Brainbuster Question of the Day for Thursday, Feb. 26th, '09

Q: What is the world's only city located in two continents?





A: ISTANBUL, TURKEY

Sensational '70's Tune for Thursday, Feb. 26th, '09

One of the best-remembered hits from the late-'70s, "Gold" provided veteran singer/songwriter John Stewart with a well-deserved Top Ten hit. In a way, the song recollects the original allure of California rock & roll from it's original incarnation of the Beach Boys and Mamas & Papas days and is reflective of a working musician in the year 2000. The geographical references, particularly in the lines, "Drivin' over Kanan/singin' to my soul/people out there turnin' music into gold" speak volumes of what Los Angeles was like during the period. The song incorporates a smooth funk/ pop groove which was paramount during the day. Much of this has to do with the contributions of Fleetwood Mac members Stevie Nicks and especially co-producer Lindsay Buckingham, who was a die-hard Stewart fanatic, dating back to his days in the Kingston Trio days.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Mon, Feb. 23rd, '09

Q: Which TV series won the Emmy Award as best comedy five consecutive years in the 1990's?



A: FRASIER: 1994 thru 1998

Sensational '70's Tune for Mon, Feb. 23rd, '09

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Fri, Feb. 20th, '09

Q: In which 1983 film did Meryl Streep play the role of a worker at a nuclear factory who risks her life to protect workers from safety hazards?



A: SILKWOOD

Sensational '70's Tune for Fri, Feb. 20th, '09

A Number 15 hit for Bo Donalson & The Heywoods in the summer of '74:



The band was formed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1965 named simply "The Heywoods", not after anyone in the band or connected with it, but from the last name of a songwriter on a Rolling Stones album because they liked the sound of the name.

They were first discovered while touring with The Osmonds in the early 1970s and signed with Family Productions, releasing their first song in 1972, "Special Someone", but their big break came after moving to ABC Records and working with star producer Steve Barri in 1973. Beginning in 1974, the band released the songs "Billy Don't Be A Hero", "Who Do You Think You Are", "The Heartbreak Kid" and "Our Last Song Together".

In 1975, they began migration to a 3rd, 4th and 5th label as the hits dried up by the end of the decade. By 1978, they were known as "The Bo Donaldson Band" and eventually split after trying Country music with no success in the 1980s. They reformed again in 1996 as a nostalgia act and still make appearances, most notably in the Barry Williams-hosted nostalgia show Original Idols Live.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Thu, Feb, 19th, '09

Q: This nutritious substance secreted by worker bees serves as the only food for the larvae that eventually develop into queen bees. What is it?





A: ROYAL JELLY

Sensational '70's Tune for Thu, Feb. 19th, '09

A number 16 hit for Polly Brown in February of 1975:



Polly Brown, or Polly Browne (born 18 April 1947, Birmingham, England[1]) is an English singer.

Browne was the lead singer of the groups Pickettywitch, the name being suggested by her sister Pamela Browne, and Sweet Dreams. She released a solo album in 1975 entitled Special Delivery on GTO Records. "Same Old Feeling" was one of the hits that Pickettywitch enjoyed, and post Pickettywitch a single from the album, "Up in a Puff of Smoke", was a hit in America, reaching #3 on the U.S. disco chart and #16 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the UK Singles Chart, it reached #43.

Sweet Dreams's one UK #10 hit "Honey Honey" is notable for being the first successful cover of an ABBA song. The tune reached #68 in the U.S. Their appearance on Top Of The Pops attracted press comment for Browne's liberal use of dark make-up. In 1976, Browne took part in the A Song for Europe competition, becoming the first ever singer (in a multi-singer format contest) to sing two of the songs being considered for that year's Eurovision Song Contest. As a soloist, she performed "Do You Believe In Love At First Sight?" and teaming up with her singing partner Tony Jackson for Sweet Dreams, they performed "Love, Kiss And Run". Both songs failed to win the ticket to the Eurovision contest, but Dionne Warwick recorded her own version of "Do You Believe...", which became a minor hit in the U.S. Browne continues to write and record music including blues material. The original Sweet Dreams band was formed in 1974 from the showband "Love Lane" From Stockport (near Manchester at that time a "Mecca" resident band ) Recruited by the brilliant songwriter Gerry Shury,(arranger Biddu Orchestra/ writer "guilty" (the Pearls) etc, the line up was Robert Young (born Robert Parkes drums/vocals) Stuart Armstrong,(keyboards/vocals) and Stephen Parkes,(bass/vocals) plus duo "Kim and Kerry".(guitar/vocals) After initial rehearsals in London, the new 7 piece band (including Polly Browne and Tony Jackson) commenced touring. The first gig was Southport theatre, appearing with "The Three Degrees". Sweet Dream's line up was famous in the business for re-creating the record sound live on stage, largely due to the extensive use of keyboards/synthesizers and a "Mellotron", plus rich vocal harmonies. After the original Pickettywitch disbanded, a new band New Pickettywitch was formed without Browne's involvement. Although they were not commercially successful, their singer Sheila Rossall found fame of a sort in 1980 when she was reported to be suffering from total allergy syndrome. Medical opinion largely denies the existence of such a condition, more likely to have been multiple allergy syndrome and partly living in a plastic bubble. Rossall died in Blackpool in 2006, but confusion between the original Pickettywitch and New Pickettywitch continues.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Wed, Feb., 18th, '09

