James Brown The Godfather of Soul R.I.P.

Very sad news today...James Brown the Godfather of Soul has passed away.

The full story after a video highlighting some of his best performances.



By GREG BLUESTEIN
The Associated Press
Monday, December 25, 2006; 12:05 PM

ATLANTA -- James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured "Godfather of Soul," whose revolutionary rhythms, rough voice and flashing footwork influenced generations of musicians from rock to rap, died early Christmas morning. He was 73.

Brown was hospitalized with pneumonia at Emory Crawford Long Hospital on Sunday and died of heart failure around 1:45 a.m. Monday, said his agent, Frank Copsidas of Intrigue Music.

He initially seemed fine at the hospital and even told people that he planned to be on stage in New York on New Year's Eve, Copsidas said.

Brown was one of the major musical influences of the past 50 years. From Mick Jagger to Michael Jackson, David Bowie to Public Enemy, Brown's rapid-footed dancing, hard-charging beats and heartfelt yet often unintelligible vocals changed the musical landscape. He was to rhythm and dance music what Bob Dylan was to lyrics.

"He was an innovator, he was an emancipator, he was an originator. Rap music, all that stuff came from James Brown," entertainer Little Richard, a longtime friend of Brown's, told MSNBC.

"James Brown changed music," said Rev. Al Sharpton, who toured with him in the 1970s and imitates his hairstyle to this day.

"He made soul music a world music," Sharpton said. "What James Brown was to music in terms of soul and hip-hop, rap, all of that, is what Bach was to classical music. This is a guy who literally changed the music industry. He put everybody on a different beat, a different style of music. He pioneered it."

Brown's classic singles include "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag," "(Get Up I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine," "I Got You (I Feel Good)" and "Say It Loud _ I'm Black and I'm Proud," a landmark 1968 statement of racial pride.

"I clearly remember we were calling ourselves colored, and after the song, we were calling ourselves black," Brown told The Associated Press in 2003. "The song showed even people to that day that lyrics and music and a song can change society."

He won a Grammy for lifetime achievement in 1992, as well as Grammys in 1965 for "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" (best R&B recording) and for "Living In America" in 1987 (best R&B vocal performance, male.) He was one of the initial artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, along with Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and other founding fathers.

Brown, who lived in Beech Island, S.C., near the Georgia line, triumphed despite a turbulent personal life and charges of abusing drugs and alcohol. After a widely publicized, drug-fueled confrontation with police in 1988 that ended in an interstate car chase, Brown spent more than two years in prison for aggravated assault and failing to stop for a police officer.

From the 1950s, when Brown had his first R&B hit, "Please, Please, Please" in 1956, through the mid-1970s, Brown went on a frenzy of cross-country tours, concerts and new songs. He earned the nickname "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business" and often tried to prove it to his fans, said Jay Ross, his lawyer of 15 years.

Brown's stage act was as memorable, and as imitated, as his records, with his twirls and spins and flowing cape, his repeated faints to the floor at the end as band members tried in vain to get him to leave the stage.

His "Live at The Apollo" in 1962 is widely considered one of the greatest concert records ever. And he often talked of the 1964 concert in which organizers made the mistake of having the Rolling Stones, not him, close the bill. He would remember a terrified Mick Jagger waiting offstage, chain smoking, as Brown pulled off his matchless show.

"To this day, there has been no one near as funky. No one's coming even close," rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy once told the AP.

Brown routinely lost two or three pounds each time he performed and kept his furious concert schedule in his later years even as he fought prostate cancer, Ross said.

With his tight pants, shimmering feet, eye makeup and outrageous hair, Brown set the stage for younger stars such as Michael Jackson and Prince. And the early rap generation overwhelmingly sampled his music and voice as they laid the foundation of hip-hop culture.

"Disco is James Brown, hip-hop is James Brown, rap is James Brown; you know what I'm saying? You hear all the rappers, 90 percent of their music is me," Brown told The AP in 2003.

Born in poverty in Barnwell, S.C., in 1933, Brown was abandoned as a 4 year old to the care of relatives and friends. He grew up on the streets of Augusta, Ga., in an "ill-repute area," as he once called it, where he learned how to hustle to survive.

"I wanted to be somebody," Brown said.

By the eighth grade in 1949, Brown had served 3 1/2 years in Alto Reform School near Toccoa, Ga., for breaking into cars. While there, he met Bobby Byrd, whose family took Brown into their home. Byrd also took Brown into his group, the Gospel Starlighters. Soon they changed their name to the Famous Flames and their style to hard R&B.

In January 1956, King Records of Cincinnati signed the group, and four months later "Please, Please, Please" was in the R&B Top Ten.

Pete Allman, a radio personality in Las Vegas who had been friends with Brown for 15 years, credited Brown with jump-starting his career and motivating him personally and professionally.

"He was a very positive person. There was no question he was the hardest working man in show business," Allman said. "I remember Mr. Brown as someone who always motivated me, got me reading the Bible."

While most of Brown's life was glitz and glitter _ he was the manic preacher in 1980's "The Blues Brothers" _ he was plagued with charges of abusing drugs and alcohol and of hitting his third wife, Adrienne.

In September 1988, Brown, high on PCP and carrying a shotgun, entered an insurance seminar next to his Augusta office. Police said he asked seminar participants if they were using his private restroom. Police chased Brown for a half-hour from Augusta into South Carolina and back to Georgia. The chase ended when police shot out the tires of his truck.

Brown received a six-year prison sentence. He spent 15 months in a South Carolina prison and 10 months in a work release program before being paroled in February 1991. In 2003, the South Carolina parole board granted him a pardon for his crimes in that state.

Soon after his release, Brown was on stage again with an audience that included millions of cable television viewers nationwide who watched the three-hour, pay-per-view concert at Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles.

Adrienne Brown died in 1996 in Los Angeles at age 47. She took PCP and several prescription drugs while she had a bad heart and was weak from cosmetic surgery two days earlier, the coroner said.

More recently, he married his fourth wife, Tomi Raye Hynie, one of his backup singers. The couple had a son, James Jr.

Two years later, Brown spent a week in a private Columbia hospital, recovering from what his agent said was dependency on painkillers. Brown's attorney, Albert "Buddy" Dallas, said the singer was exhausted from six years of road shows.

Brown was performing to the end, and giving back to his community.

Three days before his death, he joined volunteers at his annual toy giveaway in Augusta, and he planned to perform on New Year's Eve at B.B. King Blues Club in New York.

"He was dramatic to the end _ dying on Christmas Day," said the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a friend of Brown's since 1955. "Almost a dramatic, poetic moment. He'll be all over the news all over the world today. He would have it no other way."

Brown is survived by at least four children _ two daughters and sons Daryl and James Brown III, Copsidas said. Friends were making flight arrangements Monday to come to Atlanta to determine how to memorialize Brown, Copsidas said.

___

Associated Press writers Hillel Italie in New York and Harry R. Weber in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Freddie Marsden from Gerry & The Pacemakers R.I.P.

From The Independent
Freddie Marsden
Merseybeat drummer
Published: 13 December 2006

Frederick John Marsden, drummer: born Liverpool 23 October 1940: married 1964 Margaret Naylor (one son, one daughter); died Southport, Lancashire 9 December 2006.

Of all the successful Merseybeat musicians, Freddie Marsden was the most down-to-earth. He was a friendly, charming man who enjoyed his success in the Sixties as the drummer with Gerry and the Pacemakers and then happily settled down to the routine of a daily job.

