KEEP ON PUSHING
EPISODE 5
From Studio C Chicago, it's "Keep On Pushing," a motley and mind-expanding exploration of the Sixties, with plenty of air time given to pop, soul, British Invasion, blues, bossa nova, Broadway, jazz, lounge, film music, folk music, garage rock, and much more. I'm Andy Miles and this is David Ruffin.
David Ruffin "My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)” (1969)
Jan Bradley “Mama Don’t Lie” (1963)
Ruby & The Romantics "Our Day Will Come” (1962)
Chuck Berry “Stop and Listen” (1961)
"Stop and Listen." That's Chuck Berry from 1961. "New Jukebox Hits" was the album, released by Chess Records when Berry's career was on the downturn.
Ruby & The Romantics before that, their hit "Our Day Will Come," a chart topper in 1962. Leroy Glover played the Hammond organ, and one of the three guitarists on the session was jazz great Kenny Burrell.
Jan Bradley before that, "Mama Don't Lie" from 1963.
And at the top of the show we heard David Ruffin, The Temptations' former lead singer who went solo in 1969 and released that as the title track of his debut album, "My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)." It came out just a few months after Ruffin was let go from The Temptations and climbed to number nine on the Billboard pop chart.
And you're listening to "Keep On Pushing." I'm Andy Miles. Thanks for being here and I hope you'll stick around; there's music on the way from Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Nancy Sinatra, and this from Savoy Brown.
Savoy Brown “Train to Nowhere” (1969)
Roy Orbison “Dream Baby” (1962)
Gladys Knight & The Pips "Take Me In Your Arms and Love Me" (1967)
The Brothers Four “Greenfields” (1960)
That's music from The Brothers Four, "Greenfields," the folk quartet's best known song, a number two Billboard hit in 1960.
Gladys Knight & The Pips before that, "Take Me In Your Arms and Love Me." That song barely charted in the United States, but in the United Kingdom it was a sizeable hit in 1967 for the Motown label.
Roy Orbison before that, "Dream Baby," written by Cindy Walker, a country singer and songwriter who was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997. The Orbison single hit the top 10 in eight countries, including the U.S., where it sold a whole bunch of copies in the spring of 1962. "Dream Baby" was Orbison's third straight 45 to hit the top five here in the U.S., after "Only the Lonely" had made him a big name in pop a couple years earlier.
Savoy Brown at the top of the set, on board the "Train to Nowhere," a 1969 single for the English blues rock outfit.
We also heard Senator Robert F. Kennedy delivering an impromptu speech to a crowd in Indianapolis on the night of April 4th, 1968, announcing the assassination of Martin Luther King. Kennedy was on the campaign trail, running for president; two months later, he too was fatally struck by an assassin’s bullet.
From Studio C Chicago, this is the all-’60s show "Keep On Pushing." I'm Andy Miles.
Here's one you might recognize from a different decade.
Gloria Jones “Tainted Love” (1964)
Nancy Sinatra “You Only Live Twice” (1967)
Esther Phillips “And I Love Him” (1965)
Cal Tjader “The Fakir” (1963)
That's a track from vibraphonist Cal Tjader's 1963 album "Several Shades of Jade," which was a pretty good selling jazz album for Verve Records, with arrangements by the Argentinian Lalo Schifrin, who wrote that song.
The songwriters of the previous song are a little better known: Lennon and McCartney. McCartney sang The Beatles' version in 1964, and Lennon introduced the singer we heard on a British television show in 1965, calling the record one of the best versions of one of their songs ever. Her name was Esther Phillips and by 1965 she was 29 years old and no longer calling herself Little Esther, which is the name she scored a series of R&B hits with in the 1950s. In her career she also enjoyed success in musical styles as diverse as country and disco.
Nancy Sinatra with one of the greatest singles of the decade, "You Only Live Twice," the theme to that 1967 James Bond film, which she recorded in London. Frank Sinatra had turned the song down, giving it to his daughter, who by that point in her career had already had her four top 10 singles, two of them having hit number one. "You Only Live Twice" was a bit of a chart flop, more popular in the U.K. and Australia than in America.
Starting things off in that set was Gloria Jones, her original version of "Tainted Love," which became a hit for Soft Cell 17 years later. Jones grew up in L.A. and eventually went to work as a singer and songwriter for Motown Records, but she really made her name in the U.K. where she earned the nickname "The Queen of Northern Soul" and played keyboard in the English glam rock band T. Rex, whose singer, Marc Bolan, was the father of her son.
From Studio C Chicago, this is "Keep On Pushing." Once again, it's "Soul Time."
Shirley Ellis “Soul Time”
The Byrds “Artificial Energy” (1968)
Bob Dylan “Queen Jane Approximately” (1965)
The Fascinations “Girls Are Out To Get You” (1967)
Sixties girl group The Fascinations with a very Motown-sounding 1967 single called "Girls Are Out To Get You," written by Curtis Mayfield. It was the group's only hit, and a very minor one at that. The Fascinations were actually co-founded in 1959 by Martha Reeves, but she left the group soon after, going on to release a string of '60s soul hits under her own name.
Bob Dylan before that, "Queen Jane Approximately" from the classic 1965 album "Highway 61 Revisited."
We also heard The Byrds with "Artificial Energy," a late '60s drug song about speed, with more brass than 12-string jangle; it was the lead track on the album “The Notorious Byrd Brothers,” the second of a trio of Byrds albums produced by Gary Usher.
It was "Soul Time" at the top of the set; that's a song from Shirley Ellis, who was better known for her top ten novelty hits "The Name Game," "The Clapping Song," and "The Nitty Gritty."
And that brings us almost to the end of another episode of "Keep On Pushing." I'm Andy Miles. Thanks for joining me. I have one more song on the show; it's Chicago-born tenor saxophonist Eddie Harris, who recorded this song in 1961 for the Chicago label Vee-Jay Records. It's called "Exodus." Enjoy.
Eddie Harris “Exodus” (1961)