H/D's List: 123 songs that should still be played ...

[Scott Reppert]

"Sweet Lorraine" should be played on EVERY Classic Rock station every three days, in alternating dayparts. When you see "Walk This Way" come for it's fourth play of the week in the rotation, stick THIS in!!

"Burning Bridges" is the first song I ever called in a request to a radio station (WMMN) for...

[Greg Goodfellow]

We had a gentleman that requested 'Burning Bridges' a LOT before our switch to Simian. We'll just have to resurrect that one.

By the way, listening to Al Wilson's "The Snake"-yes-s-s-s-s-s-s....

[Hoosier Daddy]

EXTRA: Novelty Songs, Volume #2


Here we go again with a variety of weird and wonderful tunes ...


BOOBS A LOT - The Holy Modal Rounders (1971)





WASN'T THAT A PARTY - The Irish Rovers (1981)





SNOOPY VS. THE RED BARON - Royal Guardsmen (1966)





WHITE KNIGHT - Cledus Maggard (1976)





CHUG-A-LUG- Roger Miller (1964)





HOT ROD LINCOLN - Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen (1970)





SURFIN' BIRD - The Trashmen (1963)

[Scott Reppert]

The Holy Modal Rounders were a favorite of Dr. Demento.
Nice ORIGINAL Laurie label on The Royal Guardsmen, before they switched to the more common red-white-black one.
Heard "Chug-A-Lug" for the first time ever when it originally came out in Ocean City, MD.
The Irish Rovers will always be best remembered in my "musical Rolodex" for "The Unicorn" and "Whiskey On A Sunday".
And as for The Trashmen, "Bird Dance Beat", "A Bone" and especially the "Surfin' Bird" flip ("King Of The Surf") all BLOW "Surfin' Bird" away...

[Hoosier Daddy]

The Final 50 ...


50. GOODBYE CRUEL WORLD - James Darren (1961)

You may remember James Darren as Officer James Carrigan on the 80s television series T.J. Hooker. He did a lot of other cool things, too. In addition to some Top 40 successes in the early 60s, James was the singing voice of Yogi Bear in the 1964 animated film Hey There, It's Yogi Bear! and he was the voice of "Jimmy Darrock" on an episode of The Flintstones. Mr. Darren co-starred as impulsive scientist and adventurer Tony Newman in the sci-fi television series The Time Tunnel and he had a supporting role in the 1961 film The Guns of Navarone. He worked as a director on a number of TV shows, including Hunter, The A-Team, Nowhere Man, Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place. This song made it all the way to #3 on Billboard's Hot 100 back in the day and was a million seller record.





49. SWINGING ON A STAR - Big Dee Irwin and Little Eva (1963)

Some pre-bubblegum Bubblegum from Big Dee Irwin (his biggest hit) and LIttle Eva, the Locomotion girl ...





48. HALLELUJAH - Sweathog (1971)

A kickin' little one-hit-wonder from a California garage band called Sweathog. #33 on Billboard's Hot 100.

[Hoosier Daddy]

47. CRAZY HORSES - The Osmonds (1972)

A major stylistic change for the Brothers Osmond. Crazy Horses charted up to #14 on Billboard's Hot 100. LOVE this song!





46. RUBBERBAND MAN - The Spinners (1976)

For full effect, you gotta see these guys performing live. Sky blue tuxedos trimmed out in silver, platform shoes, wall-to-wall afros. Awesome stuff! Younger folks might remember this song from the OfficeMax commercials starring Eddie Steeples.





45. STARS ON 45 - Stars on 45 (1981)

This song re-started the medley craze. Stars on 45 was a studio band and they did many versions of this song, including cuts that featured songs from Abba, the Beatles, and others. This is the original and received the most airplay, hitting #1 on Billboard's Hot 100. And you never hear it anymore.

[Scott Reppert]

Yep, "Stars On 45". Just goes to show you the power of The Beatles.

