The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

The Old Mixer · Feb 12, 2019

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55th Anniversary Event Viewing

The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 16, episode 19
Originally aired February 9, 1964
As represented in The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit and The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show

I've been watching but not regularly covering Best of installments from this era in 55th anniversary sync, and couldn't let the opportunity pass to cover this, probably the most historically significant episode of the long-running series. Best of gives us an episode consisting entirely of performances from this date, including one of the Beatles' numbers; and The First U.S. Visit, which I've still got on VHS, fills in most of the gaps by offering more of the Beatles' performances. Here I present the performances in the order that online sources indicate the original broadcast used, rather than deferring to the Best of edit.

Ed famously said:
Now yesterday and today our theater's been jammed with newspapermen and hundreds of photographers from all over the nation, and these veterans agree with me that the city never has witnessed the excitement stirred by these youngsters from Liverpool who call themselves the Beatles. Now tonight you're going to twice be entertained by them, right now and again in the second half of our show. Ladies and gentlemen...the Beatles!

The Fab Four make their American performance debut with "All My Loving" from the U.K.'s With the Beatles and its rough American counterpart, Meet the Beatles! Following that things get gentler with Paul's cover of "Till There Was You," also found on those albums. This is the segment in which the picture darkens briefly to display each of their names onscreen, with each Fab getting his own share of screams...culminating with John getting some laughter and applause when his name is accompanied by that iconic blurb, "SORRY GIRLS, HE'S MARRIED:" Finishing this set, the boys bring the energy back up with "She Loves You"--currently a single on the Swan label in the U.S. that's at #3 on Billboard. It was an interesting choice to lead with two Paul songs--I wonder if the Sullivan people were doing what George Martin says he tried to do at first in the studio, attempting to single out a lead singer rather than accepting them as an ensemble. For the third number, with John on lead, the camera stays mainly on Paul and George at first.

Ed said:
Y'know something very nice happened and the Beatles got a great kick out of it. We just received a wire, they did, from Elvis Presley and Colonel Tom Parker wishing them a tremendous success in our country, and I think that is very, very nice of them.

This is where The First U.S. Visit places this bit of business, though some sources indicate that Ed actually opened with it.

Now we switch to DVD for some of the other performers on that legendary broadcast.

Edited Ed said:
From Europe also, we saw this very amusing trickster, tall Fred Kaps!

The part of the Dutch magician's routine that's shown on Best of involves him trying to show the audience a card trick and repeatedly seeming to get flustered as the cards change. The preview at the beginning of Best of also showed him doing a trick that involved pouring salt into his fist. The clip below appears to show his entire performance (and also demonstrates how much Best of edits Ed's intros):

Edited Ed said:
At the Schubert Theater here in our town, Lionel Bart's Oliver! is in it second roaring year. Now here's the English singing star Georgia Brown....

There's an obvious edit here in the Best of cut. Sources indicate that the first number performed by the Broadway show's cast is the better-known one that wasn't shown on Best of--Davy Jones as the Artful Dodger singing "I'd Do Anything":
The cast's next performance, which is on Best of--and which Ed is introducing in the clip above--has Worf's future mom singing "As Long as He Needs Me," with no future Monkees in sight.

Ed may have said:
Right now from Hollywood, the brilliant young impressionist Frank Gorshin!

The future Gotham Arch-Villain and Trek guest does a prescient routine about Hollywood stars running for office. First up is Brando:

For years now, year after year after year, there have been just two major parties: one at Frank Sinatra's house and the other at Dean Martin's.

He promptly switches to Burt Lancaster, then Kirk Douglas. I get the impression that there was probably originally more to this performance as well...as shown on Best of, it seems pretty brief.

Edited Ed said:
Now let's have an explosive hand for England's nuclear bomb, Tessie O’Shea!

Best of only showed the last number from this medley, "Two Ton Tessie". I don't know where they got Ed's intro from.

Ed allegedly said:
A team of real daffy American youngsters...McCall & Brill!

Mitzi and Charlie (the latter of whom will also be a Trek guest) do a routine in which he's playing a producer and she plays his secretary, who shows in a number of aspiring actresses (all played by Mitzi, and likely also edited on Best of) before he realizes that the secretary is the one he's been looking for, once he's removed her glasses...then he puts them on himself and declares her to be the ugliest girl he's ever seen. I wasn't able to find a clip of this, but here's a radio clip of the duo retrospectively explaining the extenuating circumstances of their appearance that night (skip to "Take My Break, Please" on the linked page)--how the Sullivan people demanded they change their routine at the last minute, and how their attempts to rehearse it were interrupted by a noteworthy visitor...as partially related in the video below:
Given what they describe, I think the routine came off remarkably well.

Back to VHS....

Ed said:
Introducing the Beatles again, may I point out that they'll be on our show, as I told our audience, for the next two Sundays--next Sunday from the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach, a show starring Hollywood's exciting Mitzi Gaynor. Now ladies and gentlemen, once again...!

Sources indicate that the Beatles' second set starts with "I Saw Her Standing There," but this isn't shown on The First U.S. Visit...possibly because there's another performance of it on one of the upcoming two consecutive Sullivan appearances also featured in that home video release. Rather, it goes straight into their debut American hit, currently at the top of the chart for the third of seven weeks, "I Want to Hold Your Hand"...which is also the only Beatles number shown in the Best of installment:

Sources indicate that the Beatles did not close the show. Rather, the anticlimax that millions of Americans likely weren't paying attention to is the acrobatic troupe Wells & the Four Fays, who are in the middle of the Best of edit. Apparently they're close relations of Toni Basil, and this video apparently shows an earlier appearance followed by the full version of their performance on the night being spotlighted here (4:01).

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TREK_GOD_1 said:
This was sort of a whiner song

I'll stop you at that point.

Forget "Happy Together". This moody piece is their best work.

I think I agree with this.

The group's last hurrah was 1965's "Hungry" (in a year arguably recognized as their strongest, with "Just Like Me" and "Kicks" also hitting the charts).

"Kicks" and "Hungry" were '66. I'd argue that the Raiders were still in good form for "Good Thing" ('66) and "Him or Me, What's It Gonna Be?" ('67); and while they're definitely in a slump by this point (early '69), I'm always cautious about making declarations of their demise, as their biggest hit is still ahead of them.

So evocative of the changing sound of black music at the end of the 60s--leaving the "traditional" Motown-esque sounds behind in favor a grittier, funkier arrangement.

You're just giving me another excuse to say how much I freakin' love this song. But on the Motown side, what do you think of what the Temptations are doing at this point?

J.T.B. · Feb 12, 2019

TREK_GOD_1 said:
1. "Everyday People," Sly & The Family Stone

Click to expand...

They were on a roll, pretty much creating a sub-genre all their own.

My vote for greatest American band ever.

TREK_GOD_1 said:
3. "Touch Me," The Doors

Click to expand...

Brilliant, and the horn arrangement in this kind of song (already non-traditional for rock) kicked it above most of the Doors' contemporaries.

I find the Doors' albums more miss than hit by that point, but what a terrific single. The horns and strings compliment rather than overwrite their signature guitar-organ sound, and the beat is really basic but ends up a fun, loose swing. I love the way Densmore progresses around his kit with riffs on the same beat.

RJDiogenes · Feb 13, 2019

The Old Mixer said:
Ironside

I forgot to mention that I watched an episode of Ironside this past weekend. The guest was Forrest Tucker and it was pretty good. The directing was a bit more avant garde than most shows, but I'm not sure yet if that was typical.

Ironside is surprisingly open-minded about her gift, to the point that it seems out of character. In other circumstances, he'd be the first person to call bullshit on something like that.

Because she's his friend?

This was a pretty meh episode overall.

I knew you were gonna say that.

The brunette actress, played by Phyllis Davis, was pretty cute...Malloy even comments on it afterward.

She would later play Beatrice on Vega$, single mom, part-time showgirl and part-time assistant to Dan.

In the meantime, they get a call for "see the woman, dispute". They find a man trying to get up to his girlfriend's apartment because she's threatened to kill herself, but he's being held at bay by a broom-wielding landlady. When they find the girl lying lifeless on a bed, the landlady's only concern is that the girl not die in her building, and she first tries to drag her off the bed, then starts tossing out her clothes. Malloy has to threaten to arrest her to get her to back off. After the examiners get there, he sadly reports to the man that the girl is dead.

Wow, that's a pretty grim scenario to drop in the middle of an episode like that.