In late 1962, Gerry and the Pacemakers were the second band to be signed up by Brian Epstein - the Beatles were the first. When the Beatles rejected Mitch Murray's light-hearted "How Do You Do It", Epstein told the record producer George Martin that he had just the group to do it. On 22 January 1963, Gerry and the Pacemakers travelled from Liverpool to London to record the song, as Marsden recalled:

We were sat in the back of a freezing van for 10 hours in the worst weather you can imagine. The road manager slept through it all because he was shattered. We knew that the Beatles had turned down "How Do You Do It" and I thought they were silly to do that, as it was a much better song than "Love Me Do".

The single went to No l, as did its cheeky follow-up, "I Like It". Having seen Paul McCartney's success around the Liverpool clubs with "Over the Rainbow", Gerry and the Pacemakers wanted a similar, emotional show-stopper and they picked "You'll Never Walk Alone" from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel. With George Martin's arrangement, they became the first UK beat group to record with strings. They also became the first act to reach No l with their first three singles. "You'll Never Walk Alone" was subsequently adopted by Liverpool football club and became the Kop anthem.

Freddie Marsden was born in the working-class Dingle area of Liverpool in 1940 and his brother, Gerry, followed two years later. Their father, Fred, was a railway clerk who entertained the neighbours by playing the ukulele. With the vogue for skiffle music in the mid-Fifties, he took the skin off one of his instruments, put it over a tin of Quality Street and said to Freddie, "There's your first snare drum, son."

In 1957 the brothers appeared in the show Dublin to Dingle at the Pavilion Theatre in Lodge Lane. Studies meant little to either of them - Freddie left school with one O-level and worked for a candlemaker earning £4 a week, and Gerry's job was as a delivery boy for the railways. Their parents did not mind and encouraged their musical ambitions.

The Marsdens' first group was called the Mars Bars, but when the confectioners complained, they became Gerry and the Pacemakers. The line-up changed from time to time and, in 1959, Les Chadwick joined on bass. They were featured on a beat show with Gene Vincent at Liverpool Stadium in 1960 and, later in the year, followed the Beatles to Hamburg, with a residency at the Top Ten Club, playing for five hours a night. "We had to drive from Liverpool to Hamburg," Freddie Marsden recalled.

We had our own van and I did most of the driving. We got to Hamburg about two o'clock in the afternoon and when we got to the Top Ten Club, the manager said that we were on at seven. We were given [the slimming drug] Preludin to keep awake. Gerry was our main singer, and all the singing and the smoking battered his voice. When he was 12 or 13, he was in the church choir and his voice was absolutely brilliant, but he got that huskiness from Hamburg.

In 1961 they were joined by Les Maguire on piano and thus the hit-making Pacemakers line-up was complete. They alternated at the Cavern club's lunchtime sessions with the Beatles and, one famous night at Litherland Town Hall, they combined their talents to form the Beatmakers. Freddie Marsden had his 21st birthday party in the Dingle with the Beatles as guests. It is sometimes reported that he was considered as a possible replacement for the Beatles' drummer Pete Best after Best was sacked in August 1962, but "That's rubbish," he told me.

Look at my high forehead. I could never have had a Beatle haircut for a start. I considered myself a very basic drummer. I laid the beat down and didn't do anything fancy. I knew my limitations and I stuck with the strong off-beat and it seemed to work. We were nice and tight. Ringo was definitely more technical than me.

After the three No 1 hits for Gerry and the Pacemakers in 1963, their fourth single, Gerry's own song "I'm the One", went to No 2 the following year. Freddie felt that they would have had a fourth chart-topper if they had picked their stage favourite, "Pretend". Freddie co-wrote "Don't Let The Sun Catch You Cryin'", which became their biggest US hit, reaching No 4 in 1964. He was immensely proud when José Feliciano recorded the song. Freddie Marsden also co-wrote "Why Oh Why" and "You've Got What I Like", and sang the occasional vocal, joining Gerry on harmony for "A Shot of Rhythm and Blues".

The group were featured on scooters for the film Ferry Cross The Mersey (1965), which was written by the creator of Coronation Street, Tony Warren. Although the plot is trite, the film offers invaluable views of Merseyside sights and clubs of the Sixties. The title song, written by Gerry Marsden, charted for the group in 1965. "There were lots of songs about Chicago, Broadway and London," said Freddie, "but nobody had mentioned Liverpool until then."

In 1968 Gerry Marsden replaced Joe Brown in the West End musical Charlie Girl, and effectively broke up the group. Freddie never criticised his brother publicly but I always sensed some resentment. "We were left without a singer and instead of looking for another one, we called it a day," he said.

The two Leses got a garage and I had no qualifications and despite what people thought, I hadn't got much money. Looking back, I underrated myself as a drummer. I was always more into sport than playing drums and when I compared myself to some of the drummers I'd heard in America, I didn't fancy getting up to their standards.

Freddie Marsden became a telephone operator for £14 a week but later opened the Pacemaker driving school in Formby. Although he was always courteous to his fans, he never returned to music. A few years ago, when I asked him if he still had his drums, he said, "No, I got rid of them. They took up too much space in the garage."

Spencer Leigh

Here's a Fantastic Christmas TV Show

A friend of mine just sent me a great link to the Best Of Ed Sullivan's Christmas Shows. I know you will really enjoy it. This one-hour special captures and warmth and joy of the season with over a dozen of your favorite Christmas songs from the biggest stars, such as Bing Crosby, Johnny Mathis, Connie Francis, Count Basie, The Supremes and Mahalia Jackson. Share favorite holiday moments with Alvin & The Chipmunks; Rich Little recounting "The Christmas Carol"; The Muppets; George Carlin; and Brook Benton singing "It's Christmas Tomorrow."

Here's the link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1556159677179528601&q=chipmunk+song&pr=goog-sl

Special Holiday Greeting from Michael Godin

Click here to get your own player.

Thank You for 2006!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you, dear reader, for taking the time to come to the Treasure Island Oldies Blog. In less than a year, there has been a considerable amount of traffic every week, and it has become a nice compliment to the radio show, the home website and the podcasts. I endeavour to make the postings of interest to you as an oldies music fan, and your comments and feedback have been very welcome and encouraging. I look forward to more interaction with you in 2007.

Speaking of 2007, it will be quite a year as we celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Treasure Island Oldies. As those old Virginia Slims cigarette ads went, "we've come a long way baby". Keep visiting the website for new features in the new year.


I would also like to congratulate the winners of the Jerry Lee Lewis contest, and special congrats to Terry DeLance in Oak Lawn, Illinois, the winner of the Grand Prize of an autographed copy of the Last Man Standing CD and poster, signed by Jerry Lee Lewis himself. And thanks to everyone who entered the contest. Keep listening to the show for more contests.

Enjoy the 10th Annual Christmas Special, plus some vintage specials from the Treasure Island Oldies vaults. All these shows are at the Christmas website.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to you, your family and friends.

Michael

Denis Payton from Dave Clark Five R.I.P.

Sad news...

CBC Arts

Denis Payton, saxophone player and founding member of 1960s pop group the Dave Clark Five, has died at age 63.

He died in Bournemouth, England, on Sunday after a long struggle with cancer.

The Dave Clark Five, creators of hits such as Glad All Over and Bits and Pieces, were part of the "British invasion" of the 1960s.

They were one of the first English groups to tour North America, after the Beatles, appeared several times on The Ed Sullivan Show, and were briefly considered competition for the Fab Four.

