1970s … Enjoy the Moment ... Again
In the effort to save my efforts, I'm streamlining this page from July 1970 on, to add only the monthly article titles, with a link to their pages. My apology if this causes extra effort on your part to read them. At my age, my time is worth more than any effort put forth for anything by anyone. Rock On! 😎👇
November 1970 ~ From Jukebox Day to Texas Radio Hall of Fame DJ!
October 1970 ~ Are You Ready to Howl?! It's ROCKtober!
September 1970 ~ Surf the Wave of One-Hit Wonders
August 1970 ~ Summer Sweat, Snow, and War
July 1970 ~ From Tinny Transistor to YouTube! My Treat ...
June 1970 ~ Answer to War: Bean Bag Chair & a Lava Lamp!
October 1970 ~ Are You Ready to Howl?! It's ROCKtober!
September 1970 ~ Surf the Wave of One-Hit Wonders
August 1970 ~ Summer Sweat, Snow, and War
July 1970 ~ From Tinny Transistor to YouTube! My Treat ...
June 1970 ~ Answer to War: Bean Bag Chair & a Lava Lamp!
Have
you lounged in a Bean Bag Chair lately? 50 years ago, they were fun and
challenging. Now they’re just infuriating to anyone over fifty. In 1970 we paid
around $19.99 for the kitschy seating. That’s about a quarter of the price you’ll
pay now, to purchase one you might actually roll out of!
While vegging in a bean bag chair, June 1970 also saw
us entranced by a lava lamp, with the radio blaring “Lay a Little Lovin’ [on
me]” (Robin McNamara), or particularly pertinent to a June 1 post 50 years
later, “War”
by Edwin
Starr.
I’ve
been around for five decades with both—foreign and domestic war—and it is absolutely
good for nothing. It devastates lives needlessly. Whatever the warring
principle reason (except for country protection), no amount of violence
is going to solve it. In most cases, war makes everything worse, dealing with
the aftermath—governmentally, financially, psychologically, and individually.
That
said, let’s get on with the lighter, musical side of life and put all the violent
people in a bean bag chair—they’ll eventually be laughing too hard trying to
get out, to fight! Rock On …
50 Years
Ago this Month ~ JUNE 1970
Our Featured
Radio Survey for this month took their survey design to a subtly salacious
level and I seriously doubt they paid for using the trademark bunny logo. It
was a more lenient era when companies often thought that any publicity was good
publicity—even if the logo generated commercial revenue.
I miss those days. Obviously, if a brand’s logo is used for
blatant massive profitability, that’s one thing; but a radio station or other
business / individual who uses a logo for fleeting or common-interest promotion
and/or comment, is another. But I digress.
“Back
in the good ol’ days,” radio stations often grabbed a company’s emblem for fun
and frivolity, like the WAIR/Winston-Salem’s (NC) June 26,1970
music chart. It was Playboy magazine’s heyday and
everyone knew the cute little bunny meant surreptitiously sexy. I’ll bet it got
the intended attention.
Poignantly, this Spring marked the final print issue of Hugh Hefner’s steamy legacy—its first issue bounced off
the presses for December 1953. The publication is still digitally available
(and some might say even better), but can that ever be the same?
Seriously,
how can teenage boys everywhere stash a print issue under their mattress so the
parents won’t see it? Although it does likely make the print versions even more
desirable for collectors. (And mom knew it was there; and dad likely knew,
chuckling at his own youthful memories.)
About
the man behind the bunny, Art Paul (1925-2018), Playboy says, “Paul was Hefner’s very
first hire—founding art director of the nascent PLAYBOY—and he quickly proved
his worth, drafting the now ubiquitous Rabbit Head in less than an hour.”
Partly
in thanks to Paul’s imagery, women and girls wanted to be a Playboy
Bunny, and
the guys … well … the bunny will live on in the archives of Boomers’
memories.
On Your Transistor Radio
Dial ~ JUNE 1970
Although “Lay a Little Lovin’” made WAIR’s
top twenty, “War” hit the chart as a “Hot Prospect,” bubbling under the radar
and on its way up.
Other
pockets of the country kept love tunes—won and lost—at the top, for this
traditional wedding month, like KYNO/Fresno,
California, and DJ
Sean Conrad. Fans obviously disillusioned with marriage thought Freda Payne’s “Band of Gold” was Right
On! and boosted it up to #2 in the June 24th issue of their “Boss 30.”
