1968 Tiny Tim – Tip-Toe Thru The Tulips

1968 Tiny Tim – Tip-Toe Thru The Tulips 

Herbert Butros Khaury grew up in New York City and used the New York Public Library to study music history and records from the early 1900s. He also learned to play the guitar, the violin, and the mandolin. His focus became the ukulele, an instrument he became associated with for his entire professional career as a musician.

In the early fifties, he discovered he could sing with a high-pitched falsetto, and he began singing in clubs using myriad different names. When his singing routinely followed a midget act, his manager had him using the ironic nickname “Tiny Tim,” a name that stuck.

Tim appeared in the independent film You Are What You Eat, singing Cher’s part in a duet of I Got You Babe. On the strength of that appearance, Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In cast him in their first ongoing episode in 1968. The combination of Tim’s singing and Dick Martin’s reactions made Tim an instant favorite with viewers.

Tim later sang his distinctive updating of the 1929 song, Tip-Toe Thru the Tulips. The novelty hit reached #17 on the Hot 100 and allowed Tim to spend the rest of his life performing his music.

Tim appeared on Laugh-In multiple times and that led to appearances on The Tonight Show. The wedding of Tim and 17 year-old Miss Vicki took place on the show in December 1969. The approximately 45 million viewers made up the highest rated talk show audience in history; over 85% of the people watching television during that time slot tuned in to the show.

Tim recorded an astonishing number of albums, but only reached the Hot 100 twice more with two singles that stalled at #95 and #85 in late 1968 and early 1969.

Many have praised Tim for his knowledge of music and his kindness and gentleness towards others. He married twice more, but always lived apart from his wives.

Tim died from a heart attack at age 64 in 1996.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_Tim_%28musician%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiptoe_Through_the_Tulips
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0864097/bio

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1967 Tommy James and the Shondells – Getting Together

1967 Tommy James and the Shondells – Getting Together 

Tommy Jackson was born in Ohio and grew up in Michigan. He joined his first band, the Echoes, in 1959. The band became Tom and the Tornadoes, and they issued their first single in 1962. Long Pony Tail failed to chart.

The group changed their name to the Shondells in 1964. Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich wrote Hanky Panky and released it as the b-side of one of the singles by their group (the Raindrops). The Shondells recorded the song and released it on Snap Records. While the song did well in the Midwest, the record company did not have national distribution, and the band soon fell apart.

Unbeknownst to Tommy, a dance promoter in Pittsburgh began using his forgotten record at dance parties and local radio stations picked it up as well. Bootleggers sold over 80,000 illegal copies of the single in the Pittsburgh area.

Tommy joined the Koachmen and toured the Midwest, but the group disbanded in early 1966. “Mad Mike” Metro, a disk jockey from Pittsburgh, called Tommy and invited him to come to perform his song live.

Tommy tried to recruit the rest of the Shondells, but none of them were available. He recruited four members of the Raconteurs at the Thunderbird Lounge to be the new Shondells and began performing at dances and on television.

He went to New York City and sold the master tapes of Hanky Panky to Roulette Records. With their help, the record was soon #1 on the Hot 100. He also changed his name to Tommy James.

Two more records by the group entered the top forty by the end of the year. The group’s first two releases in 1967, I Think We’re Alone Now and Mirage, reached the top ten on the Hot 100.

Ritchie Cordell had written and produced I Think We’re Alone Now, and he wrote and co-produced their fourth single in 1966 as well.

The record reached #18 on the Hot 100. The group’s next two singles failed to reach the top forty but bigger success was waiting for the group in 1968 and 1969.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_James_and_the_Shondells
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_James
https://www.tommyjames.com/tommy-james-biography.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettin%27_Together_(song)

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1966 Rolling Stones/Chris Farlowe – Out Of Time

1966 Chris Farlowe – Out Of Time 

The Rolling Stones released their fourth studio album in the UK in 1966. Albums in the US tended to have only five songs on each side while UK albums had 6 or 7, and as a result, it was their sixth album released in the US.

