A tragic day in 1959,and it will always be remembered as such. The tour was a disaster since the beginning.
Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper were playing small dates in frozen towns in the upper mid-west, with all of the musicians crammed into a drafty bus, Buddy Holly’s had left with frost bite and everyone was in a bad mood. Trying to get to the next show ahead of everyone else Holly decided to rent a plane to fly them there, a young pilot named Roger Peterson agreed to fly them. The weather was bad with flying advisories out. The Dwyer airplanes were not licensed for instrument flying, plus Roger Peterson had failed his instrument test recently. The flying service charged a fee of $36 per passenger. A popular misconception, originating from the song by Don McClean said that the name of the airplane was called the “American Pie”, in fact there is no record that exists of any name ever having been given to the plane except the serial #N3749N. Also it was Holly who asked Dion and the Big Bopper to join him on the flight, not Holly’s band members, Holly said we are the guys making the money, we should fly ahead of everyone else. The plane took off at 12:55 AM on Tuesday February 3 and around 1:00 AM the pilot failed to make radio contact back to the tower. It was not until around 9:35 AM that the wreckage was spotted less than six miles from the airport. This will always be remembered as the worst tragic accident in Rock ”n” Roll history. Learn more about the Winter Dance Party Tour of 1959, on the next artist’s of the month featuring Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper on the Little Red Rooster Show on KWMC’s the all Classic Hits Station 1490 AM. All known facts and artist information is by Wendy Johnson and all shows are produced by Javier Martinez. Dion Francis DiMucci, better know as just Dion, is an american singer, songwriter who has incorporated elements of DooWop, Rock and R&B styles and recently, straight Blues. He was one of the most popular American Rock artist of the Pre-British Invasion era. He had 39 top 40 hits in the late 50's and early 60's as a solo performer with the Belmonts and with the Del Satins. He is remembered for such hits as "Run Around Sue", "The Wanderer" and "Ruby Baby". In his early years he used to accompany his father in a Vaudeville shows, he then developed a love for Country music. He also developed a fondness for the blues and doo wop-musicians he heard performing in local bars and on the radio. Like most artists his first recordings went no where and it wasn't until he got together with the Belmonts that his break came through. In early 1958 the song "I wonder why" made it to #22 on the charts. By 1960 Dion started recording with a new group called the Del Satins and this is the time when the song "Runaround Sue" went all the way to #1 in October of 1961 selling a million copies. In 1968 after changing to different record labels he went back to Laurie Records at this time he experienced a powerful religious experience after getting clean again from heroin addiction. Laurie Records took him back under one condition and was that he had to agree to record the song "Abraham, Martin and John" in response to the assassination of John Kennedy and those of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy during the spring of 1968, this is the song that restarted his musical career all over again. Find out more about Dion DiMucci as KWMC 1490AM presents Dion as artist of the month on the "Little Red Rooster Show". All known facts and trivia information is by Wendy Johnson and all artist of the month shows are produced by Javier Martinez. What is traditional, becomes normal, and then becomes boring. The traditional Christmas oldies music has been a format of radio stations for generations, you get to hear the same ole songs over and over. Although these traditional songs might be pleasing to an older generation, what about the kids today? They fall into the same idea thinking that all Christmas music was by Bing Crosby, Burl Ives, Johnny Mathis and Brenda Lee. These songs are so burnt out. If you were to include new artists it is still the same songs but just re-done. There are many bands and artists that recorded Christmas music that no one has ever heard of, they didn’t want to sell a million copies, or to have a #1 song, they did it for fun and at the same time it was seasonal. There are so many Christmas songs out there that nobody has any idea of who the artists are. But whether they are from the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s or 80’s, this Christmas Holiday of 2017 KWMC 1490 AM, the all new Classic Hits Station will present rare songs and artists that most people have never heard before of Christmas Oldies music, and it will be presented on the “Little Red Rooster Show”. This special presentation with all known facts and trivia are by Wendy Johnson and all artist of the month shows are produced by Javier Martinez. This holiday season to all of the surrounding areas and citizens in Del Rio Texas, may you have the happiest of holidays this Christmas and New Year. From all of the staff at KWMC 1490 AM the all new Classic Hits Station. One of the true pioneers of rock “n” roll music, Fats Domino has sold more than 65 million records,and although he has sold millions of records he has never had a #1 song on the Billboard Charts.
