TJB's chart hits

[Mike Blakesley]

Things are quiet lately around here!

I just was looking over this list compiled by Harry and am surprised that the TJB did not make the "top 10" more often than it did.

"Tijuana Taxi," "Spanish Flea," and "Zorba" didn't make the Top 10? What was WRONG with those people back then? I know the TJB was much more of an adult/album act which mostly explains it, I guess.

Anyway, here's the list. It's compiled in order of chart position from lowest to highest. OK everyone...DISCUSS.

# - Position - # Weeks on chart - Title

1 96 1 Marching Through Madrid
2 85 5 Mexican Shuffle
3 84 6 Fox Hunt
4 78 5 Zazueira
5 77 5 Mexican Drummer Man
6 77 8 Last Tango In Paris
7 74 4 Jerusalem
8 72 6 Cabaret
9 68 10 Whipped Cream
10 63 6 Without Her
11 51 6 To Wait For Love
12 51 6 Carmen
13 47 6 Third Man Theme
14 45 6 My Favorite Things
15 38 8 Tijuana Taxi
16 37 5 Wade In The Water
17 35 6 A Banda
18 32 5 The Happening
19 28 6 Flamingo
20 27 7 Spanish Flea
21 27 9 Casino Royale
22 24 8 What Now My Love
23 19 8 Mame
24 18 8 The Work Song
25 11 12 Zorba The Greek
26 7 16 A Taste Of Honey
27 6 14 The Lonely Bull
28 1 14 This Guy's In Love With You

 

[Clark]

what does the first number represent? Also, do you have the dates for each? Just curious.

 

[thetijuanataxi]

That's the reason that we hear virtually no TJB on oldies radio. Once in a blue moon they'll play "This Guy", "Taste Of Honey" or "Lonely Bull" because they technically made the top 10. Never mind that Herb Alpert OWNED the album charts in the mid-sixties and that his music was purchased by fans ranging from 5 to 90 years of age. The narrow-minded fools who make up the program lists for the oldies stations would rather play a one-hit wonder that people from this generation probably won't recognize because in 1966 for one or two weeks it was the fad of the month and went to number one. Example: Oliver- "Good Morning Sunshine". People today don't know what the hell "nibby nibby naba- sibby sibby saba even means. But oldies stations will play this song like it was a significant part of music history. Yet they won't play the TJB, labeling it "Novelty Music". Needless to say, I rarely listen to radio anymore. The politics of radio disgusts me and if I am going to listen to high repetition, it will be something such as the TJB that is worthy of it.

David,
thinking there is hardly a person today that doesn't recognize Tijuana Taxi when they hear it......

 

[Harry]

The first number in Mike's chart was simply the track number of the CD I compiled (and a dandy CD it IS, too!). Here's the chart again, laid out without those track numbers, with the date included:

Chart		Date	
Pos	Wks	Charted	Title
96	01	03/30/63	Marching Through Madrid
85	05	06/27/64	Mexican Shuffle
84	06	05/18/74	Fox Hunt
78	05	03/29/69	Zazueira
77	05	03/28/64	Mexican Drummer Man
77	08	03/10/73	Last Tango In Paris
74	04	10/17/70	Jerusalem
72	06	04/20/68	Cabaret
68	10	02/20/65	Whipped Cream
63	06	05/31/69	Without Her
51	06	08/31/68	To Wait For Love
51	06	01/13/68	Carmen
47	06	09/11/65	Third Man Theme
45	06	12/14/68	My Favorite Things
38	08	12/25/65	Tijuana Taxi 
37	05	03/11/67	Wade In The Water 
35	06	09/09/67	A Banda 
32	05	07/08/67	The Happening 
28	06	09/03/66	Flamingo 
27	07	03/19/66	Spanish Flea 
27	09	04/08/67	Casino Royale 
24	08	03/19/66	What Now My Love 
19	08	11/19/66	Mame 
18	08	07/02/66	The Work Song 
11	12	12/25/65	Zorba The Greek 
07	16	09/25/65	A Taste Of Honey 
06	14	10/27/62	The Lonely Bull 
01	14	05/18/68	This Guy's In Love With You

I've always been amazed at how low "The Mexican Shuffle" charted. We keep hearing that it was that song that got people to sit up and take notice of the TJB, maybe even the saviour of the TJB, but as a chart hit, it really didn't do much. It was "A Taste Of Honey" that put the TJB back on the map.