Thinking the Chief is looking for love, 99 is trying to set him up with her mother.

That's kind of mean. :rommie:

Another episode about Klink's love life so soon?

He's a love machine.

Just last week, I think it was, "the cooler" seemed to be an outdoor, hotbox-style arrangement, presumably named for a lack of heat. Here it's an indoor jail.

It's just a generic term for jail. As is Klink. :rommie:

As I recall, he did put a coin in, but I didn't catch if it was specifically a nickel. I wanna say that it was a dime, but I'm really not sure.

Inflation.

The Old Mixer said:
For the third number, with John on lead, the camera stays mainly on Paul and George at first.

Because they're not married? :rommie:

Introducing the Beatles again, may I point out that they'll be on our show, as I told our audience, for the next two Sundays--next Sunday from the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach, a show starring Hollywood's exciting Mitzi Gaynor. Now ladies and gentlemen, once again...!

Click to expand...

I wonder if any other performer ever had multiple sequential appearances like that.

The Old Mixer · Feb 14, 2019

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Dragnet 1967

"The Fur Job"
Originally aired March 16, 1967

Xfinity said:
Friday and Gannon must recover $100,000 worth of fine furs stolen from an exclusive department store.

Sgt. Joe Friday said:
This is the city: Los Angeles, California. Some people claim it's a collection of suburbs, not a city at all. Others say that in ten years, every city in America will look like Los Angeles does today. One thing's sure: it's a city that's not afraid to experiment, where the unusual is taken for granted. Five thousand people move to Los Angeles every month. The Los Angeles County Art Museum: to some, this might be an incentive to settle here. A block away, you can look at the city and its inhabitants the way things were ten million years ago. This is East 5th Street, home address for dreams that never came true. A few people believe that life owes 'em something, and the way to collect it is at the point of a gun. That's where I come in. I carry a badge.

Thursday, April 3: Friday and Gannon are working the day watch out of Burglary Division when they're sent to investigate the fur robbery. They don't have much to go on and seem to be hitting a wall when they're contacted by Mr. Brucker, a citizen in the trade who's been offered a shady deal on some furs. As part of their sting operation, the detectives enlist the expertise of the furrier whose coats were stolen, Mr. Hartman (Henry Corden). This one has more than its share of filler business with scenes at the fur emporium and Hartman teaching the detectives how to assess the quality of and haggle over furs.

In the meantime, Brucker has arranged a meeting at a hotel to see the furs. Gannon takes his place, with Friday as his assistant and various other detectives assigned to tail them to wherever the furs are being kept. They're led to a private residence occupied by a four shady types who have the furs sprawled about in a bedroom. Gannon does a convincing enough job haggling down their price to catch them off guard and group them together in the bedroom so that he and Friday can pull their pistols and call in the other detectives.

Dorothy Miller is in this one as well, but only the coda. Hartman wants to pay the officers back in furs, and when Friday says that he isn't married, Hartman says that when somebody offers you a free mink, you get married.

The Announcer said:
On June 22, trial was held in Department 180, Superior Court of the State of California, in and for the County of Los Angeles....The suspects were found guilty on a charge of robbery in the first degree. Robbery in the first degree is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for not less than five years.

Well, here's our first episode that doesn't use 1966 dates, but they're not 1967 dates either. My calendar browsing indicates that the last year with the same dates was 1958--maybe this episode should have been in black & white!

"The Jade Story"
Originally aired March 23, 1967

Xfinity said:
Friday and Gannon investigate the reported theft of $200,000 worth of jewelry.

Sgt. Joe Friday said:
This is the city: Los Angeles, California. On Spring Street you'll find the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange and the big banks. You can borrow a million dollars on a few minutes' notice, if your credit's good enough. The people who make, or get, the million-dollar loans usually live a long way from their work, many of them here, in Bel-Air. $100,000 homes are commonplace here; so are half-million-dollar estates. The good life of Bel-Air attracts some of the best lawyers, doctors, bankers, and merchants. It also attracts some of the best thieves. That's where I come in, I carry a badge.

Wednesday, April 14: Friday and Gannon are working the day watch out of Burglary Division when they're sent to investigate the jade theft at the home of Mrs. Graham (Virginia Gregg again!). Future Sgt. MacDonald actor William Boyett appears as Sgt. Ed Barr, the Burglary Division safe expert. He determines that whoever opened the safe knew the combination. Friday and Gannon further surmise that what was made to look like a break-in involved somebody breaking the screen from the inside, and smell insurance fraud. They call on jade dealer Lin Fong (Keye Luke!), who reveals that Mrs. Graham's been selling off her collection, and is surprised that she still had jade left to be stolen. Further investigation reveals that her bank balance is low and her house heavily mortgaged.

The SID (Scientific Investigation Division) man turns up the prints of a small-time thief with whom Friday and Gannon are familiar, Ben Martin (Eddie Firestone). When he's brought in for questioning, he insists that he didn't get anything out of that job because he was spotted by the gardener. When Friday and Gannon press home that Martin wasn't the thief, Graham confesses that she was using the circumstances as a moment of opportunity to make the insurance claim.

The Announcer said:
On November 1, trials were held in Department 187, Superior Court of the State of California, in and for the County of Los Angeles....The suspect was found guilty on seven counts of burglary in the second degree. Each count of burglary in the second degree is punishable by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding one year, or in the state prison for not less than one year or more than fifteen years.

The attorney for Francine Graham wrote to the insurance company withdrawing her claim for the jade that was insured. The company decided not to prosecute. Mrs. Graham has since moved to another city.

Here the date lines up with the 1965 calendar.

I was working out my rough viewing schedule for the hiatus months, and have decided to hold off on watching/reviewing any more Dragnet for a bit, to let them group together when the regular-season shows start dropping off.

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RJDiogenes said:
The directing was a bit more avant garde than most shows, but I'm not sure yet if that was typical.

Doesn't sound typical for the period that I've been watching. Are they still using painfully obvious rear projection for outdoor scenes in San Francisco-specific locations?

Because she's his friend?

He was going on about it with the team back at the Ironsidecave, so he wasn't just being polite.

Wow, that's a pretty grim scenario to drop in the middle of an episode like that.

Adam-12 is known to do that sort of thing, contrary to its reputation in some quarters for being a Ladies' Home Journal-friendly cop show.

He's a love machine.

Now I know why Schultz keeps his eyes and ears shut...!

I wonder if any other performer ever had multiple sequential appearances like that.

Can't say offhand, but in this case I'm under the impression that it was to cram in multiple appearances while they were available in America. They cheated a bit with the last one, which was filmed while they were in New York but aired when they were back home in Merry Ol'.

RJDiogenes · Feb 14, 2019

The Old Mixer said:
Gannon does a convincing enough job haggling down their price to catch them off guard and group them together in the bedroom so that he and Friday can pull their pistols and call in the other detectives.

Pull their pistols on fur thieves? Couldn't they just yell at them and make them cry?

Well, here's our first episode that doesn't use 1966 dates, but they're not 1967 dates either. My calendar browsing indicates that the last year with the same dates was 1958--maybe this episode should have been in black & white!

"The story is true. The dates have been changed to protect the innocent." It would have been funny if they had always used fake dates, like February 30th or Marchtober 8th.

The SID (Scientific Investigation Division)

"My name is Friday. This is my partner Bill Gannon. We were working the day watch out of Scientific Investigation when word came in that my old nemesis, Doctor Monday, was planning to use his time machine to go back and change this is my partner Merry Anders. We were working the day watch out of Monday Security when word came in that terrorist Bill Gannon had somehow gotten over the fence again."

Here the date lines up with the 1965 calendar.

The timeline is just a mess now.

Doesn't sound typical for the period that I've been watching. Are they still using painfully obvious rear projection for outdoor scenes in San Francisco-specific locations?

Nothing that jumped out at me. I'll watch for it, but it will be a couple of weeks before I see another one, thanks to my Cousin's wedding this weekend.

He was going on about it with the team back at the Ironsidecave, so he wasn't just being polite.

Frisco is rubbing off on him, I guess.

Adam-12 is known to do that sort of thing, contrary to its reputation in some quarters for being a Ladies' Home Journal-friendly cop show.

Indeed. That could have been the focus of the episode.

Now I know why Schultz keeps his eyes and ears shut...!

Can't say offhand, but in this case I'm under the impression that it was to cram in multiple appearances while they were available in America. They cheated a bit with the last one, which was filmed while they were in New York but aired when they were back home in Merry Ol'.

