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  1. Rewind is offline
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    Joined: Oct 2017 Location: Glendale CA Posts: 12,046
    11-16-2017, 08:12 PM #1

    The Decades Channels thread

    On September 2, '60s On 6 program director Ken Merson replaced Lou Simon as host of the weekly Sixties Satellite Survey countdown show. Ken cut the countdown from 40 songs to 30, plus a few extras. He also cut the '60s Channel playlist and is focusing on top-20 hits. He believes the majority of listeners will not be familiar with lower-charting songs. I disagree. Here are some low-charting songs which I think every '60s music fan remembers:

    A Little Less Conversation - Elvis Presley (69/1968)
    Always Something There To Remind Me - Sandie Shaw (52/1964)
    At Last - Etta James (47/1961)
    Baby Driver - Simon & Garfunkel (101/1969)
    Batman Theme - Neal Hefti (35/1966)
    Boom Boom - Animals (43/1964)
    Break On Through - Doors (126/1967)
    Bring It On Home To Me - Animals (32/1965)
    California Sun - Joe Jones (89/1961)
    Don't Let Me Down - Beatles/Billy Preston (35/1969)
    Foxey Lady - Jimi Hendrix (67/1967)
    Harlem Nocturne - Viscounts (52/1959, 39/1965)
    Harlem Shuffle - Bob & Earl (44/1963)
    I Don't Want To Spoil The Party - Beatles (39/1965)
    In The Misty Moonlight - Dean Martin (46/1967)
    It's Gonna Take A Miracle - Royalettes (41/1965)
    Just One Look - Hollies (98/1964, 44/1967)
    Mas Que Nada - Sérgio Mendes/Brasil '66 (47/1966)
    New York's A Lonely Town - Trade Winds (32/1965)
    No Milk Today - Herman's Hermits (35/1967)
    Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix (65/1967)
    Pushin' Too Hard - Seeds (36/1966)
    Show Me - Joe Tex (35/1967)
    Sugar & Spice - Cryan' Shames (49/1966)
    Sugar & Spice - Searchers (--/1963, 44/1964)
    What A Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong (116/1968, 32/1988)
    When You Walk In The Room - Jackie DeShannon (99/1964)
    When You Walk In The Room - Searchers (35/1964)
    You're No Good - Betty Everett (51/1963)
    409 - Beach Boys (76/1962)

    And SiriusXM subscribers deserve to hear all the songs that charted in the 1960s, not just the hits that made the top 20. Being able to hear hundreds of songs that are not being played on FM radio is one of the main reasons we subscribe to SiriusXM.

    Ken was a DJ at WCBM, WBSB and WQSR in Baltimore and WIAD in Bethesda/Washington DC -- not all at the same time, of course. I know he would love for all of us to hear how "The Merson Person" sounded in 1975 on WCBM (where he was also the music director):

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FcIsZ8EAQ2w

  2. Rewind is offline
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    11-16-2017, 08:13 PM #2
    Following the 2008 Sirius-XM merger, the playlists of the 1950s, '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s channels were slashed dramatically. Now, nine years later, '90s On 9 has started to play less rap and hip-hop and has been re-adding a lot of pop, r&b and adult contemporary hits, including quite a few that never made Billboard's Hot 100. The channel is actually becoming listenable again! Here are a few of the songs that have recently been re-added to the playlist:

    Can't Help Fallin' Into Love - Cheap Trick (12/1990)
    Canned Heat - Jamiroquai (--/1999)
    Club At The End Of The Street - Elton John (28/1990)
    Feed The Tree - Belly (95/1993)
    Get Ready To Bounce - Brooklyn Bounce (95/1997)
    I Will Come To You - Hanson (9/1997)
    My Love Is The Shhh - Somethin' For The People/Trina & Tamara (4/1997)
    We Got A Love Thang - Ce Ce Peniston (20/1992)
    Zombie - Cranberries (--/1994)

  3. Penguin is offline
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    Joined: Nov 2017 Location: San Fernando Posts: 257
    11-17-2017, 02:40 AM #3
    All the Decades channels have countdown shows except for the 50s channel. Have they ever had a countdown show? If not, do you think we could get them to start one?

