Episode 50 - Short-Shorts

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[Dylan on "The Letter"]

"By the way, 'The Letter' is the second shortest single to reach Number One. It's under two minutes long. The only song shorter was 'Stay' by Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs." - Bob Dylan, "Mail" Theme Time Radio Hour, Season 2.

[Stay - Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs]

Outside of being the shortest song ever to reach #1 on the charts, clocking in at a tight 1:38, Maurice Williams' 19 and 60 Stay has stayed a popular song for years, gaining a whole new audience in 19 and 87 when it was showcased in the movie, Dirty Dancing.

Maurice Williams was born in Lancaster, South Carolina sometime between 19 and 38 and 1940 (sources differ on the year). He formed his first group, The Royal Charms in 1953, the same year that he'd write Stay and another mega-hit for the group that would become the Zodiacs, Little Darling. Both songs were written by Williams for a girl he was wooing.

By 1956, the Royal Charms had signed with Excello Records, based out of Nashville, and had changed their name to the Gladiolas, a kind of weird replacement suggested by the head of Excello, who thought there were already too many Royals and who liked flowers.

Little Darling by the Gladiolas was released by Excello in January of 19 and 57. It did great on the R&B charts, making it to the #11 spot, but Little Darling couldn't break into the Top 40 on the pop charts. But Little Darling would be a hit - in fact, chart to #1 - just not for the Gladiolas. A white group - the Diamonds - would cut their own version of the song, eventually selling over a million copies, as well as establishing the doo-wop style. Since Williams had retained full rights to the song, Little Darling ended up making him bags full of money at the tender age of 17.

In 1958, the Gladiolas decided to move from Excello, requiring yet another name change, as the label owned their name. A member of the group saw a German car, liked the name, and "the Zodiacs" were born. Two years later, the Zodiacs were cutting demos for Herald Records and Williams revived Stay for one of the recording sessions. Stay became their debut on the label, hitting the #1 slot in the fall of 1960, and became the biggest hit in the history of Herald Records.

Williams and the Zodiacs never had another record nearly as big as Stay, which has sold over 10 million copies and been covered by a variety of artists including the Four Seasons, Jackson Browne, and Chaka Khan.

Not bad for a song not much longer than a minute-and-a-half.

We'll be back to the second-shortest song to reach #1 in a bit, but to go up the charts, the all-time shortest charted single is Little Boxes by the Womenfolk, which ran just two seconds over a minute, and went to #83 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 19 and 64. The song was written by Malvina Reynolds in 1962, and made popular by Pete Seeger, whose own version ran over two minutes.

Little Boxes is featured in the Showtime TV series Weeds as its theme song. The first season used Reynolds' recording, and later seasons have included versions by Elvis Costello, Engelbert Humperdinck, Randy Newman, Joan Baez, and Death Cab for Cutie, among others.

We also have the term, "ticky-tack" thanks to Little Boxes, a particularly annoying tune that Tom Leher once described as, "the most sanctimonious song ever written," which I tend to agree with, and is the reason why I'm not inflicting any version on you.

[Some Kinda Earthquake - Duane Eddy]

Duane Eddy's 1959 hit Some Kinda Earthquake remains the shortest song to ever hit the American Top 40, officially weighing in at 1:17. Two other very short songs that made it into the Top Ten include The Dave Clark Five's I Like It Like That (#7 in 19 and 65), which ran a brisk 1:37 and which was the same length as Leslie Gore's Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows, which also charted that same year.

But beating them both as the shortest Top Ten single is this 1:28 number from 19 and 61, a one-girl duet that made it to #8 on the charts...

[Let's Get Together - Hayley Mills]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hayley Mills was a young Fred's heart-throb back when I was just a sprout in Saco, Maine, and I would probably still come running if she crooked her finger at me.

Let's Get Together is from the original The Parent Trap, one of the best live-action movies Disney ever made. As well as the 15-year-old Mills, the movie stars Maureen O'Hara and Brian Keith doing his best John Wayne imitation. The role of the father, Mitch Evers , was originally written for John Wayne, with O'Hara slated for her regular role as his feisty Irish love interest. But the notoriously cheap Disney Studios refused to pay Wayne's going price, and substituted Brian Keith as a Wayne clone. Close your eyes and listen to Brian Keith's take on the role, and you can almost see John Wayne as father to the twins, Sharon and Susan.

