Lenny Welch

Time to mix up a big tall glass of Ovaltine, and get close to the radio. It seems like only yesterday that I remember those great Saturday morning serials on the radio. The Roy Rogers Show, Captain Midnight and more. I am sure that may of you saved those Ovaltine seals and sent in for your secret decoder ring; I know I did. There is one scene in the holiday movie class, A Christmas Story, where little Ralphie anxiously awaits his decoder ring only to find the message was “be sure and drink your Ovaltine.” I don't remember what message Captain Midnight sent, but I am sure it probably involved my part in how to save the world or intergalactic travel. It runs in my mind I also saved up something for an official “Sea Hunt” Mike Nelson swimming frogman. The ties ins with the shows certainly were a great way to sell the sponsors products. I wish I still had all of those premiums as they certainly would be collectibles today.

Often during the interviews I would ask who a particular artist influence was. Lenny told me that while he didn't have any in particular he really liked Clyde Mc Phatter (Little Bitty Pretty One.). “I tried to imitate him till I found my own style” said Lenny.

As with a lot of very talented artists the difference between success and failure can be credited to a record producer. Lenny became associated with the late Archie Blyer, a band leader. producer, and owner of Cadence records. Archie's list of artists is quite lengthy, as well as his band charting several times, with the most notable song being Hernando's Hide-a-way.

The 1963 hit, "Since I Fell For You," was released at Lenny's suggestion, Lenny said he liked the song from his teenage years when he heard it by Willie Winfield and the Harptones. The song was one of several “pretty” songs that went into the Since I Fell For you Album. Even though they did 20 takes of the song, the one that was released was take number 1. Personally I have always felt that it was on of the most powerful songs of 1963. Lenny says, “I love it, and I don't go on stage without singing it.”

His next song was another classic. This time Lenny took Archie's suggestion and released "Ebb Tide." I've heard many versions of that song over the years, but Lenny's style makes it on of my favorites. The song even appeared in the Paul Newman movie Sweet Bird of Youth.

Lenny somewhat disappeared from the popular music scene for several years, and pursued an acting career, which by the way was his major in college. Getting back into the music business happened while on a trip back to his home town of Asbury Park, N.J. A long time friend of his played him several songs as said “Why not record them?” Lenny made a demo but nothing happened for nearly 10 years until he came across them and decided to put them together in a CD called “It's All About Love.” I had the opportunity to listen to the songs before I interviewed Lenny and felt that he sounded better than ever. Cut one is a song called “Dancing Naked In The Dark.” When he saw the title Lenny said, “I can't record this. After I listened to it I said this is not a bad song, there's nothing dirty about it, the song is all right.” Lenny asked me what I thought about the second cut on the CD called “Slow.” I said ' It reminds me of an old movie, a couple is kissing and the camera pans away to the open window with the curtains blowing in the wind, you know something is happening, BUT it is not shown.” You can hear samples of the CD at www.lennywelch.com.

Lenny also does a lot of oldies shows, primarily on the east coast and you might even see him on a cruise someplace.

Trivia This group from New jersey are sometimes called the female Drifter's who are they? They of course are the fabulous Shirell's.

The Buckinghams Part 2

Welcome back again to those thrilling days of radio, as the Lone Disk Jockey rides again! What does it take to operate a radio station? Now that has as many variables as anything that has options. Of course you will need equipment, that can be as simple as a couple of computers, a microphone, audio processing equipment, a transmitter, and antenna and something to hold an antenna up in the air. Low Power FM, of which Payson has two, are the least expensive stations to build and operate. Since for the most part all the music is on a computer hard drive, along with the commercials, etc and it is all controlled by special software designed for radio stations. The inside name for these is “A jock (disk jockey)in a box, “or “jukebox.” Some stations use satellite delivered programming that is produced by a specialized company and delivered to the station via satellite with the station having a special software program to insert commercials, weather, news, etc. Some stations use a combination of some or all the options. I consider myself fortunate to have worked in completely live radio where anything could and DID happen. Sadly the cost of operation have all but doomed totally “live” stations to being relics of a bye gone era.

Before I continue let me correct an error. In a posting I gave Credit to Duane Eddy as being Joe Gigilo's favorite guitarist. Well, Joe corrects me, and while he played a lot of Duane Eddy songs, his favorite was guitar legend the late Les Paul.

1967 saw The Buckinghams come out of the box with the number one record “Kind Of A Drag.” In those days young Disk Jockeys such as yours truly listened to the “mega stations” like WLS Chicago to hear new music, and of course copy the style of the “boss Jocks.” It was WLS where I first heard Kind of A Drag. That song was given to the group by the friend of their manager. The Buckingham's manager was looking for an original song and got it from a friend. This song was one of if not the first time that a pop bands used horns. Listening to the song again before I wrote this article , I can't imagine how it would sound without the horns. When I asked Carl about the first time he heard it on the radio he told me, “We were practicing in my basement and my father yelled down to us that our song was on the radio. We all ran up and listened, it sounds really different when you hear it on the radio, really exciting, something you never forget.” Carl told me, “to see your name on the record charts with the likes of The Beatles and The Stones, and then to see your record ahead of them was pretty incredible.”

Regarding the next song, “Don't You Care,” Carl says “If you listen to it I think you will see a giant jump in quality.” By the way, that song is Carl's favorite and mine as well. I told Carl “it is one song I enjoy singing with, BUT not on the air.”

The group continued to gain in popularity with appearances on The Joey Bishop Show, Smother's Bros. Comedy Hour, American Bandstand and of course the Ed Sullivan Show. Those were the days before the likes of MTV and those shows were a MUST for an up and coming group.

July 1967 saw Mercy, Mercy, Mercy as The Buckinghams fourth chart hit. That was followed by “Susan.” To me that song was a departure from the traditional Buckingham's style. The song I considered was some what of a “cop out” song to the psychedelic music of the day. It has some very strange effects near the end. Carl said, “when we heard it we thought there was something wrong with the test pressing, no one in the band liked it.” The song writer of “Susan” wrote it after the breakup between he and his Chicago Playboy Bunny girlfriend.

Trivia “How Did the Buckinghams get their name? “ The Buckinghams started out as “The Pulsations.” It was when they were hired to do a 13 week show on Chicago television station WGN that it was felt a new name was needed. The producers wanted something that sounded British, even those the group was from Chicago. There were many suggestions offered but the honor of naming the group goes to a Security Guard for WGN. “The name sounded British, with Buckingham Palace and such” said Carl so out with the Pulsations and enter The Buckinghams.




If you are interested in some new music by the Buckingham's, check out their website at www.thebuckinghams.com. They have several CDs available including a Christmas CD and a single performance by Carl Giammarese. My thanks to Donnalyn for being a part of my interview with Carl. One thing that still bother me, is that I never got the opportunity to interview Carl again as I ended “The Class Reunion” before I had the chance. Maybe someday.

The Buckinghams Part 1

Hi again everyone, and thanks for taking the time to share some memories with me. The results are in and our radio station is #1. Recently I was watching an old episode of WKRP where the story concerns Program Director Andy Travis and Station Manager Arthur W. Carlson and the Arbitron Survey. I could see myself sitting there with “the book” in front of me afraid to open it for fear of what the results might be. In major market radio, careers are ruined by one bad survey. I have worked at stations where the whole staff, of our the sister station was replaced because the numbers were down one or two percentage points. I always felt that while they are a useful tool for judging the stations performance, they should never have been given as much importance as they were. For the most part, the Arbitron Survey relies on a realitively small number of diaries (survey forms) from a particular metropolitan area. I have seen as few as 40 “diaries” placed in a county of 100,000 people. If the diaries happened to fall in the rural area there was a good chance the people might not ever receive the station. Back in my early days in Williamsport, Pa. On of the competing radio stations always bought the results. Oh yes, you paid BIG MONEY for this report. My stations budget was such that we could not justify the cost versus the benefits. For many years my station would instead commission a telephone survey of roughly one to two percent of the county. I always felt that those numbers were far more important since the questions were asked directly of the person who answered the phone. Why are the numbers so important? Most national advertising agencies use the survey to place advertising on stations that reach their target market. So a “bad book” can have a far reaching impact.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Carl in 2006 on “The Class Reunion.” Now before I get to the meat of that interview, let me tell you a story that goes along with that. When I started out to do the “Legendary Artist Series,” I sat down with one of my reference books and made my “A” and “B” list of artists and groups that I wanted to interview. Once I did that, I set about finding them through various methods, but mostly computer searches. Along the way I would ask certain people I knew if they had a group they had an artist or group they wanted me to interview who would it be? One of the people that I asked was the former co-host of “Good Morning Payson”, Donnalyn Williams. She told me that she knew a member of a popular group from her home town of Chicago. When I asked her who the group was she told me The Buckinghams. As coincidence would have it, I had just made contact with a member of that group and had an interview scheduled. To my surprise, Donnalyn's long time friend and my contact were one in the same, namely Carl Giammarese. It was then that I asked her to be a part of the interview with Carl.

In the years 1967 and 1968 the Buckinghams had a total of seven songs that made the charts. I remember telling Carl that when Mercy, Mercy, Mercy hit I said “ Another Buckingham's song, aren't we already playing two”. I have to think one of the secrets to the groups success was the rapid fire release of songs, when one was dropping off the charts, there was another to take it's place.

The Buckinghams songs were a staple of my “record hop kit” in the late 1960's. I could always depend on playing a couple of their hits usually more than once during the record hop. It came as no surprise when Donnalyn asked Carl if it was true they were named “The Most Listened to Group in 1967” by Billboard magazine. Billboard was one of the publications that music directors such as I used to pick songs for the station play list. Oh yes, The Buckinghams did get that honor against some pretty good competition.

The Buckingham's share the pretty typical group start up story, a couple of guys get together and form a band. Carl said, “when I heard the Beatles, I wanted to be a Beatle.” One big difference in the case of the Buckinghams success was a really aggressive manager, who actually paid for a lot of demo tapes himself.

Jim Yester the Association Part 2

Hello again from behind the microphone and welcome to my memories of my days in broadcasting and stories of the musical artists of the 1950's and 1960's. Back in the days before it was common to have 24 hour radio stations, I did many a sign on shift. I always wondered if anyone actually was listening for the first few minutes of “the broadcast day.” Even into the 1970's, it was not uncommon for your favorite station to sign off during the overnight hours. Eventually I believe that station owners got smarter and figured that IF they were on the air overnight then people would leave their dials set there all the time. My first “experiment” with all night broadcasting came in late 1969 when WMPT became the first 24 hour station in Williamsport, PA. I will always look back on that as one of the most interesting times I ever spent in radio. I never really knew how many people listened, BUT I know I received a lot of calls from the various business places, police and firefighters, etc, who were up all night and finally could receive a strong radio signal. I called the show “The Watts Watch,” a unique name to be sure. I know some of my biggest, and smallest fans were at the nursery at the local hospitals. All in all I did that show for over 3 years, at one time actually working my night off at another station that went 24 hours. WMPT was off the air that night so with the blessing of both stations I was on the air.

