beatlemaniapalooza! (4ce reprint may 2011)

Beatlemaniapalooza!

Follow the leader, jump on the bandwagon, ride the coattails, monkey-see monkey-do. Just trying to profit from something that you yourself had nothing to do with. It's safe to say the music industry has never seen a tidal wave like that which followed the Beatles. Today they're collectively called "Beatle Novelty Records." A harsher term might be "exploitation"…or would that be Beatsploitation? And one of the earliest tries to cash in on the Beatles involved the Beatles themselves.

In June of 1961, German producer Bert Kaempfert wanted to record an LP with British rocker Tony Sheridan, who'd become popular performing in German clubs. The Beatles had sometimes accompanied him on stage, and they signed on to record 7 songs…5 as the backup "Beat Brothers," and two more on their own, John Lennon singing "Ain't She Sweet," and an instrumental called "Cry for a Shadow." These cuts were released in Germany and the UK, but a planned US issue on Decca in April of 1962 was scrapped after promo 45s sent to radio stations generated little response. Thus in the first weeks of 1964, MGM rushed these old recordings back into print, and altho none charted very high, they were out there…and "Cry For a Shadow, dedicated to Cliff Richard's backup group, is actually quite catchy.

Oddly enough, the very first American tie-in record technically came out before the Ed Sullivan debut on Feb 9, 1964. That's because it was by an American folksinger named Bill Clifton, who was touring in England in late 1963. He recorded a song written by Geoff Stephens, who went on to pen "Winchester Cathedral," "There's Kind of Hush," Tom Jones' "Daughter of Darkness," and Marry Hopkins' "Knock Knock Who's There." It was done in a gently mocking "talking blues" style and called "Beatle Crazy"…out in England in December, then in the US soon after B-Day. An ad for London Records in Billboard proclaimed: "Boston Breakout! Comedy Smash!" Well, It charted in neither country, but Clifton was first off the mark.

But the initial deluge was incredible…you had recordings by groups called the American, Canadian, Japanese, and Female Beatles, even the Beatle-ettes. You had the Bootles, Bagels, Beagles (real "singing" dogs), Weasels, Haircuts, Bearcuts, U.S. Beatlewigs, Liverpool Wigs, not to the mention the Liverpool Kids, Lads, Beats, Set, and Five...and the Mersey Bugs, Birds, Lads, Sounds, and Beats (not to be confused with the one-word Merseybeats, one of Liverpool's most popular groups.) If it was an insect…the Bugs, Buggs, Bedbugs, Teen Bugs, Termites, Beehives, Boll Weevils, Butterflies, Grasshoppers, Insects, Roaches, Lady Bugs, Lady Birds, Bug Men…or sounded the least bit British…the Bulldogs, Beefeaters, Limeys, Livers, Redcoats, Mad Englishmen, Whippets…you'd find it in the 45's bin.

Some were decidedly anti-Beatle, like "Beatle Bomb" by the Exterminators…flipside: "Stamp Them Out." But most were unabashed love-fests. You wanna dance? You could choose from the Beatle Dance, Bop, Blues, Bounce, Jump, Walk, Beat…or just "Do the Beetle" with Gary Usher, who with Roger Christian took time out from his surf and hot rod records to produce Capitol's documentary LP "The Beatles' Story." That in itself was an unprecedented marketing ploy, and 2 discs to boot! Who else got a documentary record? The Stones, Led Zep, the Eagles, Elton John? Nobody but the Fab Four.

Now most of these cash-in records were cheap, fly-by-night productions. But there were numerous well-established "budget labels" that did a good business with low-priced copies of currently popular songs and styles, and these sprang into action. Best known perhaps is "Beatlemania! in the U.S.A." on Wyncote by the anonymous Liverpools. The issue of Billboard that hit the stands the day before B-Day actually featured it in the LP Spotlight section, commenting: "Could be a solid seller." And while the Beatle songs they covered are pretty lousy, several other cuts aren't too bad, with an almost Mersey Beat style. Still, the ripoff nature of this enterprise is betrayed by the fact that Wyncote soon released a speeded up "Chipmunks" version of the record, using the exact same music tracks!

A few of the copycats went on to bigger things. "I Wanna Be a Beatle" by the Unbeetables featured Gene Cornish, a founding member of the Young Rascals. And then there was "Ringo, I Love You" by Bonnie Jo Mason, who turned out to be none other than Cher.

Many legitimate artists also took a shot. You had Beatle take-offs and tributes from Ella Fitzgerald, Chuck Berry, the Angels, Rolf Harris, Homer and Jethro, Vito and the Salutations, Casey Kasem, Lou Monte, Allen Sherman, Little Peggy March, Sonny Curtis, the ex-Cricket best known for the Mary Tyler Moore theme, and even rockabilly legend Billy Lee Riley ("Red Hot" and "Flying Saucer Rock & Roll") with an album of Beatle songs on the harmonica. Gene Moss did a vampire version, "I Want to Bite Your Hand." Buchanan and Greenfield issued the requisite "break-in" single called "The Invasion." One of the most popular novelty LPs was by David Seville and the real Chipmunks, and it's even made it to CD, such was its lasting if goofy appeal.

And we've only been surveying 1964. As time progressed, and it became apparent the Beatles were no mere flash-in-the-pan, every conceivable variation and adaptation of their music was put out at one time or another…Country and Western style, Tijuana Brass style, Bossa Nova, Motown, all manner of classical styles from symphonic to chamber music, Polkas, you name it. Even Capitol Records mined this vein early on, with the Hollyridge Strings series of "Easy Listening" instrumentals. Sample them today on CD and you'll find them surprisingly upbeat and creative, thanks to the talented Stu Phillips.