They were definitely getting the VVIP treatment, though.

That's two V's, not a big W. :rommie:

TREK_GOD_1 · Feb 14, 2019

The Old Mixer said:
For the third number, with John on lead, the camera stays mainly on Paul and George at first.

That kind of camerawork based on what I guess were aesthetic choices could not have sat well within the band, especially with the press creating all of those band appearance/personality descriptions (e.g., "Paul's the cute one"), which made its way to a lot of Beatles merchandising of the period, and could have been the start of cracks in the foundation that would sort of color member opinions of the others' work in the last years of this band and beyond.

There's an obvious edit here in the Best of cut. Sources indicate that the first number performed by the Broadway show's cast is the better-known one that wasn't shown on Best of--Davy Jones as the Artful Dodger singing "I'd Do Anything":

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The cast's next performance, which is on Best of--and which Ed is introducing in the clip above--has Worf's future mom singing "As Long as He Needs Me," with no future Monkees in sight.

If I'm understanding what you're posting, it seems to me that Davy's part was likely omitted to save it for some other purpose--like some special "Before They Were Stars" DVD, or TV special. If that's the case, they won't bleed a buck out of me for incomplete shows or selective specials.

The future Gotham Arch-Villain and Trek guest does a prescient routine about Hollywood stars running for office. First up is Brando:

He promptly switches to Burt Lancaster, then Kirk Douglas. I get the impression that there was probably originally more to this performance as well...as shown on Best of, it seems pretty brief.

Odd, that these "Best of" specials edit out so much, when this DVD--

--not only features every Rolling Stones appearance, but the option of watching complete shows including period commercials.

I'll stop you at that point.

"Kicks" and "Hungry" were '66.

That's right--

I'd argue that the Raiders were still in good form for "Good Thing" ('66) and "Him or Me, What's It Gonna Be?" ('67); and while they're definitely in a slump by this point (early '69), I'm always cautious about making declarations of their demise, as their biggest hit is still ahead of them.

If you're referring to "Indian Reservation (Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)" from 1971, i'll get that when we reach that year,,,,

You're just giving me another excuse to say how much I freakin' love this song. But on the Motown side, what do you think of what the Temptations are doing at this point?

1969's sound of the Temptations had fully embraced the grittier, funkier, urbanized sound artists at labels such as Epic (Sly and the Family Stone), Stax & Atlantic (Booker T & the MGs), RCA (The Hues Corporation), and of course, artists like James Brown already had, but many key tracks from the Temptation's Cloud Nine (released February 17th of '69) prved that they were as much a part of that darker world at the end of the decade in song as they were in reality. This album was such a big change in the group's sound and messages from their earlier career, like the brave, extended album version of "Run Away Child, Running Wild", which--as a song about a young runaway--did not glamorize teen (or pre-teen) rebellion as so many 50s and early 60s songs did. The song painted a realistic picture of just how large and frightening the world could be to a child on his own, which still resonates today.

Along those lines--although not in this genre of music, Elvis' "In the Ghetto" (released in April of '69) will deal with a base similarity of setting, but move off in its own darker territory. Collectively, songs of this kind were part of the divorce from the image of the 60's being all about flowers, love-ins, splashes of color on the cultural landscape and the advertised world of what could only be privilege people living in a near-upper Middle Class kind of Disneyland. Even if the song was not political, such "Hey Girl", the Temptations newer sound just felt like the very emotional urban world at the end of the decade, and certainly carried over into the early 70s, with a notable impact on the sound of acts such as The Chi-Lites, Tower of Power and The Stylistics.

Of course, the titular song of this LP represented one of the major flights away from all that most remember Motown for (and end up on most collections). At the time, some did not like this new direction, thinking the addition of wah-wah pedals, fuzz distortion and some guitar work more associated with white rock acts, but that was more about keeping that good 'ol Hitsvillle sound (and by association, image), as if that would last into the 1970s.

They made the right choice in changing their sound and subject matter.

J.T.B. said:
My vote for greatest American band ever.

Wow. This is the first time i've heard anyone say Sly and the Family Stone are the greatest American band.

I find the Doors' albums more miss than hit by that point, but what a terrific single. The horns and strings compliment rather than overwrite their signature guitar-organ sound, and the beat is really basic but ends up a fun, loose swing. I love the way Densmore progresses around his kit with riffs on the same beat.

Agreed across the board. Its just ironically sad that the whole group's last album could be said to be more hit than miss, only for tragedy to stop whatever creative momentum they reclaimed.

The Old Mixer · Feb 15, 2019

RJDiogenes said:
Indeed. That could have been the focus of the episode.

This brings to mind a thought that I had about the episode "Log 131: Reed, the Dicks Have Their Job and We Have Ours" after the fact. The general subject matter of the episode--encapsulated in Malloy's point to Reed that detectives are sometimes stuck on the same case for weeks or months--had a meta quality to it, like the new series was putting forth its mission statement, establishing how it was going to be different from Dragnet. Dragnet's format was one case per episode, whereas the typical Adam-12 episode depicts a series of vignettes that are often only loosely connected in the episode's narrative.

Emergency! would play with the Mark VII formula still more. It was an hour-long show that was essentially two half-hour shows mashed together--a paramedic/firefighter show and a hospital show. The paramedics would usually respond to an early call that would become the hospital's main storyline for the rest of the episode, while the paramedics would continue to respond to a varied series of calls a la Adam-12.

TREK_GOD_1 said:
If I'm understanding what you're posting, it seems to me that Davy's part was likely omitted to save it for some other purpose--like some special "Before They Were Stars" DVD, or TV special. If that's the case, they won't bleed a buck out of me for incomplete shows or selective specials.

The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show series is in a half-hour format, often substantially edits down the material that they do show, and usually mixes and matches performances from different dates. There's probably a DVD of the complete show for Feb. 9, 1964, out there as well. Maybe they were saving Davy as a selling point for that or some other part of their home video package, as you suggest.

RJDiogenes · Feb 15, 2019

The Old Mixer said:
Emergency! would play with the Mark VII formula still more. It was an hour-long show that was essentially two half-hour shows mashed together--a paramedic/firefighter show and a hospital show. The paramedics would usually respond to an early call that would become the hospital's main storyline for the rest of the episode, while the paramedics would continue to respond to a varied series of calls a la Adam-12.

Yeah, Emergency! was a pretty unusual show.

TREK_GOD_1 · Feb 15, 2019

RJDiogenes said:
Yeah, Emergency! was a pretty unusual show.

Yes, because in the decades to come, most medical shows were 95% set at a hospital with recurring, minor paramedic characters (ER immediately comes to mind), or they will have episodes where the doctor, nurse or intern has paramedic duty as part of their rotation, but beyond that, its back to a hospital focus.

The Old Mixer · Feb 16, 2019

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55 Years Ago This Week

Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles Day by Day said:
February 16 – In the evening the Beatles make their second appearance on [The Ed Sullivan Show], direct from Miami.

February 18 – The Beatles meet Cassius Clay, rather reluctantly, at his gymnasium, where he is in training for a title fight against Sonny Liston.

https://www.metv.com/stories/remembering-when-muhammad-ali-met-the-beatles

In the evening, the group attend a drive-in theatre (cinema) in Miami, to see Elvis Presley's Fun in Acapulco movie.
February 19 – Half a ton of Beatle wigs are flown to the USA from the UK to meet demand.
February 21 – 24,000 rolls of Beatle wallpaper are flown to the USA from the UK to meet demand.

February 22 – The Beatles fly from Miami to England, via New York, arriving at London Airport at 8.10 a.m. Fans crowding the roof of the Queen's Building number 3620. The group gives an outstanding press conference in the Kingsford-Smith suite at the airport, which is filmed and shown later that day as a special insert in the BBC television sports programme Grandstand. A telephone call from the suite to BBC radio studios is recorded and transmitted in Saturday Club the same morning.

Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

1. "I Want to Hold Your Hand," The Beatles
2. "She Loves You," The Beatles
3. "Dawn (Go Away)," The Four Seasons
4. "You Don't Own Me," Lesley Gore
5. "Java," Al (He's the King) Hirt
6. "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um," Major Lance
7. "Hey Little Cobra," The Rip Chords
8. "California Sun," The Rivieras
9. "What Kind of Fool (Do You Think I Am)," The Tams
10. "Navy Blue," Diane Renay
11. "For You," Rick Nelson

13. "Out of Limits," The Marketts
14. "Talking About My Baby," The Impressions
15. "Southtown, U.S.A.," The Dixiebelles w/ Cornbread & Jerry
16. "Anyone Who Had a Heart," Dionne Warwick
17. "See the Funny Little Clown," Bobby Goldsboro

19. "Hooka Tooka," Chubby Checker
20. "I Only Want to Be with You," Dusty Springfield
21. "(Ain't That) Good News," Sam Cooke
22. "Surfin' Bird," The Trashmen
23. "Abigail Beecher," Freddy Cannon

27. "Fun, Fun, Fun," The Beach Boys
28. "Louie Louie," The Kingsmen
29. "Please Please Me," The Beatles
30. "Penetration," The Pyramids
31. "What's Easy for Two Is So Hard for One," Mary Wells
32. "Oh Baby Don't You Weep," James Brown & The Famous Flames

35. "I Saw Her Standing There," The Beatles

37. "Who Do You Love," The Sapphires

39. "Daisy Petal Pickin'," Jimmy Gilmer & The Fireballs

42. "Hi-Heel Sneakers," Tommy Tucker
43. "Bird Dance Beat," The Trashmen

48. "As Usual," Brenda Lee

50. "Popsicles and Icicles," The Murmaids

53. "Hello, Dolly!," Louis Armstrong & The All Stars
54. "My Bonnie," The Beatles w/ Tony Sheridan

63. "Kissin' Cousins," Elvis Presley

65. "Glad All Over," The Dave Clark Five

72. "Stay," The Four Seasons

97. "My Boyfriend Got a Beatle Haircut," Donna Lynn

99. "Suspicion," Terry Stafford

Leaving the chart:

"Baby, I Love You," The Ronettes (9 weeks)
"Drag City," Jan & Dean (11 weeks)
"The Nitty Gritty," Shirley Ellis (14 weeks)
"Somewhere," The Tymes (11 weeks)
"Whispering," Nino Tempo & April Stevens (9 weeks)

Recent and new on the chart:

"Penetration," The Pyramids
(Feb. 1; #18 US)

"Kissin' Cousins," Elvis Presley
(#12 US; #10 UK)

"Suspicion," Terry Stafford
(#3 US; #31 UK)

Also, getting into items that I don't have, but are of enough historical interest to cover...the first of several Beatle-themed novelty records that will be dwelling lower in the charts in the coming months:

"My Boyfriend Got a Beatle Haircut," Donna Lynn
(#83 US)

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ETA: Music Choice must have gotten the memo--they were just playing "Jean" by Oliver and they were showing their logo rather than that picture of Oliver Dollar!

Hey Music Choice, if by any chance you're reading this--GET ANOTHER PICTURE OF THE BEATLES ALREADY!

Also, the version of Paul Mauriat's "Love Is Blue" that you're playing is not the original recording.

_______

RJDiogenes · Feb 16, 2019

TREK_GOD_1 said:
Yes, because in the decades to come, most medical shows were 95% set at a hospital with recurring, minor paramedic characters (ER immediately comes to mind), or they will have episodes where the doctor, nurse or intern has paramedic duty as part of their rotation, but beyond that, its back to a hospital focus.

That's how it seemed to me, although I seldom watch medical shows.

The Old Mixer said:
"Penetration," The Pyramids

Surfy! And weird names.

"Kissin' Cousins," Elvis Presley

We're all children of Adam and Eve. The human race as the product of incest explains a lot. :rommie:

"Suspicion," Terry Stafford

Kind of forgettable....

"My Boyfriend Got a Beatle Haircut," Donna Lynn

"Oh, unhappy day!" :rommie:

ETA: Music Choice must have gotten the memo--they were just playing "Jean" by Oliver and they were showing their logo rather than that picture of Oliver Dollar!

Step 2: Find a picture of the right Oliver. :rommie:

Hey Music Choice, if by any chance you're reading this--GET ANOTHER PICTURE OF THE BEATLES ALREADY!

Also, the version of Paul Mauriat's "Love Is Blue" that you're playing is not the original recording.

I wonder how one gets a job at Music Choice.

The Old Mixer · Feb 16, 2019

_______

50 Years Ago This Week

February 17 – Aquanaut Berry L. Cannon dies of carbon dioxide poisoning while attempting to repair the SEALAB III habitat off San Clemente Island, California.

Selections from Billboard's Hot 100 for the week:

1. "Everyday People," Sly & The Family Stone
2. "Crimson and Clover," Tommy James & The Shondells
3. "Build Me Up Buttercup," The Foundations
4. "Touch Me," The Doors
5. "Can I Change My Mind," Tyrone Davis
6. "Worst That Could Happen," The Brooklyn Bridge
7. "You Showed Me," The Turtles
8. "This Magic Moment," Jay & The Americans
9. "Proud Mary," Creedence Clearwater Revival
10. "I'm Livin' in Shame," Diana Ross & The Supremes
11. "Baby, Baby Don't Cry," Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
12. "Hang 'Em High," Booker T. & The MG's
13. "Games People Play," Joe South
14. "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me," Diana Ross & The Supremes and the Temptations
15. "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," Marvin Gaye
16. "I Started a Joke," Bee Gees
17. "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man," Bob Seger System
18. "I've Gotta Be Me," Sammy Davis, Jr.
19. "Give It Up or Turnit a Loose," James Brown
20. "Take Care of Your Homework," Johnnie Taylor
21. "This Girl's in Love with You," Dionne Warwick
22. "Hooked on a Feeling," B.J. Thomas
23. "Traces," Classics IV feat. Dennis Yost
24. "Indian Giver," 1910 Fruitgum Co.
25. "Dizzy," Tommy Roe
26. "But You Know I Love You," The First Edition

28. "Sweet Cream Ladies, Forward March," The Box Tops
29. "Crossroads," Cream
30. "There'll Come a Time," Betty Everett
31. "Things I'd Like to Say," New Colony Six
32. "(There's Gonna Be a) Showdown," Archie Bell & The Drells
33. "Soulful Strut," Young-Holt Unlimited
34. "Stand by Your Man," Tammy Wynette
35. "Good Lovin' Ain't Easy to Come By," Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
36. "If I Can Dream," Elvis Presley
37. "Time of the Season," The Zombies
38. "Runaway Child, Running Wild," The Temptations

40. "My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)," David Ruffin

43. "I Got a Line on You," Spirit

50. "To Susan on the West Coast Waiting," Donovan

52. "The Weight," Aretha Franklin

61. "Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon," Paul Revere & The Raiders

65. "Hot Smoke & Sasafrass," The Bubble Puppy
66. "Do Your Thing," The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band

70. "Mendocino," Sir Douglas Quintet

83. "The Letter," The Arbors

89. "Try a Little Tenderness," Three Dog Night

94. "Twenty-Five Miles," Edwin Starr

98. "I Do Love You," Billy Stewart

100. "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show," Neil Diamond

Leaving the chart:

"California Soul," The 5th Dimension (9 weeks)
"Going Up the Country," Canned Heat (11 weeks)
"Hey Jude," Wilson Pickett (9 weeks)
"Son of a Preacher Man," Dusty Springfield (12 weeks)
"Too Weak to Fight," Clarence Carter (15 weeks)

Re-entering the chart:

"I Do Love You," Billy Stewart
(Originally charted Mar. 27, 1965, reaching #26 US, #6 R&B; reaches #94 US this run)

New on the chart:

"Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show," Neil Diamond
(#22 US)

"The Letter," The Arbors
(#20 US; #26 AC; originally a #1 hit for the Box Tops in 1967)

"The Weight," Aretha Franklin
(#19 US; #3 R&B; #55 UK; originally recorded by the Band in 1968, reaching #63 US)

And new on the boob tube:

The Ed Sullivan Show, Season 21, episode 18, featuring Blood, Sweat & Tears, Caterina Valente & Silvio Francesco, and Erich Brenn
Mission: Impossible, "Doomsday"
The Avengers, "Fog"
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Season 2, episode 20
The Mod Squad, "The Uptight Town"
Ironside, "And Be My Love"
Star Trek, "The Way to Eden"
Adam-12, "Log 73: I'm Still a Cop"
Get Smart, "To Sire, with Love: Part 2"
Hogan's Heroes, "The Purchasing Plan"

_______

RJDiogenes said:
Surfy! And weird names.

And you didn't make one of your usual quips about it being an instrumental.

