The Kev Show

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Monday, August 10th, '09

2009-08-10T06:19:00.004-05:00

Q: These two U.S. cities grew the most (showed the largest absolute population increases) during the decade of the 1990's. They are in neighboring states and one is a capital city. Can you name them?

A: LAS VEGAS / PHOENIX

Sensational '70's Tune for Monday, August 10th, '09

2009-08-10T06:16:00.002-05:00

"Truckin'" is both a signature song for the Grateful Dead and an anomaly in its catalog. As the group developed a capacity for songwriting in the late '60s, it also embraced a private mythology that entranced followers and puzzled outsiders, its original songs featuring odd musical structures and highly abstract lyrics by poet Robert Hunter. With 1970's Workingman's Dead, both musical and lyrical tendencies were roped in somewhat, with the songs beginning to conform to folk, country, and rock conventions and Hunter's words turning more aphoristic than opaque. American Beauty, the follow-up to Workingman's Dead that was released only six months later, continued this trend. And with its final track, "Truckin'," both music and lyrics became surprisingly straightforward without losing any of their impact. In a sense, "Truckin'" was a typical Hunter lyric in that its verses were built on free-standing vignettes rather than a continuing narrative and were given over to striking imagery and turns of phrase. But for once there was no doubt about the scene the lyricist was setting. After accompanying the band on tour, he was giving his impressions of life on the road. He began with the slang phrase of the title, which dated back to blues songs of the 1920s, when it probably stood in for a similar word beginning with an "F"; which had been used for a 1935 song by Rube Bloom and Ted Koehler that became a number one hit for Fats Waller; and which had been adopted by underground comics illustrator R. Crumb, a popular San Francisco figure who had drawn Grateful Dead concert posters. Crumb's "doodah man," referred to in the lyrics, was pictured with exaggerated legs stretching out before him as he trucked down the street. In Hunter's terms, though, "truckin'" also referred to traveling around the country, actually, as well as metaphorically, in trucks. Hunter's travelogue owed something to Chuck Berry songs like "The Promised Land" as he named one city after another on the road. And he even recounted a specific incident, the January 31, 1970, arrest of the band on drug charges in New Orleans. "Set up -- like a bowling pin," was his defense. It was only the most extreme of the hassles mentioned in the lyrics; "Truckin'" is not a positive view of life on the road by any means, and even its most celebrated lines, the bridge "Sometimes the light's all shining on me/Other times I can barely see/Lately it occurs to me/What a long strange trip it's been," describe disorientation. Band members Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, and Bob Weir combined to write a Chuck Berry-derived rock & roll shuffle to accompany Hunter's words and recorded a vibrant version with guest musician Howard Wales on organ for American Beauty. They introduced the song as the opening number of their concert at the Fillmore West in San Francisco on August 18, 1970. Warner Bros. cut the 5:09 album version to 3:13 for release as a single in November, and "Truckin'" became a minor chart entry, while American Beauty reached the Top 30 and eventually sold over one million copies. Warner Bros. put "Truckin'" on both of its Grateful Dead compilations, ^The Best of the Grateful Dead/Skeletons From the Closet (1974) and ^What a Long Strange Trip It's Been: The Best of he Grateful Dead in 1977. The Dead played "Truckin'" in their concerts regularly for 25 years. In the statistic-happy world of the Dead, it ranks among the group's most played songs. According to John W. Scott, Mike Dolgushkin, and Stu Nixon's -DeadBase X: The Complete Guide to Grateful Dead Song Lists, the Dead played 2,318 shows between 1965 and 1995, and they played "Truckin'" at 520 of those concerts, or better than once in every five performances. That puts the song in eighth place among the Dead's most-played songs. (Here are the first seven: "Me & My Uncle" [613], "Sugar Magnolia" [596], "The Other One" (aka "Quodlibet for Tenderfeet") [586], "Playin' in the Band" [581], "China Cat Sunflower" [552], "I Know You Rider" [549], and "Not Fade Away" [530].) Naturally, live versions have turned up on the many Dead concert albums, starting as early as Europe '72. As a song closely identified with the band, "Truckin'" has earned few covers outside of the many Grateful Dead tribute albums, among which Dwight Yoakam's version on 1991's Deadicated is notable.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Friday, August 7th, '09

2009-08-07T07:10:00.002-05:00

Q: What Brand and Color of Hair Dye did Elvis Presley use?

A: CLAIROL - BLACK VELVET

Super 60's Tune for Friday, August 7th, '09

2009-08-07T06:22:00.001-05:00

Bob & Earl were an American soul music singing duo in the 1960s, best known for writing and recording the original version of "Harlem Shuffle".

Career

The original duo were Bobby Byrd and Earl Nelson (born Earl Lee Nelson, 8 September 1928, Lake Charles, Louisiana - 12 July 2008, Los Angeles) They had both been members of The Hollywood Flames, a prolific doo-wop group in Los Angeles, California whose major hit was "Buzz Buzz Buzz" in 1958, on which Nelson sang lead.

By 1957, Byrd had started a parallel solo career, writing and recording for contractual reasons as Bobby Day. He wrote and recorded the original version of "Little Bitty Pretty One", and had a hit of his own with "Rockin' Robin" (1958). In 1960, Day / Byrd and Nelson began recording together as Bob & Earl, on the Class record label. However, these releases had relatively little success, and Day / Byrd restarted his solo career.

In 1962, Nelson then recruited a second "Bob", Bobby Relf (January 10, 1937 - November 20, 2007), who also used the stage names of Bobby Garrett and Bobby Valentino. Relf had already led several Los Angeles based acts in his career, including the Laurels, the Upfronts, and Valentino and the Lovers. The latter two groups also featured the then pianist and bass singer, Barry White.

This duo of Relf and Nelson recorded several singles for different labels, before recording "Harlem Shuffle" in 1963. The song was written by Relf and Nelson, arranged by Barry White, and produced by Fred Smith. It was based on a number called "Slauson Shuffletime" (named after a boulevard in Los Angeles) by another Los Angeles singer, Round Robin. When released on the Marc label, "Harlem Shuffle" became a modest hit on the R&B chart. Its vocal interplay directly influenced later duos such as Sam and Dave. However, its main success came as late as 1969, when it was re-released in the UK and became a Top Ten hit there. Reportedly, George Harrison called it his favourite record of all time.

By that time, Nelson had achieved further success as a solo artist under the alias of Jackie Lee, with "The Duck", a hit dance record released in 1965, which reached #14 in the U.S. (Jackie was Nelson's wife's name and Lee his own middle name). When "Harlem Shuffle" became successful on reissue, Nelson and Relf reunited as Bob & Earl to tour. However, the duo split up for the last time in the early 1970s.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Thursday, August 6th, '09

2009-08-06T06:59:00.003-05:00

Q: Which U.S. state consumes the most spam per year?

Hawaiian soul food

dish of seasoned rice, dried seaweed, and Spam
Isn't Spam sushi a culinary crime? Not in Waikiki.

By Constance Hale

As Honolulu gourmands gear up for an unusual street festival, there's just one question on their lips: Could anything possibly top last year's Spam Jam musubi—a giant version of the island snack that consists of a brick of rice, a slab of Spam, and a belt of black seaweed—at its record-busting length of 313 feet?

The making of the gonzo musubi—which required more than 275 pounds of rice, 1,650 slices of Spam, and 600 feet of the dried seaweed called nori—kicked off last year's second annual Spam Jam, held along Waikiki's Kalakaua Avenue. And, yup, this year the wacky festival once again celebrates Spam, the luncheon meat everyone loves to ridicule. Everyone, that is, but Hawaiians. Fiftieth staters consume nearly 6 million cans a year, or almost six cans for every man, woman, and child. Some call the gelatinous pink pork "Hawaii's soul food."

Spam worked its way into the hearts—and arteries—of Hawaiians during World War II. Fresh meat was scarce at the time, so civilians loaded up on the brand-name C ration well known to GIs. Needing no refrigeration, the proletarian pork product soon became one of three items islanders stock up on (along with toilet paper and rice) during threats of hurricanes, tsunamis, or dockworkers' strikes.

More recently, McDonald's added Spam to its Hawaiian breakfast menu, while island chefs toy with it. Hawaii's Spam Cookbook lists recipes for Spam omelets, Spam and beans, and Spam with Japanese radish fermented in a syrupy sauce.

But it's Spam musubi, introduced in the 1980s, that reigns supreme in delis and 7-Elevens statewide and in Hawaiian eateries on the mainland. Foodies insist the Tamashiro Market in Honolulu serves the absolute best Spam musubi, its sticky rice flecked with furikake, a blend of seaweed, sesame, and other seasonings. It may not be 313 feet long, but, hey, it only costs $1.25. This year's Waikiki Spam Jam, held April 30, features live music, food, crafts, a Mr. or Ms. Spam contest, and hula performances. Information: (808) 923-1094, www.waikikiimprovement.com.

A: HAWAII

Sensational '70's Tune for Thursday, August 6th, '09

2009-08-06T06:17:00.003-05:00

The lone hit from the There's a Riot Goin' On album, "Family Affair" is truly a record that is ahead of its time. The overall urban grit of the atmosphere was certainly picked up in the 1970s particularly by groups like War. There are also the percussion sounds, which would later be utilized to a great degree by rap artists of the 1990s. The song itself is a loose comment on communal living, something that was extremely prominent in the early '70s. But make no mistake; the groove and feel are the main stars here.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Monday, August 3rd, '09

2009-08-03T05:33:00.001-05:00

Q: Which 1878 Gilbert and Sullivan operetta was subtitled "The Lass that Loved a Sailor"?

A: H.M.S. PINAFORE

Sensational '70's Tune for Monday, August 3rd, '09

2009-08-03T05:31:00.001-05:00

Among rock listeners, Exile is remembered as the one-hit wonder responsible for 1978's number one smash "Kiss You All Over." However, in the early '80s, the Kentucky-bred band reinvented itself as a country outfit -- and a hugely successful one at that. Exile was actually formed all the way back in 1963 in Berea, KY, by singer/guitarist J.P. Pennington, the son of onetime Coon Creek Girl Lily May Ledford. At that time, they were a rock & roll combo known as the Exiles, and got their first exposure by playing some Kentucky dates during 1965-1966 with the Dick Clark Caravan of Stars package tour, which featured pop stars like Brian Hyland, Tommy Roe, and Freddy Cannon. The group relocated to Lexington, KY, in 1968 and switched musical styles several times, also recording singles for labels ranging from Columbia to smaller local imprints. Their name was shortened to Exile in 1973, at which point the group featured leader/guitarist Pennington, lead singer Jimmy Stokley, keyboardist Buzz Cornelison, bassist Kenny Weir, and drummer Bob Jones. That same year, they issued a self-titled album on Wooden Nickel, and their strong regional popularity eventually led to a deal with Atco in 1977, when they scored their first pop-chart entry with the minor hit "Try It On."Exile subsequently switched to Warner Bros., with a lineup that now featured Pennington, Stokley, Cornelison, second keyboardist Marlon Hargis, bassist Sonny LeMaire, and drummer Steve Goetzman. Their 1978 label debut, Mixed Emotions, produced an enormous hit in the disco-tinged pop number "Kiss You All Over," which topped the charts and also proved to be their only major success. After a few follow-up singles flopped, Exile returned to the clubs of Kentucky and completely revamped their sound, especially when lead singer Stokley departed in 1980. He was replaced by singer/guitarist Les Taylor, who helped spearhead the group's transformation into a country band with a strong Southern rock flavor. In the meantime, some of their songs were covered for hits by major country artists like Janie Fricke ("It Ain't Easy Being Easy") and Alabama ("The Closer You Get," "Take Me Down"). Helped by this exposure, the new Exile signed with Epic in 1983, and soon notched their first Top 40 hit on the country charts with "High Cost of Leaving." By this time, Cornelison had left the group.Over the next few years, Exile tore off an astounding streak of chart-topping country hits. 1984 brought "Woke Up in Love," "I Don't Wanna Be a Memory," and "Give Me One More Chance"; 1985 duplicated that success with "Crazy for Your Love," "Hang on to Your Heart," and "She's a Miracle," with Lee Carroll now in place of Hargis. Though the next three years didn't find the band topping the charts with such regularity, they did score several more number ones: 1986's "I Could Get Used to You" and "It'll Be Me," 1987's "She's Too Good to Be True," and 1988's "I Can't Get Close Enough." Les Taylor subsequently left the group for a solo career (replaced by Mark Jones) and had a couple of minor hits on Epic; Pennington fared much the same on MCA when he also departed in 1990. The remainder of Exile replaced him with Paul Martin and attempted to soldier on with Arista. They actually did land a couple of Top Ten hits in 1990 with "Nobody's Talking" and "Yet," both co-written by Sonny LeMaire and producer Randy Sharp. However, their success was fleeting, and Arista dropped them after their second album. The group disbanded in 1993, playing a farewell concert in Lexington with numerous past members rejoining. By 1996, Pennington and Taylor had reunited to tour the nostalgia circuit with a new Exile lineup.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Friday, July 31st, '09

2009-07-31T07:35:00.003-05:00

Q: Name the Gabor Sisters...

A: MAGDA, ZSA-ZSA, EVA

Fabulous '50's Tune for Friday, July 31st, '09

2009-07-31T06:13:00.002-05:00

"Lavender Blue", also called "Lavender's Blue", is an English folk song and nursery rhyme dating to the seventeenth century, which has been recorded in various forms since the twentieth century. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 3483.

Lyrics

Although there are as many as thirty verses to the song, and many variation most modern versions take this form:

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green,
When I am king, dilly, dilly, you shall be queen.
Who told you so, dilly, dilly, who told you so?
'Twas my own heart, dilly, dilly, that told me so.

Call up your men, dilly, dilly, set them to work
Some with a rake, dilly, dilly, some with a fork.
Some to make hay, dilly, dilly, some to thresh corn.
While you and I, dilly, dilly, keep ourselves warm.

Lavender's green, dilly, dilly, Lavender's blue,
If you love me, dilly, dilly, I will love you.
Let the birds sing, dilly, dilly, And the lambs play;
We shall be safe, dilly, dilly, out of harm's way.

