COLD OPEN
CLICK TO START THE VIDEO NOW!
"Yesterday Once More" - The Carpenters
"Yesterday Once More" - The Carpenters
(July/Aug. 1973, highest chart position
#1 Cash Box & Easy Listening/#2 Hot 100)
Kicking off the show, musical siblings Karen & Richard, The Carpenters,
and "Yesterday Once More," a chart-topping hit from the summer
of 1973 that reminisces about songs of a generation gone by.
Hello, I'm Loris Webb...
an 80 year old granny (above)...
who's been mysteriously transformed...
into a bloomin' 20-something hottie! (below)
on the Australian science fiction mystery TV series Bloom.
I'm not my daughter's age. I'm my granddaughter's age!
I guess you could call me a late bloomer Boomer.
Here's how it happened.
A year after a devastating flood killed five people in my
idyllic country town in Victoria, a mysterious new plant
began to appear. Soon it was discovered that the plant,
unlike the "Audrey Junior" in Little Shop of Horrors,
does not sing... and does not eat people.
When consumed, the plant's berry
has the power to restore youth!
For aging locals like me, it was a gift of
power beyond our wildest imagining.
This Fountain of Youth in edible form is a miracle that some townsfolk
will kill to keep secret. (No hearing it through the grapevine.)
Maybe we should call those berries the grapes of wrath.
My friend Gwen, who was in my 1961 high school graduating class,
has been gobbling up those tutti frutties like there's no tomorrow.
(Hint: there might not be a tomorrow.)
Clearly, this is not your granddaddy's Please Don't Eat the Daisies. When Gwen
and I and other grannies and granddads turn young again, all we want to do is
raise hell, shag and keep eating those bewitched berries. Simply put, in our
little town, the boomers muncha buncha bloomers and act like they're
reborn to be wild! To complicate matters, there aren't enough
plants and berries to go around, and if you stop taking
those purple pep pills, the effect quickly wears off
and ZAP! - You're Morganized old again!
Now that you know our story, I welcome you to a sneak peek at my radio show
Loris in Bloom
exclusively here on S-P-M-M Retrosonic Radio. The oldies I play will
make Boomers like us feel young again, get us singing and dancing...
maybe even doing some romancing. So get set to relive the
glory days of your bloomin' Boomer youth as my
7-song-in-a-row block party continues!
A few days ago,
when I was 80...
I was meek, mild-
mannered... and
aging gracefully.
BOOM!
Now, after taking Love Potion No. 9 in the form of those purple pellets
and turning 60 years younger, I wanna rock & roll all night and party
every day. Thanks to that perplexing plant... all I wanna do is root.
This metamorphosis, this extreme makeover, has me baffled and bewildered.
Somehow I have gone back to the future... been given the present of the past...
and as far as my body and libido are concerned, it's "Yesterday Once More."
When I turned 60 years younger
overnight, it was a fresh start.
It felt like a warm breeze
was blowing into my life.
START VIDEO!
To help explain the feeling, I'm going
to play a German song re-written in
English by composer Johnny Mercer
and recorded by Frank Sinatra, a
chart-topping Easy Listening hit
for The Sultan of Swoon. Listen
now as Ol' Blue Eyes turns back
the clock to 1966 and makes
you young again singing--
"Summer Wind."
"Summer Wind" - Frank Sinatra
(Sept./Oct. 1966, highest chart position
#1 Easy Listening/#25 Hot 100/#26 Cash Box)
Summer breeze makes me feel high,
and I lost you to the "Summer Wind."
That was cool as a cucumber crooner
Francis Albert Sinatra with his #1
charting single from the fall of
1966, a song from the album
Strangers in the Night.