We're all children of Adam and Eve. The human race as the product of incest explains a lot.

Now that you mention it.... :crazy:

BTW, that's Yvonne Craig with the less-freaky-looking, dark-haired Elvis.

Kind of forgettable....

Now I always liked this as one of those songs that really captures this transitional era that we're now in. And if it sounds a little Elvis-y, that's because the King originally recorded it as an album track.

Forgettable? Perhaps in a sense. In six weeks we'll be getting to a certain much-referenced moment in Billboard history. Nobody seems to remember who was at #6 that week....

RJDiogenes · Feb 17, 2019

The Old Mixer said:
"I Do Love You," Billy Stewart

Nothing special.

"Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show," Neil Diamond

I love (early) Neil Diamond and this is a nice, catchy song, but I've never been sure what he was trying to say.

"The Letter," The Arbors

I love this song, but I've never heard this version before. It's very different, but well done.

"The Weight," Aretha Franklin

Aretha. "The Weight." 'nuff said. And has everybody covered "The Weight," or what? :rommie:

And you didn't make one of your usual quips about it being an instrumental.

I was thinking it. :rommie:

Now that you mention it.... BTW, that's Yvonne Craig with the less-freaky-looking, dark-haired Elvis.

I thought I saw her in there.

And if it sounds a little Elvis-y, that's because the King originally recorded it as an album track.

Interesting. I wonder if his was better. It won't be better than "Suspicious Minds," though, as far as that theme goes.

The Old Mixer · Feb 17, 2019

_______

50th Anniversary Viewing
(Part 1)

_______

The Ed Sullivan Show
Season 21, episode 17
Originally aired February 9, 1969
As represented in The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show

The coincidentally dated fifth anniversary of the Beatles' historic first appearance on the show seems to have been a relatively underwhelming affair. From a Best of Installment consisting of material from this week's and next week's episodes, we have the following....

First, Leslie Uggams "singing Jacques Brel's big hit, 'If You Go Away'"....a dramatic trad pop number with French verses that was an Easy Listening hit for Damita Jo in 1966.

Ed said:
Now for all of you youngsters in our country and in Canada and Australia, here's an act that will delight all of you. Here are the trampoline stars, the wonderful Schaller Brothers.

This act does physical comedy on and off the trampoline, including one of them jumping out of and back into their pants!

Ed said:
And now, ladies and gentlemen, here is my little pixie friend, Joan Rivers!

Joan does a routine about buying a wig now that she's "23," and having had to share a dressing room with an elephant the last time she was on the show.

Ed said:
Here is delightful singing star Leslie Uggams warbling "Get Me to the Church on Time"

This one's a more up-tempo swing number, with accompaniment by an onstage big band.

Also in the original episode according to tv.com:

Music:
--Barbara Eden sings "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?"
--Roslyn Kind (Barbra Streisand's half sister) sings "The Shape Of Things To Come" and "Give Me You."
Comedy:
--Bill Dana (in character as Jose Jimenez) - pretends to be a Navy man who has lived under the sea.
--Jeremy Vernon (comedian) - talks about the Vietnam War, and speaks in a European accent.
Also appearing:
--Jorgen & Conny (acrobats from Sweeden) - routine includes pole balancing.
--Peter Gennaro Dancers tap-dance to "Yankee Doodle Dandy."
--Audience bows: Joey & Cindy Adams (comedian and his columnist wife).
On film:
--Scenes from the Gina Lollobrigida movie "Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell."

_______

The CBS announcer probably said:
The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and Mission: Impossible will not be shown tonight so that we may bring you this special presentation.

A Midsummer Night's Dream
Starring Derek Godfrey, Barbara Jefford, Nicholas Selby, and Hugh Sullivan
Directed by Peter Hall
Released theatrically September 1968 (UK); Aired February 9, 1969 (US)
Nominated for the 1969 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Dramatic Program

Xfinity said:
Puck's magic confuses the wedding of Theseus (Derek Godfrey), Duke of Athens, and the Amazon queen Hippolyta (Barbara Jefford) in Shakespeare's play.

Now this work of the Bard is one that I've never actually read, though I've seen it come up in the general popular culture, so I went in relatively cold, having just read a Wiki summary of the plot. Fortunately, I found the movie easier to follow than the summary, aided by some good closed captioning.

I'd read that the actors were contemporarily dressed...indeed, Hippolyta is wearing a miniskirt and thigh boots! Helena (Diana Rigg) is sporting go-go boots. The more gentlemanly male characters are all wearing jackets similar in style to the Beatles' collarless ones from earlier years, which also resemble Nehru jackets.

A major draw for my recording this when it came up on This was that Diana Rigg was in it, but I'd say she was rather miscast here. At 30 she seems a little old to be playing a lovelorn maiden who's supposed to be the same age as childhood friend Hermia (Helen Mirren, who's seven years younger and much more convincing in age for her role). And even if you squint past the age factor, it's hard to invest in the idea of Diana Rigg being so desperate to attract a guy's attention.

Hermia's being forced into an arranged marriage with Demetrius (Michael Jayston), but plans to run away with Lysander (David Warner); meanwhile, Hermia's best friend, Helena, pines for Demetrius. The fairy king Oberon (Ian Richardson) spies upon Helena's pining and orders Puck (future Bilbo Baggins actor Ian Holm), while fetching a flower to use as a love potion to enchant fairy queen Titania (future M actress Judi Dench), to find Demetrius and use it on him. Given only a vague description, Puck finds Lysander lying near Hermia in the wood and uses it on him. Helena comes along and wakes Lysander, so the spell makes him fall in love with her, while she assumes that he's playing a cruel trick on her.

Puck also comes upon a group of amateur actors rehearsing a performance of Pyramus and Thisbe for the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta, led by part-time playwright/director Peter Quince (future old-school Anakin Skywalker actor Sebastian Shaw). Puck gives an egotistical, overbearing actor, Nick Bottom (Paul Rogers), a donkey's head. He comes upon Titania sleeping in the wood after Oberon used the flower on her, and she wakes to see him. Shakespearean hilarity ensues.

Finding of Puck's mistake, Oberon uses the flower on Demetrius...and he also awakes to see Helena. While this is according to plan, Helena comes to think that Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius are all conspirators in the cruel jest. Puck puts the four young would-be lovers to sleep and undoes the spell on Lysander, but not on Demetrius; Theseus and Hippolyta find the four of them lying together on their morning hunt and declares that the two couples will be wed alongside him and his bride.

Oberon also undoes the spell on Titania and has Puck do away with Bottom's ass-head. Pyramus and Thisbe is performed at the triple wedding; this part I'm somewhat familiar with from the Beatles having done a mock version of it as part of a British TV special--though Shakespeare's play-within-a-play is already a mockery itself.

I have to think that the Quince character was likely meant to be a stand-in for the Bard himself, his troubles with the actors likely representing his own experiences.

Interesting cinematography/editing was used where the fairy characters were involved, including having them routinely pop in and out of scenes, generally unseen by the human characters, and having settings change around Titania and Oberon during soliloquies.

I'd never seen Judi Dench in anything when she was young. Here she's in her thirties, painted green with pointy ears, and implicitly naked. In one scene they blur out some side-boob and a frontal shot that I presume showed too much cleavage. For the most part, though, they shoot her close and high...much like Elvis on Sullivan.

The version I saw also edited out the word "ass," ruining some double entendre wordplay--Straight from the pen of the most celebrated English author in history!--in Bottom's scenes. So it was considered appropriate for general audiences in the 1600s, but we can't handle it on cable in the 2010's...? Some other likely-tame swear words may have been edited out, but I couldn't tell what they were supposed to be from context. I'll have to read the play someday to find out what This didn't want me to hear.

"Hey, I know that line!" moment...

Puck said:
Lord, what fools these mortals be.

Should anybody be interested, the film is coming up again on This Tuesday morning at 2:30 a.m. EST.

_______

The Avengers
"Take Me to Your Leader"
Originally aired February 10, 1969 (US); March 5, 1969 (UK)

Wiki said:
Steed and Tara are tracking the movements of a red attaché case containing money and documents intended for a top enemy agent. The case also contains taped messages that inform a series of couriers where to take it.

The talking briefcase has an annoying "STOP THIEF!" cry security feature, which involves its security device having to be reset or it will self-destruct in fifteen seconds. Good luck, John. They're clearly playing on M:I somewhat, but Harvey Hall is no Bob Johnson!

