Having hung around radio stations for most of my life and working with Hall Of Fame folks like Ron Chapman, Jerry Bobo, Larry Dixon, Mike Selden, Jack Schell, Ken Barnett, Bob Morrison, Steve Eberhart, Suzie Humphries, Jeff & Jer, Delilah, Jack Wells, Jim Coghill, Gary Russell, Chuck McCoy, J Robert Wood, Fred Heckman, Sid Collins, Joe Pickett, Jim Shelton, Jack Morrow, Joe McConnell, Art Schreiber, Tom Cochran, Cris Conner, Sunny Joe White, Don Bleu, Terry McGovern, Steve Hicks, and Jim Harper, I got to hear some pretty strong lines. However, even though the most memorable line I’ve ever heard was said in a radio station, it wasn’t said by a radio person.
It all began one frigid January night in Winnipeg when CKY dee-jays Chuck Dann and Daryl ‘B’ graciously agreed to record a demo tape for my band The Jury. We’d recently recruited a singer by the name of Bruce Walker to replace Donny Burns whom we lost to Bill Gilliland of Arc Records but he wasn’t “stage ready.” Our plan that night was to cut a few instrumentals and If they turned out half decent, we’d send them out to some dance promoters like J Robert Wood. While sitting there waiting for Chuck and Daryl to finish setting up, Bruce asked Terry Kenny and I if we would help him finish up a tune he was composing. He was hoping that if we got it done maybe we could tack it on the end of the session.
After having played our instrumentals so often on stage, things went very smoothly, so we had plenty of time to have a go at Bruce’s new tune called “Until You Do.” After going through it with the rest of the guys a few time we laid down a couple of tracks of it and then went into the control room to hear what we had.
The playback blew us away, not only did it sound decent, it sounded very English which was very important because we were right in the middle of the British Invasion. Chuck and Daryl who were also excited about the tune, suggested that I should bring it back tomorrow at noon and play it for their boss, Jimmy Darin. Jim was the Program Director of CKY, and as they said,”If anybody knew what to do with our new song, it would be him.”
The next day at the stroke of high noon I was back at CKY, with tape in hand and after Jim listened to it, he asked if I could hang around until six? He went on to say that Hal Ross who is an executive with London Records was coming by to take him to dinner, let’s make him listen to your song first. When Hal showed up, we dragged him to the studio and when “Until You Do” faded away he said something that I’ve never forgotten, “Hell, I’ll release that!”
(To hear what Hal heard, click on the link at the bottom of the page.)
GEO’S LIFE-LINERS
One of the neat things about the recent Royal Wedding was the lack of politicians looking for camera time. As the happy couple said, “This is not a political affair.”
Speaking of the royal wedding, I loved when Harry said to Prince Charles after he escorted the bride down the aisle, “Thanks Pa.”
Supposedly at his bachelor party, Prince Harry was overheard saying, “It feels weird stuffing my grandmother’s picture into g-strings.”
I never realized that there are 31 teams in the NHL but only 6 of them are in Canada. Seeing as hockey is Canada’s national sport, shouldn’t they have teams in Kelowna, Regina and/or Saskatoon, Hamilton, Quebec City, and Halifax?
How cool would it be to see a Yardbird reunion with Clapton, Beck, and Page?
I love when companies turn the negative about their product into a selling point. Example, Heins Ketchup making us believe that if it’s not hard to get out of the bottle, it’s no good. Or Uber recruitment ads saying, “You get to drive your own car” and others saying, “You can work from home.”
Why are we never shocked when a corporate executive is charged with fraud?
I was watching a special the other day about Larry Bird and one of the NBA superstars said, “Here’s the thing with Bird, he couldn’t run, couldn’t jump, and couldn’t dribble. The only thing he did really well was kicking your ass.”
Why do people who not only still vote like their ancestors even though the times have changed rant at us that we should do as they do?
If New York and California are always gonna vote the same way, why do we waste money counting their votes?
As Garth Brooks once said for me, “I was a little wild in school but not as wild as I wanted to be, I was too scared.”
The NRA has to figure out how to get people to stop committing suicide with guns so they can get their stats down.
Great Indy 500 which featured a new car design that put the driving back in the hands of the driver. Will Power, an Australian, won it after Danica Patrick ended her career crashing out.
Wow, the Cavs beat the Celtics at home on their way to the NBA finals. How many times can LeBron do it himself?
“https://youtu.be/vufZfWjUqbI
Geo’s Media Blog above is about #Making a #Record and a bunch of #LifeLiners about the #NHL, #NRA and the #RoyalWedding. Much much more@ GeorgeJohns. On Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio. Sharing & commenting is appreciated.
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