Christmas Radio Special #2 - 50s-70s Rock n Roll Novelty Songs

Hello holiday heads! This episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM, featured a bunch of rockin' Christmas tunes from around the world. While I might not be jolly old Saint Nick, I can still deliver some good tunes for your last-minute wrapping. As always, the show will stay up on the KUCR archives for a few weeks, so if you missed the show and want to listen on your own time, make sure to listen while you can. If you just want to hear the music, check out the playlist down below, but if you want a summary of what I talked about during the show... keep reading. Be sure to also check out last year's Christmas playlist, and if you are feeling crafty, feel free to print out a foldable box I created that's based off of an unusual robotic Santa toy from days gone by.

The Boys Next Door as seen in Teen Tempo

Towards the beginning of the show, you heard The Boys Next Door, a group from Indianapolis, perform their song The Wildest Christmas. The group was fairly popular in their local scene and also appeared as The Four Wheels on two singles, Central High Playmate, and Sneaky Little Sleeper. According to a blog named 60's Indiana Band Szene, the group's name change was without the groups knowledge and eventually it was changed back to The Boys Next Door. The label Sundazed Music compiled the band's complete discography back in 1999 in a self-titled release which appears to be out of print and proves to be difficult to find online. While researching the band I found an article that appeared in a magazine named Teen Tempo which covers a concert that the band put on from the rooftop of a newly opened department store named Dorothy's Woman's Apparel Shop. It's wild seeing a photo of band members standing on a pallet that's being hoisted up towards the roof via forklift. 

Rankin/Bass TV special inspired flyer paired with one of the show's misfit toys

Next up you heard The Galaxies cover of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and I mentioned that the character Rudolph was created by Robert L. May for a book that was sold at Montgomery Ward. However, the character was popularized by the song which came about a decade later and was penned by May's brother-in-law Johnny Marks. If you are interested in the history of the song, there is a great piece that aired on NPR's Here and Now where they interviewed May's daughter Barbara May Lewis and discussed how Montgomery Ward gave May the rights to the story without realizing how big it would eventually become. For a first-hand account, you can also check out this interview with Marks that was conducted by Ian Whitcomb in 1972.

As the show continued, you heard Mae West's Merry Christmas Baby from the album Wild Christmas which followed in the footsteps of her previous surprise hit album Way Out West. During this time, West was around 72 and, although they were fairly outdated at the time, the album features Christmas themed alterations of West's famous catchphrases. Unlike Way Out West, Wild Christmas was released through the small record label Dagonet Records rather than the major label Tower Records. As a throwback to her previous album, Wild Christmas includes a cover of The Beatles track From Me To You with some holiday lines added to the song's intro. 

Of course, we ended the show with a novelty country song by Charlie Stewart named Santa Claus Ain't a Hippie. Stewart was a very opinionated individual and his songs reflected his visions of what he felt was taboo at the time. Of course, nowadays it all comes off very hokey with songs about Stewart's disapproval of unions, Johnny Cash, and Fidel Castro but the songs are strange snapshots of their time.

And a ho ho ho folks! That's about it for this episode's rundown. Thanks for reading the blog and be sure to listen over the air on KUCR 88.3FM on Saturdays at 9pm PST or listen to an archived version of the show here. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In. 

Check out this week's playlist below:

  

The Quiet Jungle - Here Comes Santa Claus
Mae West - Merry Christmas Baby
Toni Wine - My Boyfriend's Coming Home For Christmas
Grace Hong - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
He 5 - Silent Night
Takeshi Terauchi and Blue Jeans - Blue Christmas

Halloween Radio Special 4! - 50s-70s Rock and Roll, Rockabilly, and Novelty Songs

This episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM, featured spooky, creepy, and macabre songs from around the world. That must mean it was... the 4th annual Halloween Special! If your musical sweet tooth is craving more horrifying tunes, you can check out the last few Halloween playlists here, here, and here. If you missed the episode as it originally aired, you can catch it on the KUCR Archive, however, it'll only be online for a few weeks so listen while you can!

This year's flyer was based on the poster for Child's Play 2

Towards the beginning of the show you heard the Danish group Rocking Ghosts play a fun surf track named Ghost Walk. During the show I mentioned that one of the band's singles featured a cover with the band in regalia that looked similar to those worn by the KKK. In reality, the band was probably just donning ghostly imagery based on the hooded penitents as seen during the Spanish holiday Semena Santa or flagellants who often mutilate their own bodies as a form of penance. There's not many things creepier than whipping yourself to please god. Yikes.

Next up, you heard Los Crazy Birds play their creepy tune La Bruja. The band was headed by Luis Vivi Hernandez who was known for his work with Los Luises, Los Crazy Boys, and Los Electronicos. According to the website Ven a mi mundo, Hernandez is considered by many to be the Mexican Elvis. Does that mean he also liked peanut butter, banana and bacon sandwiches? Also, I'd also like to point out that during this time Elvis wasn't well received in Mexico due to rumors of him making racist statements about Mexicans which was later revealed to be untrue.