Out Of Time was one of the songs on the UK version that was left off the US version of Aftermath. What they recorded the song in March 1966, it ran five minutes and fifteen seconds. The long run time may partially explain why they omitted the song from their US album. 

Chris Farlowe was born in London and played in a skiffle group and then a blues quartet in the late fifties. He became the frontman for The Thunderbirds and went solo in 1962. After a single co-written by Lee Hazlewood failed to chart in 1965, Chris began working with Mick Jagger. His cover version of a Stones’ song from Aftermath (Think) reached #37 in the UK, after which Mick chose to help Chris cover Out Of Time.  

In April 1966, Mick recorded a demo of the song with new musical backing (including himself on backup vocals, Jimmy Page on guitar, and past-Beatles fill-in drummer Andy White). That 1966 recording did not get released by the Stones until much later.

Chris recorded his single by simply replacing Mick’s lead vocals with his own, and the result was a number one record in the UK. Sadly, it did not reach the US Hot 100 at all. It did, however, reach #30 on WMCA in New York City the first week of September.

In 1967, the Rolling Stones released Flowers, a second compilation album in the US that included songs from the UK albums Aftermath and Between The Buttons that had not released in the US. The album included a remixed version of Out Of Touch from Aftermath that they also cut down to only three minutes and forty-one seconds. 

The version of Out Of Time that Mick recorded as a demo eventually got released in 1975 on the album Metamorphosis. That recording became a single that peaked at only #45 in the UK and #81 in the US. Perhaps that release is the reason the Chris Farlowe version sounds so familiar! 

A reissue of Chris’ hit version followed in 1975 and did slightly better in the UK than the Stone’s version (#44) but again failed to chart in the US.

Chris did not have any additional big hits after topping the UK chart. He has continued recording as a solo act, as a brief member of Atomic Rooster, and as a member of several other groups. The Stones, however, don’t appear to be in any hurry to stop recording or performing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Farlowe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out_of_Time_(Rolling_Stones_song)

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1966 David Houston – Almost Persuaded

1966 David Houston – Almost Persuaded 

David Houston grew up in Louisiana and was a direct descendent of both Sam Houston and Robert E. Lee. He began recording for RCA Victor in 1956. A year later, he moved over to a record company based in Atlanta: National Recording Corporation.

When no hits were forthcoming, he eventually moved to Epic Records. Once there, he finally reached the charts with Mountain Of Love, which reached #2 on the Country chart in 1963. 

Several singles that peaked in the teens followed. In 1966, he released a single written by Billy Sherrill and Glenn Sutton, Almost Persuaded. The record did more than give David his first number one hit on the Country chart: it also reached #24 on the Hot 100.

The single spent nine weeks at #1 on the Country chart, a record that no other artist matched for over 46 years. Taylor Swift’s single We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together finally joined Almost Persuaded in the record books in 2012.

David had five more chart-topping singles, eleven top ten singles, and quite a few top forty singles on the US Country chart by the end of the seventies. He only reached the Hot 100 twice more, but those records stalled at #75 and #98 despite topping the Country chart. 

A brain aneurysm caused David’s death in 1993. He was almost 58 years old.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Houston_(singer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almost_Persuaded_(song)

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1965 Various Artists – Cast Your Fate To The Wind

1965 Sounds Orchestral – Cast Your Fate To The Wind

While you may not recognize the name Vince Guaraldi, you probably are familiar with his music. Vince was a jazz piano player who began recording music with various groups in 1951.

He began a solo career in 1959 and recorded the song Samba de Orpheus with his Vince Guaraldi Trio in 1962. The record did not do well until disk jockeys in the US turned the record over and played the instrumental on the b-side, Cast Your Fate To The Wind.

The single peaked at #22 on the Hot 100 and #9 on the Adult Contemporary chart in early 1963. The recording won the 1963 Grammy award for Best Original Jazz Composition. Unfortunately, that didn’t lead to any more charting singles.

While that may have qualified the single as a one-hit wonder, the story actually had a happier ending. Producer Lee Mendelson was working on the television show A Boy Named Charlie Brown and the music impressed him enough to hire Vince to do the music for the show. That began a long association with the Peanuts shows.

