Music Deaths in 2022: Jim Sohns of The Shadows of Knight 'Gloria'

JIM SOHNS, 75

Died 29 July 2022

Lead vocalist with the Chicagoland band The Shadows of Knight who had a hit song with "Gloria."

The four original members attendd Prospect High School in Mt. Prospect, Illinois, near where I attended  school at Palatine High School.  Became the house band at The Cellar in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

Recorded "Gloria" which had originally been done by British band Them which featured Van Morrison.  It received big airplay on Chicago's two main pop stations, WLS and WCFL and went national, climbing to #10  in 1966.  It was followed up with "Oh Yeah"  (#39-1966).

We saw Jim Sohns at the Taste of Antioch back a few years ago which was his first performance after a stroke that he had.

Clark Weber, Big Voice on Chicago Radio (WLS and WCFL and Others)

CLARK WEBER, 89

Died March 8, 2020

This was not on the Hope I Die Before I Get Old site.  I didn't know about it until this week.

A pioneer rock and roll disc jockey in the 1960s and for decades later.  Known as "Mother Weber's Oldest Son."

First rose to fame on Chicago's Powerhouse station, WLS, 890 AM.  In 1965, he introduced the Beatles on stage at Comiskey Park.  Born in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin (outside of Milwaukee).  In 2008, wrote "Clark Weber's  Rock and Roll Radio: 1955-1975."

In 1968, jumped to rival WCFLAM and in 1971 to WMAQ AM.

At age 43, feeling he might be too old to keep spinning 45s, he segued to Talk Radio.

One of my favorites from back then.  Clark Weber ad the other Ls and CFL jocks back then made growing up in the Chicago area a lot more fun.  Our music.

WLS Top Ten for Week of August 31, 1970: 'In the Summertime'

That would be fifty years ago in case you're counting.  WLS and WCFL, both AM stations,  battled it out for domination in Chicagoland for pop music.

1.   WAR--  Edwin Starr
2.  25 OR 6 TO 4--  Chicago
3.  I JUST CAN'T HELP BELIEVING--  B,J, Thomas

4.  IN THE SUMMERTIME--  Mungo Jerry
5.  SPILL THE WINE--  Eric Burdon
6.  SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED, I'M YOURS--  Stevie Wonder
7.  HAND ME DOWN WORLD--  Guess Who--

8.  LOOKING OUT MY BACK DOOR--  Creedence Clearwater Revival
9.  AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH--  Diana Ross
10.  NEANDERTHAL MAN--  Hotlegs

**********************************

DEBUTS

27. CRACKLIN' ROSIE--  Neil Diamond
28.  RUBBER DUCKIE--  Jim (Ernie Henson)

29.  SNOWBIRD--  Anne Murray
30.  I KNOW (I'M LOSING YOU)--  Rare Earth

HBD.  PEACE WILL COME (ACCORDING TO PLAN)--  Melanie

******************************

If you are a big fan of 1970 music, make sure you listen to Bob Stroud this Coming Sunday, September 6, when he will close out his Summer of 1970 Rock and Roll Roots shows with three hours of the songs on the radio and in our record collections

Name That Tune (from the above songs):  "Waiting For The Break Of The Day, Searching For Something To Say."  Answer below.  --RoadDog


"25 or 6 to 4"

WLS Top Ten for Week of July 6, 1970: "My Baby Loves Lovin' "

These are the Top Ten songs in Chicago according to the July 6, 1970, WLS, 890 AM.  This and competitor WCFL, 1000 AM, were the main stations we listened to here in Chicagoland back then.

1.  THE LOVE YOU SAVE--  Jackson Five
2.  MAMA TOLD ME--  Three Dog Night
3.  RIDE CAPTAIN RIDE--  Blues Image

4.  LONG & WINDING ROAD--  Beatles
5.  LAY DOWN (CANDLES IN THE RAIN)--  Melanie
6.  BALL OF CONFUSION--  Temptations
7.  GIMME DAT THING--  Pipkins

8.  MY BABY LOVES LOVIN'--  White Plains
9.  THE WONDER OF YOU--  Elvis Presley
10.  BAND OF GOLD--  Freda Payne

******************************

DEBUTS

35.  WHY CAN'T I TOUCH YOU--  Ronnie Dyson
36.  BOYS IN THE BAND--  Boys in the Band

38.  SO MUCH IN LOVE--  Faith, Hope & Charity

Name That Tune (from the above songs):  "Seventy-three men Sailed Up From The San Francisco Bay."  Answer below.  --RoadDog


"Ride Captain Ride"

WLS Top 40 for December 15, 1969-- Part 3: "And When I Die"

Fifty Years Ago.

30.  SHE--  Tommy James / Shondells     #23    Not one of their better known songs.  But repeated listenings and it grows on you.

