Monday, March 18, 2013

The Ides Of March ... Three Days Late!

re: BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH:

We blew right past The Ides Of March on Friday to bring you our latest Forgotten Hits Give-Away ... The Joel Whitburn / Forgotten Hits Music Trivia Challenge (scroll back to Friday, March 15th, for more information).  

However, while we were preoccupied, OTHER Chicagoans WERE celebrating.  I just happened to be on Jury Duty Thursday Morning and, during the long (two hour!) commute, I had the opportunity to hear Jim Peterik and Scott May live on the air when the dropped by the Scott MacKay Morning Program on The River on my way downtown. They not only treated us to this live performance on Friday, the 15th of March ... which IS, of course, The Ides Of March ... but they ALSO performed live at a very special show at Viper Alley in Lincolnshire, IL, later that same evening ... and have several other shows already booked for this year (including a trip out to Las Vegas this coming weekend!)  kk  

Here is the latest from the official Ides Of March website ...

Click here:  The Official Website of The Ides of March   
March 23rd - Aliante Hotel And Casino - North Las Vegas, NV  
May 18th - The Paramount Theatre - Aurora, IL  
July 12th - Festival in Sycamore - Cincinnati, OH August 9th - Van Wert - Van Wert, OH  
August 18th - Bolingbrook Jubilee - Bolingbrook, IL September 26th - September 29th - The Big E Fest - West Springfield, MA  
November 2nd - Theatre of Western Springs - Western Springs, IL (This one is billed as "An Intimate Evening With The Ides Of March: An All-Acoustic Show)  


Meanwhile, we have been diligently working behind the scenes for the last several months, trying to arrange an appearance for Jim Peterik (with or without The Ides) on "The Late Show With David Letterman", sitting in with Paul Shaffer and the band. (It's not as far-fetched as it sounds ... looking at a couple of the emails that we've received below, Paul appears to be quite a fan of Jim's work ... and has played "Vehicle" numerous times now as they head into a commercial break.) 

Of course, in a perfect world, this would have all happened BEFORE the actual date of The Ides Of March ... but sadly, it has not come to be. Our only contact person for this covert mission is Paul's personal assistant ... and despite numerous faxes and emails, we never received a single response. (The worst part is we have no way of knowing if our messages ever even reached Paul Shaffer ... who just may have LOVED the idea, had it actually been brought to his attention.) 

Difficult as it has been these past several months, I have resisted both the pleas (and the temptation) to publish this guy's email so that we can all bombard him with similar requests, asking to see Jim jam with Paul and the band live on tv. (I was given this information in strictest confidence and wouldn't do anything to betray this trust. However, I'm no dummy ... and have seen similar Facebook-type campaigns getting successful results ... while so far all of my efforts have failed.) 

So we're putting it out to the readers ... if you are willing ... and have the means to help us to spread the word ... through whichever social media network(s) you communicate ... let's see if we can drum up a little interest in getting Jim an invitation to appear on this program!   

Read on ... and then join us in this campaign ... climb on the bandwagon to help us make this happen. (Just to keep things interesting, here's a link to Paul Shaffer's Facebook Page ... we don't do Facebook ... but a good number of you guys do ... so PLEASE help us to get the word out.) In fact, if you think it might help, feel free to reference today's posting with a link along with any of your own correspondence ... like I said, I have no way of knowing for sure if Paul ever even saw any of our requests!!!  We're just trying to get his attention ... and consideration ... so THIS time around, let's bypass the middle man and go right to the source!  (kk 
Click here: Paul Shaffer | Facebook

 

*****



Here is some of the "behind the scenes" correspondence that most of you have never seen before, all designed to help fuel the fire for this campaign!