In another BLOG Post I mentioned The Association the monster hit “Along Comes Mary”, written by Jim Yester. Many people at the time regarded it as a “drug song” and The Association was met at the gate by Sheriff Deputies and Disney Security, and were not going to be allowed to play. Jim Yester tells me that “ things were getting hot, when a group of nun's came along and said, Oh there's the Association. We just love your song about the Virgin Mary.” As a result of that divine intervention, the group was allowed to enter and perform. Jim also tells the story that he was on his way to a performance one evening and was injured in an automobile accident and was sidelined for several weeks. He got a call from Jules Alexander asking him to write down the words. Jim was the only one who knew them.

One of the most prolific writers in the Association, other than Jim, is Terry Kirkman. Jim says, “ Terry was a journalism major in college, so he was VERY wordy and wrote some great stuff.” Some of those “wordy” song included “Everything That Touches You,” “Requiem For The Masses,” and the Association classic “Cherish.” Jim said, “Cherish is one of those songs that guys sing to their girlfriends, but it really is a song about un-requited love.” Jim told me something that I was not aware of, “We weren't going to release Cherish as our second song, it was going to be “Enter The Young, (Jim jokes that today when we do that song we should call it “Enter The Old”) but a disk jockey in Ohio, played the cut, (Cherish) from our album.”

Another one of my favorites by The Association is “Windy.” That song was not written by the group but by an 18 year old fan Named Ruthann Friedman. If you listen to the end of the song there are 12 to 15 people singing including 2 wives of Association members, and Don & Dick Addrisi, (singer songwriters). Jim says, “The appeal of the song is really broad, a lot of High School and college marching bands play the heck out of it.”

On of my favorite lines of the whole interview was when he told me, “I really knew I made it when I was on an elevator in Davenport Iowa, and heard my song Goodbye Columbus.” BTW one of Jim's favorite songs is “Everything That Touches You,” The song was produced by Jim's brother who apologized, “If I would have known more, the Renaissance Album (Everything is a breakout single) would have been a lot better album. “That song is yet another story about love, and a relationship that never happened and was based on a real experience.”

Today Jim is as busy as ever appearing with Diamond Dave Somerville (The Diamonds), and Bruce Belland (The Four Preps) as Y.B.S. Gold. The show that these three do took well over a year to perfect. The late Ed Cobb (The Four Preps) produced the show. I have both the albums, (Better Than Ever, and Triple Gold). These are great albums, I do not believe that the first CD is no longer available, but if you do a search for “Triple Gold” you will find that it is available. Jim travels extensively to bring his anti drug program “Say No Way” to students K through 12, and also performs with his band, “The Yesterdaze.”

Trivia: What lead singer for a Chicago based 60's rock group was the jingle singer for commercials for McDonald,s United Airlines, Lava Soap, RC Cola, Pizza Hut, and Coors Beer? Carl Giammarese of the Buckinghams.

Jim Yester of The Association Part 1

And now, live from Studio A in the Shadle building in beautiful downtown Lock Haven, here's Kelly Watts. I'm not sure if I ever actually was introduced like that but many of the old time TV and Radio shows began with a similar introduction As a young lad growing up in the infancy of TV and the end of the Golden Age Of Radio, I marveled at the great, and for the most part, un credited announcers. In the days of live radio and live TV shows it was their job to warm up the audience so that when the host, whom they introduced, appeared thunderous applause would ensue. Some of the greatest ever included the late Ed McMahon, Johnny Olsen, Gene Rayburn, George Fenneman, Don Wilson, and Larry Keating. Many of these folks behind the microphone went on to host their own shows or be a part of the shows ensemble. Even local TV had their share of great voices. I can remember as a very young DJ walking into WILK TV in Wilkes Barre, Pa. and meeting the great Hal Berg. Hal was a booth announcer, and between network programs he would give the station identification and read live commercials. I marveled at the timing and style of people like Hal. I often wished I would have been born just a few years earlier to have been a part of the “unseen” stars.

As I have said before, often when I listen to an interview I come to realize how much fun I had talking with the artists. Such is the case with a 2006 interview I did with Jim Yester, one of the founding members of The Association. Jim Yester started his musical career in the late 50's, along with his brother Jerry, playing as a folk duo on the coffee house circuit in L.A.. Jim says, “we did that for about a year and a half, and I had the sword of Uncle Sam hanging over my head so I went down and enlisted. After I was in about six months, I thought, what did I do? So I formed a comedy folk trio.” For the next two years Jim and his partners were called on to entertain the troops in Germany and France.

After being discharged from the service, Jim headed to L.A. Again, and the third day he was there he auditioned for the Manager of the Pasadena Ice House. Jim said the manager told him, “There's good news and bad news. The bad news is I can't use you, but the good news some friends of mine are putting a group together.” “I had never met any of them,” Jim said, what came out of that audition that met in Terry Kirkman's apartment was The Association, and Jim was a part of it. The core of the group came out of a 13 man group called “The Men.” Jim and I joked around that “to get a great sextet you need to start with 13 people.” I related a story to him about my friend Ray Coyle, a professional musician from Ohio, who played the hotel circuit as half of “The Lyterside” duo. Ray often said, “the best way to become a duo is to start out as a quartet,” which he did.

The Associations first release was a “highly forgettable” song called “One To Many Mornings.” It was released on the Valiant label and Jim said. “That song only got to number 16 on the West Coast, but it got us our record deal.” Jim told me prior to that “we had auditioned for everybody and got turned down. They told us, we think you guys are great BUT we don't know what to do with you, you're too different.”

“We didn't work anywhere for the first six months we were together. Six days a week eight hours a day we would rehearse and write. By the time we worked someplace we were so slick it was scary,” according to Jim. Of course some of the members like Jules Alexander did session work to survive. According to Jim, “everyone in the Association not only sings lead, backup and plays as well.” Terry Kirkman by the way plays 13 different instruments.

The first chart hit was “Along Comes Mary.” That song I played as a “new” song. I told Jim “I heard the song and said, they are pretty good, I think they'll go somewhere.” I followed that up jibbing Jim with, “but we were desperate for music, so we would play anything.” Thank goodness he laughed. More with Jim Yester in another post.

Trivia question: What Association song was regarded as so controversial that when the group was to play Disneyland they were met by Sheriff Deputies as Disney security. The song was Along Comes Mary, it seemed the Disney folks thought it was a drug song. As things were about to excalate a group of Nun's came by and said "Oh look it's The Association we love thier song about the Virgin Mary."

The Four Aces

Borrowing an old line from the great Jack Benny, “Hi I'm Kelly Watts....(pause)......
there will now be a 30 second pause while everybody looks at their radio and says so what?” One of the greatest fears that I think any disk jockey has, is the first day on the air at a new station. In small market radio one usually arrives without much fanfare and while that can be a blessing it can also be quite frustrating. Not only to the D.J. But the listener as well. Over the years I was the “newbie” at a bunch of stations, including of course our own KMOG. When the decision was made to leave my roots and move to Payson, I decided that I would enjoy getting back in radio on a regular basis, and if the truth be told, I was less that anxious to play country music. I had worked at four country stations over the course of my career and actually enjoyed doing the format. My problem was, I had not worked at a modern country station since 1975 so it was with a certain amount of reservation that I applied, was hired, and accepted the chance to work at KMOG. As with all disk jockeys I have my own style. Over the years that I had worked at fast paced, “tight format” stations, I picked up my speaking pace considerably, at times having been called on to read 70 seconds of commercial copy in 60 seconds. My first few days on the air at KMOG were interesting, fun and at times down right discouraging. I wrote in my BLOG, “I really don't think the people of Payson were quite ready for a Northeastern former Top 40 Jock.” I remember receiving a number of calls from people telling me that they didn't like me at all. One lady even went so far as to say “well I'm selling my radio.” to which I responded, “you'll have to call during trades and sales.” I give a lot of thanks to Blaine Kimball and Mike Farrell for their support during my time at KMOG, and to the listeners who eventually got used to my “small people warnings” on wind days, yerms like “snizzle” freezy skid stuff, and P.O.E.T.S. Day.

The Four Aces. If I had to pick a 1950's group for the best harmonies I am pretty sure it would be them. Their chart classics such as “Love Is A Many Splendored Thing, Perfidia, Heart and Soul, and Three Coins In A Fountain” are some of the greatest and most recognizable songs ever.

The original Four Aces have all retired, but leader Fred Diodati joined The Aces in 1956, so in my mind he is an original. During the course of “The Legendary Artist” interview series, I had Tenor Joe Giglio on four times. Joe is a tremendous talent by himself, and actually cut a couple of songs that we played on the show. One in particular, called “Angela” he wrote for his girl friend. The first time I heard it I wondered why he was not a lead singer, so I asked him Joe said, “I'm not a lead singer, I am a back up singer and a guitarist.” By the way if you are fortunate enough to see an Aces concert Joe will be playing guitar. One of his idols was Duane Eddy, Joe said “back when I had my group I had to learn to play like him to do Rebel Rouser.” Anyway, todays Aces line up includes Fred Diodati, the leader and spokesman, Joe Giglio, Tenor and Guitar, Harry Heisler, Bass and Musical Director, and Danny Colingo, who sings in fluent Italian and does a dead on impersonation of Johnny Mathis.

Whenever I talked with Joe, I never knew what was going to happen. As with all my interviews they were un scripted and we were never sure where a topic was going to lead us. And on more than one occasion Joe had me laying back in the control room chair laughing. I have never met a man with so many different stories in my life.

I was honored in February of 2008 to be Joe's invited guest at a show featuring the Four Aces, The Four Lads, and The Diamonds. I have been to live concerts over the years and have come away at times disappointed that the songs just really didn't sound as good in person as they did on record. This was not the case. There were several highlights of that evening including being backstage before the show laughing and joking with the acts, and yes we even got into some music trivia, NOW that takes guts with all the experience in those groups. I had interviewed “The Lads” Frank Busseri, so this was a double treat.

Because the concert ended late, I stayed at the same hotel as the groups and was invited to breakfast the next morning. Let me tell you that was an experience. The stories and Danny Colingo doing the absolute best Godfather imitation I have ever heard, I don't think I have ever laughed so hard.

The Four Aces have appeared in Palm Springs Follies every couple of years for decades. For more information of the group and to order their album “We Are Singers” ( as opposed to what maybe floor sweepers? my line) visit their website at www.thefouraces.org.

