This Week on Treasure Island Oldies - Week of August 29th, 2016

August 28^th to September  3^rd, 2016

As you can tell from the Yellow Notice Box that the chat room server is down. Our webmaster, Eddy Fisher, came to the rescue with a temporary chat room. The downside was that it had a very small capacity, so from what I understand, some had to wait for a space to become available. At the time of writing this update, the chat server is still down and I do not have an estimate of when it will be available. To keep on the safe side, we will keep the notice posted until our network provides an update. Sorry for the inconvenience, we we have no control when this type of issue surfaces. And major thanks to Eddy Fisher for the hard work at getting an interim chat room.

It was great to hear from long time listeners of the show this week. John Duggan in Ottawa, Ontario requested the B side of Help! by The Beatles for this week's BBC, Big Beatles Classic. I'm Down was never on any album until years after the Fab Four split up and their record company issued the 2 volume Past Masters set. Both volumes contained songs that were B sides only or songs recorded for EPs (Extended Play records) and ones that did not appear on any of their albums. I was also very pleased to get an email from Alan Shirley in Toronto, Ontario who requested a song for the Made In Canada feature this week. He requested a song from 1957 by the Toronto group Buddy Burke and the Canadian Meteors. The Big Old Moon was recorded in New York, as there were not many if any professionally competitive recording studios in Toronto in those days. And it was the first time playing this Lost Treasure from Canada on the show. Many thanks to John and Alan for such great requests.

Please make a note of some specials programs coming your way over the next few weeks. On next week's show it's the Annual Labour Day Back To School Special, with not only songs about jobs and work, as well as some school songs. As it's coming to the end of summer as well, I'll also play some more great summer songs to mark the end of the season. That special will air Live, Sunday, September 3^rd. I will be taking some vacation time for two weeks; consequently there will be no live show September 11^th and 18^th. However, I am pleased that there will be encore presentations of two specials from earlier this year, One Hit Wonders Special and the 19^th Anniversary Special, will be available on demand. These shows will not be streamed live but you must click on the link to enjoy these encore presentations once again.

My friends at My Generation Posters told me that they're having an End Of Summer Sale with 10% off everything in your shopping cart. Just enter summer10 at checkout and you'll get 10% off your entire order. The sale only lasts this week, so better hurry on over to their website.  While there, sign up for their weekly newsletter. You'll be among the first to know about the upcoming weekly specials as well as subscriber only special deals. And be sure to also let them know you heard their commercial on Treasure Island Oldies.

Happy Birthday wishes go out to Connie "Kitten" Howes in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and to John Duggan in Ottawa, Ontario. If your birthday is coming up soon, 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 on this week's Top 5 Countdown from 1963. It's The Angels My Boyfriend's Back. It's our Number One Song of the Week. Enjoy!

Voice Your Choice presents the great Stevie Wonder. Cast your vote at the Voice Your Choice page for either If You Really Love Me or Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday. 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 1963.

Take care. Thanks again for listening. Have a great week and we'll get together next week on The Island for the Labour Day Back To School Special!

Bye for now.

Michael

Stevie Wonder - Voice Your Choice

Stevie Wonder, was born Steveland Morris on May 13, 1950 in Saginaw, Michigan and blind since birth. He was only 13 at the time of his first hit Fingertips Pt 2. He was signed to Motown Records as a backup singer when he was only 10 years old! He was named Little Stevie Wonder by Motown owner Berry Gordy Jr.

Stevie has received many awards, including his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 and in 1996 he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grammy Awards.

Since his first charting single, Fingertips Pt 2, a number one record for three weeks in 1963 through 1997 1997, he appeared a total of 65 times on the Billboard chart. He has had an astounding 28 Top Ten hits, including 10 Number One songs!

It was no easy task trying to select just two songs from his incredible repertoire for Voice Your Choice this week on Treasure Island Oldies. Cast your vote at the Voice Your Choice page for either If You Really Love Me or Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday. I'll play the winning song during next week's show.

The Angels - Number One Song of the Week

This week on Treasure Island Oldies, the Top Five Countdown was from 1963.

And here with the Number One song are The Angels with My Boyfriend's Back. It's our Number One Song of the Week.

Enjoy!

Michael

Treasure Island Oldies Chat Room Server Is Down

Please note that the usual chat room server is down. Accordingly please take note: the mirc chat program will not work.

