The music charts of 50 years ago this week inspired this Sunday’s ‘Vintage Favourites’ (Feb.5th). A new live album had just been released – and in a few weeks it would be #1. It would be the final #1 charting album in Elvis Presley’s lifetime. ‘Aloha From Hawaii’ was no ordinary live album – it was a spectacular technical achievement as the first live worldwide satellite telecast of a music concert, featuring a single artist. The show was on Sunday January 14th; it happened to be ‘Super Bowl Sunday’ in the US, so the historic program – seen by a billion people worldwide – was not actually telecast in the US, till that April. But the concert soundtrack was released February 4th, and I’ll play some selections from ‘Aloha from Hawaii’.
At that same time, another new album was struggling for recognition. Released a month earlier – January 5th, 1973 – ‘Greetings from Asbury Park’ featured a newcomer from New Jersey named Bruce Springsteen. His debut effort failed to crack the Top 200 album chart until a couple years later. I’ll feature key tracks from The Boss’ career, including a song from each of his first three albums, a live track from his recent Broadway show and the title song from his most recent soul covers album: ‘Only the Strong Survive’.
One more note from those music charts of 50 years ago. The #1 song on Billboard’s Hot 100 was ‘Crocodile Rock’ – the first #1 hit for Elton John, who’d be the top-ranked artist of the 70s. I’ll tell you ‘The Story Behind the Song‘ ‘Crocodile Rock’, along with seven other #1 hits this week in years past, on ‘Our Sunday Best – A Century of #1 Hits‘, during the show’s first hour (2-3pm.) with the top song from this week in 1927, ’47, ’57, ’67, ’77, ’87 and ’97. I hope you’ll tune in this Sunday between 2:00 and 4:30.