On the other hand, and other side of the country, DJ Pat
O’Day kept the turntable spinning for Orlando Florida’s WLOF
fans who heated up the “Fun 40” chart with Rare Earth’s “Get Ready” hugging the
#1 spot. ♪ And I'm bringing you a love that's
true | So get ready, so get ready … ♪
Featured
Radio Survey: WAIR/Winston-Salem, North
Carolina personified the sexy ‘70s in this month’s “Music Power Survey” with
that playful Playboy Bunny, decidedly not your Easter Bunny! Check out
the list of airwave attributes they claimed for their DJ “Playboys” … 50 Years Ago this Month in Rock & Roll Radio! Where were you that groovy day when
your radio played …
Celebrate JUNE 1970 and … Rock On!
Share on Twitter: @BlastFromPastBk
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!
Note: FYI – All links in the BFYP site are personally
visited, verified, and vetted. Most are linked to commonly accessed sites of
reputable note. However, as with everything cyber-security, use at your own
discretion.
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MAY 1970 ~ Expressive
Creativity Comes with Personal Freedom
The 1970s erupted in decadence, personal freedoms, and expressive
creativity. Oh wait … let me rephrase that … it reminded us of all those
expressions. We’ve enjoyed them in various degrees of inanity and insanity,
every decade since the inception of our
country.
Truth
be told, much of those movements resurfaced in the late 1960s, but we embraced
and honed their definitions in the ‘70s. Enjoying a modern-day Renaissance of
sorts, art permeated every aspect of life, from ornate and “mod” fabrics,
to elaborate scrollwork
jewelry, even adorning the music charts of our Rock and Roll radio stations
…
50 Years
Ago this Month ~ MAY 1970
Let’s
face it, the major market stations and neophyte wannabes played the same songs,
over, and over, and over … but in all fairness, we did request them. Our voices
gave structure to the order of songs’ appearance in any given week and various
geographical radio markets, reflected in Radio music charts.
The point being, we could drive across the country and still
hear the same songs. So why choose one station over another in our local areas?
From coast-to-coast In May 1970, stations took 1960s’ pop art, added a little elaborate Art Nouveau, and leaned heavy into the psychedelia, to adorn their surveys and
grab our attention. Many were quite unique in creative designs, if not in their
top 40 tunes.
Traditional scrollwork blended with swirls and curlicues
that flowed into celestial details, punctuated with “Outasight” and “Righteous”
exclamations. And often, they inserted “let’s-see-if-they’re-really-reading-this”
text into the art, with amusing or outlandish statements like, “Under 1 billion
listeners.” 
The stations’ artistic music charts reflected life around us
in carnival mirror images. We were treated to ornate artistry reminiscent of
the past like—KOL/ Seattle,
Washington, May 29, 1970—while others capitalized on the ‘70s popularity
of futuristic space travel, astronomy and astrology like—KADI/St. Louis, Missouri, May 6, 1970.
Establishing an identity with art
was not a priority for others, though. Take the plain-Jane chart
On
Your Tinny Transistor Radio ~ MAY 1970 (radio/music & DJs)
With
the songs all the same, it took outstanding musicality to grab our attention
with a tune. Calling all memories! What songs stood out for us in this spring
month, oh so long ago? While your reminiscences bubble to the surface, let me
ask if you recall …
“Everything
is Beautiful” by Ray Stevens … apparently
we thought so (and still do). This upbeat, truly righteous tune hit several
stations’ top 20 about the same time, as it climbed into the top 10 for a nice
run. It marked Stevens as a serious songwriter, after a run of novelty songs. Did
you hear him a year earlier in the top 10, without a serious bone in his body,
belting out, ♪ Gitarzan he’s a gitar
man ♪ in a thin disguise defining
the music industry’s “jungle”?
Two of this month’s showcased surveys carried “Cecilia” in the top 10.
Seattle’s KOL only got it up to #29 by the end of the month. Simon & Garfunkel outdid
themselves again, with another hit song from their much-touted Bridge Over
Troubled Water album. Rumor has it, the title pays tribute to the Catholic patron saint of music … but Simon reportedly wrote
the lyrics with a deceitful paramour in mind … two very conflicting concepts. ♪
Celia, you’re breaking my heart … ♪
Ya know what can make one vintage music survey more
collectable than another? Misprints & misspellings. For instance, two of
the three survey charts for the above radio stations gave “Cecilia” the
common name spelling of “Cecelia.” Only KOL spelled it properly
for the patron saint.
