The Encore Show - Best of the 60s, 70s, and 80s

This week we meet Tony Butala and you’ll know who he is when I rattle off a few of their hits: The Way You Look Tonight, Hurts So Bad, Goin’ Outa My Head/ Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You. Tony’s the only original member left of the Lettermen. And recently, TV legend and film star Dick Van Dyke became the first ever recipient of the Red Skelton America’s Clown Award. We’re going to hear about that and more from our first guest, Anne Pratt, the Executive Director of the Red Skelton Museum of American Comedy.

Remember the hullabaloo in the early ‘60s that came from a New York City hotspot called the Peppermint Lounge. This week we’re talking with Joey Dee whose hit record, the Peppermint Twist exploded out of that steamy nightclub. After that, we’ll talk with Bob Lind who created a word picture worthy of framing in the Sixties museum with his hit tune about the bright elusive butterfly of love.

Dirty Water by the Standells is today the theme song for every victory by the Boston Red Sox even though none of the band members including this week’s guest, lead singer Larry Tamblyn were from Massachusetts. Our other guest, David Logeman has been the drummer for Frank Zappa, Jan and Dean, and the Beach Boys, and he now heads up the Surf City Allstars Tour with Dean Torrance and Al Jardine.

When Bob Berryhill and his Surfaris recorded the all-time surf hit “Wipeout”, he was only fifteen years old and they made the record for a hundred and fifty bucks in an old hole-in-the wall studio in Cucamonga, CA. “Wipeout” was originally the B side of that record; the A side was a song called “Surfer Joe”. No matter – both songs became hits in the early Sixties and this week we’re talking with Bob Berryhill, the original guitarist for the Surfaris who are still performing today.

When Burt Ward and I recorded this interview recently, it was the day before Adam West, Batman, passed away. Not only had Burt and Adam worked together on the Batman show, they had done many conventions and book signings together. Obviously, during our interview, we were not aware of what was about to happen. Burt gets into how he won the part of Robin, the Boy Wonder for the Batman TV series on ABC. He describes what it was like filming the show with all of the stunts and explosions. And then we get into what is his real passion today – Gentle Giants Rescue – the world’s largest big dog rescue that Burt and his wife, Tracy started 22 years ago.

In 1970, Motown started an affiliated record label that included certain bands with white members only, and Rare Earth happened to be the first big hit-making act signed for Motown’s new imprint label The record company didn’t actually have a name for the new label yet and one of the band members jokingly suggested that they call the label Rare Earth. To the band’s surprise, Motown decided to do just that and what followed was Rare Earth on Rare Earth. And what followed THAT was “Get Ready” and “I Just Want to Celebrate”. Peter Rivera, their drummer for those exciting years, is with us on today’s show.

Sandy Deane has been with Jay and the Americans since their inception back in the early Sixties and the hits never stopped coming – Only in America, Come a Little Bit Closer, Cara Mia, and This Magic Moment. Would you believe they were one of the bands that was on the bill when the Beatles played their first concert in the U.S. at the Washington Coliseum in 1964? I’ve got a ton of questions for Sandy and he has a raft load of ‘60s rock stories for us on today’s show.

What do you think of when you hear somebody say, “Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane, ain’t got time to take a fast train.? Well, if you remember the Sixties like I do, you think of The Boxtops. It was an international hit in September of 1967, reaching Billboard’s Number 1 slot and staying there for four straight weeks. The Boxtops’ bass player, Bill Cunningham was already from a musical family in Memphis, though he was yet to find out how many career changes he would go through over the years. But we’ll find out on today’s show.

It’s pretty hard to get past “Spooky”, “Stormy”, and ”Traces”, without knowing that you’re listening to the Classics IV. During the ‘60s, when they were touring as Dennis Yost and the Classics IV, each one of those three songs sold over a million records. Dennis died in 1968 at the age of 65 and his long-time friend Tom Garrett found himself center stage taking over the vocals. It’s a story that could only grow up in the rock and roll ‘60s, and on today’s show, we talk with Tom Garrett and the band that is still touring.

Some time ago, while doing my normal morning Facebook routine of checking out the various posts I’m interested in, I notice there’s a guy who’s posting almost every day, stories and pictures of various music groups from the ‘60s. And he’s in a lot of the photos with stars like Tommy James and the Shondells, the Platters, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Lou Christie. It turns out that he is the quintessential ‘60s music fan, James W. Foster. You’ve got to check him out on Facebook. I tracked him down and he’s here with us today. We talk with Jim Foster about his regular weekend visits to all of the ‘60s revival concerts around the country.