WAITANGI

Waitangi Day - New Zealand's National Day so some old Kiwi songs.

Monument to Opo

Opo the magical dolphin. There is a ton of information on the Net about that magic summer at Opononi in 1955.

Johnny Devlin

Johnny Devlin - The NZ Elvis Presley. Today his 1950's music sounds poor. Mainly due, I think, to the lack of good recording facilities at the time, not his ability as a singer as some 50 years later he is still going strong in Australia. Lawdy was recorded at The Jive Centre hall in Auckland and the quality is not good. Still it sold thousands.To show how good he is listen to 'Rock and Roll I gave you the best years of my life'

Daphne Walker with another great from the 1950's.

So we have:
Johnny Devlin - Rock and roll (I gave you the best years of my life) and Lawdy Miss Clawdy
Pat McMinn - Opo the crazy dolphin
Daphne Walker - Haere Mai

Listen

FERLIN

A fine singer with one of the oddest names - Ferlin Husky - which is his real name. He has been performing for over 60 years now as a C & W singer after starting out as a Rock n Roller back in the 50's. Born in 1925 Ferlin has had numerous hits and is still performing 60 70 times a year today.

The above picture is from 1973.

Today we have:

A Fallen Star
Prize Possesion
Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain
Moment of Love

Listen to them here:

HANDSOME GUY

Dick Glasser was an American singer who also recorded under the name of Dick Lory. Many moons ago I heard his song 'Handsome Guy' (probably around 1962) and bought it on a 45. At the time I thought it was one of the best songs I had ever heard. Now, some 50 years later I haven't changed my mind.

His singing career was not the greatest but he went on to spend his life in the industry until his death in 2000. He was a very successful song writer, producer etc. He wrote the song 'I Will' and some of his productions were Walk Don't Run, Bye Bye Love, Batman Theme and numerous others and he did singing back ups for Johnny Cash and Dean Martin.

Handsome Guy was written by P.J.Proby and I see a version was recorded by NZ singer Antoni Williams. Antoni was his real name, but he recorded for several years under the name of Toni Williams then his manager decided to change his name back to Antoni which was a disaster. So in time he went back to his usual stage name. I can't remember, but it was probably hearing the Williams version which put me onto the Dick Lory record.

The fabulous Dick Lory is just a click away.

THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED

Music - A few minutes after midnight on the 3 February 1959 it died in the plane that crashed in a field near Clear Lake, Iowa.

For many the phrase 'the day the music died' is irrevocably linked to Don McLeans 'American Pie'.

In memory of those great artists -

Buddy Holly - Love is strange - not the generally released version as it has no backing from the Crickets
J P Richardson - The Big Bopper - Chantilly Lace - he was also a great songwriter; White Lightning and Running Bear were just two
Ritchie Valens - C'mon lets go - just a little different from the usual songs from him.

'Donna' and 'Peggy Sue' were songs by Ritchie and Buddy respectively which were about real women who are still alive today!

Hear these great songs right here

B FOR BRITISH

Four helpings of British today.

Alma Cogan - If I had a golden umbrella
Anthony Newley - Do you mind
Mike Preston - Mr Blue
Shadows (singing) - The Bandit

The British are coming here.

JOHN D.

John D. Loudermilk - his music over the years has ranged from the brilliant to the outright odd and weird. He has penned dozens of hits, mostly for other artists,  including - 

Calling Dr. Casey

Sad Movies

Tobacco Road

Abilene

Norman

Indian Reservation

Waterloo

Angela Jones

Talk back tremblin' lips

The Great Snowman   - and many others.

Here are 3 - Language of Love  (plus a version done by Sue Thompson), Sitting in the Balcony and an oddity in The Happy Wanderer.

ALL B's - BUT NOT ALL BLACKS

Three artists starting with the letter B.

Beaumarks - Clap your hands - This was a Canadian rock group established in 1958 and their hit was the first hit rock record made entirely in Canada. From the NZ perspective it was I believe the first record released by the NZ Viking label in Australia and the record went right to the top.


Buddy Knox - Hula Love - The Party Doll man himself was born in Happy, Texas. Part of his group was Jimmy Bowen who also went on to musical fame.

Bobby Goldsboro - Broomstick Cowboy - His biggest hit was Honey; a song that never impressed me as too saccharine. In 1971 he was aboard a plane that was hijacked to Cuba. A NZ singer Paul Walden, covered one of his hits, Molly, also a pretty sad song.

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