I'm also continually surprised that "The Lonely Bull" ranked as high as it did. It seemed like more of a regional hit to me. Here in the East, I can't say when I first heard it, but it was likely after "A Taste Of Honey" hit it big.

Harry
...charting the chart, online...

Chart data provided by Joel Whitburn and Billboard©

 

[Captaindave]

I'll agree that radio isn't too great...

I preferred the old AM stations I used to listen to back in the late sixties to the so-called "oldies" stations of today.

Around here where I live, there used to be two oldies stations - although they were generally guilty of the above playlist criticisms - but now there is only one such station, and it isn't even as good as it used to be.

The oldies stations that I hear do not play anywhere near a representative mix of what was actually being played years ago when this music was first being released. There are certain songs that are probably played several times per day, and others that are never played. It almost seems like a joke. TJB songs are among the ones that are never played.

The only time I hear any TJB is on a local AM station that plays a huge variety of music - except what now passes for Top 40. It plays all kinds of songs from all kinds of artists from lots of different musical eras. It is the closest thing to a real oldies station around here.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Thanks Harry, I knew you'd come forward with those dates!

I guess I was just too young, but one of the first TJB songs I remember hearing was "Tijuana Taxi." I also remember hearing the WHIPPED CREAM album on a 4-track(!) tape in a boat belonging to a friend of ours. I can't say which I heard first.

As far as hearing the TJB on the radio...I had no chance, because there were no stations in my town at the time the TJB was big. We used to pick up an AM station from Billings (100 miles away!) when I got into high school, and they would play "Fox Hunt" when that was on the chart, so I would bet the same station probably played the earlier hits too.

I do know the first LP that I bought -- it was GOING PLACES, purchases for my Mom for Mother's Day. Later I bought WHAT NOW MY LOVE for myself and proceeded to wear-out both albums. (Don't know if my mom ever listened to hers or not!)

 

[jimac51]

I'm not surprised at the few "single" hits Herb actually had,nor that there is little radio play today on just about any format. First,the singles charts at that time were probably the real Golden Era of Top 40. The Beatles,other competing British Invasion bands,American groups like the Beach Boys,the Four Seasons,the Monkees and Lovin' Spoonful,the cumlative Motown groups,-these charts contained stiff competition for a breezy instumental group. Instrumental vs. vocal singles?-vocals have always dominated the charts since the end of the Swing Era. Top 40 radio in the '60s usually used instrumentals as filler to the news(the Ventures' "Hawaii-50",clocking in at about 2:02 is a quintessential instrumental for these purposes-and if the DJ hit the slam against the wall cold ending with the news intro,the listener might not stray away during the info break and the commercails) and Herb's material didn't usually have a rock-style beat that would be similar to other songs on the station(later he would cover the Supremes "The Happening",maybe at a blatant attempt for airplay. The original didn't sound like a Motown record and Herb's arrangement doesn't stray far from the original-on paper it looks like a match-it didn't really work). As for play on "oldies" stations today-yes,the stations do reflect,soewhat,what was played back then. But continual polling of old songs to present-day ears does reveal that certain songs test better today than they did during their prime and probably get unbalanced play today-an old song featured in a movie or commercial will suddenly get extra spins). Vocals still overwhelmingly command favor over instrumentals-instrumentals are sometimes even perceived as poison since they can lead to tuning out a station more than a mediocre vocal. Mac

 

[DAN BOLTON]

I heard the TJB a lot on local radio...CARMEN, CABARET, HURT SO BAD[really!], ZAZUIERA[the first time, on WLS in Chicago...]...it's just that most of the stations around here that I listened to placed a lot of emphasis on Adult Contemporary hits. The TJB and BMB and even Sergio Mendes/B66 were really AC acts, back before there were such things...and THAT'S why the album sales were so great...the teenyboppers who bought the singles didn't buy them, and the older, more affluent fans bought the albums...because they could afford them. Each act excelled in doing "covers" of other artists' hits...and that was a good reason for buying an album...the TJB and BMB were just too good to buy a few singles...albums didn't really cost a whole lot more, and you got a lot more for the money.


Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of stations that play AC oldies...if there were, the TJB would dominate the playlist...