Fats was signed to Imperial records label in 1949. The owner of the label paid royalties based on sales instead of a fee for each song. A song entitled “The Fat Man” sold a million by 1951. It is also considered to be the first rock”n”roll record to achieve this level of sales. By 1956 the song “Ain’t that a shame”was the first of his records to appear on the Billboard”s pop singles chart in 1955. By that time Fats was making $10,000 a week while touring. Fats eventually had 37 top 40 singles,but none made it to #1 on the pop charts. Fats appeared in two films in 1956: Shake Rattle And Roll and The Girl Can’t Help it. In 1957 the article “King of Rock”n”Roll” in Ebony magazine featured Domino who said he was on the road 340 days a year,making up to $2,500 per evening and grossing over $50,000, he also told readers that he owned 50 suits and 100 pair of shoes and a $1,500 diamond pin. In 1986 Fats Domino was one of the first musicians to be inducted in the Rock”n”Roll hall of fame,his last album was “Christmas is a special day”,which was released in1993. His last tour was in Europe for three weeks in 1995. In 1998 President Bill Clinton awarded Domino the National Medal of Arts, Domino declined the invitation to perform at the White House. Before Fats Domino became an iconic figure in the world of Rock”n”Roll he had dropped out of high school to pursue his musical dreams, taking odd jobs like factory work and hauling ice at 14 years old. Hear more interesting facts about the Rock”n”Roll pioneer as KWMC 1490 AM presents “Fats Domino” as artist of the month on the “Little Red Rooster” show. All articles,facts and trivia,are by Wendy Johnson and all shows are produced by Javier Martinez. Why you shouldn’t believe everything that you read in wikipedia. First of all for the man who is known as a guitar guru it is said that he became famous in the late 60’s and early 70’s with the band Santana,in the 60’s they were known as the Santana Blues Band and then just Santana. It is also said that Carlos Santana set his music and guitar lines set against Latin and African rhythms featuring percussion instruments such as timbales and congas not generally heard in rock music, Latin yes, African i don’t know because they sound more Caribbean than anything else. Santana is listed at# 20 in Rolling Stone Magazine on their list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. A story about his early years in music says that his father taught him how to play the violin,but yet nowhere does any website even mention the man who taught Carlos how to play the guitar. Mr. Javier Batiz is the person who taught Carlos the electric guitar, you can look him up on Youtube and watch the interview. Seems that now people are just more interested as to how much money anyone can make, forgetting the real talent of an artist. So as far as Carlos Santana and his worth,sad to say that after all his contributions to music and his talents,i cannot believe that his net worth is only 40 million dollars. Even after some albums have gone Platinum several times and the years that he has been performing. Though his rock records continued to sell well,Santana would not have a radio hit after 1982 until he started teaming up with other artists. Although the Santana Band was approached by several record companies in the late 60’s, the band declined a contract. Therefore, when they played for half a million people at the legendary Woodstock Festival in 1969, they didn’t even have an album out. Find out more on our next Artist Of The Month as we feature “Santana”. A presentation of the all new Classic hits station KWMC 1490AM, and remember that all known facts and information are provided by Wendy Johnson and all shows are produced by Javier Martinez. Sometimes when a featured artist of the month is selected,seems that the songs about that artist are more interesting than their biography. In this case the “Big O”, Roy Orbison. His biggest hit being of course “Oh Pretty Woman” back in 1964. Sometimes when writing songs artists can take so long of a time to come up with lyrics and titles to their songs, for example, this story explains how sometimes everything is right in front of your face. Roy Orbison was writing with his songwriting partner Bill Dees at his house when Roy asked him to start writing of anything that came to mind,by that time Roy’s wife came in and said that she was going in to town to buy something, Orbison asked her if she needed any money and Bill Dees said, pretty women never need any money. Inspired Roy started singing,” pretty woman walking down the street”. By the time Roy’s wife came back they had the song done. Pretty Woman was written on a Friday, the next Friday it was recorded and the Friday after that it was released. Another story that confuses people is when they are asked where Roy was born, they all say Wink Texas, even the people that i talk to that grew up in the same area as Roy say Wink Texas, Actually Roy Orbison is from Vernon Texas. One of Roy’s most collectable records is the one that he