Happy birthday to Glyn Geoffrey Ellis, born on this date, 28 October 1945, in Manchester, Lancashire. You know him as Wayne Fontana, a name that was inspired by Elvis’ drummer, D.J. Fontana. It was a coincidence that he was signed to Fontana Records.

His biggest hit with his band The Mindbenders was “The Game Of Love” which peaked at number 4 on the WKNR Music Guide in March of 1965. The Mindbenders charted again on Keener in The Spring of 1966 with “Groovy Kind of Love“. By then, Wayne Fontana had left the band in pursuit of a solo career.

After his share of ups and downs, Wayne Fontana continues to tour in both the UK and the US.

http://youtu.be/0pLZwUSDtYU

What did Swingin Sweeney, Bob Green, J. Michael Wilson, Dick Purtain, Scott Regen and Bill Phillips sound like on the air?

You’ll find a ton of examples here at Keener13.com. But few recordings exist of Keener Uncut, the jocks and the songs they played, without edits. Back in February of 2005, we put together 30 minutes of uncut WKNR, featuring all of the above noted Key Men of Music.

For those of us who lived it, the memories will come flooding back. For those who never knew about Keener, you’ll quickly see why even the songs at the bottom of the WKNR Music Guide sounded great.

Return with us now, to those thrilling days of yesteryear with this Keener Uncut Encore.

Listen to Keener Uncut 29mb mp3

In October of 1961, Keener’s predecessor, WKMH was playing, Del Shannon‘s “Runaway” and “Blue Moon” by The Marcels. West Side Story was premiering in New York. And Chico Marx, the oldest of the Marx Brothers, died at age 74.

Across the pond on October 19, “The Beatmakers“, a Supergroup combination of The Beatles and Gerry and The Pacemakers, performed at the Litherland Town Hall in England. The line-up included Gerry Marsden, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Les Maguire, Pete Best, Freddy Marsden, plus vocalist Karl Terry from The Cruisers with Les Chadwick on bass guitar. Both bands were managed by Brian Epstein & had yet to have hit records. At left is a later shot of the two bands with Roy Orbison.

The Beatmakers show is one of the most sought after Beatles bootlegs. No recordings have yet to emerge from that night.

1961 was also the year that these other iconic acts began their careers: The Beach Boys, Golden Earring (Radar Love), The Tornados (Telstar) and Bob Seger.