John Schroeder was a British songwriter who worked as a composer, arranger, and producer. Johnny Pearson was a piano player and composer who led the Top of the Pops orchestra for a dozen years. John produced Johnny’s first solo album on Oriole Records, after which the pair moved to Pye Records and recruited a collection of musicians and formed The Sounds Orchestral. They began recording pop and easy listening music in 1964.

A cover version of Cast Your Fate To The Wind became the first hit for Sounds Orchestral in 1965. Their single peaked at #10 on the Hot 100, #5 on the UK chart, and reached the top of the US Adult Contemporary chart in 1965.

Sounds Orchestral released Canadian Sunset as their next single, but it stalled at #76 in the US and #43 in the UK. The group continued releasing successful albums through 1975 but never reached the Hot 100 again.

All of that may qualify Cast Your Fate To The Wind as a one-hit wonder for two different artists in two different years!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vince_Guaraldi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sounds_Orchestral
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cast_Your_Fate_to_the_Wind

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1964 Nino Tempo and April Stevens – Whispering

1964 Nino Tempo and April Stevens – Whispering 

Antonino Lo Tempio was a musical prodigy who won his first talent contest while only four years old. He learned to play the clarinet and saxophone and played with Benny Goodman when he was seven years old. His family moved to California to support his career. He played on radio shows and became a successful child actor, appearing as Nino Tempo.

His younger sister Caroline began recording records when she was only fifteen. In 1951, she recorded with Henri Rene and his Orchestra and reached #6 on the Hot 100 with the single I’m In Love Again, a song from the Broadway musical The Greenwich Village Follies Of 1925.

Two more singles that year reached the top ten and #27, but that turned out to be the end of solo recording successes until she recorded a song written by Nino. Teach Me Tiger briefly reached #86 in 1959 before the controversy over the lyrics caused radio stations to stop playing the record.

Nino released a few singles that failed to chart and went back to work as a session musician. He joined the Wrecking Crew and played on songs for Phil Spector. He also began arranging and composing music for other artists, including Rosemary Clooney, Steve Lawrence, and Eydie Gorme.

In 1960, he convinced the president of Atlantic Records to sign himself and his sister as a duo, initially billed as April Stevens & Nino Tempo. Atlantic released at least five singles for the duo over the next three years, but none of them charted any higher than #77 on the Hot 100.

Their record company swapped their names in the billing on the next record, listing them as Nino Tempo & April Stevens. The president of the company picked a strange song as the a-side of their next single in 1963: I’ve Been Carrying A Torch For You So Long That It Burned A Great Big Hole In My Heart. Promotional copies of the record got sent to radio stations and disk jockeys promptly turned the record over and played the B-side instead: Deep Purple. The single was a cover of a song that had been a hit by Larry Clinton & His Orchestra in 1939. Their cover version reached #1 on the Hot 100 and the Adult Contemporary chart in 1963.

Thanks in part to the non-contemporary categories the Grammy Awards were still using in 1963, the single earned the pair a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Song.

Malvin and John Schonberger had published their next single, Whispering, in 1920. While the single did not do as well as their chart-topping record, it did reach #11 on the Hot 100 and #4 on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1964.

The duo recorded a cover of Hoagy Carmichael’s 1927 classic Stardust, but their single stalled at #32 on the Hot 100. The pair continued recording covers of songs from the 1920s and 1930s, but each single did more poorly than the one before and it would be over two years before they had a hit record with a new song co-written by April.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/nino-tempo-mn0000420926/biography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nino_Tempo_%26_April_Stevens
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whispering_(song)

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1963 Les Cooper and the Soul Rockers – Wiggle Wobble

1963 Les Cooper and the Soul Rockers – Wiggle Wobble

Les Cooper was born in Virginia and sang in several doo-wop groups in New York in the fifties. He also began managing the Charts, which featured lead  singer Joe Grier. The group reached #3 on the R&B chart in 1957 with their recording of Deserie. Most of the group disbanded when Joe entered the military in 1958, although several of the group’s members continued playing at oldies shows into the eighties.

