Welcome to Golden Hits Radio's Everything Oldies......where we've got a nose for news about your favorite artists and your favorite decades!
- Dr. Conrad Murray........GUILTY of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson
- His time in prison, however, might be short
- How did Michael's family react?
- How difficult was it to finish The Beach Boys' aborted 1967 album Smile? An excerpt from a decades-old magazine article gives us a look behind the scenes
- A woman who gave us several hits in the 60's has been cutting a rug on reality TV the past few weeks. How did she do?
- Who's the latest group to have their body of work turned into a musical?
- Your favorite artists from the 50s, 60s, and 70s have new CDs in stores this week!
Use Your Head
This week in 1968, a group who had been cast in the teen idol mold on TV and on the music charts attempted to make a radical departure from that image. The results were nothing short of disastrous.
The Monkees had been a hit with both record buyers and TV audiences as sort of a made-for-TV Beatles, but the lack of respect that went along with it (like the moniker "Prefab Four" given to them by one critic) left them feeling they needed a vehicle to shed the squeaky clean image and be taken seriously by a changing musical audience. With the help of one of the producers of their TV show, Bob Rafelson, and none other than co-writer and co-producer Jack Nicholson, they set out to change their image.
The result of their effort was a feature film called Head. It was part concert film and part collection of random images, most of which depicted the events of the era, i.e. the Vietnam War. There was no plot to speak of and a series of random cameos from celebrities as diverse as Dennis Hopper, Annette Funicello, and boxer Sonny Liston. It is definitely a product of its time, and critics and audiences didn't get it.
Head marked the unofficial end of The Monkees, with an abysmal box office gross and its accompanying soundtrack album failing to reach the Top 50. It has found a cult following through the years, however, with VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray video releases.
Would you have gone to see Head in theaters this week in 1968 based on this trailer?
Golden Hits Radio's Burning Question of the Day
Which album was the first to ever debut at #1 on the Billboard Album Chart?
Find the answer by coming back to Everything Oldies tomorrow, and leave a Comment below with your best guess!
Yesterday's Burning Question (and Answer) of the Day
Who was the first Motown act to appear on American Bandstand?
Answer: Smokey Robinson and The Miracles
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