I love to dance, dilly, dilly, I love to sing;
When I am queen, dilly, dilly, You'll be my king.
Who told me so, dilly, dilly, Who told me so?
I told myself, dilly, dilly, I told me so.

Origins

The earliest surviving version of the song is in a broadside printed in England between 1672 and 1685, under the name Diddle Diddle, Or The Kind Country Lovers, with the first of ten verses:

Lavenders green, Diddle, diddle,

Lavenders blue

You must love me, diddle, diddle,

cause I love you,

I heard one say, diddle, diddle,

since I came hither,

That your and I, diddle, diddle,

must lie together.[1]

It emerged as a children's song in Songs for the Nursery in 1805 in the form:

Lavender blue and Rosemary green,
When I am king you shall be queen;
Call up my maids at four o'clock,
Some to the wheel and some to the rock;
Some to make hay and some to shear corn,
And you and I will keep the bed warm.[1]

Similar versions appeared in collections of rhymes throughout the nineteenth century.

Recordings

A hit version of the song, sung by Burl Ives, was featured in the Walt Disney movie, So Dear to My Heart (1949). It was Ives' first hit song, and renewed the song's popularity in the twentieth century. Another hit version of the song was recorded by Dinah Shore.

This song became popular again during the 1950s rock and roll era, when it was sung by Solomon Burke. Whilst he did change some of the words, the lyrics are generally the same. Sammy Turner released it in 1959 and it hit number 14 on the U.S. R&B chart and number 3 on the Pop chart.

Glyn Poole recorded another version that was included on his 1973 album, Milly Molly Mandy.

On their 1985 album Misplaced Childhood, the English progressive rock band, Marillion, recorded a song called "Lavender", which was derived from the folk song.

Smooth R&B singer Sammy Turner's classy remakes of the standards "Lavender Blue" and "Always" lit up the pop charts in 1959. Signed to Big Top Records and given lush production by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Turner also hit with "Paradise" in 1960. He turned up on Motown later in the decade.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Thursday, July 30th, '09

2009-07-30T05:31:00.003-05:00

Q: Which author first wrote, "Parting is such sweet sorrow"?

A: SHAKESPEARE

Sensational '70's Tune for Thursday, July 30th, '09

2009-07-30T05:08:00.002-05:00

Best remembered in the U.S. for the classic "Hitchin' a Ride," harmony pop ensemble Vanity Fare formed in Kent, England in 1968. Comprising vocalist Trevor Brice, guitarist Tony Goulden, bassist Tony Jarrett, and drummer Dick Allix, the group originally dubbed themselves the Avengers; soon local entrepreneur Roger Easterby signed on as manager, orchestrating a contract with the Page One label and instructing the group to cover the Sunrays' "I Live for the Sun" for their debut single. With their sophisticated harmonies and clean-cut image, the Avengers needed a suitably genteel name, remixing the title of William Makepeace Thackeray's most famous novel to create Vanity Fare; "I Live for the Sun" cracked the U.K. Top 20 in the summer of 1968, although it would take the group a year to return to the charts, with "Early in the Morning" reaching the Top Ten on both sides of the Atlantic. Around this time, Vanity Fare jettisoned its tailored suits for neckerchiefs and fashions direct from Carnaby Street; more importantly, they also added keyboardist Barry Landeman, previously a member of Kippington Lodge, alongside Nick Lowe and Brinsley Schwartz; Landeman would prove the dominant instrumental element in the group's biggest hit, 1969's infectious "Hitchin' a Ride," which sold over a million copies in the U.S. alone. A North American tour was met with little interest, however, and soon after Vanity Fare returned to Britain. Goulden quit, quickly followed by Allix; Candy Choir guitarist Erica Wheeler and Canterbury Tales' drummer Mark Ellen signed on as their replacements. The new lineup scored a minor hit with 1972's ballad "Better by Far," and concentrated on touring the cabaret circuit, performing as many as 14 dates a week; the grind ultimately forced Jarrett to resign, with former Tranquility bassist Bernard Hagley signing on for "I'm in Love With the World," Vanity Fare's first single for new label Phillips. In the wake of 1974's "Fast Running Out of World" their recording career screeched to a halt, but the group continued touring, including several passes through Scandinavia. During one trek to Denmark, Brice fell in love and quit the group, with singer Phil Kitto taking his place. Kitto also exited a few years later, with vocalist Kevin Thompson installed as frontman by the time Vanity Fare recorded 1986's "Dreamer," its first single in over a decade. With 1993's "Rain," their recording career again went into mothballs, but the band continues touring, with singer Steve Oakman replacing Thompson in early 2002.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Wednesday, July 29th, '09

2009-07-29T06:19:00.003-05:00

Q: Can you name two US state capital cities whose names end with the 5-letter Greek word for city?

A: POLIS - INDIANAPOLIS / ANNAPOLIS

Sensational '70's Tune for Wednesday, July 29th, '09

2009-07-29T05:09:00.000-05:00

In 1970, Al Green and producer Willie Mitchell pulled together something that sounded like nothing else that came before, but they did so by streamlining and simplifying the approach to recording soul music at a time when recording was getting more involved, layered, and flashy. While the sound they forged was smoother than the mostly raw-edged soul music that gave Memphis its reputation, it was also flat and relatively unadorned, with an immediate and intimate presence, lending it an urgency and sensuality that influenced most soul and R&B music that followed from the early to mid-'70s onward, from Luther Vandross and Teddy Pendergrass and beyond. "Tired of Being Alone" is a perfect example of that distinctive style. While the first album of material Green recorded with Mitchell, Green Is Blues, laid the foundation of his style, it was not until their second together, Al Green Gets Next to You (1970), that they struck gold with Green's own composition, "Tired of Being Alone," which reached number 11 on the pop chart, setting off a commercial streak that continued for the next few years. While the former record was made up mostly of cover songs, "Tired of Being Alone"'s success legitimized Green as a composer in his own right. And coupled with Mitchell and his soon-to-be famous Hi Records Rhythm Section, the two made a potent and successful combination. With a clean electric guitar, the big, fat trademark Hi bass sound, horn stabs, subdued organ, and a gospel backing-vocal section, Green passionately convinces with his lyric about a man at the depth of his loneliness who proclaims, "Meeting you has proven to be/To be my greatest dream." Like fellow soul singers Aretha Franklin and Sam Cooke, Al Green had his roots in the gospel music of the church, and his vocal style never strayed too far from those beginnings. Green returned to that gospel source full-time, eventually leaving secular music behind only to again reconcile the two years later. While the pop records dealt with secular subject matter, the singing was still influenced by the improvisational and stirring nature of church singing. Green's up-close vocal intimations and the contained, mellow vibe of the music -- that remains cool even when climaxing at the end -- play like a late-night lament for anyone who finds him or herself alone at midnight, drink in hand, at the hi-fi. Recorded years ago, the song does not sound dated as do most later soul and R&B productions from the '80s. The sound is literally classic; not charmingly nostalgic or vintage, but immediate and relevant.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Tuesday, July 28th, '09

2009-07-28T07:05:00.002-05:00

Q: Beloved actor and director Charlie Chaplin, accused of being a Communist sympathiser, left the USA in 1952 and settled in what country for the remaining 25 years of his life?

A: SWITZERLAND

Sensational '70's Tune for Tuesday, July 28th, '09

2009-07-28T06:55:00.003-05:00

After a stint in the Boston-based combo Sugar Creek, Jonathan Edwards began his solo career with this 1971 self-titled outing. His brand of homespun tunes were perfectly matched to his emotive and soaring tenor. While he penned a majority of the album's dozen selections, Edwards reached back to former bandmates Malcolm McKinney -- author of both the upbeat lovesick lament "Don't Cry Blue" as well as the intimate "Sometimes" -- and Joe Dolce, co-writer of the happy, traveling "Athens County." But it wasn't those standout tracks that would score Edwards his first and only Top Ten hit. The acoustic and optimistic "Sunshine" struck a chord with listeners in the fall of 1971, climbing all the way to a lofty number four on the Pop Singles survey before ultimately becoming a staple of oldies radio. (The self-affirming defiance in the chorus "He can't even run his own life/I'll be damned if he'll run mine," undoubtedly touched upon the remaining vestiges of the 'Us vs. Them' mentality that permeated the concurrent generation.) The effort also includes several other excellent offerings, such as the pastoral mid-tempo "Cold Snow," with Stuart Schulman's hypnotic violin developing a hauntingly beautiful counter-refrain. "Emma" is a gorgeous ballad, sporting some affective rural-flavored piano licks from Jeff Labes. The celebratory "Shanty" wails as Edwards' harmonica brings a party atmosphere to the frolicking and energetic melody. There is a perceptible darkness running through the minor chord progressions in "The King," as Labes interjects a definite sense of drama complementing Edwards penetrating vocals. Of equal note is the guitar work of Eric Lilljequist, who provides a fuller sound in support of Edwards. The concluding "Train of Glory" serves up a final opportunity for a rousing round of the artist's emphatic mouth harp [read: harmonica] as he blows with the passion of an old-fashioned gospel revival.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Monday, July 27th, '09

2009-07-27T05:32:00.003-05:00

Q: Which model of Chevrolet car was a distinct non-seller in Puerto Rico and other Spanish speaking locations, because the name of the car model implied that it would not go. What was it?

A: NOVA

Sensational '70's Tune for Monday, July 27th, '09

2009-07-27T05:31:00.001-05:00

Stevie Nicks' finest contribution to the scattershot Tusk, and one of her very best songs, "Sara" is the one song on Tusk that truly sounds like the Fleetwood Mac of Rumours. Yet even here, Lindsey Buckingham's obsessive love of Brian Wilson's more ornate productions is evident. After a first verse that Nicks sings by herself, seemingly endless overdubs of Nicks, Buckingham and Christine McVie singing complex, floating wordless harmonies slowly build under Nicks, until by the end the harmonies are louder than Nicks' lead vocals. It's like a literal musical translation of the song's lyrical conceit of "Drowning in a sea of love where everyone would love to drown." In one of the more irritating remnants of haphazard reissues in the early days of CDs, the double-album Tusk was squeezed onto a single disc by substituting the full 6:26 album version of "Sara" with the barely four-minute single mix, a mistake that has still never been rectified and which ruins the slow build of the angelic harmonies. (The full-length version is available on the 1988 Greatest Hits collection.)

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Friday, July 24th, '09

2009-07-24T05:33:00.001-05:00

Q: In 1970, Dustin Hoffman was 33 years old when he played the film role of 121-year-old Jack Crabb in what film?

A: LITTLE BIG MAN

Super 60's Tune for Friday, July 24th, '09

2009-07-24T05:28:00.002-05:00

"Dead Man's Curve" might be, other than "The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)," Jan & Dean's most famous song besides "Surf City." And like many Jan & Dean songs, it had a wide streak of humor beneath the standard catchy harmonized surf- hot rod surface, though the humor in this ditty was more morbid than most. "Dead Man's Curve" is the ultimate hokey hot rod drama: not a tale of how the narrator was going to outrace all the other young dudes on the block, but of how his recklessness finally catches up with him on one of the most treacherous routes of all. In that sense, it borrowed from the melodramatic teen death hits that were in vogue in the late '50s and early '60s ( "Teen Angel" et al.), though the melodrama here was matched with higher musical craft and a slightly tongue-in-cheek humor that didn't take the tragedy too seriously. The track is introduced by fanfare trumpets, as if announcing the entry of gladiators into an arena, but quickly fattened out with more standard mid-'60s Southern Californian rock production. The verses are very much in the mold of Jan & Dean and the Beach Boys' early hits: a Chuck Berry-derived narrative structure, though with more melodic flexibility, telling the story of a devastating hot rod crash with just a touch of sardonic wit. The parts that really grabbed your attention, though, were the choruses in which the grandiosity of co-songwriter Brian Wilson's melodies asserted themselves against more trumpet blares and swirling harmonies. These resolved on (one would guess Wilson-originated) unexpected but memorable melodic jumps as the voices came together to warn against dead man's curve. Sound effects of brake screeches, and ultimately an actual auto crash, added to the melodramatic camp, climaxing in the most overtly satirical section in which a spoken voice recounts the accident to a doctor as a harp and punctuations of crashing chords heighten the tragedy of the accident. We know it can't be all that bad, though, because the boys launch into a final run-through, the choral warning to avoid "Dead Man's Curve." It was all intended in fun, but the song took on an unintended prophetic quality of actual tragedy when Jan Berry sustained permanent serious brain damage in a major auto accident a couple of years later. The accident happened near, but not exactly on, the site of the actual Dead Man's Curve in Los Angeles on which the song was based.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Thursday, July 23rd, '09

2009-07-23T05:32:00.001-05:00

Q: What new car line was introduced by General Motors in 1990?

A: SATURN

Sensational '70's Tune for Thursday, July 23rd, '09

2009-07-23T05:30:00.002-05:00

Yvonne Elliman had a brief moment in the spotlight during the middle of the '70s, yet she appeared on many of the decade's biggest hits as a backing singer. While she was in high school in Hawaii, Elliman sang in a group called We Folk. She moved to London in 1969 and began singing at the Pheasantry folk club, located on Kings Road in Chelsea. It was here that songwriters Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice discovered her. The duo offered her the role of Mary Magdalene in their new rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar; the role brought her instant fame. Elliman played the Magdalene character in the film version of Superstar, for which she won a Golden Globe award; it also gave her a hit with "I Don't Know How to Love Him." The hit single became the title of her debut album, which was released in 1972. Pete Townshend helped Elliman prepare her second album, 1973's Food of Love. During this time, she appeared in the American production of Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway, where she met Bill Oakes, the president of RSO Records; the two married soon afterward. Oakes introduced her to Eric Clapton, inviting her to sing backup vocals on "I Shot the Sheriff." Elliman became part of the guitarist's band afterward; she stayed with him for five years.

She joined RSO's roster in 1975, releasing the Steve Cropper-produced Rising Sun. Barry Gibb and Robin Gibb wrote the title song for Elliman's next album, 1976's Love Me; the song became a U.K. hit, paving the way for her greatest chart success, the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. The Bee Gees wrote several songs on the soundtrack specifically for Elliman, including the number one single "If I Can't Have You." She never followed through on the song's success -- she released two more albums before becoming solely a session musician.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Wednesday, July 22nd, '09

2009-07-22T06:45:00.003-05:00

Q: Which day of the week is named for the Scandinavian god of wisdom, poetry, farming, and war?