Q: What two oceans meet at the Cape of Good Hope?



















A: It's in South Africa: ATLANTIC AND INDIAN

Sensational '70's Tune for Wed, Feb. 18th, '09

A number 22 hit for Hotlegs in 1970:



Even if Graham Gouldman hadn't joined the trio of Eric Stewart, Lol Crème and Kevin Godley and they'd evolved into 10cc, Hotlegs would still be worthy of admiration simply for creating one of the most completely strange hit singles of the '70s. There is no element of "Neanderthal Man" that isn't really weird, from the lyrics (here presented in their entirety: "I'm a Neanderthal man/You're a Neanderthal girl/Let's make Neanderthal love/In the Neanderthal world," repeated endlessly for four minutes and 20 seconds) to the downright bizarre arrangement. The song is basically completely inverted in its mixing, with the native American-style tom-tom rhythm the most prominent instrument and Eric Stewart's lead vocal buried so far behind layers of processed guitars and synthesizers that you have to pay close attention to even hear it. The joke, of course, is that you're straining to hear some of the most inane lyrics of the decade. It's something of a pity that this novelty hit overshadowed the rest of Hotlegs' sole album, which has some truly lovely, Bee Gees-style pop songs, but they ended up doing okay for themselves in their next incarnation.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Tue, Feb. 17th, '09

Q: Can you identify a rich, creamy sauce of butter, egg yolks and lemon juice that is named after a European country?

A: HOLLANDAISE

Sensational '70's Tune for Tue, Feb. 17th, '09

A one record wonder from the group "Punch" in the summer of 1971.
The actual title was "Fallin', Lady"---the chorus sang "You've been fallin', lady, across my mind." Punch was a Los Angeles group: Charlie Merriam, Steve Adler, and sisters Dee and Kathy Ward. The song got played on KHJ and KRLA. The best it could do nationally was to spend a single week on Billboard's "Bubbling Under" chart at #110 on the week ending 10-2-71. The song is on volume 3 of Rhino's "Have A Nice Day: Super Hits Of The '70s" CD series. Yes, I know what you're wondering---how does a #110 song qualify as a "super hit"?

Dunno, but here it is!




The 37 minutes of prime early '70s radio fare on this, the third volume of Super Hits of the '70s: Have a Nice Day, shows just how lucky AM radio listeners were in 1970-1971. The material runs the gamut from heavily produced pop/rock product like the Partridge Family's "I Think I Love You" through Mungo Jerry's skiffle-like international hit "In the Summertime," to the downright strange, chant-like "Neanderthal Man" by Hotlegs (the post-Mockingbirds and Mindbenders, pre-10CC incarnation of Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley, and Lol Creme), but it's all eminently listenable, and much of it is surprising. Alive & Kicking's "Tighter, Tighter" was one of Tommy James's big successes of his post-Shondells career, as well as the one national hit for which the Brooklyn-based group is remembered. Similarly, Brian Hyland's blue-eyed pop-soul rendition of Curtis Mayfield's Impressions-era classic "Gypsy Woman" was a triumph for producer Del Shannon, returning Hyland to the charts for the first time in eight years. There are lots of one-shots and near one-shots here: Denver-based Sugarloaf's "Green-Eyed Lady" seemed to point the way to a big future that somehow got derailed -- why the Jerry Corbetta-led quartet couldn't come up with another hit for four years is anyone's guess, given that this was an original and the group (especially Corbetta at the keyboards) had a field day expanding the song in some reasonably progressive directions within the confines of the pop idiom; similarly, R. Dean Taylor, the most successful white artist ever developed by Motown, managed a chart-topper with the ominous "Indiana Wants Me" but never equaled that success; and Bobby Bloom's "Montego Bay," which hit the Top Ten in the late fall of 1970, was the veteran songwriter's first hit of his own, and might've jump-started the whole reggae boom in America by three years, but it was an isolated triumph. Bobby Sherman demonstrates why his star was falling with the distinctly pop sound of "Julie, Do Ya Love Me," while Punch, a one-shot A&M Records act, closes out the 12-song disc with "Fallin' Lady," a frantically paced piece of pop/rock from the summer of 1971 that sounds like Tom Jones meets Up With People. None of it is exactly profound (that what FM radio was there for), but it all sounds great, and this reviewer would've stayed tuned to a set like this.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Mon, Feb. 16th, '09

