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 11/11/2010

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

• A 70's icon's health takes a turn for the worse
• Another 70's icon opens up to Oprah about family tragedy
• Turns out the "Uptown Girl" Billy Joel sang about was not Christie Brinkley!  So who was it?
• Bruce Springsteen will appear on American TV only once this year....and it will be next week.  Who's the lucky show that gets him? 
  

Where In The World Is........Thelma Houston?

It was hard to avoid disco during the second half of the 70's.  It propelled established stars into the stratosphere (The Bee Gees), it made new superstars (Donna Summer), and, in the case of Thelma Houston, it gave an artist who had yet to have a hit a moment in the sun. 

Born Thelma Jackson in Leland, Mississippi, Thelma Houston's family eventually moved to Long Beach, California.  Like many stars, she became interested in music at a young age and became a member of the gospel group The Art Reynolds Singers.  This led to a solo recording deal with Dunhill Records.  In 1971, she landed at the crown jewel of record labels, singing with Motown.  Having Berry Gordy's producing, writing, and marketing muscle failed to produce success for Houston.  She added acting to her resume, and by 1975 she had a few near misses musically.  Just as Motown was about to release Houston's single "Do You Know Where You're Going To", a last minute decision to shelve Houston's version and have Diana Ross record it as the theme song for her film Mahogany cost Houston a potential breakthrough hit.  She remained a valuable utility player for Motown, however, as she provided backing vocals for several albums including Jermaine Jackson's debut solo effort.  In 1977, as disco was becoming the dominant genre on the charts, Thelma Houston would have her hit.  And it would be one for the ages.  

The first single off Houston's third Motown album "Any Way You Like It" was a cover of a song originally done by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, who had a Disco hit with it in 1975.  Thelma Houston would make it a classic.  "Don't Leave Me This Way" was a multi-chart smash, hitting #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 AND R&B charts as well as the Club Play charts.  On the radio or on the dance floor, it was hard to escape "Don't Leave Me This Way" in early 1977.  It looked like Thelma Houston might soon be stealing the songs from Diana Ross.  

A combination of the lack of a follow up hit and the pending backlash against disco doomed further chart success for Thelma Houston.  For the remainder of her recording career, she has only had minor R&B chart hits.  Undaunted, she continued to record throughout the 80's and 90's and also turned to acting, making guest appearances on several TV shows and movies.  The 90's saw her perform at some of the most prestigious and massive events of the decades, including an audience with the Pope and Woodstock '94 as part of the Sisters of Glory (also featuring Phoebe Snow, CeCe Peniston, and Mavis Staples).  

The past decade has seen Thelma Houston remain busy while reliving her "Don't Leave Me This Way" heyday touring with various disco acts on the state fair and amphitheater circuit.  Her last studio album, "A Woman's Touch", was released in 2007 and featured covers of some of her favorite songs originally performed by male artists.  She has also performed her signature song on two of America's biggest prime time TV shows in 2009, American Idol and America's Got Talent.  

If you're gonna be a one hit wonder, you might as well be able to make it last for over thirty years!  Here is Thelma Houston's moment in the spotlight......

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

The name on his birth certificate reads Steven Dimitri Georgiou, but we know him better as ______________.  

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

Which David Bowie hit was originally written for, and turned down by, Elvis?

Answer: "Golden Years"

Today In Oldies 10/8/2010

Golden Hits Radio and GHR-2.....where Oldies are alive and well and making news!

• Where can you get a sneak peek at Keith Richards' autobiography? 
• Frankie Valli's life comes full circle....from the recording studio, to the concert stage, to the Broadway stage, to the big screen!
• Apparently you're not allowed to sell a superstar's fingerprints........
• Glee is bringing out the big names this season.......so who's next? 
• Donny and Marie Osmond have been called a lot of things in their lives, but are they REALLY "devious and greedy"?

Where In The World Is.......Terence Trent D'arby?

Born in Manhattan in 1962, with the name on his birth certificate reading Terence Trent Howard, Terence Trent D'arby appeared poised to rob Michael Jackson and Prince as the King of Pop in the late 80's.  The son of a Pentecostal minister and school teacher, D'arby's family was pretty itinerant as he grew up, moving from New York to New Jersey to Chicago and finally settling in Orlando, Florida.  He spent his teen years as a champion Golden Gloves boxer.  He planned to enlist in the U.S. Army after high school and enroll in boxing school, but his father insisted he attend college.  After a year at the University of Central Florida, he dropped out and ended up in the Army.  While serving in Germany, he became interested in music, playing in a band called The Touch.  Upon his discharge for going AWOL in 1983, he moved from Germany to London, joining a band called The Bojangels.  In 1987, he was signed as a solo artist to Columbia Records.

With Motown on the decline in the late 80's, the R&B world was a two man show, with Michael Jackson and Prince cleaning up on the charts, in the record stores, and on the concert stage.  Enter the next contender........Terence Trent D'arby.  As his career began, it was very clear he was a big believer in himself in interviews.  Once his debut album, Introducing The Hardline According To Terence Trent D'arby, hit record store shelves, critics and record buyers agreed wholeheartedly!  The album has sold 12 million copies worldwide as of 2010 and produced 3 Top 40 hits, including "Sign Your Name" and "Wishing Well", with the latter hitting #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1988.  Comparisons to James Brown, Prince, and Michael Jackson were being thrown around.  Terence Trent D'arby had massive talent, a huge album, and an ego to match.  The next stop was becoming the biggest star in the world. 

Unfortunately, his huge ego proved to be his downfall.  A prolonged creative battle with Columbia Records began with the recording of his second album, Neither Fish Nor Flesh, and as a result, D'arby refused to release any songs from the album as singles.  He parted ways with the label following his 1995 album Vibrator. By then, he had long since fallen off the charts and out of favor with critics and fans.

In spite of his lack of commercial success following Introducing The Hardline......., Terence Trent D'arby has remained a prolific songwriter and performer.  He now lives in Italy, and following a series of dreams in 2001, he has changed his name to Sandana Maitreya.  In 1999, he temporarily joined INXS as a replacement for their late lead singer, Michael Hutchence, so they could perform at the 2000 Summer Olympics in their hometown of Sydney, Australia.  He has also been an early champion of using the internet to exclusively distribute his music. 

Let's look at a clip from the glory days and imagine what might have been for (the now former) Terence Trent D'arby.........

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

Which Beatles song was originally written for Tom Jones following a chance meeting with Paul McCartney in a club in the late 60's?

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

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

This one's a simple "yes" or "no" question......Are Kenny Loggins and singer/songwriter Dave Loggins, who had a hit as a solo artist with "Please Come To Boston" in 1974, related?

Answer: Yes, they are 2nd cousins