Payton played saxophone, harmonica and guitar for the popular band, a five-man group created in Tottenham in 1961.

Drummer and band leader Dave Clark called Payton "a very dear friend who I've known since we were teenagers."

Clark said Payton had been "thrilled" by the news that the Dave Clark Five has been nominated for induction to the 2007 US Rock 'n' Roll Hall Of Fame.

The band made more than 100 million records and had more than 17 hit singles worldwide, including Over And Over and Because, before breaking up in 1970.

Another band member, lead singer Mike Smith, injured his spinal cord in 2003 after a fall at his home in Spain.

Payton is survived by his partner and two children from a former marriage.

Ahmet Ertegun - Founder of Atlantic Records - R.I.P.

Ahmet Ertegun, the founder of Atlantic Records has passed away. Here's the full story...

NEW YORK — Ahmet Ertegun, who helped define American music as the founder of Atlantic Records, a label that popularized the gritty R&B of Ray Charles, the classic soul of Aretha Franklin and the British rock of the Rolling Stones, died Thursday at 83, his spokesman said.

Ertegun remained connected to the music scene until his last days — it was at an Oct. 29 concert by the Rolling Stones at the Beacon Theatre in New York where Ertegun fell, suffered a head injury and was hospitalized. He later slipped into a coma.
“He was in a coma and expired today with his family at his bedside,” said Dr. Howard A. Riina, Ertegun's neurosurgeon at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center. Ertegun will be buried in a private ceremony in his native Turkey, said Bob Kaus, a spokesman for Ertegun and Atlantic Records. A memorial service will be conducted in New York after New Year's.

Ertegun, a Turkish ambassador's son, started collecting records for fun, but would later became one of the music industry's most powerful figures with Atlantic, which he founded in 1947. The label first made its name with rhythm and blues by Charles and Big Joe Turner, but later diversified, making Franklin the Queen of Soul as well as carrying the banner of British rock (with the Rolling Stones, Cream, Led Zeppelin) and American pop (with Sonny and Cher, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and others).
Today, the company, part of Warner Music Group, is the home to artists including Kid Rock, James Blunt, T.I., and Missy Elliott. “Ahmet Ertegun was a true visionary whose life's work had a profound impact on our cultures musical landscape, as well as around the world,” said Neil Portnow, president of The Recording Academy.
Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner said Ertegun was a mentor to many in the music business. “Ahmet was perhaps the most revered, respected figure in American popular music of the modern era,” Wenner said in a statement.

Ertegun's love of music began with jazz, back when he and his late brother Nesuhi (an esteemed producer of such jazz acts as Charles Mingus and Ornette Coleman) used to hang around with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington in the clubs of Washington, D.C.
“My father was a diplomat who was ambassador to Switzerland, France and England before he became ambassador to the United States, and we lived in all those countries and we always had music in the house, and a lot of it was a kind of popular music, and we heard a lot of jazz,” Ertegun recalled in an interview with The Associated Press. “By the time we came to Washington, we were collecting records and we amassed a collection of some 25,000 blues and jazz records.”

Ertegun parlayed his love of music into a career when he founded Atlantic with partner Herb Abramson and a $10,000 loan. When the label first started, it made its name with blues-edged recordings by acts such as Ruth Brown. Despite his privileged background, which included attending prep school and socializing with Washington's elite, Ertegun was able to mix with all kinds of people — an attribute that made him not just a marketer of black music, but a part of it, said Jerry Wexler. “The transition between these two worlds is one of Ahmet's most distinguishing characteristics,” Wexler said.

Black music was the backbone of the label for years — it was Atlantic, under Wexler's production genius, that helped make Franklin the top black female singer of her day.
“We had some pop music — we had Bobby Darin ... and we developed other pop artists such as Sonny and Cher and Bette Midler and so on,” said Ertegun. “But we had been most effective that set a style as purveyors of African-American music. And we were the kings of that until the arrival of Motown Records, which was long after we started.” But once music tastes changed, Ertegun switched gears and helped bring on the British invasion in the '60s. “If Atlantic had restricted itself to R&B music, I have no doubt that it would be extinct today,” Wexler said. Instead, it became even bigger.

In later years, Ertegun signed Midler, Roberta Flack and ABBA. He had a gift for being able to pick out what would be a commercial smash, said the late producer Arif Mardin, who remembered one session where he was working with the Bee Gees on an album — but was unsure of what he had produced. “Then Ahmet came and listened to it, and said, ‘You've got hits here, you've got dance hits,”' Mardin once told the AP. “I was involved in such a way that I didn't see the forest for the trees. ... He was like the steadying influence.” One strength of the company was Ertegun's close relationships with many of the artists — relationships that continued even after they left his label. Midler still called for advice, and he visited Franklin's home when he dropped into Detroit.

“He cared first and foremost about the artist and the music — much more than the business,” Daryl Hall of Hall and Oates said. “He believed that if the artist was true to him or herself, good business would follow. Sadly in today's atmosphere, this isn't the case. But, during Ahmet's days of influence it was.” His friendships extended to the younger generation, too, including Kid Rock and Lil' Kim.

Besides his love of music, Ertegun was also known for his love of art, and socializing. It was not uncommon to find him at a party with his wife, Mica, hanging out until all hours with friends. Although he was slowed by triple-bypass surgery in 2001, he still went into his office almost daily to listen for his next hit.

Music mogul Quincy Jones called Ertegun “definitely one of the pioneering visionaries in this whole scene.” “He was a very 360-degree person. He loved to have a good time. He knew how to party, which is my kind of guy, and he knew how to work. He knew how to look into the future and how to execute to bring it to fruition,” Jones said in a phone interview from Los Angeles.

Finding those hits were among the most wonderful moments in his life, Ertegun said.
“I've been in the studio when you go through a track and you run down a track and you know even before the singer starts singing, you know the track is swinging ... you know you have a multimillion-seller hit — and what you're working on suddenly has magic,” he said. “That's the biggest.”

Jerry Lee Lewis Contest Deadline December 15

Just a reminder that the deadline to enter the Jerry Lee Lewis - Last Man Standing Contest is December 15th. To be eligible to win a copy of the album or perhaps the Grand Prize: an autograhped copy of the album and poster, signed by the Killer himself, send your full name and postal mailing address to contest@treasureislandoldies.com

The winners will be announced on the 10th Annual Treasure Island Oldies Christmas Special this Sunday, December 17 beginning at 6 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern. Good luck and enter now!

Georgia Gibbs R.I.P.

My thanks to listener Fred Waterer for this news bulletin.

By RICHARD PYLE
Associated Press Writer
December 11, 2006, 4:06 PM EST

NEW YORK -- Georgia Gibbs, a versatile singer who starred on radio and television's popular "Hit Parade" in the 1950s, performed with the big bands of Tommy Dorsey and Artie Shaw and was perhaps best known for the song "Kiss of Fire," has died.

Gibbs, 87, died on Saturday at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, family friend Leslie Gottlieb said. The cause was complications from leukemia.

Gibbs, born Freda Lipschitz, in Worcester, Mass., in 1919, began singing in Boston ballrooms as a teenager, using the name Gibbons, and went on to a career that included novelty songs, pop, country and smoky ballads. She was one of the first white singers to cover rhythm and blues hits, sometimes upstaging the original versions with sanitized lyrics.

