And The Stiffs Just Keep On Comin'

[chas108]

You're quite welcome DB.

What I learned about music listening to you back-in-the-day would fill a small book, so it's nice to return the favor. Thanks for the kind words.

"Hey St. Peter" is one of those songs I thought would have been much bigger, especially given that when it finally gained traction in the US, the Disco Apocalypse was taking place and Top 40 needed all the variety it could get. But it never crossed over from AOR, where I'm sure its success was limited by a brick wall called Burkhart-Abrams' Superstars format.

Now to keep things good n' stiff...I offer a follow-up to Pilot's 1975 hit "Magic": January.

Big hit across the pond. Here, not so much.

[Penrod Rightout]

You're quite welcome DB.

What I learned about music listening to you back-in-the-day would fill a small book, so it's nice to return the favor. Thanks for the kind words.

"Hey St. Peter" is one of those songs I thought would have been much bigger, especially given that when it finally gained traction in the US, the Disco Apocalypse was taking place and Top 40 needed all the variety it could get. But it never crossed over from AOR, where I'm sure its success was limited by a brick wall called Burkhart-Abrams' Superstars format.

Now to keep things good n' stiff...I offer a follow-up to Pilot's 1975 hit "Magic": January.

Big hit across the pond. Here, not so much.

I could see the writing on the wall when Lee Michaels showed up one day when I was doing afternoons on KENO-FM 92.3/Las Vegas  in the late 70's ... Burkhardt/Abrams came up with the "Silver, Blue, and Gold" format... very structured, and quite a departure from the John Rook card format we had been doing for years (make sure you skip 2 dayparts, date and time the song and put the card to the back of the card file.)  We went from playing Pink Floyd to the Bee Gees and Fleetwood Mac...and it was the only time in my 40-plus year radio career I was ever canned...thanks to the brick wall called Burkhart-Abrams Superstars format.

Ahhh... free-form radio in the 70's.  I reminisce to the Dan Akroyd skit on SNL when he was doing an AM and FM at the same time...

[Debaser]

Ahhh... free-form radio in the 70's.  I reminisce to the Dan Akroyd skit on SNL when he was doing an AM and FM at the same time...
[/quote]

*like*

(I think I've been spending too much time on Facebook)

[chas108]

I know I'm digressing but it's worth noting how BA's Superstars and its structure brought a complete new discipline to FM Rock, changing from Progressive with at least the appearance of free-form...to AOR and just "playin' it safe".

Just as MTV was debuting across the land.

I believe one result of Superstars' focus on established arena acts was that it gave CHR lots of room to claim ownership of the new rock-based acts emerging from MTV in 1982-83.

Example A - a song originally worked to AOR but ultimately embraced by CHR, just as the Michael Jackson Thriller bandwagon was leaving the station so it couldn't have happened at a better time for the format:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOg5VxrRTi0

In early '83, it really wasn't that much of a jump from Duran Duran and A Flock Of Seagulls to Def Leppard's "Photograph" - the first metal song with proven female appeal - and CHR was set for the rest of the 80's while many AOR's languished. It probably didn't help that the format ignored the new metal acts like Metallica for years. Anyone remember when WMMS/Cleveland went thru that CHR phase in the late 80's?

Anyway...since this IS the "Stiffs" thread, here's another Duran Duran tune that received wide exposure but I'd think ultimately would belong here..."Girls On Film": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebz6I6OQjq8

And to regain a stiff momentum: anyone remember this version of "One Night In Bangkok"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIoSlM1np1M It didn't last long once Murray Head's original version took hold.

[Penrod Rightout]

I know I'm digressing but it's worth noting how BA's Superstars and its structure brought a complete new discipline to FM Rock, changing from Progressive with at least the appearance of free-form...to AOR and just "playin' it safe".

Just as MTV was debuting across the land.

I believe one result of Superstars' focus on established arena acts was that it gave CHR lots of room to claim ownership of the new rock-based acts emerging from MTV in 1982-83.

Example A - a song originally worked to AOR but ultimately embraced by CHR, just as the Michael Jackson Thriller bandwagon was leaving the station so it couldn't have happened at a better time for the format:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOg5VxrRTi0

In early '83, it really wasn't that much of a jump from Duran Duran and A Flock Of Seagulls to Def Leppard's "Photograph" - the first metal song with proven female appeal - and CHR was set for the rest of the 80's while many AOR's languished. It probably didn't help that the format ignored the new metal acts like Metallica for years. Anyone remember when WMMS/Cleveland went thru that CHR phase in the late 80's?