29.  AND WHEN I DIE --  Blood, Sweat & Tears     #2    More horns,  more harmonica.  Takes me back to those good old days at NIU.  Written by Laura Nyro.   The last of three straight #2s.

28.  TAKE A LETTER MARIA--  R.B. Greaves      #2    Another defining song from the era for me.    One of the comments on the video said that he had a friend in Vietnam who dedicated it to his soon-to-be ex-girlfriend.  His biggest hit.

27.  BARBARA I LOVE YOU--  New Colony Six    #78    Slow song from one of those great 1960s Chicago bands with Ronnie Rice singing upfront.  One comment said that the Association was singing the background vocals, but I don't know.   Both WLS and WCFL really pushed our local bands.

26.  JINGLE JANGLE--  Archies     #10    Pop Music.  Bubble Gum Music?    A fun song, though.  Their second biggest hit after, of course "Sugar, Sugar."

Name That Tune (from the above songs):  "Last Night As I Got Home About A Half Past Ten."  Answer below.  --RoadDog


"Take A Letter Maria"

Local Radio Supporting Chicago Bands Back in 1967

Chicago's WLS 890 AM sure supported the local bands back fifty years ago.  Not only WLS supported local talent, but rival Big Ten, 1000 AM, WCFL did as well.

Here are the bands listed in the Top 40 from the Chicago area:

35.  TAKE ME BACK--   Flock

23.  STEP OUT OF YOUR MIND--  American Breed

17.  HOLD ON--  Mauds   (Originally "Hold On, I'm Coming" by Sam and Dave.)

16.  SUNDAY WILL NEVER BE THE SAME--  Spanky & Our Gang

15.  I'M JUST WAITING--  New Colony Six

14.  WE'RE IN LOVE --  Cryan' Shames     (Actual name of the song "It Could We're in Love.")

12  ROMEO & JULIET--  Michael & the Messengers  (Most likely from nearby Milwaukee, but this group is hard to trace.)

7.  MERCY MERCY MERCY--  Buckinghams

The good old days for us who grew up in the Chicagoland area back then.  And, a lot of these bands played local high school hops and clubs.

These are good songs.  If you haven't ever heard of them, check them out at You Tube.

Good Times Had By All.  --RoadDog

THE LAST YOU'RE DRINKING TOO MUCH COFFEE WHEN:  Your life's goal is to amount to a hill of beans.

How Chicago Rocked the 60s-- Part 1: Rockin' the City and Suburbs With 50,000 Watts

In the previous post I wrorte that Chicago's New Colony Six band, had the #33 song on the WLS Silver Dollar Survey for July  15, 1966.

Go to You Tube and look this up full program  especially if you are not knowing about the 1960s Chicago rock scene.  Our two super stations, both pushing out 50,000 watts (and you could gear it in most of the United States at night), really pushed the local talent.

It is 27 minutes of all sorts of information and facts as well as music clips.

Those stations were WLS 890 AM and WCFL 1000 AM.  This tells you about the bands and the radio stations.

It was great growing up in the Chicago suburbs and hearing our local talent.  Plus, the groups often played high school hops, plus night clubs like the Cellar in Arlington Heights.

--RoadDog

So Long, WLS' Uncle Lar: Larry Lujack

LARRY LUJACK (June 6, 1940-Dec. 18, 2013) //// From Wikipedia. For those of us growing up in the Chicagoland-area from the late 60s to 70s, this was one mighty familiar voice on our mighty WLS, 890 AM, playing all our favorite pop music during the period. I especially liked his "Animal Stories" and "Cheap Trashy Show Biz Report" bits and his on-air partner, Little Tommy (also called "Little Snot-Nosed Tommy). I listened to him even though I found him to be somewhat too-smug and sarcastic sometimes. //// Also known as "Superjock" and "Uncle Lar." He came up with "Animal Stories" after the station continued to get farm magazines even after it went all rock and roll in 1960. //// Retired from WLS in 1987. //// Born in Quasqueton, Iowa, and raised in Arkansas as Larry Blankenburg, but changed his last name to Lujack after his football hero Johnny Lujack. //// Worked at several stations around the country before coming to Chicago's WCFL 1000 AM (the other big pop music station) in 1967 and doing a four-month stint at night before coming to WLS in August and continued there until 1987. //// No More Old Uncle Lar. --RoadDog

Chicago's (and San Diego's) Jerry G. Bishop: 'CFL and Svengoolie-- Part 2

When Ken Draper was hired as program director of Chicago's rock giant WCFL-AM, 1000, in 1967, the first thing he did was hire Jerry G. away from KYW, but asked that Jerry G. choose a last name. He and his wife went through the Cleveland phonebook and settled on the name Bishop. Jerry G. Bishop took over the morning show and helped make Big Ten WCFL into competition with rock giant WLS.

