The duo of Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield who would later be known as The Righteous Brothers would be I other bands before getting together. They really weren’t great but they were good.
They began in 1962 in Los Angeles as a part of a five member group called the Paramours, but adopted the name Righteous brothers when they embarked on their recording career as a duo. This is why you should stay away from certain sources for accurate information. First the name came about when they were performing for black marines from the El Toro marine base who were already calling them Righteous Brothers, during one of their performances a marine in the audience stood up and shouted “that was righteous, brothers!” and the name stuck.
In August and September of 1964, they opened for the Beatles in their first U.S. tour, however they left before the tour finished. Unappreciated in the east coast who demanded to hear the Beatles the Righteous Brothers got upset and quit the tour. Still in 1964 Phil Spector came across the Righteous Brothers while performing at the Cow Palace, Spector was impressed and signed them to his label, understand that at that time Spector recorded only black artists and the Righteous Brothers would be the first white act to record for Spectors own Phillies label.
You’ve lost that loving feeling was released in 1964 and became Spectors first major hit single and reached no.1 in 1965. This song is often cited as Spectors finest expression of his “Wall of Sound” technique. You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling has become the most played song in American radio and television in the 20th century, with more than 8 million airplays at the end of 1999.
Also remember that the song That Lovin Feeling was featured on Britains TV show “jukebox jury” the four panelists  thinking it was being played at the wrong speed, voted it a miss.In December of 1965 MGM records offered to buy out the Righteous Brothers contract for one million dollars and Phil Spector sells them.
Learn more about the Righteous Brothers as they are featured as Artist Of The Month on the Little Red Rooster Show on KWMC 1490 AM the Classic Hits Station. And as usual all known facts and stories are by Wendy Johnson and all shows are produced by Javier Martinez.

Gary Lewis and the Playboys were discovered performing at Disneyland in 1964 by Snuff Garrett. Gary was possessed with a limited vocal range and he also considered himself not having good looks. Still he managed to make some exceptional good and good selling records out of Los Angeles, during the British invasion,and still teenagers loved him.
In late 1964 the song “this Diamond Ring” a remake of an earlier song became a big hit. Sometimes the playboys would record with Gary in the studio but most of the time it was studio musicians like Haile Blaine and Leon Russell. You might also remember their cameo appearance in the Raquel Welch movie “A Swingin Summer”. By 1965 the song “This Diamond Ring” had hit #1, later they would perform that song on the Ed Sullivan Show. Also remember that on the Sullivan show it was a general policy that all acts appearing on the show had to perform live. Since so many studio tricks were used on the Playboys recordings, they could not recreate that sound.
In compromise Gary Lewis sand along to a pre-recorded track as the Playboys pretended to play their instruments. Another problem during this time was the British Invasion,the music charts were being dominated by British acts and Gary Lewis and the Playboys were the only American act on the surveys. January 1966 the group appears in the espionage B-Movie “Out of Sight”, with the Turtles, the Knickerbockers, and Freddie and the Dreamers. By June of 1966 the song “Green Grass” hits #8 on the charts, this would be the last of Lewis’s 7 consecutive US top 10 Hits. Although there was some rumors going around “Green Grass” was a reference to Marijuana, many radio stations would not play the record. After a short time Gary joins the US Air Force Reserve and by 1967 he is drafted into the US Army and the band is forced to breakup.
Bitter at the interruption to his career, he refuses to form a Special Services band to entertain the troops,and instead spends his time as a clerk/typist in Korea. Gary Lewis and the Playboys were one of only two acts during the 60’s whose first 7 releases on the Billboard Hot 100 would reach the charts top 10, the other group would be the “Lovin Spoonful”. In all the group had 8 gold singles, 12 top 40 hit singles, but only 15 Hot 100 entries and 4 gold albums. Despite of being in so many TV shows and Movies, Gary Lewis and the Playboys made virtually no impact at all in the U.K. Learn more about Gary Lewis and the Playboys as we feature them as artist of the month. And as usual all information and known facts are by Wendy Johnson and all shows are produced by Javier Martinez.