The Disney songwriting team of the Sherman Brothers - who churned out most of Disney's hits in the `60s and `70s - wrote Let's Get Together, as well The Parent Trap's title song, which incidentally is sung by my other Disney girl, Annette Funicello. If anybody could have made me jilt Hayley, it would have been Annette.

I should note that the cut I played is taken from the movie. Hayley Mills' hit single has her doing the song as a solo. Of course, she did the other song as a solo too, I guess.

Okay, time to talk about the second-shortest #1 single ever, and I've got a problem, because I'm not sure Our Host and the Theme Time Radio Hour crack research team have it right that The Letter is the one. In fact, there's some pretty convincing evidence ag'in it. But considering how Mr. D. wailed on poor ol' Tim Ziegler about being too anal over facts and figures in the Lock & Key episode, I'm a little scared about bringing it up.

[Dylan - This isn't a classroom]

But, what the hell. Here's the deal. Nowhere can I find any evidence that The Letter was the second-shortest single ever to reach #1. "Under two minutes," yep the song certainly is. I've found versions ranging from a high of 1:57 to a low of 1:52. But let's give the original single the benefit of the doubt and say it clocked in at that 1:52. That's still eight seconds longer than the song which probably has the best claim to actually be the second-shortest #1 single.

[(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear - Elvis Presley]

From 19 and 57, Mr. Presley's #1 Summer Hit... all one minute and 44 seconds of it.

Now, I suspect this is one of those geeky things that guys in thick glasses and over-tight t-shirts argue about at record conventions, and who knows who's right? Are we counting what it says on the record label or are we timing it? Are we using the single that actually charted or another version? Does anyone care?

Maybe somewhere out there there is a version of The Letter shorter than 1:52, maybe it's even shorter than Teddy Bear. But in the end it probably doesn't matter except to guys like Tim Ziegler... because it's all about the music.

But I still think you got it wrong, Bob.


Some show notes: This Dreamtime marks our 50th podcast, believe it or not. When I started way back in July 2006, I had 50 shows targeted, the same number as what we thought was going to be Theme Time's total run at the time. But Our Host has decided to keep on going... and I've decided I'm still having too much fun doing Dreamtime to stop.

So, thank you all who have been with me from the beginning, welcome to those who have recently joined the Dreamtime audience, and I hope you all stay on-board as Dreamtime continues to roll along, talking about Theme Time Radio Hour trivia as we find it.

Thanks to all of you, and we'll be back soon with a new show.

Sources: The primary source for this show was The Both Sides Now Stereo Chat Board.

Maurice Williams biographical information comes from his home site.

***

You've been listening to the Dreamtime podcast – occasional commentary on Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour. Dreamtime is researched and written by Fred Bals and is a Not Associated With production. As the name says, we're not associated with XM Radio, Bob Dylan, or much of anything else.

Some of the music on Dreamtime is provided via the Podsafe Music Network. Check it out at music.podshow.com.

Remember that the Dreamtime team loves to get email. You can write us at dreamtimepodcast@gmail.com

The Dreamtime top cats are Curly Lasagna and Shaggy Bear. Our announcers are the notorious honky-tonkin' sisters, Jailbait and Joyride.

Until next time, dream well.

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Episode 24: 1953 and Changes in the Wind

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Episode 24 - 1953 and Changes in the Wind


Dreamtime closes out 2006 with a turn around the radio dial and a look back at a year when music was about to change forever... 1953.

Harry S. Truman hands over the reins of power to Eisenhower. Peter Pan and the first 3D movie, Bwana Devil, premieres. Ian Fleming publishes the first James Bond novel, Casino Royale. Both the U.S. and Soviet Union announce the development of a hydrogen bomb.

The Korean War ends and the Kinsey Report issues Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. Pat Benatar, Desi Arnaz, Jr., Cyndi Lauper, Alan Moore, and Kim Basinger are all born in 1953.

On January 1, 1953, Hank Williams hired a chauffeur to drive him to his next gig in Canton, Ohio from Knoxville, Tennessee. Williams left in a Cadillac, carrying a bottle of whiskey with him. When his driver pulled over at an all-night service station in Oak Hill, West Virginia, he discovered Williams dead in the back seat. Hank Williams was 29.

Williams' single, the eerily-titled I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive would hit #1 on the Billboard Country Charts on January 24, 1953, and is our first stop in our spin around the 1953 airwaves.

