsmen, Jimmy Hanna and the Dynamics, Merilee Rush, Don and the Goodtimes and the Dimensions, to name a few. Some of these artists charted nationally, but even the ones that didn't held their own against the nationally charted big acts on the KJR Fabulous 50.
ReplyDeleteOften, records would chart higher on the KJR Fabulous 50 than they did on the national charts, but there were exceptions. The Beach Boys' "Heroes And Villains" only made it to number 35 on the Fabulous 50, on 8/11/67, and it charted for a paltry three weeks in all. I have virtually no memory of hearing it on the radio in Seattle back then, but it did much better nationally.
ReplyDeleteThe Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" made it to #6 on the KJR Fabulous 50, while only charting #37 nationally. The reason often cited for it's mediocre Billboard 100 performance was the use of the word "God" in the title, which apparently didn't bother Seattle DJ's or radio listeners.
ReplyDelete