She took the name Georgia Gibbs around 1942 and a few years later was dubbed Her Nibs, Miss Georgia Gibbs, by radio and TV variety show host Garry Moore. The rhyming sobriquet stuck as a way of introducing her on the air.

Besides a stint on "Hit Parade," which showcased the most popular songs each week, Gibbs was a regular on programs hosted by Moore, Jimmy Durante and comedian Danny Kaye and was a frequent guest on other radio and early television variety shows hosted by Ed Sullivan, Milton Berle, Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Ed Wynn and Steve Allen. She was interviewed by Edward R. Murrow on "Person to Person."

Given her versatility, Gibbs was well suited for the post-World War II era of transition from radio to TV and from big-band music to R&B-influenced pop and early rock 'n' roll.

Among her 15 Top 40 hits, mostly for Mercury Records, were three gold records _ the tango-based "Kiss of Fire," which went to No. 1 on the pop charts in 1952, "Tweedle Dee," a No. 2 R&B adaptation in 1954, and "Dance With Me Henry," another R&B cover, which reached No. 1 in 1955 with cleaned-up lyrics. The latter two outsold the originals by Lavern Baker and Etta James, respectively, according to the Web site music.msn.com.

Other memorable Gibbs recordings included the novelty "If I Knew You Were Coming, I'd've Baked a Cake" in the early 1950s and her last Top 40 record, "The Hula Hoop Song," in 1958.

Although Gibbs was semiretired after 1960, her singing career spanned more than 60 years, "a remarkable and enduring talent, and very persistent," Gottlieb said.

A highlight of Gibbs' life, Gottlieb said, was performing for Israeli soldiers in 1949, after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, which helped establish the Jewish state.

Gibbs was married to Frank Gervasi, an author and World War II correspondent for United Press, who died before her. She is survived by a grandson, Sasha Gervasi, a brother, Robert Gibson, and a niece, Patty Turk.

Treasure Island Oldies 10th Annual Christmas Special

I hope you will join me for our 10th Annual Christmas Special LIVE this Sunday, December 17th. This is my absolute favourite show of the year and my Christmas gift to you. We are on the air beginning at 6 p.m. Pacific , 9 p./m. Eastern, for four hours of the grestest Christmas and Holiday songs of all time, including many Lost Treasures.

This special will be yours to enjoy throughout the Holiday Season. After Christmas, be sure to come to the website and have a listen to some classic specials that I have gone back into the vaults to play for you.

Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah!
Michael

Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

One of Phil Spector's grestest discoveries, in my opinion, was Darlene Love. One of her best performances was included on the album, A Christmas Gift For You, the fantastic Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).

For many years now, she has performed this song on the David Letterman Show. Here for your enjoyment is Darlene Love and her appearance on Letterman from 2005. You're gonna love this!
Michael

Christmas Song of the Week - Nat King Cole

Nat King Cole to me is so closely linked to Christmas and his interpretation of The Christmas Song,
written by Mel Torme is an all-time classic.

For our Song of the Week here he is in a clip performing The Christmas Song.

Cool Christmas Lights Song

I first saw this video last year and was knocked out by how they were able to synchronize the music and lights on the house. I enjoyed it and thought you would like it too.

Here you go.

Shawn Hlookoff - Live in the Studio

Shawn Hlookoff is a terrific and very talented new singer/songwriter. I first came across his music just prior to Remembrance Day in Canada and While his music has nothing to do with oldies music, I just want you to be able to hear him. He is a new recording artist with a bright future. As you know, I have a deep passion for all kinds of music and I am pleased to have Shawn as my special guest.

For some background information, please visit Shawn's website as well as at MySpace.

style="font-style:italic;">Veterans Day in the United States on a newscast. He was being featured on the news because of his song, Soldier, which was getting a lot of attention in the media and online.

I was so taken with Soldier that I decided to close that week's show by playing Shawn's song. And I was very pleased with the feedback I received from listeners to my radio show as a result of playing Soldier.

I sent an email to Shawn and was very pleased to receive a reply from him. In that reply I discovered that I knew his manager, John Grhaham, very well. He was a booking agent at S.L. Feldman & Associates and I rented office space there. A few days later, the three of us got together and talked for quite some time and I offered some advice to Shawn for his career.

During our meeting, both Shawn and John expressed an interest in coming to the studio to see me doing the show, so I immediately extended an invitation. Not only did they accept, but Shawn also agreed to perform live in the studio. So I am very pleased to let you know that this week Shawn Hlookoff will be join me on Treasure Island Oldies, Sunday, December 10.

UPDATE: Shawn has come down with a cold and will be unable to perform on the show this Sunday. However, he will still join me in the studio and we will have a chance to chat on the air. We will re-schedule his live performance for early in the New Year.

The Crystals - Voice Your Choice

The Crystals were from Brooklyn, New York and one of the top Girl Groups of the 1960s. The core of the group consisted of Barbara Alston, Dee Dee Kennibrew, Mary Thomas, Patricia Wright and Myrna Gerrard.

In 1962 Myrna Gerrard left and was replaced by La La Brooks. Sadly, Barbara Alston died of a heart attack at age 48 on May 15, 1992.

Both The Crystals and The Ronettes were produced by Phil Spector and his famous Wall of Sound.

This week on Treasure Island Oldies, Voice Your Choice spotlights two of the biggest hits of The Crystals: Da Doo Ron Ron and He's A Rebel (written by Gene Pitney).

Come to the Voice Your Choice page and cast your vote for the song you prefer. We'll play the song with the most votes in Hour 3 of this week's show.

Shocking Blue - Shocking News

I have just found out that Mariska Veres, the lead singer of Shocking Blue has passed away. Reports are she died of cancer. She was around 56. From Holland, they made a major impact on the worldwide music scene with their smash hit, Venus.

In memory of Mariska Veres, here is a clip of Venus, the Song of the Week.

Treasure Island Oldies Back On The Air This Week

I am pleased to let you know that despite a major snowstorm, a deep freeze, yet another snowstorm, and now a thaw, we will be back LIVE this week with another edition of Treasure Island Oldies. And I have a couple of updates and reminders. Voice Your Choice for last week didn't happen, so it is still Paul Anka. Please scroll down a couple of postings to see the complete info on Voice Your Choice.

Also the Jerry Lee Lewis Contest is still underway, and we will continue to feature songs from the album, Last Man Standing. And don't forget to enter the contest for your chance to win a copy of the CD or the Grand Prize, an autographed copy of the album and poster, signed by Jerry Lee Lewis. To enter the contest, send an email with you full name and complete postal mailing address to contest@treasureislandoldies with Jerry Lee Lewis in the subject line. The deadline to enter is Saturday, December 9, 2006. Good Luck!

And be sure to be listening to the show this week for news of a special in-studio interview and performance with an exciting artist live next week, Sunday, December 10. Full details on the show plus read more in the Blog next Monday.

Join me this Sunday for another Treasure Island Oldies radio show.

Bye for now.
Michael

NO SHOW TODAY-SEVERE WINTER STORM

Well the song goes "It Never Rains In Southern California", and a variation could be "It Never Snows In Vancouver", except for today.

We have been hit by a huge winter snow storm from Alaska, a real rarity for Vancouver. Since last night we've had over 12 inches fall, with at least another 4 to 6 to come, along with high winds that will surely cause whiteouts on the roads.

So I am afraid that there is no way for me to get out of the driveway, let alone get onto the highway to the studio for this week's Treasure Island Oldies show. Consequently there will be no live show this week.

