WTIT: British Invasion Bands

Every now and then, the WTIT Blog brings you our feature we call A DJ’s Take and today it is another of our "Best of" lists. Today we bring you WTIT's Top 10 British Invasion Bands. We will name the band, do a mini bio, and tell you our favorite song of the band. Tell us what we missed! Please feel free to “take this feature" and do it as a meme to present your opinions. Today, we will share. Let’s cue up today's A DJ's Take.

10. The Searchers. If you go on their website (and, of course, I did) they explain that the only group with more influence than they, were The Beatles. After I got up from falling down laughing I thought that they we lucky made our top fucking ten. John McNally (still in the present incarnation), Mike Pender, Chris Curtis and Tony Jackson on bass and lead vocals were with the group for its first recordings. Tony left in 1964 to be replaced by Frank Allen who still tours today. Our Favorite: Needles and Pins.

9. Gerry & the Pacemakers. Gerry Marsden formed the group in the late 50’s. They were the second group Brian Epstein would sign. This explains their first hit. The Beatles were recording and were asked to record the song How Do You Do It. John hated the song. He was told that if he could write a better song to do it at lunch. John wrote Please Please Me. So he did write a better one, by a lot. How Do You Do It was given to the Pacemakers. The Beatles version was on bootlegs but not officially released until The Anthology ten years ago. Our Favorite: Ferry Cross the Mercy.

8. Herman’s Hermits. Peter Noone was a child actor in England. He was only 15 when Herman’s Hermits were formed in 1963. Their first hit was I’m into Something Good. The biggest hit they would have was an album cut originally. Back in those days everything was about the singles. It was not until DJs started playing, Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter that the song was released as a single. The record company did not think they were great musicians and hired some session musicians for some albums. Jimmy Page, of all people, was one of those people. Our Favorite: Henry VIII

7. Dave Clark Five. They were the second big invasion band. Until the Stones, that is. Dave Clark was the drummer, but Mike Smith was the singer and star. He toured with his own band, doing DC5 songs until an accident left him a quadriplegic on 2003. He passed away earlier this year. But he lived long enough to learn that The Dave Clark Five had made the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. He died a dew weeks before induction. They were huge with the rock fans, but not well respected in the business. Where most of the groups had played the same clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg, the DC5 were formed to take advantage of the invasion. It worked. They had a ton of hits. Our Favorite: Glad All Over.

6. The Hollies. Allan Clarke became friends with Graham Nash at five years old. Together they would form the Hollies in 1962, some fifteen years later. Although there is a rumor that their name was a tribute to Buddy Holly, the story is simpler. Graham Nash’s family had SO much holly up for Christmas it became a joke of the guys, and later their name. Their first U.S. hit was Look Through Any Window. There have been some almost thirty guys who have played in the group over the years, but nothing would top the original band. Our Favorite: Carrie Ann.

5. The Kinks. A threesome originally of brothers Ray and David Davies and Peter Quaife, first burst into the scene in 1964 with You Really Got Me and by then Mick Avory on the drums. David released a new album last week (We have not heard it) and Ray in 2006. Ray’s album was fantastic and could easily been from the Kinks era and is called Other People’s Lives. He released another this year and it is on our Christmas "Wish List". Our Favorite: Tired of Waiting for You.

4. The Animals. Eric Burdon and the boys were playing London in 1964 when the Beatles hit American. By June they had the mega hit “House of the Rising Sun”. They’ve had a ton of hits, but unless you dive into the band you won’t know what a strong blues influence they had. When you think of all their hits, including We Gotta Get Outta This Place and their cover of Nina Simone's Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood you have to give it up to them. Our Favorite: House of the Rising Sun.

3. The Who. In 1965 I Can’t Explain launched The Who. Peter Townshend, Roger Daltry, John Entwistle and Keith Moon rocked the world ever since. Besides a ton of hits, The Who took the Beatles “concept album” to the next level and wrote and performed the rock opera Tommy. There can be no list of best albums of rock that Tommy would miss. They had a top ten album in 2006 named Endless Wire. Moon passed away in 1978 and John in 2003. Their current drummer is Zak Starkey, Ringo’s son and The Who still tour. Our Favorite: Won't Get Fooled Again.

2. The Rolling Stones. “I roll a Stonie. You can imitate anyone you know” John Lennon wrote in the song I Dig a Pony off the Let It Be album. They mimicked and spoofed the Beatles (The White Album led to Beggar’s Banquet, Let It Be to Let It Bleed) but still they managed to rock us for all these years and still tour, write and perform great albums and have an impact. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts were the original band. Our Favorite: Sympathy for the Devil.