Q: Barbra Streisand's first two film leads, in 1968 and 1969, were in films with two-word titles. What were they?






A: FUNNY GIRL / HELLO, DOLLY!

Sensational '70's Tune for Mon, Feb. 16th, '09

A number 29 hit for Stealer's Wheel in 1974:



Although remembered today primarily for one or two songs, Stealers Wheel in its own time bid fair to become Britain's answer to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Only the chronic instability of their lineup stood in their way after a promising start. Gerry Rafferty (b. Paisley, Scotland, Apr. 16, 1946) and Joe Egan (b. 1946) had first met at school in Paisley when they were teenagers. Rafferty had seen three years of success as a member of the Humblebums before they split up, and he'd started a solo recording career that was still-born with the commercial failure of his album Can I Have My Money Back? (Transatlantic, 1971). He'd employed Egan as a vocalist on the album, along with Roger Brown. Rafferty and Egan became the core of Stealers Wheel, playing guitar and keyboards, although their real talent lay in their voices, which meshed about as well as any duo this side of Graham Nash and David Crosby -- Brown joined, and Rab Noakes (guitar, vocals) and Ian Campbell (bass) came aboard in 1972. That lineup, however, lasted only a few months. By the time Stealers Wheel was signed to A&M later that year, Brown, Noakes, and Campbell were gone, replaced by guitarist Paul Pilnick, bassist Tony Williams, and drummer Rod Coombes (ex-Juicy Lucy and future Strawbs alumnus). This band, slapped together at the last moment for the recording of their debut album in 1972, proved a winning combination working behind Rafferty's and Egan's voices. The self-titled Stealers Wheel album, produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, was a critical and commercial success, yielding the hit "Stuck in the Middle with You" (it hit Top Ten in America and the U.K.). Even this success had its acrimonious side. Rafferty had quit the band by the time Stealers Wheel was released, replaced by Spooky Tooth's Luther Grosvenor, who stayed with the group on tour for much of 1973. DeLisle Harper also came in for the touring version of the band, replacing Tony Williams. With a viable performing unit backing it, the Stealers Wheel album began selling and made number 50 in America, while "Stuck in the Middle with You" became a million selling single.

As all of that was happening, the group's management persuaded Rafferty to come back, whereupon Grosvenor, Coombes, and Pilnick left. Having been through a dizzying series of changes in the previous year, Stealers Wheel essentially ended up following a strategy -- employed for very different reasons -- that paralleled Walter Becker and Donald Fagen in the American band Steely Dan. Egan and Rafferty became Stealers Wheel, officially a duo, with backing musicians employed as needed in the studio and on tour.

There was pressure for more hits. "Everyone Agreed That Everything Will Turn Out Fine" was a modest chart success, the mid-tempo, leisurely paced "Star" was somewhat more widely heard, cracking into the Top 30 on both sides of the Atlantic. A second album, Ferguslie Park (named for a district in Paisley), completed with session players as per the duo's plan, barely cracked the Top 200 LPs in America (although it was somewhat more popular than that number would indicate, among college students), and that would lead to a poisonous internal situation for the duo, as the pressure on them became even greater. In fact, the record was first-rate, made up of lively, melodic, inventive pop/rock songs.

The commercial failure of the second album created a level of tension that all but destroyed the partnership between Egan and Rafferty. Coupled with the departure of Leiber & Stoller, who were having business problems of their own, and the inability of the duo to agree on a complement of studio musicians to help with the next album, Stealers Wheel disappeared for 18 months. Ironically, the contractually mandated final album, Right or Wrong, which emerged at that time, came out a good deal more right than anyone could have predicted, given the circumstances of its recording. The group had ceased to exist by the time it was in stores.

