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Post by edehl on Dec 19, 2008 21:21:09 GMT -5
When I was growing up, a tradition for a local radio station was to play all of the Beatles songs in alphabetical order over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Since I never had the money to go out and buy the Beatles collection, I would fire up the tape recorder and get as much as I could on one side, then flip it over and begin recording on the other. This resulted in a lot of songs getting cut half way through and lots of commercials, but I didn't care. For so many years, this was "my" little Christmas tradition until I was finally able to afford to buy the albums. I still have fond memories of the marathon and still have many of the old old tapes for sentimental reasons.
Did anyone have memories of Beatles marathons (or other marathons) that they couldn't miss?
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Post by H2IZCOOL on Dec 19, 2008 22:54:46 GMT -5
When I was growing up, a tradition for a local radio station was to play all of the Beatles songs in alphabetical order over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Since I never had the money to go out and buy the Beatles collection, I would fire up the tape recorder and get as much as I could on one side, then flip it over and begin recording on the other. This resulted in a lot of songs getting cut half way through and lots of commercials, but I didn't care. For so many years, this was "my" little Christmas tradition until I was finally able to afford to buy the albums. I still have fond memories of the marathon and still have many of the old old tapes for sentimental reasons. Did anyone have memories of Beatles marathons (or other marathons) that they couldn't miss? Whew, Edehl! You don't know how scared I got when I saw that subject heading! I thought either we were being invaded, or you had been assimilated. (As in resistance is futile.) I got a reel-to-reel tape recorder when I was living in Maine in the late '60s, and used to tape several of the DJ shows from the local radio station. But since the DJs always talked over the songs, I would rarely have anything I'd want to keep. Eventually, I gave up. I did listen to many marathon shows back then. Things like The History of Rock and Roll, which was a ten part (I think) show that was on every Saturday for 10 weeks. Funny -- Rock and roll was less than 15 years old at the time! Actually, in '69 a buddy of mine (who worked at the University Radio Station) and I produced and taped a 6 1/2 hour-show consisting of ten 30 minute segments featuring the top 10 hits of each year from 1956-1968. The two of us acted as the DJs. The show aired one Saturday afternoon that spring. We even had a contest with a prize. |
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Post by Dawn on Dec 22, 2008 12:29:39 GMT -5
Those Beatles marathons must have been really cool! I remember during New Year's weekend 1987, one of the local radio stations did a countdown of "The Top 100 Songs of the Rock Era." The problem was, they didn't do the countdown straight through, but rather would play one or two of the countdown songs, then several songs from their usual programming (top 40, which by that time wasn't that great  ), so it took forever to get through it. Still, I remember being glued to the radio most of that weekend, keeping track of the titles and artists as they played them. To this day I'm not sure how they determined the placings of the songs, as they didn't match the ones on the list in the Billboard Top 40 Whitburn book I got a few months after the countdown aired. I remember there were some odd inclusions in the radio one, like Steve Winwood's Higher Love, John Fred's Judy in Disguise (which was the first time I'd ever heard that song) and Johnny Mathis' It's Not for Me to Say. I think Madonna's Papa Don't Preach may have been on there too. Like Ed, I used to tape songs off the radio, but ran into the same problem with DJs talking into the songs and/or songs running into each other. I still have some of those tapes, some dating back to the early '80s. |
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Post by gremashlo on Dec 22, 2008 14:54:56 GMT -5
