The AT40 Blog/June 5, 1976: The moving song about the dog

 Whenever I get on Facebook now and I see someone mourning the passing of their beloved pet, my mind wonders off to "Shannon."

It's true. Without hesitation. It goes back to the spring of 1976 and a song that was climbing the Top 40 called "Shannon." The artist performing the song was a young man from Brooklyn named Henry Gross. And it climbed the Hot 100 until it stopped at No. 6 in early June.

Gross wrote the song about the passing of Beach Boy Carl Wilson's Irish setter. Now that might be an odd subject for any song, but it hit a chord with all pet lovers who have suffered great loss of their beloved cat, dog, anything they grew attached to.

And while some people may call it complete schlock, some of us call it a masterpiece. Remember: We all have something in our lives we are attached to, and while there have been songs mourning the loss of a beloved family member (songs like Bobby Goldsboro's "Honey" and Bread's "Everything I Own" come to mind), there was never that song about the loss of a family pet. In that regard, what Henry Gross did was pen pure genius.

Gross was a founding member of the famed '50s-style act Sha Na Na, but left for a solo career at 19 years old in 1970. The follow-up to "Shannon," "Springtime Mama," was a Top 40 hit in September of 1976, keeping him from being a forever one-hit wonder.

But just because the Top 40 hits stopped coming didn't mean Henry Gross hung up his guitar and left. He's recorded a dozen albums/CDs since 1977, one being titled "One Hit Wanderer" in tongue-in-cheek fashion. Just turned 63 in April, Gross still tours, though nothing has been posted on his Web site about a tour.

And yes, the song has had a little bit of infamy thanks to a "Long Distance Dedication" gone wrong in September 1985 on American Top 40 when the producers arranging the show had Casey Kasem read a dedication over a deceased pet named Snuggles after he had played an uptempo, dance hit on the countdown called "Dare Me" by the Pointer Sisters. The outtake of the Casey Kasem rant has been on YouTube for years.

Still, that doesn't take away from the majestic beauty of a loving tribute to a an equally loving pet. If only all pet owners could find the words about their animals the way Henry Gross did 38 years ago, which is why when a pet passes, this song always circulates in my head. It simply shows the beautiful and compassionate human being this man was to pay homage to a friend's pet.

Henry, you're still nailing it perfectly to this day.

The AT40 Blog/May 22, 1971: An amazing songwriter is an amazing singer, too

My second favorite musical year of the 1970s is 1971. A lot of different kinds of music hit the Top 40 that year: R&B, country, pop, rock, bubblegum. You name it, it was on the chart in 1971.

But the year was highlighted by one woman's conquering of the charts as a singer after she first made her impact as a songwriter. On the Top 40 from May 22, 1971 was a debut at No. 38 by a woman who teamed with her then-husband in the 1960s to write some classics, such as "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" by the Shirelles, "The Loco-Motion" for Little Eva, "Go Away Little Girl" by Steve Lawrence and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" by Aretha Franklin.

By 1971, Carole King was no longer married to Gerry Goffin and was ready to break out on her own with the album that was about to become the groundbreaker for women everywhere, "Tapestry." She debuted with what was a double-sided hit. The "B" side of the 45 was the ground-banging, beat-setting raucous "I Feel The Earth Move." But it's the "A" side that everyone remembers most as "It's Too Late" would be on radios all over America. The song clocked in over four minutes, something that was rare for pop radio back in that time period.

However, the song about the end of a relationship and how the female end of it copes with knowing it's over, hit a nerve with both men and women. It would go from No. 38 to No. 21 to No. 9 to No. 6 to No. 1, where it would sit at the top for five straight weeks and be the biggest hit of the summer of '71.

More importantly, the song helped to open eyes to the album "Tapestry," which had been released in mid-February. When it was all said and done, "Tapestry" would spend 15 weeks at No. 1, win the Grammy for Album of the Year and go on to spend over 300 weeks on the Billboard Top 200 album chart between 1971-2011.

But the double-sided hit song is not the legacy of "Tapestry." Every song is a memory maker, from "It's Too Late" to her version of "You've Got A Friend," which good pal James Taylor recorded on his own and made a No. 1 hit, going to the top two weeks after King's double-sided hit had finished its five-week run at No. 1, to "Smackwater Jack" to "So Far Away," the other memorable Top 40 hit from the "Tapestry" album and a Top 15 hit to "Where You Lead," which a year later, Barbra Streisand would have a Top 40 hit with. She also did her versions of "A Natural Woman" and "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?"