1. The Beatles. You know their story. Not only the greatest rock band ever, but also had a huge social influence over an entire generation. As a DJ in the 70’s I was always waiting for the next big band after the Beatles. It hasn’t happened. We’ve had great bands since, but nothing even close to what was The Beatles. Our favorite: All.

John Lennon
Paul McCartney
George Harrison
Ringo Starr

Thanks for joining our little trip back
to the early sixties today.

Tomorrow the WTIT Blog will have our

Dating Profiles of the Week.

Parts of this post appeared August 9, 2007.

We hope you are back, live and

in living black and white, tomorrow.

Same time. Same blog.

Into the Night

Last Saturday while I was sharing the fact that I had no decent replacement for Lola, I asked for suggestions. Everyone whom responded (but one_, wanted us to return A DJ’s Take to a regular feature. The one other suggestion, believe it or not was from a woman named Samantha that has started her own version of Lola called Saturday 9. We are going to at least give that a shot. In the mean time, A DJ's Take will return regularly as well. We had an offer to write our first return to A DJ’s Take in 2008.

So, here's our first one of the year written by Blogger of Note Epiphany Alone:

AI's Taylor Swift's "Our Song" is growing on me. It's cute pop that evokes the simplicity of high school romance.

"Shadow of the Day" shows a gentler Linkin Park, better known for their primal metal "What I've Done" and "Bleed It Out".

Plain White T's have a new single called "Our Time Now" which is more "Hate" than "Hey There Delilah" and perhaps sounding a bit like early Matchbox 20.

Santana's "Into The Night" features Nickelback's lead singer Chad Kroeger was an instant love. Damn, Santana has chart appeal. This is easily as good as recent hits "Smooth" (with Matchbox 20's Rob Thomas) or "I Need To Know" (with Mark Antony).

The WTIT Blog will return next time with our Dating Profiles. We thank Epiphany for her sitting in our chair today. We hope that you have enough time in your day to be with us next time. But of course we will understand if you choose not to return.

We will be ready.
Same time. Same blog.

Son of a Bitch

The WTIT Blog’s feature A DJ’s Take has been one of our most popular features. Today we continue our latest version of this feature that we have "sub-titled" 5 Random Songs. When writing this, we simply pick out five songs (at random...who'd a thunk?) that we have grown to love over the years. We hope to share with you some of the background of the songs and of course why this music is important to us.

Love Hurts by Nazareth. The song was from 1976 while a somewhat famous DJ named Gary Hunter (Okay, yes that was my radio name) worked in a popular nightclub and the song was requested almost every night, for a slow set. Nazareth was a Scottish band that did well in the UK. From what I believe was their seventh album, Hair of the Dog (also known as Son of a Bitch because of the chorus in the title track) the band released two versions. The English, without Love Hurts and the American version with Love Hurts. Most people don’t know that this was a cover song recorded originally and released by the Everly Brothers. It was also a B-side of a single after the Everly Brother’s original, on a song by Roy Orbison. The song was platinum hit in the US and was Nazareth's only hit song in the states.

Kicks by Paul Revere & the Raiders. I’ve always thought that this was the first anti-drug song, and in preparing today's post, my internet sources tell me that I have been correct. The producer of the album for Paul Revere & the Raiders, Terry Melcher (who also happened to produced the first two albums by the Byrds) loved the song We Gotta Get Outta This Place that was recorded by the Animals and written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Terry wanted a song of that ilk for his new band, the Raiders. Mann and Weil had written Kicks because of a friend who had a drug problem. Melcher loved it and it was a huge hit for Paul Revere and the Raiders. I piece of trivia: Paul Revere if you remember was not the singer of the band, Mark Lindsay was.

I always thought Kicks was such an unusual song for its era, since most songs about drugs were positive during that time period. Sadly, Melcher was to have a very a weird life of his own, and unfortunately got involved in recording some of Charles Manson songs. After the Tate murder, Terry Melcher was so upset he became a very private and somewhat aloof person. Terry Melcher passed away in 2004 from cancer.

Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) by Melanie. I always felt that with all do respect to Joni Mitchell’s writing and recording of the song Woodstock, that Melanie’s Lay Down was the definitive song about the event. Melanie performed at Woodstock on the heels of her first hit in the Netherlands, Beautiful People. But here in the US, her first hit was Lay Down (Candles in the Rain). The song is about a break in the rain at one point during the music fest and the crowd started lighting candles to show that all was well and everyone had survived. On the album, and the B-side of the single, is a preamble of poetry read over her guitar that really adds to the song. We could not find that for today’s playlist, but we did find the hit.

Let’s Stay Together by Al Green. Willie Mitchell and Al Jackson wrote the music to the song. Al Jackson was the drummer of Booker T and the MGs. Willie Mitchell was a record producer who signed Al Green to Hi Records. Mitchell and Jackson would co-author a lot of Al Green’s songs. After being given the music to Let’s Stay Together, Al Green took only five minutes to write the lyrics. Green did not like the song at all and did not want to record it. He argued mightily with Willie Mitchell about recording it, and obviously lost.

Let’s Stay Together was not only one of his biggest hits ever (released in 1972), but also was named one of the Top 500 songs of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine. Al Green was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. Tina Turner covered this song in 1984 and it was the first hit that returned Tina to the charts. And that Private Dancer road that wave through the Thunderdome. And of course her autobiographical film, What's Love Got to Do with It.

Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying by Gerry & the Pacemakers. The Pacemaker’s first hit was How Do You Do It which was a song that the Beatles record label and manager insisted that the Beatles record. John Lennon thought the song sucked. When he expressed that view, he was told to write a better song during lunch and they wouldn’t release the recording of How Do You Do It. John wrote Please, Please Me and all agreed, it was a better song. Brian Epstien was the manager of both bands and gave How Do You Do It to the Pacemakers. However, in the US the first hit by Gerry was Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying which he wrote. In fact Gerry Marsden wrote most of the Pacemakers hits. The band did not have much staying power and by 1966 broke up. And as a footnote, other than on some pirate Beatles' albums, their version of How Do You Do It was not released until The Beatles Anthology in the mid 1990's.

That will do it for the Tuesday edition
of the WTIT Blog.
Next time we will attempt to actually
do something incredibly funny.
Or perhaps we will settle for "mildly amusing".
Parts of this post appeared on February 6, 2008.
Join us next time.

Same time. Same blog.

WTIT Top 10 Love Sones

Today we return with a very popular feature of the WTIT Blog. We simply call it A DJ's Take. Not only have you requested its return on a regular basis, but also we receive more traffic from "new readers" for this feature than all others combined. Today we return with a Top 10 list. Now this is very subjective, but let's qualify it by saying it is our list of the Top 10 Love Songs of the Boomer generation. This way your kids don't start trashing us because of a current hit that isn't on our iPod. And my dad Bierne won't complain What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong is on it either. Fair enough? It better be. Also, for those who know us, we did not even consider a Beatles' song. (If the Top 10 were all Beatles, you'd say WTF?) So here they are an imperfect list from the perfect Tape Radio station, WTIT! Song titles are in bold.

10. My Cherie Amore In French the words mean “My Little Dear” but was originally titled Oh My Marcia. Henry Cosby and Sylvia Moy co-wrote the song with Stevie. Marcia was a woman that fascinated Stevie in school. However, it was Moy who talked him into the more generic title.

9. Be My Baby The song was written by Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry. It was a hit for the Ronettes which featured Phil Spector’s wife Ronnie. It was one of Rolling Stone magazine’s Top 500 songs of all time, in fact it made the top 25. It was with this song that Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound” became widely known. Brian Wilson once said it was his favorite song of all time.

8. Love Me Tender The music for the song came from a civil war ballad titled Aura Lee and was in public domain by the 1950’s. The words were written by Ken Darby but were credited to his wife and Elvis for some legal issue. Elvis performed it on Ed Sullivan before it’s release which led to over a million pre-orders for the single. So, by the time it was released it was a gold record already.

7. Your Song When I was in college my roommate woke me at 8 AM on a Saturday to tell me the next “superstar” was at our college radio station and I should come meet him. I asked “What’s his name?” My roommate said “Elton John”. I replied, “Wake me again when he’s famous” and I went back to sleep. My bad. The song was suppose to be the b side of Take Me to the Pilot, but American DJs liked the b side more, and the rest is history.

6. Just The Way You Are The song is from Billy Joel’s album from 1977 The Stranger. It was written about his first wife. After they divorced Joel would change the lyrics at times to reflect his changed feelings while performing live. He never really liked the song, even in the beginning. So he decided to leave it off the album. Phobe Snow and Linda Ronstadt were recording in the same studio and urged him to reconsider.

