Beatles, Barbra & a Buzzard
For a 39er (39 and Holding several years over), it’s just plain fun writing about Rock and Roll and the pioneering Radio DJs who helped make the hits of yesteryear.
It’s especially meaningful when you’re
reliving it as you write, listening to a replay of WOR-FM/New York’s New Year’s Eve 1969 100
Top Hits of the Sixties, like “I Got You, Babe”* (1965; coming in around #88).
Give it a try—how many songs can you sing along to?—well, at
least the chorus. This Top 100 list
isn’t WOR’s 2018 replay on Rewound Radio—every
“Top 100” of any era is subjective to its compiler and sources. Seriously … you
can have a list of a thousand top ‘60s hits and it wouldn’t capture all the
great songs of that decade. I guarantee you’ll still enjoy it.
So let’s see what fun we can conjure up as we step back to
one of the most prolific music months of 1968. While our summer tans began to
fade …
September 18: Barbra Streisand took her
award-winning Broadway musical, Funny Girl, to the
big screen. For me, the enigmatic song, “People,” was the most
profound tune of the movie. Streisand made it her first Top 40 hit in 1964 when
the stage production debuted, and it regenerated for The Tymes in 1968. Funny Girl’s ad for the Goldman Theatre debut,
graced the back cover of WFIL/Philadelphia’s
September 30, 1968 Boss 30 chart. Barbra gave women the courage to love themselves as-is in a decade when we were just beginning to realize our potential. ♪ But first be a person who needs people ♪; and one who can always look in the mirror and say, “Hello, gorgeous!”
September 28: WHK-FM radio made history in Cleveland, as the last FM station in the Metromedia dynasty to succumb to the nationally popular progressive rock and freeform format.
Do you recall when it signed back
on the air as WMMS? It was an
ego-thing, originally meaning MetroMedia Stereo. Arguably, its best-ever
broadcast incarnation, becoming unstoppable by the time “The Buzzard” logo was
adopted in 1974.
But, back to the chart toppers 50 Years Ago This Month. They pulled at your heartstrings and pushed
you into daydreams and nightmares. Something for everyone!
*Just for fun … let’s peek into our future from
1968, what was the decade’s #1 hit on WOR/New
York in December 1969? September 1968’s
“Hey Jude,”** by The Beatles. ♪ Don't carry the world upon
your shoulders | For well you know
that it's a fool who plays it cool …♪ (**This video is hilarious—back when
you could get up close & personal with celebrities.)
Featured Radio
Survey: WFIL/Philly is
our featured radio survey, with not only the Funny Girl ad, but a “Revolution” goin’ on—sorta—as fans pushed The
Beatles song up to #1, tied with its flip side, MOST POPULAR of the whole
DECADE, “Hey Jude” … 50 Years Ago This Month. Rev up your memories and
recall that awesome day
when …
Celebrate SEPTEMBER 1968 and … Rock On!
Share on Twitter: @BlastFromPastBk
LinDee Rochelle is a writer
and editor by trade, and an 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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