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Post by kds on Jul 29, 2024 12:43:23 GMT
I can't say I recall the first time I heard Hit the Road Jack.
But, I do remember I really first became aware of the legendary Ray Charles from Diet Pepsi commercials.
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Post by Kapitan on Jul 29, 2024 12:47:30 GMT
I can't say I recall the first time I heard Hit the Road Jack. I've known it--the chorus, anyway--for as long as I can remember. It was one of those things I'd hear people saying, especially at sports or games where someone loses, kind of a "We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions" kind of thing where you didn't have to know who it was by or any more than the little relevant chant-bits. And speaking of that, I didn't know it was a Ray Charles hit until this thread. I couldn't have told you who wrote it, who performed it, or when. I just knew "hit the road, Jack, and doncha come back no more, no more, no more, no more." As catchy as that chorus is, it's really not much of a song.
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Post by kds on Jul 29, 2024 12:51:12 GMT
I can't say I recall the first time I heard Hit the Road Jack. I've known it--the chorus, anyway--for as long as I can remember. It was one of those things I'd hear people saying, especially at sports or games where someone loses, kind of a "We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions" kind of thing where you didn't have to know who it was by or any more than the little relevant chant-bits. And speaking of that, I didn't know it was a Ray Charles hit until this thread. I couldn't have told you who wrote it, who performed it, or when. I just knew "hit the road, Jack, and doncha come back no more, no more, no more, no more." As catchy as that chorus is, it's really not much of a song. I'm the same with the song and chorus, and I think I first made the connection to Ray Charles when the song was used in the comedy Grumpier Old Men, which was released when I was in HS.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Jul 31, 2024 23:08:21 GMT
I can't say I recall the first time I heard Hit the Road Jack. But, I do remember I really first became aware of the legendary Ray Charles from Diet Pepsi commercials. I know what you mean. Actually a few Ray Charles' songs are like that with me. I discovered them or first them outside the radio and records. I remember the commercials with "Hit The Road Jack". John Belushi did a funny Beethoven skit on Saturday Night Live utilizing "What'd I Say". I heard Ray Charles' version of "America The Beautiful" being played at some big sporting events. I'm not sure which version of "Georgia On My Mind" I heard first - Ray's or Willie Nelson's. And, I love Elvis Presley's late 60s/early 70s live performance of "I Got A Woman". I liked all of those songs and eventually picked up a Ray Charles' Greatest Hits comp.
"Hit The Road Jack" is a good one...I like it but it's not really a song I seek out. It fits in nicely with the early 60s period. It's a shorter song than some of Ray's other well-known songs, so it still gets significant airplay on oldies stations. You know, "Hit The Road Jack" has a little bit of that humorous, novelty song-type feel. It seems like everybody was doing it, even geniuses! 
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Post by jk on Aug 1, 2024 11:10:20 GMT
Heard it at the time and liked it immediately. The arrangement is superb (those timely brass stabs!) and Ray and Margie sing their hearts out, with Ray shrieking "What you SAAAAAY!" as if his life depended on it...
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Post by kds on Aug 1, 2024 12:58:41 GMT
I can't say I recall the first time I heard Hit the Road Jack. But, I do remember I really first became aware of the legendary Ray Charles from Diet Pepsi commercials. I know what you mean. Actually a few Ray Charles' songs are like that with me. I discovered them or first them outside the radio and records. I remember the commercials with "Hit The Road Jack". John Belushi did a funny Beethoven skit on Saturday Night Live utilizing "What'd I Say". I heard Ray Charles' version of "America The Beautiful" being played at some big sporting events. I'm not sure which version of "Georgia On My Mind" I heard first - Ray's or Willie Nelson's. And, I love Elvis Presley's late 60s/early 70s live performance of "I Got A Woman". I liked all of those songs and eventually picked up a Ray Charles' Greatest Hits comp.
