Rock Radio JULY 1969 When Life was Spacey

Anything was Possible … In Mind, Music & the Moon 

There’s no denying we were a spacey lot in the late 1960s. No month confirms that description more than JULY 1969. Let’s ROCKet into space …

50 Years Ago this Month in Rock & Roll Radio 

July 11^th: ♪ Take your protein pills and put your helmet on … ♪ we’re in for a bumpy ride! David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” was odd, indeed. Though the 7-inch single did well in his native UK after its July release, it caused nary a ripple on US charts, even with the country’s space travel hype in a frenzy.

Its re-release in 1973 however, shot it up to spacey heights for Bowie’s first big hit in the US. Speculation is the ’69 melancholy tune’s rise was stunted in the US until after Apollo 11 touched down safely on the moon …

July 20^th: The United States created worldwide news when Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle landed two men, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on the silvery moon. Well, that’s what it looks like to us. The dusty sphere might have popped some eons-old romanticized bubbles, but it promoted global unity that summer, like we (sadly) haven’t known since.

Let’s add a couple more memories to our out-of-this-world month!

“In The Year 2525” is an ethereally depressing tune not directly related to space travel but perhaps its eventual rise to the top twenty was a runoff from spacey thinking, to futuristic fears …

♪ In the Year 2525 | If man is still alive ♪ The one-hit-wonder by Zager & Evans released in May, but took a while to work its way up the musical ladder to July 1969 radio charts. It hung ominously at the top for six weeks.

On W’R-IT/Milwaukee, Wisconsin “Pop Power” top 40 for July 7, 1969, while Zager & Evans held the top star, #5 was no slouch for Oliver’s “Good Morning Starshine.” ♪ The Earth says hello … ♪ which is about the most intelligent line in the song. And there’s gloomy Earth talk with Credence hit, “Bad Moon Rising,” at #15.

            But my lunar loony favorite is a silly, knee-slapping spoof on the moon landing craze that must have caught the fancy of many, to land on the W’R-IT chart at a lofty #8. ♪ How about the astronaut on the ceiling | what’s your name? ♪ “Moonflight” by Vik Venus, “Alias: Your Main Moon Man,” is a must-listen memory! Even more fascinating is popular WMCA/New York City DJ, Jack Spector (1928-1994), was Vik Venus. (“Moonflight” debuted at #28 on WMCA.)

He mixed faux-media news interview questions with answers from real lines in previous song hits …♪ Let’s talk to the astronaut who just finished eating | How’s the food? …[reply] Yummy, yummy, yummy, I got love in my tummy. ♪ Heehee.

Featured Radio Survey: W’R-IT/Milwaukee’s Pop Power chart of top 40 tunes ran the gamut from moody to moonbeams … and we tagged along for the ride. 50 Years Ago this Month in Rock & Roll Radio. That awesome day when … 

Celebrate JULY 1969 and … Rock On!

  

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LinDee Rochelle is a writer and editor by trade, and author by way of Rock & Roll. She has published two books (of three) in her Blast from Your Past series, available on Amazon (eBook and print): Book 1 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The First Five Years 1954-1959; and Book 2 – Rock & Roll Radio DJs: The Swinging Sixties. Coming soon … The Psychedelic Seventies!

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