Maine’s All-Time Fave One-Hit Wonders? Plus Ed Sullivan!
Ed tells Bo "No!", and two One-Hit Wonders you know and love -- Headin' into the weekend with a quirky Coffee Break Calendar for your Friday Nov. 20th. Good Luck...
11/20/1955 (65 years ago today) - Bo Diddley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show and pisses off the host real quick: The CBS-TV producers asked Bo to sing his version of Tennessee Ernie Ford's then-current-hit "Sixteen Tons", but when he appeared live onstage, Bo ripped into his own song "Bo Diddley" -- It was too late to "pull the plug", so instead they banned him from any further appearances on the show. High five's all around...
11/20/1967 (53 years ago today) - One-Hit Wonder, Exhibit 'A': The Strawberry Alarm Clock are No. 1 on the singles chart with the classic pop-psychedelia period piece "Incense And Peppermints" -- Lyrics include "Turn on, tune in, turn your eyes around/Look at yourself". Hey look, the drummer's the lead singer!:
11/20/1942 - One-Hit Wonder, Exhibit 'B': Happy Birthday to singer-songwriter-guitarist Norman Greenbaum, 78 years old today -- The world has always been a better place thanks to his classic single "Spirit In The Sky", which we absolutely put in The Top Ten Greatest Riffs Ever Recorded category -- Did you know...: Norman's a New England dude? He was born in Malden, Massachusetts, and when follow-ups to "Spirit" failed to happen {though we really like 1970's "Canned Ham", which went to No. 46}, he took his earnings and became a goat farmer in Petaluma, California -- "Petaluma", incidentally, was the title of his third album, which he recorded with legendary guitar wiz Ry Cooder. There's more to Mr. Greenbaum than you realize (and it was genuinely good stuff), but when you add it all up, it's still one-hit-wonderland...
Share your riffage with the Calendar here on our web site and on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.
"Prepare yourself/You know it's a must...", xoxo!