How Good It Is

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In the late 1960s, both the music scene and the theater scene were changing, and the 1968 premiere of the show Hair on Broadway was a confluence of the two.

Hair is generally considered to be the first rock musical, as opposed to a rock opera, where all the dialogue is sung, and apparently there are debates about which one was first because there were several concurrent projects going on. At any rate, several songs from the show became pop hits in their own right, albeit from artists other than the ones who performed on the original soundtrack.

Also (perhaps coincidentally), all of those hits were recorded and released during a short period of time, short enough that one of them actually kept another one out of the Number One slot on the Billboard chart.

As I noted during the show, here's the clip of The Cowsills singing "Hair" on the Wonderful World of Pizzazz. (As I also noted, this clip has that watermark throughout, but it's by far the best quality clip, so let's all live with it.) Dig that laugh track, because people in gorilla suits are funny, I guess. Look closely and you'll realize just how small the set was for this segment:

This episode is coming a few hours early; next week's will likely arrive quite late in the day. Wife and I are going on a little road trip and I expect to be back home very late Saturday night. But don't despair! It's going to be another great, over-stuffed, super-size show!

In the meantime, however, feel free to enjoy this week's great, over-stuffed, super-size show:

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The spring and summer of 1969 were dominated by four records that all derived from the same Broadway show.

We celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing with a look at three records that commemorated the event.

This week, we've got a super-sized episode of the show (nearly an hour!) as I sit down with Christopher McKittrick, author of Can't Give it Away on Seventh Avenue: The Rolling Stones and New York City.

Chris and I had a fascinating chat about the band and their long-term relationship with New York. All of them, whether collectively or as individuals, spent a lot more time there than you probably suspect, and McKittrick takes us along on the journey, demonstrating how the city infused itself into their lyrics, perhaps subtly at first in albums such as Goat's Head Soup, but certainly more overtly by the time they got to one of their best albums, Some Girls.

Christopher took the time to run down a bunch of rumors related to the Rolling Stones, some of them started (as it turns out) by the band themselves. It's a fascinating journey for fans of both the Stones, the City, and Rock and Roll in general.

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Click here if you want to see more of Christopher's writing (oh, I think you do).

NOTE: Because this show is largely unscripted, there is no transcript for the show at this time. My apologies to anyone who depends on those.

This is a special episode, where I have a talk with Christopher McKittrick as we discuss his book about The Rolling Stones and their long-term relationship with New York City.

The Dixie Cups' first and biggest hit got its writers into a minor feud with Phil Spector.

The song that was pretty much a throwaway B Side for Carl Douglas turns into a worldwide hit, and turns Douglas into a one-hit wonder.

It's been a while, but once again we take a look at popular songs that you may not realize were recorded by someone else first.

Del Shannon's first and biggest hit got its distinctive sound from a musical instrument that his keyboard player pretty much invented.

Yeah, I know it's supposed to be spelled with periods, but that really screwed with the file names, so let's all just live with it, OK?

Victor Willis was hired on to be the voice of the Village People, but like Ron Dante and The Archies, he was pretty much all there was to the band until they needed to put in some live appearances. So, like The Monkees, a casting call went out. Sure, the criteria for being in the Village People were a little different from being in The Monkees, but most of the group was cast based on their ability to dance (and, presumably, grow a moustache) rather than on their musical talent.

But as a result of this, and the fact that Willis was a writer or co-writer on most of the Village People's biggest hits, the group has gone through some lengthy legal hassles in recent years. In 2012 he regained some control over the tracks, and in another lawsuit he stopped performance of that year's incarnation of the band when he discovered that recordings involving him were being used to promote the show. Recently--just a few weeks ago--he announced that he was going to re-boot the group, which also includes finding new characters to play the various parts.

But enough nonsense. Listen to the show and enjoy the effect that all the pollen in Baltimore is having on my voice.

Incidentally, here is the American Bandstand clip. From everything I've heard about Dick Clark, I'd be willing to bet that he was the one who caught the kids' actions and told the tech crew to capture them on camera so that he could not-so-subtly coach the group into adopting the arm letters. .