By Bob Berry

I was gonna say this is a big anniversary day for Carole King and Gerry Goffin‘s Greatest Hit. But that’s ridiculous.

There is no such thing as Carole King and Gerry Goffin’s Greatest Hit.

I mean on any given day it could be “I’m Into Something Good“, or “Chains”, “(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman, or “Pleasant Valley Sunday“. Or, like when I checked the list today and the Freddie Scott classic “Hey Girl” caught my eye, and “mind’s ear”.

Suffice to say “The Locomotion“, takes second chair to none of those songs, and the fact it did go hit the Top Five in three different decades perhaps defines it as their most successful song. So for Throw Back Thursday on Keener, a celebration of “The Locomotion”, beginning with the original, #1 in the summer of 1962, it’s Little Eva on Shindig!

12 years later, Flint’s Grand Funk hit #1 in the summer of 1974. Here’s live version, with help from Wet Willie.

And finally, 14 years later in the summer (again!) of ’88, Australia’s Kylie Minogue‘s “Locomotion” went to Number Three, while hitting #1 on the international charts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTjD7PyMSrE

By Bob Berry

He’s Flint’s own, he’s our own, and for most of the last 50 years, he’s been the back beat for the very best of Michigan rock and roll.

Happy Birthday to Don Brewer, drummer for the legendary Grand Funk (Railroad), and for the past few decades, the touring drummer for Bob Seger’s Silver Bullet Band.

And for Throw Back Thursday, here’s the back story to that back beat.

In about 1965, former DJ and budding recording star Terry Knight  convinced Don and his pals in Flint’s Jazz Masters, to change their name and let him become the lead singer of what became known as Terry Knight and the Pack.  Their success was middling, in spite of a couple of pretty decent singles, “I Who Have Nothing” and this song, originally recorded by The Yardbirds.

In less than two years, Terry Knight left the group, while Don Brewer, plus Mark Farner (also of TK&TP) and Mel Schacher from ? and The Mysterians carried on as The Pack and The Fabulous Pack. Then 1969 happened; Terry Knight reunited with the band as their producer/manager, Capitol Records signed them, and for the first few years of the 1970’s, they were the biggest band in the world!

Happy Birthday, Don Brewer-thanks for the ride!