Records of course were just the tip of the merchandising iceberg. Tie-in products, officially licensed or otherwise, flooded the market, perhaps the strangest being Baskin-Robbins "Beatle Nut" ice cream, pistachio with walnuts and a chocolate swirl. But we must ask: Were any of these novelty records any good?

Yes, some of them are very good, and a joy to listen to almost 50 years later. But here we come to an interesting point: none of them sold very well, at least not compared to "real" records that were tabulated on the national charts. In fact, only one cracked Billboard's Top 40…"We Love You, Beatles" by the Carefrees, studio singers from England, who adapted a song from "Bye Bye Birdie"…and that only peaked at #39. Just a handful of others charted, all stalling in the mid-80s on the Hot 100, and all during the first crazy months of Beatlemania…"The Boy with the Beatle Hair," a nice girl-group sound by the Swans…"A Letter to the Beatles," the last chart entry for the Four Preps…and Donna Lynn's energetic "My Boyfriend Got a Beatle Haircut," released the day after B-Day, but recorded in January. Those last 2 were on Capitol, of all labels. I guess they finally woke up.

But the fact of the matter was, the Beatles were terrifically prolific, churning out tons of product, more than enough to gobble up a major portion of a teenager's record budget. And with any shekels left over, there were plenty of other British groups to choose from. That'll be the focus next month in the final installment of this Beatles series: the English artists that rode the British Invasion avalanche in the Beatles' wake…but how it was ultimately "The American Response" that changed the face of our music. Till next time, let's do it in the road at deepfriedhoodsiecups.wordpress.com…and rock on!

the beatles go boom! (4CE reprint april 2001)

The Beatles Go Boom!

B-Day, Feb. 9, 1964, 8pm. Everyone remembers that episode of "The Ed Sullivan Show"…like they remember where they were when Kennedy was shot, or the Challenger disaster, or 9/11. Reading people's stories on the Internet, a certain pattern emerges…Dad was appalled, wanted to change the channel…Mom was more receptive…and of course the kids went bonkers. The next day, on the school bus and on the playground, everybody was talking about it. A few sour-puss teachers, especially music teachers, had some unkind thoughts, and predictions, to share with their students.

Me, I missed it. I was 12 at the time, but being the oldest of 5 kids in a one-TV family, what we watched tended to skew to the young end. We were watching "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" on NBC, as we did every Sunday night, 7:30 to 8:30. It was the first of 3 episodes of Patrick McGoohan as "The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh." Great show, I have no complaints. But it took several decades before Baby Boomers felt brave enough to admit they'd been watching the Scarecrow, too. Some were even watching "The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters" over on ABC, with Tiger Beat heart-throb Kurt Russell, and the Osmond Brothers…that's Alan, Jay, Merrill, and Wayne…no Donny, altho the 7-year old had joined the "family business" the previous year on "The Andy Williams Show."

Interestingly enough, depending on where you lived in the North Country, you might have watched both the Beatles and the Scarecrow! That's because while CBS programming was broadcast on Channel 7 WCNY (they changed to WWNY in 1965), CJOH out of Ottawa ran Disney earlier in the evening, at 6:00. One Baby Boomer, told me he watched the Scarecrow, then went to bed. His dad woke him up and said: Kid, you've gotta see this!

And 47 years later, I finally watched the Beatles, too. Their appearances on 3 consecutive Sundays are available on DVD, just as they originality aired, complete with all the other acts and the original network commercials. It was an eye-opening experience to say the least. On B-day the Beatles performed live and they were at the top of their game, altho the reaction shots of the girls in the audience losing their minds looked to me to be pre-recorded clips from earlier in the day.

Two of the other acts on the show are of interest. Davy Jones, future Monkee, sang as part of the cast of the Broadway show "Oliver." He had just turned 18, but was already a seasoned pro, and arguably had even more stage presence than the Fab Four at that point. Then there was McCall and Brill…Mitzi and Charlie…a husband and wife comedy team in the Nichols and May/Stiller and Meara mold. They did a so-so routine about a talent agent auditioning female singers, but had the presence of mind to put in a Beatle joke, which got a screech from the audience.

The next week, the entire show was broadcast from Miami, or as Ed called it "Miamah," with the Beatles again live, altho not nearly as good. The 3rd week, it was a segment taped on the afternoon of B-Day, and it's here you can see the resemblance to the reaction shots from the first week. I'm thinking that even for the Beatles, they only had so many cameras to work with.

But an intriguing story that's seldom told is Dick Clark's part in all of this. And Jack Paar's as well. Because the explosion of popularity in the wake of B-Day had been foreshadowed a month earlier when Jack Paar aired a complete clip of "She Loves You" on his Friday night 10PM variety show on NBC, January 3. Not surprisingly, he had some sarcastic things to say about the sorry state of the British Empire. But sales of the single, up until then lackluster, shot thru the roof. Ed Sullivan must have smiled, knowing he'd been on the right track all along.