A: WEDNESDAY, named for Odin, sometimes called woden

Sensational '70's Tune for Wednesday, July 22nd, '09

2009-07-22T06:44:00.000-05:00

Two minutes and fifty-seven seconds of sublime Adult Contemporary radio music is what this great pop record is. Of course coming on the heels of the singer's only #1, "You're So Vain", this Top 20 smash had a head start, but its success can't be wholly attributed to the big song. Elektra single #45843, "The Right Thing To Do", might sound dramatically different from the tune that came before it, but it does have one thing in common with "You're So Vain": they are the two best songs on the No Secrets album. A sweeping Richard Perry production has one of Carly Simon's most heartfelt vocals on the opening track from this very personal collection of songs. Though the rest of the lp had Paul & Linda McCartney, Mick Jagger, Doris Troy, Bonnie Bramlett and others working with the material, this composition showed strength right out of the box and has stood the test of time, doing so without contributions from the marquee talent available. Carly's simple piano is accompanied by Andy Newmark on drums, Jimmy Ryan on bass, very active congas from Elton John percussionist Ray Cooper, all buoyed by Kirby Johnson's simple string and horn conducting and arrangement. Not as stripped down as the first Plastic Ono Band album but still not as elaborate as most of this disc. The three backing vocalists, Carly with icki Brown and Liza Strike, are just enough repeating the title of this love song to James Taylor as it concludes, closing with a quick fade of strings and piano that seemed to always find their way onto Helen Reddy's recordings. While Carole King remained the singer/songwriter crossing over, Carly Simon distinguished herself by dominating in that category as well as the world where Reddy was so successful. There's enough tension and drama, especially in the middle eight, to lift this title above most of the introspection on the album, reaching out to all the hopeless romantics who just couldn't help but relate to it. The subject matter, and sound, would be reprised a little over a year later on "Haven't Got Time For The Pain", the formula clear, effective and worth repeating. Carly Simon's by now familiar-to-radio voice must have inspired The Captain & Tenille to go a step beyond Sonny & Cher when their day in the sun came. James Taylor wisely stayed in the background on all of this, no need to duet until "Mockingbird", his invisible presence here fully acknowledged.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Tuesday, July 21st, '09

2009-07-21T06:18:00.003-05:00

Q: Can you name four materials, considered almost as valuable as gems, and frequently used as jewelry, that come from plants and animals?

A: CORAL - from sea animals / PEARL - from sea animals / AMBER - petrified tree sap / IVORY - from elephants

Sensational '70's Tune for Tuesday, July 21st, '09

2009-07-21T06:13:00.001-05:00

"You Don't Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)" is a song by the husband/wife duo of Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., former members of the vocal group The 5th Dimension. Released from their album, I Hope We Get to Love in Time, it became a crossover success soaring to number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Soul Singles charts during late 1976 and early 1977. The song also reached #6 on Billboard's Easy Listening chart. It would eventually be certified Gold, selling over one million singles, and win them a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. The song features the final studio performance of bassist James Jamerson.

Sensational '70's Tune for Monday, July 20th, '09

2009-07-20T06:07:00.003-05:00

Elvis' second live album, partly cut at the International Hotel in Las Vegas in early 1970 , is one of his most unfairly underrated releases. In its original form, it did seem a bit cheap, offering ten songs that weren't necessarily associated with Elvis Presley. By this time, he was adding covers of other artists' contemporary hits to his set, not to capitalize on their success but to keep his hand in contemporary music and show audiences of the era that he was capable of doing more than reprising his own 1950s and early-'60s songs. The critics failed to notice two things, however: Presley had the same first-rate band who had graced the previous tour, led by James Burton on guitar; when he performed Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline," Tony Joe White's "Polk Salad Annie," or (most especially) Del Shannon's "Runaway," he did them extremely well. "The Wonder of You" might not have been "That's All Right" or even "Heartbreak Hotel," but it was a towering performance by a singer who, even then, could run circles around virtually anyone in the business this side of Roy Orbison . The 1999 full-priced reissue not only improves the sound, but adds six songs (for a total of 16), four of them — "In the Ghetto," "Kentucky Rain," "Don't Cry Baby," and Suspicious Minds" — recent Elvis Presley hits. Although he didn't do any of the songs from his movies or any of the early-1960s hits, he did those four, and that makes this CD essential for any Elvis fan who cares about his comeback or the best work that followed; it also makes this the perfect companion to the 1968 television comeback and the Suspicious Minds (aka Memphis Record) album.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Monday, July 20th, '09

2009-07-20T04:57:00.002-05:00

Q: Which unusual characters were portrayed in the original 1966 film, Batman, by Burgess Meredith, Caesar Romero, Frank Gorshin, and Lee Meriwether?

A: JOKER, RIDDLER, PENGUIN, CATWOMAN

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Friday, July 17th, '09

2009-07-17T06:05:00.003-05:00

Q: What is the term for a solid figure with flat faces that are polygons?

A: POLYHEDRON

Super 60's Tune for Friday, July 17th, '09

2009-07-17T06:03:00.002-05:00

Crazy Elephant was one of the seemingly endless aliases employed by the Kasenetz-Katz production duo to market their bubblegum hits of the late 1960s. Primarily a vehicle for session vocalist Robert Spencer -- previously known for his performance with the Cadillacs' post "Speedo" -- Crazy Elephant was the name appended to the Kasenetz-Katz production of the song "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'"; after the master was rejected by Buddah Records, the Super K Productions duo's primary outlet, they instead shopped the track to the Bell label, for whom it fell just shy of the U.S. Top Ten in 1969. Despite the single's success, however, Crazy Elephant failed to reach the charts again, instead becoming yet another interchangeable cog in the Kasenetz-Katz hit machine.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Wednesday, July 15th, '09

2009-07-15T05:24:00.002-05:00

Q: What company is the world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles?

A: HONDA

Sensational '70's Tune for Wednesday, July 15th, '09

2009-07-15T05:20:00.002-05:00

This is one of Crosby, Stills & Nash’s (CSN) signature tunes and rightfully commences their landmark self-titled debut album. It was also chosen as the band’s second single b/w “Long Time Gone”, grazing the Top 20 and peaking at #21. This Stephen Stills composition is divided into several notable movements -- which are stunningly augmented by the additional vocal harmonies of David Crosby and Graham Nash. Although initially coy about the origin and inspiration behind the track, it was later revealed that Stills muse was none other than folk singer/songwriter Judy Collins. In the liner notes booklet of the Crosby, Stills & Nash [Box Set] (1991), Stills recalls that the various segments “poured out over several months and filled several notebooks. … I was left with all these pieces of songs and I said ‘Let’s sing them together and call it a suite,’ because they were all about the same thing and they led up to the same point.” The author also indicates that the “little kicker at the end about Cuba was [added] just to liven it up because it had gone on forever and I didn’t want it to just fall apart.” The complete change in tempo, rhythm and style was likewise intentional as he adds that the trio “had sung all these lyrics about one thing” and so Stills mused “let’s change the subject entirely. [We] even did it in a different language just to make sure that nobody could understand it.”

The emphasis of the track is rooted acoustically, with a decidedly organic and otherwise unencumbered melody. This is juxtaposed against a multi-layered and highly complex vocal arrangement. Beneath that is further musical strata featuring Stills on electric guitar, electric bass and percussion as well as former Clear Light member Dallas Taylor on drums. Interestingly, Taylor’s contributions were to initially compliment the entire track. They were ultimately mixed out until the song’s final section [read: featuring Stills singing in Spanish]. The original mix can be found on the previously mentioned four-disc Crosby, Stills & Nash [Box Set] -- with Taylor’s contributions intact throughout.

There are a few note worthy live versions of the tune as well. Among them are the heavily overdubbed reading which turned up on the soundtrack for the film ^Woodstock: Three Days of Peace & Music [25th nniversary]. In a highly controversial move, the cut is listed as the opener on CSN&Y’s two-disc concert LP Four Way Street (1971) . However, what is included amounts to less than 40 seconds, fading in during the tail-end of the song.

A passable rendition from the recently reunited trio is included in the No Nukes (1980) video -- but not on the multi-disc soundtrack. Additionally, the performance videos Daylight Again (1983) and the Acoustic Concert (1992) include excellent respective renditions.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Tuesday, July 14th, '09

2009-07-14T05:32:00.003-05:00

Q: What country has the most time zones and how many are there?

A: RUSSIA / 11

Sensational '70's Tune for Tuesday, July 14th, '09

2009-07-14T05:31:00.001-05:00

As the first single the Spinners released on Atlantic after leaving Motown/ VIP, 1972's "I'll Be Around" not only marked the beginning of a long, fruitful stay with the label, but also the group's remarkable collaboration with producer/songwriter Thom Bell. Prior to teaming with the Spinners, Bell had success with the Delfonics (including the lush, romantic "La La Means I Love You" and "Didn't I [Blow Your Mind This Time]") and had established a reputation as a classy, innovative arranger at Gamble & Huff's Philadelphia International Records, but 1972 is really when he hit his stride. During that year, he began working with both the O'Jays and the Spinners, helping them become the two biggest soul vocal groups of the '70s. "I'll Be Around" went a long way in establishing the reputations of both Bell and the Spinners. Structurally, the song, written by Bell/ Hurtt, expanded upon the Spinners' 1970 breakthrough hit "It's a Shame." Like that song, it opened with a crystal-clear, indelible guitar hook that led into the group's magnificent harmonies. Of course, there were major differences in tone and production. Where "It's a Shame" was fairly up-tempo, "I'll Be Around" was a smooth, seductive groove that was simultaneous lean and lush. Bell's production was unfailingly classy and sophisticated -- although there were strings and horns, they're never overstated, since he chose to have the bass and drums pin down a nimble, funky slow groove and keep the Spinners at center stage. He wound up finding the sonic equivalent of the song's dignified message of devotion. After all, the narrator is pledging his love to a lover that just left him for another -- but, if she ever changes her mind and decides to return, he'll be around. He's "bowing out gracefully," but he still wants her love, a mixed emotion that Bobbie Smith captured perfectly with his lead vocal. As a producer, Bell found the right tone -- he's so convincing, in fact, that it's hard to imagine the girl not returning to Smith. However, Bell's work as a songwriter was every bit as strong as it was as a producer. Take away his signature strings and tight grooves, and the song is still an effective romantic plea -- as covers by Regina Belle and G.C. Cameron prove. No matter how good these other recordings are, it's still impossible to top the Spinners' original hit single, which was an ideal match of song, performance, arrangement, and production.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Monday, July 13th, '09

2009-07-13T05:35:00.003-05:00

Q: The longest continuously published catalog in the USA was created in the 19th century for a New York department store named after its two founders, that has been selling the most modern, unique, and innovative gadgets and inventions worldwide since 1848.

A: HAMMACHER SCHLEMMER

Sensational '70's Tune for Monday, July 13th, '09

2009-07-13T05:34:00.001-05:00

"Waterloo" was the ABBA single that established the sound of the paired voices of Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad on the airwaves around the world, as well as presenting the boldest early manifestation of the group's music. Having had a modest international hit the prior year -before they were a permanent group -- with the exuberant "Ring, Ring", which charted in much of Europe (though not in England, or in America), ABBA needed something much stronger for a follow-up and came back with this catchy tune, originally titled "Honey-Pie". Manager and lyricist Stig Anderson had found the new name -- which scanned perfectly -- in a quote from a reference book and the rest of the song simply fell into place. It was duly recorded in sessions held between December of 1973 and February of 1974. The opening is one of the more aggressive in their early output, guitar power chords by Janne Schaffer with Bjorn Ulvaeus resounding in front of heavily accented drumming, supported by wailing tenor saxophone (by Christer Eklund) while Benny Andersson's piano pounded and chimed away, the whole record lofted skyward by the soaring paired vocals, singing a lyric that equated military defeat and romantic conquest that was unmistakable in any language. The piano and guitar riff, the latter courtesy of were unmistakable in their own right, but those elements and the song's beatm and the texture of the record (especially the middle section where the sax came in) all recalled "Da Doo Ron Ron" by the Crystals just a little bit --indeed, it's easy to visualize a medley of one song sliding into the other without missing a beat. The result was a roaring success in the Eurovision Song Contest in the spring of 1974 and a chart-topping hit in England, Ireland, Germany, Norway, and Belgium, a top-five hit in the rest of Western Europe, and a number six charting single in America -- Phil Spector, then busy reissuing his old hits, might've marveled at ABBA's achievement and sound.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Friday, July 10th, '09

2009-07-10T06:19:00.002-05:00

Q: These two ladies played the same character in the same 1998 film, and won the Academy Awards as Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress! Who were they?

A: KATE WINSLET / GLORIA STUART same role: Rose in Titanic.

Super 60's Tune for Friday, July 10th, '09

2009-07-10T05:09:00.001-05:00

"Leader of the Pack" was a teenage melodrama in spoken word and song, a kind of miniature James Dean movie for the ears. A girl tells the sad story of her brief relationship with a leather-jacketed, motorcycle-riding hood tellingly named Jimmy and how he (sob!) gets killed in an automobile accident on a rainy night just after she follows her father's orders and breaks up with him. It was sung by the Shangri-Las -- two sets of teenage sisters from Andrew Jackson High School in Queens, NY, Mary and Betty Weiss and Mary Ann and Marge Genser -- and produced and written by George "Shadow" Morton, Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich for Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller's Red Bird Records. (It has long been suggested that the pianist on the track is a young Billy Joel.) Leiber and Stoller had specialized in comic story-songs for the Coasters in the '50s, and "Leader of the Pack" struck a lot of people as pretty funny, even if lead singer Mary Weiss can be heard crying on the record. Being a novelty didn't hurt its commercial chances, however, and when it followed the Shangri-Las' first hit, "Remember (Walking in the Sand)," in the fall of 1964, it went all the way to number one. The original record, with its realistic sound effects of a motorcycle revving and the sickening crash that took poor Jimmy's life, was inseparable from the song, and while it was heavily anthologized, nobody tried covering it until the fearless Bette Midler put it on her 1972 debut album, The Divine Miss M. In 1984, a revue of Ellie Greenwich songs called Leader of the Pack was mounted off-Broadway, followed by a Broadway production that opened in April 1985 and ran for 120 performances, long enough to spawn a cast album. "Leader of the Pack" is a highly theatrical song, of course, and it was good that it finally made it to the stage.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Thursday, July 9th, '09

2009-07-09T06:22:00.001-05:00

Q: A Public Health Institute study released in April showed that 95% of school districts in this state sell fast food items to the students. What three fast-food providers rank as the top brands sold in California schools?