Those Beatles marathons must have been really cool! I remember during New Year's weekend 1987, one of the local radio stations did a countdown of "The Top 100 Songs of the Rock Era." The problem was, they didn't do the countdown straight through, but rather would play one or two of the countdown songs, then several songs from their usual programming (top 40, which by that time wasn't that great ), so it took forever to get through it. Still, I remember being glued to the radio most of that weekend, keeping track of the titles and artists as they played them. To this day I'm not sure how they determined the placings of the songs, as they didn't match the ones on the list in the Billboard Top 40 Whitburn book I got a few months after the countdown aired. I remember there were some odd inclusions in the radio one, like Steve Winwood's Higher Love, John Fred's Judy in Disguise (which was the first time I'd ever heard that song) and Johnny Mathis' It's Not for Me to Say. I think Madonna's Papa Don't Preach may have been on there too. Like Ed, I used to tape songs off the radio, but ran into the same problem with DJs talking into the songs and/or songs running into each other. I still have some of those tapes, some dating back to the early '80s. I still remember Casey Kasem doing a countdown of the top 100 songs of the 1970's, and my sister and I kept track all through the broadcast--and then after all that, "You Light Up My Life" was #1...we were furious! WE had listened for HOURS and that was the penultimate song! I laugh at it now, but we were TICKED OFF back then... |
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Post by H2IZCOOL on Dec 22, 2008 15:54:42 GMT -5
Those Beatles marathons must have been really cool! I remember during New Year's weekend 1987, one of the local radio stations did a countdown of "The Top 100 Songs of the Rock Era." The problem was, they didn't do the countdown straight through, but rather would play one or two of the countdown songs, then several songs from their usual programming (top 40, which by that time wasn't that great ), so it took forever to get through it. Still, I remember being glued to the radio most of that weekend, keeping track of the titles and artists as they played them. To this day I'm not sure how they determined the placings of the songs, as they didn't match the ones on the list in the Billboard Top 40 Whitburn book I got a few months after the countdown aired. I remember there were some odd inclusions in the radio one, like Steve Winwood's Higher Love, John Fred's Judy in Disguise (which was the first time I'd ever heard that song) and Johnny Mathis' It's Not for Me to Say. I think Madonna's Papa Don't Preach may have been on there too. Like Ed, I used to tape songs off the radio, but ran into the same problem with DJs talking into the songs and/or songs running into each other. I still have some of those tapes, some dating back to the early '80s. I still remember Casey Kasem doing a countdown of the top 100 songs of the 1970's, and my sister and I kept track all through the broadcast--and then after all that, "You Light Up My Life" was #1...we were furious! WE had listened for HOURS and that was the penultimate song! I laugh at it now, but we were TICKED OFF back then... I think you need to look up the definition of "penultimate, " Grem.  It's one of those words that everyone misuses - even English teachers. But -- getting back on topic -- I remember doing something very similar on New Year's Day 1964. The local radio station (WBZ Boston) was playing what THEY considered to be the Top 100 of 1963. I listened to it all day long and even wrote down the songs. After they did the number two song, I figured that #1 would have to be Surfer Girl by The Beach Boys. Well - they finally played #1 -- and it was Limbo Rock by Chubby Checker. -- which was actually a 1962 song! -- and Surfer Girl wasn't even in the top 100!  . I was pretty ticked off - except for one thing. While they were playing the top 100, every half hour or so, they played this new song by some British group that was supposed to be getting huge in the US before long. The group was The Beatles and the song was I Want To Hold Your Hand. They must have played it a dozen or more times during the day. I was totally mesmerized. I forgave them for Limbo Rock - as long as they kept on playing The Beatles!! |
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Post by gremashlo on Dec 22, 2008 21:32:51 GMT -5
I still remember Casey Kasem doing a countdown of the top 100 songs of the 1970's, and my sister and I kept track all through the broadcast--and then after all that, "You Light Up My Life" was #1...we were furious! WE had listened for HOURS and that was the penultimate song! I laugh at it now, but we were TICKED OFF back then... I think you need to look up the definition of "penultimate, " Grem. It's one of those words that everyone misuses - even English teachers. But -- getting back on topic -- I remember doing something very similar on New Year's Day 1964. The local radio station (WBZ Boston) was playing what THEY considered to be the Top 100 of 1963. I listened to it all day long and even wrote down the songs. After they did the number two song, I figured that #1 would have to be Surfer Girl by The Beach Boys. Well - they finally played #1 -- and it was Limbo Rock by Chubby Checker. -- which was actually a 1962 song! -- and Surfer Girl wasn't even in the top 100! . I was pretty ticked off - except for one thing. While they were playing the top 100, every half hour or so, they played this new song by some British group that was supposed to be getting huge in the US before long. The group was The Beatles and the song was I Want To Hold Your Hand. They must have played it a dozen or more times during the day. I was totally mesmerized. I forgave them for Limbo Rock - as long as they kept on playing The Beatles!! Okay--so "You Light Up My Life" was the"ultimate" song of the 1970's...not the penultimate....I guess I wasn't recognizant of the omnipresent misusage of words that seemed perfunctory for the situation. And stuff. And junk. ;D |