As Dylan says in the Dogs episode of Theme Time, Patti Page's (How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window? - which she recorded on a Thursday, the week before Christmas, a date which also happens to be the date of my birth, December 18, 1952 - would hit the top of the single charts on January 10th, 1953, and remain there until finally booted off by Percy Faith and his Orchestra's Song From Moulin Rouge, also known as Where is Your Heart?

In turn that single would lose the #1 slot to I'm Walking Behind You, sung by Eddie Fisher. Turn on your Dreamtime radio and listen in as we broadcast a collage of popular music from January through June of 1953, including all three, as well as Perry Como's Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes, the first #1 pop single of 1953.

But change, as the man says, was in the wind.

Crazy Man, Crazy, recorded by Bill Haley & His Comets in April 1953, would be the first rock and roll single to make it on the American musical charts, where it peaked at #12. Crazy Man, Crazy may also have been the first rock and roll recording to be played on national television in the U.S. when it was used in the soundtrack of Glory in the Flower, an episode of the CBS anthology series, Omnibus. Interestingly. Glory in the Flower starred James Dean, soon to become iconic in Rebel Without a Cause.

On August 1, 1953, The Orioles' biggest hit, Crying in the Chapel, enters the R&B charts, and will go on to top the charts for the next eight weeks. A decade later, Elvis Presley would cover Crying in the Chapel for his gospel album How Great Thou Art. And Elvis, as Dylan says, would begin his Sun recording career in the summer of 1953, most likely prompted by an article in the local paper on Sam Phillips's recording of the Prisonaires, a group of prisoners from the state penitentiary, as faithful Theme Time listeners already know.

Elvis walked into into 706 Union Avenue and asked to record for the very first time. The two songs he cut were My Happiness, originally written in 1933 by Betty Peterson and Borney Bergantine and That's When Your Heartaches Begin, written in 1940 by William J. Raskin, Billy Hill and Fred Fisher. Elvis later re-recorded that one for RCA as the B side to the single All Shook Up and it peaked at #58 on the Hot 100 Chart...

...and meantime, back in 1953 the doggie was growing up to be a hound dog. We wind up our Dreamtime radio tour with Big Mama Thornton's original 1953 version of Hound Dog, written Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Big Mama Thornton is backed on this cut by by Theme Time favorite Johnny Otis, who also got author credit on the original pressings.

You've been listening to the Dreamtime podcast – occasional commentary on Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour.

Dreamtime is researched and written by Fred Bals, and is a Not Associated With production.

Some of the music on Dreamtime is provided via the Podsafe Music Network. Check it out at music.podshow.dot com. Our closing theme is performed by Lounge Affaire, courtesy of Christopher Murphy Studio.

We love your email and you can write us at dreamtimepodcast@gmail.com

The Dreamtime top cats are Curly Lasagna and Shaggy Bear. Our announcer is the lovely Jailbait Jones.

Until next time, dream well.

Episode 1 - Elvis & Dino

"Radio station dreams... You know how when you're a kid, you stay up late in bed, listening to the radio, and you sort of dream off the radio into sleep... That's when disc jockeys played whatever they felt like." - Bob Dylan

... The office manager of Sam Phillips' Sun Records studio in Memphis, Marion Keisker, tells of a not entirely successful first audition Presley had with Phillips. According to Marion, Sam asked Elvis to run through some of his repertoire, which seemed to lean so heavily on Dean Martin stuff, she thought Elvis had decided "...if he was going to sound like anybody, it was going to be Dean Martin."

While Elvis was probably inspired by Martin's version of “I Don't Care if the Sun Don't Shine," more accurately both Presley and Martin were covering Patti Page's 1950 Top 10 hit.

"I Don't Care..." was written by Mack David (Tin Pan Alley tunesmith and brother of Hal David) originally for the Disney version of Cinderella, believe it or not. The song was dropped from the movie without ever being recorded, as far as I can tell, which seems to have been a smart decision. The mind boggles at Cinderella and Prince Charming singing it...

Theme Time Radio Hour is broadcast on XM Radio every Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET, and rebroadcast Fridays at 6 pm, Sundays at 8am, and Mondays at 8pm. You can listen to the show online – as well as XM Radio’s full lineup - at xmradio.com. The cost is $7.99 per month, cheap for Dylan’s show alone.

Dream well.