  4. Penguin is offline
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    11-19-2017, 02:31 AM #4
    I got to listen to most of Ken Merson's countdown show today. He was playing songs from 1963 and it was nice to hear a lot of songs that the channel doesn't usually play. There is only one oldies station in L.A. and it's on AM and the sound isn't that good. I got Sirius mostly for the 60s and 70s channels.

  5. Rewind is offline
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    11-19-2017, 02:58 AM #5
    Ken Merson programs the '60s channel and doesn't like to play songs that he thinks might be unfamiliar to a majority of the listeners. The countdown shows are, obviously, the exception. I wish Ken could understand that every song we've ever heard was unfamiliar to us the first time we heard it. I enjoy hearing low-charting songs and songs I've never heard before. That is why I subscribe. I do not want to hear only the biggest hits. I'm sick of hearing most of them anyway. What SiriusXM needs is a 1950s-60s-70s "Deep Tracks"-style oldies channel.

  6. Rewind is offline
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    11-19-2017, 02:16 PM #6
    Songs that peak at #11 on the Hot 100 are not what I would call "turkeys" -- but the November 25 countdown show on the '60s channel is called "Turkeys" and will feature songs that stalled at #11 and never got into the top ten.

    The Sixties Satellite Survey airs at 2 PM Eastern time Saturday and repeats at 10 PM Sunday and 9 PM Wednesday.

  7. Penguin is offline
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    11-26-2017, 12:53 AM #7
    I got to hear most of today's countdown show and it was nice to hear some songs from the early 60s that the channel usually doesn't play. I wish they played the entire decade and not just 1963 to 1969. The 50s channel doesn't play the whole decade either.

  8. Rewind is offline
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    12-16-2017, 09:36 PM #8
    Ken Merson's '60s Channel countdown today featured this week in 1961. Number one was the Tokens' The Lion Sleeps Tonight. The Dovells' Bristol Stomp was at #30 after peaking at #2 seven weeks earlier. Lead singer Len Barry went solo in 1963 and had a big hit two years later with 1-2-3. Bristol Stomp was co-written by Cameo-Parkway producer/arranger Dave Appell, who had recorded the song with his band the Applejacks. Their original version never charted. Here is the Dovells' version:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B5cUjrJtma8

    Compare the melody with that of the Students' 1958 doo-wop song Every Day Of The Week:

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbJ1ikRnG10

    Plagiarism -- or just a coincidence?

  9. Rewind is offline
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    12-17-2017, 05:21 PM #9
    The '50s Channel played Real Wild Child by the Crickets. Buddy Holly played lead guitar on the recording and the vocal was by drummer Jerry Allison, who was credited on the label as "Ivan" (his middle name). The song reached #68 in October 1958 and was a retitled remake of Wild One by Johnny O'Keefe & the Dee Jays, Australia's first successful rock'n'roll band. In 1957, they were the opening act at several Australian concerts featuring Little Richard, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. Keefe & the Dee Jays recorded Wild One for an EP, Shakin' At The Stadium (Festival #5002, February 1958). Here is Real Wild Child by Ivan & the Crickets:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjv5cyC-BAg

  10. Rewind is offline
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    02-25-2018, 11:06 PM #10
    The '40s Junction channel just played Linda, a 1947 number-one hit by Buddy Clark and Anita Gordon with the Ray Noble Orchestra. It was written in 1942 by Jack Lawrence, who also wrote Dinah Shore's Yes My Darling Daughter, Frank Sinatra's All Or Nothing At All and the Ink Spots' If I Didn't Care. Lawrence wrote Linda for Linda Eastman, the one-year-old daughter of his attorney, Lee Eastman. Yes, the same Linda Eastman who would marry Paul McCartney in 1969. Jan & Dean had a #28 hit with Linda in 1963. Here is the original:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej2HuRw8dlg

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