The break-up of Stealers Wheel blighted Rafferty's and Egan's careers for the next three years, as legal disputes with their respective managements prevented either man from recording. After these problems were settled, Egan made a pair of albums for the European-based Ariola label. Rafferty, in the meantime, emerged as a recording star with a mega-hit in 1978 in the form of "Baker Street" and the album City to City.

Stealers Wheel disappeared after 1975, its name and identity retired forever by its two owners (although, ironically, Rafferty did an album in the mid-'90s, Over My Head, on which he reinvented several Stealers Wheel-era song that he'd co-written with Egan). He and Egan have both made records that refer in lyrics to the troubled history of Stealers Wheel, immortalizing their acrimonious history even as at least three best-of European collections of Stealers Wheel material immortalize their music, and "Stuck in the Middle with You" remains a popular '70s oldie, revived on the soundtrack of Quentin Tarantino's movie Reservoir Dogs, and was recut by the Jeff Healey Band.

Cubs Pitchers and Catchers Report today !!

First to Fitch

Signs of spring at Fitch today!

Mostly the guys just tossed the ball to loosen the arms and did some light running. Some of the players who are already at Fitch are Geovany Soto, Jeff Samardzija, Angel Guzman. Neal Cotts, Chad Gaudin, Joey Gathright, Randy Wells, Jake Fox, Brad Snyder, Richie Robnett, and Koyie Hill from the 40-man roster...as well as an assortment of minor league guys including Steve Clevenger, Darwin Barney and several I couldn't recognize without numbers.


Some BP was taken, but until Saturday it's pretty informal. Jake Fox took some extra grounders at third base after BP. Angel Guzman looks as if he's hit the weight room a bit in the off season, hoping this helps him avoid the injury bug...he's out of options. My new favorite name this spring Richard Pryor Robnett III, I'm not sure how funny this guy is but he can hit the ball a long way. Robnett 25 was one of the guys the Cubs picked up along with Justin Sellers from the A's in the Wuertz deal. He had surgery to remove a benign stomach tumor last year and his AAA numbers suffered but he looks healthy and strong now. Richie needs to get him some Cubs gear as he was still wearing A's workout shorts.

Of course as you may know one of my very favorite Cubs names is Theodore Roosevelt Lilly...Ted isn't at Fitch yet but I thought it appropriate to mention the name on this 200 year anniversary of Abe Lincoln's birthday. Here is an appropriate Lincoln quote for the day -

"Things may come to those that wait, but only those things left by those who hustle."

Cheers Abe!

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Fri, Feb. 13th, '09

Q: In 1964 a phenomenal female group from Detroit hit the pop music scene, and their first #1 hit had a question in the title. What group and what song title?



A: SUPREMES / WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO?

Sensational '70's Tune for Fri, Feb. 13th, '09

A number 5 hit for Pratt & McClain in 1976:

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Thu, Feb., 12th, '09

Q: What capital city lies on the Tigris River?















A: BAGHDAD

A number 21 hit for The Hudson Brothers in the fall of '74:



After their Playboy Records recording, and before signing to the Rocket label, the Hudson Brothers had a minor hit on Neil Bogart's Casablanca imprint with the dreamy, very British "So You Are a Star," and all indications were that this band would be huge. The problem here is image, image, image. Looking like Tony Orlando flanked by two male Dawn clones on the cover, this ensemble has much more substance than the New Kids on the Block, the Bay City Rollers, and other pop confections attempting to appeal to the teen market. A concept that would seem so simple to launch into stardom is a pop culture asterisk instead, and that is a shame. Despite the hokey six minutes and 45 seconds spent on the ridiculous live comedy piece "The Adventures of Chucky Margolis," making the second half of the disc lopsided at over 20 minutes long (side A is a mere 14 and a half minutes in length), there is still a lot of musical magic here. Just as Tony Orlando has a better resumé than musical reputation/perception, the Hudson Brothers' place in history is that of a teen idol group that didn't grab the brass ring. Had they been as serious about their image as they were about their music, things would be different. They come off like a modern Three Stooges in the 1983 film Hysterical but, just as they aren't the Beatles -- the group that they emulate on this and other discs -- they fall short of being as innovative as the Three Stooges as well. When the Hudson Brothers are themselves, like on the title track, "Hollywood Situation," they shine. "Three of Us" rocks like the Raspberries, while "Sometimes the Rain Will Fall" and "Song for Stephanie" are precursors to R.E.M. The "Chucky Margolis" episode is so bad that it really throws the flow for a loop, because the elegant sounds -- like guitars lifted from the Abbey Road medley and the eeriness of "Strawberry Fields Forever" ambience that fills the spaces under the teeny-bop harmonies -- are really sublime. "Razzle Dazzle" is experimental, and one of the weaker musical tracks, but for the most part Hollywood Situation drives harder than their Bernie Taupin produced follow-up, Totally Out of Control, and contains moments of sheer pop pleasure.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Wed, Feb. 11th, '09

Q: In terms of his sports success, his potential as an athlete, and his commercial endorsements, which person did Time Magazine (12/99) call the most ubiquitous (he's everywhere) athlete since Michael Jordan?



