08/04/2024
Chapter 7:
My "Oldies" come to television.
After about a year at WXEL, I began the steps to bring oldies to television. For starters, I became friends with Doo W*p Shop teacher Ken Held. Ken schooled me in the intricacies of the most significant R&B vocal group of the mid to late 1950s.
So, when it was time to bring music to television, Kenny was the guy I asked to help. Ken introduced me to Frank Ioviano, a local promoter and lead singer of a South Florida group called "The Five Boroughs", all experienced guys that loved acapella and classic oldies originating in the 1950s and early 1960s. Ironically, years earlier Frank's wife was the librarian at Ramblewood Middle School. They had a 3/4 inch UMATIC tape machine. I remember in sixth grade begging her to record the Dick Clark specials for me that would air from time to time on ABC. Though the library couldn't do it, he hooked me up with some friends outside of school to trade tapes with me. This was so whenever a Dick Clark, Ed Sullivan or other oldies related special aired, I'd have it in my Betamax and VHS videotape libraries. I used to talk with her about oldies, she would often mention her husband an officer in the Sheriff's department loved the music too, years later by happenstance, it was her husband that opened the doors for me to bring the music back to television when radio had all but abandoned it, sans a couple of hundred tunes.
I knew Frank's group backed up one of my all-time favorite vocal groups, The Five Keys. He could help me by getting me in touch with the golden voice himself, Rudy West. So Frank volunteered to be the house band for us and for his vocal group. He sang classics from The Avalons, "My Heart's Desire", The Jarmels "That Lucky Old Son" and their own "Recess In Heaven".
Years earlier, my parents took me to a place called Brickyard West. There, we saw a local group called The Fabulons performing Jackie Wilson tunes, Rascals hits, Girl Group classics and roaring' 60s rock and roll like Bobby "Blue" Bland's "Turn On Your Lovelight". Remembering them and Shelly their lead singer, I contacted their manager and asked him to come on and be on the TV telethon, which they did masterfully. Ritchie ws always a delight to spar with over who could top their oldies knowledge better. I'd say let's have Donna sing "He's Got The Power" and "Do Wah Diddy" from the Exciters, he'd say no we're not doing the show unless we do the Exciters version of "A Little Bit Of Soap" on Bang records! They were fun and wonderful, andd I will never forget that night and the joy they brought to the show. Ritchie was a true professional and I will always cherish the memories we shared. I am grateful for the opportunity to have worked with them. Chris MacDonald was an Elvis impersonator I worked the clubs with for manyyears., I knew he'd knock it out of the park with his pelvis moves and also lots of Johnny Rivers tunes he covered. So with the 5 Boroughs doing doo w*p, and the other s filling out the 50s and 60s - I only had one last piece of the puzzle, to bring in some 20-something girls to dance on a recreation of the Hullabaloo set to, you guessed it, the two songs that the Miami stations rejected, "Mickey's Monkey" and "Going To A Go-Go" from The Miracles, and Huey Smith and The Clowns' "Dontcha Just Know It".
In the meantime, Ken handled live hosting duties for our special guests. Herb Cox of The Cleftones and Rudy West of the Five Keys. Both gentlemen were hand-picked by me because I loved their albums so much. I remember buying the 5 Keys Capitol and Aladdin Years on LP with classics like, "The Glory of Love", "Red Sails In The Sunset" and his Capitol classics like "Out of Site, Out of Mind", "The Verdict", "One Great Love," and "Close Your Eyes". With Herbie, who Ken Held introduced me to, it was one of my favorites "Why You Do Me Like You Do" and "Can't We Be Sweethearts", "Happy Memories" that all had me hooked followed by "Little Girl Of Mine", "Heart and Soul" and the Pittsburgh Porky Chedwick pick, favorite "Lover Boy" that I loved the most along with their stunning "For Sentimental Reasons" and the years Pat Span was also in the group with "Glory Of Love" and the up-tempo "Earth Angel".