Trivia: What song was a hit for both The Chordetts and The Four Aces. The song of course was the classic Mr. Sandman written by Francis Drake "PAT" Ballard or Troy, Pa in 1954. The same song was adapted as a Christmas song by Suzy Boggus as Mr Santa.

Bits and Pieces

A big welcome to everyone. I am honored to have the opportunity to share memories and behinds the scenes stories from my time behind the microphone. A little brief bio information: I began my radio career while I was a senior at Montoursville High School in Pennsylvania. In the 43 years that I was active in radio and TV, I held about every position in the business and helped to design and build two radio stations. But my favorite times were those days actually on the air. For my first offering here I would give you some “behind the scenes” looks at a few of the artists I interviewed. There is no particular reason why I chose these bits of trivia, rather when I sat down to write this article, these stories came to mind.

Trini Lopez: Most of you know Trini’s high energy style of music from such chart toppers as Lemon Tree and If I Had A hammer. While both songs are more readily associated with Peter Paul & Mary, Trini’s versions outsold and placed higher on the national music charts. This might not have been IF things had been a bit different in 1959. After the February 1959 plane crash that claimed Buddy Holley, J.P. The “Big Bopper” Richardson, and Richie Valens, “The Cricket’s”, Buddy Holley’s back up band, were looking for a new lead singer. They called Trini Lopez and asked him to come to California for a meeting. Trini told me that he met with The Crickets, and he was supposed to take Buddy’s place, but nothing happened. According to Trini, they were too busy partying and Trini said “ I needed work.” So he began doing session recording and was eventually discovered. Trini remains active today and has released over 50 albums in his career.

While I am on the subject of “The Day The Music Died,” another artist got his start 50 years ago, because of that tragedy. Bobby Vee was a 16 year old kid in Fargo, N.D. where Holley, Richardson, and Valens were headed when their plane crashed. Bobby had a local band and happened to hear the news on the local radio station about the accident. The concert promoters put out a call for local talent to fill in that night and Bobby and his band appeared. Bobby said he was “scared to death,” working before a sold out house, but they went on. Their performance got the attention of the media and record company executives. Bobby had 43 songs that made the chart and today is still actively touring the country with his show.


Did you ever wonder how groups got their names? I asked that question of Hugh Geyer of The Vogues (5 O’clock World, Magic Town, and over 10 more chart hits). He told me the group, consisting of himself, Chuck Blasko, Bill Burkette and Don Miller, played the clubs around Turtle Creek, Pa, near Pittsburgh, as The Val-Aires. They had a couple of regional hit records on a small record label from Pittsburgh, CO & CE, (Which One Will It Be, and I Go Looking For Jeanie). In 1965 they recorded a song written by Petula Clark called “You’re the One.” The record label that released it felt the group need a new name. Hugh told me he came home from “his real job” one day, walked in the house and the song was playing on The Pittsburgh radio powerhouse of the day KDKA. At the end of the song the DJ said that was the new song by The Vogues! Their manager had chosen the name from a club called The Vogue Terrace. Hugh continues to work today with one of two groups using the name “The Vogues.” He is with a group run by Stan Erlich, and was recently joined by original lead vocalist Bill Burkette. Chuck Blasko tours in Southwestern Pa. with his own group.

The Fleetwoods consisted of founder Gretchen Christopher, Barbara Harris, and Gary Troxell, and came out of Olympia, Washington. All were friends in high school and got together and began performing at high school assemblies. Their classmates wanted a record of the now classic “Come Softly To Me” written by Gretchen Christopher. Several months later their demo tape came to the attention of Bob Reisdorf founder of Dolphin Records (later Dolton Records), and it was recorded and of course became a hit. Oh, the accompaniment consisted of a guitar and Gary Troxell shaking his car keys. Dolphin Records told the group they needed a professional sounding name so entering unto the music scene was “The Fleetwoods” named after the telephone exchange the group members lived in. Barbara and Gary are retired, but Gretchen continues to perform today with two new back up singers and has a new CD called “Gretchen’s Sweet 16.” I had the honor of being one of the first DJ’s in the country to play cuts, even before the final mix was completed, during my three interviews with Gretchen. You can hear those interviews at www.gretchenchristopher.com .

Trivia: What male country singer known in some circles at “the Gentle Giant” had a top 40 hit as the lead vocalist in 1966? The group was a “one hit wonder.” Don Williams unique voice is heard in the Pozo Seco Singers hit of I Can Make It With You.

Donnie Brooks (live from......)

On location broadcasts, also called remote broadcasts, have been a staple of small market and even some bigger market radio stations for years. It involves one or two disk jockeys on location at a business to promote some special event. Over the years I probably have done several hundred or more of these events ranging from gas station and supermarket openings, ice fishing clinic, to a Corvette show. These remotes are live, largely un-scripted and can put you in some rather interesting situations. As I write this some come to mind. I once did an ice fishing clinic about 30 miles out in the middle of nowhere. We had to use our radio station two way radio link and power the equipment from my car, I don't think I thawed out for two weeks. Oh, it was a balmy minus 20 degrees that day. Another time I was doing a grand opening remote at a new gas station. The owner had Go Go Dancers and a live band there. We had traffic backed up for 2 miles in every direction. My favorite story happened one very warm July Saturday in the late 70's. I and a fellow named Cliff Edwards were doing a remote at a Chevrolet dealership for a regional Corvette Show. As the remote wore on both Cliff and I noticed that there were a large number of very attractive females (we both were single) in the crowd. In one of our talk segments Cliff said, “Kel there certainly are a lot of classy chassis here today.' Which got a response from me of “ yes, and the cars aren't bad either.” There was the brief pause while his mind processed what I said, and then it was all over for us the rest of the day. We could not look at one another without breaking up.

In the over four decades I spent in broadcasting I saw the passing of a great many artists. In 1974 the Righteous Brothers (Bobby Hatfiled and Bill Medley) recorded a tribute song called Rock and Roll Heaven. As you my remember they sang about many artists who had passed away with the pretext that , borrowing a ling from the song, “heaven has one hell of a band.” (Their words not mine). When I decided to do the Class Reunion, interview series I knew that in the back of my mind was the fact that like all of us, some very great artists have only a short time left with us. That fact came around in February of 2007 when Donnie Brooks died.

Donnie Books may not be a familiar name to you but his one top 20 hit “Mission Bell,” I felt was one of the better up tempo classic love songs ever released. By the way “Mission Bell” charted in July of 1960 and gave the guy who was born John Abahosh the start of a long and very successful career. During that time he also recorded under the name of Johnny Jordan and Johnny Faire. Donnie Brooks came about when a fellow named Dave Taxi suggested he change his name for a song, as it would be a “riotous occasion,” or a real Donny Brook.

As the case with a lot of artists of his era, Donnie performed on a weekly radio talent show. One show, where he won first place the runner up, was none other than Joanne Castle, long time pianist on the Lawrence Welk Show. Donnie said that years later she called him and told he owed her $75.00 as she was a big star in the Welk Show and he was merely a rock and roll singer.
Donnie was one of the busiest people in rock and roll over the years appearing in three films, “A Swinging Summer”, with Raquel Welch,” (Donnie also wrote the opening song in the movie as well as a lot of the sound track.) “Get Yourself A College Girl” With Nancy Sinatra, and “The Love-ins” with James McArthur. Donnie also produced a rock and roll oldies show for over 15 years.
Donnie wrote “Mission Bell” as a folk song and after “taking it around” to try and get someone to record it, he finally landed back at Era records where they said “we'll cut you on it.” “I'm a folk singer,” Donnie told them, they said not to worry. So they laid down the tracks and he was going to come back the next day, but Era told him he didn't have to. He said “But I haven't done my track yet.” The record company said “ we got you with the back ground singers and it is fine.” Donnie said, “I got kind of depressed that I had not even heard it.” So they played it, and to his surprise it worked, Donnie said.

I heard about Donnie's passing and it really hit me hard, a mere four months after I interviewed him. I called his long time manager Howard Thompson to find out if it was true. Howard asked if I had a copy of the interview and could I send it to him as it was THE LAST interview that Donnie ever did.

The Four Preps Part 1 (classic? radio commercials)

Once again it's time to go back to those thrilling days of yesteryear; the Old Disk Jockey rides again! Over the years I, and I am sure other Disk Jockeys, have used some take off on just about ever famous line from a classic TV or radio show. I was no exception to be sure. Working in small market radio gave me lots of opportunities to do different jobs and it was not uncommon for me to be a “Combo Man” being on the air a few hours each day and selling advertising the rest of the day. Again because of the size of the station, I more often than not wrote commercials for my advertising accounts, and would rely on twists of well know phrases. Such was the case when the owner of the local A & W Drive In Restaurant wanted to promote chicken meals. I remembered the old radio comedy bit by Dick and Sandy Orkin, (from My raiod hometown Williamsport, PA) called “Chicken Man” and thus “The Adventures of Chicken Legs was born.” For a local loan company, Haven Consumer Discounts, the classic song “Pennies from Heaven” (Skyliners) became “Pennies From HAVEN.” Yes I can hear you groan now. Also along the way many stations used the “hook” of offering a free singing jingle to a client for signing a long term contract. Yes, we were often called on for our input for lyrics. One that stands out in my mind was for Paul F. Glunk Florists. My first lines were not accepted, to this day I can't see why they didn't like “If your flowers are old and shrunk, order new ones from Paul F. Glunk.” The final jingle was Think Paul F. Glunk for fresh floral fashion.” Then the spoken phrase, “Think Glunk!” Was it better? Well, I still liked mine better, even though the real jingle sold a lot of flowers for Mr. Glunk.

I know I have mentioned The Four Preps in passing before as another group from the 1950's and 60's that I felt had a lot of talent. “The Preps” gave us timeless classics such as “26 Miles”, “Down By The Station”, Big man, comedy take offs, “More Money For You And Me,” and The Big Draft Medley. One the latter two songs the Preps with there amazing versatility mimicking other hit groups of the day suggesting that their talents might be better served other than the music business. If you get the chance, “The Four Preps Greatest Hits” CD has these songs and some lesser known, but classic Four Preps harmony that makes for great listening. I did 2 interviews with Bruce Belland; he along with Ed Cobb, Glen Larson, and Marv Ingram made up the original Four Preps.

Bruce describes himself as “one of the most famous people you never heard of,” From recording artist, record producer, actor and TV Network Executive, I guarantee you know his work.