Please click on this link to join a temporary chat room. There is a very limited number of guest spots available.

It’s first come first served for this week I’m afraid. 

Folk Singer Glenn Yarborough Has Died At Age 86

NEW YORK — Glenn Yarbrough, a folk singer who at midcentury found fame and fortune with the popular trio the Limeliters but who walked away from it all for a life at sea, died Thursday, August 11, 2016 at his daughter’s home in Nashville of complications of dementia. He was 86.

Founded in 1959, the Limeliters — comprising Mr. Yarbrough on vocals and guitar, Alex Hassilev on vocals and banjo and Lou Gottlieb on vocals and bass — was a contemporary folk group in the tradition of the Kingston Trio.

Known for their burnished tight harmonies, sophisticated if nontraditional arrangements, and witty onstage banter, the Limeliters were wildly successful. Amid the folk revival of the 1960s, they appeared often on television and in live performance, sold records by the hundreds of thousands, and became millionaires in the bargain.

By all critical accounts, Mr. Yarbrough’s silvery lyric tenor — a voice whose lightness belied his stocky appearance — was the group’s acoustic linchpin, soaring memorably in traditional tunes including “John Henry” and contemporary numbers like “Charlie, the Midnight Marauder,” about a hapless suburbanite who one night mistakenly enters the wrong house.

Reviewing a 1961 concert by the Limeliters at Town Hall in New York City, Robert Shelton wrote in The New York Times, “Yarbrough’s fine lyric voice had body, warmth and a lush vibrato that made ‘Lass From the Low Country,’ ‘When I First Came to This Land’ and ‘Zhankoye’ touching.” He added: “Yarbrough is a top-flight vocalist.”

In 1963, Mr. Yarbrough, restless, left the Limeliters, and the group disbanded. An ardent sailor, he intended to spend the next decade at sea but was persuaded by his record label, RCA Victor, to record solo albums instead.

He made a string of them, toured for some years as a solo act, and had a hit single with “Baby the Rain Must Fall,” the title song of the 1965 film starring Steve McQueen and Lee Remick.
In the mid-1960s, Mr. Yarbrough began a collaboration with the poet and songwriter Rod McKuen that resulted in several albums, among them “The Lonely Things” and “Glenn Yarbrough Sings the Rod McKuen Songbook.”

But for Mr. Yarbrough, success brought myriad discontents. “I did a show last year at the Fairmont in San Francisco and there was a big cover charge,” he told the journalist David Lamb during this period. (Lamb recounted the exchange in his 1993 book, “A Sense of Place: Listening to Americans.”) Mr. Yarbrough continued: “The only people who could afford it were people already so embroiled in money that they’re already dead inside. I looked out at them and they’re just sitting there and they’re not even living people anymore. It just doesn’t give me a good feeling working for those people.”

By the late 1960s, Mr. Yarbrough had sold his Rolls-Royce, his Porsche, his Bentley, and his two Ferraris along with, Lamb reported, his house in New Zealand, his banana plantation in Jamaica, and an apartment building he owned in Beverly Hills, Calif. With the proceeds, he established a school for disadvantaged children, most of them African-American, in the mountains outside Los Angeles.
“I’ve always wanted to teach,” Mr. Yarbrough told The Sunday Examiner & Chronicle of San Francisco in 1966. “I got into entertainment by accident. The idea for the school actually came to me when I was sailing to Hawaii. I got to thinking about why I was still doing something I didn’t want to do very much, and about what I could do to make it meaningful.”

The school endured until the early 1970s, when it closed for lack of funds. Mr. Yarbrough then rented his home in the Hollywood Hills to comedian Marty Feldman and, with his second wife, the former Annie Graves, and baby Holly, took to sea aboard the Jubilee, the 57-foot sailboat he had helped build. He did not return for the better part of five years.

Glenn Robertson Yarbrough was born in Milwaukee on Jan. 12, 1930. His parents, Bruce Yarbrough and the former Elizabeth Robertson, were social workers who had met while training at Hull House, the settlement house in Chicago.

While the elder Yarbrough traveled the country from one social-work post to another during the Depression, Glenn and his mother lived in New York. There, he helped support the family through his work as a boy soprano in the choir of Grace Church, the historic Episcopal Church in Manhattan.
One day in the early 1950s, Woody Guthrie came to St. John’s, an event that for the young Mr. Yarbrough proved transformative.