Basically, Carole King gave you a bit of everything from this amazing album and 43 years later, it is still arguably the greatest album/CD ever recorded by a female artist. It was as if she and producer Lou Adler took a thermometer to the world outside the recording studio, got a reading and made an album everyone could relate to.

"It's Too Late" got the ball rolling 43 years ago. It also got Carole King's career going in another direction -- one that still sees her on tour from time to time and showed off her singing and performing prowess.

That's how important "Tapestry" was as an album, even to this day.

"It's Too Late" was far from late. Actually, the song was right on time for its singer-songwriter.

The AT40 Blog/May 12, 1973: That beautifully corny song

Simply put -- some songs simply work.

And in the spring of 1973, that was such a case with the one-hit wonder "Daisy A Day" by a little-known comedian-musician named Jud Strunk.

On a Top 40 chart that included a variety of genres of music, from Alice Cooper's "No More Mr. Nice Guy," a Top 40 debut at No. 39, Dr. John's funky "Right Place, Wrong Time," a debut at No. 34, Lou Reed's seedy "Walk On The Wild Side" at No. 20, Sylvia's sultry "Pillow Talk" at No. 14 and Edgar Winter Group's epic "Frankenstein" at No. 7, came this corny, but beautiful song called "Daisy A Day."

The premise of "Daisy A Day" is of a couple who meet each other when they are very, very young, but grow to appreciate each other and then become one through time. And throughout their relationship, through all the nostalgic times and throughout the good and bad times, the male who is narrating the song always remembers to give his love a daisy a day. We find out, though, at the end of the song that she passes and even though she is gone, he continues to give her a daisy a day while visiting her grave site.

It is reminiscent of the story of Joe DiMaggio, while alive, delivering roses to late wife Marilyn Monroe's grave long after her sudden passing in 1962.

On May 12, 1973, "Daisy A Day" was at No. 15, one notch away from peaking at No. 14. It would also turn out to be Strunk's lone Top 40 country hit, peaking at No 33.

Strunk was a one-hit wonder on both the pop and country charts, but then again, his rise in the entertainment world to stardom was also of one-hit variety. Born Justin Strunk Jr. on June 11, 1936, in Jamestown, N.Y., he grew up in Buffalo, N.Y. entertaining the locals with comedy bits and playing his banjo. It wasn't until his mid-30s that Strunk broke out nationally when he was finally discovered and brought to NBC Studios to be a frequent guest on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson and joined the cast of "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" in the show's final season in 1972-73.

Strunk's schtick was his comedy routines, telling the folks about the fictitious sports doings in the town of Farmington, Maine. And he and his banjo were a mainstay of the show's final season. He had two country chart songs that year, the other being "Next Door Neighbor's Kid."

But it was "Daisy A Day" that was most remembered on the show as Strunk sat on a stool with his banjo in hand playing the song -- on what was a lunar landscape set to signify that at one time, "Daisy A Day" was played on the moon during the final Apollo missions in December 1972. Bizarre, to say the least.

Strunk recorded four albums for Columbia, MGM and MCA Records, his last being 1977's "A Semi-Reformed Tequila Crazed Gypsy Looks Back." And like most of his material, Strunk kept it light-hearted and comical. He toured with Andy Williams' road show in the mid-1970s after "Laugh-In" came to an end.

By 1977, though, Strunk got out of the entertainment business at only 41 years old. He took up flying and became a private pilot, purchasing his own aircraft, a 1941 Fairchild M62-A, which he used to transport others in and out of the state of Maine, where he settled down to live.

On October 5, 1981, he was taking off from Carabassett Airport in Maine with local businessman Dick Ayotte aboard. As the plane took off, Strunk suffered a fatal heart attack and the plane crashed soon after, killing Ayotte as well. Strunk was only 45 years old.

Strunk's sons, though, continue to contribute to the local Sugarloaf Community and his grandson does Sunday shows at The Rack in Maine.

And like his one-hit wonder, "Daisy A Day," Jud Strunk came and went. But we sure appreciated both while they were both here.

