Joyce Martin's a Gold Digger - Vol 2: Gettin' Together

Hi again! I'm Joyce Martin.

I'm sure you remember
me from my previous
appearances here at
Shady's Place.

As you recall, I'm a good girl breaking bad... falling under
the influence of the mean girl gang known as the

I'm just trying to

fit in, but ever since

I got mixed up with

The Hellcats... my

grades have been

slipping and my

folks have been

on my case.

Not knowing which way to turn for help, I found a friend in
Professor Shady Del Knight who offered to be my sugar daddy

private tutor and help me bring up my grades. To earn extra

credit, I am doing a special research project for Professor

Knight and hosting this series at Shady's Place. It's called

Joyce Martin's  a  Gold Digger!

In each volume I display vintage top tunes surveys,

the hit parades distributed by radio stations in the
50s and 60s. Next I go digging for gold - picking
a favorite song from each list and playing it for

your listening and dancing pleasure.

I'm lucky to have this

chance to make good,

so... if you're ready...

let's dig some gold!

WNOW 1250 AM YORK

Today I'm featuring the playlists of radio
stations across Pennsylvania. Let's begin
with the survey above, issued by WNOW
12-5-0 Radio in York, Professor Shady's
hometown. It's the week of June 25,
1961, and I'm poring over WNOW's
Fabulous Forty. I think I'll play #7,
"The Boll Weevil Song," an adap-
tation of a traditional folk song
by Brook Benton with backing
by The Mike Stewart Singers,

a top 3 crossover hit nationally.

"The Boll Weevil Song" -
Brook Benton (June/July 1961,
highest chart pos. #2 Hot 100,
#2 Cash Box/#2 R&B)

WRAW 1340 AM READING

Our next stop is Reading and WRAW 1340,
another station with a Fabulous Forty. It's the
week of April 7, 1967, and I'm choosing survey
sound #36 - pop crooner Andy Williams doing

"Music To Watch Girls By," a vocal version of a
hit instrumental by The Bob Crewe Generation.

"Music To Watch Girls By" - Andy Williams

Apr. 1967, highest chart position
#34 Hot 100, #50 Cash Box)

 WLAN 1390 AM LANCASTER

We now head southwest to Prof. Shady's

old stomping ground and a visit to Lancaster,

home of station WLAN 1390. My pick comes

from the Super Heart Survey for the week of
October 7, 1967. It's Tommy James And The
Shondells with "Gettin' Together," a record
that merely cracked the top 20 nationally
but made the top 5 in Lancaster. This week
it's hanging on to the #12 spot. Here's an
ultra rare video of Tommy and his group
performing the song on the TV show
The Village Square which at the time
originated from Atlanta, Georgia!

"Gettin' Together" - Tommy James
And The Shondells (Sept./Oct. 1967,
highest chart pos. #14 Cash Box,
#18 Hot 100, live perf. on TV show
The Village Square, Atlanta, GA)

 WQTW 1570 AM LATROBE

I'm digging this gold. Hope you are, too.

We now travel all the way back out west to

Latrobe, famous for the brewing company
that makes Rolling Rock Beer. It's June 9,
 1967, and I'm plucking a song from the
WQTW 1570 Good Guy Hot Prospects,
 a list of records that are bubbling under
the top 30 in Latrobe this week. It's an
uncanny sound from the garage rock
band The Seeds, the first song they
recorded. When first released in 1965,
it was only a regional hit in California,
but when re-released in '67 it brushed
the top 40 nationally. Here now are
Sky Saxon and The Seeds with--
"Can't Seem To Make You Mine!"

"Can't Seem To Make You Mine" - The Seeds

(May/June 1967, highest chart pos.

#41 Hot 100/#55 Cash Box)

WOW! My request hotline is lighting up! 

A guy named Frankie is calling from a Muscle Beach bikini & pajama party,

and he wants to hear a song by his favorite girl-popper, Annette Funicello.

         WSBA 910 AM YORK

In that case, let's travel all the way

back across the commonwealth to

Professor Shady's hometown, York,

and a top tunes list issued by WSBA
"Hi-Fi Radio 910" later to be called
"The Nifty 9-10" and ultimately
"The Mighty 910." It's the week

of September 17, 1960, and I'm
gonna play #13 on the survey
"Pineapple Princess," a ukelele
song by Mouseketeer Annette
that brushed the top 10 on
the Billboard Hot 100.

"Pineapple Princess" - Annette

(Sept./Oct. 1960, highest chart pos.
#11 Hot 100/#15 Cash Box)

Oh shoot-- Professor Shady's waving me off!

  It time for the last play of the day, and a look at

one more vintage radio station top tunes survey.

KDKA 1020 AM PITTSBURGH

From station KDKA 1020 AM in Pittsburgh, here above is a survey listing

the top hits of 1964. I'm spinning the #6 song that year, a single by the English

rock & roll band The Dave Clark Five. This is the band's first big hit, the echo-

drenched, sax-driven, call-and-response style song that ignited their rivalry

with The Beatles and launched the British Invasion. Here are the DC5

with their big beat biggie from the spring of '64-- "Glad All Over!"

"Glad All Over" - The Dave Clark Five

(Mar./Apr. 1964, highest chart pos. #5 Cash Box/#6 Hot 100)/#1 UK)

I hope you dug this gold.

Please join me for vol. 3 of

Joyce Martin's
 a  Gold Digger.

coming soon!

Cruisin' 1959 and Huntin' With Hunter!

 It's time to do some Cruisin'! 

Cruisin' is the vinyl album series first released in 1970 through 1973.