“I never liked the pop songs of the day; I always thought it was real stupid stuff — ‘moon, June, spoon,’” Mr. Yarbrough told The Los Angeles Times in 1996. “So I went to this Woody Guthrie concert, and I was just overwhelmed — everything he sang was real. I was just a shy kid, but I walked up to him afterward with tears in my eyes and told him how much I loved what he had done. The very next day I went out and bought a guitar, and that was that.”

After Army service during the Korean War, where he performed with entertainment units in Korea and Japan, Mr. Yarbrough embarked on a solo career, playing the coffeehouse circuit. He became an owner of the Limelite, an Aspen, Colo., nightclub from which the singing group would take its name.
In mid-1959, Mr. Yarbrough and Hassilev, performing with Theodore Bikel at Cosmo Alley, a Los Angeles club, were introduced to Gottlieb, and the Limeliters were born. The group made its debut at the Hungry i, the storied San Francisco nightclub, later that year.

Throughout the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, Mr. Yarbrough spent much of his time at sea, traversing many of the world’s oceans. He returned to land periodically, when his finances were at ebb tide, appearing as a soloist, performing in Limeliters reunion tours and making many records.

He sang the musical numbers for the 1977 animated television film “The Hobbit,” with characters voiced by luminaries including Orson Bean, Richard Boone, John Huston and Otto Preminger. In the 1990s and afterward, Mr. Yarbrough toured in a one-man Christmas show, “The Forgotten Carols,” with book, music, and lyrics by Michael McLean.

Before moving to his daughter’s home six years ago, Mr. Yarbrough lived, during his dry-land periods, on Lake Chapala, near Guadalajara, Mexico, where he grew fruit and vegetables to give to indigent people.

Even when the Limeliters were at the height of their acclaim — or perhaps especially then — Mr. Yarbrough had deep misgivings about his unexpected calling.

“The only thing success has taught me is that success is meaningless,” he told The Saturday Evening Post in 1961. “An audience is like a lynch mob. Three years ago they were walking out on me. Now that they know we’ve been on the Sullivan show, they come and cheer.”

This Week on Treasure Island Oldies - Week of August 14th, 2016

August 14^th to August 20^th, 2016

Thanks for listening to this week's show. I find it always very interesting how one song that I play can generate comments. On Rick's Rare Rock & Roll Relic feature the song was Exodus Theme by Peter & Gordon. It was an album cut from their Lady Godiva album. I had never known nor never heard any version of the Ferrante & Teicher instrumental classic which had lyrics. So not only was I surprised by that fact, but I was so pleased to hear from listeners about the song. Linda Gehres from the San Francisco Bay area sent an email to me saying how much she enjoyed hearing it. She even said that she had previously heard a vocal version by The Duprees from 1965. Apparently two different versions by two variations of the group itself recorded Exodus. Linda also mentioned that Pat Boone recorded recorded his vocal version in 1961. Wow! Talk about knowledgeable and informed listeners! My thanks to Rick Canode in Madison, Wisconsin, for generating such response to his Relic this week. As well, the Tom Locke Moment In Time feature about the story behind the Beach Boys' Help Me Rhonda was fascinating and also generated many comments in the Chat Room. It sure is an interesting place here on The Island.

We're just a couple of weeks away from the next special. On Sunday, September 4th it's the Labour Day Back To School Special. You'll hear songs like Chain Gang, Let's Work Together, New Girl In School, Be True To Your School, as a few examples. As as we are approaching the end of summer, I'll also play some last of the summer songs for this year.

My friends at My Generation Posters told me that Inventory Week went very well and the task is completed. The outcome of their hard work is there is now NEW LOWER PRICING! In addition, our listeners from the United States can now pay for their purchases by check. There's a new US address to send your payment. For complete details, visit their website. While there, sign up for their weekly newsletter. You'll be among the first to know about the upcoming weekly specials. And be sure to also let them know you heard their commercial on Treasure Island Oldies.

Happy Birthday wishes go out to long time listener and great friend, Matt Meaney in Langley, British Columbia. If your birthday is coming up soon, 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 on this week's Top 5 Countdown from 1965. It's Sonny & Cher with the classic I Got You Babe. It's our Number One Song of the Week. Enjoy!