A: TIGER WOODS

Sensational '70's Tune for Wed, Feb. 11th, '09

A number 40 hit for El Chicano in the winter of '73:



Over the years, El Chicano has often been compared to Santana and, to be sure, there are a lot of parallels. Both are from California (although different parts of the state), both are led by Mexican-Americans, both have recorded in English as well as in Spanish, and both have favored a very eclectic and unpredictable mixture of rock, soul, funk, jazz, blues, and Afro-Cuban salsa. Further, there is no getting around the fact that El Chicano (whose Spanish name means "the Chicano" or "the Mexican-American") has been heavily influenced by Carlos Santana's outfit. Nonetheless, El Chicano has a style of its own and Santana isn't the band's only influence. Over the years, El Chicano has been affected by everyone from Chicano soulsters like Cannibal & the Headhunters and Thee Midniters to Latin soul-jazz favorite Pucho to salsa heavyweights such as Tito Puente, Ray Barretto, and Mongo Santamaria. El Chicano's members were not only affected by the Mexican-American experience, they were also well aware of what Cuban and Puerto Rican musicians were doing on the East Coast and in the Caribbean. El Chicano, which was originally called the V.I.P.'s, was founded in East Los Angeles (a heavily Mexican-American area) in the late '60s. The band's original members included co-founder/leader Bobby Espinosa (organ, electric keyboards, acoustic piano, vocals), Freddie Sanchez (bass, vocals), Mickey Lespron (lead guitar, vocals), Andre Baeza (congas), and John De Luna (drums). Along the way, El Chicano had more than its share of personnel changes; members who didn't join until the '70s included Ersi Arvizu (lead vocals), Hector "Rudy" Regalado (timbales, vocals), Max Garduno (congas), Danny Lamonte (drums), Brian Magness (bass), Joe Perreira (bass), Jerry Salas (lead vocals, guitar), Rudy Salas (guitar), and Steve Salas (lead vocals), among others. (The Salas brothers went on to join another East L.A. band, Tierra, which was an El Chicano spinoff and is best-known for its hit 1980 cover of the Intruders' Philadelphia soul ballad "Together"). After creating a buzz in East L.A. in the late '60s, El Chicano signed with MCA in 1970 and recorded its debut album, Viva Tirado. The instrumental title song, which was written by jazz pianist Gerald Wilson, was released as a single and became El Chicano's biggest hit; the recording reached number 28 on Billboard's pop singles chart and number 20 on its R&B singles chart. On regional L.A. charts, "Viva Tirado" spent about 12 weeks at number one. "Viva Tirado" (which was inspired by Mexican bullfighter Jose Ramon Tirado) was a rarity; in the '60s and '70s, one rarely saw any type of jazz instrumental -- straight-ahead, fusion, soul-jazz, or otherwise -- climbing that high up the national Billboard charts. When a jazz instrumental became a hit single in the pop or R&B markets, it was the exception instead of the rule. While the "Viva Tirado" single didn't make El Chicano national superstars -- they were never as big as Santana -- the band did acquire a loyal cult following and was especially popular in the Mexican-American neighborhoods of the southwestern United States. After the Viva Tirado LP, El Chicano went on to record several more albums for MCA, including 1971's Revolucion, 1972's Celebration, 1973's El Chicano, 1974's Cinco, 1975's The Best of Everything, and 1976's Pyramid of Love & Friends. El Chicano's second biggest hit came in 1973 when MCA released the brown-eyed soul classic "Tell Her She's Lovely" as a single. Nationally, the tune (which features Jerry Salas on lead vocals) wasn't a major hit; "Tell Her She's Lovely" only reached number 40 on Billboard's pop singles chart and number 98 on the magazine's R&B singles chart. But in Mexican-American neighborhoods, the song was huge -- among Chicano Baby Boomers, "Tell Her She's Lovely" was as popular as War's big '70s hits. El Chicano's contract with MCA ended in 1976; that year, the band recorded its first post-MCA album, This Is...El Chicano, for the independent Shady Brooke label (where the L.A. residents enjoyed more creative control than they had during their six years at MCA). The band's next LP, Look of Love, was released on Musidisc in 1977; then in the early '80s, El Chicano briefly recorded for Columbia, which released the romantic blue-eyed soul tune "Do You Want Me" as a single in 1983. Although not a national chart-buster, the song became a minor hit (primarily in Mexican-American areas). El Chicano didn't do a lot of recording in the '80s or '90s, but the band made a long overdue return to the studio with 1998's Painting the Moment. Released on Thump, that CD marked the return of original lead guitarist Mickey Lespron, who had not recorded with El Chicano since the '70s.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Tue, Feb., 10th '09