I am very sorry for this inconvenience, but I am not going to take any risks trying to get to the studio.

If all goes well, we'll be back next week with a new live show.

In the meantime, I invite you to listen to last week's show. At the Archives Paqe, click on the Real Media feed for last week's show or the 24/7 Windows Media feed for a collection of the last three shows.

See you next week.

Michael

Roger Hodgson (Supertramp)

Roger Hodgson is the founder of Supertramp. He and former bandmate Rick Davies each individually wrote the songs Supertramp would record. I remember their first two albums from my college radio days, Supertramp and Indelibly Stamped in 1970 and '71. In the fall of 1974 they released Crime Of The Century; in my opinion this is one of the greatest albums ever made! It was perfect from beginning to end. I was working at CFOM in Quebec City. It was a small station, only 250 watts and both the only English station as well as the only Top 40 format in the city. So needless to say, this tiny little station was BIG.

I will never forget the day when my friend J.P. Guilbert, who headed up promotion for A&M Records in the Province of Quebec came from Montreal to bring the latest releases. Being a Top 40 station, J.P. said this new album Crime of the Centry was not what I would play. You see, I was Music Director and also did mid-days from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. However, he suggested I not listen to the album at the station, but wait till I get home and play it on my stereo BUT listen to it with headphones.

Well that evening I got myself ready to hear some new music and put on side one of the album. Fist song: School. When I heard the first strains of the harmonica off in the distance, and the simple guitar riff, then Roger Hodgson's plaintive voice, I was intrigued. But when the school child lets out a screm and the song kicked in, I was hooked. Bu the time the second song Bloody Well Right was done, I got up to turn the album over, thinking Side One was finished. It had been such an amazing listening journey for just those two songs, I just assumed they comprised all of side one. Imagine my elation when I realized that there was not only more of side one to go but the entire side two!

When I did flip over the record to play the second side, I instantly loved Dreamer. And when Rudy began it was a journey unto itself. I was almost exhausted by the time the final song, Crime Of The Century, was over with John Helliwell's sax blaring and the strains of the harmonica recurring from the opening song, School. I could not believe this album! I was blown away. I decided that despite there not being a 45 single released, I believed that taken out of the context of this masterpiece album, Dreamer could also become a hit single, so I added it to the playlist. The song took off in Quebec City. The album also really took off in Montreal, thanks to CHOM-FM, which adopted the album and played it like it was a mantra.

Some time later, I was told that Supertramp was coming on tour and they would play a date in Quebec City. Man, I was ecstatic! I was also so glad that I was chosen to record the radio commercial for the concert in Quebec City. The day of the show arrived, and I went to the concert. Supertramp performed the entire Crime Of The Century album live, with absolutely perfect sound mixing and fantastic lighting. When they played Rudy, the long instrumental section that continues to build to a climax was visually coupled with a perfectly timed classic black & white film of the London to Brighton train run. It blew me away along with the entire audience.

Imagine my good fortune when I left radio and began working as the head of Artist & Repertoire for A&M Records, the very same label that had Supertramp. By the time I joined A&M in November 1975, a year had passed since the release of Crime, and the band had become huge in Canada. In fact, Canada is the country that "broke" Supertramp before anywhere else in the world.

I hope you can understand how lucky I felt a month later, when in December 1975 we received an advance reel to reel tape of the just-finished follow-up album, Crisis What Crisis. I vividly recall sitting in the office of the President of A&M Canada, Gerry Lacoursiere, along with all of the other department heads. We all sat on couches and arm chairs and turned up the sound system and closed out eyes in anticipation of Supertramp taking us on their next musical journey. And we were not disappointed.

In today's cold corporate world, it's hard to imagine a record company today all stopping to listen together to a new album by one of their "acts". Well I can tell you that we at A&M were MUSIC FANS, plain and simple. We loved the artists signed to our label and we brainstormed often well into the late evenings on ways to break a new artist or album, devise clever and fun promotions, etc. We loved music and our jobs and it showed. A&M Canada had an industry-wide reputation as the A&M Canada Family.

I also fondly remember listening sesions for subsequent Supertramp albums, Even In The Quietest Moments and Breakfast In America. For the launch party, we flew to Los Angeles to hear the playback for Breakfast In America. "Libby", the model on the front cover of the album, was there in person and dressed identically to the album cover.

Why am I telling you all this? Well this past Wednesday, November 22nd, Roger Hodgson, came to Vancouver. It was the last night of a national tour of Canada, his first time performing in Canada in over 20 years. Roger invited me to see the show and to have a visit backstage after the concert. He had me sitting in Row 2 Centre on the aisle! When he came out on stage, he got a roaring standing ovation before he even played one note. That is how fanatic Supertramp fans are! And here's a trivia fact for you. Supertramp were so big in Canada that one in 15 people in Canada own a copy of Crime Of The Century and Breakfast In America!!!

Roger's show was almost perfection itself: his voice is sounding vigorous, emotional and always beautiful, at times angelic. He performed solo, altering from grand piano to electric keyboard (with a Fender Rhodes sound) to a 12 string guitar. He was occasionaly accompanied onstage by a very talented multi-wind-instrumentalist from London, Ontario who also contributed background vocals at various key points. Otherwise this was a solo performance by Roger.

By the time the show was over, after three or four encores (I lost count), the audience was satiated and ready to go home, filled with satisfaction and smiles. Roger brought back so many great memories and gave so much love back to the audience. He was quite emotional by the end, saying Canada continues to have a very special place in his heart as the country that adopted Supertramp well before anywhere else in the world. That love affair continues today.

On Treasure Island Oldies this week, I am going to retell a bit of these memories, the concert, and my visit with Roger backstage after the show. And for all you Supertramp fans, I will play a couple of my favourite songs from Crime Of The Century and Even In The Quietest Moments. I hope you'll join me for the show, live Sunday, November 26, and the Archiveed show afterward.

Rock And Roll Heaven - Updated

A music industry colleague of mine, Artie Wayne, is very successful songwriter and music publisher. You should have a look at his bio for the fascinating background on his career.

On August 20th of this year, Artie posted this message at his Blog. "In 1971, When I was general professional manager of Warner Brothers music, the late Johnny Stevenson played me a song he just recorded, “Rock and Roll Heaven’. I thought the chorus was a smash, but didn’t care for anything else! I suggested that he collaborate with Alan O’Day (”Undercover Angel”, “Angie Baby”) and turn it into a tribute to Rock Stars who have passed away.

In 1974 the Righteous Brothers recorded it and took it to number one! Since then we’ve lost so many more of our heros that it was time for an update of the lyric. Alan O’Day worked on it for months, then he went to Nashville and made a demo with Ronny Kimball. I e-mailed a copy of the demo to my friend, director and producer, Sebastian Prooth for an opinion. This morning he surprised us with this brilliant video he made!"

Here is this fantastic video! Thanks very much to Artie for this.
Michael

Paul Anka - Voice Your Choice

Paul Anka was born in Ottawa, the capital of Canada, on July 30, 1941 and began performing at age 12. His first label was RPM Records, for which he recorded a song called I Confess. That recording session in 1956 was financed by his father. Sadly nothing happened. One year later he signed with ABC-Paramount and his career exploded.

His first single for ABC-Paramount, Diana, went all the way to Number One and became a Gold record. He has achieved an impressive 53 songs on the Billboard chart with eleven in the Top Ten and three Gold records.

With such a vast chart history, it was a difficult decision to select just two songs for Voice Your Choice. But we did...