His first television role came on The Ozzie & Harriett Show. Originally The Preps were hired as a band to backup Ricky Nelson at a party at David Nelson's TV Frat House. For a couple of seasons The Preps continued to appear on the show as Frat Brothers, and then Bruce was asked to continue as David's college roommate. As often happened, our interview took a side track to that great TV show and I gained a bit of insight into TV's iconic family. Bruce actually was a good friend and classmate of David Nelson at Hollywood High and eventually got to know Ricky as they both got more involved with the music business. Like most of the young males on the show, Bruce admitted a crush on Harriet Nelson. Harriet (Hillard) was a singer with future husband Ozzie Nelson's band, and Bruce describes her as a great singer, dancer and actress. At one point a major studio wanted to put her under contract, but she missed Ozzie too much and came back to the East Coast and of course they eventually got married. Bruce said “she knew everybody's name that worked on the show and their birthdays, and had quite a sense of humor.” Oh, Bruce also said she was “very beautiful and had great legs!”

Bruce told me a bit of trivia I never knew, that Life magazine coined the term “teen idol” to refer to Ricky when he was on the cover. After the TV show David ran a production company making TV commercials.

As one of the most famous people you never heard of, Bruce was the West Coast Programming Executive for N.B.C. And helped put together a rather famous show called “The Wheel of Fortune” with first year host Chuck Woolery. Chuck left after a year in a money disagreement with show creator Merv Griffin and was replaced by Pat Sajak. Bruce stayed with N.B.C. for a little over two years and then went on to head Ralph Edward Productions for five years. You may remember Ralph Edwards was also a well known producer of TV game shows. To this day Bruce tours, writes and sings “still in the same key” , but more about that in Part 2 next week.

Trivia: Johnny Maestro was the lead singer of two popular groups what were they: The Crests that did “16 Candles,” and The Brooklyn Bridge “The Worst That Could Happen”. Birthday and wedding were the subjects.


Trivia: In the Four Preps song “Down by The Station” how many girls does the boy fall in love with?

The Four Preps part 2

Often I am asked what was my favorite job in broadcasting. Over the years I've done a lot of them. From Disk Jockey, News Person, Investigative Reporter, Advertising Sales, Sales Manager, Program/Music Director, Studio Engineer, TV Weather and Sports Anchor, Field Reporter, Videographer, Studio Camera Operator, Video and Audio Switcher, and Radio Station General Mangler, er Manager. My favorite? That's easy; it is being a Disk Jockey. I have been very fortunate to work along side some really great people in the business and my style I think reflects a little bit of each of them. Probably my two favorite music formats to work are Oldies and Country. I actually spent more time working those than all the others, although I feel pretty comfortable doing a easy listening music format as well. Both Oldies and Country Music gave me the chance to let my slightly off center way of looking at things show through as well as having a very loyal listener audience.

Last time I started to talk about my first interview with Bruce Belland of The Four Preps, the original interview ran over an hour on the air as we had a lot of ground to cover. This time I would like to talk more about the Group and their music. The Preps first music session in the latter part of 1956 yielded a great slow song called Dreamy Eyes. The song, although it was in my opinion a very good song, was only a minor chart hit. The follow up single 26 Miles written by Prep's Belland, (he started writing it in Jr. High School) and Larson, it hit the top of the charts. Interestingly enough Bruce Belland had never been to Santa Catalina before he wrote the song. All he knew that his favorite baseball team, the Chicago Cubs did some spring training there, so “it had to be a magical place.” Another bit of trivia, “26 Miles” was not the “A” side of the record, but as often happened some disk jockey turned over the record, and the rest was history.

Bruce was one of those artists I liked instantly, our initial telephone call to set up the interview lasted quite a while and we both took turns cracking each other up. It was no different on the air, as both of us related stories that maybe would not have normally been aired. I remember Bruce getting a kick out of my telling him about warming for the community Christmas Choir to The New Four Preps, (Bruce Belland, Dave Somerville, Ed Cobb, and Jim Yester) and trying to get my breathing to where I could hold a note as long as they did. Bruce credits their great harmony and tight sound to producer Lincoln Mayorga, sometimes called “The Fifth Four Prep.”

The Preps next hit was in 1960 a song called “Down By The Station.” To my way of thinking it was some of their finest harmony. That song was the first single record that the “new” Fender Bass was used on and it supplied the chug chug sound rhythm on the record. You can really hear it in the remastered cut on their greatest hits CD.

The Preps songs were not without a certain amount of controversy. A song called “Letter to The Beatles” about a guy whose girlfriend is infatuated by the “Fab Four” was pulled by Capitol Records after The Beatles threatened to sue. That song is on the Greatest Hits CD. The Preps did many parodies of music groups of the day including those in a song called “More Money for You and Me.” that song came out just after the election of President John Kennedy and was inspired in part by the Peace Corps. The Preps musically are dead on with their impressions of the Fleetwood's, Hollywood Argyles, Platters, Kingston Trio and others as they share what they want these artists to do so there will be “More Money For You And Me.” The Preps would listen to the songs and each one would try their voice at imitating the lead singer. With such a great range of talent, you would swear you are hearing the actual groups. Another bit of controversy came with their imitation of Dion and The Belmont's and the parody of “Teenager in Love”. In the song they changed the lyric line to “why must I be a teenager in jail.” It seems for quite sometime when Dion would perform the audience would yell out “jail” as Dion was singing the word love.

Bruce to this day stays busy, from his long time association with Dave Somerville of The Diamonds and Jim Yester from The Association in Y.B.S. Gold, to a 50th anniversary tour of the Four Preps. Quite a few tour dates are scheduled; see the web site www.thefourpreps.com. . He says, “I can't go too many days without opening the pipes.” Bruce still writes and produces as well and was a major contributor to Dave Somerville's CD “The Cosmic Adventures of Diamond Dave.” Bruce is currently doing a 50th anniversary Four Preps tour. For more information see his web site www.thefourpreps.com.

Trivia: In the Four Preps song “Down by The Station” how many girls does the boy fall in love with? The answer is Three. With the third one telling him to “go down by the station and catch yourself a trolley car that goes into the sea.”

Dick & Dee Dee (and changes I have seen in Radio)

In the over the more than four decades I spent “between the turntables and behind the microphone” I saw quite an evolution in broadcasting. The first station I worked at was in a transistion from old to new technology during my tenure there. In my early days radio commercials were aired in one of three ways: some “live”, some of those commercials were really hard to read, for instance Tobin's First Prize Frankfurters commercials. Tobin's would not allow you to call them hot dogs, hots, wieners or anything except FRANKFURTERS. Needless to say that word frequently got mis-prounced. The second way to play commercials was reel to reel tape recorders. If it was a “produced spot”, with music, or two announcers, etc it would be recorded on a 3-1/2” reel of tape. To air it, you had to thread it on one of the reel to reel machines, the station I worked at had five such machines, and play it. Without fail when you were the busiest you would drop a reel of tape and it would roll around the room unwinding. For many years I carried a pen that fit the center hub of the reel so I could rewind it as quickly as possible. The last method was 16” wide Electronic Transcriptions, we called them E.T.'s. They were just like a record album only 4” bigger and yes, radio stations had special size turntables to play them. After a period of time they of course would get scratchy and sometimes stick or skip.

Here's a new record by Mary Sperling and Richard Gostling! I have you scratching your head don't I? The afore mentioned duo is much better known as Dick and Dee Dee. They had nine songs that made the Top 100 charts and of those, 3, were in the top 20. I talked with Dee Dee back in 2006 on “The Class Reunion” after finding her pretty much by accident while doing research for another show. Dick and Dee Dee rocketed to the top of the charts in 1961 with “The Mountains High”, a song, according to Dee Dee that might never have been a hit if a disk jockey in California had not accidentaly played the wrong side. The “A” side, was a ballad called “I Want Someone,” was a big studio production with full orchestra including strings. Dee Dee told me the first time she heard the “The Mountains High” on the air was while she and her family were “in the car, going on a vacation that I didn't want to.” She said she was “shocked and and thrilled.” Thrilled to hear it on the radio and shocked because it was the “B” side of the record. She said “that song was just thrown together in a little studio with only 4 instruments.”

During these series of artist interviews I always learned something new. In this case it was the back in the days when Dick & Dee Dee were doing local shows. The opening act and back up band, was none other than The Beach Boys. Also interesting to note was that Glenn Campbell was a “Beach Boy” during those days. Later on Dick and Dee Dee were the Beach Boys opening act and Glenn Campbell would rehearse their back up band.

I mentioned Dee Dee's book the Vinyl Highway before in this column, as it really gives a great behind the scenes look at the music business of that era. You can order it on her website www.dickanddeedee.com. During our interview I really think she summed that time up very well when she said, “ I think the 60's was a time of complete transformation, as a nation and as a world. We went through so many changes and the music reflected that.”

The website also contains some really interesting video clips of Dick & Dee Dee, including one that was filmed on the last Shindig TV show that promoted the upcoming replacement show. Oh, that show as none other than the campy tv show Batman. In the video Dick plays Batman, and had a hook on the back of his costume. Dee Dee said “he never really knew when they were going to “fly” him. If you watch the video you can see Dick trying to concentrate on “lip syncing” the song while being yanked off the floor. I must say that Dee Dee makes a very attractive Robin, she looked at lot better than Burt Ward. It is classic video and remember it, in all probability, was done live.

As I was talking with Dee Dee, I am not really sure if I complimented her or not when I compared the harmonies of her and Dick to the country duo The Kendall's. I told her that “I felt that the harmony and range of both groups was quite similar.”

Dick (Gostling) St John died in 2003 as the result of a fall, He passed away some three weeks after he fell, never emerging from his coma. Today Dee Dee is joined on tour by Michael Dunn, and actually has some concerts scheduled in Arizona in 2009.

Trivia: What were the first names of The Kendall's, and what relation were they? Jeannie and Royce were father and daughter, their stage name was shortened from Kurkendall. Between the 1960s and 1990s, they released sixteen albums on various labels, including five on Mercury Records. Their albums accounted for more than thirty singles on the Billboard country singles charts, including the Number One hits "Heaven's Just a Sin Away" (also a #69 pop hit), Royce passed away in 1998 and Jeannie was continued to perform releasing several records but unfortunately none have met with a great deal of success.

You're in, with Kelly Watts, MORE MUSIC” Hi everybody, in the 60's and 70's in Top Forty Radio (read rock and roll) almost every disk jockey had his or her own “shout.” “Shouts” were personalized introductions for the disk jockey usually produced by the same company that produced the singing station jingles. There were dozens of thees companies in operation at one time and their services not only included radio station jingles, but also singing jingles for a multitude of products. I still have copies of my shouts and have used them during my radio career.