A: TACO BELL / SUBWAY / DOMINO'S

Sensational '70's Tune for Thursday, July 9th, '09

2009-07-09T06:18:00.002-05:00

Norman Smith aka Hurricane Smith (22 February 1923 – 3 March 2008) was an English musician and record producer.

Smith was born in Edmonton, North London and served as a RAF glider pilot during World War II. After an unsuccessful career as a jazz musician, Smith joined EMI as an apprentice sound engineer in 1959.

He was the engineer on all of the EMI studio recordings by The Beatles until 1965 when EMI promoted him from engineer to producer. The last Beatles album he recorded was Rubber Soul, and Smith engineered the sound for slightly fewer than 100 Beatles songs in total.

While working with The Beatles on 17 June 1965, he was offered £15,000 by the band's music publishing company, Dick James Music, to buy outright a song he had written.

In early 1967, he began working with a new group, Pink Floyd, producing their first, second, and fourth studio albums The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, A Saucerful of Secrets, and Ummagumma. During the sessions for the song, "Remember a Day", drummer Nick Mason became agitated that he could not come up with the right drum part for the song. Smith, however, knew what he wanted with the drums, so he played the part himself.

In 1968, Smith produced one of the first rock concept albums, The Pretty Things' S.F. Sorrow.

He produced early recordings by Barclay James Harvest, including their highly-rated album Once Again, and many years later was name-checked in John Lees's song, "John Lennon's Guitar".

In 1971, Smith, using a recording artist pseudonym of "Hurricane Smith," had a UK hit with "Don't Let It Die". This recording was a demo of a song that he had written with the hope that John Lennon would record it. When he played it for fellow record producer Mickie Most, Most was impressed enough to tell him to release it as it was. In 1972, he enjoyed a transatlantic hit with "Oh Babe What Would You Say?", which became a U.S. #1 Cashbox and a Billboard Pop #3 hit.[5] Also included on Smith's self-titled debut album was a third hit single, a cover version of Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Who Was It?"

Some minor hits followed, like "My Mother Was Her Name" (1972), "Beautiful Day, Beautiful Night" (1973) and "To Make You My Baby" (1974). However, his subsequent attempts at producing successful recordings proved elusive.

Smith also recorded an instrumental track, entitled "Theme From an Unmade Silent Movie", which the West Midlands based radio presenter, Tony Butler, adopted as his theme music, playing it frequently on his sports show in an attempt -- often successful -- to encourage the region's local football teams to score a goal. Aston Villa F.C. also used the track, much to Smith's displeasure as he was a Tottenham Hotspur supporter. It was performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra on 6 June 2008.

In 2004, Smith released a new CD, From Me To You, featuring new recordings of his biggest self-penned hits, "Don't Let It Die" and "Oh Babe, What Would You Say?". Included in the liner notes were messages from Sir Paul McCartney and members of Pink Floyd.

Smith wrote a memoir, entitled John Lennon Called Me Normal. It debuted on 16 March 2007 as a limited edition at The Fest for Beatles Fans in Secaucus, New Jersey. There, Smith appeared and sang "Oh Babe". The book contains never before published pictures, newly revealed historical facts about the Beatles and Pink Floyd at Abbey Road Studios, as well as details of Smith's life as an RAF glider pilot.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Wednesday, July 8th, '09

2009-07-08T06:07:00.005-05:00

Q: Remember the A & W Drive-ins? There was one in Morris for many years, great food and fantastic root beer. What does the A & W stand for?

THE FIRST FROSTY MUG

One hot day in June of 1919 in Lodi, California an entrepreneur named Roy Allen mixed up a batch of creamy root beer and sold the first frosty mug of this delightful beverage for one nickel. Now, more than seventy years later, A&W Root Beer® is the world's number one selling root beer and is still mixed fresh daily and sold at hundreds of A&W® restaurants.

Allen purchased the formula for his root beer from a pharmacist in Arizona. To this day, the unique blend of herbs, spices, barks and berries remains a proprietary secret.

With the success of his first root beer stand in Lodi, Allen soon opened a second stand in nearby Sacramento. It was there that what is thought to be the country's first "drive-in" featuring "tray-boys" for curb side service, opened up.

In 1922 Allen took on a partner, Frank Wright, an employee from his original Lodi location. The two partners combined their initials - "A" for Allen and "W" for Wright and formally named the beverage, A&W Root Beer®. Three units were opened in Sacramento, then on to other northern and central California locations and to the states of Texas and Utah.

EXPANDING THE CHAIN

By 1933, the creamy beverage was such a success that there were over 170 franchised outlets operating in the mid-west and west. To insure uniform quality for the namesake beverage, Allen sold A&W Root Beer® concentrate exclusively to each franchise operator.

During World War II no new restaurants were opened and despite governmental sugar rationing and employee shortages most A&W® units remained successful. After the war, the number of A&W® restaurants tripled as GI loans paved the way for private enterprise to flourish.

In 1950, with over 450 A&W® restaurants operating nationwide, founder Roy Allen retired and sold the business to an aggressive Nebraskan named Gene Hurtz, who formed the A&W Root Beer Company. The post war era - the rapidly recovering economy and popularity of the automobile, provided the right environment for Hurtz's company to prosper. Drive-ins were becoming increasingly popular and A&W® had the privilege of being one of the few nationally established drive-in restaurant chains. By 1960 the number of A&W® restaurants had swelled to over 2000.

The first A&W® restaurant outside of the U.S. opened in 1956 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada (the Canadian division eventually became a wholly owned subsidiary of A&W® and in 1972 was sold to Lever Brothers, Ltd., an international conglomerate.)

In 1963, the A&W Root Beer Company was sold to the J. Hungerford Smith Company, the firm which had manufactured A&W Root Beer® concentrate since 1921.

In that same year, the first overseas A&W® restaurant opened it's doors. Located in Guam, the international division quickly expanded to the Philippines.

FULL SERVICE

Three years later, both A&W® and J. Hungerford Smith Company were purchased by United Fruit Company of Boston. In 1970, United Fruit was acquired by The AMK Corporation, who formed the new corporation, United Brands Company. Within this structure the A&W Root Beer Company adopted a new trademark, changed it's name to A&W International, Inc. and began the process of becoming a full-fledged restaurant and food service organization.

Many innovative changes were instituted. One was the formation of the National Advisory Council of the National A&W Franchisees Association (NAWFA). This elected board was among the first in fast food industry history to have a voice in system operations.

System changes to meet franchisees' needs included the expansion of a nationwide distribution network allowing franchisees to purchase concentrates, food items, paper goods and glass mugs. And, programs offered by the corporation were revamped to suit franchise needs - training, marketing, accounting, product development, bookkeeping systems, building design and equipment layout.

America loved the taste of A&W Root Beer®. So, in 1971, United Brands formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, A&W Beverages, Inc., for the purpose of making A&W Root Beer® available on the grocery shelf. First introduced in Arizona and California, the cans and bottles of A&W Root Beer® were an instant success. Retailers nationwide were soon carrying the product.

In 1974, A&W Beverages, Inc. introduced A&W Sugar-Free Root Beer and their goodwill ambassador, The Great Root Bear®. This life size, loveable mascot has been charming children and adults at grand openings, parades, fairs and community visits ever since.

A standard core menu for the restaurants was introduced in 1978. It was the first time in A&W® history that there was a consistent menu offering. And, it was at this time that A&W Restaurants, Inc., the wholly-owned restaurant franchise subsidiary was formed.

The corporation launched a new restaurant concept in 1978, The A&W Great Food Restaurant. A modern up scale concept, these facilities featured fresh 1/3 and 1/2 pound 100% pure beef hamburgers, salad bars, ice cream bars and of course A&W Root Beer® in a frosty mug. This concept was perhaps ahead of its time, and while they still exist, they have been reformatted to blend in with the current chainwide concept - a modern, comfortable fast food environment at competitive prices serving the finest quality food.

1980's

A. Alfred Taubman, a developer of shopping centers and real estate, purchased A&W Restaurants, Inc. in 1982, and a new era for A&W® had begun.

A period of reorganization and planning began. Franchising efforts were halted while a new prototype was being developed, and new menu concepts and management techniques were being implemented. In September 1986, E. Dale Mulder, multiple-unit A&W® franchise owner and former Executive Director of the National A&W Franchise Association was appointed President of the corporation.

Also, by mid-decade, the international division of A&W® restaurants had expanded its operations into 7 Southeast Asian countries.

With Mulder's appointment, franchising had begun again and a steady growth plan implemented. An even stronger emphasis had been placed on serving franchise needs and providing assistance to the operators.

1990's

In January of 1991, the momentum of the chain increased greatly with the addition of George E. Michel as A&W®'s new President and Chief Operating Officer. A 20 year veteran of A&W Food Services of Canada, Michel is credited with more than doubling the number of corporate restaurants during his tenure in Canada and is also recognized for guiding the company's growth by increasing the number and strength of the franchise operations.

Michel guided A&W®'s expansion efforts into the captive, high-pedestrian segment with an immediate focus on opening new restaurants in food courts, shopping centers, office buildings and multi-use complexes.

In January 1992, Michel became the Chief Executive Officer of A&W Restaurants, Inc. and continued to strengthen and lead the company toward targeted growth. Under Michel's watch, new A&W® food carts and kiosk units began being introduced to compete more aggressively in the alternative site markets.

In December 1994, Sagittarius Acquisitions, Incorporated, headed by Sidney Feltenstein purchased A&W Restaurants, Inc. from the Taubman interests. The new ownership, backed by the investment company, Grotech Capital, grew with Feltenstein's long history of industry experience. (Feltenstein is a former Executive Vice President of Marketing for Burger King Corporation and a one time key executive with Dunkin' Donuts.)

Continually growing, Sid Feltenstein fueled the purchase of Long John Silver's, Inc. in 1999.

2000's

In 2000 Yorkshire Global Restaurants, Inc., became the parent company for A&W® and Long John Silver's®.

In 2002 Yorkshire Global Restaurants, Inc., was acquired by Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc. To reflect the acquisition the company was renamed Yum! Brands, Inc.

A: ALLEN and WRIGHT, the last name of the men that started the franchise - Roy Allen and Frank Wright.

Thanks to listener Wild Bill for this brainbuster question!!

Sensational '70's Tune for Wednesday, July 8th, '09

2009-07-08T05:34:00.001-05:00

The early 1970s saw a mini-boom in America for Canadian-born rockers -- apart from major players like Neil Young and the Band, and singles chart fixtures like the Guess Who, there was an entire wave of one-hit and near-one-hit wonders. The Stampeders were part of this group, a trio originally from Calgary, Alberta, who hit the Top Ten in 1971 with the infectiously catchy "Sweet City Woman." They later charted low in the Hot 100 with "Devil You," and brushed the Top 40 in 1976 with "Hit the Road Jack."

The Stampeders were originally formed as a rock sextet in 1964, playing the bar circuit in Calgary before they set out for Toronto in 1966, playing local clubs and building a name for themselves. They saw limited success as a recording act in Canada with the single "Morning Magic" in 1968, but it was soon after this that the group was reduced to a trio: Rich Dodson (guitar), Ronnie King (bass), and Kim Berly (drums). A year later, this version of the Stampeders had their first real success on record with the sublimely beautiful country-rocker "Carry Me," which charted in Canada and got released in America. Then, in 1971, they were signed to Bell Records, the New York-based label best known as the home of such pop-rock outfits as the Partridge Family and Tony Orlando & Dawn.

That summer, they had the biggest hit of their career with "Sweet City Woman," a genial piece of midtempo country-rock that reached the American Top Ten and did even better in Canada, so well and so widely played that some younger listeners from "down north" came to resent the group and its success. The group released an album to accompany the single, but somehow, "Sweet City Woman" was one of those songs that just didn't entice listeners to make the jump to laying out the extra money for the LP -- the Sweet City Woman album never did much, although the group was popular enough for a time to justify three subsequent albums (for different labels, including Capitol) and a bunch of singles, none of which sold very well.

Ironically, "Sweet City Woman" wasn't very representative of the Stampeders' sound, only one facet of it. Their music had its romantic side, but also incorporated elements of CCR-style swamp-rock and roots-rock, as befitted a band that had made its living playing bars in the Canadian far west. Their last entry on the American charts was a version of "Hit the Road Jack" which included a telephone conversation with disc jockey Wolfman Jack, which reached number 40 in 1976. This was around the time that the Wolfman had been made a virtual fixture in American popular culture, courtesy of George Lucas' American Graffiti and his subsequent appearances on television.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Tuesday, July 7th, '09

2009-07-07T06:35:00.005-05:00

Q: When this product was introduced to the general public in the month of May in the late 1800's, it sold for $13.50 a dozen. They are still sold today, but as a single item and at more than twice the price. What is it?

A: LEVI STRAUSS JEANS

Thanks to listeners Michelle & Chuck for today's question!!

Sensational '70's Tune for Tuesday, July 7th, '09

2009-07-07T06:33:00.001-05:00

More upbeat and rockin' than her last couple of efforts, Wrap Around Joy contains much of the jazz-tinged rock King was becoming known for. Here, she found chart action with "Jazzman" as well as the title track. A good, solid effort, as usual, from one of America's finest songwriters.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for July 6th, '09

2009-07-06T05:32:00.003-05:00

Q: Versatile actress Meryl Streep won Best Actress Oscars for 1979 and 1982, for her roles in what films?

