RIP - DONNA SUMMER

What a year it has been so far for losing musical icons! As you probably already heard, we lost The Queen Of Disco a couple of days ago after a long battle with cancer.

Donna's heyday was of course during the 70's, but she showed her prowess by hitting during the robotic dance/new wave era that bands such as Midnight Star had helped pave, the '83 neo-disco movement, and the late 80's Stock Aitken Waterman dance pop era that had made Kylie Minogue and Rick Astley stars. She had even managed to land a top 20 album as late as 2008.

The Retro Attic - Rare 50s To 80s Oldies will be paying tribute to her during this coming week by playing a couple of triple plays at random times. So keep your ears here "on the radio" for some of her selections that you don't hear every day(keeping in line with what you would expect from us)!

Many thanks go out to Donna for all of the great musical memories she provided us. Heaven knows it's very lucky to have her now!

HAMILTON, JOE FRANK & REYNOLDS - Winners And Losers - 1975 - #21

Remember these guys? This soft rock outfit featured former members of the 60's instrumental act The T-Bones("No Matter What Shape" and "Sippin' 'N Chippin'") and the late 60's group Shango(the quasi calypso/reggae hit "Day After Day It's Slippin' Away," which is currently in our rotation).

The average 70's music fan knows that Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds had two top 40 smashes during the first half of the decade: "Don't Pull Your Love(which apparently The Grass Roots turned down, then ended up recording a similar-sounding hit in "Two Divided By Love")" and the #1 swooner "Fallin' In Love." Any oldies station worth their weight in gold is still playing these on a fairly regular basis.

But how many of you remember this song, which also hit top 40? This was one of those numbers where I heard it several times as a kid, but I lost track of it as the years went by. I always had a certain line from it stuck in my head("You know it's that....wayyyyyyy"), and it wasn't until the last 10 years that I stumbled across the song once again(I purchased the 2nd pressing of The Playboy Years disc with the improved sound quality). I felt stupid; I should have recognized that deep voice!

At this point they should have been called Hamilton, Joe Frank & Dennison(Tommy Reynolds had left 3 years earlier and was replaced by Alan Dennison), but the record company was worried that too much time had passed; therefore, they insisted that the established hit-making name should stick around for a while longer. By the time the group name changed, disco music had an even stronger grip on the American public, so subsequent singles were only minor charters.

Live footage on them is hard to find, so I was delighted to find this(live vocals - good enough!). Enjoy this clip and keep your ears open for this song and their '71 mid-charter "Annabella" in our rotation! And speaking of The T-Bones, they will be spinning soon!

MAY ARTIST OF THE MONTH - THE BEE GEES

May's Artist Of The Month here on The Retro Attic - 50s To 80s Rare Oldies should be a lot of fun! The Bee Gees left us with an amazing catalog, and I hope to cover it all through their many group charters as well as a few from Barry, Robin, and even Andy Gibb(after all, he was related and his brothers helped out on background vocals on some of his early hits). Hopefully you will have a few favorites to look forward to as we tackle the range of 1967 through 1989!

You will find that yours truly especially enjoyed the material that came out between '67 and '73 because of the Beatlesque harmonies, lite psych, and orchestration. I always felt that The Bee Gees became popular in the U.S. right away because they filled a void that a lot of Beatles fans were experiencing once the Lennon and Jesus controversy occurred as well as their feeling that the Fab Four's music was starting to get "weird" with the release of the "Revolver" album. There is no doubt in my mind that The Beatles would have continued to put out material  as strong as "Don't Forget To Remember," "Don't Wanna Live Inside Myself," "My World," "Run To Me," and "Wouldn't I Be Someone" if they had stayed together.

I will admit that when I was a kid, I absolutely hated their disco phase(mainly because I couldn't roller skate worth squat and my mother blasted "Boogie Child" as long as an hour after it was bedtime for me). I have learned to appreciate those records these days, especially when compared to what is passing for dance music now(I won't mention names). I never hated the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack enough to take it to the Comiskey Park record BBQ in the summer of '79, so rest assured that I won't ignore the most commercially successful period of their career!

I didn't really follow them that much during the 80's, but I do remember seeing the video for "You Win Again" on VH-1(back in their adult contemporary programming days when you would see VJs like Rita Coolidge and Air Supply was on for every other video, it seemed) and being amazed that it wasn't a bigger hit on the Hot 100. The average music fan had probably forgotten about them since it had been 4 years since the "Staying Alive" soundtrack had been out and everyone had Guns N' Roses on the brain!

And as mentioned earlier, Andy will be given his due. There is no denying that he was a chart force to be reckoned with during '77 and '78 and you have to give him props for having four top 40 hits after the disco era had supposedly died! Whether you like it or not, that last approximately 90 seconds of "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water" won't leave your head!

This all begins on "The First Of May(one might think I had it planned this way....my lips are sealed!)." I hope you will enjoy hearing their hits every 45 minutes for the next month and I also hope you will join me in wishing a speedy recovery for Robin; to say that he experienced a miracle is truly an understatement!

5/20/12 UPDATE: The miracle wasn't meant to be...we lost Robin today. The only way to mend our broken hearts is to keep The Bee Gees' music alive, and The Retro Attic will continue to do so for a long time to come!

June's Artist Of The Month won't be a specific artist. I have decided to welcome summer with open arms by showcasing all of those great and obscure "summer" songs from the 50's through the 80's. The Jamies, Tony Carey, War, Blue Cheer, Jamestown Massacre...I think you'll get the idea! Feel free to submit your suggestions and I'll do my best to include them.