And that's the big question: how could an old geezer like Sullivan have scooped the King of Pop, the Eternal Teenager, the Hitmaker Himself, Dick Clark? Recall that after 2 Beatles singles in 1963 went nowhere, Vee Jay passed on "She Loves You," and the small Philadelphia label Swan put it out in mid-September. Swan owner Bernie Binnick was a friend of Dick Clark's, and when he pitched the record, hoping to get it played on "American Bandstand," Clark was unimpressed, saying it sounded like Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry mixed together. When Binnick showed him a picture of the group's unique look, Clark opined: "You're insane…it'll never fly."

"She Loves You" was duly played on the Rate-a-Record segment and earned 71 out of 98, considered a poor showing. When shown the photo of the group, the kids giggled. Clark figured the Beatles were going nowhere. He later admitted: "We all found out the truth soon enough." And to his credit, the Saturday following B-Day, "American Bandstand" featured a telephone interview with the Lads, followed by another phone call in April, then 2 shows devoted entirely to the Beatles…one in July, promoting the movie "A Hard Day's Night," and another in October.

But the Beatles never performed live on American Bandstand. In fact, for the years 1964 and 1965, the total number of live appearances by the Dave Clark Five, the Animals, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, the Searchers, the Rolling Stones, the Swinging Blue Jeans, Herman's Hermits, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Freddie and the Dreamers, Manfred Mann, the Nashville Teens, the Honeycombs, the Small Faces, the Kinks, Them, the Yardbirds, and the Zombies, COMBINED was…0. That's right, zero, nada, zilch. British groups of any note, as opposed to duos, didn't crack the show until the Hollies in November of 1966, almost 3 years after B-Day.

The best 1964 could offer was: the American Beetles from Florida on June 20th (as the Razor's Edge, they had minor success with "Let's Call it a Day, Girl" in 1966)…the Standells on August 29, 2 years before they'd hit the charts with "Dirty Water," Chad and Jeremy on November 28th, and that was it. 1965? The first successful American "beat" group the Beau Brummels in February…the Standells again, the Beau Brummels again, the Liverpool Five (who?) in August…the Gentrys, Gary Lewis and the Playboys…then in January of 1966, Chad and Jeremy returned, and Peter and Gordon were on the following week. Is it just me or did Dick Clark simply not get it?

He insisted on booking Jan and Dean, Johnny Rivers, Fabian, the Hondells, Dick and Dee Dee, Duane Eddy, Donna Loren, Johnny Mathis, Roger Miller, Trini Lopez, Bobby Vee, Gale Garnett, the Ventures, the Newbeats, lots of soul and R&B performers, and a salute to Elvis. Well and good…it didn't seem to affect the show's popularity, as it would continue for decades. And he did branch out in the late 60s with the hipper "Happening" and "Where is the Action Is." Still, he seemed to be breaking the cardinal rule of music programming: you play what they want to hear, not what you personally like. Or was he just being "patriotic," if you get my drift?

Groovy Stolf Stuff on the web at deepfriedhoodsiecups.wordpress.com…and till next time, rock on, yeah, yeah, yeah!

your 1st beatles collections (4CE reprint march 2011

"Your First Beatles Collection"

For the next several months, I'll be writing about the Beatles, and the year 1964, when Beatlemania hit the USA with such force as to explode Frankie Valli's head and the heads of 2 of the other Four Seasons. Only Bob Gaudio somehow kept his composure. Just kidding, folks, but you get my drift.

Now as we tuned in to the Ed Sullivan Show at 8pm, Feb. 9, 1964…"B-Day":…some of us were taken by surprise by what we saw and heard. But there had been extensive publicity leading up to the show…after all, 73 million people didn't just happen to be watching. And many of those were already hard-core "Beatle people," because the Beatles were already starting to conquer the Billboard Magazine record charts.

As of that Sunday, "I Want To Hold Your Hand" was celebrating its 2nd week at #1, where it would stay for another 5 weeks. "She Loves You" was at #7…it would be #2 for those next 5 weeks, then the 2 songs would trade places for another 2 weeks. "Please Please Me" and "I Saw Her Standing There" were also starting to climb. And the Beatles first American LP "Meet the Beatles" was #3 on the Albums chart…it would spend the next 11 weeks at #1, and a total of 21 weeks, almost half a year, in the top 10. What a difference from the previous year!

"We don't think the Beatles will do anything in this market." That was Capitol Record's judgement when their sister company Parlophone sent over a copy of "Please Please Me" in January, 1963. Over the course of that year the Beatles released 2 LPs in their homeland…"Please Please Me" and "With the Beatles," with 14 tracks on each. And starting with "Love Me Do" in October of 1962, they also released 5 singles, 3 of which were not included on either album, which came to be the practice in Britain, for a grand total of 34 songs. And they were selling well everywhere, Europe, Australia, Asia, just not here. Because Capitol simply wasn't interested.

But there were plenty of hustlers in the music business willing to take a flier on just about anything. Thus the single "Please Please Me" backed with "Ask Me Why" came out on Chicago's small VeeJay label in February, 1963. It was played for a couple weeks on Chicago radio station WLS, reaching #35 on their weekly survey, but went virtually unheard elsewhere. In May, VeeJay tried again with "From Me to You" backed with "Thank You Girl."

Billboard's Hot 100 chart had a "Bubbling Under" section that listed between 20 and 40 additional singles. "From Me To You" actually bubbled for 3 weeks in August, reaching #116. This was thanks to Del Shannon. After touring in England, and witnessing first hand the growing Beatle hysteria, he released his version of "From Me To You" in June, 1963. It spent 4 weeks on the charts, peaking at #77. That was the only reason the Beatles made it even as "high" as #116, as a few stations tried playing the "original" version, but again, listener response was nonexistent.