A: SOPHIE'S CHOICE / KRAMER VS. KRAMER

Sensational '70's Tune for Monday, July 6th, '09

2009-07-06T05:31:00.001-05:00

Tom Scholz overdubbed so many harmonies -- vocal harmonies, guitar harmonies, possibly even bass harmonies and the previously unheard of percussion harmonies -- that it's possible to see Boston's big hit "More Than a Feeling" as nothing more than a florid studio creation. Underneath all that production gloss lays a simple hard rock song, resting on the foundation of a four-chord riff so basic that some called Nirvana's grunge breakthrough "Smells Like Teen Spirit" a complete rip-off of Scholz's work. While the comparisons are overstated, it is clear that he wrote "More Than a Feeling" with the desire to rock. After he had his hard rock riff, he made it ornate. Possibly in the desire to one-up Jimmy Page's guitar army, Scholz enlisted every instrument he could think of as he overdubbed the basic master. The result was a big, big, big rock production that fit perfectly onto album rock radio stations. The cinematic production alone would have guaranteed "More Than a Feeling" a place on the radio, but that place became permanent because Scholz did not neglect to write really good hooks, and not just in the guitar riffs. The vocal melody was an ideal singalong hook, which is part of the reason why it remained a classic rock favorite years after its initial release.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Friday, July 3rd, '09

2009-07-03T06:59:00.003-05:00

Q: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" Who said it?

A: THOMAS JEFFERSON

Super '60's Tune for Friday, July 3rd, '09

2009-07-03T05:13:00.000-05:00

"Louie Louie" is a song that exists almost in spite of itself, reviled by music critics and snobs alike. It's one of those songs that nobody likes but the people, from its original incarnation as a modified cha cha by composer and R&B star of the 1950s Richard Berry to its present day status as a bar band/ garage band/frat house staple. Fueled by a simplistic riff played over the standard three-chord rock & roll format, "Louie Louie" is so basic that its musical contents could be taught to a reasonably energetic cretin. By far and away the most well-known version is the one recorded by the Kingsmen in 1962, a monument to both the D.I.Y. spirit of rock & roll and crappy recording techniques. And as much and as often as this tune has been covered (with versions numbering well over 1,000, including everyone from Iggy and the Stooges to Mongo Santamaria), no one has ever successfully topped the groove of the Kingsmen's version. There are reasons for that, of course. One of them is the sound of the record itself. There are only three microphones used on the Kingsmen's recording: a ribbon mic on the bass drum, an overhead vocal mic that also picks up the majority of the band track as well, and a mic in front of Mike Mitchell's lead guitar amplifier, which is only switched on and off during his solo. The out of focus result makes for a mix that's of the one band-one noise mode, but also sports a power and wallop undeniably all its own. The second unique component of the Kingsmen is the bass line. While 99.9 percent of all bass players play the standard duh-duh-duh...duh-duh figure, give a very close listen to what Bob Nordby plays on the Kingsmen's version. Quite simply, the bass line never resolves the three-chord progression, playing a syncopated part that puts the push-pull of the ham-fisted beat into a perfect groove for dancing. This simple change in the bass line separates their version from everyone else's. Finally, there's Jack Ely's vocal. While much has been made over the years about whether or not Ely sang "dirty" lyrics on the record, he doesn't, although drummer Lynn Easton accidentally clicked his sticks together before the second verse and quite audibly yells "f*ck" in the background. But Ely's vocal, sung standing on tiptoe into the overhead boom mic, is one of the great mysteries about the record that is part of the record's charm, all sore-throat warbling that goes out of control in several places. Few records delineate rock & roll the way the Kingsmen's version of "Louie Louie" does, and while the tune has become an anthem, no subsequent cover versions top the original.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for July 2nd, '09

2009-07-02T05:34:00.003-05:00

Q: Which musical instrument, found in most symphony orchestras, is named after a country?

A: FRENCH HORN

Sensational '70's Tune for Thursday, July 2nd, '09

2009-07-02T05:10:00.001-05:00

Both artistically and commercially, Boz Scaggs had his greatest success with Silk Degrees. The laid-back singer hit the R&B charts in a big way with the addictive, sly "Lowdown" (which has been sampled by more than a few rappers and remains a favorite among baby-boomer soul fans) and expressed his love of smooth soul music almost as well on the appealing "What Can I Say." But Scaggs was essentially a pop/rocker, and in that area he has a considerable amount of fun on "Lido Shuffle" (another major hit single), "What Do You Want the Girl to Do," and "Jump Street." Meanwhile, "We're All Alone" and "Harbor Lights" became staples on adult contemporary radio. Though not remarkable, the ballads have more heart than most of the bland material dominating that format.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Wednesday, July 1st, '09

2009-07-01T05:33:00.003-05:00

Q: Founded in 1909, what is the oldest civil rights organization in the United States?

A: NAACP - National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

Sensational '70's Tune for Wednesday, July 1st, '09

2009-07-01T05:31:00.001-05:00

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Inspired by a phrase said at a party by Billy Preston, "Love the One Your With" is a song, according to Stephen Stills, that has been "very, very good to me." Aside from Neil Young tracks, such as "Heart of Gold," this song is indeed the biggest post CSN&Y-related recording. A suburb acoustic guitar riff and an infectious overall feel that has nonstop momentum propel a cross between upbeat folk-rock and heavy Latin stylings. Stills underpins this with some tasteful, funky steel drums, giving the track an unusual, Caribbean flavor. Lyrically, it's a simple yet effective karmic message of taking a chance on love, wherever you find it. If the harmonies on the track sound familiar, it indeed is CSN, plus Cass Elliot and others, creating a great gospel feel. The song has been used on many television commercials and films, and was also covered in great soul style by the O'Jay's in the early '70s.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Tuesday, June 30th, '09

2009-06-30T05:32:00.003-05:00

Q: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ..." are the first words of what 1859 novel, and who is the author?

A: A TALE OF TWO CITIES / CHARLES DICKENS

Sensational '70's Tune for Tuesday, June 30th, '09

2009-06-30T05:30:00.002-05:00

Sure, Dolly Parton was a star by 1978, but she was a country music star, at a time when country was still a niche genre. The single "Here You Come Again," written by the superstar songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, has utterly no country elements to it. Supported by a pop-oriented album of the same title featuring multiple cover photos of Parton in what can only be called a "Dig ME!" outfit and a tour of seemingly every television show that would have her, Parton broke through to the pop charts in a big way and stayed there for close to a decade. In and of itself, "Here You Come Again" isn't one of Parton's classic tunes; it's bouncy and catchy, with a very '70s plink-plink piano part that sounds like it was lifted from one of the Carpenters' peppier hits, and Parton, as always, sings the heck out of the tune, but it's finally just a little too lightweight to be an all-time great.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Monday, June 29th, '09

2009-06-29T06:18:00.003-05:00

Q: How many years did the Berlin Wall stand? (+/- 1 year margin of error)

A: 28 YEARS - 1961-89

Sensational '70's Tune for Monday, June 29th, '09

2009-06-29T05:45:00.002-05:00

Just to clear up a generation's worth of rumors about the lyrics of "Rikki Don't Lose That Number," Walter Becker stated for the record in a 1985 interview in the pages of Musician that the "number" in question was not slang for a marijuana cigarette ("send it off in a letter to yourself," supposedly a way to safely transport one's dope back before the post office abolished general delivery mail, was held up as the key line), and an uncharacteristically forthcoming Donald Fagen has similarly revealed that the " Rikki" in question was simply a woman he'd had a crush on in college. It says something about Steely Dan's reputation as obscurantists that even a straightforward lost-love song like "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" could be so widely over-interpreted. After a strangely quiet, hollow-sounding introduction played on the flopanda, a sort of electrified marimba, the song proper starts with a bass-heavy piano riff lifted outright from Horace Silver's "Song for My Father," set to a samba-like beat from drummer Jim Gordon, opening into one of Steely Dan's most graceful melodies. It's unsurprising that "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" ended up becoming Steely Dan's biggest commercial hit (hitting number four in the summer of 1974), as it's one of the group's most gentle and accessible songs.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Friday, June 26th, '09

2009-06-26T07:03:00.002-05:00

Q: Who was the first Hispanic musician inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (located in Cleveland, Ohio)?

A: CARLOS SANTANA In 1998

Sensational '70's Tune for Friday, June 26th, '09

2009-06-26T06:06:00.003-05:00

Riding high on the wild success of the Jackson 5, Motown ringleader Berry Gordy assembled every single notable production team member and songwriter in his arsenal to contribute to the solo debut of the J5's boy wonder, Michael. By the time Got to Be There was released, much had changed in the Jackson dynamic, none the least Michael's voice. But this album launched three chart singles: a cover of the bubblegum classic "Rockin' Robin," Leon Ware's "I Wanna Be Where You Are," and the title track. As a cohesive album, Got to Be There is wildly erratic, and his covers of "You've Got a Friend" and "Ain't No Sunshine" show Jackson's versatility as a singer. It was a world away from the politically charged sound of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On and the introspection that would later grace some of the best works of Stevie Wonder. But Got to Be There kept Gordy as king of the sound of young America — at least for a few months longer.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Thursday, June 25th. '09

2009-06-25T07:02:00.003-05:00

Q: Which U.S. state has the largest prison population, as well as the largest number of prisoners on death row?

A: CALIFORNIA

Sensational '70's Tune for Thursday, June 25th, '09

2009-06-25T05:10:00.002-05:00

This is the sixth album from the jazz/pop/rock combo Chicago, and was likewise the first to be recorded at the plush, well-lit, and custom-built Caribou Studios in Nederland, CO. The facility was owned and operated by the band's manager and producer, James William Guercio, and eventually became the group's retreat for their next five (non-compilation) long-players. Another and perhaps more significant change was the incorporation of several "outside" additional musicians — most notably Laudir De Oliveira (percussion), who would remain with the band for the next seven years and eight LPs. Although Chicago had begun as a harder-edged rock & roll band, popular music styles were undergoing a shift during the mid-'70s into a decidedly more middle-of-the-road (MOR) and less-aggressive sound. This is reflected in the succinct pop and light rock efforts, contrasting the earlier lengthy and multi-movement epics that filled their earlier works. Nowhere is this more evident than on Chicago VI's (1973) two Top Ten singles: the easygoing James Pankow (trombone) ballad "Just You & Me" as well as the up-tempo rocker "Feelin' Stronger Every Day," which Pankow co-wrote with Peter Cetera (vocal/bass). This more melodic and introverted sensibility pervades the rest of the disc as well — especially from Robert Lamm (keyboard/vocals), who is particularly prolific, penning half of the material on the disc. Even his sardonically titled "Critics' Choice" — which is undoubtedly a musical rebuttal to Chicago's increasingly negative critical assessment — is a languid and delicate response, rather than a full-force confutation. "Darlin' Dear" — another Lamm contribution — on the other hand, is a horn-fuelled rocker that actually recalls Little Feat more than it does most of Chicago's previous sides. Compositions from other bandmembers include the heartfelt Terry Kath (guitar/vocals) ballad "Jenny," which features some fluid fretwork much in the same vein as that of Jimi Hendrix's "Angel" or "Castles Made of Sand." Additionally, Peter Cetera's (bass/vocals) "In Terms of Two" includes a more down-home and countrified acoustic vibe. While Chicago VI is an undeniably strong effort — supported at the time by its chart-topping status — many bandmembers and longtime enthusiasts were beginning to grow apart from the lighter, pop-oriented material.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Wednesday, June 24th. '09

2009-06-24T05:35:00.003-05:00

Q: In March, 1998, NASA announced that an unmanned lunar spacecraft had discovered up to 6 billion tons of ... what? ... on the moon?

A: ICE

Sensational '70's Tune for Wednesday, June 24th, '09

2009-06-24T05:34:00.001-05:00

Here is a rare case where Bernie Taupin's lyrics compliment perfectly an exceptional Elton John melody -- not just remaining innocuously out of the way, and not outrightly fouling up a beautiful composition, but actually reaching the same level of sophisticated pop songcraft. And it may just be for the basic reason that Taupin keeps it simple, not allowing his ambition to exceed his ability or to weigh down a simple pop song with pretense and forced verbiage.

The result -- from John's eponymous second LP -- is a near-perfect song, with an aching melody, sentiment, and performance. The music is the sort of blend that John often pulls off: a little bit of country, soul, folk, and jazz, with the R&B hook of the chorus: "I hope you don't mind/I hope you don't mind/That I put down in the words/How wonderful life is while you're in the world." The instrumental focus is on John's nimble Leon Russell-influenced piano work, with acoustic guitar, Paul Buckmaster's string accompaniment, and a shuffling rhythm section. Taupin offers an innocent love-song lyric: "It's a little bit funny this feeling inside/I'm not one of those who can easily hide/I don't have much money but boy if I did/I'd buy a big house where we both could live." At times the self-deprecating narrator stumbles to get out his feelings, a melodramatic device, to be sure, but effective and sweet nonetheless: "So excuse me forgetting but these things I do/You see I've forgotten if they're green or they're blue/Anyway the thing is what I really mean/Yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen/And you can tell everybody this is your song/It may be quite simple but now that it's done." This is the other hook: "Your Song"'s self-consciousness as a song written as a gift for a loved one. It has been a self-fulfilling legacy, going into the Top Ten in 1971 and remaining a staple on radio for decades. In 2001, it was included in the musical film Moulin Rouge, sung by actor Ewan McGregor with a far more intentionally melodramatic flair that -- out of the context of the film -- just seems over the top.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Tuesday, June 23rd, '09

2009-06-23T06:41:00.003-05:00

Q: Which TV Series spawned the most spin offs?

A: The Mary Tyler Moore Show (4): Mary, Rhoda, Phyllis, Lou Grant

Mary,

Rhoda,

Phyillis,

Lou Grant,

Sensational '70's Tune for Tuesday, June 23rd, '09

2009-06-23T06:36:00.001-05:00

Bubblegum music's early cash-in attempt on the first stirrings of reggae, Bobby Bloom's "Montego Bay" is lousy reggae (it sounds like those involved had been told what Jamaican pop music sounded like, but they hadn't actually heard any of the records) but entertaining bubblegum. Bloom, who has a far more soulful and commanding voice than one might expect from his earlier hits as a songwriter, like Tommy James' "Mony Mony" and the 1910 Fruitgum Company's "Indian Giver," puts over the tale of a tropical paradise convincingly, over a rather bizarre arrangement of handclaps, whistling and an inappropriate but oddly effective drum part that sounds like somebody hitting a car's hubcaps with drumsticks in a rough approximation of steel drums. Never mind that Jamaican records didn't use steel drums anyway. The record's unconventional ending -- an a cappella riff on "Oh What A Beautiful Morning" that Bloom sings alone before the record trails off into silence -- is gimmicky but effective, much like the rest of the song.