Management shakeup in 1969 caused Bishop to leave radio and sign on with Chicago's WFLD-TV, one of the city's first UHF stations. There, he did a little bit of everything, including hosting Dialing for Dollars and the station's Friday night horror movie show "Screaming Yellow Theater" where he created the character that became Svengoolie. He was a green-haired, green-bearded, guitar-playing hippie who slept in a psychedelic coffin and told the corniest jokes.

Svengoolie was resurrected in 1979, with Bishop's permission, by Rich Coz, who continues on with the tradition.

Later, Bishop was on Chicago's WMAQ-AM and WMAQ-TV before going to San Diego.

Svengoolie, Just in Time for Halloween. --RoadDog

Chicago's (and San Diego's) Jerry G. Bishop: Super 'CFL and Svengoolie-- Part 1

From Wikipedia. I wrote about his death in September in my Cooter's History Thing blog and was thinking, besides Svengoolie, I remembered him being on WCFL-Am 1000 in Chicago. He was. My high school and college days were spent listening to WCFL and their "enemy station," WLS, a whole lot. These were the stations Chicago kids listened to.

JERRY G. BISHOP (August 3, 1936-Sept. 15, 2013). Radio/TV personality, creator of the original Svengoolie and 12-year host of "Sun-Up San Diego."

Born Jairus Samuel Ghan in Chicago. Attended school in Chicago, then Wright Jr. College, University of Illinois and Columbia College in Chicago. He got his first radio job at Evanston, Illinois's WNMP-AM in 1961 where he was morning-show host. Then he went to WPGC in Washington, DC, and Cleveland Giant KYW (I thought stations east of the Mississippi began with W) where he was nighttime dj using his first and last names. The program director got him to use just G. for last name, Jerry G.

Congrats to Dick Biondi

He's been around since Rock and Roll began and is still chugging away at WLS-FM True Oldies at 94.7 FM here in Chicago doing his nightly show.

I just read that he has won the 2010 Carolina Beach Music Association's DJ of the year. Just one more thing to add to his list of honors and a very deserving one.

Dick, as we know, has been fired on more than one occasion and after a stint here in Chicago in the 60s, ended up at a station down in Myrtle Beach South Carolina spinning tunes, many of which were Beach Music ones. And, these aren't your Beach Boys beach songs, but that eastern Carolina sweet R&B.

These are the songs that folks along the south's east coast dance the shag to.

He also knew another one of my favorite DJs of all time, the late-great Billy Smith.

Way to Go You Italian Stallion. Put Some Peanut Butter on the Spaghetti. --RoadDog


DOORMATS WITH ATTITUDE: Come Back with a Warrant.
Thanks, Uncle Bo.

Mighty Good Time for All-- Chicago Rock-- Part 2

Then, the Buckingham's performed. They had just played in Panama City last night where they opened for Herman's Hermits. They refer to selves as AHRSs--Aging Hippy Rock Stars. They have been nominated for the Rock and Roll hall of Fame in Cleveland.

Song List

Don't You Care
Hey Baby, They're Playing Our Song
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
Reliving a Dream
Old Enough
Kind of a Drag

Then, Jim Peterik got up. He was with the groups Ides of March and Survivor. He referred to his home as "The House That Stallone Built" with the popularity of the "Eye of a Tiger" song.


Songs:

High on You
The Search is Over
Eye of the Tiger-- before singing it, Petetik said, "When I wrote this song, I had no idea that one day I'd be performing it at a Border's." (How the mighty have fallen.)

To be Continued. RoadDog

Mighty Good Time For All-- Chicago 60s Rock-- Part 1

Back in November, Liz and I went to the Schaumburg Border's Store for the release of Bob Stroud's Rock and Roll Roots Vol. 10 party. We'll definitely be back for Vol. 11's release. We had a great time and a trip back down memory lane with lots of the guys we grew up with on the radio back in the 60sin Chicago.

Of course, our two big stations back then were both AM: WCFL and WLS. There was great music coming from the rest of the country, but Chicago had its own little thing going on with bands like New Colony Six, the Buckinghams, Shadows of Knight, and Cryan' Shames.

Everybody was here for the party. And they played for two hours. I kept a list of songs and groups.

NEW COLONY SIX

I Confess
I Love You So Much
I Will Always Think About You
Things I'd Like to Say
I Want You to Know-- Sold a million copies of this song

I later got to talk with Ray Graffia Jr, founder of the band. Of all the Chicago groups, this was my favorite.