As Autumn approached, even VeeJay was losing heart, and in September they passed on "She Loves You." It was released on the small Philadelphia label Swan, backed with "I'll Get You," in the hopes of getting the Beatles played on American Bandstand. Dick Clark gave it a listen and was unimpressed. He put it on his Rate-a-Record segment and the crowd gave it low marks. But by this time, there were rumblings that something was about to happen. The buzz got louder in November when Ed Sullivan announced he had signed the Beatles for 3 appearances in February, 1964. Bolstered by this publicity, VeeJay re-released the LP "Introducing the Beatles," which was the Beatles first UK album, minus 2 cuts they no longer had the rights to. They'd originally put it out in July and it failed to chart…meaning 200 LPs in the US at that time were more popular than the Beatles! Of course in early 1964, it would spend 8 straight weeks at #2, lodged right behind "Meet the Beatles."

The Sullivan announcement also prompted Capitol to finally stick a toe in the water, and they scheduled "I Want To Hold Your Hand" for a January 13th release. "Leaked" copies starting airing on US radio stations, beginning in Washington DC, thanks to a record brought over by a BOAC stewardess, and the date was moved up to the day after Christmas. Even then, it took the single almost a month to debut on the charts at #45…#3 the next week, then its run of almost 2 months at #1. The first American album "Meet the Beatles" was released on January 20th. It was their 2nd British LP with 4 songs removed and 2 others added.

Of special interest to Northern New York Baby Boomers was the Canadian situation. Like the US, Canada lagged behind in catching the Beatle bug in 1963. After a 45 release of "Love Me Do"/"PS I Love You" tanked early in the year, Capitol of Canada laid off until almost the last minute. They released "With the Beatles" under the title "Beatlemania With the Beatles" in November, a 45 of "Please Please Me"/"Roll Over Beethoven" in December, and a slightly revamped "Please Please Me" album retitled "Twist and Shout" in January, 1964.

So here's the tale of the tape. On B-Day, between the VeeJay LP and 45s, the Swan 45, and Capitol's "Meet The Beatles," American fans had 30 of the 34 Beatles songs released thus far. Missing from "With the Beatles" were "Please Mr. Postman," "Roll Over Beethoven," "Devil in Her Heart," and "Money." If you had access to Canadian records, the first 2 were on a 45, and all 4 were on the "Beatlemania" LP. They would arrive officially in the US in April on the "Beatles Second Album."

But there's more! If you liked to spend your afternoons after school sorting thru the singles bin at your local record store, and grabbed anything that said "Lennon-McCartney" on it, you also had 5 Beatles songs performed by the Brian Epstein-produced Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas on Liberty, a subsidiary of Imperial Records. Released between June and November of 1963 were "Do You Want To Know a Secret?," "I Call Your Name," and 3 songs the Beatles wrote but never themselves recorded: "I'll Be On My Way," "Bad to Me," and "I'll Keep You Satisfied." And in November of 1963, ATCO released another "orphan" Lennon-McCartney composition, "Hello Little Girl" by another Epstein group, The Fourmost.

Who's to blame? An executive at Capitol Records named David Dexter. In 1963, he turned down not only the Beatles and Billy J. Kramer, but also Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Hollies, the Animals, the Dave Clark Five, the Swinging Blue Jeans, the Yardbirds, and Herman's Hermits! He signed only Freddie and the Dreamers…and in all fairness, their only single in 1963, "I'm Telling You Now" failed to chart. Two years later it would zoom to #1. Till next time, keep that 20/20 hindsight in sharp focus, check out Deepfriedhoodsiecups.Wordpress.Com and the wonderful Stolf Stuff links you'll find there, and rock on!

ask cool daddy 2...(4CE reprint feb 2011)

"Ask Cool Daddy 2"

Did the Beatles write the Rolling Stones' first single? Not the first, no, ironic as that would have been. While fans supposedly split into warring factions, Beatles versus Stones, the objects of their affection remained good mates from way back. Actually, as I recall it, there was hardly anybody who didn't like both. But the first record released by the Stones was June 1963, A-side Chuck Berry's "Come On," B-side Willie Dixon's "I Want to Be Loved." It spent 14 weeks on the UK charts, reaching #21. In November 1963, their 2nd 45, again only in the UK, was a Lennon-McCartney song "I Wanna Be Your Man," backed with a self-composed instrumental called "Stoned." It was a bigger hit, up to #12.

Why did the Beatles give their song away, one they would eventually record themselves? Because in those days, they "hustled" their music. There were 2 ways to make money with records: record your own and sell them, or write songs for others and receive royalty payments. That's what ASCAP and BMI are for…to pay composers, not performers. The Beatles did both, with a passion. The first U.S. release by the Stones came in March 1964, Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" backed with "I Wanna Be Your Man." It reached #48, white the same A-side, with a different B-side, went to #3 in England.

Wasn't that catchy tune Ernie Kovacs used for his Nairobi Trio skits recycled a decade later for the Colt 45 Beer commercials? They do sound similar, but they are really different pieces of music. The "Song of the Nairobi Trio" was originally titled "Solfeggio," written by jazz harpist (that's harp, not harmonica!) Robert Maxwell. Solfeggio is Italian for a form of vocalese where each note is sung with it's corresponding do-re-mi syllable. The recording Kovacs used was by Maxwell's orchestra, with vocals by the Ray Charles Singers, no not that one, the other one, Perry Como's Ray Charles. The jingle on the Colt 45 Malt Liquor commercials with Billy Van was written by Canadian legends of jingledom Jerry Toth and Dolores Claman. It was officially titled "A Completely Unique Experience." In 1968 Claman also composed the Hockey Night in Canada Theme.