Voice Your Choice presents two songs from Tower Of Power. Cast your vote at the Voice Your Choice page for either So Very Hard To Go or You're Still A Young Man. 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 1965.

Take care. Thanks again for listening. Have a great week and we'll get together next week on The Island!

Bye for now.

Michael

Tower Of Power - Voice Your Choice

Tower Of Power were an interracial R 'n' B Funk band from Oakland, California. They had a great rhythm section and amazing horn section as well. Combine that with soulful vocals and you got Tower Of Power. And how powerful they were. I very much enjoyed seeing them in concert here in Vancouver a few years ago. They were amazing to hear and watch live.

Treasure Island Oldies presents Tower Of Power next week on Voice Your Choice. Cast your vote at the Voice Your Choice page for either So Very Hard To Go or You're Still A Young Man. I'll play the winning song on next week's show.

Sonny & Cher - Number One Song of the Week

This week on Treasure Island Oldies, the Top Five Countdown was from 1965.

And here it is: the Number One Song of the week from Sonny & Cher, I Got You Babe.

Enjoy!

Michael

This Week on Treasure Island Oldies - Week of August 7th, 2016

August 7^th to August 13^th, 2016

I had a great time playing the music for you once again this week on Treasure Island Oldies. I was also pleased to pay tribute to Canada's Pat Hervey who passed away July 31st. It was great to hear Mr. Heartache,  and Tears Of Misery, along with a couple of lesser known songs by her, Walkin' In Bonnie's Footsteps and Heaven For A While, both of which were Top 20 hits in Canada. I think it is so important to recognize our recording artists and their contribution to music history. I try to keep their music alive on the show, and I feel it is important to pay tribute to them when they pass. Their legacy is the great music they recorded for us, the fans.

We're just a few weeks away from the next special. On Sunday, September 4th it's the Labour Day Back To School Special. You'll hear songs like Chain Gang, Let's Work Together, New Girl In School, Be True To Your School, as a few examples. As as we are approaching the end of summer, I'll also play some last of the summer songs for this year. 

It's Inventory Week at My Generation Posters. And they hate counting stock! As an incentive to have less items in their warehouse, they're having a 10% Off Inventory Sale. Just enter the code INV10 at checkout to receive your discount. But it's only for this week on all stock. Visit their website to find more details, and while there, sign up for their weekly newsletter. You'll be among the first to know about the upcoming weekly specials. And be sure to also let them know you heard their commercial on Treasure Island Oldies.

Is your birthday coming up soon? If so, 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 on this week's Top 5 Countdown from 1959. It's Elvis Presley with A Big Hunk Of Love. Man this rocks!. It's our Number One Song of the Week. Enjoy!

Voice Your Choice presents two songs from the vast music catalogue of hits recorded by Bobby Vinton. Cast your vote at the Voice Your Choice page for either Mr. Lonely or Roses Are Red (My Love). 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 1959.


Thanks again for listening. Join me next week on The Island!

Take care. 

Bye for now.

Michael

Bobby Vinton - Voice Your Choice

Bobby Vinton, one of the most successful male singers of the 1960s, is the featured artist on Voice Your Choice next on Treasure Island Oldies.

Stanley Robert Vinton was born on April 16, 1935 in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, in a musical family; his father was a bandleader. That was such an influence on him that he started his own band while in high school. He later toured as the leader of the "house Band" for Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars in 1960, which he left to begin a singing career.

He recorded several sides for Epic Records, but nothing charted and was about to be dropped from the label when, as a last ditch effort, he recorded a song written by Paul Evens (Happy Go Lucky Me, Seven Little Girls Sitting In The Back Seat). That song turned out to become a career saver and launcher, his first hit single, first Gold record and his first number one song,
. And in this case, the expression "and the rest is history" is very apt indeed.

Throughout his recording career, he charted an astounding 47 records on the Billboard chart between 1962 and 1980. During that time he attained four Number One hits, three Gold records, and 10 Top Ten hits. He even had his own musical variety series on television from 1975-78.

Treasure Island Oldies presents Bobby Vinton with two of his many hits. Cast your vote at the Voice Your Choice page for either Mr. Lonely or Roses Are Red (My Love). I'll play the winner on next week's show.