Dan

 

[jimac51]

Also,a note on the "Mexican Shuffle". Remember that it was the Teaberry Shuffle chewing gum commercial which used the song that kept that music in everyone's ear. And,if I remember,the song had been out for a while before the ad used the music. A case could be made that,if the song was successful as a songle,it would be overplayed or do damage to the product it was trying to sell. Possibly if "Mexican Shuffle" had been a bigger hit,it could have worn out Herb's calling card to any radio format. Mac

 

[Harry]

Our nostalgia AM ststion (a place where these AC oldies have somewhat of a home), plays just about all of the top-40 hits listed above. I'm not sure about "The Happening". They also play "Whipped Cream" and "Cabaret", and I'm not sure about "Mexican Shuffle", but it's a possibility. "Cabaret" is a natural on that station, as it's a 'great song' as well as a neat recording of it by a 'great star.' That station's slogan is 'Great stars, great songs.'

I've never heard "Mexican Drummer Man" on any format, but I'd bet that it got play on the Top-40 stations of the day, if it did at all. (I wasn't a big radio listener back in 63-64.) With its girl-group vocal and wall-of-sound style, it would have fit right in. These days its totally ignored, with many TJB fans never having even heard it, as it was never placed on an album.

Harry
...who's also never heard "Marching Through Madrid" on radio, online...

 

[Michael Hagerty]

I think geography had a lot to do with it. In L.A., KHJ, the Top 40 giant from mid-'65 on, charted quite a bit more TJB than the Billboard charts would indicate...and those songs did better than they did nationally.
From the KHJ charts (peak date/peak position/title/artist/label):

5/08/68 1 This Guy's In Love With You Alpert, Herb A&M
8/28/68 15 To Wait For Love Alpert, Herb A&M
6/04/69 15 Without Her Alpert, Herb A&M

10/13/65 6 Taste Of Honey Alpert, Herb, & The Tijuana Brass A&M
12/29/65 4 Zorba The Greek / Tijuana Taxi Alpert, Herb, & The Tijuana Brass A&M
3/02/66 20 What Now My Love Alpert, Herb, & The Tijuana Brass A&M
6/29/66 7 The Work Song Alpert, Herb, & The Tijuana Brass A&M
8/24/66 19 Flamingo Alpert, Herb, & The Tijuana Brass A&M
11/16/66 23 Mame Alpert, Herb, & The Tijuana Brass A&M
3/08/67 26 Wade In The Water Alpert, Herb, & The Tijuana Brass A&M
4/12/67 16 Casino Royale Alpert, Herb, & The Tijuana Brass A&M

Part of this could be that A&M was "just around the corner" (by L.A. standards, anyway) from the KHJ studios...which meant in-person promotion and a "local band" attitude toward what were then national stars.

But an earlier post above hit the nail on the head...where the TJB dominated was the LP charts. And that was a blessing and a curse. In one of the Billboard books (I think it's Bronson's "Hottest Hot 100"), Jerry Moss explains why the label ultimately shifted its emphasis to rock from its "good music" roots by saying that in the 60s, A&M's image was "of a latin-flavored jazz label that used MOR airplay of singles to sell albums."

Fast-forward to 2003. How do you translate those best-selling LPs into an oldies playlist? Which of the tracks on that album were the ones that people bought it for then or want to hear now (with the passage of 35-40 years time, that can change)?

Darned if I know. But I'll tell you one thing. On a 1966 unscoped (music and commercials are unedited) KHJ aircheck that I have on CD, "Flamingo" sounded great in that format and running through the Top 40 audio processing.

---Michael Hagerty

 

[Rudy]

I wasn't a radio listener while growing up. Around the mid to late 70's I finally bought a tuner for my audio rig, and listened to WLBS (originally "Disco and MOre", but then drifted into current R&B, Soul and even some Jazz and Rock), as well as WJZZ. So by then, the only Alpert song I'd ever heard on the radio was "Rise".

Despite the lack of radio play here in Detroit (other than the weak CKWW-580AM nostalgia station coming from somewhere in Canada), the TJB still get some attention. At the Red Wings game last night, they played half a minute of one of the TJB's songs during a break in the play. (I think it was "Spanish Flea".)

 

[alpertfan]

I don't understand it. It seemed that Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass were a part of the pop music scene in the Sixties, so it would seem logical for a Top 40 radio station to play their stuff. It seems that after his success with RISE in '79 and early '80 that Mr. Alpert sadly was thrown off the Adult Contemporary Charts (and I confess I don't see why because his solo stuff was great). DRC FM plays the following instrumentals: "Hawaii 5-O", "Walk, Don't Run" (the original version by The Ventures), "Classical Gas" (which I absolutely love), "Wipe Out", and just occasionally, "Sleep Walk", though you'll hear the modern version on WQCD-New York! But, you're right, these songs had a rock edge to them (with the exception of "Classical Gas"). All you hear of the TJB, these days, as someone pointed out, is "This Guy" on DRC FM occassionally or "A Taste of Honey" on WCBS FM 101.1 (another NY station). And, they actually DON'T play half of the music that was popular in that era. Worse yet, they're starting to do that with '80s music now, the tunes I grew up with! I just don't know.

alpert...surmising that in a few short years, the '80s output from Hall & Oats will one day be listed as "rarities", online.