"Hit The Road Jack" is a good one...I like it but it's not really a song I seek out. It fits in nicely with the early 60s period. It's a shorter song than some of Ray's other well-known songs, so it still gets significant airplay on oldies stations. You know, "Hit The Road Jack" has a little bit of that humorous, novelty song-type feel. It seems like everybody was doing it, even geniuses!
I actually first heard his version of America the Beautiful when I saw The Sandlot back in 1993. By then, I knew who Charles was, thanks to Diet Pepsi. But, another song I didn't associate with him until later is That Spirit of Christmas, which is used in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I first saw that upon its release in 1989, when I was nine, and I can't really recall when I finally made the connection to Ray.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 1, 2024 15:41:12 GMT
”Runaround Sue,” by Dion
Oct. 23-30, 1961 (2 weeks)
Always a bridesmaid but never a bride? Well maybe just once a bride… From 1958 to 1963 Dion DiMucci had an astounding 21 Top 40 hits, 10 of which made the Top 10 (and six of those, the Top 5). But just once in his 67-years-long career—he released his most recent album in 2024—did he top the Billboard Hot 100.
Dion Francis DiMucci was born in the Bronx in 1939 to a Catholic Italian-American family. His father, Pasquale, was a vaudeville entertaining. Young Dion often accompanied him on tour as a child, exposing him to a variety of musical styles. He became a fan of country music, and, as was the case of so many East-Coasters of his era, fell in love with doo-wop as a teen.
He auditioned for the owners of Mohawk Records as a 17-year-old, and while he didn’t like the song (he said it was something his parents would like), he recorded “The Chosen Few” with a group of background singers selected by the label. Mohawk released the song in 1957, and it became a regional hit.
The modest success in the northeast won Dion an appearance on American Bandstand. He also took the opportunity to recruit his own background singers, three childhood friends who sang under the name the Belmonts.
In early 1959, Dion and the Belmonts were brought on the “Winter Dance Party” tour, performing alongside Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper, and Frankie Sardo. After a show in Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 3, several of the stars decided to charter an overnight flight to Fargo, North Dakota, rather than take the bus. Dion decided he couldn’t justify the $36 expense, and so declined to join them on the plane. Of course, that plane crashed, killing everyone on board. Dion and the Belmonts and Frankie Sardo were the only stars to perform in that Fargo show that launched the career of young Bobby Vee. He was close to having his career cut tragically short after just a couple of years.
Dion and the Belmonts released music on Mohawk and Laurie Records from 1957 through 1960, nine consecutive charting singles (seven of which fell in the Top 40). Despite the group’s success, in early 1960, Dion checked himself into a hospital to deal with a heroin addiction he’d battled since his mid-teens. Later that year, for reasons personal, financial, and musical, Dion and the Belmonts parted ways.
And so in 1960, Dion began releasing music under his own name, branded simply as Dion. His first single, “Lonely Teenager,” hit No. 12 on the Hot 100, continuing his record of success. But in 1961, at a friend’s birthday party, Dion had an idea for a song, which he began dictating to other partygoers as he improvised lyrics. He later took the idea to a friend, singer, songwriter, and record executive named Ernie Maresca. The duo completed the song: “Runaround Sue.”
Whether the Sue in question was someone he knew—possibly even his wife of 61 years now!—or just a name that fit the song has been told differently in different interviews. Dion has also said the tune was inspired by a near-contemporaneous No. 1 hit, Gary U.S. Bonds’s “Quarter to Three.”
A crack band of session musicians including guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli on guitar and Milt Hinton on bass recorded the tune in New York City in summer 1961. Background vocals were handled by a group also signed to Lauri Records (for which Dion was recording by this period), the Del-Satins (a combination of prior groups the Dells and the Satins), who worked with Dion throughout the early ‘60s.
The song was released in the late summer, and by the latter part of October, it reached No. 1 on the Hot 100. Despite his massive success and numerous high-charting hits, it remains to this day Dion’s sole No. 1 record.