Featured
Radio Survey: KADI/St. Louis, Missouri, wins
the coveted Featured Radio Survey spot for this month. It’s colorful, fun, and
truly “Déjà Vu” (C.S.N.&Y.,
aka, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young), as the song tops the chart. … 50
Years Ago this Month in Rock &
Roll Radio! Where were you that groovy day when
your radio played … ♪ We have all been
here before ♪
Celebrate MAY 1970 and … Rock On!
Share on Twitter: @BlastFromPastBk
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!
Note: FYI – All links in the BFYP site are personally
visited, verified, and vetted. Most are linked to commonly accessed sites of
reputable note. However, as with everything cyber-security, use at your own
discretion.
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APRIL 1970 ~ Earth
Day Cometh & The Beatles Go-eth
While
President Richard Nixon put his John Hancock on a bill to limit cigarette
advertisements (took effect the following January), Wisconsin senator, Gaylord
Nelson founded our first Earth Day. Americans eagerly
celebrated on April 22nd and it’s grown into a
movement, not just a day.
Rock and Roll related April celebrations once
included an “International ‘Louie Louie’ Day.” Apparently, that fell by the wayside, but WE still
remember it, don’t we? Blast from Your Past DJ Ken Chase (aka Mike Korgan)
produced The Kingsmen’s version in April 1963
and it still endures as the ultimate party song! ♪ Louie Louie, oh baby
| We gotta go …! ♪
Let’s
get our dancin’ shoes on and head into a feel-good COVID-19 note about International
Guitar Month! April recognizes the many outstanding guitarists and classic strummin’
tunes over the decades. Of course that features incredible Rock and Roll songs.
WMGK/Philadelphia’s
Andre Gardner may be broadcasting from home (as are most radio pros these
days), but he’s still “cranking up the volume” on this month’s greatest top guitar hits for Philly’s
listeners.
Watch for Blast from Your Past 1970’s Book 3 (hopefully later
this year) with tales of Andre’s broadcasting debut!
Of course, the song that hits the
top of nearly everyone’s “best guitar” tune list, is 1971’s “Stairway to Heaven”* (Led Zeppelin, for those under a rock). But #7 on KFRC’s April
22nd survey 50 Years Ago this Month often qualifies in the top
50 … The Guess Who’s “American Woman.” ♪ American Woman | You’re no good for me | And
I’m no good for you | American Woman … ♪
Yes,
this month’s article is a little long, but I guess I had a lot to say. Hope you’re
enjoying the memories. Let’s see what music on the radio played to make the
world go ‘round …
50 Years
Ago this Month ~ APRIL 1970
It’s true, the
Fab Four splintered into four solo acts. The story goes that John Lennon asked
for a group divorce back in 1969, so Paul orchestrated The Beatles’ final days,
and his first solo album was recorded on the low-down while prepping for a
final exit …
April 10th: It’s official! Paul McCartney
formally announced The Beatles’ breakup. While the band and fans got used to
the idea of a world without The Beatles, Paul masqueraded as a musical “Billy
Martin” at the studios to compose, compile and record. And, just a week later …
April 17th:
The second solo album by a former Beatles member released on this date, simply
and aptly titled, McCartney. You might recall a little ditty written for
his beloved Linda, “Maybe I’m Amazed.”
♪ Maybe I’m amazed at the way I really
need you … ♪
Meanwhile, the final group effort, “Let
It Be,” began its slide down the radio chart lists. Exit … The Beatles … enter
… Paul, and soon, on “Wings.”
On Your Tinny Transistor
Radio
This month’s Featured Radio Survey from KFRC/San Francisco not
only showcased a playful McCartney on the front cover, but a shaggy-haired Joe
Cocker on the back, advertising his upcoming concert at the Filmore West.
Joe recorded “The Letter”
on St. Patrick’s Day the previous month and it already claimed #12 with San
Fran fans, topping out at #3 by May 20th. ♪ Give me a ticket for an airoplane | I ain’t got time to take no fast
train … My baby she wrote me a letter … ♪
However, Joe was nowhere to be seen on WTRY/New
York’s April 17 Big Sound Survey. On the other hand, were you listening
to morning guy Jay Clark when you called to request “Let It Be”? It
still held the top spot.
