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 11th: ♪ 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 20th: 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!
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
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discretion.
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