When I say the name Jimmie Rodgers, depending on what generation you are from you will either think of the Pioneer Country Star , also known as “The Singing Brakeman,” or the pop singer. Since the former died in 1933 it would have been rather difficult for me to interview him. I did have the great fortune to interview the “pop” artist Jmmie Rodgers back in 2006 on “The Class Reunion.” As I was preparing to write this article I once again listened to my interview and found it was quite surprising ho much I had forgotten. The pop signer jimmey Rodgers was born in 1933, and was actually named after his uncle. He told me that in later years he got to know several members of the country singers family, and has a rather large collection of that artists music.

Jimmie Rodgers was on my “A list” of people and thanks to his good friend Johnny Tillotson I got the opportunity to talk with him. I rememebr when I first called to set up the interview his wife Mary had me hang on the line while she interrupted his gardening chores. We both laughed about it as when he answerd the phone I told him that I felt he needed a break.

After Jimmie's discharge from the Air Force, he went to New York city in search of work. After several failed efforts to find a job, he told me he was outside the CBS Studios, and saw a bunch of musicians going in to audition for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. “I had my old guitar so I just walked in with the rest of them,” Jimmie said. He got an audition went on the show and won $750.00. Jimmie said, “it was a good thing I was just about out of money.”

Jimmie's first hit “Honeycomb” was recorded in just two hours at Roulette Records. “In those days we didn't have all the fancy equipment there is today, just a microphone for me, one for the band, and the back up singers leaned in over my shoulders.” Jimmie said, “Today, with all the modern technology, someone who can't sing can make a hit record.” Jimmy, who was still active in record production, got a laugh when I told hime that if her ever wanted to record someone like that, just call me.

Jimmie is survivor. Back in 1967 he was attacked and severely injured. The incident effectively stopped his career for nearly 18 years. He told me at one point his weight dropped to 88 pounds. Jimmie told me that it took a lot of hard work but eventually he fully recovered and went on to run marathons. His road back eventually took him to Branson, Mo where for 12 years, ending in 2003, he had the “Jimmie Rodgers Family Show.”

Jimmy is another one of those entertainers who is more than just a recording artist, he runs two music publishing companies and has written over 300 songs. Jimmie related that when he is on stage he tell the audience,”I'm going to sing the biggest hit I ever had,” launching into “Oh, Oh ,Spaghetti-O's” Of course that was derived from his 1958 song “Oh Oh, I'm Falling In Love Again.”

I asked him if he had ever done the Dick Clark tour, he said, “No, because Dick Clark couldn't catagorize my work, I never shook my rear end, I just sat on a stool and sang folk songs.” Speaking of touring, Jimmie was supposed to be on the tour with Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper that saw them die in a plane crash. “I quit flying in those rickety planes and started doing more nightclubs after that,” said Jimmie, “I wasn't on the tour as I was home with the flu.”

The last time Jimmie made the charts was in 1966 with a song called “It's Over.” “there was no formal score for the song the song, that he wrote about a conversation he had with a woman who was in love with one of his band mambers. The song, featured then studio musician Glenn Campbell on guitar, an acustic bass and drums. That song also was a hit for Elvis and Eddy Arnold.

Trivia Time: What company sponsored The Arthur Godfrey Talent scout TV show. Godfrey would always do their commercials live and sample their product on the air.” None other than Lipton Tea, Arthur would always brew a cup on the air, and sip it. I sometimes wondered what was REALLY in the cup? Was it like the rumor about Jackie Gleason's cup that was filled with Gin?

In the movie “Grease” Sha Na Na, performed as Johnny Casino & The Gamblers for the Homecoming dance at Rydell High. That segment is one of my favorites in the movie, as it takes me back to the time of the Friday night dances at the local fire hall in my hometown of Montoursville, Pa. From the moment I turned the ripe old age of 12, the minimum age to get in the door, I attended the dances faithfully. It was there I got to know the local disk jockeys, and watch them apply their talent. I was what was called a “gofer,” meaning I would run errands for the disk jockey, such as run to the nickel Coca Cola machine, (the local bottler sponsored the dance), for liquid refreshment. Gee, I even got to help carry the equipment before and after the dance. Eventually I was allowed to “spin the stacks of wax” when the disk jockey took a break. The dance was three hours with the first two hours being “live on the air.” During that time I would help with music selection, keep track of the requests from the dancers, and once in the while I would even be allowed to run the equipment.

Having grown up in North Central Pennsylvania, I always felt I had the best of all the music possibilities. One one hand I was exposed to that great “Philly Sound” with an unbelievable array of talent from Bobby Rydell, The Crystals, The Ronnettes, to The Teddy Bears. On the other end of the state in Pittsburgh, Doo Whop was King! If you have watched the P.B.S. Specials from Pittsburgh, you have had the opportunity to see some of the best groups ever to record. Such artists as The Vogues, Perry Como, Lou Christie, and The Lettermen all trace their roots back to Southwestern Pa. One of my favorite groups was and still is The Skyliners. The history of The Skyliners dates back to 1958 when Jimmy Beaumont, Wally Lester and Jack Taylor, joined forces with Janet Vogel and Joe Versheran. Their name came from the classic big band song by Charlie Barnett. With out a doubt The Skyliner's biggest hit was “Since I Don't Have You.” The song was inspired by Joe's girlfriend breaking up with him. That song defined the Skyliner's sound. Jimmy told me that within 6 weeks of appearing on Dick Clark's Bandstand show, those days based in Philadelphia, it really took off. “We never got to number 1, as Frankie Avalon was in the top spot with Venus.” Since I Don't Have You actually went #1 on the Rhythm & Blues charts, and they were actually booked into New York's Apollo Theater as the promoters thought they were a black group. Jimmy said “ when we went on stage you could hear the collective gasp from the audience.” The Skyliner's hit the charts several time with such songs as Pennies From Heaven, This I Swear, and even Since I Fell For You. As happened time and time again, the British Invasion of the early to mid 1960's made it impossible for American Groups to have hit records.

As is the case with most of the groups from that era, The Skyliners have undergone numerous personnel changes over the years, due to retirement or death. The one constant being leader Jimmy Beaumont. On The Class Reunion I had the pleasure of talking with Jimmy and of course along the way some good natured kidding about his golf games. He and Chuck Blasko from the original Vogues are good friends and play often. As good friends Jimmy and Chuck always accuse each other of cheating when the other one wins. I asked Jimmy if time has caused him to change the key in which he sings, to that he laughed and said that he still can hit the high notes and always brings the house down when he does. Jimmy started out his music career as a bass, and told me “ I still enjoy singing bass.” The group has never wavered from their original sound, and that is apparent on even their latest CD. Today's group consists, of course, of Jimmy Beaumont, Second Tenor Dick Muse, Female Lead Vocalist Donna Groom, and Bass/Baritone Nick Pociask. Each of the members of the group have their time in the spotlight. Donna Groom, has according to Jimmy and Nick “Perfect Pitch,” and your can hear her on “One More Mountain”, the title song from their latest CD. Nick Pociask is the joker of the group, every one has to have one, but there is no lack of talent there. Nick has a 4 to 5 octave range and signs lead, he says “he loves to hurt himself when he sings falsetto.” Nick hits the high notes on the CD with “If You Want To”, and Jimmy said “during the show Nick sings some Frankie Valli, (Four Seasons) songs.” The Skyliner's have recorded two Christmas Classics “Your My Christmas Present” and “Another Lonely New Years Eve,” and both of those songs are on the CD.

Trivia: What other Pennsylvania group had a chart hit with “Since I Don't Have You?” It was The Vogues from Turtle Creek, Pa. Hugh Geyer told me they included the song on one of their albums as a tribute to The Skyliners.

Sha na Na

Well I see by the ole' clock on the floor it's time for another Class Reunion. I always enjoyed doing that show, because it gave me a chance to try certain ideas I had over the years but never could use because of station format. One of my favorite things, even though it usually involved a lot of extra time, was to do special shows. Themed shows like, one hit wonders, names in songs, artists or songs from A to Z, were only a few I did. Someday I hope once again to be able to bring Payson “the Greatest Music of All Times”, a lot of things have to fall into place before that could ever happen.

One of the themed shows I did was novelty songs. To be sure there were lots of them between the period of 1952 and 1975 (the years I used for the show). What brought that to mind was last weeks trivia question: “in 1962 Claude King hit the charts with a song based on an actual location and person.” The song was Wolverton Mountain, co-written by Claude. According to what I have been able to learn, Wolverton Mountain is located in North West Arkansas near the town of Morilton. There are also Wolverton Mountains in Canada and Arizona but the subject of the song is the one in Arkansas. Yes Clifton Clowers had not one but two daughters, no one said if they were pretty or not, or if Clifton really could talk to the bears and birds. Mr. Clowers passed away in August of 1994 at the age of 102.

“Grease for peace,” is a phrase that former Sha Na Na member Jon “Bowzer” Bauman used to end the TV shows that aired from 1977 to 1981. While I never got the chance to interview “Bowzer” we have talked several times about “truth in music” legislation. Such legislation is designed to protect to the rightful artists and prevent the public from being hoodwinked by fraudulent acts. Sha Na Na is as busy today as ever performing their style of nostalgic music all around the world. During “The Class Reunion” I had the pleasure of interviewing drummer and original member “Jocko” Marcellino twice. As is the case of a lot of my interviews, it took a totally different path than I had imagined. Even though I know the “Greaser” image is an act, I felt going into the first interview that “Jocko” would come off as his alter ego. Oh to be sure we had a lot of fun with that, but I found him to be a very interesting person with a great sense of humor who on more than one occasion left me speechless. Did you know that he was with Sha Na Na when they appeared at Woodstock? Bye the way that was ONLY the groups seventh performance. Jocko said, “and we never got paid for it either.” He holds a Masters Degree in Drama from New York University and in addition he is an accomplished actor, producer and songwriter.

As was the case with so many of the groups and artists I interviewed, Sha Na Na, at that time, was in the process of releasing a new CD, named “One More Saturday Night.”. What really was “neat and a real gas man” (sorry I was transported back to the 50's) was the fact I got to play several of the cuts before the final album mix. One of my favorites was “The Cat In The P.T. Cruiser.” The song has all the flavor of 1950's rock and roll which was what the band wanted to accomplish. The whole album of songs could have very easily been released in the 50's or early 60's and would have been a hit. For those of you who saw the movie “Grease” “Screamin Scott” Simon, the co-writer of the song “Sandy” sung by John Travolta in the movie, has the opportunity to show his musical talent on the CD. Anytime I do a disk jockey gig I am sure to play one of more cuts, as there are some great dance songs. To order the CD see their web site is www.shanana.com

Trivia: In the movie “Grease” what was the name of the group, played by Sha Na Na, that performed for the dance at Rydell High? The answer, Johnny Casino & The Gamblers




Till next time, “keep smiling it will make everybody wonder what you've been up to.”

Jan & Dean (W or K how do they know?)