The influence of Woodstock 1969 was a once in a lifetime occurrence, the impacts of the 1969 festival have continued to ripple outward for decades and inspiring millions, many of whom weren’t even born at the time, to honor the 50th anniversary of more than 400,000 gathering on a dairy farm in upstate New York for what was billed as “three days of peace and music”.
Many unknown bands at the time of performing at Woodstock saw their careers launch off, suddenly they were given the chance to be noticed, Santana, Sha na na, Sly and the family stone to name a few give credit to the concert as their starting point of their musical career.
Woodstock organizers told local residents they expected an attendance of up to 50,000 people, too guilty to confess they’d actually sold 180,000 tickets in advance. An event that was suppose be for three days only actually ended in four days. Many groups that were featured to be on stage, thinking not to take such a risk to perform, asked for their money upfront and many were paid almost double normal the amount that they usually charged for performing. The Who got paid $11,200, the Creedence Clearwater Revival the hottest band at the time was paid $10,000, the Grateful Dead and Santana were paid $2,250 each, Joe Cocker made $1,375 and the little known group “Quill” took home only $375.00 for playing to half a million people.
There were also acts that got nothing and also some acts performed without being booked, And last the group “Blood Sweat and Tears” got $15,000 for their performance.
Find out more on Woosdstock 1969 after we feature the festival event as we talk about some of the artists that were featured in the event. There are lots of stories and known facts to be told. All information and interesting facts about all artists of the month are by Wendy Johnson and also all shows are produced by Javier Martinez.

I cannot tell you what a steely dan is in writing or on the air, you would have to find that out on your own.Steely Dan was founded in 1972 by core members Walter Becker and Donald Fagen. The two met at Bard college in New York in 1967 where only Fagen graduated in English literature. There they started to sell songs which they had written with very little success, they cut a very low key film soundtrack for an early Richard Pryor movie that was not released until 1970.
Despite it’s failure it leads to another movie project, a dance video starring Beckers mother for which they are paid $1,500.00. Soon after that they begin playing in a number of bands including the Bad Rock Group, which featured future comedy actor Chevy Chase on drums. In 1970 the pair joined Jay and the Americans as their backup band, they stayed with them until halfways of 1974.
Fagen and Becker had no use for Rock”n”Roll music until they heard the Beatles, Fagen liked “Ticket to ride” while Becker favored “No where man”. Steely Dan has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide, they have recorded nine studio albums with seven of them reaching platinum certification in the U.S.
In 1980 their album “Gaucho” took over a year to record,this was their final album before disbanding. They had at least 42 studio musicians and 11 sound engineers. Shortly after in 1981 Walter Becker and his family moved to Maui, Hawaii where he became an avocado rancher.
Learn more on Steely Dan when KWMC 1490 AM and on THE LITTLE RED ROOSTER SHOW we will feature Steely Dan as artist of the month. And as usual all known facts and interesting stories are by Wendy Johnson and all Shows are produced by Javier Martinez.

For an artist who deserves to be up there with the best, Sam Cooke, Frank Sinatra, James Brown, Nat King Cole and so many more professional artists of the time, one artist never got the recognition. It was a typical practice of record label owners to take as much money from popular artists that were making them money, in this case Jackie Wilson.
He made millions of dollars for Brunswick Records and although he made many personal purchases for himself he was very trusting and depended on his manager to take care of all monetary matters, of course that wasn’t happening and by the time he found out what was going on it was too late. His parents were from Mississippi and went to Detroit, singing at a young age he finally got recognition and initial fame as a member of the R and B vocal group Billy Ward and the Dominos. This is the time when Jackie Wilson would replace Clyde McPhatter as vocalist. After leaving the Dominos Jackie went solo in 1957 and scored over 50 chart singles, including 16 R and B top 10 hits in which 6 Rand B songs ranked at #1.
Jackie Wilson was one of the most influential musical artists of his generation. He is also ranked at #69 on the list of the 100 greatest artists of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine. Dropping out of school at age 15, Jackie was sentenced to detention in the system for juveniles twice.During his second detention he took up boxing and began competing in the Detroit amateur circuit at age 16. After Jackie went solo he inspired many musicians later on, such greats as James Brown, Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley. And remember that no black artist ever copied Elvis Presley, Elvis copied many black artists, from Little Richard, Fats Domino, Clyde McPhatter, Chuck Berry and Sam Cooke. Elvis would study these performers and include their ideas into his own act. But still Jackie Wilson says different.
Elvis and Wilson became good friends. After all the fame and everything else that fell in place Jackie was declaring annual earnings of $263,000, while the average annual salary at that time was only $5,000. He soon discovered that despite being at the peak of his success, he was broke. His manager of Brunswick Records had taken advantage of him and his money, Jackie made millions of dollars for Brunswick Records and had no money to show for it. His manager was found guilty of mishandling Jackies money but never went to jail, Jackie couldn’t go to court because at that time he had suffered a heart attack while performing on stage and then ended in a nursing home in a coma until his death.
Learn more about Jackie Wilson as we feature him as artist of the month on KWMC 1490 AM and the “Little Red Rooster Show”. Special thanks to Wendy Johnson who supplies all interesting information and known and unknown facts of all artist of the month.And Mr. Javier Martinez for coming up with the idea of artist of the month and also being the producer of all artist of the month shows.