A big thanks goes out to those who are listening to us loyally at work and/or at home. Please continue to spread the word about us, especially if you believe like me that the future of music is the past. There was so much that we audiophiles missed out on back in the golden days, and hopefully I'm accomplishing my mission by getting more of us educated.

Rock out, roll on...

DICK CLARK 1929-2012

Wow, yet another great loss! Within the past couple of weeks, I had started watching the old $25,000 Pyramid shows once again and began wondering how he was doing(in between admirations of Markie Post's skills at giving out first-rate category clues). I had caught glimpses of him during the last couple of year-end specials, but I kept switching channels because there was only so much modern music that this old DJ could stomach!

Mr. Clark was a big part of my youth. Besides hosting one of the greatest game shows of all time, he also introduced me to many classic oldies through his weekend nationally syndicated radio show "Rock, Roll And Remember." After taking in a full morning's worth of Saturday cartoons, I then looked forward to him introducing me to countless new musical acts on American Bandstand. No one could deny the impact that show had on the record-buying public; it was the MTV of its time. Don't get me wrong, Don Kirshner and The Midnight Special were great shows too, but most parents wouldn't let their kids watch TV that late(my parents never caught me - ah, the advantages of an attic room!).

I am paying tribute by throwing Barry Manilow's classic '75 track "Bandstand Boogie" into the rotation for a couple of weeks, so keep your ears open, put on your dancing shoes, and reflect on all of those great AB moments.

Speaking of Barry, most of us who grew up in the 70's and 80's will remember his singing "It's just another New Year's Eve, another night like all the rest..." That won't be the case this year; "New Year's Rockin' Eve" will never be the same again. I am really hoping that Ryan Seacrest and his co-anchors will make sure that Dick gets a proper tribute.

And now back to our regular programming. Here's hoping that these tunes will continue making us think young; that's the way Dick would have wanted it!

RONNIE MONTROSE RIP

Over the weekend, we lost yet another musical heavyweight in guitarist Ronnie Montrose. Anyone into hard rock during the 70's will remember his self-named band that gave Sammy Hagar his first break; he was also an in-demand session player that contributed to notable albums from the likes of Edgar Winter Group and Van Morrison.

Arena rock was extremely prevalent during the late 70's and early 80's, and another band that Ronnie fronted during this time that I particularly liked was Gamma. In tribute to Ronnie, please keep an ear out for their two charting singles here on The Retro Attic: 1980's "I'm Alive" and 1982's "Right The First Time."

Rest in peace Ronnie, and don't worry...as long as someone plays one of your albums, there will always be "Good Rockin' Tonight" here on Earth!

Gamma - Gamma 3 LP - 1982

A DAY WITH SHADES OF GRAY - RIP DAVY JONES

Those of us who have a love for 60's music are certainly experiencing a great deal of sadness today; Monkees singer Davy Jones has succumbed to a heart attack. The Monkees may have been a prime target for the rock critics back in the day due to their "manufactured image(discussed in the 1968 Head soundtrack segment "Ditty Diego")" and their using a lot of session musicians in their early recordings(numerous other notable 60's bands did too, yet they were never targeted), but they had certainly earned a lot more respect over the years. One cannot deny their significant contributions to the world of psychedelia, music videos, and country rock. I don't know about you, but I'm hard-pressed to come up with another musical group who can be gone for almost 20 years, reunite, and place 7 albums on the Billboard 200 during 1 year! Not bad for a "fabricated" band, I must say! Remember their 3rd album "Headquarters?" They showed that they had decent musical chops that were good enough to stay right on the heels of Sgt. Pepper during the summer of '67(after it had spent a week on top of the album charts).

I had The Monkees as The Retro Attic's February artist of the month and had Olivia Newton-John slated for March. I have decided to push Olivia back to April and continue focusing on The Monkees for March. March's difference will be the inclusion of rare Davy solo tracks and some tracks from Dolenz, Jones, Boyce And Hart's mid 70's effort. If there is a special Monkees or Davy Jones related track you would like to hear, then please feel free to use our request form on our site.

Thank you for all of the wonderful musical memories Davy; you will be severely missed, but rest assured that The Retro Attic - Rare 50s To 80s Oldies will keep them alive and well!

Davy's 1971 Bell LP - To Be Featured In March

"When I Was Young, Life Was Such A Gas..."

I'm sure many of you are pulling your hair out now(or in my case, gray hairs - the more I pull out, the happier I will be!) from watching the sudden hiking of the gas prices. Rumor has it they may go up as much as 60 cents by the time the summer arrives! Instead of getting more depressed with the present situation, why don't we go back over 30 years and take a somewhat humorous listen to how the gas situation used to be?

The year was 1979. During that summer, many of us sat in long lines at the gas stations due to a major oil crisis. We bided our time in our Pintos(or a forest green station wagon for yours truly) by discussing with our buddies what disco records we were going to bring to Comiskey Park for a "barbeque," what medicines could cure a stomach ache from a 6 pack of Billy Beer, what tools could pry a melted "Helen Reddy's Greatest Hits" 8 track cartridge from the dashboard, and what a bright future the TV show "240 Robert" was going to have(I don't know about you, but I liked Joanna Cassidy).

Some of you may have rushed out and bought a copy of the below minor charter by a group of British comedians called The Barron Knights. "The Topical Song" parodied a Supertramp classic and reminded us how frustrating it was to fill up the car tank back then. I know times were different, but c'mon...I'd welcome back a dollar a gallon with someone washing my windshield and checking my oil if it meant dealing with the frustration of waiting an hour to get to the full serve island!

Was that summer a "gas" for you too? If so, then keep your ears open for this long-forgotten comedy tune here on The Retro Attic!

This "Topped Off" At #70 In 9/79