We'll be back with todays trip into the world of musical trivia right after station identification. Did you ever wonder how radio stations got their call letters? To be sure the F.C.C. is the final word on issuing call letters, based on a very old policy. It was only in late January of 1923 that the Mississippi River, the current standard, was adopted as the dividing line. This meant new call signs west of the Mighty Mo were K's rather than W's. However, existing stations west of the Mississippi were permitted to keep their now non-standard W calls. Thus, pioneer broadcasters in the west were permitted to keep their “W” calls, as were old time stations like KDKA Pittsburgh, and KYW Philadelphia in the east. Some stations call letter, reflect the town they are in like one I worked for in Pa. WMPT was the abbreviation for Williamsport. Others reflect the founders name like WRAK stood for Rudolph A. King. Locally KMOG gets its moniker from the Mogollon Rim. One station that I was involved in had the call letters WKAD and those stood for the three founders Kelly, Alan, and Dave. I think sometimes the people who made up call letters looked for the most difficult ones possible, I worked at including WBPZ and WLYC. (Oh because the stations simulcasted on AM and FM the legal station I.D. Made you say the call letters twice, once alone, for the AM station and once adding the FM.

Let's go surfin'! When you think of the era of surfer music, several names come to mind. Probably most prominently the Beach Boys,and Jan and Dean. Jan Berry and Dean Torrence had a string of hits in the 60's. I talked with Dean Torrence back in November of 2006. Since the death of his long time partner Jan Berry, who was injured in a traffic accident Dean has spent a lot of his time as he describes it as a “Bus Driver” running his kids and their friend to and from soccer games. I asked him if he still surfs as much as Dave Somerville (The Diamonds) says. Dean said, “no,it is not like when I was younger and the waves were easier to take and the water was not so cold.”

“Baby Talk” was the first song released by Jan and Dean in 1959. Dean had recorded a top 10 song called Jennie Lee with Arnie Ginsburg. Arnie, along with Jan & Dean was one of the 10 to 12 guys who hung out together and wrote songs. Dean said, “It was the first song that actually went from beginning to end,” so Jan and Arnie recorded it. Arnie Ginsberg , according to Dean really didn't have much of an interest in music after high hchool and he and Dean Studied Architectural Design in College. “Arnie wanted to be a designer, and I was there because my parents wanted me to get a real education, because this rock and roll crud won't last forever.”

Back to Baby Talk; that song like so many of that era were recorded in facilities that by todays standards would be considered “low tech.” The echo chamber actually was a big tiled room located somewhere under the studio. It had a speaker at one end and a mic at the other and captured the “natural echo.”

The next hit for Jan and Dean was Heart and Soul in 1961. They got the song from Beach Boy Brian Wilson. Dean told me that “Brian had written about ½ the lyrics and chorus, and lost interest in it.” “Even half finished it was still better than 99% of the songs other writers were doing,” he said.

Did you know that Dean sang the lead on the Beach Boys remake of The Regents 1961 song Barbara Ann? If you remember the song, the end of it sounds as if they forgot the lyrics, when I asked Dean about that, his answer was, “I wasn't sure it had lyrics.”

Jan and Dean's string of hits included, “Heart and Soul”, “Linda”, and “Surf City,” “Honolulu Lu Lu,” “Cartune (sic) Classics” “Drag City” and “Dead Man's Curve”. A slight change of pace followed in 1964 with “New Girl In School.” The next Jan and Dean song I consider a classic. “The Little Old Lady From Pasadena.” was inspired by the obnoxious car salesman character played by the late Frank Nelson on the Jack Benny TV Show. Jack was looking to trade in his Maxwell automobile, and Nelson's character told Jack, “this car had only been driven to church on Sunday's by a little old lady from Pasadena.” Dean says, “this is still the most requested Jan & Dean song.” By the way, Dean's favorite song is “Dead Man's Curve,.” partly because of all the special effects using limited recording capabilities.

These days he still teams up with Al Jardine, David Marks, David Logeman and others in a group called Surf City All Stars. They play the music of both Jan & Dean and the Beach Boys.

Trivia: What do B.J. Thomas, Duane Eddy, and Dave Somerville have in common? The answer is one of my favorite records called “Rock and Roll Lullaby. Dave is singing back-up, Duane is on Lead Guitar, and of Course B.J. is singing lead

Bobby Vee Part 2 and The Blooper Bug

Hi again on our trip into the 5th estate. I just felt like I was Rod Sterling introducing “The Twilight Zone.” Over the years I felt like I was a resident of that place when things didn't go quite as planned. Bloopers. I do not know a single person in the broadcast media that has not been bitten by the “Blooper Bug”. As a matter of fact, a fellow named Kermit Schaefer produced at least 5 albums called “Pardon My Blooper.” To be sure, I have made hundred if not thousands of “mis-speaks.” One that sticks in my mind happened during a news story,that I was reading very early in my career. It was about Homecoming Weekend at Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pa. The story was supposed to read “as part of the festivities they will be roasting a full black Angus steer.” However this young announcer, read it as “a full back Angus steer.” Of course, at this point the on duty control room person, my friend the late Mike Sarlo, let out a loud “MOO” and started running around the control room using his hands for horns and charging the newsroom window. That was the end of anything that made sense for the rest of the news cast, as every time I would recover, Mike would moo so only I could hear him. The late Harry Von Zell, announcer for Burns and Allen, referred to the then president as Hoobert Heever. A reporter assigned to Washington, DC said “according to a high White Horse souse,” Even the Legendary Paul Harvey broke into un-controllable laugher at a story about a poodle. I remember that, as we were covering a network commercial with a local live commercial, so I was listening in the headphones. After that happened and Paul's announcer was in stitches trying to read the network fill commercial. Other times we announcer types get stuck on the most simple things. Mine is “Cinnamony Applesauce,” from the school lunch menu of the Horseheads, NY High School, My mentor Dick Crownover never could say “Social Security”. Our boss once told Dick that “you will be in big trouble if the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic ever gets social Security.' Even the Late Don Holcombe from KMOG, who I admired for his command of the language, got stuck one day on Tsumani.

1962 was a hot year for Bobby's label Liberty Records. They sold more records than any other label. As I mentioned last week they had the biggest acts in the country. Bobby had “Run To Him,” which hit #2 on the charts and sold over a million records. He also recorded one of my favorites “Take Good Care of My Baby.” I actually used the term “Pizzicato strings.” I think I impressed Bobby, since I had told him, rightfully so that my technical knowledge of music is very limited. That was the song Bobby sang at his daughters wedding. Bobby said, “I thought it would be easy, I slowed it down and changed the words as bit. When it came time for me to sing, it was so tough, my little girl getting married. I couldn't look at her. To me it was a magic memory.” The slow version of the song was released in 2003 in England on an album, that is available from Bobby's web site www.bobbyvee.com. That little aside story was one of the many special moments that occurred during my Legendary Artist Interview Series.

Bobby's personal favorite song is “Run To Him.” That 1962 song was written for the Everly Brothers, and his producer accidentally picked up the wrong pile of music, and before the mistake was discovered by the record label, “we had already recorded it,” said Bobby.

I had the pleasure of playing two Bobby Vee songs as a new records, “Devil or Angel” and “Come Back When You Grow Up Girl.” I hate to say that the Bobby Vee interview was one of my favorites, because I really enjoyed talking with all the legends of rock and roll. It was a D.J.'s dream come true!

Trivia: What song did Bobby Vee sing on American Bandstand that upset host Dick Clark? Bobby Vee was appearing on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, and sang his latest hit “Please Don't Talk About Barbara.” After the show, Clark asked Bobby, “What did you sing that song for?” Unknown to Bobby was that Dick Clark was in the process of getting a divorce from his wife BARBARA.

Bobby Vee (the story behind the scenes) Part 1

Back when we moved Cruise Port Travel in July of 2009 it remined me of another time in my radio career. It reminded me of one of the more difficult times I ever spent in radio immediately following the Agnes Flood of 1972. At the time I was working for WMPT AM FM in South Williamsport, Pa and was doing a variety of jobs, as I always seemed to do. Well anyway the station received some 9' of back water which would not have been too bad except all the offices and studios were on the first floor! Once the waters receded, and after days of cleaning and washing, we managed to get back on the air with very limited operations capabilities, wires strung across the floor, limited equipment etc. That fosters an expression I still use today. “Anything that is temporary for more than three weeks is permanent.”

“Like A Rubber Ball I'll Come Bouncing Back To you” and “Take Good Care of My Baby” are just two of my favorite Bobby Vee songs. I had the opportunity to talk with him back in 2007 during the time he was performing at the Dick Clark Theater in Branson, Mo. As was the case with most my Legendary Artist Series interviews, I came away with a lot of new stories and facts about the artist. In an early article I mentioned how Bobby Vee (Veline) got his start, I would like to expand on that story a bit. It was February 3, 1959, the Richie Vallens, Buddy Holly, and the Big Bopper were scheduled to perform in Morehead , MN, a suburb of Fargo, ND. 15 year old Bobby Vee came home from high school for lunch and when he came into the house he heard the radio talking about the plane crash that killed those three artists. The local promoter decided to go on with the remaining acts, and local talent. Bobby at the time had a “garage band” and called the station to volunteer his band to help fill in along with scheduled acts Dion & The Belmont's, and The Crickets (Buddy Holly's Band), that at the time had the Legendary Waylon Jennings as a member. Anyway come show time and Bobby said “ the M.C. asked the name of the band, we didn't have a name, so I thought a minute and said The Shadows. “Then our moment of truth came when we were introduced, my life flashed in front of my eyes, and we started to play I thought I was going to die. It was one thing to volunteer, but now I've got to do this.” Bobby was planning to go to the show, “I even had a ticket,” he said.

In the audience that night was a fellow named Bin Bingson, who managed a chain of Drive In Theaters in the Fargo, Morehead area. After the show he came up to Bobby and said “if you want work give me a call.” A couple of days later Bobby did just that and that was the start of a music career that has spanned five decades. Some four months later Bobby and his band went to Minneapolis and recorded a song called “Susie Baby.” According to Bobby, “for a five hundred dollars we got 1000 records, we jumped into an old Oldsmobile and went around to radio stations. Every one of them said come in they interviewed us and played the record and by September of 1959 it was the #1 song in the upper Midwest.

Bobby and I talked about the “Dick Clark Experience,” as I mentioned before this was a party that Dick threw for the acts, and everyone drew the name of another act and did their songs at the artist party. Bobby said, “it was a lot of good natured fun.” What did he do? Well he was Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon.

1960 took Bobby to Liberty records, one of the hottest labels at the time, with artists like Gene Pitney, Dick & Dee Dee, The Fleetwood's and more, to record “Devil or Angel.”

