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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Usually the internet is full of websites that claim that their experts know everything about an artist or a musical group.
Most of the time they are the same stories that got copied from another website, they feature the same ole information that they read from other sites and then pass the information to you.
Most of the time the people writing the information were not around during that era, but now they somehow claim to be experts. How do they know what happened back then, they are from the wrong generation. In this case and featured artist of the month we are remembering John Lennon.
There is always something new we learn along the years, new information is found and interesting to know. Sometimes we find information that we believed was true and then only to find out later that it was wrong.
John Lennon as a solo artist frequently said that he would rather be a member of Monty Python than to be with the Beatles. On the concert tours Lennon enjoyed playing Monopoly. Did you know that in his first band the Quarrymen they would often practice in the bathroom, while Lennon stood shoeless in the bathtub.
At his 21st birthday he experienced serious doubts about ever succeeding in music, as he felt that he was too old to become famous. Scared of the dark?, some people are. Lennon always kept a light on while he slept, as he hated the dark. And when you just have to drink coffee you drink coffee!
Lennon used to drink tea or coffee from 20-30 cups a day. After the Beatles breakup Lennon used several different names such as Dr. Winston O’Boogie, The Reverend Fred Ghurkin, Fred Zimmerman, Johnny Rhythm and Mel Torment.
There is so much information on John Lennon that it would take days to explain it all. Be sure and listen to the Little Red Rooster Show on the all new Classic Hit Station KWMC 1490 AM as we remember John Lennon with some new and never before heard stories about his life and solo artist.
All known facts and stories are by Wendy Johnson and all shows are produced by Javier Martinez.

American Graffiti movie mistakes, first of all Wolfman Jack was not African American, and it is the first time that finally the rest of the world got to see him on the silver screen with the exception of Del Rio Texas back in 1966.
The Wolfman was just a radio personality that used to broadcast from the Border Blaster know as XERF in Acuna Mexico, and we knew he wasn’t Black, but that’s another story. We or the ones that remember can still recall the original name of Bob Smith’s show.
It was called the Howling Rooster Show and not The Wolfman Jack Show or any other name. But then back to the movie, American Graffiti was a movie about the last days or nights about crusing the boulevards and hanging out with friends. The year takes place in 1962 but there are so many mistakes that at the time of the movie in 1973 people didn’t catch some of the bloopers. Who was in charge of the musical soundtrack?
There are songs in the movie that were not included in the double lp. There are songs that did not come out in or before 1962 and you can clearly hear them and they were from years later. But whether they were the wrong songs, wrong cars, or wrong old time radio commercials, American Graffiti was a movie that was shot with a very low budget and we can accept that there were gonna be lots of errors. Since it’s release in 1973 it has become a classic over the years. Other similar movies followed, but it was American Graffiti that gave the shot in the arm to remember all of the good times when things and life were more simple. And don’t forget Crusin Nights, which probably don’t exist anymore except in maybe some areas of America, Rock’N’Roll still rolls on.
Find out more about the movie and the Wolfman and the nostalgic cars and the innocence of American life in the early 60’s as we look at this time period through the eyes of American teenagers and the early years of Rock’N’Roll.
All All stories and know facts are by Wendy Johnson and all artist of the month shows are produced by Javier Martinez. Learn more about American Graffiti on KWMC1490 AM station, the all new Classic Hits Station,and the Little Red Rooster Show.

The band that put Rockabilly music back on the records chart in the early eighties scored several hits on both sides of the Atlantic.
Like many bands that start off in other countries, the Stray Cats were no exception, starting out in London where Rockabilly music was just starting out in the early 80’s. Becoming popular right from the start they released their debut album in 1981.
Deciding to test their luck in America, they signed with EMI America and in 1982 released their U.S. debut album “Built for speed”, which compiled the highlights from their two British lp’s. Their biggest help came from MTV, when at the time it was “anything goes” new wave era. The band first appeared in the middle of 1979 performing under a number of names including “The Tom Cats”, The Teds, and Bryan and the Tom Cats, and since 1983 they have used only “Stray Cats” as their name. The Stray Cats became so popular that even members of the Rolling Stone and the Who and even members of Led Zeppelin were attending their concerts. And of course everybody knows that you have to start from somewhere, at the time when Brian was just getting started he was in high school. He was playing nights as a solo act in little neighborhood bars, remember this was at the time when Disco music was topping the music charts and Brian’s music seemed totally strange. So by the time they started to get a good following of fans The Stray Cats started playing around Long Island and by this time the had developed a repertoire of between 200 and 300 songs, now that is a lot music. I think the only other band that was rumored to know more songs was Rare Earth when it was said that that band knew over one thousand songs, but remember it’s just a rumor. With the Stray Cats album release in 1981 their debut British album,they scored three straight hits with “Runaway boys”, Rock this town”, and “Stray Cat Strut” all of this happened when they were still in Europe. By 1982 the Stray Cats came to America and the rest is history.
Learn more about the Stray Cats on KWMC’s 1490 AM “little Red Rooster Show’ as we feature the music and history of the “Stray Cats” as they become the Artist Of The Month.All stories and fun facts are by Wendy Johnson and all shows are produced by Javier Martinez.

American Bandstand was an American music show that aired from 1952-1989 and was hosted by Dick Clark from 1956 until it’s final season, it premiered locally in March 1950 as Bandstand on Philadelphia television station WFIL-TV channel 6.Although the show had a change of hosts, it was Dick Clark that was chosen as the permanent host in 1956. Know simply as Bandstand it was until August 5 1957 that it was finally called “American Bandstand”. One show from the first season from December 18, 1957 indicated as the Second National Telecast, which is now in the archives of Chicago’s Museum of Broadcast Communications.
Most of the programs were filmed in black and white with three RCA cameras. It was briefly filmed in color in 1958 when the then new technology was being experimented with. The new color cameras took the place of three black and white cameras and soon they had difficulties in filming with just one camera, noticing the program lost something, the studio went back to black and white cameras two weeks later. In total there are 883 episodes of American Bandstand. No dancer was a cent to be on the show. Many regulars were offered commercials, but anyone making money from being on the show was immediately thrown out. The regulars as well as the kids who appeared often, were admired around the country. But not so in Philadelphia. Even though the show was a rite-of-passage for many Philadelphians, the regulars were often bullied and beaten up. Then problems arose at the time when Dick Clark was involved in the Payola Scandal. During Clark’s testimony he sad that he had given up outside interests connected with the recording industry. Clark also admitted a $125 dollar investment in Jamie Records with a return profit of $11,900 and of the 163 songs he had rights to 143 were given to him. When questioned about Jamie Records it was discovered that $15,000 was paid out in payola. All Clark got was a slap on the wrist.
Find out more about American Bandstand as we feature some of the artists that performed there in the early years of Rock”n”Roll. This will be part one of Bandstand as part two will be later on KWMC’S 1490AM’s Little Red Rooster Show.
All information and known facts about the artist is by Wendy Johnson and all shows are produced by Javier Martinez.