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.