Bobby said, “If it hadn't been a hit it, would have been the last shot for me at Liberty Records.”

Trivia: What movie did the Bing Crosby classic song “White Christmas” come come from? This classic Irving Berlin song originally appeared in the 1942 movie Holiday Inn staring Bing and Danny Kaye and then again as the title song in the 1954 movie. The song has been recorded by dozens of artist and has sold in excess of 400 million copies!

I will continue the look at an artist I referred to as “Durable, the next time.

Kel's "List Of Shame"

Ok boys and girls, snuggle up close to the radio it's time again for “The Class Reunion.” A large percentage of we “Baby Boomer's'” were born at a very unique time in history, well at least from my perspective. The “Golden Age of Radio” was winding down, and TV was just getting underway. I can remember as a young lad growing up in the Williamsport, Pa area or being glued to the radio for The Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers & Dale Evans, Gunsmoke, Mystery Theater and more, this truly was a fantastic time for some really great programming. One program that stands out in my mind was on N.B.C. Radio on the weekend. That program was “Monitor.” Even thpough I never worked at an NBC Affiliate during that time, I was a regular listener. Such great acts as comedians Bob & Ray, news, interviews, special features and more. I still credit “Monitor” as a very early forerunner of today's talk radio format. As I was sitting her typing this I can easily remember ABC Radio's “Don McNeil's Breakfast Club” and the great “Art Linkletter's House Party” on CBS. By the late 60's these shows were gone, replaced by music formats on radio.

This time I have decided to deviate from writing about on specific artist and pass along some thoughts about unusual things I have heard and seen in my time in radio, I hope you enjoy my ramblings.

Records that NEVER should have been released: There are a lot that fall into that category that I, and a lot of other people, consider to be just plain BAD MUSIC. Right at the top of my list was an album of Beatles music. I may surprise you that even though I grew up during the “British Invasion” I was not a Beatles fan, BUT that said, I did like their music. I think that all of their songs at one time or another have been covered (re corded) by another artist. Some of the best, in my opinion came from Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66. If you get a chance to pick up a copy of their CD, I am sure you will like it as well. Ok, now the worst cover of a Beatles song belongs to none other than Bing Crosby. Bing's late 60's version of “Hey Jude” is without a doubt one of the worst songs I have ever heard. I can remember at the time I was the Music Director of WMPT in South Williamsport Pa. And they had just put the first Stereo FM station on the air. The owner, not wanting “Rock and Roll” on the FM at night contacted for a music service to be run on the stations home brew automation system. One element of the service was a show called "Music With Mc Master." I often listened to the show partly because I had just installed a brand new combination 8 track track, stereo FM radio in my car! Anyway I was on my way to the station and heard old, Bingo “groaning bo-do-oh-dooby oh- do.” When I got there I went to the automation pulled the reel off the tape machine, (a news cast was on the air) and threw it in the station dumpster! I told the supplier if they ever sent that cut again I was canceling the service. BTW if you have a wish to ruin your ears, Bing's version of "Hey Jude" was released on CD in 1997 by Rhino Records under the title "Golden Throats IV -- Celebrities Butcher the Beatles."

Don't get me wrong, I like Bing, I also like Peggy Lee, but she had another of “Kel's Despised Records” “Is That All There Is.” The song asks the same question over and over, like 'is that all there is to the fire?” “is that all there is to Love, life,” ETC. On the plus side Peggy's version of “Fever” is a real classic song. For the Disney movie “Lady and the Tramp, Peggy wrote a great deal of the songs and did four different character voices.

Some of the other songs on “Kel's List of Shame” Include, My Sharona, You Light Up My Life, Which Way You Goin' Billy,” and high lighted by records released by William Shatner, that included Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds. Even Mr. Spock , Lenord Nimoy, got into the act covering “Hey, Mr Tambourine Man”. To be sure there are many others, some of them got to my list because I had to play them so many times while they were popular.

Trivia question: Who did the sound effects of Jack Benny's Maxwell Automobile? The answer, none other than the very highly talented Mel Blanc. Mel Blanc is probably the best known voice artist ever, giving us Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, Barney Rubble, and he was even the first voice of Woody Woodpecker, before he left Walter Lance to go to Warner Brothers.I think every disk jockey in the business looked to Mel Blanc for inspiration for their character voices. I know I did adapting Foghorn Leghorn as my character “General Confusion,” and have always loved to do Elmer Fudd, a role Mel inherited in later years. The original voice of Elmer, by the way, was Arthur Q. Bryan and most of the "Woody" cartoons were voiced by Gracie Lantz, Walters wife, who won the role in a blind audition.

Gary Pucket (part 2) and D.J.'s are "Turkeys"

Hi again, from the “stacks of dusty wax, right here in “The Groove Yard.” I can not tell you how many times I have sat in promotional meetings trying to come up with the next big station event. I don't think I ever came out of a meeting with less than a ½ dozen idea's. One of my favorite promotions was a Thanksgiving promotion called “The Great Turkey Race.” The idea each D.J. Was a Turkey, Ok we all were, and they ran a race like a horse race. The prize for picking the correct “Turkey” was of course a Thanksgiving turkey. Some of the names I came up with for the racing turkey's included Dave's Drumstick, Stu Stuffing, Sue's Sauce, and Kel's cole Slaw. Another favorite of mine was “Next Prize.” We had a tape of all kinds of different prizes, I would get the caller on the air and run the tape, the contestant would listen and say stop, then what ever the next prize on the tape is what they won. Some were good and some were not really prizes, like Kel's used coffee cup. One promotion that was very interesting to me was back in the early 70's when I worked at WILQ in Williamsport, The station had just changed call letters and was promotion then selves as “Q 105.” The idea was the most creative ways that the listener could show the logo. We had cakes, pictures of people with Q 105 tanned on their body, to a very large hay field mowed with that legend. The farmer who did that flew over the field and took a picture. The previous two were very successful promotions and created a lot of interest. One promotion that got the station into trouble was the parking meter stuffer. Each DJ had a regular shift and a route in the business district, armed with a couple of rolls of nickels and a stack of cards that said “your parking ticket was prevented by WLYC/WILQ. We ran this promotion for a couple of weeks until we got a visit from the Police Department Parking Enforcement division. According to them by putting money in a parking meter where a car other than your own was parked was against the law. I really don't remember the outcome but I think we stopped the promotion.

The last chart hit for them was “This Girl Is A Woman Now,” I liked the song and once again featured Gary's powerful voice. It was about this time that he made a business decision by refusing to cut another ballad, that decision proved to be the end of a very promising group career for the Union Gap. They did release a high forgettable song called “Let's Give Adam And Eve Another chance.” I do remember playing the song, BUT not for very long as it was a “bomb.”

These days Gary Puckett still tours and often appears with his good friend B.J. Thomas. During his shows Gary does a tribute to the veterans called “Home.” in our interview Gary described that segment of his show as “A moving experience.” He says it is not un common for Vietnam vets to come up to him after the show and tell him they remember his music on Armed Forces radio. Something that Gary said surprised him was the they vets tell him “it was your music we took with us to the battlefield.”

About the time of our interview, Gary was in the process of releasing a CD called “The Lost Tapes.” These were songs that Gary and his brother wrote back in 1974-75. While the songs were recorded, they were never released. Gary told me “the record companies did not know how to define the music, so they did not want to put it out.”

I did a follow up show with Gary, and we featured cuts from “The Lost Tapes.” The music is good, but if you think you are going to hear the traditional Gary Puckett ballad then you will be surprised. If you would like to order Gary's music and check out where he is appearing his web site is www.garypuckettmusic.com

During the run of “The Legendary Artist Series” I have interviewed over 50 different artists, most of the artists were good interviews, but Gary was one of the outstanding ones.

Trivia: What Union Gap song was re-released in 1974 in England and hit the top 5 becoming a “Certified Silver Record.” It was Gary's next hit from 1968. That hit was the classic “Young Girl.” Gary's next hit of “Over You” I felt that was a return to the more traditional sound with Gary really belting out a song. As was the case with all the Union Gap songs, the orchestration was great.



At

Gary Puckett (part 1)

Welcome to another installment of my memories I always hope that you find the artists' stories and my stories about broadcasting of interest and amusement! I got thinking today about some of the most colorful characters I ever worked with. To be sure Lynn B. (last name omitted) was one of the most. As is the case of way too many people in media he had a problem,with alcohol. He did morning drive at a station where I was the All Night D.J. A few times a week he would appear at the station around 2:00 AM and sack out on the couch. Since he was my relief person, it became my job to awaken him for his shift. This man looked like everybody's grandfather, and was a nice enough guy, except for the periods when he was over-served. I could always tell if it was going to be a challenge, for he would come into the control room and say something to the effect of “well Senator, I'm going to take a nap. Get me up for my shift.” He wore the worlds worse looking toupee as it had yellowed with age, and when he was in “that” condition, it would be crooked on his head. I did feel sorry for him, as he was a decent announcer, but after a pretty short period of time management got tired of his antics and fired him.

Gary Puckett and the Union Gap sold well over five million singles in the the period of time from 1967 to late 1969, plus probably a very close number of albums. In 1968 they were the #1 selling artists and the record trivia people point out they outsold all other artists INDLUDING THE BEATLES. When Gary and I talked about that fact, he said , “Well maybe the Beatles were having a bad year.” That was typical of our chat. I found Gary to be a very down to earth, humble, well spoken guy who was not afraid to poke some fun at himself. Of all the artists I have ever interviewed I think he was the most well spoken.

In talking about the group and their success Gary said, “we had a little good luck, we put together a talented bunch of guys, to be on stage, and I kind of handled it like a business.” Jerry Fuller our producer at Columbia (Records) came to see us perform in San Diego, and afterwards came up to the stage and said, let's go make records.” Gary gives a lot of credit to Jerry for his choice of matching the music to the artist. “If you had given “Woman Woman” or “Young Girl” to Mick Jagger (Rolling Stones) it may not have worked. Or if I had tried to do “Time Is On My Side” or “Satisfaction,” it might not have worked either .”

The story of the Union Gap really starts in his family's garage in San Diego. He and his family had moved around a lot with his father's job as a department store executive. Gary said, “I like to say we were a garage band when we started. We borrowed a stage in a club to perform for a person we wanted to be our manager.” Fortunately he liked them and booked them gigs in West and Northwest Coast. It was on that trip Gary had the idea for the group to wear Civil War Union uniforms. The Union Gap name came from a suburb in the Yakima, Wa. valley. Gary said, “the band would probably tell you I got the idea from the TV Show F Troop!”