 

[bob knack]

Most of the music directors at the stations today are 23 years old and never actually heard any of the music, they're just going by stats.

In MOR radio, when I was growing up, most of a half hour was dominated by vocals. Before each newscast at the hour and half hour, an instrumental was backtimed to allow the announcer to talk over the record and end the segment at the right time.

This is where we hear the latest Herb or Baja or another like instrumental band. Sometimes the songs wouldn't even be identified. Rarely would you hear an instrumental in the middle of a half hour. It did allow though for airplay of Herbs music.

Maybe this is why Herb started singing again, to finally get to hear one of his records played all the way through on the radio.

Talk about catchy melodies, this is how I heard BMB's "Can You Dig It" for the first and only time (in the late 60's?). 35 years later, I found the 45 I had remembered the tune exactly all those years.

 

[daveK]

I do think that a lot of TJB hits received airplay mostly as "news kickers". As previous posts pointed out, a lot of "middle of the road" instrumentals were played during the minute or two leading up to the newscast at the top of each hour. This probably accounted for a lot of airplay of TJB tunes. I was always surprised that "Whipped Cream" wasn't a bigger hit considering how long it spent on the Hot 100.
Also, Billboard wasn't the only reporting source for the national hits in the 60s. Cashbox was just as prestigious in its' day. While Billboard tabulated a combination of sales and airplay for its' singles charts, I believe that Cashbox's Top 100 was based strictly on sales of 45s. (Someone can correct me if my information is erroneous.) As a result, "Taste Of Honey" was a #1 hit on the Cashbox chart. When information is written regarding Herb's hit singles, "Honey" is usually referred to as a top 10 hit (reflecting it's #7 peak in Billboard) but I think it's fair to call it a #1 hit because, technically, it was.

 

[Captaindave]

Yes, that's true about the instrumental as being like a segue to a news program or a DJ change on the hour, etc.

I remember a local station playing Herb Alpert's SLICK almost every day just before the 3:00pm news...it was there to end the 12:00 noon - 3:00pm slot for a DJ (I think that was the time slot) and bring in a new DJ after the 3:00 news, which, in those days - about 1968-1969 - was about 5 minutes long, including the weather...

 

[daveK]

The "oldies" station in Dallas, TX never plays TJB that I'm aware of. They have a playlist of about 100 songs I think and play the same songs over and over and over..."The Lion Sleeps Tonight", "Where Did Our Love Go", "I Heard It Through The Grapevine". You'd think people would get tired of hearing the same old stuff over and over with virtually no variety, but they're a very high rated station so I guess people generally don't like variety. They just wanna be beat over the head with "La Bamba" and "Louie Louie".
Our "nostalgia" station (which is an AM station) plays a lot of TJB. Usually the ones you expect, "Lonely Bull", "Taste Of Honey", "Tijuana Taxi", "Spanish Flea", "This Guy's In Love With You", but they also play "Casino Royale" quite a bit and, strangely enough, they play "My Favorite Things" all year long. I've been surprised a couple of times by stuff like "Cabaret" or "Jerusalem" too.
The "smooth jazz" station could play lots of Herb but I've never heard anything but "Rise".
The alternative rock and hard rock stations play Herb sometimes. Stuff like "I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" or "Spanish Flea" can be heard playing under the DJ during on-air contests and such. I guess the TJB will always be "game show" music to the younger generations!

 

[jimac51]

Though Billboard seems adrift since the death of Editor-in-Chief Timothy White and they seem to be on a short attention span kick in thier writing,their charts are still the backbone of their business. Their slogan-"It's not a hit if it's not in Billboard"-still holds true. Mac

 

[Captaindave]

The song that has to be the top played song on the FM oldies station that I can receive has to be that Don McLean song "American Pie."

There are some days when I'd swear that it gets played at least once every couple hours...

 

[Clark]

First of all, I haven't listened to contemporary music in about 15 years. The only songs we hear on the oldies station are A Taste of Honey and This Guy, ususally the latter when they do a "here are the top five hits from this month in 1968" type of deal.