Featured
Radio Survey: A bearded Paul McCartney sat comfortably on the cover of KFRC/San
Francisco’s Big 30, April 22, 1970 … 50 Years Ago this Month in
Rock & Roll Radio! Where were you that groovy day when
your radio played …
[* A note worth making from 1971: Before launching into the
lyrics of Stairway to Heaven, Robert Plant
comments, “I think this is a song of hope.” Rereading the lyrics, I think he’s right … and it’s hope
we need right now. In long form we’re mesmerized throughout ten minutes of Jimmy Page’s mind-bending
guitar and Plant’s classic Rock voice that are worth listening to … and thinking
of hope … Plant offers other spoken lyrics between stanzas, none more poignant
for today than, “Does anybody remember laughter?"
♪ When she gets there she knows, if the
stores are all closed
| With a word she can get what she came for … And a new day will dawn
for those who stand long | And the forests will echo with laughter …
♪]
Celebrate APRIL 1970 and … Rock On!
Share on Twitter: @BlastFromPastBk
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!
Note: FYI – All links in the BFYP site are personally
visited, verified, and vetted. Most are linked to commonly accessed sites of
reputable note. However, as with everything cyber-security, use at your own
discretion.
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MARCH 1970 ~ Rocking Memory Lane on a Sentimental Journey
Every
relationship that succumbs to “nothing lasts forever,” has a sentimental
journey, whether we admit it or not. Just sometimes, it’s tough to remember the
good times …
50 Years
Ago this Month ~ MARCH 1970
March 6th: The Beatles rolled out their swan
song, "Let It Be" on this date, a full two months
prior to the same titled album release, and a month before Paul McCartney
announced his departure and dissolution of the band (April 10, 1970).
The Beatles
grace the inside of KHJ/Los Angeles’s “Boss 30” Featured* music survey this month on which nary
a Fab Four note is seen on the chart. It almost appears that sheepish George, Paul
and John are peeking out from behind Ringo’s bravado, as another chapter ends
in Rock & Roll history.
March 11th: In case you’re curious about winners
from 1970’s 12th Grammy Awards on this date, here’s a few for your tuneful
memories – Record of the Year: “Aquarius”/”Let the Sunshine In” (The Fifth Dimension), Best New Artist: Crosby Stills & Nash, Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female: Peggy Lee for “Is That All There Is?”. Ah … ♪ Let’s just keep dancing ♪ …
March 27th: Rather interesting is Ringo Starr’s
release on this day, of his first solo album, Sentimental Journey.
Considering only song titles reflecting their imminent break-up, The
Beatles’ “Let It Be” (above) let’s them wash their hands
of the band, while Starr’s “Sentimental Journey” gives it perspective. Awwww.
The album is a who’s-who of classic
romance and love-lost tunes like, “Stardust” (1927), “Love is a Many-Splendored
Thing” (1955), and “You Always Hurt the One You Love” (1944). Was he trying to tell his bandmates
something? … ♪ It’s because I love you most of all ♪ …
On Your Tinny Transistor
Radio ~ MARCH 1970
Many a Radio DJ has lamented self-deprecatingly, “I have a face only for radio!” It was just the opposite, when the Real Don Steele showed up at KHJ/L.A.’s door in the mid-Sixties. They soon took advantage of Don’s photogenic California style and tapped him for their “Boss City” TV show by 1970. Smart move.
Some
stations of the era struggled with radio’s progressive changes and upgrades,
like one that had a revolving door of formats and call letters, until finding
its niche. KFMS/San
Francisco began in 1968 at 106.1 as a new FM format for Top 40
power station, KFRC.
Not
only stations, but the FM
signal was still fishing for its true calling and KFRC
610 AM established 106.1 as an innovative automated system—one of the first in the country—KFMS. Playing
“Late Great and Favorite Goldens,” without the familiar DJ chatter, its chart
songs are alphabetical. It listed many of the current hits, but not a rank
number in sight.
No
doubt there was a call for simple, round-the-clock favorites, sans all the hype,
which lasted until 1972 when it switched call letters again to KKEE,
before reverting to KFRC-FM in
September 1973. It rested, playing oldies and early soft rock as “K106,”
finally finding its (somewhat) forever-home in the late ‘70s. Surely, if you
were a NorCal resident then, you recall the KMEL!