And don't forget it forced Capitol Records to respond with this:

[Scott Reppert]

No thread hijack intended here, HD is doing a WONDERFUL job at counting down the hits that "should still be". But since we mentioned somewhere something along the lines of "artists could record all The Beatles unreleased as singles tracks and have hits for the next 90 years", I would like to offer this companion insertion of "Beatles Hits That Weren't Beatles Hits" (prayerfully in correct chronological order):

[Hoosier Daddy]

Awesome list, Scott! Loved the Badfinger and the Jackie Lomax songs ...

[Scott Reppert]

Yeah, the Lomax song is probably the highlight for me, too. Along with Silkie, Underground Sunshine and the one that I just added because I forgot it. Probably the biggest hit of them all, really!!!

[Hoosier Daddy]

44. CRIED LIKE A BABY - Bobby Sherman (1971)

Another forgotten discarded song from a forgotten discarded teen heart throb from the 60s. Bobby Sherman is best known for Easy Come, Easy Go and Julie Do Ya Love Me, but this one has a little more of a rock edge and that's why I like it. Sherman also worked as an actor, and after making a guest appearance on the 70s NBC television series Emergency, he found a new calling and became a licensed Emergency Medical Technician. Bobby later joined the Los Angeles Police Department and served as a reserve officer, a position he still holds today. For over a decade he has worked as a medical training officer at the Los Angeles Police Academy, instructing thousands of police officers in first aid and CPR. Captain Bobby Sherman was named LAPD’s Reserve Officer of the Year in 1999.





43. I WONDER WHAT SHE'S DOING TONIGHT - Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart (1968)

Boyce and Hart were a duo of songwriters best known for the music they created for The Monkees. They wrote and performed several hit records on their own, including this one and a companion tune called Alice Long. Music historians should note that a different song with the same title was recorded and released in 1963 by Barry and the Tamerlanes. This song charted at #8 on Billboard's Hot 100.





42. (SHE'S A) HEARTBREAKER - Gene Pitney (1968)

Gene Pitney's last song to break the Top 40. Heartbreaker rose to #16 on Billboard's Hot 100 in April 1968.

[Hoosier Daddy]

41. LITTLE LATIN LUPE LU - The Righteous Brothers (1963)

Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield were usually considered soulful crooners in the early 60s but this song proves they could cut the rug on occasion. Here's the original version of Little Latin Lupe Lu released in May 1963 and it reached #49 on Billboard's Hot 100. The Kingsmen and Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels covered this tune in 1964 and 1966, respectively. The video is awesome, especially the Fly Girls version 1.0 dancing in the background!





40. LONELY BOY - Paul Anka (1959)

If you hear a Paul Anka record on the oldies stations at all, you'll most likely hear Diana, a #1 chart-topper from 1957 that was one of the best-selling Canadian singles of all time. But this one also hit #1 and it stayed there longer than Diana did. Go figure. Anka was 17 years old in this video.





39. NATHAN JONES - The Supremes (1971)

This is one of eight singles released by The Supremes after Diana Ross left the group for a solo career. The song is unusual because all three band members are singing lead vocal together, a fourth non-band member (Clydie King) was added to the vocal line-up to add depth, then those vocals were dubbed over and over to produce layered harmonics, and recording studio engineers added phase shifts to the music at several points, giving a psychodelic rock flair to the song. Nathan Jones hit #16 on Billboard's Hot 100.

[Scott Reppert]

Well, old Scotty has good news and bad news.

The good news is: ALL of The Supremes Diana Ross-less singles are SEVERELY overlooked in terms of airplay. There was a ton of great stuff there that should be regularly played on any deep Oldies station, format or show.

The bad news is: I have always considered The Kingsmen version of "Little Latin Lupe Lu" to be the one of choice. It has to be the greatest two minutes and twenty seconds of majestic overmodulation ever recorded. Nothing that sounds that bad has ever sounded so good!

[Hoosier Daddy]

The good news is: ALL of The Supremes Diana Ross-less singles are SEVERELY overlooked in terms of airplay. There was a ton of great stuff there that should be regularly played on any deep Oldies station, format or show.

