By Bob Berry

This week is the anniversary of Paul Revere and The Raiders”  “Indian Reservation” hitting Number One on the Keener Guide and the Billboard Magazine Hot 100. It’s also reminder of one of the great lessons of my radio career:

NEVER underestimate the power of American Bandstand!

Spring 1971, I was working at WIBM, a small AM station in Jackson, Michigan. It’s a Saturday, and I’m hanging around my apartment, waiting to do my show. American Bandstand is on the TV, and Dick Clark intro’s a new song by Paul Revere and the Raiders, “Indian Reservation”.

I watch and listen, think “that’s got a chance”, and make a mental note to check into putting in rotation next week. Headed into the station, got on the air, and got call after call for “that new Raiders record”, or the “song about the Indians”. Needless to say, we did not wait for Monday to start playing the song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ6RjP7MlXk

By the way. “Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)” was written by John D. Loudermilk, who wrote the 1964 Keener Classics “Thou Shalt Not Steal” by Dick and Dee Dee, and “Tobacco Road” by the Nashville Teens. Mr. Loudermilk also wrote one of the greatest slow dance/spotlight dance songs of all time, 1967’s “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye” by the Casinos.