Entertainment
What a difference a century makes! Almost a hundred years ago American songwriter Hoagy Carmichael wrote and performed the song Rockin’ Chair, with the lyrics “Old rockin’ chair’s got me …” Our classmates are rocking, but in a different way.
Curt Cochran and singing partner John Byrd (“John & Curt“) provided oldies karaoke for our RCHS reunion in 2009.
Members of the RiverSharks include RCHS alumni Ken Deal (class of ’66), Roger Deal (’70), Mike Shannon (’74) and Darrell Cole (’76). Ken was in the Viscounts 1964-66, and Roger was in the Establishment 1967-69. They were the band for the RCHS class of 1972’s 40th reunion.
Drummer John Copeland, class of ’69, is still rocking in this oldies band, TruFlyers. John was in the Sierras and Soul Reality in high school.
A blast from the past. Back in the day Top 40 AM radio was what many of us listened to, and WNOX was top of the heap in Knoxville. Album Rock as a common format was still a few years away, and FM stations here were neglected stepchildren of existing AM stations. By the way, WNOX signed on in 1921 (as WNAV) and was the eighth oldest radio station in North America.
The weekly Billboard Hot 100 chart was the gold standard in songs for top 40 radio stations. Here are the weekly top 5 from Billboard’s Hot 100 chart from June 1, 1968, through May 31, 1969, plus the Top 40 from May 31, 1969, and here are the year-end Billboard Hot 100 singles for 1968 and 1969. Can you dig it?