Issue #287 - “We Gotta Get You a Woman” by Runt is the final song to make the Boss 30 in 1970.
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KHJ Boss 30 - December 30, 1970
93/KHJ Boss Radio: A Look Back
Issue #287 - “We Gotta Get You a Woman” by Runt is the final song to make the Boss 30 in 1970.
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6 comments:
I love "We Gotta Get You a Woman." A great production with a great melody. I assume Rundgren did all of the intricate harmonies.
"If You Could Read My Mind" is another all-time classic.
The tide is slowly starting to turn as to the music on KHJ. More MOR or AC titles are finding their way onto the survey. "One Less Bell to Answer," "If I Were Your Woman," "For the Good Times," "1900 Yesterday," "Your Song," "It's Impossible," "If You Could Read My Mind."
While I like most of those songs, a steady diet of them had me starting to flip over to the FM dial for music with a little bit more edge. The days of the radio being set only to the Big 93 were coming to a close.
As we discuss fairly frequently on Reelradio.com, KHJ was one of the most grown-up Top 40s musically. Ray's right about the trend accelerating here.
But what threw me off the KHJ train (at least partially) were the changes that came later...album cuts in late '71 and early-mid '72 that really didn't fit the format...followed by a turn to a lowest-common denominator Top 40 with no local or regional influences in '73 and '74.
I'd always shared my listening time with other stations (KMPC came first, years before I discovered KHJ). In 1969, I branched out to KFI, KRLA, KGIL, KMET, KABC-FM (later KLOS), KHJ-FM and KBCA (a truly great jazz station).
When Top 40 competition came along in the form of KROQ(AM) in 1972 and KKDJ in 1973, I have to admit I was hoping they'd do well. It wasn't until Charlie Van Dyke became PD in January, 1975 that KHJ really began to shine again, in my book.
Ah, KMPC. Although I was a KHJ nut and only tuned away to catch Dodger games on KFI, my parents were really into KMPC. Since I had no say in the matter, I did hear a lot of KMPC. Dick Whittinghill, Roger Carroll, Gary Owens, Johnny Magnus, Fred Hessler, Captain Max. One thing that sticks in my mind was Magnus' "weather with a beat." Hard to imagine that was some forty years ago.
KHJ was still my only station until mid- to late 1972. Even though I still kept writing down the Boss 30 until at least the mid-'70s, I did start enjoying FM more to hear songs in stereo. I started listening to KKDJ more by '72 or '73. I remember liking a DJ named Jeff Salgo. Still, I didn't mind the MOR music on KHJ, and indeed a check of the Boss 30s from later in the decade shows that it incorporated disco and funk and well as many novelty records.
Michael, can you remember what album cuts KHJ was playing in '71 and '72 that didn't fit the format to you? Offhand, I can't recall.
I did notice that as the '70s progressed, we saw fewer regional hits, although KHJ still had a steady diet of these in 1971 and '72, as those Boss 30s will show. But by '73 or '74, these were much rarer.
Since Ray mentioned KFI, I'll note that my parents had been fans of Lohman and Barkley, and so I heard them a lot. By the time I was in high school (1973-76), I was listening to them myself every morning over KHJ. I still think L&B were the funniest morning team I've ever heard, with their huge cast of in-house characters (Ted J. Baloney, W. Eva Schneider, "Kissy" Maynard Farmer, Leonard Leonard and "Arthur Godfrey" come to mind). Lohman was brilliant in his voice characterizations and Barkeley was an excellent straight man.
Ray:
I loved "Weather With A Beat". Unfortunately, the only aircheck of Magnus on KMPC that I'm aware of (9/14/72) is of terrible technical quality, and he'd replaced Count Basie's "Cute" with a fairly generic electric piano jazz piece for "Weather With A Beat".
Steve: Mornings were a really dilemma for me...especially by 1973...Lohman & Barkley on KFI, Whittinghill on KMPC, Van Dyke on KHJ, Sweet Dick Whittington on KGIL, Robert W. Morgan on K-100 and Charlie Tuna on KKDJ. I usually ended up with Lohman & Barkley, too.
As for the album cuts, I don't remember specific tracks (other than the New Riders of the Purple Sage's "I Don't Need No Doctor", which appears on the Jimmy Rabbitt 5/24/72 aircheck)...there are about one an hour on Charlie Van Dyke's first day (1/24/72)...I'll have to go back and listen.
Where Ron Jacobs played LP cuts on KHJ that mattered (Dylan, Stones, Beatles and Monkees cuts that were huge but not available as singles), the 1971/72 KHJ album cuts seemed almost random...tracks by artists that weren't ever likely to get on the KHJ Thirty.
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