It's time to finally "go public" with this ... and demand that Paul invite Jim on to the program!!!


re: GREAT GOD IN HEAVEN!:   Sounds like Paul Shaffer and the band have been playing little "Vehicle" snippets as "Late Show" goes into commercial breaks ... which got some of our Forgotten Hits Readers to thinking ... wouldn't it be cool to see Jim Peterik sit in with Paul and the band on The David Letterman Show ... and play and sing some of these hits as they go into the commercial breaks???  (Why not?  They're playing the song anyway?)  How much cooler would it be to play the song WITH Jim Peterik supplying the guitar solo and lead vocal???  Up there jamming with Paul Shaffer and The Late Night Band!  

Maybe do a few minutes of "Vehicle" ... the opening verse and chorus of "Eye Of The Tiger" ... a splattering of Jim's .38 Special Hits "Hold On Loosely" and/or "Caught Up In You" ... or perhaps something like "High On You" by Survivor ... you get the idea.   

(Can't you just see The Paul Shaffer Band performing with Jim Peterik ... the original songwriter of all of these classic hits!) 

And then, to top it off, how about a complete, live performance of "Aire Of Good Feeling", a long-forgotten Ides Of March song that is certain to bring down the house. (After the last time we featured this track in Forgotten Hits, Jim instructed the band to put this one back into the play list for their live gigs!  You'll see him reference it again below.

Anyway, we've been asked to help launch a campaign to encourage Paul Shaffer to consider inviting Jim Peterik to join the band as a special "sit-in", in-studio guest to jam on some of these classic tunes ... and we happen to LOVE the idea!


Sound like a cool idea to you??? Then get onboard ... add this to your Facebook Page and let's see if we can get a whole campaign going.  Text, tweet ... and repeat!  Email the show ... or use whatever means you have available ... and let our request be heard.  Who knows ... maybe we can build some momentum here with this and make it happen ... another Forgotten Hits first!  (kk)  

*****


It all started here ... right before Christmastime:

"Vehicle" was just featured again on Letterman. (They've done this a few times before ... but this time there's a much cooler story to be told!) 
I just got off work and turned on TV and Letterman brings Bill Murray out. They talk about his movie (he plays President Roosevelt), Bill jokes a bunch (he's great!) and he talks about growing up in Chicago (he says: "A small town in the midwest you probably haven't heard of ...") They go to a break and Paul is playing some Christmas song, I think. When they go to break, they always are playing the same song when the show comes back on again. Well, THIS time, they came back and here is Bill Murray screaming the last words of "Vehicle" into Paul's mic. Obviously, while in commercial, Bill asked Paul if he could play a song from his hometown Chicago group and they chose "Vehicle" or maybe Bill just flat out said "Paul, I want to sing "Vehicle" to the audience!!" How cool is that? It's really funny and most probably would not have realized what transpired. In fact, I had to think about it myself!
Clark Besch 

Verrrry cool, Clark. Having our song sung by one of my comedic heroes! Thanks for the heads up. I'll find it.
Jimbo



It's pretty funny if you can see it. You only get to hear Bill belting out the last words "Love You" but you can tell he loved pretending to be in the "Peterik moment"! I still don't get why Letterman / Shaffer don't get the REAL DEAL Jim Peterik on the show to sing it, since they seem to play it fairly often. I think FH needs to start a write-in email campaign to get Jim on the show to sing this. Letterman even mentioned the Ides of March as the artist one time. Having been on Indianapolis radio in 1970, he was playing top 40 and this had to get his attention. How do we do this, Kent??
Clark  

Well, first we've got to get the word out there. Now I can't promise you a full-blown Facebook campaign ('cause I don't do Facebook) ... but an awful lot of our readers do ... so why don't we start there??? 

Let's build up some momentum for this by suggesting / encouraging The David Letterman Show to feature Jim Peterik "sitting in" with the band. (C'mon ... this actually might be fun!) I'll try to get some names, addresses and phone numbers for this ... maybe that'll rattle a few cages and shake a few bushes and get this thing in motion!