One of the links in the chain is a little girl in a dance class, though her instructor is in on the scheme, too.

Steed briefly, uncharacteristically uses a gun in this one, though it's part of a momentary cover.

At one point in the chain, Tara has to convince a karate expert that she's his contact by beating him in a duel. She succeeds with a little help from Steed sneaking up behind him and using the bowler!

At another point, the message has to be activated by playing the right notes on a musical instrument.

Tara: I thought you could play the tuba.
Steed: Me?
Tara: You've got one in your apartment.
Steed: That's to put flowers in.

It turns out that the person the case is being eventually delivered to is an opposite number of Mother's from another agency who tries to use Tara and Steed's briefcase-trailing to cast suspicion on him.

Steed: As far as I'm concerned, despite your little foibles, you're above suspicion!
Mother: Foibles? What foibles!?!

The traitorous rival agency head is killed by one of his false briefcases that has poison gas in it, via which he had attempted to kill Tara earlier, but she used the timed security explosive in another case to escape from the chamber she was locked in.

In the coda, Steed and Tara try to pass a German shepherd (who was used as a courier at one point in the chain) off on one another via recorded messages in the briefcases, which seem to have a conversation with one another while neither character is in the room.

Mother's Roost of the Week is a room full of dressing screens.

I have to say, this one was refreshingly different...it didn't seem like the same story template with interchangeable details plugged in like so many other episodes this season. And the nature of the plot, which had Steed and Tara replacing contact after contact in the chain, made them seem more on top of things than behind the curve.

_______

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
Season 2, episode 19
Originally aired February 10, 1969

The Wiki list of guest appearances said:
Greer Garson, Davy Jones, Nipsey Russell, Robert Wagner, Al "Red Dog" Weber

The music at the first Cocktail Party sounded vaguely like the Monkees song "Words," but I'm not sure if it was deliberate.

For this week's news intro song, the girls look like they're dressed as the Supremes. Dick does a news joke about John & Yoko's Two Virgins album cover.

The Fickle Finger of Fate Goes to the voters of Youngstown, Ohio:

The Discovery of the Week is Red Dog Weber:

Davy sings in the Mod, Mod World of Love and Marriage:

The closing Joke Wall, featuring Davy:

I was disappointed that I couldn't find more Davy stuff in the YouTube videos. But he'll be back with two of his bandmates next season.

_______

The Mod Squad
"A Hint of Darkness, a Hint of Light"
Originally aired February 11, 1969

Wiki said:
The Squad moves into a blind woman's home, posing as houseguests, to offer protection against a mysterious assailant.

The episode opens with a young woman in dark glasses sunbathing on a beach. A scuba diver comes out of the water, spots her, walks up to her, and starts to strangle her. A couple of boys fishing nearby hear the commotion and scare him off, and another, older woman rushes onto the scene to usher the victim away in a car.

Greer is with the investigating officers while the Mods sit nearby on the beach pretending to be onlooking picnickers. The woman who was assaulted is Janny Wills (Gloria Foster), and she's blind. The older woman, Helen Kane (Virginia Gregg again!), is her caretaker. The Mods are assigned to serve as Janny's bodyguards, and Linc takes a particular interest in their charge while trying to help her piece together details about the man that could help to identify him. Helen feels particularly threatened by Linc bonding with Janny over their skin color, because Helen has been sheltering Janny from what it means to be black out in the real world.

Meanwhile, the assailant tracks down Janny with the help of a female accomplice via the license plate that he saw. He fires on Janny from a distance while she's out at a seafood market with the Mods, and Helen takes a bullet. Greer sends Pete to find the woman who was tracking down Janny, Claudine Ensign (Beverlee McKinsey), who runs a bar with the assailant, Buddy (John Milford). Pete doesn't see Buddy, and proceeds to track down Claudine's husband, who's said to be on a fishing trip, in the belief that he's Janny's attacker...but the audience is cued in by a picture on the wall of the bar that he's not. Greer learns that Mr. Ensign was killed by a boat explosion around the same time that Janny was attacked. The Male Mods and Greer put their heads together and begin to figure out that her attacker must have come from the sea.

Even as they're doing this, he's employing his scuba skills to sneak up under the beach house and use an access hatch that he's learned about. He finds Janny's room and begins to strangle her, but Linc notices his wet footprints and rushes in. Only after Buddy is subdued does he learn that the witness he's taken such chances to silence never saw him.

The episode ends on the note that with Linc's help, Janny has become a stronger person for her experience...but he has to walk off, out of her life, because that's the format!

_______

RJDiogenes said:
Nothing special.

Billy Stewart had a decent sound, but I found his biggest hit, a 1966 cover of the Gershwin song "Summertime" (#10 US; #7 R&B; #37 UK), to be a bit too heavy on the scatting and trilling that was his signature style.

I love (early) Neil Diamond and this is a nice, catchy song, but I've never been sure what he was trying to say.

Wonder no more!

Wiki said:
Some evangelical groups in the American South encouraged the boycotting of this song and of Diamond as they thought that this song denigrated and insulted evangelists and the evangelical movement. When Diamond explained in an interview that it was, contrary to their understanding of it, a celebration of Gospel music and the evangelical style of preaching and worship, the controversy subsided.

RJDiogenes said:
I love this song, but I've never heard this version before. It's very different, but well done.

I found myself deciding not to get this because it falls a little too much on the side of Lettermen-style Easy Listening. I like where it gets a bit psychedelic in the coda...if more of the song had been like that, I would have gotten it.

Aretha. "The Weight." 'nuff said. And has everybody covered "The Weight," or what?

For me, this has nothing on the Band's definitive version...but given its stronger performance on the chart at the time, I have to wonder how much of a role Aretha's cover played in getting the original better exposure.

Interesting. I wonder if his was better.

Wonder no more! I actually like the Terry Stafford version better, both for it being more familiar from earlier oldies radio listening days and because the more elaborate production was something that I liked about it.

RJDiogenes · Feb 18, 2019

The Old Mixer said:
This act does physical comedy on and off the trampoline, including one of them jumping out of and back into their pants!

I'm pretty sure I've seen this episode.

Also in the original episode according to tv.com:

They should have left in Barbara Eden.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

I vaguely remember seeing this many years ago, and not thinking much of it-- I liked the 30s version with Cagney as Puck better. But it's been a while, so I may feel differently now.

I have to think that the Quince character was likely meant to be a stand-in for the Bard himself, his troubles with the actors likely representing his own experiences.

Yeah, I think he's got a little satire going on there. :rommie:

Steed briefly, uncharacteristically uses a gun in this one, though it's part of a momentary cover.

There was some gunplay in some of the early black-and-white episodes, which was always a bit jarring. But it was really a totally different show then.

Mother's Roost of the Week is a room full of dressing screens.

That's kind of a failure of inspiration-- unless there's something particularly interesting behind the screens.

The episode opens with a young woman in dark glasses sunbathing on a beach. A scuba diver comes out of the water, spots her, walks up to her, and starts to strangle her.

That's a bit surreal.

The older woman, Helen Kane (Virginia Gregg again!), is her caretaker.

Interesting that they would present a blind woman as needing a caretaker-- that's more of a sign o' the times for the 40s.

The episode ends on the note that with Linc's help, Janny has become a stronger person for her experience...but he has to walk off, out of her life, because that's the format!

So the caretaker was killed?

Wonder no more!

Hmm. It's a little disturbing that it's a celebration of the evangelical style of preaching, but probably that meant something different to Neil back in the day than it does more generally in society now. Anyway, I'd agree with Rolling Stone Guide that it's "genuinely demented." :rommie:

For me, this has nothing on the Band's definitive version...but given its stronger performance on the chart at the time, I have to wonder how much of a role Aretha's cover played in getting the original better exposure.

There'll never be another like the original; it's too unique. But it's also a hard song to screw up. And it's just so fascinating to hear those lyrics in Aretha's voice.

Wonder no more! I actually like the Terry Stafford version better, both for it being more familiar from earlier oldies radio listening days and because the more elaborate production was something that I liked about it.

I agree, the Elvis version sounds a little sparse compared to Stafford.

The Old Mixer · Feb 18, 2019

_______

50th Anniversary Viewing
(Part 2)

_______

Ironside
"A World of Jackals"
Originally aired February 13, 1969

Wiki said:
Ironside's investigation of a movie star's disappearance leads to estranged husband - a mob boss.