5. She This song was written by Charles Aznavour and Hebert Kretzmer. Charles had the first success with his song which reached number one in England. It never took off in the rest of Europe or the U.S. When the film Notting Hill was produced the orignal version was going to be used, but the director didn’t quite like it. Elvis Costello was brought in to do a cover version for the 1999 film and that’s our choice and how we know the song.

4. Three Times a Lady The song was written and sung by Lionel Richie while with the Commodores. It was their first number one hit and was on the album Natural High in 1978. It was Motown Records only top 10 song that year. The reference, by the way to “Three Times a Lady” was because Richie’s girlfriend was a very large woman.

3. Colour My World The song was written by Chicago’s trumpet player Jimmy Pankow and song by Chicago’s original lead singer Terry Kath. Kath died from a self inflicted gunshot wound in 1978. It is still not know if this was an accident or a suicide. Chicago stopped playing the song for quite a few years after that tragedy.

2. Ain’t No Sunshine Bill Withers wrote the song while he still worked in a factory that made toilet seats. It became his breakout hit in 1971. The part of the song where repeats “I know” about a hundred times was so he could write additional lyrics. But since he still had his day job, when the record company wanted him not to put his new lyrics in he agreed.

1. Unchained Melody The song was written by lyricist Hy Zaret (who passed away last year at 99!) and composer Alex North for a 1955 film named Unchained. It was a hit by two people that year, Al Hibber with a vocal version and Les Baxter with an instrument. It was covered by folks like Leena Horn and Elvis. However, we will always love the Phil Spector produced Righteous Brothers’ version recorded ten years late in 1965. And of course, it was a hit again some twenty-five years after that with its inclusion in the film Ghost.

The WTIT Blog will return next time

with maybe that party story.

We are waiting for the pictures.

Perhaps we will receive them.

Perhaps not.

We hope that you have enough time in

your day to be with us next time.

But of course we will understand

if you choose not to return.
We will be ready, either way.
Same time. Same blog.

Don't Think Twice It's All Right

The WTIT Blog’s feature A DJ’s Take has been one of our most popular features. Today we begin a new version that we have titled 5 Random Songs. When writing this, we will simply be picking out five songs (at random...) that we have grown to love over the years. We hope to share with you some of the background of the songs and of course why this music is important to us. On the day when this feature is published, the WTIT Playlist will play just those five songs. So, if you would like to listen to the songs as you learn about why we chose them, crank up the volume.

Dirty Water by the Standells. This song was a huge hit in 1966. It has a line in it about “frustrated women have to be in be twelve o’clock” and the title of the song is about the Charles River in Boston. I graduated from Emerson College, which is in Back Bay in Boston. At the time the college bordered the Charles River. We had heard an Emerson student had written this song, easy to believe because at the time at Emerson women did indeed have to deal with a twelve o’clock curfew. Whether they were frustrated or not, is anybody's guess. By my sophomore year those curfews for women where removed.

Ed Cobbs actually wrote the song. He wrote quite a few hits including Tainted Love most recently covered by Soft Cell. His biggest accomplishment was as a member of Motown’s legendary Four Tops. The Standells really were a one hit wonder. They got the band's name, Standells, from the experience standing around at record companies that an unsigned band would have to do. All the band cared about was trying to get a recording contract. The song, Dirty Water, was considered risqué and banned in some states in the bible belt. The whole controversy, plus the fact the Standells never really liked the song led to the group’s quick demise.

Do You Believe in Love by Huey Lewis and the News. Our friend Diesel at Mattress Police has made a big push to get Huey Lewis played on classic rock stations. Because of this, it has got us thinking about this great band. So today we selected the band’s first big hit as one of our five songs. Their self-titled first album did not sell well. John “Mutt” Lange wrote the song Do You Believe in Love. He produced Clover, which was the band Huey Lewis and fellow News band mate and keyboard player Sean Hooper were in before becoming Huey Lewis and the News. Since The News’ first album sank like a fucking rock, their record company strongly urged that this song be included on their second LP. And since they were being threatened to be dropped by the label, naturally the song was included and became the bands' first huge hit.

Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right by Peter, Paul and Mary. Bob Dylan wrote the tune and does a great version in his own right. Probably a hundred people, including a bluesy version by Eric Clapton, have covered it. Our favorite was the P,P & M version. It is interesting that Dylan stole some of the lyrics from an Eric Clapton song Who’s Gonna Buy You Ribbons When I’m Gone. The other interesting fact is that in most versions of the song the band or artist including (Peter, Paul and Mary) slightly changed the lyrics.