Q: What publication first printed the slogan "All The News That's Fit To Print"


A: The New York Times

A number 2 hit for Peter Frampton in the summer of '77:



It was almost inevitable that I'm in You would be thought of as a letdown no matter how good it was. Following up to one of the biggest selling albums of the decade, Peter Frampton faced a virtually impossible task, made even more difficult by the fact that in the two years since he'd cut any new material, he had evolved musically away from some of the sounds on Frampton Comes Alive. The result was mostly a surprisingly laid-back album steeped in lyricism and craftsmanship, particularly in its use of multiple overdubs even on the harder rocking numbers. From the opening bars of "I'm in You," dominated by the sound of the piano (played by Frampton) and an ARP synthesizer-generated string section, rather than a guitar, it was clear that Frampton was exploring new sides of his music. Cuts like "Won't You Be My Friend," a piece of white funk that might've been better at six minutes running time, seemed to be dangerously close to self-indulgence at eight minutes long. The high points also include the title track, "Don't Have to Worry," and a killer cover of Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed Delivered (I'm Yours)"; a couple of solid rock numbers, "Tried to Love" and the crunching "(I'm A) Roadrunner" also work their way in here to pump up the tension and excitement. I'm in You was successful on its own terms, and had Frampton recorded it before the live album, it would probably be very fondly looked back on. As it was, many listeners were not impressed. The spring 2000 reissue in 20-bit audio recreates the original album artwork and notes and is the best way to appreciate the multi-layered sound (and the crunchier rock moments) on this album.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Mon., Feb. 9th, '09

Q: In early 2000, the first Y2K problem to affect many common people, dealt with the financing of a simple products worth about $3. What was it?
























A: RETURNING VIDEO RENTALS (people charged for rental since 1900)

Never a Dull Moment suffered a bit from being recorded so quickly after the surprise success of Every Picture Tells a Story, at a point when the Faces were still a major factor in Rod Stewart's career. "You Wear It Well" was the album's first single, and as the only song co-written by guitarist Martin Quittenton, the underappreciated star of the previous album, it's the one that has the closest musical similarity to "Maggie May" and "Mandolin Wind." In fact, the less charitable would call the song a virtual rewrite of "Maggie May," with its similarly loping pace and U.K. folk-rock guitars, but the song comes from a different emotional place. Whereas "Maggie May" is a prime breakup song, "You Wear It Well" is a bit more forgiving. Written as a letter to a former love, the conversational lyrics ramble off in half-completed non sequiturs, mimicking the feel of hastily scribbled lines written when someone is either too drunk or not quite drunk enough to say what he really means. Affectionate but regretful, "You Wear It Well" is as lyrically strong as it is tuneful; sadly, that would soon cease to be the case for most of Rod Stewart's singles.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Friday, Feb. 6th, '09

Q: Many of the plants used to make mustard in factories near Dijon are grown not in France, but in what large country outside of Europe?
















A: CANADA - note the French connection

Sensational '70's Tune for Friday, Feb. 6th, '09

A Number 1 hit for Dionne Warwick & The Spinners in the summer of '74:

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Thu., Feb. 5th, '09

Q: What television show popular in the 1970's and 1980's and named after a woman holds the record for winning the most Emmy awards by a TV Series?