This week on Voice Your Choice, Treasure Island Oldies presents Paul Anka with You Are My Destiny and Put Your Head On My Shoulder.

Have a preference? Come to the Voice Your Choice page and make your selection. The song with the most votes will get played in Hour 3 of this coming week's show.

PLEASE NOTE: BECAUSE THE SHOW WAS PRE-EMPTED THIS WEEK DUE TO THE SEVERE WINTER SNOW STORM, WE WILL HOLD OVER VOICE YOUR CHOICE FOR ONE MORE WEEK. SO YOU CAN VOTE FOR THE PAUL ANKA SONG OF YOUR CHOICE ALL THIS WEEK. THE WINNING SONG WILL BE PLAYED ON THE DECEMBER 3RD SHOW.

Wilson Pickett - Song of the Week

This week the Treasure Island Oldies Blog features Wilson Pickett with Everybody Needs Somebody To Love, the Song of the Week. Enjoy!

Ruth Brown - R.I.P.

November 18, 2006
Ruth Brown, 78, a Queen of Rhythm and Blues, Dies
By JON PARELES
Ruth Brown, the gutsy rhythm and blues singer whose career extended to acting and crusading for musicians' rights, died on Friday in Las Vegas. She was 78 and lived in Las Vegas.

The cause was complications following a heart attack and a stroke she suffered after surgery, and Ms. Brown had been on life support since Oct. 29, said her friend, lawyer and executor, Howell Begle.

"She was one of the original divas," said the singer Bonnie Raitt, who worked with Ms. Brown and Mr. Begle to improve royalties for rhythm and blues performers. "I can't really say that I've heard anyone that sounds like Ruth, before or after. She was a combination of sass and innocence, and she was extremely funky. She could really put it right on the beat, and the tone of her voice was just mighty. And she had a great heart."

"What I loved about her," Ms. Raitt added, "was her combination of vulnerability and resilience and fighting spirit. It was not arrogance, but she was just really not going to lay down and roll over for anyone."

Ms. Brown sustained a career for six decades: first as a bright, bluesy singer who was called "the girl with a tear in her voice" and then, after some lean years, as the embodiment of an earthy, indomitable black woman. She had a life of hard work, hard luck, determination, audacity and style. Sometimes it was said that R&B stood as much for Ruth Brown as it did for rhythm and blues.

As the 1950s began, Ms. Brown's singles for the fledgling Atlantic Records - like “(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean" and "5-10-15 Hours" - became
Both the label's bankroll and templates for all of rock 'n' roll. She could sound as if she were hurting, or joyfully lusty, or both at once. Her voice was forthright, feisty and ready for anything.

After Ms. Brown's string of hits ended, she kept singing but also went on to a career in television, radio and movies ( including a memorable role as the disc jockey Motormouth Maybelle in John Waters's "Hairspray") and on Broadway, where she won a Tony Award for her part in "Black and Blue." She worked clubs, concerts and festivals into the 21st
century.

"Whatever I have to say, I get it said," she said in an interview with The New York Times in 1995. "Like the old spirituals say, 'I've gone too far to turn me 'round now.' "

Ms. Brown was born Ruth Weston on Jan. 12, 1928, in Portsmouth, Va., the oldest of seven children. She made her debut when she was 4, and her father, the choir director at the local Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, lifted her onto the church piano. In summers, she and her siblings picked cotton at her grandmother's farm in North Carolina. "That made me the strong woman I am," she said in 1995.

As a teenager, she would tell her family she was going to choir practice and perform instead at U.S.O. clubs at nearby naval stations. She ran away from home at 17, working with a trumpeter named Jimmy Brown and using his last name onstage. She married him, or thought she did; he was already married. But she was making a reputation as Ruth Brown, and the name stuck.

The big-band leader Lucky Millinder heard her in Detroit late in 1946, hired her for his band and fired her in Washington, D.C. Stranded, she managed to find a club engagement at the Crystal Caverns. There, the disc jockey Willis Conover, who broadcast jazz internationally on Voice of America radio, heard Ms. Brown and recommended her to friends at Atlantic Records.

On the way to New York City, however, she was seriously injured in an automobile accident and hospitalized for most of a year; her legs, which were smashed, would be painful for the rest of her life. She stood on crutches in 1949 to record her first session for
Atlantic, and the bluesy ballad "So Long" became a hit.

She wanted to keep singing ballads, but Atlantic pushed her to try upbeat songs, and she tore into them. During the sessions for "Teardrops From My Eyes," her voice cracked upward to a squeal. Herb Abramson of Atlantic Records liked it, called it a "tear," and after "Teardrops" reached No. 1 on the rhythm and blues chart, the sound became her
trademark for a string of hits.

"If I was getting ready to go and record and I had a bad throat, they'd say, 'Good!'," she once recalled.

Ms. Brown was the best-selling black female performer of the early 1950s, even though, in that segregated era, many of her songs were picked up and redone by white singers, like Patti Page and Georgia Gibbs, in tamer versions that became pop hits. The pop singer Frankie Laine gave her a lasting nickname: Miss Rhythm.

Working the rhythm and blues circuit in the 1950s, when dozens of her singles reached the R&B Top 10, Ms. Brown drove a Cadillac and had romances with stars like the saxophonist Willis (Gator Tail) Jackson and the singer Clyde McPhatter of the Drifters. (Her first son, Ronald, was given the last name Jackson; decades later, she told him he was actually Mr. McPhatter's son, and he now sings with a latter-day lineup of the
Drifters.)

In 1955 Ms. Brown married Earl Swanson, a saxophonist, and had a second son, Earl; the marriage ended in divorce. Her two sons survive her: Mr. Jackson, who has three children, of Los Angeles, and Mr. Swanson of Las Vegas. She is also survived by four siblings: Delia Weston of Las Vegas, Leonard Weston of Long Island and Alvin and Benjamin Weston of Portsmouth.

Her streak of hits ended soon after the 1960s began. She lived on Long Island, raised her sons, worked as a teacher's aide and a maid and was married for three years to a police officer, Bill Blunt. On weekends she sang club dates in the New York area, and she recorded an album in 1968 with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Big Band. Although her hits
had supported Atlantic Records - sometimes called the House That Ruth Built - she was unable at one point to afford a home telephone.

The comedian Redd Foxx, whom she had once helped out of a financial jam, invited her to Los Angeles in 1975 to play the gospel singer Mahalia Jackson in "Selma," a musical about civil rights he was producing.

She went on to sing in Las Vegas and continued a comeback that never ended. The television producer Norman Lear gave her a role in the sitcom "Hello, Larry." She returned to New York City in 1982, appearing in Off Broadway productions including "Stagger Lee," and in 1985 she went to Paris to perform in the revue "Black and Blue," rejoining it later for its Broadway run.

Ms. Brown began to speak out, onstage and in interviews, about the exploitative contracts musicians of her generation had signed. Many hit-making musicians had not recouped debts to their labels, according to record company accounting, and so were not receiving
royalties at all. Shortly before Atlantic held a 40th-birthday concert at Madison Square Garden in 1988, the label agreed to waive unrecouped debts for Ms. Brown and
35 other musicians of her era and to pay 20 years of retroactive royalties.

Atlantic also contributed nearly $2 million to start the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, which pushed other labels toward royalty reform and distributed millions of dollars directly to musicians in need, although it has struggled to sustain itself in recent years.