recorded when he had his own group called The Teen Kings, the only way to tell if you have an original copy of that record is that Roy’s last name is misspelled on one side of the record. Instead of reading Orbison it is spelled Oribson. A copy of that 45 has sold at $3,000.00 dollars. Also remember that that same song was also re-recorded for sun records and does not hold the same value as the first pressing. The first pressing of that record was recorded on tiny Texas label Je-Wel records in 1956.Roy Orbison, from High School dropout in 1954 to music stardom in the 50’s and 60’s. And since a lot of people always want to know just how much Roy Orbison’s net worth is, let’s just say at least $15 million. Any more fun facts and information on Roy Orbison can be heard on KWMC’S all classic hits station’s 1490AM’s “Little Red Rooster Show.” And as usual all known facts and trivia on any artist of the month are by Wendy Johnson and all shows are produced by Javier Martinez. As the press always has it’s way of presenting things their way,people actually thought that by the 1970’s Elvis Presley was washed up commercially. This is totally untrue,if Elvis had left RCA records in 1973 or 1974 they would have made one very big mistake,any other record label would have killed to have Elvis on their label. From 1970 to 1974 Elvis had at least two of RCA’s highest charting singles in every year except in 1972 where he had only one but even then it was #2 for the whole year. In 1970 Elvis and the Guess Who had all of RCA’s top six recordings. Over the years Elvis remained their constant. Counting singles and albums,Elvis sold at least 10 million records in the U.S. alone in 1970.On the road Elvis continued to break attendance records,in 1975 alone more than 60,000 people packed into the Pontiac Silverdome for a one concert event. In 1977 Billboard rated him as the years top grossing live act despite the fact that he only toured only half a year. On January 14,1973 Elvis made television and entertainment history with his “Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii-Via Satellite” special,it was shown via satellite in Australia,South Korea,Japan,Thailand,South Vietnam and other countries. It was not until April that the show aired on American TV,the show was watched by more people than mans first walk on the moon. In all, the show was seen in about 40 countries by one billion to 1.5 billion people. Never has any performer held the world’s attention in such a way,buy this time Elvis is in top form physically and vocally. Audience tickets for the January 12 pre-broadcast rehearsal show and January 14 concert carry no price. Each audience member is asked to pay whatever he or she can. Find out more on Elvis Presley in the 1970’s as we feature him as Artist of the month on KWMC’s all Classic Hits Station 1490 AM and on the Little Red Rooster Show. All information and known facts are by Wendy Johnson and all artist of the month shows are produced by Javier Martinez. Dance crazes have been a part of social dancing for sometime, in the 20th century the sales of records caused novelty dances to arise and then suddenly disappear much more frequently. Most of these dances were picked up by a young and old generation as they were printed in the media, maybe you heard these dance songs on the radio, saw it in a movie, or even on television, most likely on American Bandstand. Although dance songs have been around since the 1920’s where you might remember the Jitterbug or the Charleston, it was not until the 1950’s to the 70’s that new dance fads appeared almost every week. You might remember the Madison, the Swim, The Mashed Potato, The Twist, The Watusi, or maybe The Hitch-hike, or the Shake. By the 1960’s dance crazes had animal names such as the Pony, the Dog, the Chicken and so on. There are fad dances which are meant to be danced individually as solo, others are partner dances, and yet others are danced in groups. The most popular dance song to this day was inspired by Rock”n”Roll music. In 1959 to the early 60’s it became the first worldwide dance craze, this song was popular among all people. This is the song that inspired dances such as the Jerk, The Pony, The Watusi, The Mashed potato, The Monkey and the Funky chicken, yet none of these songs were as popular. This song was released in 1959 and became a #1 hit in 1960 and again in 1962, to this day it is the only song to have done so. A world record was set in Deland Florida on October 11,2012 when Chubby Checker sang the song live and the crowd danced to “Let’s Do The Twist”, an estimated amount of 4,000 people twisted along with Chubby Checker, surpassing the previous Guinness World record for most people twisting in the streets at once. Find out more on these dance craze’s of the 50’s and 60’s as they will be featured on “The Little Red Rooster Show” on the all new Classic Hits Station KWMC 1490 AM. All information and known facts are by Wendy Johnson and all shows are produced by Javier Martinez. The girl groups actually started in the 