Dit Dit Dah Dit Dit Dit Dah Dah Dit Dah Dit Dah Dit Dah - Translation: Shady Wants a Whole Lotta April Love!

 TWO MONTHS HAVE PASSED 

 SINCE VALENTINE'S DAY.  

 IT'S TIME FOR ANOTHER 

 HEAPING HELPING OF LOVE. 

 WANNA WHOLE LOTTA LOVE? 

 YOU GOT IT! 

 ...A WHOLE LOTTA 

 APRIL LOVE! 

 PAT BOONE 

Seems to me that if you make a record and a movie called "April Love,"
it would make sense to release them in April, right? Instead, the ballad
movie theme waxed by clean cut crooner Pat Boone hit the street
just before Halloween 1957. The musical comedy starring Pat
and leading lady Shirley Jones was first released in the U.S.

around Thanksgiving. Here's Pat singing the song in the film.

 "April Love" - Pat Boone 

 (scene from Nov. 1957 film April Love) 

Apparently Pat, his record company, Dot, and Twentieth Century Fox Pictures
all knew what they were doing. April Love finished the 4th most popular movie
of 1957 and Pat's recorded theme was such a huge hit that it remained on the

pop chart through Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, Valentine's Day -
heck, six full months - until... you guessed it, April of 1958!
Here now is the version released on the single.

 "April Love" - Pat Boone 

 (Dec. 1957/Jan. 1958, highest chart pos. 
 #1 Hot 100/#3 Cash Box) 

It's easy to understand why Pat Boone
and his record company were confident
enough to release "April Love" in the fall.

Pat's single "Love Letters in the Sand,"
released in May of that year, lasted an
astonishing 34 weeks on the chart - 2/3
of a year! Pat Boone, the antithesis of
hip shaking Elvis the Pelvis, was so
popular with older record buyers that  

he could have topped the chart on the
4th of July with "Here Comes Santa
Claus." Give us some more sugar, Pat!

 "Love Letters in the Sand" 
 - Pat Boone (June/July 1957, 
 highest chart position 

 #1 Hot 100 & Cash Box) 

 PEARLS BEFORE SWINE 

My grandparents lived in Melbourne, Florida. In 1962 I rode down with my parents

to see them. I had no way of knowing how close I would come to crossing paths

with a guy who, five years later, would become one of my idols.

Born in North Dakota, singer, songwriter

and civil rights lawyer Tom Rapp lived

in Minnesota and Pennsylvania before

moving to Eau Gallie, Florida, a com-

munity only minutes away from my grandparents' double-wide. Rapp

arrived there in 1963, a year after

my visit. In 1965 Rapp formed the

esoteric, psychedelic folk rock band

Pearls Before Swine. In the fall of

1967 "PBS" released their debut

album One Nation Underground,

a long-play that had a tremendous

impact on me during my college

years. No other set of songs did

more to expand my horizons.

One of the songs on One Nation Underground has lyrics spoken in Morse Code:
"dit dit dah dit - dit dit dah - dah dit dah dit - dah dit dah." (Morse Code: F-you-C-K) 😀
Listen now to what might be the ultimate love song - "(Oh Dear) Miss Morse."

 "(Oh Dear) Miss Morse" - Pearls Before Swine 

 (from Oct. 1967 album One Nation Underground) 

 LOVE 

Image courtesy Aware

Record Research Library

Now I'd like you to hear one of the
greatest songs never to be played
at the Shady Dell. In the spring of
1967 I was blown away when I
heard a local York garage band
perform "She Comes in Colors."

I didn't know that the original
version had been recorded the
year before by a West Coast
band called Love.

I liked "She Comes In Colors"
so much that I bought the first
two Love albums on blind faith
alone. To my delight both LPs
are loaded with psychedelic rock
nuggets. Instantly I was (wait for it)
addicted to Love!

 "She Comes in Colors" - Love 

 (Dec. 1966, uncharted) 

Love, a racially mixed, 5-man Los Angeles band led by Arthur Lee, was the first
rock band signed to Elektra records. Love’s music is complex and sophisticated,
an innovative fusion of folk-rock, baroque pop, flamenco and psychedelia.
Playing instruments avoided by most bands such as flute, saxophone and
harpsichord, Love created music that still sounds fresh and interesting.

While Love remained most popular

in Southern California, two of their

singles managed to reach the national

chart, beginning with a tough sounding

rock version of the Burt Bacharach

song "My Little Red Book" which
peaked in June of 1966 and was

reissued nearly 20 years later in

Rhino's Nuggets album series.

 "My Little Red Book" - Love 

 (June 1966, highest chart pos. 
 #35 Cash Box/#52 Hot 100) 

The second Love single, "7 And 7 Is," reached
the top 40 in the late summer that same year.

 "7 And 7 Is" - Love 

 (Sept. 1966, highest chart pos. #33 Hot 100 & Cash Box) 

Love’s refusal to tour hurt them, and
so did the limited commercial appeal
of their music. As a result, Love re-
mained a cult band in the shadow
of The Doors, their much more
successful Elektra Records
label mates.

Love never goes out of style.
Today, Arthur Lee and his band
of musical misfits are lauded by
critics as one of the best, most
underrated bands of the 60s,
and a new generation of fans
is discovering (wait for it)

there’s a lot to Love!

Have a Shady day!

Stuck Like Glue On Shady Blue - Vol. 3 The $64,000 Question: Who Put the Bomp?

BOOTH ANNOUNCER GARY OWENS:

...and the cow was returned to its rightful owner.

And that's the latest from S-P-M-M news...
fast, up-to-the-minute, completely fake
and proud of it. Now stand by for

 STUCK LIKE GLUE 

 on SHADY BLUE 

on the station that's #1 for music and fun - S-P-M-M!