Dion had several more years of hits before a relapse into drug addiction and changing musical tastes—i.e., the British Invasion—hurt his career. He moved to Columbia Records, then ABC Records. He reunited briefly with the Belmonts. In the late ‘60s, after beating his heroin addiction again, he had a religious experience and began to release more contemplative music. By the late ‘70s, he became a born-again Christian and spent several years releasing contemporary Christian music.
As did many artists of his era, Dion enjoyed a resurgence beginning in the late ‘80s, as the next generation of musicians whom he inspired helped promote his work. He performed and recorded with the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Lou Reed, and had as guest stars on his 1989 album Yo Frankie Reed, Patti Smyth, Bryan Adams, and k.d. lang. That same year, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (introduced by Reed).
Later in life, Dion returned to Catholicism (after his protestant years subsequent to his born again experience) and began working in religious prison outreach. He has continued to release rock and roll, blues, and country music until as recently as this year (2024).
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Post by kds on Aug 1, 2024 17:35:27 GMT
Classic. I wonder if he became The Wanderer after his run in with Runaround Sue.
Yet another oldie I grew up hearing in the car. And, once again, used in a movie I liked as a kid. It was used as for a montage in the 1994 baseball comedy Little Big League.
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 1, 2024 17:43:17 GMT
I don't really love the intro, but I do like the song quite a bit. It's one I've known my whole life, more or less, as it was on a "classic rock and roll" comp of songs from the '50s and pre-British Invasion, very early '60s that they had on vinyl. (I'm guessing it was from the '70s, but I can't think of the title or track it down because I only remember two songs as definitively on it! This, and "Chantilly Lace" by the Big Bopper.)
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 5, 2024 11:27:23 GMT
I don't really love the intro, but I do like the song quite a bit. It's funny you would mention that. When I used to DJ, especially wedding receptions, I used to carry along a nice selection of oldies for grandma and grandpa, mom and dad, the aunts and uncles, and any brave dancers who liked to dance to the oldies. "Runaround Sue" was one of the songs that usually worked. However, that darn intro! I would have a dance floor full of dancers, it would be time for an oldie, and I'd play "Runaround Sue". However, that spoken/sung intro brought things to a literal halt. Everybody would stop dancing and just stand there. Some sat down, some did know the lyrics and sang along. It got to the point where I started to talk over the intro and "talk up" the song - "We're going back to 1961 with Dion & The Moments and blah, blah, blah - until the song kicked in. And it usually did.
"Runaround Sue" is a great song, a great record. Despite the intro  it has a super melody, arrangement, vocal, hook - and you could dance to it. It made you want to clap and bop along. It was part rock, part swing, part rock, part attitude, with a touch of humor. It deserves all the accolades it ever received.
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Post by jk on Aug 5, 2024 14:37:33 GMT
”Runaround Sue,” by Dion
Oct. 23-30, 1961 (2 weeks) I remember this one well but was never a big fan. "The Wanderer" and "Ruby Baby" (let's oink awhile!) have always been my two favourite Dion outings. "Lonely Teenager" and "Lovers Who Wander" are pretty cool too, although I didn't hear either of them at the time. Maybe "Runaround Sue" sounds too much to me like a watered-down "Quarter To Three"!
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Aug 5, 2024 15:53:00 GMT
”Runaround Sue,” by Dion
Oct. 23-30, 1961 (2 weeks) I remember this one well but was never a big fan. "The Wanderer" and "Ruby Baby" (let's oink awhile!) have always been my two favourite Dion outings. "Lonely Teenager" and "Lovers Who Wander" are pretty cool too, although I didn't hear either of them at the time. Maybe "Runaround Sue" sounds too much to me like a watered-down "Quarter To Three"! And, jk, I'll add "Drip Drop" and "I Wonder Why" to that list as favorites. And, don't forget "Abraham, Martin and John". That one still gets to me when I hear it. A quick look on Wikipedia shows that Dion had 39 Top 40 hits. Not too shabby.