And, here's the full version that's very hard to find:

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Monday, June 22nd, '09

2009-06-22T06:21:00.003-05:00

Q: Whats the fastest-growing quick -service restaurant chain in America?

A: JIMMY JOHNS

Sensatonal '70's Tune for Monday, June 22nd, '09

2009-06-22T05:14:00.001-05:00

Eddie Holman's 1970 number two smash "Hey There Lonely Girl," with its creamy falsetto vocals and lush Philly soul arrangement, is one of the most well-remembered one-shot soul hits. Actually, Holman had been recording since the early '60s, scoring some minor hits with "This Can't Be True" (1965) and "Am I a Loser (From the Start)" (1966). In 1969, he hooked up with Philadelphia producer Peter DeAngelis, best known for his work with teen idols Fabian and Frankie Avalon. His arrangements for Holman, however, rivaled Gamble-Huff's in quality, yielding some other minor R&B hits in 1969 and 1970 with "I Love You," "Don't Stop Now," and "Cathy Called," as well as an album in 1970. Most identified with his rich falsetto, Holman actually sang in a much more traditional vocal range on much of his material, some of which was written by himself or his wife, Sheila. He largely vanished from sight after 1970, though he recorded for several labels in the '70s.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Friday, June 19th. '09

2009-06-19T07:31:00.002-05:00

Q: The three busiest airports outside the united States are located in what three cities?

A: LONDON HEATHROW - 61 million / TOKYO - 51 million / FRANKFURT - 43 million

Super 60's Tune for Friday, June 19th, '09

2009-06-19T06:21:00.000-05:00

Ernie Maresca was a fairly successful songwriter in the New York doo wop/rock & roll scene in the first half of the 1960s, most known for writing several of Dion's biggest hits (by himself or in collaboration with Dion): "Runaround Sue," "The Wanderer," "Lovers Who Wander," "A Lover's Prayer," and "Donna the Prima Donna." He also wrote for a great deal of other artists throughout the 1960s, usually in a style that combined doo wop with the developing sounds of girl groups or Dion's boastful Bronx pop/rock; the Regents' modest modern doo wop hit "Runaround" was the biggest of these. Although he didn't think of himself as a singer, and was an average nondescript vocalist at best, he was persuaded to record as a solo artist. In mid-1962, he ended up with his one and only hit under his own name, "Shout Shout (Knock Yourself Out)." A fun if extremely basic rocker that used the same chord pattern that anchored Dion hits like "Runaround Sue" and added the dance-rock energy of bands like Joey Dee & the Starliters, it made number six.

Maresca made an album in 1962, and continued to record, without success, for Seville through 1965 and then for Laurie during the remainder of the 1960s. He kept on writing for plenty of artists, too (often on the Laurie roster), and in that capacity had some modest hits with Reparata & the Delrons ("Whenever a Teenager Cries"), Bernadette Carroll ("Party Girl"), and Jimmie Rodgers ("Child of Clay," co-written with Jimmy Curtiss). While some of his songs for Dion were classics, Maresca was a limited songwriter, many of his compositions limited to variations (or replicas) of the ascending, circular basic doo wop chord structures heard on Dion's "Runaround Sue," "The Wanderer," "Lovers Who Wander," and "Donna the Prima Donna." By the 1970s he was head of Laurie Records' publicity department, which concentrated on reissuing the label's catalog, and as of 2000 was working as a consultant to EMI and administrator for Laurie's publishing.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Thursday, June 18th, '09

2009-06-18T05:34:00.005-05:00

Q: This British pop musician, born in 1940, had dozens of hits in Britain, but never met with great popularity in the USA. He is sometimes called the Elvis of England. Who is this superstar of British rock music?

A: CLIFF RICHARD

Sensational '70's Tune for Thursday, June 18th, '09

2009-06-18T05:33:00.001-05:00

The third new studio album of Paul Simon's post-Simon & Garfunkel career was a musical and lyrical change of pace from his first two, Paul Simon and There Goes Rhymin' Simon. Where Simon had taken an eclectic approach before, delving into a variety of musical styles and recording all over the world, Still Crazy found him working for the most part with a group of jazz-pop New York session players, though he did do a couple of tracks ("My Little Town" and "Still Crazy After All These Years") with the Muscle Shoals rhythm section that had appeared on Rhymin' Simon and another ("Gone at Last") returned to the gospel style of earlier songs like "Loves Me Like a Rock." Of course, "My Little Town" also marked a return to working with Art Garfunkel, and another Top Ten entry for S&G. But the overall feel of Still Crazy was of a jazzy style subtly augmented with strings and horns. Perhaps more striking, however, was Simon's lyrical approach. Where Rhymin' Simon was the work of a confident family man, Still Crazy came off as a post-divorce album, its songs reeking of smug self-satisfaction and romantic disillusionment. At their best, such sentiments were undercut by humor and made palatable by musical hooks, as on "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover," which became the biggest solo hit of Simon's career. But elsewhere, as on "Have a Good Time" (written for but not used in the film Shampoo and perhaps intended to express the shallow feelings of the main character), the singer's cynicism seemed unearned. Still, as out of sorts as Simon may have been, he was never more in tune with his audience: Still Crazy topped the charts, spawned four Top 40 hits, and won Grammys for Song of the Year and Best Vocal Performance.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Wednesday, June 17th, '09

2009-06-17T06:25:00.002-05:00

Q: The first starring role for both Richard Benjamin and Ali MacGraw came about in which 1969 film based on a Philip Roth novel?

A: GOODBYE COLUMBUS

Sensational '70's Tune for Wednesday, June 17th, '09

2009-06-17T05:14:00.001-05:00

"The Way I Want to Touch You", written by Toni Tennille, was actually released the year before on a couple of independent labels as well as on A & M. Its first life was as released on the pair's own label, Butterscotch Castle Records (the name of the record company becoming a tune on their second lp), brought to the Joyce imprint by indie promoters, as mentioned on the www.CaptainandTennille.net website, and re-released for a third time by A & M prior to the "Love Will Keep Us Together" single and album. It became "Como Yo Quiero Sentirte" when its two minutes and forty-five seconds found themselves on the Spanish version of Captain & Tennille's smash lp. That's a total of six different releases of this song in the span of about a year - it showing up on four singles and two lps. The production by Morgan Cavett is a bit more dense than Daryl Dragon's, a decidedly different sound for this act, the percussion and synthesizers all blending nicely. Its certainly not as ostentatious as their renditions of "I Write The Songs" or "Shop Around" giving the couple a nice warm addition to their repertoire. Why it wasn't the break-out hit is the question as it is a solid song and wonderful performance.

Given the chance to follow-up the phenomenon that was "Love Will Keep Us Together" brought this tune Top 5 five months after the first hit, A & M single #1725 arriving around the time Melissa Manchester was singing about "Just Too Many People", though not reaching as many people as Tennille did with this title. Not only did Manchester's career parallel Captain & Tennille in regards to amount of hits and time span when those hits happened (though MM is eight years Tennille's junior), Melissa's "Come In From The Rain" was a big AC hit for Toni and Daryl. When one realizes that "Disney Girls" is Toni Tennille as a commercial Jane Oliver and then you add the majesty of this mini-masterpiece, the depth of the woman's talent becomes clear. Tucked inside the cute world of the husband and wife team, a bubble gum middle-of-the-road arena, the very thing that brought the singer's work to the world in some way held her back from being recognized as the multi-faceted craftswoman that she truly is. Would Toni Tennille have been viewed as a Carole King / Carole Bayer Sager in another setting? We don't know, but we do know that as a team they garnered a Grammy and a huge following. It's the perfection of this tune which begs those questions.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Tuesday, June 16th, '09

2009-06-16T06:53:00.004-05:00

Q: The classical design of acoustic guitars as we know them today was created in the 19th century in what country?

A: SPAIN

Sensational '70's Tune for Tuesday, June 16th, '09

2009-06-16T06:19:00.002-05:00

Bad Girls marked the high-water mark in Donna Summer's career, spending six weeks at Number One, going double platinum, and spinning off four Top 40 singles, including the chart-topping title song and "Hot Stuff," which sold two million copies each, and the million-selling, Number Two hit "Dim All the Lights." Producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte recognized that disco was going in different directions by the late '70s, and they gave the leadoff one-two punch of "Hot Stuff" and "Bad Girls" a rock edge derived from new wave. The two-LP set was divided into four musically consistent sides, with the rocksteady beat of the first side giving way to a more traditional disco sound on the second side, followed by a third side of ballads, and a fourth side with a more electronic, synthesizer-driven sound that recalled Summer's 1977 hit "I Feel Love." Though remembered for its hits, the album had depth and consistency, concluding with "Sunset People," one of Summer's best album-only tracks. The result was the artistic and commercial peak of her career and, arguably, of disco itself.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Friday, June 12th, '09

2009-06-12T05:35:00.003-05:00

Q: The invention of the match for starting fires was made possible about 1680, when scientists realized that two chemical elements, when rubbed together, would burst into flame. Which two elements?

A: PHOSPHORUS / SULFUR

Fabulous '50's Tune for Friday, June 12th, '09

2009-06-12T05:11:00.003-05:00

The Rock-A-Teens were an American rockabilly group from Richmond, Virginia, active in the late 1950s.

They are best known for their 1959 single "Woo Hoo", backed with "Untrue", released on Roulette Records. The song hit #16 on the Billboard Hot 100, but it proved to be their only hit.

"Woo Hoo" is a rockabilly song, originally released by The Rock-A-Teens in 1959. The song is distinctive for its lack of lyrics apart from its title words, which gave it popularity around the world as it is not subject to language barriers. It makes use of the twelve-bar blues chord progression, further adding to its accessibility.

Cover versions

It was later covered by the Scottish rock band, The Rezillos, (under the name "Yeah Yeah"), under the same title by the french psychobilly (or as they say themselves, "yéyé-punk") band Les Wampas on their 1988 album, Chauds, sales et humides, by the Japanese girl band The 5.6.7.8's on their 1996 album Bomb the Twist and as a dance/electronica track in 2005 by the American act The Daltronics. It was also covered by Showaddywaddy.

The 5.6.7.8's version gained cult popularity when it was featured and performed by them in Quentin Tarantino's 2003 movie Kill Bill: Vol. 1. The 5.6.7.8's version is also included on the Kill Bill Volume 1 soundtrack. Additionally, it appears in the movie Glory Road. A different song by the name of "Woo Hoo" was also recorded by the Christian rock band The Newsboys.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Thursday, June 11th, '09

2009-06-11T06:19:00.002-05:00

Q: According to the popular 1980's television series, Dallas, J.R. Ewing and his clan live at what ranch?

A: SOUTHFORK

Sensational '70's Tune for Thursday, June 11th, '09

2009-06-11T06:18:00.000-05:00

Two years after the single "If Not for You" hit the Top 25 on the Uni label, the MCA imprint re-released most of the If Not for You album, along with Newton-John's second U.S. hit, "Let Me Be There," and titled the disc after the new smash. With seductive blue ink shadowing her beautiful face and the word Olivia splashed atop the cover, the company created a collector's item with the original LP, a respect from the aficionados that couldn't have been predicted in the '70s, and well-deserved credibility for the popular artist. The first single hit number one on the middle-of-the-road charts, and that market, along with her country base, enabled Newton-John to rack up 26 additional hits, concluding with 1985's "Soul Kiss," the last one almost mirroring her initial success, going Top 20. This collection is a little awkward for the fans who purchased the original hit album, and it gets more confusing: Pye released a 1971 disc, entitled Olivia Newton-John, with most of these tracks, while EMI pressed two different titles in 1974, Crystal Lady and First Impressions, also containing much of this music. Along with the excellent title track, "Let Me Be There," MCA added a cover of John Denver's "Take Me Home Country Roads," a nice rendition of the Merilee Rush classic, Chip Taylor's "Angel of the Morning," and a convenient country tune, "Just a Little Too Much." Tunes missing on Let Me Be There which appeared on the original If Not for You release are the weak version of David Gate's "If," the Band's "In a Station," a second Lesley Duncan tune, "Lullaby," Tom Rush's "No Regrets," "If I Gotta Leave," and "Where Are You Going to My Love." It's early Newton-John, a bit naïve and far from the sophistication of her Warm and Tender release on Geffen, but it works, especially because it contains her first two hit records.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Wednesday, June 10th, '09

2009-06-10T07:30:00.003-05:00

Q: The word "aspirin" is a generic term today, but in the 19th century it was a brand name for a new wonder drug developed by what company?

A: BAYER

Sensational '70's Tune for Wednesday, June 10th, '09

2009-06-10T05:08:00.000-05:00

Peter Frampton's name is synonymous with two songs: "Baby I Love Your Way" and "Show Me the Way." They, along with "Do You Feel Like We Do," were the monster hits from his commercial breakthrough, Frampton Comes Alive, and both were originally featured on his fourth studio album, 1974's Frampton. In a way, they were two sides of the same coin, both love songs about "the Way," which wasn't some Tao of Peter thing, but rather what he loved about his love. Since it was the ballad, "Baby, I Love Your Way" wound up being the standard, getting covered many times, but it was actually the smallest hit on the three Frampton Comes Alive singles. The biggest was "Show Me the Way," and it still brings back the heady thrills of 1976 when Frampton Comes Alive was a phenomenon. A large portion of the nostalgia has to do with his heavy use of talk box on the track -- in memory, it feels like he speaks through his guitar nearly as much as he sings -- but if that's all that it was, it wouldn't have been a hit in 1976 and it wouldn't remain a favorite of album rock fans of all ages. The reason why "Show Me the Way" endures is that it's a veritable cavalcade of hooks with the guitars and vocal melodies fighting for space, and all the while they both make indelible impressions. This is that rare song where the verse melody is catchier than the chorus, and the whole thing is memorable after a spin simply because the hooks are so insanely catchy. "Show Me the Way" isn't a deathless pop song -- it certainly is tied to its era -- but it's undeniably fun and easily the best pure pop song Frampton recorded during his teen idol phase.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Tuesday, June 9th, '09

2009-06-09T05:31:00.003-05:00

Q: In 1933, two-thirds of American homes owned one of these household appliances. Today 99% of all homes have one or two or even ten of them. What are they?