The trio also covered other Dylan songs including a huge hit they had with Blowing in the Wind. When my daughter Heather was in high school I was over at her mother’s house and played her a cassette of the song because I thought she’d like it. The next time I came over to pick her up, she had already memorized the lyrics and taught herself the song on her guitar. Heather's music and acting talent is truly amazing. Her 84 year-old grandmother (my mom) still talks about Heather as though if she hopped on a bus to Hollywood, she'd be an instant star. (Although, then again, I would not be surprised...)

You’ve Got a Friend by Carole King. Carole wrote the song for the album Tapestry, which is one of the best selling albums of all time. While James Taylor sang harmonies on the original version with Carole, James recorded his own version in 1971 with Carole singing harmonies. For James Taylor it was a monster hit. But Carole had success herself winning a Grammy for You’ve Got a Friend for Song of the Year in 1971. We love both versions of the song, but give the nod to Carole, since she wrote it. There is a live concert that Ms. King recorded for an album where as she starts to play the song James Taylor walks out on stage. She simply say, "Surprise" and they did a fantastic version of it together alternating lead vocals. Every time it comes up on my iPod I crank it.

House of the Rising Sun by The Animals. No one really knows who wrote this song. Its origins are from the 18th century. The first recording of the song was by Tom Ashley and Gwen Foster in 1933. Woody Guthrie also recorded it in the 1940’s and Bob Dylan did a cover in 1962. The Animals were on tour with Chuck Berry and had heard a singer named Johnny Handle do the song in a club in Newcastle, where the band started. Even though Dylan recorded the song first, his version is often mistakenly called an Animals’ cover. However, when Dylan first heard Eric Burdon’s vocals he is said to have “jumped out of his chair” because he liked it so much.

That will do it for the Hump Day version on the WTIT Blog. No "Animals" were actually hurt in the production of this post. At least, none that have written and complained to us. Meanwhile, we will return with something either extremely funny, or just another crappy post. Either way, it could be a "MUST-SEE" post. Although, have you ever seen a MUST-SEE post? Oh, yes I have as well, when reviewing for The Rising Blogger.

But here on WTIT: The Blog?

Join us next time.

Same time. Same blog.

WTIT Top 10 Love Songs

Today the WTIT Tape Radio Blog brings you our feature A DJ’s Take and another one of our "Best of" lists. We haven't received enough complaints yet to shut this feature down. Give us time! Please feel free to “take this feature" and do it as a meme to present your opinions. Today, we will share with you our picks for the Top 10 Peace Songs of the rock era. We will give you the artist and song.

10. Peace Will Come – Melanie. We were a big fan of hers for a short time. She’s still around and performing. I stumbled into her website for something or other I was writing.

9. Peace Train – Cat Stevens. It is hard to believe how good he was and how long he had been gone until this year's album release.

8. Blowing in the Wind – Bob Dylan. An all time classic. The song has been covered by some 375 artists. Probably the most noteworthy was the Stevie Wonder version.

7. I Ain’t Marching Anymore – Phil Ochs. A tragic music figure who never achieved much fame outside of the “folk” crowd wrote a masterpiece here.

6. I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixing-to-Die-Rag - Country Joe MacDonald. The big sing-along from the Woodstock album. Remember the “fish” cheer?

5. War – Edwin Starr. Actually recorded first by the Temptations. Motown did not want it released as a single so the Temps producer Norm Whitfield (and co-author of the song) produced it with Starr.


4. Universal Soldier – Donovan. Buffy St, Marie wrote "Universal Soldier" in the basement of The Purple Onion coffee house in Toronto in the early sixties. It's about individual responsibility for war and how the old feudal thinking kills us all. Donovan had a hit with it in 1965.

3. With God on Their Side – Bob Dylan. This is a history lesson disguised as a song.

2. Give Peace a Chance – John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band. The title gave a generation their peace slogan. Recorded in John & Yoko’s hotel room during their infamous “Bed-In” for peace.


1. Imagine – John Lennon. It is the best song about peace. It’s not even close. It is so naïve yet so powerfully hopeful. God, I still miss him.

That's it for The WTIT Tape Radio Blog

for a Thursday.

We will be back with our

Dating Profiles tomorrow.

Be there or be square.

Same time. Same blog.