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Post by Dawn on Dec 23, 2008 12:24:24 GMT -5
Those Beatles marathons must have been really cool! I remember during New Year's weekend 1987, one of the local radio stations did a countdown of "The Top 100 Songs of the Rock Era." The problem was, they didn't do the countdown straight through, but rather would play one or two of the countdown songs, then several songs from their usual programming (top 40, which by that time wasn't that great ), so it took forever to get through it. Still, I remember being glued to the radio most of that weekend, keeping track of the titles and artists as they played them. To this day I'm not sure how they determined the placings of the songs, as they didn't match the ones on the list in the Billboard Top 40 Whitburn book I got a few months after the countdown aired. I remember there were some odd inclusions in the radio one, like Steve Winwood's Higher Love, John Fred's Judy in Disguise (which was the first time I'd ever heard that song) and Johnny Mathis' It's Not for Me to Say. I think Madonna's Papa Don't Preach may have been on there too. Like Ed, I used to tape songs off the radio, but ran into the same problem with DJs talking into the songs and/or songs running into each other. I still have some of those tapes, some dating back to the early '80s. I still remember Casey Kasem doing a countdown of the top 100 songs of the 1970's, and my sister and I kept track all through the broadcast--and then after all that, "You Light Up My Life" was #1...we were furious! WE had listened for HOURS and that was the penultimate song! I laugh at it now, but we were TICKED OFF back then... LOL! I don't mind the song in small doses, but in retrospect, considering that there were so many great songs from the '70s, it's odd that the song was as successful as it was. I think in that countdown I mentioned, it was something like #5 or #6 - still pretty high. I was trying to remember which song they had at #1, but it's been so long, I can't recall. It seems like it was an older song, though, maybe early '60s. |
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Post by Ken on Dec 30, 2008 20:46:03 GMT -5
I remember one of my local stations doing a Beatles marathon sometime in the late 70's or early 80's. It was excellent, along with the music, they were also giving away albums for correctly answering Beatles trivia.
Shortly after John Lennon died (about a week, I think), one of our top AM stations aired a show called, "A Tribute To John Lennon", I recorded it and still have the cassettes. Every so often I'll pull them out and have a listen to them.
I also recall back in 1978, one of our local stations did a countdown of the top 500 songs of the year. It started early New Years Eve Day, and lasted through New Years Day, I which I still had the poster listing the songs
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Post by Dawn on Dec 31, 2008 11:07:24 GMT -5
KLOS (the classic rock station out of L.A.) has been doing a mega-marathon of every song in their library, A to Z by titles. I believe they started it over the weekend, and as of last evening, they were doing the Is: Billy Squier's In the Dark, Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (all 17 minutes of it!) and Dire Straits' Industrial Disease were some of the songs played.
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Post by edehl on Dec 31, 2008 19:25:06 GMT -5
KLOS (the classic rock station out of L.A.) has been doing a mega-marathon of every song in their library, A to Z by titles. I believe they started it over the weekend, and as of last evening, they were doing the Is: Billy Squier's In the Dark, Iron Butterfly's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (all 17 minutes of it!) and Dire Straits' Industrial Disease were some of the songs played. Man, I wonder how long it will take before they've gotten through the Z's? At least it will be a quick trip through the letter X!  |
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), so it took forever to get through it. Still, I remember being glued to the radio most of that weekend, keeping track of the titles and artists as they played them. 
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