Their first hit “Woman Woman” from December of 1967, (Written by Jim Glaser) actually was also a minor county hit for Tompall Glaser and The Glaser Brothers. Columbia producer Jerry Fuller liked the song and said “If I find the right guy to do it, I'm going in the studio.” Gary, on a visit to Columbia records, handed Jerry his portfolio and he liked it and said “I've got a song for you.” The rest, as they say is history, BTW, Glen Campbell was also interested in that song. Somehow, as much as I like Glen's work, I don't think the song would have had quite the impact it did with Gary's tremendous voice hitting those high notes. Gary laughs today, and says “Well, I could in those days. I've had to bring all the songs down a step, I can't hit those notes anymore.”

1968 saw the release of “Young Girl” about which Gary Puckett says, “I was fortunate to work with a producer and writer like Jerry who wrote songs to follow other songs, we were fortunate to have a guy who understood that.” Gary, I think, liked the comment I made that I felt the song was a “commercially good sound.” Well it certainly had all the right things including a 30 piece orchestra behind them in that song.

As is that case when I listen to these interviews I have way more material than I can fit in one article, so I will continuein another post with notes from my Gary Puckett Interview.

Trivia the 1960's group that appeared in Civil War uniforms?” That group was none other than Gary Puckett & The Union Gap. Their series of songs, that, when you put the titles in order tell a story

Diane Renay (More Than just "Navy Blue")

This time I wanted to mention one of the lesser known legends of rock and roll. I never use the term legend lightly and even though this artist was a “one hit wonder,” I feel she deserves to be called a legend. Diane Renay was born in Philadelphia as Renay Diane Kushner and is best known for her 1964 hit “Navy Blue.” As happens all too often an artist who has a lot of talent only has one hit record. I had the opportunity to interview her on The Class Reunion, and play several other songs that by all rights should have been hits. But remember this was at the height of “The British Invasion,” and even Elvis could not get a hit. If you have the opportunity check out her web site and there you can order a double CD of some really great music. CD 1 is vintage Diane from the 60's and CD 2 is a very interesting mix of some excellent music showing her wide rage of talent. One of the cuts on this CD set is a “disco” sounding version of Navy Blue and I think it is a great dance tune.

During our interview Diane was telling me about a story about the time she appeared on a local Pittsburgh, PA TV show with Lou Christie and Bobby Goldsboro. The DJ who hosted the TV show also did record hops and he somehow managed to get all three artist to agree to make an appearance. Diane and the other artists thought is was to be a local event. Not so, as they were driven to the airport an put on a single engine six passenger plane; the record hop was in West Virginia. Diane said that after they had been flying for a while she noticed a funny smell in the air, and heard the aircraft's radio with a voice saying “aircraft in trouble, this is Pittsburgh tower.” The pilot told them that the plane was having engine trouble and that he was going to try and make it to a small airstrip nearby. It was then Diane said, “I grabbed hold of Lou Christie's arm as tight as I could.” As the minuets passed she noticed a light haze of smoke in the cabin and at that point inflicted lacerations on Lou's arm with her fingernails. A fact that she denies, but Lou Christie told me, “Oh yeah, she drew blood.”
Diane said as they went along, “Bobby (Goldsboro) was talking about the next three legends of rock and roll to die in a plane crash, ( in reference to Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper), and making those darn cricket sounds.” This continued until Diane lost it and told Bobby to “be quiet,” or word to that extent.

They managed to make it to the small airstrip someplace in West Virginia and as they completed their approach the engine died! Fortunately for music fans they landed safely and continued on by car to the record hop. Diane said she went on and did her performance, and afterwards called he father who was back in Pittsburgh. He had just heard on the news about her plane and was greatly relieved when her heard her voice. Diane said “it was then I lost it and started to cry and collapsed on the floor.”

The story doesn't end there. While Diane, Bobby and Lou were at the record hop, the plane was fixed and they were told they were going to fly back to Pittsburgh. “No way,' said Diane, “I don't care if I have to walk, I am NOT getting in that thing.” She won, and the three artists were returned in a limousine. All three artists still are performing today, with Lou Christie being the busiest.

Trivia What was the name of the only group and song by an an American Group made the Top Ten in the first half of 1964. A hint, it was a “girl group” that shares the name of a drinking device. That Group The Dixie Cups hit the Top 10 With (Going) To The Chapel Of Love.

Brenda Lee (maybe my first love)

As a male growing up through the 1950's and 1960's I fell “IN LOVE” many times. Let's see there was Annette and Sharon on The Mickey Mouse Club, Gretchen Christopher from The Fleetwoods, Patty Duke, and then there was Brenda Lee.

My crush on Brenda Lee came a little later than the rest, and has lasted a long time. I first saw Brenda “live” in 1965 at the Bloomsburg, Pa Fair. I vividly recall that performance, as she was the first of countless artists I met in person. I was sitting in the front row of what was called “track seating,” meaning that I was right at the stage. Most times Brenda was only a few feet away from me as she sang her hits. When she sang “I'm Sorry,” which is one of my favorites, I could see tears in her eyes; she packed such emotion into the song that there was not a dry eye in the house, including mine. After the show I got the chance to meet her in person and I collected my first autograph.

Fast forward to 2005; I learned that she was going to be performing her Christmas Show in “The Valley.” NO question in my mind that I was going to see it! At the time I was just starting to think about doing an interview series on my radio show, The Class Reunion, so I thought how great it would be to have her on the air. I looked up her website and sent an e mail fully expecting that I would receive an answer from her agent. The very next day my e mail contained a reply from Brenda herself telling me she would be very happy to do my show and gave me contact numbers for her. I called fully expecting to get a secretary, but to my amazement the voice on the other end was really Brenda. I must have stuttered and stammered for what seemed like an hour, but finally I calmed down and we chatted about the date and details. As the date drew closer I received another e mail from her stating that she would not be in the office that day and would I mind if she did the interview from home. At the appointed time I called her and we stared the interview. Brenda had told me the reason she would be home was because she was babysitting her five year old grandson. The irony of that struck me; here is a lady that sold over 200 million records, is a member of both the Rock & Roll and country Music Hall of Fame, and she's babysitting! Just as we went on the air her grandson opened her cupboard and pulled out some cooking pots making quite a bang! I jumped as I know Brenda did and then we both dissolved into laughter. During the interview I recounted the first time I saw her and she thanked me for remembering her and was flattered that I did. Why would I not remember her, she was 20 and I was 18 at our first meeting!

I remember making the comment to her as we finished playing one of her hits, “Golly that piano sounds just like Floyd Cramer.” Brenda told me that in fact it was and that she had the good fortune of having such talented musicians as Floyd, Boots Randolph (Saxophone) and others as they were also studio musicians. Bye the way, you will hear a great Sax lead by Boots in Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree.

All too soon the interview was over and I looked forward to seeing her performance. The 40 years since I first saw her have done nothing to her voice except make it better, what a show! Afterward I got to spend a few minutes with her at the autograph session and thanked her for all the great music and memories. A picture of Brenda with me along with her autograph and my recording of that interview has center space on my “Wall of Fame” in my office. Today Brenda still tours and not long after our meeting she released a Gospel album called “Gospel Duets with Treasured Friends” with guest stars Vince Gill, Dolly Parton, Brooks & Dunn, Pam Tillis, George Jones and others.
hope you are enjoying these articles that share some of my favorite times in broadcasting. In the future I will take you behind the scenes of a radio station and talk about the side of the business that you didn't know existed. But first the housekeeping duties, the answer to the last trivia question. No you don't win anything other than expanding your reserve of totally useless information. The question “What “precious” Canadian group recorded a song called “Gretchen” in honor of Gretchen Christopher?” The answer, The Diamonds. Lead singer Dave Somerville presented her with a copy of the song during an appearance with Dick Clark''s Caravan of Stars.


As a male growing up through the 1950's and 1960's I fell “IN LOVE” many times. Let's see there was Annette and Sharon on The Mickey Mouse Club, Gretchen Christopher from The Fleetwoods, Patty Duke, and then there was Brenda Lee.

My crush on Brenda Lee came a little later than the rest, and has lasted a long time. I first saw Brenda “live” in 1965 at the Bloomsburg, Pa Fair. I vividly recall that performance, as she was the first of countless artists I met in person. I was sitting in the front row of what was called “track seating,” meaning that I was right at the stage. Most times Brenda was only a few feet away from me as she sang her hits. When she sang “I'm Sorry,” which is one of my favorites, I could see tears in her eyes; she packed such emotion into the song that there was not a dry eye in the house, including mine. After the show I got the chance to meet her in person and I collected my first autograph.

Fast forward to 2005; I learned that she was going to be performing her Christmas Show in “The Valley.” NO question in my mind that I was going to see it! At the time I was just starting to think about doing an interview series on my radio show, The Class Reunion, so I thought how great it would be to have her on the air. I looked up her website and sent an e mail fully expecting that I would receive an answer from her agent. The very next day my e mail contained a reply from Brenda herself telling me she would be very happy to do my show and gave me contact numbers for her. I called fully expecting to get a secretary, but to my amazement the voice on the other end was really Brenda. I must have stuttered and stammered for what seemed like an hour, but finally I calmed down and we chatted about the date and details. As the date drew closer I received another e mail from her stating that she would not be in the office that day and would I mind if she did the interview from home. At the appointed time I called her and we stared the interview. Brenda had told me the reason she would be home was because she was babysitting her five year old grandson. The irony of that struck me; here is a lady that sold over 200 million records, is a member of both the Rock & Roll and country Music Hall of Fame, and she's babysitting! Just as we went on the air her grandson opened her cupboard and pulled out some cooking pots making quite a bang! I jumped as I know Brenda did and then we both dissolved into laughter. During the interview I recounted the first time I saw her and she thanked me for remembering her and was flattered that I did. Why would I not remember her, she was 20 and I was 18 at our first meeting!

I remember making the comment to her as we finished playing one of her hits, “Golly that piano sounds just like Floyd Cramer.” Brenda told me that in fact it was and that she had the good fortune of having such talented musicians as Floyd, Boots Randolph (Saxophone) and others as they were also studio musicians. Bye the way, you will hear a great Sax lead by Boots in Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree.

All too soon the interview was over and I looked forward to seeing her performance. The 40 years since I first saw her have done nothing to her voice except make it better, what a show! Afterward I got to spend a few minutes with her at the autograph session and thanked her for all the great music and memories. A picture of Brenda with me in posted on the picture page of my web site. Today Brenda still tours and not long after our meeting she released a Gospel album called “Gospel Duets with Treasured Friends” with guest stars Vince Gill, Dolly Parton, Brooks & Dunn, Pam Tillis, George Jones and others.

Time for the trivia question: Where did Brenda Lee get her nickname of “Little Miss Dynamite?” The answer next time. At 4 ft 9 inches tall, she received the nickname Little Miss Dynamite in 1957 after recording the song "Dynamite";