It seems to me that music in the mid sixties was less polorized or specialized. I listened to a NBC radio affiliate, and on the weekend, they had a program called Monitor, hosted by Ed McMahn, and it did not play rock and roll, but more mor songs. Even on R&R stations, the Sinatras, Dean Martin, Andy Williams and others including the TJB got plenty of air play along with the Beatles, Beachboys and other R&R groups. Remember, we baby boomers had not taken over the world then.

I was 15 in 1965, and I remember hearing Whipped Cream, and liked it, although at first I thought it was Al Hert. '65 was the summer of the James Bond craze with Goldfinger and its great theme song which I still enjoy hearing. Later, another TJB song blew me a way, A Taste of Honey. Thirty eight years later it is still my favorite song. I received a portable stereo for Christmas, 1965 from my Mom and Dad, and the first record I found under the tree was Whipped Cream and Other Delights.
I can clearly remember my reaction to hearing those great tracks, like Green Pepper and Bittersweet Samba for the first time.

Never having actually seen Herb and the boys, on a Thursday night in January, 1966, I saw him on Andy Williams, and he played several tracks from his new album, Going Places. Talk about an appropriately named album, it seemed Herb was on TV once a week, or one of thier songs was on the radio every few minutes. In those days, a stereo lp cost $3.49 plus tax.at stores like Pennys or Sears. Walmart was unkown. My allowance was $1.50 per week. The first week of the month I stocked up on comic books, my other passion, but by the third week, I could usually rathole enough to buy an album. The first album I purchased with my own money was Going Places. I I played those two albums over and over. Several months later, What Now My Love came and now I had three to play. Herb was a master promoter. He would appear on one of the popular variety shows and play some of his hits, and then play a couple of songs from a new album, which would be out in a few weeks. By the end of the summer, 1966, I had all his albums. I have this strange kind of memory so that I can't remember what someone told me 5 minutes ago, but I can remember clearly the day I purchased a record album 38 years ago. At any rate, I was an still an avid fan when SRO came out. I was starting to get exposed to other music when I went to work, and by the time Sounds Like appeared, my passion for the Brass was starting to wane. (It wasn't all me, the sound of the TJB started to change as well.) I bought the other albums through the Beat of the Brass, but by the fall of 1968 when I started college, Herb and the TJB had passed from my radar screen.

But I am here to tell you I am back. Occassionally, I would get an urge to play some old albums, but last Christmas, I had another listen to my TJB collection,and my love for thier music was rekindled. Through this web site and others, I have found that there are still many other afficionados of that wonderful sound.

Looking back, I find it amazing that the TJb left thier mark in such a brief span. They really got going in late 1965, and as a group, they were on the wane in my opinion by late 1967.

Sorry to be so long winded, but I so enjoy reading the posts on this forum.

 

[Brasil_Nut]

I've always been amazed at how low "The Mexican Shuffle" charted. We keep hearing that it was that song that got people to sit up and take notice of the TJB, maybe even the saviour of the TJB, but as a chart hit, it really didn't do much. It was "A Taste Of Honey" that put the TJB back on the map.

I asked my Mother about "Mexican Shuffle" after reading this post. She remembers hearing the song on TV more often than radio.

She also reports that "Lonely Bull" and "A Taste Of Honey" got a great deal of airplay (here in the San Francisco Bay Area) by Jim Lange. I was an infant at the time. Obviously I don't recall any of this, short of hearing "A Taste Of Honey" on the radio as a child. Mom's usually a good source for this info, as she and Dad were fans from the inception of A&M Records.

Jon

...picking Mom's brain, online...

 

[Tim Neely]

Where Herb Alpert got a lot of airplay in the 1960s was on "easy listening" or "adult contemporary" stations. Mac and Harry will probably remember WIP (610 AM) in Philadelphia before it became the rest home for loud-mouthed sports know-nothings; it was my mom's favorite radio station in the car when I was growing up, with radio personalities such as Ken Garland and Wee Willie Webber and Tom Moran and Tom Lamaine and music that my mom liked, but usually didn't make us kids cringe! WIP was extremely popular in Philly, especially during morning drive, and was one of the most listened-to stations in Philly in the 1960s among the adult crowd.

Anyway, to my point:
At one point, the TJB had 14 straight Top 10 hits on the "easy listening" charts, which have always been solely based on airplay. Five of them hit #1 ("Taste of Honey," "Casino Royale," "A Banda," "This Guy's in Love with You" and "Rise"). That total of 14 includes three consecutive double-sided hits on which both sides made the top 10 ("Taste of Honey" / "Third Man Theme"; "Zorba the Greek" / "Tijuana Taxi"; and "What Now My Love" / "Spanish Flea").

