This is the front cover of the Boss Radio 1966 All-Time Top 300 souvenir booklet. It’s eight pages and contains brief stories about the artists who made the Top Ten as well as a listing of the Top 300 songs. Measures 8.5" x 11".
Click the image below to view a list of the titles.
KHJ 1966 Top 300 Souvenir Booklet
14 comments:
Is it possible to post the other pages of the Top 300? I'd love to see which records were on there. (And the same request goes for when you likely post the Top 300 lists for 1967 and 1968.)
Steve, try clicking the new link that I've placed in the post to see the list of Top 300 titles.
Interesting that Tommy Vance is pictured on the Top 300 souvenir book. I thought he had left KHJ by August of 1966.
Dave
Much thanks for the full list! I love this website. I started listening to KHJ 40 years ago this month, when I was 10. I started writing down the Boss 30 every Wednesday night when Sam Riddle would count it down, and I loved Morgan, Steele and all the Boss Jocks, and I started buying 45s with my allowance money. KHJ was one of the best things about growing up in Southern California in the late '60s and early '70s.
Steve, no problem with the full list. I'll do the same for the 1967 and 1968 editions when they come along.
Glad you like the site. I started listening to KHJ in 1966 (also at age ten) and was immediately hooked. My experience was similar to yours. The Boss 30 countdowns were a weekly ritual. I'd have the previous week's survey and would scribble in the position changes as the songs were counted down. Then off on my bike to the record store a few days later to pick up the new Boss 30 and repeat the whole process. I cannot imagine what it would have been like growing up in Southern California without Boss Radio.
Even though I started listening regularly to KHJ in June 1968 (right after Robert Kennedy's assassination, as I recall), I didn't start writing down the Boss 30s until September. I ended up having a written copy for every week until around 1975, and by then I picked up a printed list every week at a local record store. I did this until 1978, when I was in college. At that time I inexplicably decided I didn't need those 10 years' of lists anymore, so I tossed them. Yes. It wasn't long after that I realized what a dumb gesture that was. One of the things I liked about KHJ was how many local hits it played, and your note about "The Oogum Boogum Song" reflects that. So in recent years I've been able to acquire on CD most of those local hits that never did much nationally. Since those songs never get played on oldies radio, they still sound fresh for the most part. In the early 1980s, KRTH-FM actually played a lot of those regional hits from the '60s, such as Danny Hutton's "Roses and Rainbow" and the Merry Go Round's "Live." It was great to hear those. But a few years later, KRTH streamlined its oldies playlist, and those L.A.-based songs were no more. A shame. By the way, I also enjoy the list you compiled of the songs that made the Boss 30 over the years. So many wonderful, forgotten songs on there.
Hi Ray,
Incredible! I've searched the net since the turn of the millennium for this listing. Like an idiot, I threw away my copy from KHJ of the Top 300 in the 70's. I listened to about the whole thing while taping it on very slow speed on an open reel player one track at a time. That old super thin Radio Shack tape is now lost also. Remember the heat wave and the lighting and thunderstorm during the first run through! Those cracks came out as static on the tape.
I recall however, that song #293 was "The Dangling Conversation" by Simon & Garfunkel. I voted 12 times for it (it was always one of my 3 choices on the postcard). LOL This has to be the right year. The following year the #1 song was the Doors "Light My Fire." Correct?
Father time hasn't played a trick on me?
relic52, I think you may be one year off. "The Dangling Conversation" was released about the same time the 1966 Top 300 was counted down. It first appeared on the 1967 Top 300 at No. 234 (your twelve votes helped more than you thought!). "Light My Fire" was No. 1 on the 1968 Top 300. You can see the entire 1966 list by clicking here. I'll be posting the 1967 Top 300 in a couple of days.
Steve, I think we've all pitched things we thought we had outgrown. I certainly did. I didn't save any of the KHJ stuff I had as a kid. I did what kids do with things. Wrote on the surveys as the new Boss 30s were counted down. Cut up the KHJ Rules! stickers and plastered 'em everywhere. It was in the late '70s when I got the bug to collect KHJ material. It all started at the old Capitol Records Swap Meet. Somebody had Boss 30 #134 in amongst the things they were selling. I thought it was so cool and paid something like 50 cents for it. And that's all it took. The hunt was on for KHJ memorabilia...
I've been able to find the majority of songs from KHJ on CD or iTunes/Amazon. I like to set up playlists in iTunes that contain the Boss 30 from a particular week and let it play from No. 30 to No. 1. Obviously nowhere near as good as the original countdown broadcasts but still kinda fun. It's interesting to hear the songs play knowing they were in competition with one another at the time. Of course some of the more obscure titles like "The Lights Of Night" by Deni Lynn and "Back To Dreamin' Again" by Pat Shannon still elude me.
I'm not sure if 'The Dangling Conversation' ever really got much airplay on boss radio. It was a select play for sure of B. Mitchell Reed on KFWB. I was mesmerized by the song at first hearing it on his show, but as it wasn’t in much of a rotation anywhere, I was really voting to hear it again.
Things are popping back into focus. I guess Satisfaction then the #1 song for a 2 straight years? Also, I recall a more psychedelic KHJ top 300 listing. Looks like I'll get to see it again after all!
Was the lighting storm in the LA area I mentioned something you remember? I lived in Long Beach and I remember the heat wave and the storm from Mexico that labor day weekend.
You are correct. "Satisfaction" was No. 1 two years in a row. And the 1967 Top 300 was more psychedelic in design. As for the lightning storm, I don't have that kind of recall. I have a hard time remembering what the weather was like last week! Perhaps somebody with better recall will come along and share what they remember.
Ah, "The Lights of Night" by Deni Lynn. I'm pleased someone besides me remembers that song from summer 1969. Talk about an obscurity -- not only did it not chart on Billboard's Hot 100, it didn't even make the Bubbling Under chart. I neglected to buy that single when it was new, but years later I found a copy on White Whale and was happy to find it was in stereo, too. It's a beautiful song. And I found "Back to Dreamin' Again" as well as Pat Shannon's earlier KHJ single, "She Sleeps Alone" (another single that neglected to chart nationally). These are exactly the songs I was referring to earlier when I said how much I like these more obscure songs that KHJ played. Another that comes to mind is "Anytime Sunshine" by Crazy Paving in early 1971.
That previous comment is from me. I missed a step in the process, so that's why it says Anonymous.
In the summer of 1966 I was going to a day camp. On the Friday that the Top 300 premiered, I wanted to stay home and listen to the radio but my parents insisted that I had to go to camp that day. All that long, tedious day at camp, all I could think about, all I could talk about, was the Top 300 and speculating on where my favorite songs would be. I’m sure that the counselors and my fellow campers were as annoyed with me as I was annoyed at having to be there.
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