I love both Henry Mancini's "Peter Gunn" soundtrack albums. Should I search out and watch the shows? For great 1950s-style crime drama, yes, definitely…but for the music, not so much. Hank of course revolutionized TV music, replacing orchestral violins with cool jazz. Even the syndicated western "Shotgun Slade" used anachronistically hip tunes, and that was a selling point. But as great as that swinging music was, "Brothers Go to Mothers," "Dreamsville," The Floater," and all the rest were actually fleshed-out arrangements based on brief motifs used on the show, what they call in the business "cues." Even the iconic Peter Gunn Theme ran less than 60 seconds at the beginning and end of each half-hour episode. So yes, you will hear bits and pieces you'll recognize, and a bevy of sultry nightclub singers to boot, but don't expect to hear Peter Gunn's greatest hits. It didn't work that way…same thing with other TV soundtrack records from the period.

For once and for all, was the Buoys' song "Timothy" really about cannibalism? It sure was, and the 20-year-old composer of the song never denied it, not then, not ever, and that was Rupert Holmes…yup, the "Pina Colada Song" guy. He was kicking around the music business in the late 1960s, and got a band from Wilkes-Barre, PA signed to Scepter Records, home of Dione Warwick and B.J. Thomas. The deal included one single, but they understood there'd be virtually no promotion of it. So Rupert figured, why not put out something that would be automatically banned, based on the time-honored principle that bad publicity is still publicity. The mining disaster and subsequent scarfing of poor Tim was inspired by Tennessee Ernie Ford's "16 Tons"…he thought the description of "a man" in that song sounded like a recipe, and while not a member of the Buoys, he did play piano on the track.

The rest is one-hit-wonder history. "Timothy" was one of the slowest rising hits ever, gaining popularity thru word of mouth, as radio stations fussed over whether to play it. In some markets, one station did, while its crosstown rival didn't, but it was that way with a lot of singles. Scepter Records felt blind-sided and tried to push the story that Timothy was a mule, not a person, but Rupert refused to go along. It's said there's a censored version with different lyrics, but I've yet to find it. Something to look forward to, sez me.

Yeah, but the Purple People Eater is called that because he eats purple people, right? Of course, and he even says so in the song…when asked "What's your line?" he replies "Eating purple people and it sure is fine." The counter-argument is that he's the one that's purple, not the people he eats. Well, it's both, so why are we having this discussion? Maybe that's how he gets to be purple, did you ever think of that? Sheb Wooley wrote and recorded this classic. Soon after, "The Purple People Eater Meets The Witch Doctor" was written and recorded by Joe South, and covered by the Big Bopper. Sheb came right back with "Santa and the Purple People Eater" just in time for Christmas. Man, those were the days...

It was labeled "Ameriachi," but did Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass ever recorded any real mariachi music? Not only didn't they, Herb said in interviews at the time that he purposely avoided it. Yes, he was from Los Angeles, and was influenced by the rowdy excitement of the music he heard at bullfights in Tijuana, but even his breakthrough single "The Lonely Bull" was originally titled "Twinkle Star." The first 2 Tijuana Brass albums especially did have some ethnic touches, even German oom-pah…and early publicity described it as "Tex-Mex" flavored, but Herb was aiming for something else. Real mariachi has kind of a hurry-up waltz beat, and the TJB sound was pure American pop all the way.

I heard that the group Poco was originality named Pogo…true? Absolutely! They signed with Epic records in February 1969, but by April, Pogo comic strip artist Walt Kelly had gotten wind of their name and threatened to sue. So they came up with the bright idea of changing Pogo to Poco…this worked especially well with capital letters, the G morphing into a C. Thus the their name recognition was pretty much retained, and presumably some letter-head was salvaged as well. Till next time, go to deepfriedhoodsiecups.wordpress.com and follow the groovy links...and whatever you do, rock on!

xmas hit or myth? (4CE reprint dec 2010)

"Christmas Hit or Myth"

√ Plum pudding once contained plums.

Maybe it still does, if you dig around in there, you might find some? Nope, this is a myth. In Merrie Olde England, "plum" meant dried fruit in general, almost universally raisins, since they were the most affordable. Even "currents" were small imported raisins,"raisins of Cornith." If you could afford it, you could use dried apricots, figs, dates, even prunes, but basically plums were raisins. Little Jack Horner's Christmas pie was mince-meat, the plum on his thumb a raisin. Sugar-plums were candies made from dried fruits. Fruit-cake was often called plum-cake. But then the French call French-fried potatoes "pommes frites," literally fried apples, so there you go. Plumb interesting if you ask me.

√ The 4 calling birds in "The 12 Days of Christmas" are mynah birds.

Or parrots, or magpies, or some other loud-mouthed budgies? Nice try, but no dice. Originally, it was "colley birds," also spelled colly or collie, meaning blackbirds. Collie was Scottish for black, from coal, and indeed the original Collie dogs were black, not Lassie-colored. Also, the 5 golden rings do not refer to jewelry but to ring-necked pheasants, so the first 7 gifts are all birds. And what was a partridge doing in a pear-tree? It's believed the original line was "a partridge, un perdrix," French for partridge, pronounced pear-dree. Partridges may perch in a tree occasionally, but they are primarily ground-dwelling fowl, and build their nests there.