I remember picking up Mr. West from the airport when I learned a very important lesson, "Mr. West I just love doo w*p and your music", I proudly exclaimed. "Hold on, wait a minute he said kid...I'm no doo w*pper! We weren't out on no street corners chasing women and drinking ripple" he scolded me " I had the Capitol orchestra, the Johnny Mann singers behind us and we were singing harmonies like The Ink Spots, so please don't diminish what we did by calling us doo w*ppers". I then offered up, "Well I just want you to know - Ling Ting Tong has the most impressive tenor sax I ever heard" he laughed and said - okay you got me on that one!" and just like he was sharing how he felt about "Wisdom Of A Fool" and other Maryland Pierce tunes with the Keys, that night we were all on TV doing our best to raise funds for the Palm Beach public TV station.
As an aside, Ling Ting Tong was the first 45 I bought.
Later on, I'd record local shows with Harvey Fuqua together with Bobby Lester's Moonglows doing all the great ones, "Please Send Me Someone To Love," "In My Diary", "The Beating Of My Heart", their definitive "Sincerely" and "the one with all the soul - The Ten Commandments Of Love". It was also the first time I heard Havey and the guys perform his "Anyway You Wanta" a song that still has me hooked to this day on, as you can dance any way you want to on this Tri-Phi classic, a major tune in Pittsburgh and one I always played in the clubs to do the Electric Slide to a distant cousin to "Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Jo Bop" from Tough Tony and The Imperials".
The mighty Irish doo w*p Tenor, Jimmy Gallagher and his group were doing all those Passions tunes I so loved too from "Just To Be With You" to "I Only Want You", "Made For Lovers", "You Don't Really Love Me Anymore" and "This Is My Love" sometimes called "Sweeter Than". We had "Pirkle Lee" Moses and The El Dorados with their Windy-City R&B classics, "At My Front Door," "Bim Bam Boom (At My Back Door)" and "I'll Be Forever Loving You".
Louis Lymon (Frankie's brother) with The Legendary Teenagers. Herman and Jimmy and Bobby Jay belt out their classics, "Why Do Fools Fall In Love," "I'm Not A Juvenile Delinquent", "ABC's of Love, 'I Promise To Remember", "The Creation Of Love," and "Creation of Love" all led by Jimmy Castor. Plus my first TV interviews I ever did with New York's finest Earl Lewis of The Channels and Fort St. Pierce local Carl Gardner lead singer of The Coasters and in-between I'd spin live requests for pledges along with The Gator Jerry Blavat who'd join me as a co-host as we kicked off airing Jerry's "On The Air" series of 26 episodes of classic oldies. It was the best of times, and the best of times.
But I also wanted to do something national. I had proven it would work for TV pledges as we offered the first two Doo W*p Box sets from Rhino and that drove contributions. For that to happen, I needed to test and try the Doo W*p TV fundraising formula in other cities. This included WLIW on Long Island and that's what led me to Pittsburgh's WQED. The home of Mr. Rogers himself, National Geographic specials, local history and cooking shows and now, I was being recruited to pack-up and relocate to the Steele City (with all my doo w*p tapes in toe) and try to see if I could make it happen again in the Rust Belt as I did in the Sunshine state, and that's where my national journey to bring that music would start anew...
This time I was playing for keeps, and the future of the music long since forgotten by oldies radio stations and doing what would seem impossible, bringing doo w*p and other oldies music back in a resurgence for the country, not just the big cities but all 50 states where many of the songs weren't even played the first time around. My goal was twofold, to respect the original founding fathers and mothers of vocal group harmony but something else just as important, to bring back the good times and memories to the audience that lived through it (or always wanted to) the first time around. To take away the health concerns of loved ones, fear of cancer, pain, and long lost loves - to bring back even if only for a moment or hour, the good times of just starting out, first loves, first crushes, first kisses, marriage, being in love, going into the service, coming out of the service, starting families and "the good old days" in the minds and memories of all the people that felt what I felt when hearing a ballad, or jump tune, or simple lyrics you could understand, lyrics and melodies that spoke to your heart (not a radio research chart as the Geator so often said) and bringing back the best days of your life...that's what I'm all about, but it would take going to Pittsburgh to open up the doors I needed to bring back the music we love!
