Saturday, September 27, 2014

DESDINOVA'S 40 FAVORITE ONE HIT WONDERS



Supposedly, September 25th is One-Hit Wonder Day. I got the memo kind of late. When I started the revamped version of this blog in 2011, I created a series of post about one-hit wonders (Oddly enough in September). There is a mystique and misconception about one-hit wonders. Of the post I made at that time, I gave my 40 Least Favorite One-Hit Wonders, a list of artist often mistaken for one-hit wonder artist but actually had several hits, and acts that are considered one-hit wonders but had very minor hits.


For once I ranked these, to an extent, on how well I like them. I tried to look up chart info to make sure that these acts had only one chart hit. I'll admit I fudge on a few, but it wasn't a flagrant manipulation that would alter history, as one reference book on this subject did.

1. "In the Year 2525" - Zager & Evans

Arthur Brown

2. "Fire" - Crazy World of Arthur Brown


3. "Smoke From a Distant Fire" - Sandford/Townsend Band


4. "Romeo's Tune" - Steve Forbert
5. "One Tin Soldier" - Coven
6. "Who Do You Love?" - The Sapphires
7. "Girl of My Dreams" - Bram Tchaikovsky
8. "Sausolito Summer Night" - Diesel
9. "Money (That's What I Want)" - Barrett Strong
10. "Into The Night" - Benny Mardones


11. "Fantasy" - Aldo Nova


12. "Psychotic Reaction" - The Count 5
13. "Na-Na-Na Hey Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)" - Steam
14. "Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)" - Reunion
15. "But It's Alright" - J.J. Jackson
16. "Wipe Out" - The Surfaries
17. "Driver's Seat" - Sniff N the Tears


18. "Dinner With Drac" - John Zacherley
19. "Nothing But a Heartache" - The Flirtations
20. "Tired of Toein the Line" - Rocky Burnett
21. "Mummer's Dance" - Loreena McKennitt

Kajagoogoo

22. "Too Shy" - Kajagoogoo
23. "Stay" - Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs
24. "Liar, Liar" - The Castaways
25. "Next Plane To London" - The Rose Garden
26. "Pipeline" - The Chantays
27. "Midnight Stroll" - The Revels


28. "Sunshine" - Johnathan Edwards


29. "Cars" - Gary Numan
30. "The Rain" - Oran Juice Jones


31. "Pilot of the Airwaves" - Charlie Dore
32. "Whoomp (There It Is)" - The Tag Team
33. "Sally Go Round The Roses" - The Jaynetts
34. "Makin It" - David Naughton
35. "Why Can't We Live Together" - Timmy Thomas


36. "Kiss In The Dark" - Pink Lady
37. "Then You Can Tell Me Goodby" - The Casinos
38. "Let's Go All The Way" - Sly Fox
39. "Whirly Girl" - Oxo
40. "To Know Him Is To Love Him" - The Teddy Bears

Honorable Mention: "God, Love and Rock & Roll" - Teegarden & Vanwinkle



 

Thursday, September 25, 2014

GEORGE LINDSEY'S STEAKHOUSE & DOG N SUDS AD FROM 1971

For a #THROWBACKTHURSDAY. An ad for George Lindsey's Steakhouse and Dog N Suds in the Springfield Daily News. Oddly enough, the George Lindsey's Steakhouse is still in business in Springfield, MO, only it is just called George's Restaurant now.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

R.I.P POLLY BERGEN



I only knew of Polly Bergen as a lady that was in commercials and on game shows. This is a commercial she did for Singer.

Friday, September 19, 2014

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Two actors from two of my favorite retro shows share a birthday today, September 19th.


Happy Birthday, Adam West of Batman & Family Guy!



And Happy Birthday, David McCallum from Man from U.N.C.L.E & N.C.I.S.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

George Hamilton IV, country music star, dies at 77

George Hamilton IV, country music star, dies at 77

In the late 50s, George Hamilton IV was one of the "teen idols" on ABC-Paramont records, along with Paul Anka, Johnny Nash and Cliff Richard. With the exception of Anka, these guys had their biggest hits after leaving ABC-Paramont. This is his biggest 50s teen hits.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Jazz-funk pioneer Joe Sample dies at 75

DESDINOVA'S PROGRESSIVE/ART ROCK PLAYLIST


I actually made a post for the old blog of progressive/art rock a few years back utilizing YouTube videos. The problem was some links wouldn't post and some of the songs were not available because of legal issues. I've found if most people are interested in a song I post on a playlist, they will find it on one of the many music download websites by Googling the title and artist name.