The AT40 Blog/April 30, 1983 ... life musically was a beach

I remember the week of April 30, 1983 well musically. I remember it partly because I remember April 29, 1983 well. It was on that Friday that I literally took the only day off from high school.

No, I wasn't pulling a Ferris Bueller by any means, there were no parades to sing "Danke Schoen" at and no museums to visit or house windows to send cars through or reason to play sick. I simply took the day off from school, the only time I ever did that.

But I start by saying that I was at school to start the day and did make my first two classes that morning. So right after French III class with Ms. Ugolini and during third-period history class with Mr. Potter, I got called down to the office at Toms River High School East. My mother was waiting for me and she was taking me to make my regular orthodontist appointment in Brick Township to the Habitat Plaza with Mr. Herbtsman, who after four years of having braces at this point was probably sick and tired of seeing me.

We'd see each other five more years ... that's how screwed up my teeth were.

Well, after the appointment, mom and I both agreed that I wasn't going back to school on this Friday. But this would be the only time I could break this rule. She was doing bookwork for a guy who owned property on the Jersey Shore boardwalk named Irving Kirsch (it's hard not to forget that name). Her office just happened to be on the second floor of Jenkinson's Pavilion in Point Pleasant Beach. So we drive there in the family's old 1969 Chevy Impala and after we got there, I had switched to wearing shorts, a T-shirt and flip-flops. She did her thing in the office and I went to lay on a practically vacant beach, even for a 73-degree day. I also learned about the temperature of water that late morning as well as I stuck my legs in the water and felt the chill of the 50-something degree water take a hold of body parts one at a time, starting from my toes and working up until it got to my crotch.

That was it. A cruel lesson to learn at 16.

But there was a jukebox at one of the pizza places open on the boardwalk and it had some of the top music of the day I was listening to on my radio stations in the area. And it brings me to this particular countdown which is being broadcast by the Premier Radio Network on various radio stations throughout the world -- April 30, 1983.

There was Naked Eyes' "Always Something There To Reind Me," which moved up from No. 38 to No. 33. There was also Journey's new hit at the time, "Faithfully," which debuted at No. 31. There was Culture Club's new one, "Time (Clock Of The Heart)," which came in as the highest Top 40 debut that week at No. 30.

Journey, Culture Club, Lionel Richie, Duran Duran, Styx and Michael Jackson all had two hits in the Top 40 this particular week, by the way.

And the list of the songs on that jukebox was like a Who's Who of what would be the best summer of all-time in pop music history ... or at least the late spring/early summer portion of it.

There was Rick Springfield's first hit from his album "Living In Oz" called "Affair Of The Heart," which rocketed up 10 places from No. 39 to No. 29. There was the adult contemporary staple "Mornin'" by (Al) Jarreau, which leaped nine places from No. 37 to No. 28. I couldn't get over that Irene Cara's new movie song, "Flashdance ... What A Feeling," was on this same jukebox so quickly. It leaped from No. 33 to No. 23.

And on and on and on it went -- "Straight From The Heart" by Bryan Adams (No. 34-21), Def Leppard's "Photograph" (No. 26-18), Duran Duran's newest hit "Rio," the biggest mover of the week from No. 31 to No. 17, Laura Branigan's "Solitaire," which leaped from No. 18 to No. 14 and the two songs that chased one another up the countdown as Top 40 debuts just three weeks earlier -- Men At Work's "Overkill," which moved up from No. 15 to No. 9 and David Bowie's first Top 40 hit in seven years, "Let's Dance," which climbed from No. 9 to No. 6. Men At Work ultimately peaked at No. 3 ... Bowie went straight to No. 1 three weeks later.

All these great songs on one jukebox. One problem, though.

No money. I had spent whatever money I did get from mom on arcade games, not even thinking about the fact there might be a jukebox in some pizza place on the Point Pleasant boardwalk.

To my dying day, I will always defend 1983 as the greatest year musically of my life. I can't bring back being 16 years old again. That's long gone and far, far away. But I will always have the music and the memories of a day I took off from school because I wanted to.

And the jukebox that would only allow me to play songs ... if I had money.

It was nice, though, to press the buttons on that jukebox and make believe I was hearing those songs.