Mark gets a call from an old acquaintance, Janet Holmes (Ena Hartman), who seems desperate to set up a meeting, but she's nabbed on the street on her way to the rendezvous. She was the assistant of the missing actress, Gloria James (Lynn Borden). This incident spurs Ironside to reopen the case, with the obvious suspect being Gloria's mob boss husband, Frank Rich (William Smithers)--whom we see pining for his wife via film footage, while it's made clear to the audience that he's holding Janet.

Team Ironside quickly determines that Gloria's disappearance was something other than a trip to Switzerland as everyone was lead to believe. Along the way we learn that Gloria's ex-boxer ex-husband Marty Rogers (Jonathan Lippe) was getting hush money because he'd never legally divorced Gloria, so her marriage to Rich wasn't legal. Mark does some legwork on his own initiative and Rich's men try to run him down on the street. He comes out fine, but is hospitalized for examination and temporarily in a wheelchair.

Mark: Race you down the hall, Chief.
Ironside: No...when you've had a little more practice.

Once he's out of the hospital, Mark hits the streets again, finds out where Janet is being kept--guarded by one man--and frees her. She tells what she knows about Gloria, which isn't much--that she'd been acting hysterical at a party and was dragged away by Rich's men, after which Janet was paid off to keep her mouth shut. Soon after they get notification that Gloria's car has been found in a pond, but the medical examiner easily tells that the woman found in it was embalmed, causing Ironside to deduce that it's a ruse to throw them off.

Ironside then confronts Rich directly and with a warrant. Rich reluctantly reveals that he'd been keeping Gloria under wraps because she's "gone out of her skull"...but that she also recently flew the coop. Rich accompanies the team as they track her down, finding that she's been at a theater showing her one successful film, A World of Jackals. Ironside surmises that she'll try to recreate the ending, filmed nearby, in which her character walked off the shore and drowned herself. They save her and she's hospitalized, while Rich is facing justice for his actions in the affair, which include kidnapping and grave-robbing.

It was nice to see Mark get a good share of the investigative action, but it was hard to invest in the fate of Gloria, who was more of a MacGuffin than a character. She didn't have any lines, either in the clip of her movie that was shown or in the here-and-now of the episode.

Also Trek-guesting Charles Dierkop as Rich's chief hood, Palo.

_______

Star Trek
"Requiem for Methuselah"
Originally aired February 14, 1969
Stardate 5843.7

H&I said:
While seeking a cure for a fever ravaging the Enterprise, Kirk and Spock encounter Flint, a hermit-like Earthman, and his beautiful young ward.

See my post here.

_______

Adam-12
"Log 51: A Jumper – Code Two"
Originally aired February 15, 1969

Wiki said:
Malloy blows it again when he tries a dangerous solution to capturing a suicide jumper at an apartment building. Earlier, Malloy and Reed are called to help an elderly woman (at her insistence) adjust her TV antenna.

The summary doesn't quite capture the essence of the episode, which is that Adam-12 is suffering from a run of bad luck when it comes to receiving or responding to meaningful calls. At the beginning of the episode, Brink and his partner of the week are ribbing Reed and Malloy because they had to respond to a call assigned to Adam-12 after the car got a flat.

Accordingly, their first call in the episode is "see the woman, unknown trouble," which turns out to be the woman who wants her antenna adjusted. After that, it looks like they're going to see some action when they get a call for "all units in the vicinity of Adam-12, 459 silent," which is cancelled when another car gets there first. Instead, they respond to a call about a downed tree, which involves the exciting duty of putting out flares.

They get their Code Seven approved, but only to serve the plot. Coming out of the coffee shop, they witness the end of a high-speed backlot police chase as the car being pursued crashes into a pole across the street. The pursuers, Brink and Whoever, give Reed and Malloy a hard time for not having responded to the call themselves.

Their next call is "see the man, 415 juvenile"...an older couple has called because a group of bikerish-looking hippies has allegedly spray-painted a swastika in their lawn. Malloy explains why they can't really do anything because it's a misdemeanor that nobody witnessed. Instead, they "make FIs" (field interviews) on the group, and find circumstantial evidence that they'd been sniffing glue.

Next they spot a weaving car and pull it over. The drunk driver is a clearly typecast Hal Smith--As sauced as he is, it's amazing that he made it to L.A. all the way from Mayberry! While they're arresting him, they find that he doesn't have a driver's license. After taking him to the station, they're ready to respond to a call to all units in the vicnity for a 211 at a liquor store when Adam-12 specifically gets called for a "507 (public nuisance) piano".

En route the call is canceled when they get the titular call. After making sure they've got backup in position, Reed and Malloy go up to the apartment from which the would-be jumper had walked out onto the ledge. Malloy unloads his pistol and goes out on the ledge himself, luring the jumper closer by offering to let him use his pistol, supposedly out of concern for the crowd of onlookers below. When the man is close enough, Malloy grabs him and pushes him through the window, dramatically breaking it.

Odd continuity point: When he's bawling out Malloy for the risky stunt, Sgt. MacDonald shuts Reed up by asserting that he's been on the job for three weeks! Maybe the episodes are supposed to take place in log number order, at least per season, but there are still several log numbers lower than 51 in Season 1.

_______

Get Smart
"To Sire, with Love: Part 1"
Originally aired February 15, 1969

Wiki said:
The King of Coronia (Don Adams), the very Ronald Colman-like king whom we met in the Season 3 episode "The King Lives," is in the United States on official Coronian business. A plot against him by the swashbuckling yet devious Rupert of Rathskeller (played by an uncredited James Caan) may come to fruition unless Max can pass himself off successfully as his lookalike. However, things are more complicated this time around, as Max is now married to 99, and he fears that the charming King may be doing more to sweep 99 off her feet than he can. The title of the episode is a play on the film To Sir, With Love.

During the switch between Max and the King at a costume party, the Chief disguises himself as a hippie with a long, black wig.

Max said:
Oh, it's you, Chief--I thought it was Tiny Tim.

Max: There's only one way you can take this scepter out of this room, my friend.
[Sir Rupert pulls a gun.]
Max: That's the way.

One of the KAOS agents uses a boot phone that involves pulling the receiver out from the inside of the boot.

KAOS agents put a tarantula in Max's apartment to "kill everyone". Contrary to their reputation, tarantulas aren't deadly. Nevertheless, the tarantula fakely climbing up Max's arm Dr. No-style is still the cliffhanger.

Caan is sort of in the end credits:

Special Guest Star
RUPERT OF RATHSKELLER
as Himself

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Hogan's Heroes
"Up in Klink's Room"
Originally aired February 15, 1969

Wiki said:
Hogan feigns illness to gain access to the local hospital and his wounded contact inside it.

At the episode's beginning, Hogan steals some documents from Klink's desk and his supper while the kommandant is intensely focused on their chess board, and boasting about how he runs the camp like he plays chess!

Hogan initially arranges to get Klink in a minor accident and has him sent to the hospital. Then Hogan fakes an obscure disease to get admitted himself because Klink is leaving. At one point Newkirk pretends to be Hogan in the hospital bed and does an exaggerated American accent.

Hogan and Newkirk can't get the info from their contact out of the hospital because Dr. Klaus (Henry Corden) wants to keep Newkirk for observation, so Hogan has to stage an escape attempt to get Klink to bring him back to the camp. Once again, they milk humor out of the "escapees" having to go a little too far out of their way to get caught. Hogan has to loudly clear his throat while he and Newkirk are standing right behind Klink and Schultz, all of their subtler attempts to make noise having been ignored!

In the coda, Hogan plays on Klink's paranoia to make him think that his limo has been sabotaged, causing Klink to order Hogan to take a drive in his place, which Hogan turns into a date with Hilda.

DIS-missed!

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RJDiogenes said:
They should have left in Barbara Eden.

I did look for a video on YouTube.

There was some gunplay in some of the early black-and-white episodes, which was always a bit jarring. But it was really a totally different show then.

Hard-boiled, trenchcoat-wearing, really poor audiovisual quality Steed!

I don't recall if I mentioned this upthread, but was reminded when I had a b&w Peel episode on in the background this morning...This is running The Avengers in a 75-minute slot, so I assume they're not edited for syndication. Accordingly, unlike Cozi, they show the full end credits.

That's kind of a failure of inspiration-- unless there's something particularly interesting behind the screens.

Or it's just one of his little foibles.

Interesting that they would present a blind woman as needing a caretaker-- that's more of a sign o' the times for the 40s.