1950’s as far as what we know as rock n roll. Most of the 60’s girl groups were influenced by the Do-Wop girl groups of the 50’s. We must also understand the difference between girl groups and girl bands, all female bands usually also played instruments. In the late 50’s we saw the beginnings of all female singing groups as a major force, with 750 distinctive girl groups releasing songs that reached US and UK charts from 1960-1966. The years of 1955-1970 were known as the golden age of girl groups. Although in the early 50’s acts like the Chordettes, Fontaine Sisters, the McGuire Sisters all white female groups remained popular, it was not until 1958 when the all black girl group the Chantels song “Maybe” became the first true glimmering of the girl group sound, it was a mixture of black Doo-Wop music, Rock “n”Roll and white pop music. However the group often considered to have achieved the first sustained success in girl group genre is the Shirelles, who first reached the top 40 with the song “Tonight’s the Night”, and in 1961 became the first group to reach #1 on the hot 100 with” Will you still love me tomorrow”. Two and a half years later the Marvelettes became a major indication of the racial integration of popular music, as it was the first #1 song in the U.S. for African American owned label Motown Records. Other Motown groups that followed were Martha and the Vandellas, the Velvelettes and the Supremes. To make a long story as short as possible other girl groups of the 60’s included the Phil Spector style of the Crystals the Blossoms and the Ronettes. More girls followed also during this era, we had the Shangri-las the Dixie Cups, the Paris Sisters, the Chiffons, the Angels, the Cookies the Orlons and so many more. Over 750 girl groups were able to chart a song between 1960-1966.The girl group sound also extended to existing acts backed by studio musicians,usually girls performing without label credit,examples are too numerous to mention. Find out more of the girl groups of the 50’ and 60’ on the “Little Red Rooster Show”on the all new “Classic Hits Station” KWMC 1490 AM as we feature the girl groups of the 50’ and 60’s. All information and known facts are by Wendy Johnson and all shows are produced by Javier Martinez. Rod Stewart may have begun his career as a respected singer,but as he got older and became more concerned with stardom, that respect ended. He has been active since 1964 and has a net worth of $235 million. Stewart began getting recognition the late 1960’ and 1970’s with the Jeff Beck Group,and then with another group called the Faces although he had already played with another earlier group called the Steampacket. His career actually began back in 1962 when he started playing the harmonica,he joined a group called the Dimensions as the harmonica player and sometimes vocalist. As a teenager Rod was introduced to rock n roll when he heard Little Richard’s 1956 hit “The girl can’t help it” and then seeing Bill Haley and his Comets in concert. His first record he ever bought was Eddie Cochran’s “Come on everybody”. After playing harmonica with the Dimensions, relations soon broke down over roles within the group and Stewart soon departed. Contrary to popular belief,during this time Stewart likely did not play harmonica on Millie Small’s 1964 hit “My boy lollipop”. So then by 1970 Stewart had joined another group called “The Faces”and released their second album “Gasoline Alley”. He also sang guest vocals for the Australian group “Python Lee Jackson”on the song “In a broken dream”, although the song was recorded in 1969 it was not released until 1970,the payment for this guest appearance was a set of seat covers for his car. Rod Stewart and the Faces released their final album”Ooh La La”as differences grew between Stewart and the band, the song Ooh La La was supposed to have been sung by Stewart, but passed up on it and another member of the group did the lead vocal but you really can’t tell the difference when you here the song, although most people still think it is Rod Stewart singing it. Skipping through some time between the many albums that Stewart has recorded, it was later in 1976 when Rod Stewart released his next album entitled “A night in the Town”, this album not only went to number two on the charts,it was also Stewart’s first album to go platinum. As artist of the month we will hear some of Stewart’s earlier recordings from the late sixties when he was the group “the Steampacket”,as well as his guest vocals with the group “Python Lee Jackson”, on the album “In a broken dream”, one of the most difficult albums to find by Rod Stewart. Learn more about Rod Stewart and his music and known facts as we feature him on “KWMC’s”1490AM the classic hits station as artist of the month on “The Little Red Rooster Show”, from 10:30 am to 12:00 noon. All information and known facts about any artist that are featured as artist of the month are are by Wendy Johnson and all shows are produced by Javier Martinez. |
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