Anyway...since this IS the "Stiffs" thread, here's another Duran Duran tune that received wide exposure but I'd think ultimately would belong here..."Girls On Film": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebz6I6OQjq8

And to regain a stiff momentum: anyone remember this version of "One Night In Bangkok"?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIoSlM1np1M It didn't last long once Murray Head's original version took hold.

Agreed, Superstars did change the landscape for FM Rock - no doubt the advent of MTV played a major role in the shift to more structured formatics as radio responded to the competition on the tube... later Sirius and XM would enter the playing field.  And, don't you think the July 4th 1958 debut of KB's "Supersonic Radio" was also highly structured?  http://wkbwradio.com/history2.htm.

Sure was a good time to be on-air in contemporary radio which was to get a moniker of it's own in the early '80s when Radio and Records coined the term Contemporary Hit Radio 

In keeping in the good graces of the thread police, I feel compelled to submit a tune which - while perhaps not fulfilling the requirements of a "stiff" (it never charted in the Billboard Charts in the U.S.) -- deserves mention here:  Men at Work "Be Good Johnny"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImKPzEGCYZI

[chas108]

You're absolutely right Penrod, it was highly structured. How can you have a current-based hit music format without structure?

I think it's one of those fantasies about "old time" Top 40 - that it was all less structured and more entertaining than today.

Yes the structure has changed...and is in many ways tighter. Many PD's have their head in the sand and believe reading liner cards somehow equates to entertainment. But you can even trace that one back to how different PD's interpreted and implemented Bill Drake's formatics. There were good and bad examples of Drake up and down the dial.

Remember comments our beloved Debaser has made about his time on the 1520 line - that it "had a magic and a charm"...it was special even then, playing (IMHO) at a WABC/WNBC/WLS/WCFL level. Listen to any of those old airchecks and there was structure alright - but they made it natural and seamless. They took ownership of it as well as Dan Ingram or Ron Lundy ever did, a testament not only to 'KB airstaff but also its PD's.
 
IMHO a good PD and airstaff will have the ability to make it sound like they are presenting the music...like they're in charge rather than just following a list. That's where passion for the music and knowledge of same comes in. That's the foundation for an emotional connection with the listener.

To me...it's at least somewhat apples and oranges between a current based, survey based Top 40/Country format and an AOR format where jocks at least present the illusion of digging deeper than just playing the current hit. That's probably the biggest fundamental shift in philosophy going from "free-form" to AOR. In other words, I think Burkhart-Abrams took the music in a direction where it ought not to have gone....or at least to the extent that it did...making AOR into its own version of Top 40. That's how I see it anyway.

BTW in the 'KB article you linked it mentioned a promotion where one of the "W"s had been stolen and listeners had to find it to win. A couple stations just did their own version of the very same promotion. Many times the best ideas consist of a new spin on an old idea.

Anyway I'll see your Men At Work stiff and raise you one from Melanie, one 'KB once played...for about a week and a half: "Bitter Bad". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHmafD8DKQA

[John C]

As we roll on toward 50000 views, I don't believe Elton John's "Ego" has been mentioned.  If so, how about a little "Action" from Sweet, back in 1976, their only non top-10 single that made the top 40.

[Radknowski]

As we roll on toward 50000 views, I don't believe Elton John's "Ego" has been mentioned.  If so, how about a little "Action" from Sweet, back in 1976, their only non top-10 single that made the top 40.

Whodathunkit! But let's try 45 first.     I'm almost positive I heard Jack Armstrong play this song on KB, "Love's Made A Fool of You" by the English band, Cochise. Since Debaser was probably music director at the time, maybe he can confirm. The original was done by Buddy Holly and the Crickets.

[Silkie]

Bobby Fuller 4 got to #9 with Love's Made A Fool of You

[chas108]

I'm almost positive I heard Jack Armstrong play this song on KB, "Love's Made A Fool of You" by the English band, Cochise. Since Debaser was probably music director at the time, maybe he can confirm. The original was done by Buddy Holly and the Crickets.

I don't remember Cochise...but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if 'KB played it. There were several tunes in early '71 introduced as having been #1 in England, among them McGuinness-Flint's "When I'm Dead And Gone", "13 Questions" by Seatrain (both I believe are somewhere listed on this thread) and "I Hear You Knocking" by Dave Edmunds...which of course became anything but a stiff.

Seatrain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg9HWrDh8zY

McGuiness-Flint: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0DttYjN5p8

As for Seatrain, they followed up "13 Questions" with "Song Of Job". A real stiffiloni if there ever was one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnJNT_xzDMA