Elvis Presley - Number One Song of the Week from 1959

Here's the Number One song from the Treasure Island Oldies Top Five Countdown, this week from 1959. It's Elvis Presley and A Big Hunk Of Love.

It's our Number One Song of the Week.

Enjoy!

Michael

Canada's Pat Hervey Has Died

Just received word from Jamie Anstey, the President of Canadian National Music Co.that Pat Hervey has passed away after a 15 month battle with cancer. Pat was raised in Toronto and sang from an early age as a hobby occasionally performing at high school functions. During a performance at an amateur variety show she was spotted by disc jockey Al Boliska who lined her up with CBC-TV in Toronto who like her so much she became a regular on the weekly network shows 'While You Were Young', 'Holiday Ranch', 'Club Six' and 'Country Hoedown'.

Her voice and presence attracted the attention of Chateau Records president Art Snider who signed her for several 7" single releases including her first, and biggest, hit "Mr. Heartache" in 1962.

With her television exposure and incessant touring, Nashville producer Chet Atkins took notice and helped her secure a recording contract with RCA Victor. Atkins produced several singles, including her 1963 hit "Tears Of Misery" and a full length LP which was all new material that didn't include her hits.

In 1973 Hervey was part of the regular cast of musicians (which also included Joani Taylor) on CBC television's The Judy And Jim Show.

Having moved onto another label for her musical output, like many of the Canadian female performers in the late '60's, Hervey decided to give up show business to get married and raise a family.

Here are two of Pat's fantastic hit records.

R.I.P. Pat Hervey

This Week on Treasure Island Oldies - Week of July 31st, 2016

July 31^st to August 4^th, 2016

Thank you very much for the requests and comments about this week's Instrumental Gems Wordless Wonders special. I heard from listeners in Canada, the United States and as far away as Australia. I sure appreciate hearing from you and just how much you enjoy hearing all these great instrumental hits. If you missed the live show or would like to listen again, just go to the Listen page and scroll down to the Archives section. Enjoy!

The next special will be the Labour Day Back To School Special, Live September 6th. You'll hear songs about working from artists like Wilbert Harrison, Sam Cooke, and many others, songs about school, from Gary U.S. Bonds for example, and I'll also play some last of the summer songs for the season. It's a seasonal wrap up and preparing for Fall all in one show.

My Generation Posters has a variety of brand new stock ready for you to check out, including some very cool Seasonal cards.  Visit their website soon to find more details, and sign up for their weekly newsletter. You'll be among the first to know about the upcoming weekly specials. And be sure to also let them know you heard their commercial on Treasure Island Oldies.

Is your birthday coming up soon? If so, 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 on this week's Top 5 Countdown from 1964. It's The Beatles with the title song of their debut motion picture, A Hard Day's Night. It's our Number One Song of the Week. Enjoy!

Voice Your Choice is keeping the spirit of the Instrumental Gems special going by featuring Al Hirt. Cast your vote at the Voice Your Choice page for either Cotton Candy or Sugar Lips. 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 1964.

Take care. Thanks again for listening. See you next week on The Island for another 4 hours of YOUR music!

Bye for now.

Michael

Al Hirt - Voice Your Choice

Al Hirt was born Alois Maxwell Hirt on November 7, 1922 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He died of liver failure on April 27, 1999 at the of 76. Prior to becoming a Grammy Award winning recording artist (for his hit Java), the trumpet virtuoso toured with the likes of Jimmy Dorsey and Tommy Dorsey, Ray McKinley and Horace Heidt. He even formed own Dixieland combo with Pete Fountain in the late 1950s.

Despite the British Music Invasion happening, Al Hirt managed to hit the charts a total of 15 times between 1964  and 1969, including his top five debut.
Treasure Island Oldies is keeping the feel of the Instrumental Gems Wordless Wonders Special alive as we present Voice Your Choice with Al Hirt. Cast your vote at the Voice Your Choice page for either Cotton Candy or Sugar Lips. I'll play the winner on next week's show.

The Beatles - Number One Song of the Week

On this week's Treasure Island Oldies Show, the Top Five Countdown was from 1964. Here at the Treasure Island Oldies Blog, I'm pleased to play the Number One song for you. It's John, Paul, George and Ringo with the title song from The Beatles debut motion picture, A Hard Day's Night.

Enjoy!

Michael