Herb also had five #2 hits on the AC charts:
"Zorba the Greek"
"What Now My Love"
"The Work Song"
"Mame"
"To Wait for Love"

Billboard started its Easy Listening/Middle of the Road/Adult Contemporary charts in 1961; Herb didn't chart for the first time until 1964 (I guess "The Lonely Bull" was too "boisterous" for easy listening in 1962). Even today, Joel Whitburn has Herb Alpert, with or without the TJB, as the #11 ranked artist of all time based on the AC charts.

 

[daveK]

I think there were some songs that charted A/C for Herb but not pop. I believe "Save The Sunlight" made the A/C chart. Does anyone know any other A/C only Herb hits?

 

[Captain Bacardi]

I think there were some songs that charted A/C for Herb but not pop. I believe "Save The Sunlight" made the A/C chart. Does anyone know any other A/C only Herb hits?

I just happen to have that info.

Peak positions of AC charts:

Mexican Drummer Man #19 (4/18/64)
The Mexican Shuffle #19 (7/18/64)
Whipped Cream #13 (3/27/65)
Mae #26 (6/26/65)
3rd Man Theme #7 (9/4/65)
A Taste Of Honey #1 (9/11/65)
Zorba The Greek #2 (12/25/65)
Tijuana Taxi #9 (12/25/65)
Spanish Flea #4 (3/12/66)
What Now My Love #2 (3/19/66)
The Work Song #2 (6/25/66)
Flamingo #5 (9/3/66)
Mame #2 (11/26/66)
Wade In The Water #5 (3/18/67)
Casino Royale #1 (4/15/67)
The Happening #4 (7/15/67)
A Banda #1 (9/9/67)
Carmen #3 (1/20/68 )
Slick #36 (5/4/68 )
This Guy's In Love With You #1 (5/18/68 )
To Wait For Love #2 (8/24/68 )
My Favorite Things #7 (12/7/68 )
Zazueira #9 (3/29/69)
Without Her #5 (5/31/69)
You Are My Life #34 (12/20/69)
The Maltese Melody #14 (1/24/70)
Jerusalem #6 (10/24/70)
Summertime #28 (6/5/71)
Last Tango In Paris #22 (3/10/73)
Fox Hunt #14 (5/4/74)
Save The Sunlight #13 (7/20/74)
Coney Island #19 (5/10/75)
El Bimbo #28 (7/19/75)
Rise #1 (6/30/79)
Rotation #23 (11/24/79)
Street Life #41 (3/15/80)
Beyond #39 (7/26/80)
Come What May (w/Lani Hall) #43 (6/6/81)
Magic Man #22 (8/1/81)
Route 101 #4 (6/26/82)
Fandango #26 (10/2/82)
Garden Party #14 (7/23/83)
Come What May (re-entry) #32 (4/28/84)
Bullish #22 (8/18/84)
Making Love In The Rain #21 (8/15/87)

The Joel Whitburn book that I have goes up through 1993. I don't think Herb had any kind of charted song after that.


Capt. Bacardi
Herb & TJB - Closet Jazz

 

[jimac51]

Gee,this thread is taking me down memory lane. Thae previous mention of NBC's Monitor took me to a website devoted to the show and that there is an updated history of Monitor that recently came out in trade paperback. The website has some clips,scoped,but I heard Gene Rayburn or Barry Nelson announcing that they just played the TJB's "Slick",circa 1969. An interesting thing about Monitor was that they weren't a slave to placing instrumentals near network exits and played fairly unusual selections within the MOR format-they were the first place where I heard Pete Jolly's "Give A Damn"-boy,did that take me by surprise. But,I forget where I heard Monitor in Philly. WRCV,the NBC outlet,had changed to KYW,and,by 1965,were all-news("Give us 22 minutes,we'll give you the world") and I don't think I tuned to WNBC in NYC,though we could get WOR,WABC and WNBC pretty well where I lived. FM was just coming into its own,and many stations simulcasted their AM signal then. So,to the Philly contingent here,just where in the h*** did I hear Monitor back then? BTW,a great format with outstanding personalities(besides the afore mentioned Ed McMahon,Rayburn and Nelson,Henry Morgan(a most-under rated talent),David Wayne,Bill Cullen and James Daly were some ofthe personalities who did Monitor stints with features from Bob & Ray, Al Capp,and Nichols & May. "You're on the Monitor Beacon"....and you can ,too @ www.monitorbeacon.com-Mac