"Black and Blue" revitalized Ms. Brown's recording career, on labels including Fantasy and Bullseye Blues. Her 1989 album "Blues on Broadway" won a Grammy Award for best jazz vocal performance, female. She was a radio host on the public radio shows "Harlem Hit Parade" and "BluesStage." In 1995 she released her autobiography, "Miss Rhythm" (Dutton), written with Andrew Yule; it won the Gleason Award for music journalism. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

She toured steadily, working concert halls, festivals and cabarets. This year she recorded songs for the coming movie by John Sayles, "Honeydripper," and was about to fly to Alabama to act in it when she became ill.

Ms. Brown never learned to read music. "In school we had music classes, but I ducked them," she said in 1995. "They were just a little too slow. I didn't want to learn to read no note. I knew I could sing it. I woke up one morning and I could sing."

The Killer - Jerry Lee Lewis on Treasure Island Oldies

I am very excited to let you know that beginning this Sunday, November 19 and running to December 10, 2006, Treasure Island Oldies will be featuring the brand new album by The Killer - Jerry Lee Lewis, Last Man Standing.

In conjunction with your chance to hear songs from the album, Treasure Island Oldies will be running a contest as well. You can win your own copy of Last Man Standing.

But wait, there's more...

On December 17, 2006 I will make a random draw from all contest entries and the lucky winner will receive an autographed poster and album signed by Jerry Lee Lewis!

Get the full details by coming to Treasure Island Oldies.

Pop Quiz #3 Now at Treasure Island Oldies

The Treasure Island Oldies Pop Quiz #3 is now up and running. This fun trivia feature has proven to be very popular among regular and first time visitors to the website. Try it on for yourself. Take Pop Quiz #3 by clicking here. Have some fun!

Lawsuit in British Court Over "A Whiter Shade Of Pale"

Two members of Procol Harum, Matthew Fisher and Gary Brooker, are in British court over A Whiter Shade Of Pale.

Here's the story...
By Jill Lawless

LONDON (AP) - Two former 1960s rock stars appeared before a music-loving judge Monday for a showdown over authorship of one of the decade's most iconic songs.

The organ strains of Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" sounded through Court 56 of Britain's High Court as the band's former organ player, Matthew Fisher, sued an ex-bandmate for a share of copyright in the multimillion-selling song.

Fisher's lawyer, Iain Purvis, said the song "defined what is sometimes called the summer of love in 1967," and had achieved cult status.

He said Fisher had composed the organ melody, and particularly the eight-bar Hammond organ solo, which gives the song its distinctive baroque flavour.

Purvis said the solo "is a brilliant piece of work and it is crucial to the success of the song."

"Our case, in essence, is that Mr. Fisher wrote the entirety of the organ tune," he said.

Fisher is suing Procol Harum singer Gary Brooker and publisher Onward Music Ltd. for a co-author credit and a share of the song's copyright and royalties.

Brooker, who is credited as the song's author with lyricist Keith Reid, says the pair wrote the song before Fisher joined the band in March 1967.

Brooker has said the melody was inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach's "Air on the G String" and "Sleepers Awake."

Defence lawyers said the fact Fisher had waited almost four decades to bring his claim was "bizarre and obviously prejudicial."

"Mr. Fisher's claim should fail on that ground alone," they said in court papers.

The song, renowned for its mystifying lyrics - beginning "We skipped the light fandango, turned cartwheels cross the floor" - topped the British singles chart for five weeks and was a top 10 hit in the United States. Rolling Stone magazine has ranked it 57th in a list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

Purvis said a website compiled by a fan lists 771 recorded cover versions, "most of them, sad to say, disastrous."

Fisher, now a computer programmer, left the band in 1969. Brooker, 61, still tours with Procol Harum. The two sat facing the judge and did not look at one another on the first day of the five-day hearing.

A Yamaha electric keyboard sat near the witness box, where Fisher is due to appear later in the case.

The case is being heard by Judge William Blackburne, who studied both music and law at Cambridge University. He requested access to the keyboard and sheet music of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" so he could run through the song after court hours.

Judges are not always familiar with popular music, and Purvis noted that "one always risks in these cases a 'what-are-The-Beatles' moment" - a reference to a famous but possibly apocryphal story of a judge who purportedly asked that question during a case in the 1960s.

"But I'll hazard that your lordship is familiar" with "A Whiter Shade of Pale," Purvis said.

"I am of an age, yes," said the 62-year-old judge.

Small Faces - Itchycoo Park - Song Of The Week

This week's Song of the Week is by Britian's Small Faces and their classic hit Itchycoo Park. Enjoy!

Gene Chandler

Gene Chandler was born Eugene Dixon on July 6, 1940 in Chicago, Ilinois. This great R&B singer took his last name from his favourite movie star, Jeff Chandler.

In high school, he was a member of the Gaytones and later joined a neighbourhood group, The Dukays, in 1956. Upon his release from the U.S. Army after serving from 1957-60, he re-joined The Dukays. They recorded for a small independent label NAT Records, including songs Nite Owl, The Girl's A Devil and Duke Of Earl. Vee-Jay Records purchased the master recording of Duke Of Earl and re-released it on Vee-Jay crediting the artist as Gene Chandler. So an inadvertant way to start a solo career indeed!

Gene Chandler has had 25 charted records with four Top Twenty hits. This week on the Treasure Island Oldies radio show, Voice Your Choice spotlights Gene Chandler with two of his biggest hits: Duke Of Earl and Groovy Situation, both Gold records.

Have a preference for one of the songs? Come to Treasure Island Oldies and click on the Voice Your Choice button, make your selection and sit back and relax. We'll play the song with the most votes in Hour 3 of this week's show.

Special Closing To This Week's Treasure Island Oldies Radio Show

The young fellow on the left is Shawn Hlookoff. He is a musician from Nelson, British Columbia who in the last short while has created quite a stir with one of his songs, Soldier.

I saw him perform Soldier as a feature on Global News here in Vancouver, and I was taken with the song's lyrics and melody as well as his voice.

In view that this weekend marks both Remembrance Day in Canada and Veterans Day in the United States, I have decided to close this week's show with Soldier by Shawn Hlookoff. It will be dedicated to every soldier past and present, everywhere in the world.

For more information on Shawn, visit his website and on Myspace.
Here is the video...
Soldier Video

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Butch Mattice-Johnny & The Hurricanes

Johnny And The Hurricanes were one of the most distinctive sounding instrumental groups of the 1950s and '60s. Originally known as The Orbits from Toledo, Ohio, they went on to national and international acclaim with their Top Ten smash Red River Rock. They also had hits with Reveille Rock, Rockin' Goose, Crossfire, and others.

We are saddened to learn of the death of Lionel "Butch" Mattice, the bass player in the group. We send our best wishes and sincere condolonces to the surviving members of Johnny And The Hurricanes: Johnny Paris (saxophone), Paul Tesluk (organ), Dave Yorko (guitar), and drummer Tony Kaye.

One Hit Wonders

There have been so many artists and groups other than Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, etc. to hit the charts. However, we tend to recall only the big names that had enduring careers and maintained a high profile. But there were many, many who had huge hits ONCE, and then disappeared. They are referred to as One Hit Wonders.

This week on the Treasure Island Oldies radio show we feature those One Hit Wonders. When you hear some of these great singers and their hit songs, you'll be saying "I can't believe they only had one hit".

For example, you'll hear In The Year 2525, Sally Go Round The Roses, Lay A Little Lovin' On Me, Rescue Me, Get A Job, and so many more.