Dion DiMucci still records and does the occasional live performance. In 2020 he released the Blues With Friends album which featured appearances from Van Morrison, Paul Simon, Jeff Beck, and Bruce Springsteen - and liner notes from Bob Dylan. Here's Dion at the 1999 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame with a few of his friends. Do you think there was a little talent on that stage? 
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 5, 2024 18:15:53 GMT
Maybe "Runaround Sue" sounds too much to me like a watered-down "Quarter To Three"! I disagree with that. Obviously "Runaround Sue" was based on or inspired by "Quarter to Three" (as Dion himself admitted), but I think it's a much better record. (As a song, there isn't much to either, so I'd call it a draw on that front.)
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Post by Kapitan on Aug 14, 2024 17:51:52 GMT
”Big Bad John,” by Jimmy Dean
Nov. 6 - Dec. 4, 1961 (5 weeks)
Breakfast sausage mogul. Television and radio talk show host. Television and film actor. And, yes, country musician who had the second-longest running Hot 100 No. 1 hit of 1961. Jimmy Dean.
Jimmy Ray Dean was born in a small community near Plainview, Texas, in 1928. As with many musicians of the era, he got started in music in his family’s Baptist church. He served in the U.S. Air Force in the late 1940s and then, in his early 20s, began a career in entertainment.
“Entertainment” is probably the better term than “music” in describing Dean’s career. He did succeed quickly in music, scoring the No. 5 (country and western charts) hit “Bumming Around” in 1952. But by 1954, he also hosted a radio program (which helped the careers of Patsy Cline and Roy Clark). As the decade continued, he not only continued to release country and pop music, but to host and appear on radio and television programs in various capacities.
While he remained busy, though, Dean’s music career hadn’t produced a hit in years. By 1961, his label, Columbia Records, was considering dropping him. On a flight from New York to Nashville, Dean had an idea for a song that eventually saved his music career with the label. Allegedly inspired by a 6-foot-5 actor with whom he worked in a summer stock play, Dean wrote the novelty story-song named “Big Bad John” (later with the help of Roy Acuff).
The recording featured a distinctive hammer-on-steel sound produced by legendary pianist Floyd Cramer, who thought the clanking would bring to life the tail of the massive miner.
The song, released on Columbia in September 1961, rose to the No. 1 position by early November and remained there for five weeks. Only Bobby Lewis’s “Tossin’ and Turnin’” (7 weeks) had a longer run atop the charts in 1961.
Dean recorded several versions of the song through the years, including immediately, when a version replaced the controversial line “one hell of a man” with “one big, big man.” There were also multiple response songs (such as by Dean’s sometime duet partner Dottie West) and parody songs.
While he never had another chart-topper on the Hot 100, Dean did have one more No. 1 on the Billboard Country & Western charts, as well as numerous other country hits deep into the ’70s.
Beyond his music career, Dean co-founded the Jimmy Dean Sausage Company with his brother in 1969. The brand went on to become a success throughout the decades since. He also continued to act and to appear as himself on game shows and variety shows.
Dean died unexpectedly at home at the age of 81.
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Post by lonelysummer on Aug 14, 2024 18:47:47 GMT
Another novelty hit. Boy, the charts were full of them in the early 60's.
That hammer on steel sound reminds me of "The Legend of John Henry" by Johnny Cash. I have no idea which record came first, but the Cash version is a highlight of his Folsom Prison album (the reissued and expanded version that came out in the 90s/00s).
"John Henry turned to his wife in bed and said 'I believe this is the first time the sun came up in the morning that I couldn't come up with it'".
(laughter among the prisoners)
Cash: "dirty minds!" (more laughter)
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it has a super melody, arrangement, vocal, hook - and you could dance to it. It made you want to clap and bop along. It was part rock, part swing, part rock, part attitude, with a touch of humor. It deserves all the accolades it ever received.
