From today’s morning show, sing along with Queen, we miss David Bowie, “Baby Shark” breaks into the Hot 100, The Sopranos at 20, The Beatle’s rare first US LP, Don Knotts pre-Mayberry ventriloquism, remembering Super Mario Brothers, a Summer of Love birthday and “much more music” videos.
If you are from my generation, you probably remember trekking to the local movie theater for a midnight showing of “Rocky Horror Picture Show“. It was a true audience participation experience. Now, the AP reports that the smash hit film “Bohemian Rhapsody” will have a sing-along version in movie houses on Friday, complete with lyrics on the screen. Head banging, Wayne and Garth style is allowed.
It’s not too early to be thinking about where you might want to get away in 2009. The New York Times listed 52 fascinating vacation destinations. Me? I’d go back to London in a heartbeat. Meet you at the Covent Garden Cocktail Club!
Quick Takes:
Graphic of the day: Pixar‘s 22 rules of storytelling. Few do it better.
Are your kids / grandkids singing the “Baby Shark” song ad nauseum, like ours are? It’s now a hit on the Billboard charts.
From our “Now I Feel Old” department. The Sopranos debuted 20 years ago tonight. Rolling Stone‘s Alan Sepinwall picks his 10 favorite episodes.
Getting married this year? If you are a millennial, you likely spent over $3K on the ring.
According to a 60 minutes report artificial intelligence may take over 40% of our jobs in 15 years. What’s your plan B? Guy Kawasaki of Apple fame shared this link this morning on Twitter with some first steps to take you there.
On the other end of the spectrum, did you know that the video game, Super Mario Bros, was so popular that 33 1/3 years ago that Japan’s highest-selling book that year was a strategy guide on how to beat the game? It’s true.
Much More Music:
Need a little love today? How bout this 1967 tune from Scott McKenzie, born on this date in 1939. “San Francisco, Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair” peaked at No. 4 during “The Summer of Love” and was featured on the main stage at The Monterey Pop Festival. It was Scott’s only hit. From the “I bet you didn’t know” department: McKenzie also was one of the many who auditioned for The Monkees (Video)
Missing David Bowie, who died from liver cancer on January 10, 2016 at his New York home. Just two days earlier, he released the album Blackstar on his 69th birthday. Let’s listen again to “Space Oddity”, his first top 20 US hit. (Video)
Many people think that Capitol Records’ “Meet the Beatles“, a shortened version of the UK “With the Beatles” collection, was the 4 lads first US LP? Hard core fans remember that today in 1964, The first US Beatles album was “Introducing The Beatles“. Through a quirk in the legal process, it was released on Vee-Jay Records and featured a group picture before Ringo donned the signature mop top hairstyle. There were actually two versions. One was a battle of the bands themed item vs The Four Seasons. The label finally ended up on court and had to stop selling the disc by the end of the year because. By then over 1.3 million copies had been sold. Still have yours?
“Want some Fries with that?” At the height of the CB radio craze, we were all watching Burt Reynolds and Sally Field in “Smokey and the Bandit” and listening to the 1976, CW McCall novelty hit, “Convoy”. It was at No. 1 on the US charts on this date, spawning a film starring Kris Kristofferson. CW McCall was in fact an advertising executive whose real name was Bill Fries. (Video)
Can you identify the man in this picture? This guy had a stand-up act as a ventriloquist before he became famous as a nervous Mayberry cop. He later played a fish, a reluctant astronaut and “The Shakiest Gun in the West”. His dummy’s name? “Hootch”. If you guessed Andy Griffith Show co-star, Don Knotts, you are correct.
Happy Birthday to: Scott McKenzie, 1939 (d. 2012); Frank Sinatra, Jr., 1944 (d. 2016); Jim Croce, 1943 (d.1973); Rod Stewart, 1945; Aynsley Dunbar (Jefferson Starship), 1946; Donald Fagen (Steely Dan), 1948; George Foreman, 1949; Pat Benatar, 1953.
Today’s Quote Worth Re-quoting: “Some days you may feel worthless, but to someone, you will always be priceless.”
We leave you with the number one song from this week in 1967. It was composed by Neil Diamond and produced by Jeff Berry for The Monkees. Micky Dolenz sang lead on “I’m a Believer” which hit No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week ending December 31, 1966 and remained there for seven weeks, becoming the last No. 1 hit of 1966 and the biggest-selling record for all of 1967. (Wikipedia)