In the meantime, I'll mention it in Forgotten Hits and see if we can at least get the snowball rolling ... but please understand that we're going to have to get a whole lot of people onboard to make this happen. 

As for me, once we commit, I won't settle for anything less than Jimmy sitting in with Paul Schaffer and the band for the whole night!  Yes, this could be a WHOLE lotta fun! (kk) 

Yes, a write-in campaign!!! Love it! Let's put some energy into this. How about a Month of March appearance?!?! But not the 15th ... we already have a show. But ... something that week?
Jimbo   

We just need a contact to email to! "Superman" Kent, can we do this? Your site can be the "Vehicle" to the "Melody" we want to hear and maybe we won't have to go away sad saying "You Wouldn't Listen."
Clark  

At this point, we started our fax and email campaign in earnest.  Meanwhile, while investigating ways to contact Paul himself, we found this a very cool, non-musical Paul Shaffer / David Letterman moment ...  Click here: Paul Shaffer asks Julia Roberts a forbidden question! - YouTube
 
And then, couple of weeks ago, we got this update from Clark Besch ...    

WOW! Paul Shaeffer just played Vehicle again TONIGHT as we speak! Too bad Bruce Willis was not singing it this time, as he is guest tonight! Kent, can't we get something going with your site for a write in campaign to whomever you emailed? We gotta get this thing moving and YOU can be our Vehicle!!! You have the NUMBERS to push this through. You are doing it with the Wrecking Crew, why not Jim?? This would be THE year for it too. What say you???
Clark   

You guys onboard??? C'mon ... they're playing the song anyway ... why not play with Jim Peterik sitting in?!?!?  Let's get the message out there ... fans of Forgotten Hits (and The Ides Of March) Unite!!! Start posting today!!!  (kk)  

And, speaking of The Ides Of March, here are a few other recent comments we have received about these guys ...  

re: THE IDES OF MARCH:
Speaking of a performance on March 15th, the Ides of March, I just got a wild underground DVD of old clips from a NYC small station TV program from late 60's to mid-70's hosted by DJ Barry Richards. He dressed hippie style, but comes off as more of a high energy AM jock, so it's a bit unusual. Anyway, it's quite a slice of period piece memorabilia including tons of performances.  
I have never seen this advertised, but it comes with deluxe packaging and a bonus CD! The DVD has classic performances by Alice Cooper, Bob Seger, Richie Havens, Zephyr, Humble Pie, the Illusion and the best might be the Byrds backing Fats Domino, Muddy Waters and classic but VERY grainy Crow performances live!  
The reason I mention this at all is that the bonus CD includes photos of show artists not on the DVD and one was a classic Ides photo from 1971 with a funny background!! You'll note that Jim Peterik is NOT singing lead apparently on this tune! Wonder what it is?? Also, this DVD set is listed as VOLUME ONE.  Makes me think maybe Barry has the Ides video performance available somewhere, too!! It was put out by a Reazar company in 2010 according to the deluxe packaging! Pretty crazy set for sure. It is copyrighted, but I am sending this out for you guys to have fun seeing. Wish the video was on there!
Clark

That's the late Ray Herr singing there. I'm sure we were switching off leads vocals. He was with the band for about a year and a half. He passed away earlier this year. Cool photo. Totally rare!!! Never saw it before. Thanks for sending!
Jimbo  

I did some scouting around of my own trying to track down more information on this program ... in fact, I even emailed Barry Richards himself.  (Let's see if he responds.)  

This appears to have been a local Washington, DC underground / free form music program where all of the acts performed live ... and what a line-up of guests he had on his show.  