Yep—106.1 soon became another legendary Rock station of the 1980s.
Featured
Radio Survey ~ MARCH 1970
Though many of us focused on the demise of The Beatles, another breakup was in
the works with the duo of Simon
& Garfunkel. They too were splitting after a #1 hit, “Bridge Over Troubled Water,”
calling it quits later in the year. It hit the top at *KHJ/Los Angeles’
“Boss 30,” March 4, 1970 … 50 Years Ago
this Month in Rock & Roll Radio!
Where were you that groovy day when
…
Celebrate MARCH 1970 and … Rock On!
Share on Twitter: @BlastFromPastBk
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!
Note: FYI – All links in the BFYP site are personally
visited, verified, and vetted. Most are linked to commonly accessed sites of
reputable note. However, as with everything cyber-security, use at your own
discretion.
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
February 1970 ~ He
Ain’t Heavy … He’s my Metalhead
50 Years
Ago this Month ~
FEBRUARY 1970
Let’s start by
putting 1970 in perspective … a new house cost $10,000 less (about $24,000)
than today’s new car … and gas for your car averaged less per gallon than
today’s candy bar, on sale. Sigh … now these are stats that truly make us pine
for the “good ol’ days”!
Fashion-wise,
we were striped, flared, leathered and booted up, swinging our suede fringe and
contrarily by night, glowing with evening brocade.
Music-wise, Rock & Roll continued
to evolve, adding more of that new weighty sound to the mix … gloom and doom
with an eerily heavy hand.
You could
still find plenty of Psychedelic Pop Rock and sinuous soul on the radio charts,
like “Psychedelic Shack” (Temptations) and “The Thrill is Gone” (B.B. King)--#4 & #6,
respectively at KFRC 610/San Francisco. But we crashed into our metal
years on …
Friday the
13th: Not
your ordinary spooky day, it was no accident that an album in the UK, arguably deemed
Rock’s initial foray to the dark side, would debut. Great marketing ploy … Want
to wallow in doom and despair? Play the opener, “Black Sabbath,”
on the self-titled band’s song/album and submerge yourself. Quickly
gaining English popularity, it landed in the US in June.
Already considered the devil’s work by super-conservative parents, Rock’s
rebel side with Black Sabbath gave February 1970 an edgy,
leather-and-metal sound.
By 1971, Geezer Butler (one of Sabbath’s four founding
members, including the iconic Ozzy Osbourne) explained their name choice and song
title to Rolling Stone magazine, “It’s a satanic world. The devil’s more
in control now. People can’t come together, there’s no equality.” Makes great
music fodder, and yet … what have we learned in 50 years?
February 27th: On a lighter and incongruous note, our parents still worked
at curbing our youthful radical ways, to obvious failure … Jefferson
Airplane found
themselves fined $1,000 for buoyantly spouting profanity on stage at an Oklahoma
City concert. Oh, the horrors of it …
While they are credited with the distinction of the only group to grace
the stages of the 1960s’ three most iconic Rock festivals—Monterey Pop, Woodstock,
and Altamont—1970 would signal the beginning of the
end for San Francisco’s beloved band.
Why is it that many music groups write and/or record
some of their best work as they’re breaking up? Is it “swan song”
syndrome? Just released in January, Simon and Garfunkel’s
final studio album and title song, “Bridge Over Troubled Water,”
topped the charts in February. ♪
Like a bridge over troubled water | I will ease your
mind …♪
Though
Paul Simon wrote the song, he suggested Art Garfunkel’s pure solo vocals
best showcased Bridge’s myriad of musical genres for the ultimate
soulful sound. His hunch worked. Were you listening to DJ
Chuck Browning as he spun Bridge to the top of KFRC/San
Francisco’s February 11th radio chart?
Of course, it’s Valentines month, and there were
plenty of love songs topping the charts in 1970. Another DJ
Chuck (Leonard)
played them for WABC/New
York’s lovesick fans who favored ballads and lost loves early in the month.
Shocking Blue gave us “Venus” at #2—She’s got it—while Tom Jones crooned
his broken hearted blues “Without Love” (#6) I had nothing, nothing at all.