CLICK TO START THE VIDEO NOW!

PIGGYBACK COLD OPEN:
CLICK TO PLAY SECOND VIDEO

AT 9 SEC. MARK OF FIRST VIDEO!

"Who Put The Bomp (In The Bomp, Bomp, Bomp)" - Barry Mann

(Sept. 1961, highest chart pos. #7 Hot 100 & Cash Box)

Hey, old school's the rule...
and you're stuck like glue on Shady Blue!

How are ya doing, this morning?
You're tuned to the greatest little
station in the nation, S-P-M-M,
home of The Shady Bunch.
Kicking off the show you heard
songwriter Barry Mann singing
his one and only top 10 hit as a

solo recording artist, "Who Put
The Bomp," a ditty he co-wrote
with Gerry Goffin. Background
vocals on that record were done
by the Bronx doo-wop group
The Halos.

The El Dorados, a doo-wop group from Chicago, are best known
for their chart-topping R&B hit "At My Front Door" released in
August 1955. Wouldn't you know it, mild-mannered pop crooner
Pat Boone waxed a cover of the song and had his vanilla version
on the radio and in record shops a couple of weeks later!

CLICK TO START THE VIDEO NOW!

Shady Blue always gives credit where its due. The Patster's
whitewashed, sanitized cover is so bad... it's great. Go Pat, go!

"At My Front Door (Crazy Little Mama)" - Pat Boone

(Nov./Dec. 1955, highest chart pos. #7 Hot 100/#8 Cash Box)

That was Mr. Clean, Pat Boone, doing a decent job of covering

"At My Front Door," originally recorded by the El Dorados.

Shady Blue keeping you company on
S-P-M-M Retrosonic Radio, and now
 here's a song written by Bert Berns,
the influential songwriter and producer

who founded two of the coolest record

labels of the 1960s - Bang and Shout.

"Tell Her" was first recorded in the
spring of '62 by Johnny Thunder.
His platter failed to chart. By
the end of the year the song
was famous thanks to a
cover with a slightly

different title waxed
by the R&B group
The Exciters.

START VIDEO NOW!

Check it out... a record that made Billboard's list of The 100
Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time. The Exciters-- "Tell Him!"

"Tell Him" - The Exciters

(Dec. 1962/Jan. 1963, highest chart pos.

#4 Hot 100/#5 Cash Box/#5 R&B)

"Tell Him," a top 5 hit by The Exciters, featuring Brenda Reid, a little lady

with powerful pipes, a "girl group" that included her husband Herb Rooney.

If you're just tuning in, you're Stuck Like

Glue on Shady Blue and this is S-P-M-M,

where we go hunting for great sounds of

the past and bring 'em back alive. In the

early to mid 60s, this next young lady's

voice was heard singing soda pop

jingles as "The Pepsi Girl." Billed

as "The Voice of the Sixties" she

made records with Edd "Kookie"

Byrnes of 77 Sunset Strip, waxed

solo singles and albums and

acted on TV and in movies.

START VIDEO NOW!

As a recording artist she worked with some of the best songwriters,

arrangers and producers in the business. Nevertheless, she is remembered

as a one-hit-wonder for the girl pop single now spinning on my turntable.

Her name is Joanie Sommers and this her claim to fame-- "Johnny Get Angry!"

"Johnny Get Angry" - Joanie Sommers

(June/July 1962, highest chart pos. #7 Hot 100/#11 Cash Box)

That was Joanie Sommers with her signature song "Johnnie Get Angry,"
a top 10 memory maker from the summer of '62. Joanie got angry
because that teen romance ditty was her only hit.

Here's an actress & singer who made a much

bigger name for herself. Debbie Reynolds was

a popular leading lady of the 50s in musicals

and comedies, the one time wife of singer

Eddie Fisher and the mother of Carrie

Fisher - "Princess Leia" in Star Wars.

START VIDEO NOW!

In 1957 Debbie starred in the movie
Tammy and the Bachelor and waxed
the theme song. The sweet ballad
rode the pop chart for more than
half a year and spent seven weeks
at #1. Here now is the late, great

Debbie Reynolds and-- "Tammy!"

"Tammy" - Debbie Reynolds

(Aug./Sept. 1957, highest chart pos. #1 Hot 100 & Cash Box,

from June 1957 film Tammy and the Bachelor)

Debbie Reynolds with the theme from Tammy
and the Bachelor, the first of four Tammy movies.

In the 1950s our next featured artist

was one of the most eligible bachelors

in Hollywood, a regular teenage idol.

CLICK TO START
THE VIDEO NOW!

It's Ricky Nelson with one of his

biggest and best, a song penned by

Gene Pitney. Ricky sings-- "Hello

Mary Lou (goodbye heart)."

"Hello Mary Lou" - Ricky Nelson

(May/June 1961, highest chart pos. #9 Hot 100
& Cash Box, B side of "Travelin' Man")

Ricky Nelson there with "Hello Mary Lou," the fab
flip side of his #1 smash hit "Travelin' Man."

Hey, I'm all outta time. Thank you
very much for joining me. I hope
by now you're stuck like glue on
me - Shady Blue. Stick around
for my good buddy Jerry Blavat,

"The Geator with The Heater,"
coming up on the flipside of
news right here on S-P-M-M,
the station that's #1 for
music and fun.

CLICK TO START

THE VIDEO NOW!

To play us off, here's Elvis singing a great ballad, his top 3

charting hit "Can't Help Falling In Love," in a scene

from the film Blue Hawaii. Aloha!

"Can't Help Falling In Love" - Elvis Presley

(Dec. 1961/Jan. 1962, highest chart pos. #2 Hot 100,
#4 Cash Box, from Nov. 1961 film Blue Hawaii)