A: MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW won 29

Sensational '70's Tune for Thu., Feb. 5th, '09

A number 2 hit for The Jaggerz in 1970:



Best known for their 1970 smash "The Rapper," the Jaggerz were formed in Pittsburgh during the mid-1960s by singer/guitarist Dominic Ierace, guitarist Benny Faiella, bassists Jimmy Ross and Billy Maybray, keyboardist Thom Davies and drummer Jim Pugliano. After earning a fervent following on the local club circuit, the group ultimately signed to Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff's label Gamble Records to issue their 1969 debut LP Introducing the Jaggerz; when the record tanked, the band signed to Kama Sutra for 1970's We Went to Different Schools Together, falling just shy of topping the charts with "The Rapper." The single was the Jaggerz' lone chart hit, however, and they were soon reduced to again hitting the local club scene. After one final LP, 1975's Come Again, the group disbanded; frontman Ierace then changed his name to Donnie Iris and joined Wild Cherry, scoring a major disco-era hit with "Play that Funky Music" before going on to mount a solo career.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Wed, Feb. 4th, '09

Q: Which actress won the Academy Award twice before she was thirty years old?





A: JODIE FOSTER (also, Louise Rainer, Bette Davis, or Hilary Swank)

Sensational '70's Tune for Wed, Feb. 4th, '09

A number one hit for Carl Douglas in 1974:



Timing is important in pop music in so many ways. It's crucial that a pop song reflects its time so that it's relatable. Timing played an important role on so many levels with Carl Douglas' career-making gold single "Kung Fu Fighting." In spring 1974, London-based producer Biddu was looking for a singer to record a song by "Rhinestone Cowboy" songwriter Larry Weiss. He remembered a singer that he'd worked with on the soundtrack of the Richard Roundtree movie Ecstasy. He thought that Jamaica-born singer Carl Douglas would be just right for "I Want to Give You My Everything." With the Weiss song recorded and pegged for the A-side, Biddu wondered what the B-side would be. He asked Douglas if he had any original songs. Out of the five songs the singer sang off the top of his head, the producer picked "Kung Fu Fighting." It was recorded with the karate chop-related "hoo"s and "haaas"s with the remaining studio time they had leftover. The kung fu movie craze driven in part by movie legend Bruce Lee and the ABC-TV series Kung Fu was at its peak, but still Biddu didn't think the song was another more than amusing B-side filler. When he submitted it to Pye Records, the label's A&R head excitedly chose "Kung Fu Fighting" as the A-side. After hitting number one in the U.K., the single was picked up by American label 20th Century Records. It began to take off in the disco clubs before crossing over to R&B- and disco-oriented radio stations. The million-selling "Kung Fu Fighting" went to number one R&B and parked at number one pop for two weeks in late 1974.

The Day The Music Died - February 3rd, 1959

Monument at the crash site, September 16, 2003

Events leading to the crash

"The Winter Dance Party" was a tour that was set to cover 24 Midwestern cities in three weeks. A logistical problem with the tour was the amount of travel, as the distance between venues was not a priority when scheduling each performance. For example, the tour would start at venue A, travel 200 miles to venue B, and travel back 170 miles to venue C, which was only 30 miles from venue A. Adding to the disarray, the tour bus used to carry the musicians was ill-prepared for the weather; its heating system broke shortly after the tour began. Drummer Carl Bunch developed a severe case of frostbitten feet while on the bus and was taken to a local hospital. As he recovered, Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens took turns with the drums.

The Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa was never intended to be a stop on the tour, but promoters, hoping to fill an open date, called the manager of the ballroom at the time and offered him the show. He accepted and the date of the show was set for February 2.

By the time Buddy Holly arrived at the ballroom that evening, he was frustrated with the tour bus and told his bandmates that, once the show was over, they should try to charter a plane to get to the next stop on the tour, Moorhead, Minnesota. Holly was also upset that he had run out of clean undershirts, socks, and underwear. He needed to do some laundry before the next performance, and the local laundromat in Clear Lake was closed that day.

Flight arrangements were made with Roger Peterson, 21, a local pilot who worked for Dwyer Flying Service in Mason City, Iowa. A fee of $36 per person was charged for the single engine Beechcraft Bonanza B35 (V-tail). The Bonanza could seat three passengers in addition to the pilot.

Richardson had developed a case of the flu during the tour and asked one of Holly's bandmates, Waylon Jennings, for his seat on the plane; Jennings agreed to give up the seat. When Holly learned that Jennings wasn't going to fly, he said, "Well, I hope your ol' bus freezes up." Jennings responded, "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes." This exchange of words, though made in jest at the time, haunted Jennings for the rest of his life.

Ritchie Valens had never flown in a small plane before, and asked Holly's remaining bandmate on the plane, Tommy Allsup, for the seat. Tommy said "I'll flip ya for the remaining seat." Contrary to what is seen in biographical movies, that coin toss did not happen at the airport shortly before takeoff, nor did Buddy Holly toss it. The toss happened at the ballroom shortly before departure to the airport, and the coin was tossed by a DJ who was working the concert that night. Valens won a seat on the plane.

