Monday, March 28, 2016

This Week on Treasure Island Oldies - Week of March 27th, 2016

March 27th to April 3rd, 2016

What a fun four hours we had together this week! The Chat Room was buzzing with lots of friends and visitors. The Chat Room conversations make the show go by so quickly; it feels more like an hour or so than 4! I invite you to experience the Chat Room for yourself every Sunday during the Live Show. Just click Chat on the menu at any page of the website and follow the easy instructions. Remember to type your name or a nickname so we'll be able to properly greet you and welcome you. 

Be sure to join me next Sunday, April 3rd for our next live show, the Annual One Hit Wonders Special. You'll be amazed by just how many hits have been achieved by artists who appeared on the Top 100 charts one time only. Join me for the Live show or later in the week on the Archive at the Listen page. 

Happy Birthday wishes go out to Frank Vandeven in Lillooet, British Columbia and to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame legendary disc jockey Red Robinson, in Vancouver, British Columbia. All the best from me and everyone at Treasure Island Oldies. If your birthday is coming up, please be sure to let me know so that I can also celebrate your special day on the show. Send the details to birthdays@treasureislandoldies.com. I’ll wish you Happy Birthday during the show and also play Birthday by The Beatles for you. 

The Treasure Island Oldies Blog is playing the Number One song on this week's Top 5 Countdown from 1967. It's The Turtles with Happy Together and it's our Song of the Week. Enjoy! 

Voice Your Choice spotlights Connie Francis, the Number 1 female vocalist from the late 50s to the mid '60s. Cast your vote at the Voice Your Choice page for either Everybody's Somebody's Fool or Lipstick On Your Collar. I’ll play the winner on next week’s show. 

Here’s this week’s Rock and Roll News Podcast

Listen to the Top 5 Countdown from 1967

Take care and have a good week. Remember the One Hit Wonders Special next week on the show. 

Michael

Connie Francis - Voice Your Choice

Connie Francis was born Concetta Rosa Franconero on December 12, 1938 in Newark, New Jersey. Apart from having a staggeringly successful recording career, she also appeared in several motion pictures including Where The Boys Are, Follow The Boys, Looking For Love, and When The Boys Meet The Girls.

Between 1957 and 1969, she appeared a stunning 56 times on the Billboard charts! Plus, she achieved 16 Top Ten hits, plus 8 Gold Records, quite a feat for anyone! In fact, Connie is the #1 pop female singer from the late 1950s to the mid-1960s.

Treasure Island Oldies presents Connie Francis on Voice Your Choice. Cast your vote at the Voice Your Choice page for either Everybody's Somebody's Fool or Lipstick On Your Collar. I'll play the winner during next week's chow.

The Turtles - Happy Together - Song of the Week

The Turtles were featured in this week's Treasure Island Oldies Show Top 5 Countdown. As I've been doing these past several weeks is to play the Number one song from the Countdown.

Here then are The Turtles with the Number One song this week from 1967, Happy Together. It's our Song of the week.

Enjoy!

Michael



Monday, March 21, 2016

This Week on Treasure Island Oldies - Week of March 20th, 2016

March 20th to March 26th, 2016
Happy Spring! And for our friends in New Zealand and Australia, Happy Fall! Here on Canada's west coast, it sure is Spring with wonderful spring flowers and blossom trees blooming all around Vancouver. It is such a beautiful time of year, full of energy and renewal. And with the power back after last week's outage, it was full steam ahead for this week's show. Thanks for your requests and a big hello to first time caller and listener, Linda in Alameda, California. She wanted to hear a real Lost Treasure from David Gates. He had to have been so young, as the song she requested, Jo-Baby, was from 1958. Great to have you listening, Linda. If you would like to hear a song on the show, don't be shy. Either call the Treasure Island Oldies Listener Line at 206-339-0709 and record your message, or send an email request.

Please make a note on your calendar for our next special. The One Hit Wonders annual special returns, Live, Sunday, April 3rd, and later on the Archive at the Listen page. It is quite surprising just how many big hits there were but with only a one time appearance by the artist or group on the charts.

Happy Birthday wishes go out to Joel Drucker in Randolph, New Jersey, and to my decades long friend, Tom Locke here in Vancouver, British Columbia. Tom's feature the Moment In Time happens weekly on the show. All the best from yours truly and everyone at Treasure Island Oldies. If your birthday is coming up, please be sure to let me know so that I can also celebrate your special day on the show. Send the details to birthdays@treasureislandoldies.com. I’ll wish you Happy Birthday during the show and also play Birthday by The Beatles for you. 

