Radio – Page 2 – Prattling Before the Pratfall

Original Cast vs. Copy Cast

Multiple versions of a song competing on the record charts at the same time used to be fairly routine. Saturday’s American Top 40 with Casey Kasem on SiriusXM was from 1971. At the time, there were two versions the song ‘I Don’t Know How to Love Him’ on the Billboard chart.

Helen Reddy’s recording peaked at #13. To me it sounds rather rote, almost like she was doing a run-through to check the mic levels.

Yvonne Elliman was an original cast member of Jesus Christ Superstar. In my opinion, this is the vastly superior performance. Yet it only reached #28 on Billboard.

Hearing those records brought to mind another example of two recordings of the same song that were competing on the charts. It’s from the time when I was starting to work as a radio DJ.

Pat Boone’s daughter Debby had a #1 smash hit with ‘You Light Up My Life’. I must have played this single a thousand times.

The original version of the song, for the movie You Light Up My Life, was sung by Kvitka “Kasey” Cisyk. It outshines Debbie’s performance, yet it topped-out at a lowly #80.

Mr. Hanks Goes to JoJa

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.

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)

TW	LW	ARTIST	TITLE	WKS
1	3	Simon & Garfunkel	The Boxer	4
2	7	Crazy Elephant	Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’	4
3	4	The Flirtations	Nothing But A Heartache	5
4	6	The Isley Brothers	It’s Your Thing	4
5	1	The Guess Who	These Eyes	6
6	10	Andy Williams	Happy Heart	5
7	2	The Ventures	Hawaii Five-O	6
8	11	B.J. Thomas	It’s Only Love	5
9	15	Mercy	Love (Can Make You Happy)	4
10	23	Mary Hopkin	Goodbye	2
11	8	Tommy James And The Shondells	Sweet Cherry Wine	6
12	16	The Peppermint Rainbow	Will You Be Staying After Sunday	4
13	14	Tompall And The Glaser Brothers	California Girl (And The Tennessee Square)	5
14	19	The Doors	Wishful Sinful	3
15	20	Booker T. & The M.G.’s	Time Is Tight	3
16	17	The Checkmates, Ltd.	Love Is All I Have To Give	4
17	5	The 5th Dimension	Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)	8
18	21	Rita Coolidge	Turn Around And Love You	3
19	24	The Grass Roots	The River Is Wide	2
20	22	Engelbert Humperdinck	The Way It Used To Be	3
21	27	Diana Ross And The Supremes	The Composer	2
22	26	Bobby Vinton	To Know You Is To Love You	2
23	25	Joe Simon	The Chokin’ Kind	2
24	29	Tommy Roe	Heather Honey	2
25	—	The Beatles With Billy Preston	Get Back	1
25	—	The Beatles With Billy Preston	Don’t Let Me Down	1
26	28	Glen Campbell	Where’s The Playground Susie	2
27	30	Marvin Gaye	Too Busy Thinking About My Baby	2
28	—	The Neon Philharmonic	Morning Girl	1
29	—	Dobie Gray	Rose Garden	1
30	—	The Vogues	Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine)	1
HB		The New Colony Six	I Could Never Lie To You
HB		Creedence Clearwater Revival	Bad Moon Rising

1969-04-02 — KHJ 930 AM (Los Angeles, California)

TW	LW	ARTIST	TITLE
1	1	The 5th Dimension	Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)
2	2	Blood, Sweat & Tears	You’ve Made Me So Very Happy
3	7	Jerry Butler	Only The Strong Survive
4	9	The Peppermint Rainbow	Will You Be Staying After Sunday
5	3	Edwin Starr	Twenty-Five Miles
6	17	Frank Sinatra	My Way
7	4	Tommy Roe	Dizzy
8	16	The Ventures	Hawaii Five-O
9	10	The Checkmates, Ltd.	Love Is All I Have To Give
10	23	The Spiral Starecase	More Today Than Yesterday
11	6	Glen Campbell	Galveston
12	21	The Beach Boys	I Can Hear Music
13	28	The Guess Who	These Eyes
14	5	Neil Diamond	Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show
15	22	Peter Sarstedt	Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)
16	27	The Isley Brothers	It’s Your Thing
17	13	The Temptations	Run Away Child, Running Wild
18	25	Tommy James And The Shondells	Sweet Cherry Wine
19	8	Betty Everett	There’ll Come A Time
20	24	The Doors	Wishful Sinful
21	HB	Simon & Garfunkel	The Boxer
22	29	Joan Baez	Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word
23	26	Gary Puckett And The Union Gap	Don’t Give In To Him
24	—	Booker T. & The M.G.’s	Time Is Tight
25	30	Tompall And The Glaser Brothers	California Girl (And The Tennessee Square)
26	HB	The Cowsills	Hair
27	—	Engelbert Humperdinck	The Way It Used To Be
28	—	Crazy Elephant	Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’
29	—	Rita Coolidge	Turn Around And Love You
30	—	The Who	Pinball Wizard
HB		The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band	Do Your Thing
HB		Mary Hopkin	Goodbye
HB		The Box Tops	I Shall Be Released

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