By Phil Nee
This Saturday night on WRCO’s Those Were the Days, we will be featuring tunes that were on the charts in July of 1966. It may have been the last year for classic Top 40 radio. A year or so later, music began to change drastically and splinter into different genres. The songs that were on the charts during the summer of ’66 are some of the most iconic of the decade. Titles such as Wild Thing, Hanky Panky, Lil’ Red Riding Hood, Summer in the City, Sweet Pea, Paperback Writer, Red Rubber Ball, Ain’t Too Proud to Beg, Dirty Water, Cool Jerk, Bus Stop, and Sugar and Spice still get people’s attention after all these years.
I have many memories of growing up in the sixties and seventies on the old Willow Valley farm. It was a time when neighbors helped neighbors and there always seemed to be friends and cousins when my mom would light the charcoal grill. It was like they saw the smoke and knew that there was a chance that they would get a grilled delight. To this day I have never had a steak as good as those I chomped on back in the day. The radio was always on in the background playing the hits of the day. My dad had a large collection of 78’s and once in a while we would break out the record player and spin some Benny Goodman, Harry James, Russ Morgan, or Spike Jones. My recollections of those days include how hard everyone worked and how they had fun after the chores were done on the weekends.
Saturday night during Those Were the Days, I will be spinning all of your requests from the fifties through the early nineties. Between six and midnight you can request a fave. Listen for the ‘magic cowbell’ and you could be the winner of some cool prizes. Those Were the Days can be heard on WRCO FM 100.9, WRCO.com, and on the Civic Media app.
Phil
