Golden Hits Radio's Everything Oldies: Ohio Players

Monday, November 15, 2010

Today In Oldies 11/16/2010

Golden Hits Radio and GHR-2's Everything Oldies........Oldies news first!

Could iTunes finally be getting the one artist it has always wanted?
A former Kink wants to save a legendary London club......and he knows just the man to do it!
The man whose song made San Francisco the Psychedelic Capital of the World has taken ill
Wedding bells for Aaron Neville

A Shot At The Title

All this week, Everything Oldies will play "What if?", as we spotlight songs with their original working titles. Imagine what a different world we'd live in if the most covered song of all time were The Beatles' classic, "Scrambled Eggs".....which was the original working title of......"Yesterday". Enjoy the stories behind the titles.....and why they changed.

America wanted to write a song that captured the feel of the hot, dry desert depicted in a Salvador Dali painting in a recording studio they were working in while in England. Songwriter and band member Dewey Bunnell also wanted to wax nostalgic about his childhood rides through the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico while his father was stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base. While the original title, "Desert Song", certainly seems appropriate, it was changed to one we know and love by the time it was added to their debut album.

Sometimes a major music superstar can bring about a change in a song's title. According to songwriter Sir Mack Rice, he changed the title of one of his songs based on the recommendation of Aretha Franklin. In 1966, Wilson Pickett made Rice's song a classic, but not with its original title. "Mustang Mama" had become..........

In 1988, Eric Carmen and songwriter Dean Pitchford (who had previously collaborated successfully on Mike Reno and Ann Wilson's "Almost Paradise" in 1984) were working on a song whose verses were heavy on music nostalgia, making references to several 60's classics. The original chorus had different lyrics, and the song had a different working title. They decided they really didn't want the song to be all nostalgia, so they changed the lyrics to the chorus and the title. Suddenly, "Long Live Rock and Roll" became a Top 5 smash without all the nostalgia, under the name.........

Golden Hits Radio & GHR-2's Burning Question of the Day

Which act had the most Top 10 singles in the U.S. in the 80's?

Check back tomorrow @ Everything Oldies for the answer, and leave a comment here with your best guess!

Yesterday's Burning Question (and Answer) of the Day

While it sometimes doesn't hurt to "go with your gut" when recording a song, it always helps to get a second opinion on its hit potential. Which superstar let the Ohio Players know they had a winner in "Fire"?

Answer: Stevie Wonder

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Today In Oldies 11/15/2010

Golden Hits Radio & GHR-2's Everything Oldies........New week, new Oldies news!

Take a look at Woody's Roadside Tavern's most famous patron.....who found his way to the stage!
How big could Michael Jackson's (first) posthumous album be?
Watch Marie Osmond from last week's appearance on Oprah
An attorney isn't happy with the way his client was portrayed in a movie (no word on why he waited NINETEEN YEARS to talk about it!)
Just in time for your holiday shopping.....a legendary 70's group reissues a Christmas album (*HINT*...it does have a name, unlike their horse)

A Shot At The Title

In 1982, Paul Davis was working on a song whose references were very 50's, including car hops, doo wops, and drive-ins. Appropriately, the working title was "'55 Love Affair". His record label, Arista Records, didn't like the idea of a song that would appeal to an older crowd, so they had him change the title in order to "young it down". The result was a Top 10 hit. You wonder if the American Bandstand crowd in this clip would have gone quite as crazy with the original title...........

As urban legend has it, a smash from 1972 was written about Don McLean, but the writers of the song tell a slightly different story. Norman Gimbel and Charles Fox wrote a song for a young artist named Lori Lieberman. They decided their original working title was a little old fashioned for 1972, so they changed the last word. After hearing it, Lieberman said it reminded her of being at a Don McLean concert, and the song's legend grew from there. It wasn't a hit for Lori Lieberman, but it became a #1 hit for Roberta Flack. Interesting how "Killing Me Softly With His Blues" became............

Song #54 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time had a rather unusual birth. The man who wrote it and sang it was working as a hospital orderly by day and club singer by night. Distraught over a broken relationship, he couldn't even bring himself to concentrate on the music he was to perform at the club. He asked his bassist and organ player to give him a slow blues backing, and he began to improvise a 6 minute song about the breakup. Realizing he might have something, he condensed it, took it to a producer, and recorded it in one of the early meccas of rock and pop music. The producer, realizing he had a hit, pitched the song to Atlantic Records, whose co-founder, Jerry Wexler, loved the song but didn't like the off-key performance of the singer. He ordered the singer and musicians back into the studio to re-cut it.........and accidentally released the off-key version anyway. The original title was "Why Did You Leave Me", but it became one of the most played songs of all-time as.............

Golden Hits Radio and GHR-2's Burning Question of the Day

Check back tomorrow @ Everything Oldies for the answer, and leave a comment here with your best guess!

Yesterday's Burning Question (and Answer) of the Day

For its last 6 months on TV, American Bandstand moved from its longtime home at ABC to cable's USA Network, and Dick Clark stepped down as host. Who was his replacement as host?

Answer: David Hirsch