A: RADIOS

Sensational '70's Tune for Tuesday, June 9th, '09

2009-06-09T05:30:00.001-05:00

One of the most delightful Doobie Brothers singles, this classy ballad introduced an element of Cajun music into the band that would soon become a trademark. Built on a simple, seventh-note guitar lick, the folksy melody is driven by some subtle fingerpicking by the writer, Patrick Simmons, and some excellent group vocals. Lyrically, it's a backwoods tale of romance, and it's filled with references to New Orleans and its atmosphere. There is a creative production touch, where the vocals become an a cappella workout in the middle of the song. This was utilized by producer Ted Templeman, and he learned it from Lenny Waronker, who used it on Templeman's own group, Harpers Bizarre, on their hit "Feelin' Groovy."

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Monday, June 8th, '09

2009-06-08T06:18:00.002-05:00

Q: He is the son of a Philadelphia Phillies pitcher. His wife comes from Star, Mississippi. Together this country music couple sold more than 30 million records and won numerous awards. Who are they?

A: FAITH HILL / TIM McGRAW -father Tug McGraw

Sensational '70's Tune for Monday, June 8th, '09

2009-06-08T06:07:00.002-05:00

Paul Lavon Davis (April 21, 1948 – April 22, 2008) was an American singer and songwriter, best known for his radio hits and solo career which started worldwide in 1970. His career encompassed soul, country and pop music. Notable songs in his career include 1977's "I Go Crazy", a #7 pop hit which once held the record for the longest chart run on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as the #6 "'65 Love Affair", his highest pop hit. In the mid 1980s, he also had two country Number One hits as a guest vocalist on songs by Marie Osmond and Tanya Tucker, and wrote singles for other country singers.

Career

Davis was a member of a local group called the Six Soul Survivors in approximately 1966 and later in another group called the Endless Chain. In 1968 he was a writer for Malaco Records, based in Jackson, Mississippi.

Ilene Berns, widow of Bert Berns, signed Davis to Bang Records in 1969, and in 1970, released a cover of The Jarmels' hit song "A Little Bit of Soap", reaching #52 on the Billboard pop charts. His first album, A Little Bit of Paul Davis, was released in 1970. In 1974, he recorded his third album, Ride 'Em Cowboy, which entered the Top 40 for the title track. The same song also became a Top 40 country hit for Juice Newton in 1984.

Davis had his first American Top 10 single with the ballad "I Go Crazy," which peaked at #7 in 1978. "I Go Crazy" spent 40 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, which at the time set the single-song record for most consecutive weeks on the chart in the rock era. The follow-up, "Sweet Life", did moderately well, peaking at #17. The corresponding album Singer of Songs - Teller of Tales was a modest success, peaking at #82 on the Billboard pop album chart. He was the last artist active on the Bang Records label when it folded in 1981.

After one more album, in 1981 he signed with Arista Records and had two more Top 20 singles, "Cool Night" (which rose to #11) and "'65 Love Affair" (which rose to #6). Davis retired from making records, except for two duet singles that went to #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles charts. The first was in 1986 with Marie Osmond on "You're Still New To Me" while the second was in 1988 was a collaboration with Tanya Tucker and Paul Overstreet on "I Won't Take Less Than Your Love". Davis also wrote "Meet Me in Montana," which Dan Seals and Osmond took to #1 on the Billboard country charts in 1985.

He survived a shooting in Nashville on July 30, 1986.

Before his death on April 22, 2008 (one day after his 60th birthday), Paul Davis returned to singing and songwriting recording two songs, "You Ain't Sweet Enough" and "Today." He died of a heart attack at Rush Foundation Hospital in Meridian, Mississippi.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Friday, June 5th, '09

2009-06-05T05:54:00.004-05:00

Q: Today you can buy this handy small item item for less than $1, but when Hungarian Laszlo Biro invented it in 1938, it was a revolutionary advance in the field of communication. What is it?

A: BALLPOINT PEN

Fabulous 50's Tune for Friday, June 5th, '09

2009-06-05T04:50:00.002-05:00

Gene Vincent only had one really big hit, "Be-Bop-a-Lula," which epitomized rockabilly at its prime in 1956 with its sharp guitar breaks, spare snare drums, fluttering echo, and Vincent's breathless, sexy vocals. Yet his place as one of the great early rock & roll singers is secure, backed up by a wealth of fine smaller hits and non-hits that rate among the best rockabilly of all time. The leather-clad, limping, greasy-haired singer was also one of rock's original bad boys, lionized by romanticists of past and present generations attracted to his primitive, sometimes savage style and indomitable spirit.

Vincent was bucking the odds by entering professional music in the first place. As a 20-year-old in the Navy, he suffered a severe motorcycle accident that almost resulted in the amputation of his leg, and left him with a permanent limp and considerable chronic pain for the rest of his life. After the accident he began to concentrate on building a musical career, playing with country bands around the Norfolk, VA, area. Demos cut at a local radio station, fronting a band assembled around Gene by his management, landed Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps a contract at Capitol, which hoped they'd found competition for Elvis Presley.

Indeed it had, as by this time Vincent had plunged into all-out rockabilly, capable of both fast-paced exuberance and whispery, almost sensitive ballads. The Blue Caps were one of the greatest rock bands of the '50s, anchored at first by the stunning silvery, faster-than-light guitar leads of Cliff Gallup. The slap-back echo of "Be-Bop-a-Lula," combined with Gene's swooping vocals, led many to mistake the singer for Elvis when the record first hit the airwaves in mid-1956, on its way to the Top Ten. The Elvis comparison wasn't entirely fair; Vincent had a gentler, less melodramatic style, capable of both whipping up a storm or winding down to a hush.

Brilliant follow-ups like "Race With the Devil," "Bluejean Bop," and "B-I-Bickey, Bi, Bo-Bo-Go" failed to click in nearly as big a way, although these too are emblematic of rockabilly at its most exuberant and powerful. By the end of 1956, the Blue Caps were beginning to undergo the first of constant personnel changes that would continue throughout the '50s, the most crucial loss being the departure of Gallup. The 35 or so tracks he cut with the band — many of which showed up only on albums or b-sides — were unquestionably Vincent's greatest work, as his subsequent recordings would never again capture their pristine clarity and uninhibited spontaneity.

Vincent had his second and final Top Twenty hit in 1957 with "Lotta Lovin'," which reflected his increasingly tamer approach to production and vocals, the wildness and live atmosphere toned down in favor of poppier material, more subdued guitars, and conventional-sounding backup singers. He recorded often for Capitol throughout the rest of the '50s, and it's unfair to dismiss those sides out of hand; they were respectable, occasionally exciting rockabilly, only a marked disappointment in comparison with his earliest work. His act was captured for posterity in one of the best scenes of one of the first Hollywood films to feature rock & roll stars, The Girl Can't Help It.

Live, Vincent continued to rock the house with reckless intensity and showmanship, and he became particularly popular overseas. A 1960 tour of Britain, though, brought tragedy when his friend Eddie Cochran, who shared the bill on Vincent's U.K. shows, died in a car accident that he was also involved in, though Vincent survived. By the early '60s, his recordings had become much more sporadic and lower in quality, and his chief audience was in Europe, particularly in England (where he lived for a while) and France.

His Capitol contract expired in 1963, and he spent the rest of his life recording for several other labels, none of which got him close to that comeback hit. Vincent never stopped trying to resurrect his career, appearing at a 1969 Toronto rock festival on the same bill as John Lennon, though his medical, drinking, and marital problems were making his life a mess, and diminishing his stage presence as well. He died at the age of 36 from a ruptured stomach ulcer, one of rock's first mythic figures.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Thursday, June 4th. '09

2009-06-04T06:20:00.001-05:00

Q: This glamorous, mysterious German movie star, first popular in the 1920's, refused an offer to return to Nazi Germany, and instead became an anti-Nazi propagandist during WWII. Who is she?

A: MARLENE DIETRICH

Sensational '70's Tune for Thursday, June 4th, '09

2009-06-04T04:59:00.002-05:00

The two minutes and twenty-six seconds regenerating this energetic Andrew Sisters hit from 1941 became a #1 Adult Contemporary hit for Bette Midler in the summer of 1973. Atlantic 45 rpm #2964 was her second hit single and first Top 10 on the pop charts, beating the Top 15 showing of the version that was popular 32 years before. It's a real period piece produced by Barry Manilow, Ahmet Ertegun and Geoffrey Haslam, arranged by Arif Mardin, with a vocal arrangement by Marty Nelson. But here's the clincher, it is The Divine Miss M herself on all vocals! Despite having her Harlettes available the song becomes a brilliant vehicle to silence any criticism of Bette's ability to sing with the best of them. This isn't a modernization, it's a period piece with ette Midler as The Andrews Sisters backed by drummer Ted Sommer on those great horn parts, Don Arnone on guitar, Dick Hyman playing the old-style piano with Milton Hilton on the essential bass. "He was a famous trumpet man from old Chicago way" the serious musician turned into a clock who has to wake the boys up with reveille. The camp is not in its reverence, it is in the audacity to tackle such a selection, the vocal sound straight out of an old Victorola with big band jazz embracing the old world pop.

This rendition is a dance tune with amazing scat from the quickly emerging talent, so very different from everything else on the ten song eleven track debut lp. The singer is saying "8 to the bar" not "H to the bar" as the mondegreen - misheard lyric - is alleged on this tune which was nominated for a Best Song Academy Award in 1941. 1977's Live At Last take is an amazing re-creation of Midler's studio track from 3 years before, though this time there really is a big band behind her and other singers - her famous Staggering Harlettes (all different from those who appeared on the first album) to help The Divine one become the famous forties trio. It's total musical energy creating a tremendous platform for the actress/vocalist. A neat little reprise on the live version brings the intensity back in instant replay, the only thing that differentiates it from being almost a carbon copy of the original - a very tough thing to do, and done so well by Bette.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Wednesday, June 3rd, '09

2009-06-03T06:10:00.003-05:00

Q: What ukelele playing singer was married on live television on what show and what was his wife's name?

A: TINY TIM, THE TONIGHT SHOW, MISS VICKY

Sensational '70's Tune for Wednesday, June 3rd, '09

2009-06-03T06:08:00.002-05:00

The follow-up to Barry Manilow's breakout number one hit "Mandy," "It's a Miracle" was one of the theatrical, slightly (if unintentionally) campy up-tempo numbers that Manilow sometimes recorded to indulge his taste for Broadway. It just missed the Top Ten in 1975, which seemed to be taken as an indicator that Manilow's hit potential lay with ballads; most of his future single releases and best-known songs were in that vein. "It's a Miracle" establishes the sonic blueprint Manilow would use on much of his future show tune-style numbers: a relatively driving beat with lots of '70s high-hat (though one still might wish it was faster), a female backing chorus echoing most of his lyrics, and an over-the-top flair that came across more playfully than on his ballad fare. The song is about coming home (clearly, from a national tour) to a lover, and the lyrics lay it on pretty thick, as Manilow sings repeatedly that "there'll be dancing in the streets," celebrating the miracle of their love (and he's talking about the city of New York dancing, not himself). The sentiment is overdone, yes, but the break where that line is repeated over and over is tailor-made for a glamorous stage production with a gaggle of elaborately costumed and choreographed dancers. (Pity there's no way to know from the exciting version on Live just how much the song was done up visually.) The studio version from Barry Manilow II features a groovy electric piano, an instrument rarely heard on Manilow singles; it instantly dates the song, but that's not a bad thing at all. Manilow was often accused of a complete lack of subtlety, but songs like "It's a Miracle" demonstrated where at least part of that sensibility came from.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Tuesday, June 2nd, '09

2009-06-02T06:40:00.003-05:00

Q: In the first celebrity fundraiser, in 1971, musical stars Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, and Ringo Starr joined event coordinator and former Beatle George Harrison to raise money for hungry residents of what starving nation?

A: BANGLADESH

Sensational '70's Tune for Tuesday, June 2nd, '09

2009-06-02T06:22:00.002-05:00

"Who Loves You" is the title song of a 1975 album by The Four Seasons. It was composed by Bob Gaudio and Judy Parker and produced by Gaudio. Reaching #3 on the Billboard Top 100 in November 1975, it re-established The Four Seasons as a viable recording group (even though their popularity as a performing group had never flagged) after a five year absence from the Hot 100, and five years after their last single on Philips Records ("Patch of Blue").

Song information

After their release from Philips, the group signed with Motown and released one album and three singles for the organization in 1972 and 1973. All Motown recordings failed to chart on the U.S. charts, and Motown refused to release a collection of eight songs; instead, the company dropped The Four Seasons from its roster. After some negotiation, lead singer (and partner of the Four Seasons Partnership) Frankie Valli bought the master recording of "My Eyes Adored You" from Motown for $4000. After Larry Uttal, owner of Private Stock Records, heard the recording, he signed Valli onto the label and released "My Eyes Adored You" as a Frankie Valli "solo" single. "My Eyes Adored You" rocketed to the top position of the Hot 100.

In the wake of the success of "My Eyes Adored You," Motown re-released "The Night" as a Four Seasons single in the United Kingdom (the song reached #7 on the UK singles chart) and the group was signed to Curb Records (distributed by Warner Bros. Records) in the summer of 1975. In August, "Who Loves You" entered the Hot 100 as Valli's "Swearin' to God" was sliding off the chart.

Different versions

There were three versions of "Who Loves You" released in the United States: the one on the Who Loves You album is four minutes, 20 seconds, long and begins with a short percussion section before the start of the vocals. The A-side of the single has a four minutes, four seconds, version which starts with an unusual "fade-in" beginning that begins with the first word of the vocals; the B-side (labeled "Who Loves You (Disco version)") is the same as the A-side but with the instrumental break one and one-half minutes longer.

