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SLEEPWALK -
1959
In 1959, IBM built the 8090
Data Processing System for the U.S. Air Force. The first commercial Xerox copier was introduced. A planar transistor insulated
with silicon becomes reality. This was used to produce an integrated circuit. The first alkaline dry-cell battery which lasts
5 times as long arrived on the scene. A fuel cell was invented. The first hovercraft was devised.
February 2, 1959 became
known as The Day the Music Died. We lost BUDDY HOLLY, RICHIE VALENS and THE BIG BOPPER in a plane crash. The musical,
The Sound of Music, became a smash. A movie version followed in 1965. April 3rd - the BBC banned the COASTERS' hit,
Charlie Brown, because of the word spitball. April 24th is when TV's Your Hit Parade aired its
final episode. On May 12th, EDDIE FISHER created quite a stir when he married ELIZABETH TAYLOR. October 7 - the legendary
tenor Mario Lanza died. December 14 - BERRY GORDY, Jr. acquired the premises for Hitsville USA and formed Tamla Records, which
he soon renamed Motown Records. The SUPREMES' warbling begins as The PRIMETTES. CAROLE KING's harmonious career starts to
flow. NEIL SEDAKA's 1959 hit, Oh! CAROL, was written about her. ROY ORBISON signed with Monument Records.
Do you remember where you
were in the summer of 1959? Maybe you weren't yet born. SANTO and JOHNNY's Sleep Walk is known as the world's favorite
guitar song. If you ever heard Sleep Walk, you've never forgotten it. And you aren't alone. Sleep Walk has
many fans throughout the world and we all share one thing in common - a love for this mesmerizing tune.
This magical melody was
recorded by a couple of brothers from Brooklyn, New York. JOHNNY FARINA entered life on April 30, 1941. SANTO was
born October 24, 1937. At the very young age of 9, SANTO took up the lap steel guitar. When JOHNNY reached 12, his
brother taught him to play the electric guitar. Their sister, ANN FARINA, helped write the songs.
They began recording in
1959 with Trinity records' release of Sleepwalk, which was written with the help of their mother. Canadian American
records entered the picture with a slight alteration to the title. Sleep Walk arrived
on Billboard August 17, 1959. It shot straight to #1 in the nation and remained at that position for two solid weeks. This
aria earned the magnificent duo a gold record.
From 1959-64, five other
Canadian American releases followed. December 6, 1959 is when Tear Drop arrived on Billboard and traveled
up the chart to #23. Some hit LPs did pretty well. Santo & Johnny (1960), Encore (1960) and Hawaii
(1961). SANTO and JOHNNY carried on their recordings into the 1970s on small Italian labels. From 1959-73,
Santo and Johnny have released over 40 albums worldwide. The brothers FARINA disbanded their act in 1976.
Since 1973, JOHNNY has kept
the magical steel guitar sound alive as a solo artist all over the U.S. Appearances to his credits include: The Greek Theater (California),
The Paramount (NYC), The Hollywood Casino (Mississippi), Ruth Echard Hall (Florida), The Continental Ailines Arena (New Jersey),
The Meadowlands (New Jersey), The Philharmonic Center (Florida), The Mohegan Sun Casino (Connecticut), Madison Square Garden
(NYC) and Harrah's (Las Vegas).
In 1979, the British band,
BLACK CAT, recorded Sleep Walk, but never released it. BLACK CAT has played Sleep Walk in
their concerts, often opened with it. This brought the tune to a much younger generation of Rockers in England and the rest
of Europe. There are bootleg copies of BLACK CATS' version of Sleep Walk.
Sleep Walk is played
over 100,000 times a year in the U.S. BMI reports that it is equally as popular in Europe. Sleep Walk has earned
the BMI 2 Millionaire Award which means 2 million airplays on the radio. Sleep Walk won the Grammy in 1999 for
the Best Instrumental of the Year. That's 40 years after its original release date. The tune has now earned
2 Gold Records: Sleep Walk and for its use in The Godfather. The song has been featured in many
movies, such as: LaBamba, All I Wnnt for Christmas, Red Hot, A Smile Like Yours, The Locusts, The Alarmist, Telling Lies
in America, Valentino Returns, Coupe DeVille, Eddie and the Cruisers, STEPHEN KING's Sleepwalkers, Porkey's Revenge,
BRUCE WILLIS' 12 Monkeys, CHER's Mermaids, Blue Moon and The Godfather.