I decided to go ahead with this concept after hearing "The Art Rock Suite" by National Lampoon while working on the song parody post from a few weeks ago.

Progressive rock or art rock is a genre of music that has for the most part disappeared, with the exception of Dream Theater (I think Coldplay might count as prog rock too). It was at it height of popularity in the early 70s to the late 80s. It was never popular among rock critics. It may be responsible for punk due to the fact that punkers hated it. For the most part, women don't care for it. Once a staple of classic rock radio station, many programmers these day say that it "attracts the Dungeon and Dragons geek crowd."

The stigma of prog/art rock may come from the fact that it appealed to an older crowd and many times more intellectual crowd. One famous group claimed that their audience was predominantly "bearded, pipe-smoking, college professors and hippies" until they had a number one hit and video on MTV, then teenage girls began showing up at their concerts. KTXR's Wayne Glenn has told about finding a lone prog rock LP in the collections of elderly couples, who have given or sold him their records. Part of the punkers contention with prog rock was that it was an attempt to make rock and roll nice, boring and commercial.

Another thing point out as a reason they dislike prog/art rock is it is cliched. Like other forms of popular music such as heavy metal (which prog is confused with by some people), hip-hop and country, prog has its cliches.
  1. Surreal, profound and flowery lyrics. A lot of mythology and Romanticism thrown in too.
  2. Orchestras and string sections.
  3. More emphasis on keyboards than guitars.
  4. The songs are long, usually between 5 to 25 minutes long.
  5. The cover of the album is a fantasy or sci-fi painting, usually by Roger Dean (above), Frank Kelly Freas or H.R. Giger.
  6. Sudden change in tempo or crescendo.
  7. A big finish.
  8. Most prog/art rock groups are British. Few are American (Kansas, Styx).
So let me give a playlist of great prog/art "masterpieces" for your Ipod or for you to hunt down on CDs or LP. NOTE: These ares not ranked or in any particular order, just as they came up on my Ipod.

1. "Suite Madam Blue" Styx
2. "Bohemian Rhapsody" Queen
3. "Bloody Well Right" Supertramp
4. "Catherine of Aragon" Rick Wakeman
5. "Conquistador" Procol Harum (The 1972 live version)
6. "Carry On Wayward Son" Kansas
7. "March of the Mad Duke's Circus" Ars Nova (Another early prog/art rock band from L.A)
8. "Rock & Roll Dreams Come True" Jim Stienman
9. "Welcome to the Machine" Pink Floyd
10. "Tubular Bells" Mike Oldfield
11. "Heat of the Moment" Asia
12. "Do It Again" Steely Dan
13. "Spirits In the Night" Manfred Mann's Earth Band
14. "Green Eyed Lady" Sugarloaf
15. "July Morning" Uriah Heep
16. "Locomotive Breath" Jethro Tull
17. "The Fountains of Salmacis" Genesis (Peter Gabriel era)
18. "When the Heart Rules The Mind" GTR
19. "I've Seen All Good People" Yes
20. "The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Feather" Alan Parson Project
21. "Rondo" The Nice
22. "Turn It On Again" Genesis (Phil Collins era)
23. "Dream Weaver" Gary Wright
24. "Karn Evil #9 (1st Impression)" Emerson, Lake and Palmer (a.k.a "Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends")
25. "Art For Art's Sake" 10CC
26. "God Gave Rock and Roll To You" Argent
27. "Cold as Ice" Foreigner
28. "Mad Puppet" Goblin
29. "In the Court of the Crimson King" King Crimson
30. "Nights in White Satin" Moody Blues
31.  "Nice, Nice, Very Nice" Ambrosia
32.  "Roll Over Beethoven" Electric Light Orchestra
33. "Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)" Mike & the Mechanics
34. "Joy" Apollo 100
35. "Pretty Ballerina" The Left Banke (Many believe the first prog rock band)
36. "Mars" Isao Tomita (Note: Not "Mars: Bringer of War." He does a version of that song too.)
37. "A Farewell To Kings" Rush (I knew if I left off Rush, their fans would whine)
38. "Gravedigger" The New York Rock & Roll Ensemble
39. "Theme from Clockwork Orange" Walter Carlos




  

Thursday, September 11, 2014

HOW IS THIS FOR A #THROWBACK THURSDAY?