Cruisin' did a great job of simulating top 40 radio broadcasts of the
1950s and 60s, each volume hosted by one of the great radio
personalities of the period.  Like other posts in the series,
this one contains songs found on the original Cruisin'
album along with a few other cool sounds from the
same year. It's 1959. Hop in and we'll cruise out
to the West Coast, hit the Sunset Strip and go
Huntin' with Hunter!

 HUNTER HANCOCK 

 KGFJ, Los Angeles 

 RAY CHARLES 

In 1966, the Strangeloves sang "Night Time (that's the right time)."
In writing their hit, the Strangeloves trio of Feldman, Goldstein
and Gottehrer borrowed lyrics from another song entitled
"The Right Time,"  first recorded in the fall of 1957

by R&B singer Nappy Brown.

A year later "The Genius," Ray Charles,
covered the song backed by his famous
girl group The Raelettes, and released it
with the title "(Night Time Is) The Right
Time." Brother Ray's single barely
registered on the pop chart but
went top 5 on the R&B side.

 "(Night Time Is) The Right Time" - Ray Charles 

 (Feb. 1959, highest chart pos. #95 Pop/#5 R&B) 

 PAUL ANKA 

Hunter Hancock's radio show focused on "Negro music," as he
called it, but I'm adding a couple scoops of vanilla to the mix,
songs by white artists that were popular in 1959.

A few months from now Paul Anka,
the teen heartthrob of the Fifties, will
turn age 79.  Best known for his string
of pop ballads aimed at teenagers, Anka
was also a prolific songwriter, responsible
for writing the theme of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson along with one of
Frank Sinatra's signature songs "My Way."

Paul Anka also has a list of acting credits.
Here he is in the role of Jimmy Parlow in
the 1959 movie Girls Town singing his
top 5 charting hit "It's Time To Cry."

 "It's Time To Cry" - Paul Anka 

 (Dec. 1959, highest chart pos. #4 

 scene from Oct. 1959 movie Girls Town) 

 BIG JAY MCNEELY & 

 LITTLE SONNY WARNER 

In 1964 soul man Garnet Mimms recorded an excellent rendition of the song
"There is Something on Your Mind." In the fall of 2008, York's hometown heroes,
The Del-Chords, performed the song live at the White Oaks Reunion.

The definitive version of "There is
Something on Your Mind" is the one
Hunter Hancock introduced in this
1959 edition of Cruisin' .  Tenor sax
showstopper Big Jay McNeely and
his band teamed up with satin smooth
vocalist Little Sonny Warner to record
this bluesy ballad, one of the best
sounds on the radio in 1959.

 "There is Something on Your Mind" 

 Big Jay McNeeley with vocal by Little Sonny Warner 

 (July 1959, highest chart pos. #44 Pop/#5 R&B) 

 DINAH WASHINGTON 

Pianist and jazz singer Dinah Washington called herself Queen of the Blues
and was arguably the most popular black female recording artist of the 50s.

Dinah's first top ten pop chart hit came
in the summer of 1959 when she released
"What a Diff'rence a Day Makes," a cover
of a top 5 pop hit achieved in 1934 by
the Dorsey Brothers. Sadly Dinah died
of a drug overdose at the age of 39
three weeks after the assassination
of President John F. Kennedy.

What a difference a dark
day in history makes.

 "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes" - Dinah Washington 
 (Aug. 1959, highest chart pos. #8 Pop/#4 R&B) 

 BROOK BENTON 

When Dinah Washington recorded the top 5 hit "Baby (You've Got
What It Takes)" as a duet with Brook Benton, there came a point
in the song when Benton accidentally began singing Dinah's part.
Dinah corrected him and reportedly stormed out of the studio
at the end of the session, leaving producers no choice but to
release the recording in its imperfectly perfect form.

A younger generation might remember
Brook Benton for his 1970 hit single
"Rainy Night in Georgia" but, in '59,

Brook had a huge Pop/R&B hit with
a ballad he co-wrote with Clyde Otis
entitled "It's Just a Matter of Time."

 "It's Just a Matter of Time" - Brook Benton 
 (Apr. 1959, highest chart pos. #3 Pop/#1 R&B) 

 EDD BYRNES 

 AND CONNIE   STEVENS 

He played "Kookie" Kookson the 3rd,
the street wise, hair combing, jive-
talking hipster on the hit television
 detective series 77 Sunset Strip.

She was Cricket Blake, the perky photog, lounge singer, and part time sleuth
on the hit TV detective series Hawaiian Eye. Cricket Blake was most likely the
inspiration for Cricket Blair, the blonde tressed model turned lawyer on Y&R.

Together, Kookie and Cricket made sweet music, if you want to call it that.
"Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)," a novelty single performed by
Edd Byrnes and Connie Stevens, was released at a time when the buzz-
worthy young stars were seeing a meteoric rise in the value of their stock.
Byrnes was already riding high as the breakout scene stealer on 77 Sunset
Strip and Connie was in production on Hawaiian Eye, a series that would
send her popularity skyrocketing in the months and years that followed.

Connie Stevens and Edd "Kookie" Byrnes were hip and trendy and so was

their record. Radio stations played it and fans bought it. While serious

artists bristled, "Lend Me Your Comb" brushed past other records

on the chart and reached the top 5 by a hair.  Like, lay it on me!

 "Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)" 

 Edward Byrnes and Connie Stevens 

 (June 1959, highest chart pos. #4) 

Rad, dad! Now let's kick our jets

and like blow this scene, baby!

 Don't miss the next thrill packed 

 episode of Cruisin' coming soon! 

Have a Shady day!