Dion DiMucci of Dion & The Belmonts, who was the fourth headline performer on the tour, was approached to join the flight as well; however, the price of $36 was too much. Dion had heard his parents argue for years over the $36 rent for their apartment and could not bring himself to pay an entire month's rent for a short plane ride.

The crash

At approximately 1:00 AM Central Time on February 3, the plane took off from Mason City Municipal Airport. Around 1:05, Jerry Dwyer, the owner of Dwyer Flying Service, could see the lights of the plane start to descend from the sky to the ground. At the time, he thought it was an optical illusion because of the curvature of the Earth and the horizon.

The pilot, Roger Peterson, was expected to file his flight plan once the plane was airborne, but Peterson never called the tower. Repeated attempts by Dwyer to contact his pilot failed. By 3:30 AM, when the airport at Fargo had not heard from Peterson, Dwyer contacted authorities and reported the aircraft missing.

Around 9:15 in the morning, Dwyer took off in another small plane to fly Peterson's intended route. A short time later Dwyer spotted the wreckage in a cornfield belonging to Albert Juhl, about 5 miles northwest of the airport. The manager of the Surf Ballroom, who drove the performers to the airport and witnessed the plane taking off, made the positive identification of the performers.

The Bonanza was at a slight downward angle and banked to the right when it struck the ground at around 170 miles per hour. The plane tumbled and skidded another 570 feet across the frozen landscape before the crumpled ball of wreckage piled against a wire fence at the edge of the property. The bodies of Holly and Valens lay near the plane, Richardson was thrown into a neighboring cornfield, and Peterson remained trapped inside. All four had died instantly from "gross trauma" to the brain, the county coroner Ralph Smiley declared. Holly's death certificate detailed the multiple injuries which show that he surely died on impact: The body of Charles H. Holley was clothed in an outer jacket of yellow leather-like material in which 4 seams in the back were split almost full length. The skull was split medially in the forehead and this extended into the vertex region. Approximately half the brain tissue was absent. There was bleeding from both ears, and the face showed multiple lacerations. The consistency of the chest was soft due to extensive crushing injury to the bony structure. The left forearm was fractured 1/3 the way up from the wrist and the right elbow was fractured. Both thighs and legs showed multiple fractures. There was a small laceration of the scrotum.

In 2007, Richardson's son had an autopsy performed on his father to verify the original finding. In part this was done because of the long known discovery of Holly's .22 calibre pistol in the cornfield two months after the wreck, giving rise to the question of whether or not an accidental firearm discharge had caused the crash, and to whether Richardson had walked away from the wreckage because his body was found farther from it. William M. Bass undertook the procedure and confirmed Smiley's report. The body of Richardson was in good preservation but showed "massive fractures" showing that he too had surely died on impact.

Investigators came to the conclusion that the crash was due to a combination of poor weather conditions and pilot error. Peterson had performed poorly on his previous flight instrumentation tests and was not rated for night-time flight, when he would have to rely on his instruments rather than his own vision. They also found that Peterson was not given accurate advice about the weather conditions of his route, which, given his known limitations, might have caused him to postpone the flight.

Memorial

In 1988, Ken Paquette, a Wisconsin fan of the 1950s era, erected a stainless steel monument depicting a steel guitar and a set of three records bearing the names of each of the three performers. The monument is located on private farmland, about one quarter of a mile west of the intersection of 315th Street and Gull Avenue, five miles north of Clear Lake.

He also created a similar stainless steel monument to the three musicians located outside the Riverside Ballroom in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where Holly, the Big Bopper and Valens played on the night of February 1, 1959. This second memorial was unveiled on July 17, 2003.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Tue, Feb. 3rd, '09

Q: "The Simpsons" first appeared in the mid-1980's as a short segment on what woman's TV series?





A: TRACY ULLMAN

Sensational '70's Tune for Tue, Feb. 3rd, '09

A number 1 hit for Paper Lace in 1974:

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Mon, Feb. 2nd, '09

Q: Which young actor and actress starred in, and which young actor directed, the 1984 film, Splash?




A: TOM HANKS / DARYL HANNAH / RON HOWARD

Sensational '70's Tune for Mon, Feb. 2nd, '09

A number 1 hit for Looking Glass in 1972:



It should also be noted, this is one of Mother Schramm's favorite songs !! (NOT!)