The Treasure Island Oldies Blog is playing the song that started off this week's show. It's the Yardbirds with Heart Full Of Soul and it's our Song of the Week. Enjoy! 

Voice Your Choice spotlights The Fifth Dimension. Cast your vote at the Voice Your Choice page for either (Last Night) I Didn't Get To Sleep At All or Stoned Soul Picnic. I’ll play the winner on next week’s show. 

Here’s this week’s Rock and Roll News Podcast

Listen to the Top 5 Countdown from 1961

Take care and have a good week. 

Bye for now.
Michael

Fifth Dimension - Voice Your Choice

The 5th Dimension scored many hits, initially on Johnny Rivers' record label, Soul City, then later on Bell/Arista Records. The members were Marilyn McCoo, Billy Davis Jr., Florence LaRue, Lamont McLemore, and Ron Townson. They originally recorded as the Versatiles in 1966.

Their first single for Soul City Records, Go Where You Wanna Go, made a sizable dent on the charts, peaking at number 16 in 1967. From their first appearance on the Billboard to their last single in 1980, they hit the charts a total of 30 times, including six Top Ten hits and astounding five Platinum selling records as well.

Treasure Island Oldies presents The Fifth Dimension in the spotlight on Voice Your Choice. Cast your vote for either (Last Night) I Didn't Get To Sleep At All or Stoned Soul Picnic. I'll play the winner on next week's show.

Yardbirds - Heart Full Of Soul - Song of the Week

I started this week's Treasure Island Oldies show with this great British rocker from The Yardbirds and I decided to play them here at the Treasure Island Oldies Blog.

Here are The Yardbirds witrh Heart Full Of Soul. It's our Song of the Week.

Enjoy!

Michael



Monday, March 14, 2016

This Week on Treasure Island Oldies - Week of March 13th, 2016

March 13th to March 19th, 2016

I was 3 hours and thirty-eight minutes into this week's show, when during the Rock and Roll Reunion...POOF! - a power failure! The West Coast has been battered with heavy rain and wind storms on and off for the past several days. Unfortunately, the power remained out for nearly 2 hours, so the show was incomplete. As of this moment, I do not yet know if the archive of the show can be salvaged. As soon as I get more information, I'll provide an update for you. 

I'd like to thank you for your requests for the Name Game Special. I received both emails and calls to the Treasure Island Oldies Listener Line (206-339-0709). It's always great hearing from you and to play your requests. 

Happy Birthday wishes go out to Rick Canode in Madison, Wisconsin. Rick is a good friend, long time listener, and for many years, contributes a weekly feature on the show, Rick's Rare Rock & Roll Relic. All the best from yours truly and everyone at Treasure Island Oldies. If your birthday is coming up, please be sure to let me know so that I can also celebrate your special day on the show. Send the details to birthdays@treasureislandoldies.com. I’ll wish you Happy Birthday during the show and also play Birthday by The Beatles for you. 

The Treasure Island Oldies Blog is playing the Number One song from this week's Top 5 Countdown from 1958. It's Tequila by The Champs and it's our Song of the Week. Enjoy!

Voice Your Choice spotlights Ronnie Dove. Cast your vote at the Voice Your Choice page for either A Little Bit Of Heaven or One Kiss For Old Times' Sake. I’ll play the winner on next week’s show. 

Here’s this week’s Rock and Roll News Podcast

Listen to the Top 5 Countdown from 1958

Take care and have a good week and I'll be sure to give you an update on the status of this week's show archive. 

Bye for now.
Michael


Ronnie Dove - Voice Your Choice

I must say that I don't know a lot about Ronnie Dove. I can tell you he was born September 7, 1935 in Herndon, Virginia and later raised in Baltimore, Maryland.

He first recorded on his own record label, Dove Records, in 1958 without any national success. However, it was when he signed with Diamond Records in 1964 that he began his string of successful records. Incidentally, nearly all of his records were produced by Phil Kahl who was Vice-President of Diamond Records.

Between 1964 and 1969, he appeared on the Hot 100 Billboard charts a total of twenty-one times, including 11 Top Twenty hits.

This week on Treasure Island Oldies, Voice Your Choice presents Ronnie Dove with two of his hits for your votes. Cast your vote at the Voice Your Choice page for either A Little Bit Of Heaven or One Kiss For Old Times' Sake. I'll play the winner during next week's show.

The Champs - Tequila - Song of the Week

For the last few weeks, the Treasure Island Oldies Blog has been playing the Number One song featured on the Treasure Island Oldies Top 5 Countdown.