√ The 12 Days of Christmas do not include Christmas Day.

This is a festive hit, because the 12th Day of Christmas is the Epiphany, Jan. 6th, and if you include Christmas Day, that's 13 in all. The idea in olden times was that the 12 Days of Christmas were a time of celebration, merry-making, and especially on the Epiphany, playing practical jokes. These activities were inappropriate to the holiness and solemnity of Christmas Day itself, so the revelry started the next day, St. Stephen's Day, Dec. 26.

What throws people off today is the celebration of Twelfth Night on the night of Jan. 5, the eve of the Epiphany. After all, what comes after the 12th Night? The 13th Day, and since there are only 12 Days of Christmas, the Epiphany must be out. Counting back, the First Day would then be Christmas itself. What's being forgotten is this: the 24-hour calendar day used to be reckoned differently than it is today…it didn't start at midnight, but rather approximately 6 hours earlier, at sundown the previous day.

So 12th Night was not followed by the 13th Day, but by the12th Day. In the same way, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were the same day, not 2 consecutive days. Ditto New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, which is why New Year's Eve is sometimes called "First Night," but that's the first of 365, not 12, of course.

√ Poinsettias are poisonous so don't eat them.

I agree with the "don't eat" part, but the poisonous part is a complete myth. Poinsettias were introduced to the US in 1928 by Joel Poinsett, Minister to Mexico. In the wild, plants grow up to 16 feet tall. The actual flowers are small yellow or green bits, surrounded by large red bracts, specialized leaves designed to draw in pollinating insects. No one seems to know why poinsettias are thought to be toxic. Over the years, public displays of poinsettia consumption haven't seemed to convince anyone. According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, you could eat 500 bracts with no ill effects.

√ During the dance scene in "A Charlie Brown Christmas," the 2 twins in purple, and the kid in orange with the buzz-cut, doing those side-to-side shrug moves, are no-name extras, thrown in to simply fill out the crowd.

Good Grief, Red Baron! Wrong, wrong, and wrong. They debuted in the comic strip in 1963, and the boy is named 555 95472, or 5 for short. His twin sisters are 3 and 4. He explained: "My Dad says we have so many numbers these days, we're losing our identity. He's decided that everyone in our family should have a number instead of a name." Lucy asks: "This is his way of protesting?" 5 replies: "No, this is his way of giving in!" After a month of numbers-for-names gags, the siblings did fade into the background, used only when extra kids were needed. By the way, 95472 is the Zip Code for Sebastopol, California, north of San Francisco, where Charles Schulz was living at the time, which pretty much settles of question of where the Peanuts strip takes place.

√ The 7th of Santa's reindeers is named Donder, not Donner.

That's technically true, but if you correct someone who says "Donner," don't be surprised if they tell you to go sit on a pine-cone. Here's the history behind the myth-tory…

1823, "An Account of a Visit from Saint Nicholas" is published in the Troy Sentinel newspaper on Dec. 23, anonymously. The 7th and 8th reindeer are named Dunder and Blixem, a Dutch exclamation, literally "Thunder and Lightning!" This makes sense, since we're in Rip Van Winkle country, and the poem sets out the traditional Dutch image of St. Nick, jolly fat elf, pipe in mouth, etc. The poem is popular, and printed annually.

1837, For the first time, Clement Clark Moore, a Bible Professor at a New York City Seminary, is credited as the author. Also, publisher Charles Hoffman has changed Blixem to Blixen, to rhyme with Vixen, and Dunder to Donder, closer to the English pronunciation.

1844, Moore publishes his own version, retaining Donder, but changing Blixen to Blitzen, and this is the standard version generations of children grew up enjoying.

No one knows precisely when the switch to Donner occurred, but Snopes.com found the New York Times' earliest use of that name was in 1906, and the paper explains: "[they] were originally given Dutch names, Donder and Blixen (Blicksem), meaning thunder and lightning…it is only modern publishers who have rechristened them with the German Donner and Blizten." And indeed, Donner is German for thunder. Then in 1949, Gene Autry's recording of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" pretty much fixed Donner in the public's mind, and ear.

Interestingly, in 1947 a German author translated the poem, naming the reindeer: Renner, Tanzer, Flieg and Hitz, Sternshnupp, Liebling, Donner and Blitz. In English: Racer, Dancer, Fly (the insect) and Heat, Shooting Star, Darling, Thunder and Lightning. Near as I can parse it, Blitz is "lightning," Blitzen is "flashes of lightning." Vixen would be Fuchsin in German, but it's replaced to make a rhyme. And yes, the German botanist who named the Fuchsia plant was Mr. Fox. Till next time, Merry Christmas, y'all...see you on the net…stolf.wordpress.com and stolfpod.podbean.com…and rock on!

meet the beetle (4CE reprint nov. 2010)

This is the 60th anniversary, 61st year, of Mort Walker's Beetle Bailey comic strip. Back in September, they ran 2 weeks of classic strips, including black-and-whites on weekdays (yeah, some papers have color strips all week, including locally the Syracuse Post Standard.) Also, a Sunday strip from 1955, showing how Sarge and Beetle have changed over the years. And earlier this year, the Post Office issued a Beetle-and-Sarge stamp as part of their Sunday Funnies series.