I've included a few links so you guys can check out his website and the available DVD.  (kk)




Hey guys, with all the cool talk of the Ides and Jim Peterik doing a book, I keep thinking of stuff to send or talk about. Here's an attachment of a Chicago area band called Long Time Comin' (after the Electric Flag album title). The song is the Ides' "Aire of Good Feeling" which is a great Ides LP cut. This band sounds a bit young and unpolished, but many bands were in those days. The B side was another horn rocker, the great BS&T B side, "More & More." It also sounds unpolished, but still a good effort. The 45 is on Ivanhoe 506, which is the same label as Ray Graffia's band Raymond John Michael, who had Ivanhoe 501 with the Bee Gees' cover "Let There be Music" and the great original Graffia tune, "Feel Free."
I've also attached an Ides sounding 7-Up commercial from 1970. I am wondering if Jim Peterik had any input to this track. The backing sounds like it could easily be the Ides, even tho the lead vocal does not sound like Jim. Since the Ides did a Pepsi jingle, maybe they worked on this one too? Just wondering.

 





Y'know that little Chicago band Long Time Comin' did a pretty raw version of "Aire of Good Feeling" but here's a pretty darn good version by a Wellington, NEW ZEALAND band!! I guess Jim's band should be INTERNATIONAL IDES OF MARCH! Some kinda accent in this lead vocal, but great horns.
Aire of Good Feeling

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iON0a-OStWU
Clark Besch

Wow! Not bad! Some "interesting" lyric changes! Ha! Thanks for sending, Clark! Hey Marie indeed!
Jimbo
Scott - Why don't you put this link on the Ides site. Fans would love it. Jp
Pss. Let's put this song back in the show! Jp
Always one of MY Ides favorites ... a sure-fire hit had it only been marketed properly. And a guaranteed crowd pleaser if you guys start performing it again! (kk)

Kent, here's something I sent to you once before, but it's the composing explanation of "You Wouldn't Listen".  Hearing that the Impressions influenced the Ides song just makes it more cool that they could incorporate Chicago RNB harmonies with British Invasion rock in 1966. Classic ideas.  I just love Chicago's many great musical influences of the 60's. I admit to the Cryan Shames being my faves and Jim has mentioned how the Ides looked up to the Shames in the day, but there were so many unheralded greats besides the Ides and Shames from the area, as well.
Clark
PS to Jim:  Good to hear you might add "Aire" back to the playlist.




A few months ago we told you that Jim Peterik was hard at work on his biography ... and in fact several Ides fans and Forgotten Hits Readers have sent in memorabilia and suggestions for his book.  Thanks to each and every one of you!  (Jim wanted to be sure we passed along his sincere appreciation.)   

Here comes one more from Michael Thom, a good friend of Clark's, who brought into the loop once word of Jim's book hit our pages.  (kk) 


Good description by Clark of the cover of “Aire of Good Feeling.” Sounds like the rhythm guitar is slightly out of tune and the guy didn’t know one of the right chords, but a nice, spirited, loose rendition. I agree the commercial sounds Ides-inspired but is  definitely not Jim singing. I hope when Jim writes his book he covers the evolution of the Ides in detail. Questions like how they wound up on Kapp for one 45 and decided to add brass, and why “Nobody Loves Me!” (a really fine song, in my opinion) wasn’t promoted. AN absolutely GREAT track, I might add!  Of course, anything else he remembers about the material that wound up on the Brylen LP. The recording of “One Woman Man,” an outstanding song which actually got some airplay here. Whether he thinks WB dropped the ball with “Melody,” a tremendous 45 that should never have sunk without a trace, and the attempted return to form with “Giddy-Up Ride Me.” The songs on the recent “Lost Tapes” CD and whether they were thinking about another LP using the brass sound, but then changed to the “World Woven” sound and how they were signed to RCA. I have to say that I also think “Mother America” is another great lost 45 that really should have been a hit. What they had in mind with “Midnight Oil,” which has its moments but overall was not terribly commercial in my opinion. Comments about the Ides-Shames Union, although I know Jim wasn’t part of it. His production efforts for Cleveland International, including working with Essence, and if he thinks Epic really could have done more to promote his solo LP.
Best,
Michael

 
This is worth watching and listening ... Jim Peterik unplugged.
David Lewis




*****


All this Ides Of March talk about lost, forgotten tracks that SHOULD have been hits ties in perfectly as yet another reminder about Rich Appel's upcoming I.R.S. Poll ...  