Sleep Walk is used
on many TV programs: Wiseguy, 90210, Quantum Leap, Tour of Duty, Designing Woman and The Marshall. TV
commercials put Sleep Walk to good use: Chevvy Camaro, Naturalizer Shoes and Mazda Miata. Sleep Walk lingers
in the memory of those of us who love truly great music. SANTO and JOHNNY's popularity grew to unbelievable heights. They
became even more popular in Europe. This one simple instrumental song has gone on to carve a special place in the hearts and
minds of millions of us music fans around the world.
DAN CUTRER (Dallas, TX) dancutrer@yahoo.com Subject: KONO. Jim, I think it was Dick Porter, ND at KONO, San Antonio, where Fuzz and Wuzz News was as competitive
as it could get. About 1971, Dick hears a police call, tears over to the bank. Gets out, tape recorder in hand, runs up the
steps of the bank just as a guy with a gun is running out. "Excuse me, Sir, did you just rob this bank???" Dick's wife made
him get a job doing PR for the City soon after that. Dan Cutrer SOLIZ & CUTRER, pllc Attorneys & Counselors at Law
Dallas & Houston 6116 North Central, Suite 200 Dallas, TX 75206 www.solizcutrer.com
One time when I was still a news reporter
at KBOX-1480, there was a pretty important Dallas executive whe held someone at gunpoint in his home. The cops had the place
surrounded. Used the huge criss-cross directory and phoned that address. Guess who I got on the phone? This guy probably still
had the gun in his hand. He was very calm. Don't remember what either of us said. Dumbfounded me to think I actually got this
guy on the phone who is surrounded by police. Why didn't the SWAT team do the same? Must've been the only news guy to think
of doing that. His tape became my big actuality. That was JOE LONG's training in full speed.
DAN CUTRER (Dallas, TX) dancutrer@yahoo.com Jim, I got Martha Mitchell on the phone like that at WFAA in mid '73. She had just pulled a Martha, was "unavailable."
I forget just how, but I learned she was at a Soriety Sister's house in Mississippi. I called "Is Mizz Mitchell theah?" Sure
enough, "Hello." "I'd like to ask you a few questions on tape." "Oh, S----, you found me!" Number was busy for the next
couple days, she surfaced again in Washington DC.
The young'uns in radio will never believe
this. KXOL used to have billboards with flashing lights in 'em, telephone lines run to the billboards. "When the lights flash,
there's news on KXOL." Larry Fitzgerald, who was one of the last ND's there, used to laugh with me in the 80's...when
the lights flash, there IS no KXOL." A friend who took a Guvment job in the 1st Bush Administration called, said he'd had
lunch with the FCC Chairman that noon. "He told me, 'We realized a few days ago we've ruined broadcasting as we knew it...maybe
forever.'"
Docket 80-90 and related insanities. When
I bought 93.9Mhz in Corpus Christi in '85 there were 5 Class C's, one 3kw Class A. I looked this past weekend, over 30 FM's
claim to serve the market, another dozen AM's. There's no way anybody will ever make any real money there again in radio.
Repeat that in every market nationwide. Excuse the diatribe. Break those up if you can use 'em, as the Councilwoman in Ft.