This week is no exception. I'm pleased to play for you the Number 1 song from 1958. It's The Champs and Tequila. It's our Song of the Week.

Enjoy!

Michael



Wednesday, March 09, 2016

Sir George Martin, the "Fifth Beatle", Has Died

George Martin, whose production skills helped define the sound of British popular music, died March 8 2016 at age 90.
His career spanned six decades; in that time he produced more than 700 records, wrote film scores and worked with music's greatest talents.
His technical knowledge and love of experimentation saw him produce incredible sounds from equipment that modern musicians would consider primitive.
His greatest success came with the Beatles; from the loveable mop-top recordings of the early 1960s to the acid-drenched psychedelia of Sergeant Pepper.
George Henry Martin was born on 3 January 1926 into a working-class family in north London. His parents, a carpenter and a cleaner, wanted "a safe civil servant's job" for their son.

Four Liverpudlians

He won a scholarship to St Ignatius' College in Stamford Hill, but when war broke out his parents moved out of London and he went to Bromley Grammar School.
His passion for music really began when The London Symphony Orchestra, under Sir Adrian Boult, arrived to play a concert in the school hall.
"It was absolutely magical. Hearing such glorious sounds, I found it difficult to connect them with 90 men and women blowing into brass and wooden instruments or scraping away at strings with horsehair bows. I could not believe my ears."
He harboured secret ambitions to be a composer but, in the event, took a job as a quantity surveyor before joining the Fleet Air Arm in 1943 where he qualified as a pilot.
By 1947 Martin was playing the oboe professionally and had been accepted to study at the Guildhall School of Music, despite being unable to read or write a note.

After graduation he spent a brief spell at the BBC's classical music department before walking through the doors of EMI in Abbey Road as a record producer. He took to the mixing desk like "a duck to water".
Five years later, at the age of 29, as head of the Parlophone label, he worked with artists such as Shirley Bassey, Matt Monro and the jazz bands of Johnny Dankworth and Humphrey Lyttelton.
Martin also produced catchy, comic numbers, and enjoyed such successes as Right Said Fred with Bernard Cribbins and Goodness Gracious Me with Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren.
Image caption He translated The Beatles' ideas
In 1962, Brian Epstein introduced him to four Liverpudlians. They had been rejected by every major record label in the country and Martin himself was more impressed by their strong personalities and natural wit than by their music.
"They were raucous," he later remembered. "Not very in tune. They weren't very good."
Nevertheless, he signed the Beatles and Love Me Do became their first hit later in 1962. Thus began the most successful recording studio partnership of all time.

Learning curve

For the next eight years, Martin guided the Fab Four from the frothy pop sound of I Want To Hold Your Hand to the ambitious experimentation of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road.
It was a steep learning curve for both producer and musicians. Martin had very little experience of pop music and the band had no idea how a recording studio worked.
Martin's main talent lay in his ability to translate the adventurous ideas of Lennon and McCartney into practical recording terms.
While McCartney could express his requirements, Lennon was often more vague. If he was searching for what he called "an orange sound", it became Martin's task to find it.
But it all worked. In a 1975 interview with the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test, John Lennon said that it was a true partnership.
"Some people say George Martin did all of it, some say The Beatles did everything. It was neither one. We did a lot of learning together."
Martin's classical training became ever more valuable as the Beatles continued to push the boundaries of their music. He wrote and conducted the strings on Eleanor Rigby and the eclectic backing to I Am The Walrus.
All this was being achieved on what would now be considered basic recording equipment, which would be pushed to the limit for the recording of the Sgt Pepper album.
At the time, EMI had only four-track tape machines so Martin, and his engineers, devised a technique whereby a number of tracks were recorded and then mixed down on to one single track, giving the flexibility of a modern multi-tracked studio.
He also made much use of recording different tracks at various tape speeds to change the texture of the final sound, a technique used to good effect on Lucy in the Sky.
The harmony between band and producer suffered one of its rare hiccups when George Martin was temporarily unavailable and McCartney brought in another producer to arrange the strings on She's Leaving Home.
By the time The White Album came to be recorded, Martin was working with a number of different artists and The Beatles produced many of the tracks themselves.
Following the 1970 break-up of The Beatles, Martin worked with artists such as Sting, Jose Carreras, Celine Dion and Stan Getz, as well as Lennon and McCartney on their solo projects.
By then he had set up his own company, AIR studios, which enabled him, for the very first time, to be able to receive royalties for his work.
In the late 1970s, Martin built a studio on the Caribbean island of Montserrat, and artists including Dire Straits and The Rolling Stones travelled there to record albums under Martin's respected guidance.
When Hurricane Hugo devastated both island and studio in 1989, Martin produced a benefit album to help raise funds for the victims.
Martin received a knighthood in 1996, and a year later, Elton John asked him to produce the reworking of his song Candle in the Wind for the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales.
He persuaded the singer just to sit down in the studio and record it exactly as he had played it in Westminster Abbey. The resulting single was Martin's 30th number one record, the highest of any musical producer.
He retired two years later after producing what he decreed would be his final album, In My Life, a collection of Beatles songs, rearranged and recorded by a collection of singers, film actors and musicians.
However, he was not able to completely relax. In 2002 he was part of the team which put together the Jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace and in 2006 he supervised the remixing of 80 Beatles tracks for use by Cirque de Soleil in a Las Vegas stage show called Love.
In his career, George Martin worked with some of the best-known names in popular music - ranging from Jeff Beck, through Ultravox to the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
But his enduring legacy will be his work with The Beatles whose timeless sounds, as acknowledged by the band members themselves, owe much to his input as a musician, arranger and producer.