This is where YOU GUYS vote for your favorites ... songs that YOU believe should have been Top Ten Hits ... yet, for whatever reason, failed to make the grade. (I.R.S. ... as in It Really Shoulda ... Been A Top Ten Hit!!!)  Get it???  

Rich tells us that the voting has been really going well ... more details below on how you can get in on the action ... and let your favorites be heard!  

I.R.S. #6 – JUST A FEW WEEKS LEFT!
 
Filing in Hz So Good's 6th Annual I.R.S. - as in "It Really Shoulda" been a Top 10 hit – is down to the final weeks. This year everyone who declares their I.R.S. songs is a winner thanks to 
HardToFindMusicAndMovies.com.


Here’s all you do: 
Send in your list of songs that make you say
 "THAT really shoulda been a Top 10 Hit!"
 at http://www.musicradio77.com/emailrich.html or to IRS104@verizon.net by April 1st.

Any song that didn't reach the Top 10 in the U.S. is fair game, whether or not it was ever on any chart, ever released as a single or ever released in the U.S. 
And it doesn't matter if you don't know (or care) whether songs were Top 10 or not. We'll handle all corrections.

   

It doesn't matter how few or how many songs you send, just not more than 100, please! Unless you specify otherwise, lists are assumed to be in rank order, title followed by artist. Since this is a ranking of songs, do not list two sides of a single as one entry. 
Likewise, do not list two or more versions of the same song as one entry.

   

Everyone filing an I.R.S. form receives a FREE one-year membership to HardToFindMusicAndMovies.com, including a 20% discount off non-sale items! Remember to include your full name and complete mailing address at the end of your list 
to receive. Plus, a few lucky I.R.S. filers will receive "refunds" in the form of either merchandise from RadioLogoLand.com 
or a 4-disc set of the I.R.S. Top 104.  

Listen for the 6th annual I.R.S. Top 104 count down on Rewound Radio (the kickoff on Bob Radil’s Friday Night 60s - 70s Show, 6 - 10 pm ET) and WRNJRadio.com 
(“The Rest Of The Week” Sat 6 am - 1 pm and Sun 10 am - 3 pm ET) over tax deadline weekend, starting Friday, April 12th.  

Preparers are standing by.  

H&Z ROCK ... a division of  
HzSoGood

And what more fitting song to celebrate BOTH of today's features than The Ides Of March's 1971 mini-hit "L.A. Goodbye" ... long a personal favorite (as well as a #2 Record here in Chicago) ... but overlooked by most of the rest of the nation, where it only peaked at #73 in Billboard, #72 in Cash Box and #95 in Record World. (How is this even possible?!?!?)

It's a GREAT track ... and if you give it a listen, we're sure you'll agree. (Be sure to cast my vote for THIS one, Rich!) kk



In fact, let me publicly vote for ALL of my nationally over-looked Chicagoland favorites:

(In no particular order ... with equal points for each title):
 
The Ides Of March - L.A. Goodbye and You Wouldn't Listen, both worthy of Top Ten status
 
The New Colony Six - You're Gonna Be Mine, Love You So Much, I Will Always Think About You, Things I'd Like To Say, Can't You See Me Cry, I Could Never Lie To You, Roll On and Long Time To Be Alone 
 

The Cryan' Shames - It Could Be We're In Love, Sugar And Spice, I Wanna Meet You, Up On The Roof and Greenburg, Glicstein, Charles David Smith And Jones

The Mauds - Soul Drippin'  

Flock - Take Me Back 

And ... only because we've been promoting the hell out of it ... and because it's an INCREDIBLY great song ... an additional vote for "The Walk" by Mayer Hawthorne ... quite possibly the greatest blue-eyed soul track EVER!!!  (kk)