Worth used to say "If you boys come up with any good quotes yourself, go ahead and use 'em, say that I said it to you." No,
I'm NOT kidding. Dan Cutrer
STEVE EBERHART (Dallas, TX) steveeb@swbell.net Jim, I don't know if it was theee funiest thing I've ever done in radio, but certainly one of them. Circa early
1980's KVIL late night. A guy calls in on the studio line and says "my girlfriend and I are listening and she is getting very
turned on ." I am somewhat surprised and say "okaaayyy". The guy says, "every time you talk she gets even more turned
on", and again I say "oookkkaaayyyy", and he says "it's your voice, she thinks it's very sexy" to which I'm now a bit amused
and say, "soooo, what do you want from me some pointers or something?" and he says, "no, just keep talking!" I aired the call
without edit over the intro of Kool & The Gang's tune "Celebration" and I can still hear it in the headphones, the second
he said "keep talking" it smacked the vocal to "Celebrate good times, come on!" Ron Chapman heard it, liked it so much that
he asked me to leave the aircheck, which I did, and he played it back the next morning on his show. Steve
ROGER DIMICK (Beaumont, TX) rogertx@gt.rr.com Subject: Funny Radio Happenings. Hey Jim! I have two stories that are the funniest things that ever happened to
me on the air. Number one happened when I was working in my first job at KMAE in McKinney, Texas, in the Spring of 1965. It
was the Saturday afternoon of the funeral for Malcolm X. I was reading the headlines on the half hour, and I remember very
well the time...2:30pm. Back then you could have called me "Rip Read" because that's what we did back then. AP always produced
about five or six headlines. On that day the last line in the summary was: "Malcolm X was buried today". That's not the way
19 year old me interpreted it. My most infamous one liner ever was: "Malcolm X was married today". Glad it was in McKinney
and nobody was listening...so it goes! Number two happened when I was News Director at KAYC in Beaumont, Texas. Had to be
about 1975 or so. We had a hotline which went to sister station KNUZ in Houston. Jack Pieper was on the other end and we always
swapped a story or two in the mornings. I'd missed the previous couple of days with a sinus infection and was back at work.
Our early morning banter, unbeknownst to me, was on the air. Fortunately the music was loud and also unfortunately Al Caldwell
had a habit of NOT closing the switch linking the newsroom and the control room. Jack asked me "How are you feeling"? My answer,
for all of Beaumont to hear about 6:35 one morning was "Pretty good, Jack. I went to the doctor who prescribed me a ton of
**** to clear me up and so far it's working". About five seconds later a listener called. And good ol' Al put them through
to me. The listener said "I think I just heard you say something that wasn't supposed to be on the air". I looked down and
he was right. Fortunately for us all, nobody in station management got wind of it, and I lived to fight another day. There
are TWO stories of things I wished I'd never said! Roger D
CHUCK TILLER (Houston, TX) chucktiller@yahoo.com Jim, I'm sure you will tell us when the Houston Country Radio Reunion will be. It will be good to see Jeff McClain.
I haven't seen him since this afternoon. (Insert laugh track here) My congratulations to Mike Shiloh. He and I go way back
to our KRBE days together. Count me in as going. Chuck
LARRY SHANNON (Ft. Worth, TX) larry@texasradiohalloffame.com , nominees@texasradiohalloffame.com Congratulations! Your name is on the list of those who have been nominated for induction into the Texas Radio
Hall of Fame. Hundreds of voting members are now downloading, making their selections from the list of nominees and returning
their ballots to the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. This is the last step in the nominating and voting processes. July 1 is the
postmark and fax deadline for completed ballots to be returned. We'll announce the list of inductees who will be honored on
or before July 15. The 2005 Texas Radio Hall of Fame Induction Celebration will be held on Saturday evening, November 5 in
the Dallas area at the Grapevine Convention Center, just north of DFW International Airport. More information about the TRHoF,
the official ballot and nominee's list are all located online at www.texasradiohalloffame.com or www.trhof.com Again, congratulations and best wishes. We hope to see you at the 2005 TRHoF Induction Celebration on Saturday
evening, November 5! The Texas Radio Hall of Fame is known as "The National Radio Hall of Fame of Texas." Larry Shannon
EDWARD GUERRERO (San Antonio, TX) edward-guerrero@sbcglobal.net Jim, Enjoying Your new trivia questions feature...also tell us more about the following: Eddy Arnold, Patty Page,
Kay Starr and some info on the Santos and Johnny's memorable instrumental of the late 50's, "Sleep Walk". Ah, their music
brings memories. Please let us know also when your new book will be published! Regards, Ed G.