Here are some things maybe you didn't know about everybody's favorite boot on the ground, and remember, in November you can see pictures of some of the things mentioned here on my blog at stolf.wordpress.com

You're at the College Now...When the strip began on Sept. 4 1950, in 12 newspapers (today it's 1800 worldwide), Beetle was a sophomore at Rockview University. His pals included Bitter Bill, Freshman, Diamond Jim, Sweatsock, a different Plato, Flash, Lank, Tickets, his girlfriend Buzz Breezy, and his nemesis Prof. Hackle. When Beetle enlisted in the Army in late March 1951, as many college men did ahead of being drafted for the Korean War, the college crew disappeared. They seem to make cameo appearances every couple of decades, last sighted Sunday 9/20/09.

The Early Recruits...It took over 20 years for the current line-up to solidify. Gen. Amos Halftrack, Sgt. Orville Snorkel, and Capt. Sam Scabbard were there at the beginning. Cookie seemed to get his trademark features one at a time…the t-shirt, the stubble, the tattoo, the cigarette butt, each arrived separately, and he settled into his present form after about a year. In one early strip he even has a last name: Sgt. Jowls.

But the original troop compliment was completely different: the big lug Canteen, the country boy Bammy, the sharpster Snake Eyes, Fireball, Dawg, Big Blush, Duke, most were gone within a year, altho Bammy made occasional appearances thru the early 70s. Killer arrived in May of 1951, and became Beetle's main buddy. Curley-haired Julius arrived as the General's driver in 1952, then called Julian. Various one-shot majors eventually evolved into Major Greenbrass in 1953.

Mort has said he tried to introduce at least one new character a year, to keep things lively, and while most didn't last, some became regulars: Zero (1953), Cosmo (1955), Lt. Sonny Fuzz and Otto the dog (1956), Rocky and Chaplain Stainglass (1958), Plato (1963), shrink Dr. Bonkus (1967). The last 2 new characters of any significance were Lt. Jackson Flap (1970, with big Afro hair), and Miss Sheila Buxley (1971).

Lost in Action...A full-panel strip from 1971 showed an "A" Company group photo shoot, and present are several 60s characters who have since been shipped out: Moocher the mooch, big dumb Ozone (even dumber than Zero), and the hen-pecked Pop, a short-lived try at domestic humor…and it's also one of Bammy's latest appearances.

There was never a regular Colonel…with such a large cast, Mort included only as many officers as he really needed, altho there are occasional walk-ons, and one even had a name: Col. Hatchett. Then there are Beetle's parents and little brother Chigger, from the college days, and seen now and then ever since.

The Sergeant's Wife...Snorkel had a wife on camp, for one strip only: Sunday 5/10/53. She was needed for the punch line, was un-named, and never seen again. In fact, within a few years, Sarge was attending USO dances looking for women, so something must have happened...probably Mort forgot about her!

So where is Camp Swampy?…It's based on Camp Crowder, Missouri, same as Rob Petrie on "The Dick Van Dyke Show." In one Sunday strip in 1955, Beetle and Killer get a weekend pass to visit the state capital, said to be Jefferson City, so that pretty much settles that.

Meet the Big Sister...When the Korean War ended, Mort Walker sensed interest in military gags might wane, so he introduced a series of strips where Beetle spent some time visiting his big sister Lois, who had married Hiram "Hi" Flagston, and their 3 kids. Readers didn't take to it, and it was back to Camp Swampy to stay. Still, the Hi and Lois idea seemed to have merit, so a spin-off strip began, written by Mort and drawn by his friend Dik Browne. That's why to this day, characters from the 2 strips make occasional crossovers. Hi and Lois looked completely different back then, and their kids were different too...see my blog for examples.

The Alternate Universe... Beetle Bailey comics books date from 1963-1994, but the Dell issues from the 50s and early 60s are the most interesting because there are many incidental characters that were never in the newspaper strip, some unnamed, others with such monikers as Major Calamity, Capt. Typhus, eye doctor Capt. Bloodshot, frogman Capt. Finny, shrink Dr. Fruitcake, Cpl. Plunger from the maintenance corps, stuff like that. The one non-strip continuing character was Capt. Scabbard's rascally son Montague. A story in 1959 featured a "big-boned" WAC named Drucilla, sort of an early version of Sgt. Lugg.

And guess what? Mort Walker only drew the first 3 issues, and I'm guessing he didn't do the writing either, based on goofs like Gen. Amos Halftrack once being called "Henry" by his wife and other inconsistencies. But the long-form stories, as opposed to the 2 or 3 panels in a daily strip, are quite amusing, including one called "Beetle in West Berlin." No, it's not a serious story, thank goodness. There was also a filler strip called "Vinny the Vet," about a newspaper reporter, but these weren't as good, mostly slapstick. Even a text story once per issue about Froggy Phlippe, a kid who's father is Sergeant Phlippe, but there seems to be no connection to Beetle's world.

Don't forget to check Stolf's Blog at stolf.wordpress.com this month for pictures of the Camp Swampy crew, old and new. I also have a new blog called Deep-Fried Hoodsie Cups, at deepfriedhoodsiecups.wordpress.com. It's primarily for those who grew up where I did, on the North Shore of Massachusetts, but there are things of interest to all Groovy Geezers and Baby-Go-Boomers. And after an unplanned switch from PC to Apple, new stuff to hear at stolfpod.podbean.com is coming…till next time, rock on!

number please? (4CE reprint april 2009)

This month I got to thinking about something else that no longer exists: telephone exchange names. Famous ones like Manhattan's "BUtterfield 8", the title of a John O'Hara novel and subsequent movie starring Elizabeth Taylor. Glenn Miller's tune "PEnnsylvania 6-5000" was the number of the Pennsylvania Hotel; Bugs Bunny spoofed it in the cartoon "TRansylvania 6-5000." The Flintstones were almost named the Gladstones after an exchange in the Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles. And who can forget MUrray Hill, the Ricardos' exchange on "I Love Lucy."