Les formed a new group in the early sixties and began recording as Les Cooper and the Soul Rockers. In 1962, they released Dig Yourself on Everlast Records. The record featured Les on lead vocals and failed to chart.

Fortunately, the b-side of the single was an instrumental that featured Joe on a saxophone solo. Disk jockeys turned the record over and played Wiggle Wobble and the single took off. It peaked at #22 on the Hot 100 and #12 on the R&B chart.

Les never again reached the charts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Cooper
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Charts_(American_group)

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1962 The Majors – A Wonderful Dream

1962 The Majors – A Wonderful Dream

A group of four men and one woman vocalists from Philadelphia formed The Majors in 1961. Ricky Cordo handled lead vocals for the group, which became known for his extremely high falsetto.

Producer Jerry Ragovoy worked at Chancellor Records and co-wrote, produced, and arranged the group singing A Wonderful Dream. Imperial Records distributed the record. Many listeners thought the group’s female member was singing lead on the song, but it was Ricky!

The single peaked at #22 on the Hot 100 in 1962.

The group only charted with one more record. The two sides of their next single reached #63 and #83 on the Hot 100 near the end of 1962. One album and nearly a dozen other singles followed by 1964.

Jerry went on to write a few successful songs, including Cry Baby, Time Is On My Side, Pata Pata, and Piece Of My Heart.

The Majors are still actively entertaining audiences on the oldies circuit and can be found at https://www.facebook.com/Earthstarz/

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-majors-mn0000048718/biography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Majors_(band)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Ragovoy

I have collected older articles about Lost or Forgotten Oldies in my books.

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1961 Bobby Vee – Stayin’ In

1961 Bobby Vee – Stayin’ In 

John D. Loudermilk wrote a song that Bobby Vee released in 1961, but I’m not sure many radio stations are still willing to play it. The first line of the song is not what we would usually expect from Bobby:

I punched my buddy in the nose after lunch

It turns out that his buddy was telling lies about the singer’s girlfriend, and he decided the only way to defend her honor was (gulp!) violence. And Bobby isn’t even sorry he hit him:

I did it then, and I’d do it again

The single stalled at #33 on the Hot 100 in 1961, so perhaps the lyrics repelled stations even back then. 

The b-side of the single was a cover of a song from the second album the Crickets recorded after the tragic death of Buddy Holly. Jerry Allison and Sonny Curtis wrote the song. Their single failed to reach the Hot 100 in the US but got as high as #26 in the UK.

Bobby’s version of More Than I Can Say stalled at #61 on the Hot 100 but reached #4 in the UK. Bobby also performed the song in the film Swingin’ Along. 

A few months later, Bobby recorded his most successful single. Take Good Care of My Baby topped the Hot 100 in September 1961.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Vee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Vee_discography

I have collected older articles about Lost or Forgotten Oldies in my books.

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1960 Barrett Strong – Money

1960 Barrett Strong – Money

Motown’s first hit record was recorded in 1959 by Barrett Strong, a friend of Berry Gordy. Barrett was one of the earliest artists to sign with Berry’s Tamla Record label. The song was developed during a jam session that included Berry playing piano and Barrett singing lyrics written by Janie Bradford. Barrett initially had credit for co-writing the song, but that appears to have been a clerical error that has since been corrected.

The single peaked at #23 on the Hot 100 and #2 on the R&B chart in early 1960.

The Beatles released their cover version of the song on their second album and often performed the song live in many of their early appearances. They released Please Mr. Postman as a single in Japan and included Money as the b-side of the record.

The Kingsmen released Money as their follow-up to Louie Louie. Their single peaked at #16 on the Hot 100 in 1964.

Barrett kept recording singles throughout his career, but never reached the Hot 100 again. He did, however, have a very successful career as a lyricist.

Working with Motown producer Norman Whitfield, Barrett co-wrote I Heard It Through The Grapevine, Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me), Ball Of Confusion, War, and many more hit records for Motown artists.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrett_Strong
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_(That%27s_What_I_Want)

I have collected older articles about Lost or Forgotten Oldies in my books.

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