WHO WAS THE BIG BEAT
BASS PLAYER ON ROY ORBISON'S MONUMENT RECORDS HITS?
(The answer is at the bottom of this column)
ALAN ELLIOTT (Dallas-Oak Cliff, TX) texguy52@yahoo.com Jim, Could I include you in the Oak Cliff Notables page? Do you have a photo you could send me? Tell you friends
about oakcliff.com ! Thanks, Alan Elliott (John Neely Bryan, Boude Storey, Adamson)
Will never forget Oak Cliff, Jefferson Avenue
on Saturdays (filled with shoppers on the sidewalks), the Texas Theater, Beckley Avenue, Marsalis Park, Keist Park and many
other fine memories of Oak Cliff.
ALAN ELLIOTT (Dallas-Oak Cliff, TX) texguy52@yahoo.com Jim, I don't know of anyone offhand in Houston -- I'll think about it. Do you know Leon McWhorter (Also went by
Ray Roberts -- from Dallas radio & a good friend -- now with ABC/Radio Disney) or Ed Spencer, long time spokesperson for
Dallas Police (brother in law) -- other Dallas media friends Doc Warren and Sonja (van Sickle)? Thanks, Alan Elliott
Don't believe I ever crossed paths with those
folks. Last time HENRY LAROCCA called from Beaumont, he assured me that he was going to Iraq to cash in on some big bucks.
Haven't heard a word from him since. Wonder if he did finally make the plunge?
ROGER DIMICK (Krakow, POLAND) rogertx@gt.rr.com Jim, It's been a long time since we chatted. I have not seen Henry nor his truck in ages. Maybe he did fly the coop.
I will find out when I get home at the end of June. Tonight I am writing to you from Krakow, Poland, and either tomorrow or
Thursday I will be visiting Auschwitz. Have never looked forward so much to something I know is going to be sad and depressing.
But, we have to if we can, to do our part to see that it never happens again. Glad you liked the stories. I like telling them.
Might even come up with a couple of more. Al was great to work with, most of the time. We had a great working relationship
and are chummy even now, but were never bosom buddies. He has a fantastic drive and I'm sure will have to be wheeled out of
the station feet first rather than simply retiring. Al always treated me well, and sometimes treated me better than I deserved.
I am proud to say I was associated with KAYC, Al, Jack Pieper, Vesta Brandt, Dave Morris, and the list goes on. Hope you're
well! Write whenever, obviously I'm checking email! Tell the radio gang howdy from Old Europe. One editorial comment. I come
here annually, mostly to Germany. This year it saddens me to see how little people here think of the United States and how
much they despise W's actions in Iraq. Our national self-esteem has taken a big hit over here....within the past 12 months.
Now, I'm going to bed! Roger D
BOB CROWLEY (Arlington, TX) bobcrowley@mail.ev1.net Hey Jim, I got Chapman Mott's number, and gave him a call just to be sure it would be alright to pass it along.
He said by all means. It is 713-861-3263. He is a free-lance writer, on a variety of projects. We had a nice little chat about
KLOL, the business and such. Glad to hear Martha Martinez is part of the news/talk FM in Houston. I used to listen to her
on KEXL in San Antonio, before I worked there. our paths crossed again when she was doing traffic evenings on WBAP, when I
first got here. She's a spectacular talent, and I hope she does well. Bob Crowley
SEND US YOUR TRIVIA
QUESTIONS
BOB TOMLINSON (Ft. Worth, TX) frbob@swbell.net Dear Jim, I read you every week. I remember those cold Sunday mornings with the Times Herald also. I think I remember
more hot afternoons than cold mornings. I'll never forget Nov. 22, 63 and how late the paper was. I think I finally finished
tossing the last one at 10pm. You once asked how I ended up in Ministry. I'll try and give the short version. I can look back
and see the call was there in high school. One problem the belief that priests had no fun and a burning desire to be in radio.