Take Me Back to the Old Days. --RoadDog

I Got to Meet the "Wild I-Talian"

I drove over to the new Jewel store and found a good-sized group of people meeting a true radio legend, Dick Biondi. He is definitely older, probably in his 70s and still doing radio and live deejaying. That distinctive voice is the same as ever. Without looking at him, but listening to that voice, you could swear you were back in Palatine, IL, in the late 60s early 70s and listening to him on Super CFL.

At one time, he even released his own record called "On Top of My Pizza" to the tune of "On Top of Spaghetti". A woman said she still likes peanut butter on her pizza despite strange looks from her friends. She even still has a copy of that very limited pressing. Dick said he'd had all sorts of toppings on pizzas including cole slaw and cabbage. It has become a running gag.

I asked him if he liked Beach Music and remembered Billy Smith. He spent ten years right down in the cradle of Beach Music, the Grand Strand, Myrtle Beach, S.C., after he was fired by WCFL. He quickly mentioned General Johnson and the Tams as great Beach groups. He's sure Billy Smith will deejay like him, until they have to take the mike out of his cold dead hand. I said that Billy Smith had been fired almost as often as he had. Dick said, "No one has been fired as much as me!!"

He confirmed that he had indeed been the first deejay in the US to play a Beatles song "Please, Please Me" back in February of 1963. A representative of Chicago's VeeJay Records had brought in a copy for him to listen to. He was so impressed that he played it right away.

Dick Biondi is, as I said yesterday, back in Chicago again. Now he is the 9 PM to midnight deejay at 94.7 FM, Chicago's True Oldies. They replaced WJMK and I like it even more as True Oldies goes much deeper into the stacks of wax as it were. WJMK just played top ten songs unless Biondi did a "Forgotten Oldies.

http://www.947trueoldies.com/ You can listen to Dick Biondi online, as well as another Chicago radio legend, John Records Landecker.

Still Deejaying After All These Years. --RoadDog

The Danimal and The Wild I-Talian in Spring Grove, Il

Yesterday, our new Jewel-Osco store opened in my little old town of Spring Grove. Guess we're not so little anymore. What next, a Walgreen's and Kohls? Population is still around 4000, but we are right in the way of Chicago's outward move, even though we're about 50 miles away. It's coming right up US Highway 12.

In honor of the grand opening, they had the Danimal there signing autographs and saying hi from 6 to 8 PM. Unfortunately, I didn't know about it, and arrived at 9, so missed him. Sigh!!! Now, for some of you NON-BEAR fans, Danimal was the name give to Dan Hampton for his ferocious defensive play. He was one of DABEARS, those swaggering winners of Super Bowl XX!!!

He was born in Oklahoma City in 1957 (OKC, by the way, is on ROUTE 66). He is in the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH, and played for DA BEARS from 1979-1990, the glory years.

He played college ball with the Arkansas Razorbacks where he was an All-American his senior year and had 18 qb sacks. He was the Southwest Conference's Defensive Player of the Year in 1978.

He was drafted by the Bears in the first round and was a key defenseman from 1979 to 1990, going to four Pro Bowls. He set a career record with 82 sacks with the team and helped rank as the defense giving up the fewest rushing TDs, yardage, and total yards during that time.

He did not take part in the "Super Bowl Shuffle" video as he felt it was too cocky.


DICK BIONDI- "The Wild I-Talian"

One of the all-time great disc jockies will be at the Jewel today to meet and greet. He has spent much of his career here in the Chicago area.

He started in Buffalo, NY in the 50s and came to Chicago's 50,000 watt WLS, 890 AM in 1960 where his show was heard over a lot of the US. From 1963 to 1967, he was at KRLA in Los Angeles before returning to Chicago, this time at WLS's arch rival WCFL at 1000 AM. He was there until 1972.

As I remember it, a comment he made on-air got him fired and then he went to WNMB in North Myrtle Beach for a decade. Wonder if he played BEACH MUSIC and knew Billy Smith?

In 1984, he returned to Chicago for his third tour, this time at Oldies Station WJMK, 104.3 FM. That station closed, and today, he is back with the True Oldies Station.

This guy lived through a whole lot of Rock and Roll. He says, "I tell you, I'm never going to stop. I'm not interested in rusting away." He doesn't stop, just gets fired. One source I used to get this info said he was fired 21 times in 32 years. I would have to believe he was rehired quite a few times.

The depth of his knowledge is legendary. He still does live deejay shows as well as in-studio.

There is some discussion as to whether he was the first deejay to play a Beatles record, "Please, Please Me" back in February 1963. Also, Mr. Wheel of Fortune, Pat Sajak, won a contest on the Dick Biondi Show and got to be a guest teen deejay.

He has been inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame and is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH.

Two of My Favorites. --RoadDog

THIS DAY IN HISTORY- 1786- THE US Constitution was ratified and became the Supreme Law of the Land. Where would we be without it? Happy 221st birthday!!!