These two are frequent flyers on
S-P-M-M Retro Radio, and for
good reason. The Niagara Falls
brother - sister duo Nino Tempo
and April Stevens were smooth,
polished, poised, professional
and oh so talented. Just before
Christmas in 1965, Nino and
April appeared on Dick Clark's
American Bandstand and sang
"Begin The Beguine," the Cole
Porter song introduced in the
1935 Broadway musical Jubilee.
"Begin The Beguine" - Nino Tempo And April Stevens
(from 1964 album Nino And April Sing The Great Songs,
perf. on Dec. 18, 1965, ep. of American Bandstand)
If you're just tuning in, I'm Loris Webb...
the late bloomer Boomer, the little old lady
from Padasena the land of Oz...
... transformed by a peculiar petunia
and its bewitched beans into a younger
me - and I don't mean a little younger -
I mean a lot younger. I'm the budding,
blossoming beauty I was in my early 20s.
Let's put it this way. That perplexing plant
(I've named him Robert) has been berry
berry good to me! (BA-DUM-BUMP)
And I assure you that I'm no shy violet.
Now, let's get back to the music from
my (and your) Boomer youth. 'Twas
the spring of 1960 and I was close
to the age I am now thanks to
Halle Berry (yep, I named her)
... the fruit of that funky vine.
CLICK TO START
THE VIDEO NOW!
The Everly Brothers, Phil and Don, were topping the charts
in countries all over the world with their song- "Cathy's Clown."
"Cathy's Clown" - The Everly Brothers
(May/June 1960, highest chart position
#1 Hot 100/#1 Cash Box/#1 R&B/#1 UK)
That was "Cathy's Clown," the biggest selling record of The Everly Brothers'
long career. The single spent five weeks at #1 on Billboard and Cash Box,
seven weeks at #1 in the UK and topped the U.S. R&B chart for one week.
Loris Webb at the mic on S-P-M-M Retrosonic Radio... the station that
makes you feel young again and berry berry happy. This is my new show
Loris in Bloom
inspired by the Australian fantasy mystery TV series Bloom. The songs I'm
playing help tell the amazing true story of how I shed six decades overnight.
Now that I've gone from 80 to 20, I've hit a speed bump. My daughter
has now assumed the role of my nagging mother. She even tried to
ground me for acting like such a tart. The good news is that I've
become besties with my granddaughter. It's ladies night down
at the corner pub and she and I plan to close the joint.
This next fellow is no stranger
to the top of the chart. In 1960,
Chubby Checker's cover of the
Hank Ballard song "The Twist"
reached #1 and ignited a world-
wide dance craze. (I remember
doing "The Twist" here in the
Outback.) In 1961, Chubby
scored one of the biggest
records of the year with
another "Twist" song.
CLICK TO START
THE VIDEO NOW!
Chubby Checker chants:
"Let's Twist Again!"
"Let's Twist Again" - Chubby Checker
(July/Aug. 1961, highest chart pos.
#3 Cash Box/#8 Hot 100)
Gonna do The Twist and it goes like this! From the summer of '61,
that was Chubby Checker milking the dance craze he started
for all it was worth and landing in the top 3 winner's circle
with his follow-up hit, "Let's Twist Again."
I'm running out of time (in more
ways than one), and I hope you
enjoyed this sneak preview of
Loris in Bloom
...the new radio show that will
magically make you young again,
coming soon to Shady's Place.
Speaking of magic, stay tuned.
Coming up on the flip side of
Gary Owens' news, it's my new
best friend Erica Strange with
another edition of her series
Strange Magic Being Erica
right here on S-P-M-M...
the station that brings
you Retrosonic songs in
bloomin' Futuresonic
Stereo Surround.
CLICK TO START THE VIDEO NOW!
To play us off, Jewel Akens on Shindig! telling us about
"The Birds And The Bees!" Now this is Loris Webb leaving
you with sound advice: Never grow up - never grow old!
"The Birds And The Bees" - Jewel Akens
(Feb./Mar. 1965, highest chart pos. #2 Cash Box/#3 Hot 100,
#21 R&B, performance on Feb. 10, 1965, ep. of Shindig!)
