Today In Oldies 3/12/2012

Golden Hits Radio's Everything Oldies.....All the Oldies news that's fit to print!

• America's musical poet laureate has a new album in the works
• A 70's R&B legend recalls her biggest hit
• Who's the latest Oldies star to tell his life story in print?
• Halls of Fame across the United States are honoring some of the greats heard each day on Golden Hits Radio
  

 

ODD JOBS

Before your favorite Oldies superstars became million-selling musicians and singers, they often had to hold down "real" jobs to make ends meet.  Now's your chance to show what a big fan you are by playing our new game, "Odd Jobs".  We'll give you an occupation, and you tell us (via multiple choice) which star once held that job before they hit it big.............

 

Wire solderer @ General Electric - B.J. Thomas, Tommy Roe, or Bobby Goldsboro

Dishwasher - Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, or Eddie Kendricks (of The Temptations)

Glove factory worker - Engelbert Humperdinck, George Harrison, or Tom Jones

 

ANSWERS TO FRIDAY'S ODD JOBS:

Recording studio janitor - Harry Wayne Casey (of K.C. and The Sunshine Band)

Hospital orderly - Percy Sledge

Truck driver - Elvis Presley

 

***COMMENT BELOW WITH YOUR GUESSES......WE'LL HAVE THE ANSWERS TOMORROW!***

Golden Hits Radio's Burning Question of the Day

Which two music legends were thrown out of L.A.'s legendary Troubador today in 1974 for heckling The Smothers Brothers during a performance?

Come back to Everything Oldies tomorrow to find the answer, and leave a Comment below with your best guess!
 

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

The Beatles weren't the only British Invasion act to make waves on The Ed Sullivan Show.  Which British supergroup made their first of EIGHTEEN appearances on the show March 9, 1964? 

Answer:     The Dave Clark Five

 

ON THE ROAD - TOMMY ROE

• 04/07 – Riverside, IA – Riverside Casino
• 04/08 – Riverside, IA – Riverside Casino
• 04/14 – Niagara Falls, NY - Seneca Niagara Casino
• 05/25 – Edmonton, AB, Canada - Century Casino
• 06/16 – Gray, TN - Fountain of Life Fair
• 06/17 - Ponte Vedra, FL (tentative)
• 06/18 – The Villages, FL
• 08/31 – Dubuque, IA - DiamondJo Casino
• 09/01 – Sloan, IA - Winnavegas Casino
• 09/02 – Arnolds Park, IA - Hall of Fame Induction

Today In Oldies 12/13/2010

Golden Hits Radio and GHR-2's Everything Oldies stands for Oldies news! 

• Sir Paul puts a twist on one of his classics on Thursday night's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
• He was also all over this week's Saturday Night Live!
• The Queen of Soul comes home from the hospital
• American Idol does The Beatles!.....and other changes for the upcoming season
• In other Fab Four related news, a judge drops the hammer on a website not named iTunes for selling digital downloads of Beatles songs
• And finally on the Fab Four front, who broke up The Beatles?  "Not me", says one of their longtime partners
• And the actual auction price of a set of handwritten lyrics by Bob Dylan is...................
• What would you pay for one of Eric Clapton's guitars?
• Carly Simon isn't taking the law into her own hands........she's taking Starbucks to court!
• Roberta Flack talks to AOL Music about a number of topics

Oldies on TV

• Stephen Bishop - Late Night With Jimmy Fallon - NBC (12:35 Eastern/11:35 Pacific)
  

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.

• A Motown classic that Berry Gordy helped write came about because Gordy was reminded of Frankie Lymon whenever he heard Michael Jackson.  Being the most expensive single ever recorded for Motown at that time, Gordy had a lot riding on it both personally and financially.  It didn't begin as a love song, but Gordy eventually reshaped it so it would be believable being sung by an 11-year-old.  The Jackson 5 made it a smash, and what began its life as "I Want To Be Free" became...........

• A song being included on the soundtrack to what would become an iconic 70's movie with the Brooklyn disco scene as a backdrop was originally supposed to carry the same title as the movie.  The problem was that same title had been used many times in the past, most notably as the title of a #1 hit just one year earlier.  Wisely, The Bee Gees decided to avoid confusion, and what began as "Saturday Night" turned into.........

• One of the most talked about songs of all time was conceived with a different title.  To this day, no one knows who the subject of the song is, and had the original title been kept, who knows if it would have been the hit it ultimately became?  If you look at the vinyl acetate demo copy of the song written and performed by Carly Simon, it reads "Ballad of a Vain Man".  Whether she's talking about Mick Jagger, Warren Beatty, or someone completely different, it became known, loved, and widely discussed as........

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

Which artist pre-taped a 1976 appearance on Saturday Night Live about an hour before the broadcast due to being overcome with stage fright?

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

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

Which late rock guitar legend played on David Bowie's #1 hit "Let's Dance", which led to a solo record deal?

Answer: Stevie Ray Vaughan

 

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

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. 

• 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

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"? 

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

 

 

Today In Oldies 11/9/2010

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

• Could the criminal record of a rock legend finally be wiped clean?
• A legendary record label loses another supergroup
• A Rolling Stones tour in 2011.....will they or won't they?
• Among those claimed in the great Democratic midterm massacre of 2010......the lead singer of a 70's band who had a string of hits
• Who's being inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame later this month?

Where In The World Is.......Billy Paul?

Billy Paul was one of the biggest stars emerging from the "Philadelphia soul" sound of the 70's.  Hailing from the City of Brotherly Love, he was one of the most diverse vocalists to record for Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff's Philadelphia International Records.  His run on the R&B charts was a long one, but in the pop music world, he will be forever known for one sultry smash. 

Born in North Philadelphia, Paul began performing at the age of 12 on local radio shows.  His college career spanned across several higher learning institutions in the Philadelphia area.  Whether it was Temple University, West Philadelphia Music School, or the Granoff School of Music, Paul began to make a name for himself on those campuses and in the surrounding nightclub districts.  He performed in concert alongside some of the giants of jazz and R&B, including Charlie Parker, Dinah Washington, Nina Simone, Miles Davis, and Roberta Flack.  His first taste of recording was with a trio he formed for Jubilee Records cut before he entered the Armed Forces.  Following his discharge, he briefly became one of Harold Melvin's Bluenotes.  His first two albums were recorded for Gamble & Huff-associated labels.  They produced R&B hits, but his third album spawned a pop smash. 

"360 Degrees of Billy Paul"'s first single, "Me and Mrs. Jones", was an unqualified hit across several charts and several countries in spite of covering the rather controversial topic of marital infidelity.  It spent the last 3 weeks of 1972 at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.  It was a Top 20 hit in the UK, and has been covered by dozens of artists and appeared in countless movies and TV commercials since.  It sold 2 million copies and won a Grammy for Billy Paul.  Paul's next album, "Going East", was also a critical and commercial hit, although it did not generate any hit singles. 

He continued to record for Neptune Records through the mid-1980's, but he never again approached the pop charts.  He announced his "retirement" on a London concert stage in 1989, but he re-emerged a few years later.  He continues to perform live and record new music.  He is also the subject of an upcoming documentary film to be released in theaters, entitled Am I Black Enough For You?  Find out more at his official website

***DISCLAIMER*** The staff and management of Golden Hits Radio and GHR-2 is not liable for any population explosion that may occur as a result of viewing the following clip...........

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

Which former Saturday Night Live cast member was one of the members of the "choir" who sang USA For Africa's "We Are The World" in 1985?

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

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

What day of the week is the only one not mentioned in the Beatles' hit "Lady Madonna"?

Answer: Saturday