Monday, March 07, 2016

This Week on Treasure Island Oldies Week of March 7th, 2016

March 7th to March 12th, 2016
It's my great pleasure to welcome My Generation Posters & More to Treasure Island Oldies! They are now a sponsor of both the show and website as of this week. It's been a while in the making but it's now official. Have a visit to their website at www.mygenerationshop.com and let them know you heard about them from Treasure Island Oldies. Cheers.

Be sure to join me next week for our next special, The Name Game, Live Sunday, March 13th. Every song I play during the show will have the name of a person in the song title, like Sheila, Tommy, Bad Bad Leroy Brown, Diana, and so many more. You'll be surprised with just how many songs have the name of a girl or a guy in the title. Be sure to listen; it's always a fun special.

Happy Birthday wishes go out to Roy Geldart in Campbell River, British Columbia (or as Roy calls it Campbell Crick LOL). If your birthday is coming up, please be sure to let me know so that I can celebrate your special day on the show. Send the details to birthdays@treasureislandoldies.com. I’ll wish you Happy Birthday during the show and also play Birthday by The Beatles for you.

The Treasure Island Oldies Blog is playing the Number One song from this week's Top 5 Countdown from 1962. Bruce Channel didn't have that many hits, but this one has stood the test of time. The Number One song is Hey! Baby and it's our Song of the Week. Enjoy!

Voice Your Choice spotlights Clyde PcPhatter, the former lead singer of The Drifters who continued to have great success as a solo artist. Cast your vote at the Voice Your Choice page for either A Lover's Question or Lover Please. I’ll play the winner on next week’s show.

Here’s this week’s Rock and Roll News Podcast

Listen to the Top 5 Countdown from 1962

Take care and have a good week and be sure to join me next week for The Name Game Special.

Bye for now.
Michael


Clyde McPhatter - Voice Your Choice

The Drifters were an R&B group formed in 1953 as a showcase for singer Clyde McPhatter. Prior to their first hit on the pop charts, they had eleven Top Ten songs on the R&B charts. The original lineup consisted of Clyde McPhatter, Gerhart and Andrew Thrasher, and Bill Pinkney.

When Clyde McPhatter left for a solo career, manager George Treadwell disbanded the rest of the group, brought in The Five Crowns, and renamed them The Drifters (perhaps The New Drifters would have been more like it). This new lineup included Ben E. King, Doc Green, Charlie Thomas and Elsbeary Hobbs. The majority of their Top 100 chart hits were sung by three different lead singers: Ben E. King (1959-60), Rudy Lewis (1961-63), and Johnny Moore (1957, 1964-66).

Clyde was born Clyde Lensley McPhatter on November 15, 1932 in Durham, North Carolina and sadly, he died of a heart attack at the young age of 39 on June 13, 1972. During his solo career, he charted 21 times, had 2 Top Ten hits and 1 Gold Record.

Treasure Island Oldies is pleased to spotlight Clyde McPhatter on Voice Your Choice. Cast your vote at the Voice our Choice page for either A Lover's Question or Lover Please. I'll play the winner on next week's show.

Bruce Channel - Hey! Baby - Song of the Week

Bruce Channel has the Number One song on the Treasure Island Oldies Top Five Countdown this week and the Treasure Island Oldies Blog is playing a rare video clip in colour.

Here's Bruce Channel with Hey! Baby. It's our Song of the Week.

Enjpy!

Michael