Featured
Radio Survey: Ending
the month of love, we began our trip down the music rabbit hole with Three Dog
Night’s “Celebrate” moving quickly up the final February chart. Check out WLS/Chicago’s
“Hit Parade” survey for February 23, 1970, with DJs Chuck Buell and
Kris Stevens to greet you … 50
Years Ago this Month in Rock &
Roll Radio! Where were you that groovy day when
…
Celebrate FEBRUARY 1970 and … Rock On!
Share on Twitter: @BlastFromPastBk
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!
Note: FYI – All links in the BFYP site are personally
visited, verified, and vetted. Most are linked to commonly accessed sites of
reputable note. However, as with everything cyber-security, use at your own
discretion.
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
January 1970 ~ The Swingin’ Sixties Swing into The Psychedelic Seventies!
50 Years
Ago this Month
We Rocked
through the Sixties… now it’s time to Roll into another Golden Decade of
Rock & Roll Radio and the DJs who brought us into … the Psychedelic
Seventies TM!
And
yes, for those who care, as we dip our toes into the ocean of Golden Oldies, I
shall be working side-by-side with the first few months of ‘70s memories, on my
3rd book (finally, again)—The Psychedelic Seventies—in the Blast
from Your Past series. I know I’ve been promising it since Book 2 (1960s)
published, but ya know … life often gets in the way of our best laid plans. So,
I’m back at it! With that update, let’s party on …
On
Your Tinny Transistor Radio ~ JANUARY 1970
The first few weeks of January, *WCFL/Chicago’s
top 40 toppers wrestled for the top 5 spots, with no one song staying too long.
Until … Sly and the Family Stone got the station’s audience attention and
started moving up the chart.
The January
12th survey on ARSA seems normal at first, but looking closely
to see where songs were at the beginning of the year, I spotted survey info
contributor, Craig Pucci,
having some fun with his August 6, 2014 posting … where Sly & The Family
Stone appeared at #20, he just had to list their song with the mondegreen
title “…Thank
You Fa Lettinme Be Mice Elf Agin.” Heehee. Cool. Most other stations
went with just “Thank You” and KHJ
fans on the “left coast,” liked their “B” side better, “Everybody is a Star.”
Of course, the “straight” song
title is “Thank You for
Lettin’ Me be Myself Again.” It stayed in the top 10 nearly all the way
through February.
January 14th: With
their farewell swan song, “Someday
We’ll be Together,” barely hanging on the chart’s top 20, Diana Ross &
The Supremes headline the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas for a final live concert.
Ross headed off to a solo career, snubbing her replacement, Jean
Terrell, with a dry, onstage introduction capping the end of the last show.
January 15th: As
streaking led us into the promiscuous Seventies, John
Lennon continued his self-expressive style, opening an exhibit of
lithographs titled Bag One, in The London Arts Gallery. It was short-lived,
however, as Scotland Yard confiscated eight of the fourteen lithos, for
displaying eroticism. Guess they hadn’t quite caught up with the times, as a
case against Lennon for distribution of indecent material was ultimately
dismissed.
January 21st:
Let’s hear it for the wolfman! Every year on January 21st, BFYP
celebrates the birthday of our self-proclaimed “Original Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal,”
Wolfman
Jack! He’d have been 82 years old this month. BFYP
keeps his spirit Rockin’, with the book series dedicated to the innovative,
one-of-a-kind DJ.
One
of my favorite quotes from Book 2: This is Wolfman Jack, skinny-dippin’ in
the oil of joy down here on XERB,
the tower of flower power. Fifty thousand watts of soul power. Awwoooooo!
*Featured Radio
Survey: WCFL/Chicago must have thought DJ Jim Stagg needed a younger, more female-appealing sobriquet, so in this January 26, 1970 survey, he is "Jimmy P. Stagg." Alrighty. Either way, he's a cool BFYP DJ, with great behind-the-mic
true tales in both Book
1, Book 2 and coming soon (or eventually), Book 3. … 50 Years Ago this Month in
Rock & Roll Radio! Where were you that groovy day when
…
Celebrate JANUARY 1970 and … Rock On!
Share on Twitter: @BlastFromPastBk
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!
Note: FYI – All links in the BFYP site are personally
visited, verified, and vetted. Most are linked to commonly accessed sites of
reputable note. However, as with everything cyber-security, use at your own
discretion.
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