Tom Hanks is having a tailgate party in the back of the Playtone Records station wagon! Today at 1 ET, right here on this conveniently embedded TuneIn player.
Category: Radio
A Year With Lyrion
A bit over a year ago, I reconfigured my music network over from the last vestiges of Logitech Media Server and onto Lyrion. It’s been great, and their adding support for SiriusXM has been wicked good. Will channel 20 finally turn me into a Springsteen fan?
For all of my experimentation with various headphones and in-ear monitors, if I were forced to limit myself to one pair of each type, for laptop and phone use, these would be them.
They are both from Sony and they happen to be the least expensive products they have. The headphones are the MDR-ZX110, the earbuds are the MDR-EX15LP. They sound nothing at all alike, but they’re equally excellent. Being hairless, I stuck some foam on the headphone band for cushioning.
Gone But Not Forgotten
Tom Hanks has his best yet ‘Songs From the Back of the Station Wagon’ on Boss Radio 66. Here’s when you can hear it (EST).
Wednesday: 4 PM, 11 PM Thursday: 6 AM, 11 AM, 8 PM Friday: 3 AM, 9 AM Saturday: 12 AM, 7 AM, 2 PM, 9 PM
Here’s where you can hear it, on TuneIn.
Small Records With Big Rabbit Holes
Looking at the charts Denro provided in the previous post, I see ‘Nothing But a Heartache’ by the Flirtations. A powerful, catchy record that deserved to do better, it peaked at #34, even lower than ‘Will You Be Staying After Sunday’.
How did a 1968 Psychedelic UK record that didn’t chart in America (was it even released here?) …
… get reworked into the Soul Pop sound of ‘Nothing But a Heartache’?
Here’s the explanation. Its history starts with a former Beatle.
Five years later came this Sugar Pop classic.
Setting the Record Straight on Records
Denro has replied to my recent request for clarification on two favorite singles from ’69 — ‘Will You Be Staying After Sunday’ and ‘Morning Girl’. The big surprise for me was that WABC didn’t play the Peppermint Rainbow’s record. Doing well in Los Angeles and Boston apparently wasn’t enough to compensate for the lack of airplay in New York.
It may have only hit #32 on Billboard, but ‘Will You Be Staying After Sunday’ peaked at #12 on WRKO and #11 on WMEX. I know, because I bought the original 45, probably at Woolworths in the Falmouth Plaza.
Later, when I started getting Joel Whitburn’s books, I was always confused by lower charting songs that I knew were “hits” in my mind. Then I discovered the treasure trove of local Radio Charts!
Of course, if you had stayed in Norwalk and listened to WABC, you were out of luck. It never charted – nor was it apparently played – on WABC. But it was big on local CT stations!
It reached #4 on KHJ – 3 weeks before! The week that WYBSAS peaked on RKO, Morning Girl was making its debut.
1969-04-24 — WRKO 680 AM (Boston, Massachusetts)
Peppermint, Lemon and Steam
Here again is The Peppermint Rainbow’s delightful single, “Will You Be Staying After Sunday”, this time in stereo. Be sure to let it play through all the way to the end. The lyrics of this song are transcendent.
The group covered the Lemon Piper’s “Green Tambourine”.
The instrumental track is so close to the original recording, it must be either the same or an alternate take from the same session.
Which isn’t surprising, as the co-writer, arranger and producer of both recordings was Paul Leka.
“Green Tambourine” was a #1 hit released on December 16, 1967.
Leka’s name is on another single from 1969.
Released October 18, “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” didn’t stall on its way up the charts. It spent two weeks at #1.
“Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” and “Will You Be Staying After Sunday” are most likely not mono mixes, but simple fold-downs from the stereo mixes, as became the common practice in ’69.
Will You Be Staying After Sunday
Don’t let lonely Monday come again
Will you be staying after Sunday or go home on Monday
Will you be staying after Sunday or go home
Your lips are warm on Friday night
The next two days you hold me tight
But when it’s done, you always run, and I’m alone.
Will you be staying after Sunday or go home on Monday
I’ll keep waiting for that one day you’ll be mine
I’d give the world to keep you here
Why do you need to disappear
And when I press you do your best to stall for time.
I wouldn’t try to own your soul
You can be free
I only want you here each night
Loving me
Will you be staying after Sunday or go home on Monday
We gotta let this feeling grow or let it end
You say you care well if you do
Don’t ever go I’m begging you
Don’t let lonely Monday come again
Will you be staying after Sunday or go home on Monday
Will you be staying after Sunday or go home on Monday
Will you be staying after Sunday or go home on Monday (fades out)
Songwriters: Al Kasha / Joel Hirschhorn