Others were fictitious, like the Marvelettes' "BEechwood 4-5789" (Columbus, Ohio did have BEachwood.) There was TIdewater 4-10-0-9, a non-existent Norfolk, Virginia number Chuck Berry calls in the song "Promised Land", although dialing 844 might have given the exact time, as it did in other cities. No actual exchange corresponded to the Partridge Family song "ECho Valley 2-6809", as far as we know; yes, there's a web-site that attempts to collect ALL the exchange names ever used, called the Telephone EXchange Number Project. A long-forgotten 50s private eye show called "COronado 9" was the exchange of Rod Cameron's character in San Diego, but it wasn't real. There is a suburb called Coronado, but they had HEnley 3 and HEmpstead 5.

I grew up north of Boston, and ours was SPring; neighboring towns had PIoneer, WAlker, TUcker, and JEfferson. Boston itself had dozens, a famous one immortalized in a radio jingle: "How many cookies did Andrew eat? Andrew ate eight thousand." For some reason this is remembered as an all-night drug store, but it was actually a carpet-cleaning company Adams & Swett, which still exists. "How do you keep your carpets neat? Call ANdrew 8-8000."

In the North Country, Massena had ROckwell, Potsdam = COlony, Morristown = DRake, Heuvelton = FIreside, Hammond and Madrid = DAvenport, Waddington and Norfolk = EVergreen, Norwood = FLeetwood. Canton's FT6 didn't stand for anything, what was called a "selected letter" exchange. Need to call Watertown? That would be SU2 or SU8, which stood for SUnset. Many communities, including Ogdensburg and Gouverneur, never had an exchange name, and for the reason, we need to know a little about the history of telephone numbers and how placing a call changed through the years.

Many people today think exchange names were just an easy way to remember numbers, but that was only part of it. An "exchange" was actually your local telephone company office or "central", where the switchboard operators and switching equipment were located. In the beginning, you jiggled the receiver hook to get the operator's attention, then told her the town and name of the person you wanted to call. As subscribers increased, they were assigned a number consisting of 1 to 4 digits. A letter following the number meant a party line, usually a W, J, M, or R.

But as time went on, it became clear the only efficient way to handle the enormous increase in phone usage was Direct Dialing, where the customer did all the work. To accomplish this, local numbers had to be standardized to 4 digits, then the locality pinpointed with an "exchange number", originally 2 digits long. This began around 1928. Bigger cities soon expanded to 3 digits, and eventually everyone did. Identifying them with a mnemonic word grew out of the habit of telling the operator the town you wanted; where possible, the name of the town became the exchange name. In cities large enough to have more than one exchange office, they were often identified by the street they were on, which is why many exchange names sounded like street names.

But the number of phone numbers that could be assigned with words was limited: 55, 57, 95, and 97 had no easy letter match. 1 was not used as an exchange number, not because it would one day indicate a long distance, but because of "dial-pull." With a rotary dial, the phone company equipment recognized a number by the number of "pulses" or interruptions in the current ("dial tone") it detected. Dialing a 3 for example interrupted the dial-tone 3 times: click-click-click. In fact, if your rotary dial ever stopped working, you could reach your party by tapping the cradle button where the receiver rested. 0 came after 9, and not before 1, because 0 was actually 10 clicks. But when you first picked up the receiver, a slight jiggle might make the switcher think you had dialed a 1 when you hadn't, so all leading 1's were considered "noise" and ignored.

Also, 0 could not be used, being reserved for contacting the operator. Some phones did have the letter Z with the 0: this stood for Zenith, which was used for toll-free numbers before 800 became standard. Interesting use of 0: remember the "Honeymooners" episode where Alice gets a baby-sitting job & Ralph thinks she's fooling around on him? ("Gee, I didn't know Davy Crockett was so FAT!") The phone number was originally BEnsonhurst 3-7741, but when this was found to be a working number, they went back and dubbed in BEnsonhurst 0, which wasn't.

Thus, by eliminating exchange names, All Digit Dialing freed up more possible number combinations, and this was the sole reason it was phased in, beginning in Wichita Falls, Texas in 1958. No, people didn't like it; one famous sign read "Give Me LIberty, or Take Out the Damn Phone!" (That's LIberty with a capital L-I.) Noted academic S. I. Hayakawa formed the Anti Digit Dialing League, and protest songs were recorded by Stan Freberg and Allan Sherman. But Ma Bell really didn't have a choice. They needed more numbers!

Ogdensburg didn't convert to Direct Dialing until after the All Digit switch had begun, so 393 wasn't assigned an exchange name. The phone company had issued a list of suggested names several years earlier, so the Maple City's exchange could have been EXeter 3, which sounds pretty cool to me. By this time, the North American Numbering Plan was being established to take operators out of the long distance dialing loop, and the whole process was repeated, this time with area codes. Big cities got numbers with low dial-pull, like 212 for New York and 312 for Chicago. Till next time, think about this: how come when you dial a wrong number, it's never busy?....and rock on!