The bad news is: I have always considered The Kingsmen version of "Little Latin Lupe Lu" to be the one of choice. It has to be the greatest two minutes and twenty seconds of majestic overmodulation ever recorded. Nothing that sounds that bad has ever sounded so good!

#1. Agreed. SEVERELY OVERLOOKED may be an understatement. "Don't even know they exist" seems to fit better ...

#2. Respectfully disagree. The Righteous Brothers gave that song a lot of soul, passion, and fun, and I don't find that present in either The Kingsmen version or in the one from Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels. Mitch Ryder's version was the most popular of the three in terms of record sales and airplay and that blows my mind. Every song that group sings sounds like Devil with a Blue Dress On, just with different words ...

[Hoosier Daddy]

EXTRA: Random forgotten oldies from the 80s ...



As I mentioned earlier, my interest in following the ever-splintering world of popular Top 40 music died somewhere around 1982. I don't know if the continuous whine of crossover country did it or the head-banging hair bands and post-punk Europop groups finished me off or if I just crossed over that invisible line where childhood becomes adulthood and you only remember how good things used to be. In any case, here are a handful of radio's forgotten tunes from the crazy, mixed up, musically bi-polar 80s ...


LET THE DAY BEGIN - The Call (1989)




FUNKYTOWN - Pseudo Echo (1987) ** Awesome cover of the 1979 Lipps, Inc. tune.




SKATEAWAY - Dire Straits (1980)




LAWYERS IN LOVE - Jackson Browne (1983)




THE BREAKUP SONG - The Greg Kihn Band (1981)




BETTER BE GOOD TO ME - Tina Turner (1984)




GOODNIGHT SAIGON - Billy Joel (1982)




TAINTED LOVE / WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO - Soft Cell (1981)




HEART AND SOUL - T' Pau (1987)




SHE DON'T KNOW ME - Bon Jovi (1984)




I'm sure you 80s music gurus can add two or three or a hundred more to the list ...

[Scott Reppert]

You got some definite winners there in "The Breakup Song", "Heart And Soul", "Skateaway" and "Let The Day Begin".

I actually cannot recall the Bon Jovi song and for the second time this thread, this time concerning the Billy Joel song, may I use the word "gick"...

And, oh, by the way. Here is the great never played (aside from WTCS) Greg Kihn Band song...

[Hoosier Daddy]

You got some definite winners there in "The Breakup Song", "Heart And Soul", "Skateaway" and "Let The Day Begin".

Thanky!

... and for the second time this thread, this time concerning the Billy Joel song, may I use the word "gick"...

I assume "gick" means you don't like it.

I remember the first time I heard Goodnight Saigon. I was driving from Ironton to Huntington on US 52 near South Point and WKEE played the song. Within a minute, I had to pull the car over and just sit and listen. I thought it was incredibly moving and well done. Remember, in 1982 our country had just started to talk about Vietnam: the reasons for the war, what had happened to the soldiers we sent over there, the atrocities they suffered, and how they were treated when they returned. Goodnight Saigon was a really bold statement acknowledging some of that, and I'm sure it made a few people uncomfortable to hear that stuff memorialized in a song.

In any case, no one plays it anymore, but you can hear it here ...

[Greg Goodfellow]

[quote="Scott Reppert"]Well, old Scotty has good news and bad news.

Scott, the ONLY bad news is that 'girl-in-a-box's' one-day appearance is over. Thanks for the Hallowe'en treat, anyway!

[Scott Reppert]

Yes, "gick" means I don't like it. Probably coined as a 5-10 year old child whenever I tasted my Mom's chili for the first time. It was the only word that fit.

As for Edna, the "Girl In The Box", I could have gone with a newer picture of her for Halloween. She has braces now. But she's not in a box anymore.

"Ooooooh! Scary stuff, boys and girls"...

[Hoosier Daddy]

Edna doesn't like us.