Posted on 05/11/2012 6:00:30 PM PDT by AZamericonnie
In 1964, Marvin Gaye’s “How Sweet it Is” got a lot of airplay on KGFJ, the black station in Los Angeles and also on the rock stations KRLA and KFWB.
The New Jersey beach community of Ocean City is former Methodist camp, and as a result, the town is dry. If you cross the Route 52 causeway to the town of Somers Point, however, you’ll encounter a town seemingly made up of liquor stores, bars, restaurants and clubs. It where Ocean City goes to drink.
In the late Sixties, these clubs had names like Bayshore and Tony Mart’s. In the summer, these places hummed with activity as men and women mixed, drank, danced – and if they got lucky, scored. The DJ’s at these clubs are always looking for the next great dance song. In 1968, two made music history.
Tommy James & the Shondells issued a single titled “One, Two, Three and I Fell”, a very weak number. Somebody told a DJ at Somers Point, “Turn it over,” and that’s how “Mony Mony” became a hit.
Todd Rundgren’s early band Nazz, based in the Philadelphia suburb of Upper Darby, issued a single titled “Hello, It’s Me”, a very slow number, barely useful for dancing. Somebody told a DJ at Somers Point, “Turn it over,” and that’s how “Open My Eyes” became a local hit.
A year earlier in 1967, the same thing happened to the Four Tops. Somebody told a DJ at Somers Point, “Turn ‘Bernadette’ over.” (There may have been some confusion as to just what the customer was requesting.) The result was a huge local hit in the Philadelphia area.
In 2005, I attended a birthday party for a relative at a club in the Philadelphia suburbs, and the bald, pot-bellied Baby Boomers all piled onto the dance floor when the DJ started this record. Even after four decades, everybody in Philly remembered this one. This should have been a hit all by itself.
The Four Tops: “I Got a Feeling”
The guys finished their partnership with the Four Tops with a song that didn’t make the Top 10. This is another entry in the Arabic and black Bob Dylan mold. An era at Motown was about to end.
Thanks for the memories ..;)
Don't forget Run, Run, Run! by the Supremes (1964), which was also an HDH opus.
Hearing these tunes from '64 makes me want to shout, "Go, Goldwater!"
I considered doing “Run Run Run” but it struck me as too weak.
The Four Tops: “Baby I Need Your Loving”
Back in July, 1964, the jocks on KRLA would regularly blast this tune out across the Southland from their transmitter in South El Monte, behind the Whittier Narrows Dam.
In 1983, Martha Reeves appeared at a concert at El Camino College. She could still rock. Her performance of this and other tunes inspired the audience to get up and dance in the aisles.
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