I always felt one day I'd be at the station I grew up on KLIF. Alas, it was not to be. I left radio in 1982, works in retail
and for SBC and went back to college in 1990 to finish a degree(needed for ministry). I held a full time job and went to school
nights weekends and vacation and graduated in 1994 from Dallas Baptist University. My wife and I later that year discovered
a new communion called the International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church. A mouthful we just call the CEC. Website
www.iccec.com . I was ordained a priest on May 23 1997. So I've just had my eighth anniversary as a priest. Last year I was selected
to take over as rector of our church in Hurst Texas. With that selection I moved into full time ministry. Keep up the good
work and I do plan to be at the Hall of Fame meeting in Dallas so save a seat at your table for me. Bob Tomlinson Fort Worth
JEFF MCCLAIN (Cleveland, TX) hmcclain1@houston.rr.com Subject: Tom York. Jim, I wonder if Michael James Lucas was talking about Tom York, the engineer at the recording
studio in the basement at KXOL, Ft. Worth? I worked for Tom York at KTRN in Wichita Falls, TX in 67 -68. He was the PD there
and I worked 7 to midnight after working all day at Shepard AFB as an airman in the closed circuit TV production department.
Anybody know what ever happed to Tom? He was a jock at KXOL in the earlier 60's before coming to KTRN as PD. The last I heard,
he had moved into sales there and then I lost contact of him. Jeff McClain
BOB TOMLINSON (Ft. Worth, TX) frbob@swbell.net Subject: KXOL Towers. Jim, I'm not sure the 2 KXOL towers are still there. I'll drive that way today just to check
and let you know. The old studio building near the Trinity River was torn down years ago. Bob
There are so many wonderful memories about
KXOL's nice building. That breaks my heart. It's like I lost a family member.
DAN CUTRER (Dallas, TX) dancutrer@yahoo.com Subject: hehehehehe. Jim, Statute of Limitations on Attorney Client Privilege has lapsed...if the Martha Martinez
in Houston is the same one who was at KFJZ in the late 70's, Ric Marcellan called up one afternoon, "I don't know how
full-service your firm IS, but Martha Martinez just got a speeding ticket. IN the Dallas City Hall parking garage!" We took
care of it! <g> Dan Cutrer
When I glance at the Inbox, just never know
what to expect. Usually, it's filled to the brim with cans of African spam. Sometimes, American spiced pork sneaks its
way in, too.
DAVE JARROTT djarrott@austin.rr.com Hey, Jim. Here's a heads-up on my Friday column. Just remember, pal, I wouldn't kid about you if I didn't like you!
Friday funnies...News item: The only other radio person I know who counted his longevity with a station in weeks is Jim Rose!
dj
BOB MOORE was the most famous of all the bass
players. BOB L. MOORE was born November 30, 1932 in Nashville, Tennessee, a rightful birthplace, because MOORE has over 17,000
recording sessions in his vast lifework. MOORE may have played on more recordings than any other musician in the world. BOB's
big beat bass is heard on hundreds of million-selling records that feature some of the greatest legends in music history.
MOORE's thumping bass was the driving force on ROY ORBISON's Monument Records releases. BOB MOORE was part owner of Monument records.
ELVIS, BRENDA LEE, PAT BOONE and many others
used BOB as a sideman. LIFE Magazine's special edition, which was issued on September 1, 1994, named BOB MOORE as the #1 Country
Bassist of all time. If you dug Crazy by PATSY CLINE, Rainy Night in Georgia with BROOK BENTON and Bridge
Over Troubled Water sung by SIMON and GARFUNKEL, you heard BOB MOORE's incomparable distinctive big bad bold bass.
MOORE had his own hit single with a tune titled
Mexico which landed on Billboard September 11, 1961 and rose to #7. This gave BOB a Gold Record. Also,
in 1961, the Country Music Association (CMA) handed BOBBY one of his first appreciation awards. In 1962, MOORE scored a Gold
Record as Orchestra Conductor for ROY ORBISON's Crying, which came to Billboard August 28, 1961 and climbed to
#2. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) presented MOORE with the Superpicker award
in 1977.
Jim Rose
Houston, Texas
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