Be sure to listen to the One Hit Wonders Special this week on Treasure Island Oldies, live Sunday from 6 to 10 Pacific, 9 to 1 Eastern.

A Short History of UK Pirate Radio

My friend Keith Hampshire, former A&M Records artist and UK DJ with Radio Caroline in the 1960s, has sent a link to this video. It's a short history of UK pirate radio and specifically Radio Caroline.

For you radio lovers, dig this!

Michael

Herman's Hermits

Herman's Hermits, from Manchester, England, were one of the successful British Invasion groups. Fronted by charismatic child star Peter Noone, Herman's Hermits got their name from the cartoon character "Sherman" on The Bullwinkle Show.

Between 1964 and 1968 they scored 19 singles on the Billboard chart with 11 of them in the Top Ten and three achieving Gold Record status. Quite a feat indeed!

This week on Voice Your Choice, Treasure Island Oldies features Herman's Hermits and two of their most popular songs: Can't You Hear My Heartbeat and Listen People.

Come to the Voice Your Choice page and cast your vote for the song you prefer. We'll play the one with the most votes in Hour 3 of this week's show.

Lesley Gore on T.A.M.I. Show - Song of the Week

The T.A.M.I. Show, Teenage Awards Music International, was a live concert filmed at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in 1964. This classic concert film, a combination of American and British Invasion groups, was hosted by Jan & Dean and had a huge number of performers including James Brown, The Supremes, The Rolling Stones, The Miracles, Marvin Gaye (backed by Darlene Love and The Crystals - credited as The Blossoms), Chuck Berry, Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas, Gerry & The Pacemakers and others.

This film shot in "Electronovision", videotape later transferred to film, is a classic and extremely hard to locate a copy today. Fortunately, someone has posted some clips from it including this week's Song of the Week by Lesley Gore. She's singing a medley of Maybe I Know and You Don't Own Me.

I hope you enjoy watching and hearing this piece of music history!

Michael

Paul Mauriat - R.I.P

Paul Mauriat, the French orchestra leader from Paris, has died at the age of 81. His specialty was light instrumental music, somewhat similar to Germany's James Last.

In the 1950s he became the band leader for two of France's most loved singers, Charles Aznavour and Maurice Chevalier. He also recorded his own albums and hit his peak of popularity worldwide as a result of his Number One instrumental hit, Love Is Blue, originally titled L'Amour Est Bleu. The original vocal version was by Vicky Leandros.

The sad thing about life is it ends; the beautiful thing about music is that it lives on.

Paul Mauriat, R.I.P.

Michael

Sam & Dave

Sam & Dave were the great Rhythm and Blues duo of Sam Moore and Dave Prater. Sadly, Dave was killed in a car crash on April 9, 1988 at the age of 50.

In the three short years from 1966 to 1969, they had 13 singles on the Billboard Chart. Two songs reached the Top Ten and those same two went Gold as well.

In 1992 they were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, and very well deserved. Along with Otis Redding, the Bar-Kays, the Staple Singers, Sam & Dave were the sound of Stax Records.

This week on Treasure Island Oldies, Voice Your Choice spotlights Sam & Dave with two of their biggest hits: Soul Man and Hold On! I'm A Comin'.

Which song do you prefer? Cast your vote by coming to the Voice Your Choice page. Will this week be so close as to be a nail biter? Listen to the show this week to find out the winner. We'll play the song with the most votes in Hour 3 on Treasure Island Oldies.

Happy Halloween - The Witch Queen Of New Orleans

H A P P Y H A L L O W E E N!

Thought you'd enjoy one of the great Halloween Hits - The Witch Queen Of New Orleans by Redbone. Enjoy. Have a fun time this Halloween!!

Happy Halloween

In keeping with this special day, here once again is Bobby Boris Pickett & The Crypt Kickers and the all-time classic The Monster Mash.

Oh be sure to listen to the Treasure Island Oldies 10th Annual Halloween Spooktacular.

Creedence Clearwater Revival

I thought that it would be fun to do a variation on Compare The Hits like we do on Treasure Island Oldies every week, so here is Creedence Clearwater Revival performing their version of I Put A Spell On You.

Screaming Jay Hawkins

Screaming Jay Hawkins wrote and recorded one of the all-time greatest songs that is perfect for Halloween. Here he is performing the song in all his voodoo greatness. Ane be sure to listen to the Treasure Island Oldies 10th Annual Halloween Spooktacular.

10 Annual Halloween Spooktacular

Freaks and Ghouls, be sure to join me, Count Michael, for the 10th Annual Halloween Spooktacular on Treasure Island Oldies. We'll be "dead" this Sunday, October 29 from 6 to 10 p.m.

I've been buried down in the scaratorium for weeks and weeks finding some great Halloween goodies to play for you and I am sure they will scare you out of your whits.

I also hope you like how our website had been decorated for Halloween. Come on over and have a boo!

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!

Creedence Clearwater Revival of Song of the Week

The Song of the Week is by Creedence Clearwater Recival. It's a live performance from a TV show it seems, and the person introducing the band sounds to me like Johnny Cash. CCR perform two songs: Bad Moon Rising and Proud Mary.

Enjoy!

Song Of The Week

As I told listeners on this week's Treasure Island Oldies radio show, I have decided to incorporate a new weekly feature exclusively here on the Treasure Island Oldies Blog. The Song Of The Week will be a video performance of a recording artist or group from the Rock and Roll era from YouTube.

For this first week, what better way to start than with the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley!

Enjoy.
Michael

Stevie Wonder was born Steveland Morris in Saginaw, Michigan on May 13, 1950, and by the time he reached 13 he had his first hit, Fingertips - Pt2. It was not an overnight sensation type of success though, as he had been signed to Motown Records in 1960 and for three years was doing background vocal work before he hit the charts on his own. Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. re-named him Little Stevie Wonder.

He has had an astounding career thus far, with 65 songs appearing on the Billboard charts between 1963 and 1997, including 28 in the Top Ten!

This week on Treasure Island Oldies, Voice Your Choice spotlights Stevie Wonder. It was not an easy task to select just two songs, but I play by the rules, here they are: Uptight (Everything's Alright) and Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours. Which song do you prefer?

Come to the Voice Your Choice page at Treasure Island Oldies and make your selection. We'll play the song with the most votes in Hour 3 on this week's show.

Pop Goes The Country

There was a time when your favourite local radio station and DJ would play the best music that was out there - period! You could hear a jazz-tinged song (Girl From Ipanema), Rhythm and Blues (Duke Of Earl), Pop (Sherry, Remember Walkin' In The Sand), MOR (Strangers In The Night), and all on the same station! You'd also hear Country (Ring Of Fire, Rose Garden, He'll Have To Go, King Of The Road etc.) Those days are long gone now. However, every week on Treasure Island Oldies you can still hear the best oldies music from whatever style was popular. And from time to time, we focus on one particular style of music for one of our specials.

This week on Treasure Island Oldies it's Pop Goes The Country. These are country songs first and foremost, but they crossed over onto the pop charts and became pop hits. Be sure to listen for your favourite country artists this week: Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves, Lynn Anderson, Tammy Wynette, Don Gibson, Johnny Cash and many, many more.

We'll be live as usual this Sunday, October 15 from 6 to 10 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Eastern. Join us for Pop Goes The Country on Treasure Island Oldies, the oldies music radio show that gives you more of what you want to hear! Yahoo!!!