As an aside, if you are interested in brujas (witches) in Mexican cinema, there's a great guest lecture by Valeria Villegas Lindval about witches in gothic horror through a feminist lens.

Finally, towards the end of the show I spoke about an unusual album by Robbie Robison named Robbie The Werewolf At The Waleback. The album is a live recording of an acoustic performance at the Wale Back in Santa Monica, CA where Robison adopted the persona of a hippie werewolf. The album is rude and crude with an eerie twist. Robbie The Werewolf sings about doing drugs, getting sick, and other unusual topics in front of a captivated audience that appears to be inebriated. You can't help but imagine yourself sitting in the crowd wondering how you ended up in a dingy dive bar on a Wednesday night. Robison later went on to perform with The Brain Train (who you may have heard on the episode named Kiwi and Oca) and Clear Light, which was a re-branding of The Brain Train after signing to Elektra. Interestingly enough, Robison's wife Barbara also provided vocals for the psych band The Peanut Butter Conspiracy. 

The album was recorded by Reice Hamel who was known for developing recording techniques that resulted in amazing live recordings of various jazz musicians. Hamel was also known for his mobile recording studios which at one point took the shape of a customized Type 2 Volkswagen. 

That it for this episode's terrifying rundown! Stay safe this Halloween and please remember to brush and floss! Thanks for reading the blog and be sure to listen over the air on KUCR 88.3FM on Saturdays at 9pm PST or listen to an archived version of the show here. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In. 

You can check out this week's playlist below:

  

Los Johnny Jets - Dracula A Go Go
Los Crazy Birds - La Bruja
Robbie The Werewolf - Streets Of Transylvania
Roy Clark - Spooky Movies
The Ebb-Tides - Seance
Azra Halilović - Tvoja Slika

Christmas Radio Special! - 50s-70s Rock and Roll, Rockabilly, and Novelty Songs

This episode of Hippie Love Turbo, on KUCR 88.3 FM was a Christmas special! There were lots of songs about Santa and staying festive. In fact, this episode has one of my highest track counts with almost 30 songs in an hour! I kept the talking to a minimum so you can put it on in the background for that last minute gift wrapping session. If you are feeling crafty, check out this folding box pattern I made back in 2020. It features one of my favorite bizarre Christmas decorations.

Be sure to listen over the air on KUCR 88.3FM on Saturdays at 9pm PST. You can also listen through KUCR.org, Radio Garden, or Tune-In. 

Have a happy holidays and if you missed the show you can check out the playlist below!

 

Ron Holden and The Thunderbirds - Who Say There Ain't No Santa Claus
Rumbles Ltd - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
The Ping Pongs - I Don't Wanna Wait Till Christmas

Halloween Radio Special - 50s-70s Rock and Roll, Garage, and Novelty Songs

This Sunday at midnight on KUCR 88.3 FM is the Hippie Love Turbo Halloween Special! Be sure to listen over the air on KUCR 88.3FM or through KUCR.org. If you'd like, you can also listen to KUCR through Radio Garden or Tune-In.

Just like last year's Halloween Special, I kept the talking to a minimum so we can all just enjoy the creepy tunes, however, that's not to say I didn't speak just a little. 

The first song on this episode is Gary Paxton's Spooky Movies and I mentioned that country guitar shredder, Roy Clark, performed his own version of Spooky Movies in 1963. Fans of Stranger Things might recognize Paxton's version from the first episode of the second season of Stranger Things. 

Later in the episode there's a rare song by The Daringers called The Morgus Creep and, Although the band was around for a few years, The Daringers only recorded one single which happened to be with a television horror host, Morgus the Magnificent. The band remained fairly unknown throughout the years until another blogger and radio host named Hunter King spoke with The Daringers' drummer. A couple years after the single's release Morgus starred in a somewhat obscure full length movie named The Wacky World of Dr Morgus.

And finally, towards the halfway point of the show I spoke about the Winchester Mystery House which is located in San Jose, California. The house is known for its unusual architecture which includes a door to nowhere, staircases that lead to dead ends, and various other peculiarities. The myth goes that the house was built to confuse ghosts and spirits that haunted the estate's owner, Sarah Winchester. Mrs.Winchester's husband, William Winchester, was the man behind some of the most popular rifles ever produced and Sarah was supposedly convinced that the spirits of those that were killed by Winchester's rifles would haunt her if she didn't expand and renovate her mansion. Much of the house's history has been embellished over the years so sometimes it's hard to separate the facts from the fiction. Regardless, many have claimed that they've seen apparitions at the mansion and such stories, along with various works of fiction, have added to the home's mystique.

Thanks for tuning in this week! You can check out this episode's playlist below:

 

The Bells Of Rhymny - The Wicked Old Witch 

 And below are the songs used as backing tracks during the speaking bits:

The Skeltons - Terror
Henry Mancini - Experiment in Terror
Pat and the Wildcats - The Giggler
The Ventures - Fear