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We've written about Shindig, the music television show that was so popular, and Jimmy O'Neill was the host. Yesterday word reached us that he had passed in West Hollywood, where he had been living in retirement. The City News Service article made its way around the net. Here's a link to the West Hollywood Patch: JIMMY O'NEILL : OBIT
A little excerpt: In 1959, O'Neill made radio history as the first voice heard on KRLA-AM (1110) when it dropped its country-western format for rock music, the Times reported. It quickly became a powerhouse in rock radio and launched O'Neill into television in 1964 as the winsome emcee of Shindig!
You can use the Search feature on this Google Blogger to read more about Shindig, the influence of DJ's on popular music, and Jimmy! If you scan down a bit to our YouTube video selections, you'll see Jimmy hosting this popular music television show!
Yes, Glen even worked on commercial jingles and promotions for products like rootbeer. But besides the interest here in Glen Campbell, let's just say in posting this that there has never been any shame attached to an honest day's work. And for all of you who love music (and you have to love music to be in the business) there is no shame in background singing, jingle writing, or any of the behind the scenes work, like songwriting or music production; not everyone can become a star or have a public career that goes on for years. I feel lucky to have participated as much as I have! Wes
Today most people have heard of Wolfman Jack. He seems to have been the personality D.J. who made his show last a long long time. He became a spokesman. But in the late 1950's the Personality D.J. - usually a man - but sometimes a woman - was a Disk Jockey who not only had to be fast and witty and knowledgeable but they ran their own show. THEY SELECTED THE RECORDS THEY WOULD PLAY, and in what order, and how many times, so they could "break" a record that they sort of discovered, and they could "make" a record by giving it a lot of air time, while other records sat. D.J. Dewey Phillips (who we blogged on earlier and provided a LINK to) broke Elvis' first record, a demo.
Personality D.J. were respected by their own audiences and fans in the way that some movie critics are today. If you seem to agree with a critic when he or she hates a film, you'll respect their ideas and go see the films they love. Well, when a Personality D.J., loved a record, his or her fans ran out to the record stores to buy a copy of it. When Cliff Gleaves got the invitation from Elvis personally to travel with him, he abruptly left his job as a well respected D.J. on a high powered station. He took his witt with him...
By the early 1960's the era of the Personality D.J. was fading out, being replaced by what was called THE TOP FORTY format. In this case record sales were to propel the record to airplay and what would be played over and over again were the TOP FORTY sellers. The Power of the Personality D.J. waned and marketing changed the way a record was sold.
We'll be talking about this significant change in radio play and the Personality DJ's in our next few blocks.
It doesn't seem too long ago to me that I was walking down Broadway singing to myself, when the Brill Building and the Turf Restaurant and Hanson's Drugstore were my hangouts between record promotional tours, and I was meeting just about anyone who wanted to become someone in the acting business or the music business wherever I went.
Today the term Singer-Songwriter means a person who composes and writes and sings their own songs. Then it was more common that someone who sang, sang some of their own songs, as well as those of their friends - who happened to sing and write songs too. We were all presenting our original tunes to each other, making demo's, trying to get a hit. We were in the Cover Tune Era. Recording a cover of a song that was going to be a hit for someone else was more common than it is today.
One of the main reasons was that records were made on small labels or for distribution in a certain region that a small record company had captured rather than national or international distribution. So, if a song for one artist was a hit in, say, New York City, an artist that was well received in another region, say the South, would record the same song, with perhaps a more of a Southern feel. The songwriter had everything to gain in terms of their residuals if the song hit in two or more territories. The singer brought their unique voice and popular appeal to the song, in a region, and producers produced the song in different ways. But sometimes there were "Chart Wars," between singers.
Sometimes having a number of artists record the same song backfired on smaller labels financially and the overall sales weren't good. But when a song became an artist's own, like Bobby Darin's "Splish Splash," did, then no one else tried to compete with it. Besides live promotional tours, radio, television, record hop and club appearances, getting your song played on the radio could make all the difference!