James Brown, from rags to riches was born in a one room shack into extreme poverty. As a child he would dance for pennies for soldiers at Fort Gordon, he also shined shoes, begining at 3 cents and eventually going up to 6 cents.
He also claimed that it was not until he was 9 years old that he finally got a pair of store bought underwear, prior to then he had worn clothing made from material from sacks and other used items.
When he was 12 he was sent home from school because he didn’t have sufficient clothing. Skipping through the poor side of the story, by now everybody knows that James Brown was the hardest working man in show business, touring throughout the 50’s and 60’s constantly. Most people would admit that they really didn’t like James Brown mainly because of his singing, but like with some other artists James needs to be remembered for his stage acts and dancing, no one can top that. And not only did he write music and sing, he also played drums harmonica guitar and piano as well. James Brown recorded 17 singles that reached no.1 on the Billboard R&B Charts. He also holds the record for the most singles listed on the Billboard Hot 100 chart which didn’t reach no.1, and of the Billboard R&B charts from the beginning of his musical career through 2010 he is ranked no.1 in the top 500 artists.
He ranks at no.7 on Rolling Stone’s list of it’s 100 greatest artists of all time and also the most sampled artist of all time. At the end of the 60’s he owned a publishing company, three radio stations and a lear jet. Some famous quotes by James Brown are, “I taught them all they know, but not everything I know.” Another quote was, “I’ve outdone anyone you can name- Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Strauss, and even Irving Berlin he wrote 1,001 tunes i wrote 5,500.
Find out more about The Godfather of Soul as we feature the one and only JAMES BROWN as artist of the month on the “Little Red Rooster Show” on KWMC’S 1490 AM all new Classic Hits Station.
Remember that all stories and known Facts are by Wendy Johnson and all shows are produced by Javier Martinez.

Whether you were a fan of Disco music or just plain hated it, you have to admit that even if it was short lived, many artists had either constant hits or they were a one hit wonder. The bands were a real problem to record in the studio, horn arrangements, several drums, too many instruments caused a problem. It was not like in the early days of Rock”n”Roll with just a few instruments.
During the disco music hey day many groups gained popularity not just because of the music but also with the trend of clothing being used on live stage acts. Some older artists from the late 60’s and earlier 70’s were considered sell outs to Disco and didn’t survive after that, with the exception of a few. Many groups of the disco era struggled to maintain their success. Big name disco artists didn’t have much to sell once disco music started to decline, for example the Bee Gees abandoned all disco music from their albums in the 80’s and 90’s, and even in an interview admitted that they never really liked any of the disco songs they recorded.
To make things worst the decline of disco several record companies folded, were re-organized, or were sold. In 1979 MCA records purchased ABC records, took some of their artists and then shut down the label down. RSO records founder left the label in 1981 and TK records closed the same year, Casablanca records had been releasing fewer records in the 80’s, and was then shut down in 1986. In 1979 the music industry was at it’s worst slump and blamed the problem on Disco Music. But still no matter what happened between disco lovers or disco haters for a short while people just went with the flow. Not that you’ll ever become rich with a record collection of disco songs,but think of all those companies that no longer exist. You never know. But still remember that “Disco Lives” somewhere.
All stories for artist of the month are by Wendy Johnson and all shows are produced by Javier Martinez. Listen to KWMC 1490AM and the Little Red Rooster Show as we feature artists and some of the best Disco songs of the late 70’s and early 80’s.

