As a GenXer with extensive knowledge about popular music, I find it difficult to resolve this question. The question is, who has had more influence on music and music culture?
This short video piece by DW proudly claims that the answer is Kraftwerk. It’s fun to watch because they didn’t get the same respect in Germany that they first got in places like Detroit, New York and Sao Paulo until many decades later.
I am not sure I can agree with the video or not. I would love to find out what our readers think. Please, by all means, leave a comment below!
The first time I heard Snoop Dogg say “Fo Shizzle My Nizzle”, I knew he didn’t come up with that himself. My theory is that he heard a classic disco song playing on the radio called “Double Dutch Bus” by Frankie Smith. He’re a clip from YouTube. Decide for yourself.
I guess it’s not a big secret because discogs reports, “His classic “Double Dutch Bus” popularized his nonsensical form of slang that influenced later rappers like Snoop Dogg and E-40.”
In the HipHop world the term “bite” means to borrow an phrase or an idea from another artists, usually a rapper. That’s why I used it as click-bait.
Frankie Smith released a very similar sounding song as a single back in 1973. It was called “Double Dutch” without the “Bus”. From what I can tell the song failed to chart at the time. (citation needed)
In 1980, He re-cut the vocals and modified the lyrics, releasing it as a 12 inch single, with his original 1973 track on the flip-side. The clubs started to play the record and it ended up at Number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Number 1 on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart.
So the question remains, Did Smith come up with this kind of jibberish/code speak or did he learn it from someone? I think he heard the kids in his neighborhood doing it back in the early seventies. So we may never know who really invented “Snoop-Speak”.
The role of Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, a beautiful and talented bridge crew-person of African descent was originally played by the iconic Nichelle Nichols in Star Trek. She’s made countless appearances in the franchise as the character.
It’s hard to imagine that Lt Uhura could be portrayed as a Caucasian woman but here we have it. Wrap your heads around it. It also seems that the role of Chief Helmsman Sulu is depicted as a Black or perhaps Pacific Islander.
In 1975, Peter Pan, a long-time children’s record publisher, created eleven Star Trek stories. These took the form of both 7 and 12 inch vinyl records and often with a read along comic book.
Presumably, a Black voice actor was not hired to play Uhura. Rather than have a White voice actor perform a Black character, they simply depicted the character as White instead. The ethnicity of the voice actor playing Sulu, however, is unclear. None of the original TV series actors did voices for these recordings. With these unexpected changes, it get’s a bit uncanny. You might think we’ve been zapped over to an alternate universe.
The story on the actual record is charming or course. We won’t spoil it for you.
If you liked this episode, check out the CHDanhauser YouTube Channel . They uploaded several of these about two years ago. I’ve checked out a few and they are all pretty good. I can only assume that none of these are considered official cannon.
This wacky track was first released as a single in 1978. I first heard it on a 1996 Christmas Music Compilation from Rhino Records called Just Can’t Get Enough: New Wave Xmas. When it’s not Christmas, we also play “Boogie Till You Puke” on the live stream. Root Boy Slim was a strange dude.
But what about K-Mart? If you are older than 30 you may remember a discount retailer called K-Mart. They were headquartered in the Detroit Area until a merger Sears corporation in Chicago.
Back in the 60s, 70s, & 80s, K-Mart was a great place to shop for Christmas gifts. I always enjoyed going there as a kid. The music on the PA and all the merchandise was exciting.
They had small cafeterias to get sandwiches, pretzels, soda, pie, gelatin or coffee. It was however very nasty that people smoked cigarettes indoors. There were disposable ashtrays everywhere.
We’ve been sleeping on this one folks. I checked the notes. The Christmas Jug Band released the album that contains this track all the way back in 2002. Amazing. I first heard the song only a year ago. How did this stay under the radar for so long!?
The band has been around since the 1970s and the first album Mistletoe Jam, was released in 1987. They are still an act today releasing new material and playing live shows. The majority of their songs are original compositions in the Skiffle genre. Their CDs are fun and collectible.
Here we have a classic bit from the 1970s hit TV Show, WKRP in Cincinnati. The viewer may have been watching TV but they never get to see what the newscaster sees. Instead the viewer is invited to be a radio listener. The listener has to use their imagination. It’s called “Theater of the Mind“.
To help you visualize, we’ve created this with Photoshop.
In the sequence, reporter Les Nessman (played by Richard Sanders) is dispatched to local shopping center. The program director had arranged for a number of living turkeys to be thrown from a helicopter onto the shopping area. He was hoping the stunt would help promote the radio station, under the impression that these turkeys would just fly away. Needless to say, turkeys raised as human food can not fly. Something else entirely occurred. the Hindenburg disaster was referenced.
The show was trying to save money by not showing the turkeys falling from the sky and onto the crowd of people below. They needed cheep because they were already paying a fortune to licence all the rock music heard on the show. Still, it would have been great to see the mayhem described actually appear on the screen.
In the weeks leading up to the episode’s first broadcast, producers ran ads in local newspapers. Here is an example that we found.
Edward Khil became known to the world in 2010, when this 1976 clip of him singing on Soviet Television was uploaded to YouTube. The video went viral and became an Internet meme. It’s been described as the “Russian Rick-roll”.
In this performance Khil elected to use phonemes instead of the actual lyrics to the song. As a result it earned the nickname “Trololo Song”. This term because so ubiquitous that the singer adopted the stage name, Mr. Trololo.
The song has been referenced in pop culture numerous times. Family Guy produced a scene where the guys sing along at the local bar.
Mr. Trololo died in 2012. His final public performance was in 2010 where he sang the song to an enthusiastic crown in St Petersburg.
Some would say the Dr Who Theme is the best of all time. I think it’s number two. This is just a personal opinion. Just listen to this banger. Someone took the time to remaster the track and make it stereo in the example above. It’s from Season one of Wonder Woman starring Linda Carter which ran for three seasons starting in 1975.
The first season theme music is better than what they ended up going with for seasons two and three. The removed the lead vocal. I think that was a big mistake.
The show had an excellent intro animation to go with the song as well. Here it is. Classic.
FunHouse Radio 