Many people on Facebook have a photo for Throwback Thursday or #throwbackthursday. I found some photos on Pinterest recently that I decided would be fun for a #throwbackthursday feature for this blog. Remember when you were a kid thinking that older people "were never young"? Well, here are some #throwbackthursday photos of some familiar older ladies of TV "back in the day."

MRS. C

MAUDE

MAMA CARLSON

ENDORA


JESSICA FLETCHER

GRANDMAMA ADDAMS

JULIA CHILD

DR. JULIA HOFFMAN

GRANNY CLAMPETT

AUNT BEA

MAW MAW THOMPSON

JUDGE JUDY
COUSIN MINNIE PEARL

Richard Kiel, who played Bond villain Jaws, dead at 74



Richard Kiel, who played Bond villain Jaws, dead at 74

Some other Richard Kiel credits not mentioned in the article linked above includes, Dr. Loveless' bodyguard, Voltaire, on The Wild Wild West, the Kanamit in "To Serve Man" on The Twilight Zone, The Longest Yard ("I think I broke his f#@kin neck!") and, of course, the MST3K favorite Eegah!.


Tuesday, September 9, 2014

IT WASN'T A DREAM...IT WAS REAL!





Did you ever have a memory from childhood or your past of something that you were unable to confirm existed? For quite sometime, there were some things that I remembered from my childhood that none of the people around me seemed to remember. Over the years I had searched the Internet for information on this stuff and had turned up dead ends. Only recently have I had these vague memories verified as real.



1. Batman had a large friend that dressed like him named Fatman.  This story first appeared in Batman #113, but I probably saw it when it was reprinted in the 70s in Batman Family #4. Fatman was actually a circus clown, who performed in a Batman costume. He wound up saving Batman and Robin after gangsters locked them in a horse stable. Nobody believed me when I mentioned this character, but now I have proof.



2. The late 70s version of "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette" that featured impressions of Gomer Pyle, Archie Bunker, President Carter, Paul Lynde and others. I for along time was under the false belief this was the hit single version by Sammy Davis Jr. from that era. The reason I believed that was because it was a hit and Sammy often did impressions as part of his act. When I finally heard the Sammy Davis Jr. version, I was disappointed that there were no impressions. Early in the spring, KTXR's Wayne Glenn played on his Remember When radio show a 1978 version by a singer named Thom Bresh, whose father, Merle Travis, wrote the song "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke that Cigarette." That was it! Hearing it now, I realize the impressions are not great, but it is still fun to hear.


Cosmic Crystal from Paul Falcone on Vimeo.

3. There was a school kid made a sci-fi movie called The Comic Crystal that was shown on PBS and the TV show Zoom.  This was the one I really wanted to find out about. I was beginning to believe it might have been a strange dream I had during a high fever. A sci-fi movie made by a kid about another kid who finds a "cosmic crystal." He is attacked by zombies and saved by a cute, blonde, haired girl superhero in a yellow sweatshirt. This film also "borrowed" the sound effects from Star Trek. I thought they showed part of this on Zoom and there was a full version that aired once on the local PBS station as filler between programs. I had Googled it several times and came up with nothing. I tried again recently and found it. It was made by a guy name Paul Falcone and he recently posted it on the site Vimeo. Not only does it feature Star Trek's sound effects, but it features music by Pink Floyd (which I wasn't aware of when I saw this in elementary school). I can't believe how well this holds up today. I would love to hear from this guy. Paul, if you are reading this contact me at d4windsbar@yahoo.com.

I'm glad all of this has been cleared up. I was beginning to think that I was insane.   

Friday, September 5, 2014

R.I.P JOAN RIVERS





Remember "The Adventures of Letterman" cartoons on The Electric Company? The narrator was Joan Rivers, who passed away yesterday (Letterman's voice is Gene Wilder and Spellbinder's voice is Zero Mostell).

Also, she was part of a folk comedy trio called Jim, Jake and Joan. Here is a short clip from a film called Once Upon a Coffee House. The guy with the glasses is Jake Homes, who wrote such commercial jingles as "Be a Pepper" for Dr. Pepper, "Be All That You Can Be" for the U.S Army, "Raise You Hand If You're Sure" for Sure Deodorant and, won a lawsuit against Led Zeppelin for swiping his song "Dazed and Confused."

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

A NEW POST ON THE OLD BLOG

Who is this guy? Check out the new post on the old blog site and find out. See what the guy above has to do with this guy from Animal House.


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