Although the trademark Four Seasons' falsetto is present on "Who Loves You," Valli's vocal performance on the recording is limited to singing the lead on the verses as the effects of otosclerosis were diminishing his hearing (later reversed by operation).

For a record from a group that had gone so long without any chart records, "Who Loves You" was a tremendous success. Released in August 1975, the single spent 20 weeks on the Hot 100 (longer than any Four Seasons single prior to it) and managed to stay on the chart until the beginning of 1976.

As "Who Loves You" was sliding down the Hot 100, both Valli and the group had become hot musical properties. Valli's version of "Our Day Will Come" was peaking at #11 as The Four Seasons' followup to "Who Loves You" was released by Warner Bros. Records. "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" would become the largest-selling single in the history of the Four Seasons.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Monday, June 1st, '09

2009-06-01T05:32:00.003-05:00

Q: Some of her best-known works are Middlemarch, The Mill on the Floss, and Silas Marner. Her real name was Mary Ann Evans, but her pen name was ... what?

A: GEORGE ELIOT

Sensational '70's Tune for Monday, June 1st, '09

2009-06-01T05:30:00.002-05:00

Originally a hard-driving rocker in the vein of fellow Michigan garage rockers the Rationals and Mitch Ryder, Bob Seger developed into one of the most popular heartland rockers over the course of the '70s. Combining the driving charge of Ryder's Detroit Wheels with Stonesy garage rock and devotion to hard-edged soul and R&B, he crafted a distinctively American sound. While he never attained the critical respect of his contemporary Bruce Springsteen, Seger did develop a dedicated following through constant touring with his Silver Bullet Band. Following several years of missed chances and lost opportunities, Seger finally achieved a national audience in 1976 with the back-to-back release of Live Bullet and Night Moves. After the platinum success of those albums, Seger retained his popularity for the next two decades, releasing seven Top Ten, platinum-selling albums in a row.

Seger began playing music in 1961 as the leader of the Detroit-based trio the Decibels; his future manager, Eddie "Punch" Andrews was also a member of the band. Moving to Ann Arbor, he played with the Town Criers before he became the keyboardist and vocalist for Doug Brown & the Omens. Billing themselves as the Beach Bums, the band released "The Ballad of the Yellow Beret," a parody of the Sgt. Barry Sadler song "The Ballad of the Green Beret." The single was withdrawn shortly after its release after Sadler threatened a lawsuit. In 1966, Seger released his first solo single, "East Side Story," which became a regional hit. Several other local hit singles followed on Cameo Records, including "Persecution Smith" and "Heavy Music," before his label folded. In 1968, he formed the Bob Seger System and signed with Capitol Records, releasing his debut album, Ramblin' Gamblin' Man, in the spring of that year. The title track became a national hit, climbing to number 17, but the group's follow-up, Noah, stiffed and Seger decided to quit the music business at the end of 1969 to attend college.

By the end of the summer, Seger had returned to rock & roll with a new backing band, releasing Mongrel at the end of the year. For 1971's Brand New Morning, he disbanded his group and recorded a singer/songwriter effort. Following its release, he began performing with the duo Dave Teegarden and Skip "Van Winkle" Knape, and the duo provided support on 1972's Smokin' O.P.'s, which was the first release on Palladium Records, a label he formed with Andrews. The album failed to sell, as did Back in '72 (1973) and Seven (1974), and he moved back to Capitol Records for 1975's Beautiful Loser. For the recording of Beautiful Loser, Seger formed the Silver Bullet Band, which consisted of guitarist Drew Abbott, bassist Chris Campbell, keyboardist Robyn Robbins, saxophonist Alto Reed, and drummer Charlie Allen Martin. Seger supported Beautiful Loser with an extensive tour with the Silver Bullet Band, and while it didn't make the album a hit, it provided a widespread grassroots following across the country. The touring paid off in 1976, when Live Bullet, a double album recorded in Detroit, became a hit, spending over three years on the U.S. charts and going gold; the album would eventually go quadruple platinum.

The groundswell behind Live Bullet sent Seger's next studio album, Night Moves (1976), into the Top Ten early in 1977. Night Moves became a blockbuster, generating the hit singles "Night Moves," "Mainstreet," and "Rock & Roll Never Forgets." Stranger in Town, released in the summer 1978, was just as successful, featuring the hits "Still the Same," "Hollywood Nights," "We've Got Tonite," and "Old Time Rock & Roll." Stranger in Town confirming his status as one America's most popular rockers. Seger's next album, 1980's Against the Wind, became his first number one album and all of its big hits -- "Fire Lake," "Against the Wind," "You'll Accomp'ny Me" -- were ballads. The live album Nine Tonight continued his multi-platinum success in 1981, selling three million copies and peaking at number three.

Seger returned with The Distance in 1982. The Distance was the first album since Seven to be recorded with the addition of session musicians, which caused guitarist Abbott to quit the band in frustration. Over the course of the next decade, the membership of the Silver Bullet Band shifted constantly. While The Distance featured "Shame on the Moon," his biggest hit single to date, its sales plateaued at a million copies, suggesting that his popularity was beginning to level off. Seger also began to drastically reduce his recording and touring schedules -- he only released one other album, 1986's Like a Rock, during the '80s. Like a Rock and its supporting tour were both successes, paving the way for "Shakedown," a song taken from the soundtrack to Beverly Hills Cop II, to become Seger's lone number one hit in 1987. Four years after its release, he returned with The Fire Inside. Although the album went platinum and reached the Top Ten, it only appealed to Seger's devoted following, as did 1995's It's a Mystery, which became his first album since Live Bullet to fail to go platinum, leveling off at gold status. In 2006, after an 11-year hiatus, Seger released Face the Promise.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Friday, May 29th, '09

2009-05-29T05:53:00.004-05:00

Q: What are the top moviegoing countries? In term of number of viewers, the United States ranks third in the world, with 1 billion attendees at movies. What two countries exceed the USA in film attendance?

A: CHINA 14 billion / INDIA 4 billion

Super 60's Tune for Friday, May 29th, '09

2009-05-29T05:18:00.002-05:00

Curtis Lee occupies the era of rock & roll in between the death of Buddy Holly and the arrival of the Beatles -- a period usually thought of as "lost years," because, apart from the Beach Boys, few of the artists involved lingered long on the charts or left an obvious legacy into the next era. Neither did Lee, but two of his songs, "Pretty Little Angel Eyes" and "Under the Moon of Love," evoke vivid associations with that innocent, romantic era.

Lee hailed from Arizona, and cut three songs for small labels while he was still in his teens. He was heard by Ray Peterson ("Tell Laura I Love Her"), who'd just started a label of his own, Dunes, and invited to cut a demo if he came to New York. By the time he made it to New York in late 1960, he'd started writing songs in partnership with a friend, Tommy Boyce, who later became one-half of the Boyce & Hart songwriting-producing-singing duo. Lee's first two singles, "Special Love" and "Pledge of Love," were passionate but otherwise unexceptional performances that understandably failed to chart, but for his third record, Dunes agreed to cut a Lee-Boyce original called "Pretty Little Angel Eyes." Phil Spector, who had previously produced a hit for Peterson ("Corinna, Corinna"), ran the session, and laid the orchestra and, especially, the chorus on very heavily, the latter deliberately working in a late-'50s doo wop style. The resulting record made the Top Ten, and became Lee's biggest hit.

Lee and Boyce next turned in the jaunty "Under the Moon of Love," which used less of a doo wop style, in favor of a thick sax sound and a soaring girl chorus, and made the charts in late 1961. Unfortunately, this was to be Lee's last recording success. Lee never charted another record, and he left the music business. "Pretty Little Angel Eyes" is a fixture on oldies stations, however, with its distinctive sound, and both it and "Under the Moon of Love" are considered prime representatives of Phil Spector's early sound.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Wednesday, May 27th, '09

2009-05-27T05:32:00.002-05:00

Q: On average, how many eggs can a hen lay in one year?

A: 227

Sensational '70's Tune for Wednesday, May 27th, '09

2009-05-27T05:29:00.002-05:00

A Los Angeles vocal trio, the Hues Corporation enjoyed two big hits in the mid-'70s, notably "Rock the Boat" in 1974 for RCA. While it was lightweight, mainly pop work, it did take The Hues Corporation to number two on the R&B charts and get them their lone pop chart topper. The next single, "Rockin' Soul," peaked at number six on the R&B charts and number 18 on the pop charts. They had their final R&B hit the next year with "Love Corporation," which reached number 15, but it was evident that the audience was losing interest in their material. "I Caught Your Act" was the last release in 1977. H. Ann Kelley, Flemming Williams, and Bernard "St. Clair Lee" Henderson were the original lineup. Tom Brown replaced Williams in the wake of "Rock the Boat's" success. He was then replaced by Karl Russell in 1975.

Brainbuster Question of the Day for Tuesday, May 26th. '09

2009-05-26T05:32:00.003-05:00

Q: Which 19th-century American publisher compiled the first standard reference work for quotations?

A: JOHN BARTLETT

Sensational '70's Tune for Tuesday, May 26th, '09

2009-05-26T05:30:00.002-05:00

The Grass Roots had a series of major hits -- most notably "Let's Live for Today," "Midnight Confessions," "Temptation Eyes," and "Two Divided by Love" -- that help define the essence of the era's best AM radio. Although the group's members weren't even close to being recognizable, and their in-house songwriting was next to irrelevant, the Grass Roots managed to chart 14 Top 40 hits, including seven gold singles and one platinum single, and two had hits collections that effortlessly went gold. The group's history is also fairly complicated, because there were at least three different groups involved in the making of the songs identified as being by "the Grass Roots."

The Grass Roots was originated by the writer/producer team of P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri as a pseudonym under which they would release a body of Byrds/Beau Brummels-style folk-rock. Sloan and Barri were contracted songwriters for Trousdale Music, the publishing arm of Dunhill Records, which wanted to cash in on the folk-rock boom of 1965. Dunhill asked Sloan and Barri to come up with this material, and a group alias under which they would release it. The resulting "Grass Roots" debut song, "Where Were You When I Needed You," sung by Sloan, was sent to a Los Angeles radio station, which began playing it. The problem was, there was no "Grass Roots." The next step was to recruit a band that could become the Grass Roots. Sloan found a San Francisco group called the Bedouins that seemed promising on the basis of their lead singer, Bill Fulton. Fulton recorded a new vocal over the backing tracks laid down for the P.F. Sloan version of the song. The Bedouins were, at first, content to put their future in the hands of Sloan and Barri as producers, despite the fact that the group was more blues-oriented than folk-rock. However, the rest of the group was offended when Fulton was told to record their debut single, a cover of Bob Dylan's "The Ballad of a Thin Man," backed by studio musicians. When that single, released in October of 1965, became only a modest hit, the Bedouins -- except for their drummer, Joel Larson -- departed for San Francisco, to re-form as the Unquenchable Thirst. Sloan and Barri continued to record. "Where Were You When I Needed You" was released in mid-'66 and peaked at number 28, but the album of the same name never charted.

Amid the machinations behind Where Were You When I Needed You, no "real" Grass Roots band existed in 1966. A possible solution came along when a Los Angeles band called the 13th Floor submitted a demo tape to Dunhill. This group, consisting of Warren Entner (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Creed Bratton (lead guitar), Rob Grill (vocals, bass), and Rick Coonce (drums), was recruited and offered the choice of recording under their own name, or to take over the name the Grass Roots, put themselves in the hands of Sloan and Barri, and take advantage of the Grass Roots' track record. They chose the latter, with Rob Grill as primary lead vocalist. The first track cut by the new Grass Roots in the spring of 1967 was "Let's Live for Today," a new version of a song that had been an Italian hit, in a lighter, more up-tempo version, for a band called the Rokes. "Let's Live for Today" was an achingly beautiful, dramatic, and serious single and it shot into the Top Ten upon its release in the summer of 1967. An accompanying album, Let's Live for Today, only reached number 75. The group began spreading its wings in the studio with their next album, Feelings, recorded late in 1967, which emphasized the band's material over Sloan and Barri's. This was intended as their own statement of who they were, but it lacked the commercial appeal of anything on Let's Live for Today, sold poorly, and never yielded any hit singles. Eleven months went by before the group had another chart entry, and during that period, Sloan and Barri's partnership broke up, with Sloan departing for New York and an attempt at a performing career of his own. The band even considered splitting up as all of this was happening. The Grass Roots' return to the charts (with Barri producing), however, was a triumphant one -- in the late fall of 1968, "Midnight Confessions" reached number five on the charts and earned a gold record. "Midnight Confessions" showed the strong influence of Motown, and the R&B flavor of the song stuck with Barri and the band.

In April of 1969, Creed Bratton left the band, to be replaced by Denny Provisor on keyboards and Terry Furlong on lead guitar. Now a quintet, the Grass Roots went on cutting records without breaking stride, enjoying a string of Top 40 hits that ran into the early '70s, peaking with "Temptation Eyes" at number 15 in the summer of 1971. Coonce and Provisor left at the end of 1971, to be replaced by Reed Kailing on lead guitar, Virgil Webber on keyboards, and Joel Larson -- of the original Bedouins/Grass Roots outfit -- on drums. They arrived just in time to take advantage of the number 16 success of "Two Divided by Love," which was the last of the Grass Roots' big hits. The Grass Roots soldiered on for a few more years, reaching the Top 40 a couple of times in 1972, but their commercial success slowly slipped away during 1973. They kept working for a few more years, but called it quits in 1975. Rob Grill remained in the music business on the organizing side, and by 1980 was persuaded by his friend John McVie to cut a solo album, Uprooted, which featured contributions by Mick Fleetwood and Lindsay Buckingham. By 1982, amid the burgeoning oldies concert circuit and the respect beginning to be accorded the Grass Roots, Grill formed a new Grass Roots -- sometimes billed as Rob Grill and the Grass Roots -- and began performing as many as 100 shows a year. Their presence on various oldies package tours have seen to it that the Grass Roots' name remains visible.