I'm not sure how old Janny was supposed to be in the episode, but the backstory was that Helen had raised her from childhood after her parents were killed.

So the caretaker was killed?

No, she survived...I must have neglected to mention that. But her getting shot was a traumatic moment for Janny, as it basically represented her safe, sheltered world collapsing around her; and one sign of Janny having become a stronger person is that in the coda, when Helen was back from the hospital but still recuperating, Janny was assuming the role of caretaker.

Hmm. It's a little disturbing that it's a celebration of the evangelical style of preaching, but probably that meant something different to Neil back in the day than it does more generally in society now.

The Gospel part, at least, I fully understand. Gospel music was a big influence on musical styles that we enjoy. Soul artists back in the day were commonly coming from a Gospel tradition, cutting their teeth by singing in church.

RJDiogenes · Feb 19, 2019

The Old Mixer said:
This incident spurs Ironside to reopen the case, with the obvious suspect being Gloria's mob boss husband, Frank Rich (William Smithers)--whom we see pining for his wife via film footage, while it's made clear to the audience that he's holding Janet.

He seems like kind of a lame mob boss.

Mark: Race you down the hall, Chief.
Ironside: No...when you've had a little more practice.

Soon after they get notification that Gloria's car has been found in a pond, but the medical examiner easily tells that the woman found in it was embalmed, causing Ironside to deduce that it's a ruse to throw them off.

Pining over his non-wife, one guy to guard a kidnap victim, a failed hit by auto, and a ruse that nobody would buy for a minute-- yeah, how'd he get to be a mob boss to begin with?

Also Trek-guesting Charles Dierkop as Rich's chief hood, Palo.

And one half of Royster and Styles in Police Woman-- I feel like I've said that before.

While they're arresting him, they find that he doesn't have a driver's license.

Cops can't take away your license if you don't have one!

Malloy unloads his pistol and goes out on the ledge himself, luring the jumper closer by offering to let him use his pistol, supposedly out of concern for the crowd of onlookers below. When the man is close enough, Malloy grabs him and pushes him through the window, dramatically breaking it.

Oh, yeah, I remember that bit.

Odd continuity point: When he's bawling out Malloy for the risky stunt, Sgt. MacDonald shuts Reed up by asserting that he's been on the job for three weeks! Maybe the episodes are supposed to take place in log number order, at least per season, but there are still several log numbers lower than 51 in Season 1.

Maybe he was being sarcastic. "Dude, you've been a cop for, like, three weeks." "Come on, man, it's been a year." :rommie:

KAOS agents put a tarantula in Max's apartment to "kill everyone". Contrary to their reputation, tarantulas aren't deadly. Nevertheless, the tarantula fakely climbing up Max's arm Dr. No-style is still the cliffhanger.

KAOS has bred their own deadly species of tarantula. :mallory:

Hard-boiled, trenchcoat-wearing, really poor audiovisual quality Steed!

Early Avengers has the same ambiance as early Dark Shadows. :rommie:

I don't recall if I mentioned this upthread, but was reminded when I had a b&w Peel episode on in the background this morning...This is running The Avengers in a 75-minute slot, so I assume they're not edited for syndication. Accordingly, unlike Cozi, they show the full end credits.

Yeah, that's right, they've been doing that for a while. All the Avengers we've been watching for the past few months have been uncut.

I'm not sure how old Janny was supposed to be in the episode, but the backstory was that Helen had raised her from childhood after her parents were killed.

Ah, that makes sense.

No, she survived...I must have neglected to mention that. But her getting shot was a traumatic moment for Janny, as it basically represented her safe, sheltered world collapsing around her; and one sign of Janny having become a stronger person is that in the coda, when Helen was back from the hospital but still recuperating, Janny was assuming the role of caretaker.

Oh, good, that's a better ending.

The Gospel part, at least, I fully understand. Gospel music was a big influence on musical styles that we enjoy. Soul artists back in the day were commonly coming from a Gospel tradition, cutting their teeth by singing in church.

Yeah, the Gospel is fine-- Evangelism, not so much.

The Old Mixer · Feb 20, 2019

RJDiogenes said:
He seems like kind of a lame mob boss.

Now that you mention it....

Maybe he was being sarcastic. "Dude, you've been a cop for, like, three weeks."

But...he's a senior police officer on a Jack Webb show!

As I recall, there will also be at least one other time reference that makes it clear that they're stretching out Reed's probationary year. IIRC, they say he's been on the job for eight months the better part of two years in.

RJDiogenes · Feb 20, 2019

The Old Mixer said:
But...he's a senior police officer on a Jack Webb show!

True. Any sense of humor would lead to immediate dismissal.

As I recall, there will also be at least one other time reference that makes it clear that they're stretching out Reed's probationary year. IIRC, they say he's been on the job for eight months the better part of two years in.

They must be using Marvel time.

The Old Mixer · Feb 21, 2019

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50th Anniversary Album Spotlight

Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Released January 12, 1969
Chart debut: February 15, 1969
Chart peak: #10, May 17, 1969
#29 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time

Wiki said:
In July 1968, the English rock band the Yardbirds disbanded after two founder members Keith Relf and Jim McCarty quit the group, with a third, Chris Dreja, leaving to become a photographer shortly afterwards. The fourth member, guitarist Jimmy Page, was left with rights to the name and contractual obligations for a series of concerts in Scandinavia. Page asked seasoned session player and arranger John Paul Jones to join as bassist, and hoped to recruit Terry Reid as singer and Procol Harum's B. J. Wilson as drummer. Wilson was still committed to Procol Harum, and Reid declined to join but recommended Robert Plant, who met with Page at his boathouse in Pangbourne, Berkshire in August to talk about music and work on new material.

Page and Plant realised they had good musical chemistry together, and Plant asked friend and former band-mate John Bonham to drum for the new group. The line-up of Page, Plant, Jones and Bonham first rehearsed in September 1968, shortly before a tour of Scandinavia as "The New Yardbirds", performing some old Yardbirds material as well as new songs such as "Communication Breakdown", "I Can't Quit You Baby", "You Shook Me", "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" and "How Many More Times". After they returned to London following the tour, Page changed the band's name to Led Zeppelin, and the group entered Olympic Studios at 11 p.m. on 25 September 1968 to record their debut album.

In the days of my youth I didn't consider myself a Led Zeppelin fan, but it seems like I always ended up hanging out with people who were. In expanding my music collection over the past several years, I found myself better appreciating their role as a seminal band, and also found that they'd gained a feeling of warm, fuzzy nostalgia from those years of prior exposure.

The album starts with the song that I was most distinctly familiar with prior to listening, "Good Times Bad Times," a classic track and a strong opener:
(Charts Mar. 29, 1969; #80 US)

The way that it alternates between gentle acoustic sections and hard rock makes "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" sound very much like a modest precursor to the band's Masterpiece That Need Not Be Named:
Also, it was really bugging me trying to place what later song the guitar riff in the heavy sections reminded me of...I finally realized that it was, of all things, "25 or 6 to 4" (coming our way next year). When I'm trying to figure out what a Led Zeppelin riff reminds me of, Chicago is not exactly the first band that springs to mind! :lol:

The band put their blues rock roots on display with the immersively steamy "You Shook Me," a blues number credited to Willie Dixon and J. B. Lenoir and originally recorded by Muddy Waters.

I think I may have had some prior familiarity with "Dazed and Confused" as well. Originally a folk rock song and previously covered by the Yardbirds, this one is distinctively more psychedelic in flavor than the previous songs:

"Your Time Is Gonna Come" opens Side 2 with churchy organ before getting rockier. This one also sounds slightly familiar, though it could just be reminding me of other Led Zep songs.

"Black Mountain Side" fails to earn the Squiggy and RJDiogenes Seal of Approval™, but it has a nice Eastern flavor that makes it stand out on the album:

It's back to pure hard rock with "Communication Breakdown," which is another that I'd likely had prior exposure to. Its riff is certainly quite distinctive.

"I Can't Quit You Baby" is another Willie Dixon cover that evokes smokey, dimly lit clubs.

The album closes with its longest of several long songs, "How Many More Times," an original blues rock number with more psychedelic flavor and several distinctive sections.

Overall, not bad...a debut that establishes the distinctive sound that launched a genre. But from the songs that I'm already familiar with, I think I'll probably get more out of the sequel.

Next up: Odessey and Oracle, The Zombies

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The Classic/Retro Pop Culture Thread

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