Frankie Lymon was the lead  vocalist for a Doo-Wop group known as the “Teenagers” back in the 1950”s. He was the first black teenage singing idol. Two black students from junior high school in New York City, Jimmy Merchant and Sherman Garnes recruited neighborhood Puerto Ricans Herman Santiago and Joe Negroni for the group they called themselves “The Premiers” and hoped that someday they could make a record. They were working on a song they had written entitled “Why do birds sing so gay” and needed a high tenor, Richard Barrett a member of another group called the “Valentines” lived above the grocery store where Frankie Lymon worked part time. Through him they got together with Lymon who suggested changing the focus of the song and it’s title.
The song would now be known as “Why do fools fall in love”. With the rise of fame comes also the down fall Frankie Lymon experimented with drugs since 1958. On June 21,1966 he was arrested on a heroin charge, he then entered the Army in lieu of a jail sentence but recieved a less than honorable discharge a short time later. Like most young performers of the era, the Teenagers lost rights to all their music. Goldner publishing Company handled the song “Why do fools fall in love” and took fifty percent right off the top. Santiago’s name was dropped off the songs rights in the 1960’s while Lymon and Goldner sold off thier rights to the song, Goldner to pay gambling debts and Lymon to buy drugs. Along battle of who owned the rights to the song “Why do fools fall in love” was finally settled in 1992.
Herman Santiago an Jimmy Merchant also pursued their claim to the song and other song rights in federal court. The two singers and Emira Lymon now recieve complete rigths to the song.Finally in 1993 The Teenagers and Frankie Lymon were inducted into the “Rock ”N” Roll Hall Of Fame”.
Learn more interesting facts and stories about Frankie Lymon as we feature him and the Teenagers on our next Artist Of The Month. And as always all stories and Fun facts are by Wendy Johnson and all shows are produced by Javier Martinez. Be sure and listen to KWMC 1490AM the all new classic hits station and the”Little Red Rooster Show”.

It would be a waste of time to even start from the beginning with Fleetwood Mac when they first started back in 1967. They have sold more than 100 million records worldwide making them one of the worlds best selling bands. But it was not until late 1974 when Mick Fleetwood was scouting studios in Los Angeles, that he was introduced to LIndsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.
Soon Buckingham was asked to join the band to be their lead guitarist, and Buckingham agreed on condition that Stevie Nicks also join the band. The addition of Buckingham and Nicks gave the band a more pop rock sound, and their 1975 self titled album “Fleetwood Mac” reached #1 in the U.S. while their 1977 “Rumors” produced four U.S. top 10 singles and remained on the American Charts for 31 weeks.
The Rumors album had sold over 40 million copies worldwide, making it the eighth-highest selling album in history. By 2003 “Rumors” had sold over 19 million copies in the U.S. alone. On October the 10th 1979 Fleetwood Mac was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame for their contribution to the music industry. In their tour in the early 2000’s the band grossed $27,711,129.00 and was ranked #21 in the top 25 grossing tours of 2004. For people just getting into Fleetwood Mac, it can be confusing to look at their discography and know where to start. After all,the group has released two albums called “Fleetwood Mac”, the first one in 1968 their debut album and second was their 1975 album, their tenth album overall. But despite having a legendary list of songs selling millions of records and releasing countless greatest hits collections, Fleetwood Mac has only 1 #1 hit to it’s name. The bands only #1 song was “Dreams” from the 1977’s album “Rumors”.
Find out more about Fleetwood Mac as KWMC1490 AM and the Little Red Rooster Show features the band as artist of the month coming this February. All stories and fun facts are by Wendy Johnson and all shows are produced by Javier Martinez.

And so it comes around for another year and Christmas time is once more upon us, the hurrying up of trying to get all the gifts and hoping that you are not forgetting someone.
The undecided decision of which should I get, this present or that present. It’s the same every year especially when you wait till the last minute, you really don’t want to make a mistake because then you’re gonna be faced with the problem of returning the merchandise.
Another thing, now you’re gonna have to find the time to get to the stores without anyone tagging along. It’s no fun because now they are gonna know what they are getting for Christmas. So there you are, already stressed out and in a hurry and then you finally get going to the stores, you get in your car and try to get into the spirit of the holiday and you turn on your radio, and there they are the same old Christmas songs of every year.
Whether you have Sirius radio or local radio or even some cd’s that you might have from about 20 years ago, they are still the same ole songs. Do people really believe that there are only about 200 Christmas oldies? What about all those other songs that never get played. Radio stations use the excuse that people will turn off the station when you play unfamiliar music.
How can remember anything different if you are not given the chance to experience anything else. There are many great Christmas songs that never get played.
So this Christmas holiday listen to the Little Red Rooster Show on KWMC’s 1490AM the all new classic hits station, as you will get to hear some very different Christmas tunes. And remember that all information on artist of the month and special shows are by Wendy Johnson and all shows are produced by Javier Martinez.
From all the staff at KWMC 1490 AM we wish you and your family the best of the holidays. Merry Christmas and have a happy New Year.
Got it, thanks!Thank you!Got it.


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