Super Wednesday Newsletter

Ballot Breakdown - Kool & The Gang

Depending on how you choose to classify certain stages, Kool & the Gang had either two or three distinct careers. In my eyes it’s the first one that makes them a strong candidate for induction. (Once again, my disclaimer concerning acts connected with the 70’s & early 80’s. I prefer to steer away inducting any more acts from that period, unless it’s to honor an artist from a genre that could use more inclusion. Kool & the Gang comes from one of those underrepresented genres.)

Coming from Jersey City, they eventually started tallying up crossover hits with a series of funk instrumentals. They had a clear formula; horn heavy jams with the only vocals consisting of chants of the song title. The band was named after bassist Robert “Kool” Bell, so as expected the tracks tended to have a very strong bottom. They weren’t as hardcore funk as a band such as Parliament, but they did bring a groove to pop radio that was otherwise missing. One of their jams was even part of the era-defining Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.

Towards the end of the decade they moved towards a more mainstream sound with the addition of James “J.T.” Taylor. (Not THAT James Taylor.) He had a very smooth vocal style which made their music increasingly radio friendly, and in a bit of serendipitous timing, this came at the dawn of the disco backlash. The new Kool & the Gang had a mildly pop-ish R&B vibe, so they did not get caught up in the post-disco purge.

Ladies Night & Too Hot were major hits at the turn of the decade, but that was a mere preview of what was to come. Celebration was a massive success and quickly became a modern standard. It was perfect to use as bed music for sports highlight montages, and it was a must addition to the repertoire of any wedding band in perpetuity. It’s a song that has aged well. I admit I got very sick of it at the time, but when I hear it now the groove is undeniable and the “woo woo!” hook is infectious.

They were major hitmakers for the first half of the 1980’s. Once again, they had a clear songwriting formula, at least for the uptempo songs. They used the same repetitive chants in the choruses (helped in no part by the fact that many of their songs had one word titles) with Taylor’s easygoing style carrying through the verses. As time went on they were much more of an Adult Contemporary band, which is why I say they had a third era. A song like Fresh doesn’t sound at all like it came from the same band that produced Ladies Night.

Eventually the pop hits stopped coming, but they accumulated so much goodwill that they continued to be a reliably popular live draw. In addition, their music has been frequently sampled, so they have always had a strong presence in the culture. Like many bands, they have seen a plethora of personnel changes and several members have passed, but they’re still plugging away. Fittingly enough, Kool is the only remaining active member of the original lineup.

If elected, would they perform? - Yes, & I would hope that the living ex-members (such as Taylor) would participate as well.

Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hit - Celebration

My Personal Favorite - Jungle Boogie

Mort

Longtime ESPN NFL reporter Chris Mortensen passed away over the weekend. He had been suffering from cancer for several years and had stepped away from his ESPN duties, so his death wasn’t shocking, but it was still sad. Similar to my feelings upon hearing of Peter King’s retirement, Mortensen was a vital resource for me when I still followed the NFL. He was a real throwback; before the airwaves became overly dependent on talking heads screaming out hot takes, he was part of the generation of hard working reporters who added so much to television broadcasts. There is still a place for a Mortensen type, but it seems that for every Woj there are about 3 Skip Baylesses.

Hearing about Mortensen’s passing immediately made me think of when I first knew about him. He was one of the many writers on the staff of the sadly short lived National Sports Daily. That was an outstanding paper for the year and a half that it existed. With Frank Deford as its editor, he assembled an all-star team of reporters and columnists. Ideally it would have served as a daily version of The Sporting News, which by that point had already steered away from coverage of a broad array of sports and was now focusing largely on the Big 4.

The National covered the entire sports landscape, and as would be expected with Deford running things, it was also devoted to in-depth long-form reporting. It constantly hemorrhaged money, however, and it was in serious financial trouble almost from day 1. It finally died a quiet death in 1991, and the talented writing and editorial staff scattered. Most, such as Mortensen, did land on their feet.

In retrospect, the fatal mistake the publication made was that despite its name, it was a regional publication. The paper I would buy in New York was vastly different than the paper someone in Chicago or Los Angeles or anywhere else would buy. It was similar to old school TV Guide in that regard, but what it ultimately meant was that the choice any reader would need to make came down to whether what they found in The National was more valuable than what they could get from the regular local newspaper. I imagine it must have cost a pretty penny to publish multiple editions of the publication on such a tight deadline as well.

In the internet era it would have been difficult for The National to survive even if it had been a success at its intro. It’s conceivable that it was a concept that had no hope of taking off even with a different business plan. I look at it as a noble failure.

50 Years Ago - The Variety Shows

1974 wasn’t quite the heyday for variety shows on network TV schedules, but there were several to be found. None of the more legendary examples of the form made their debuts in ‘74, but I can think of a few that did and are worth mentioning.

Mac Davis had the sort of vaguely bland amiability that usually lent itself well to hosting a variety program. As a successful singer-songwriter with a country music vibe he was already much in demand to guest on other shows, so it was only a matter of time until he was given his own. The Mac Davis Show ran for 3 seasons all told. If memory serves correctly this one was much more music heavy than the norm. The one recurring feature that I remember well was one which was used to demonstrate his songwriting skills. He would ask audience members for suggestions of song titles which he would then compose on the spot. Of course, looking back he probably used the old comedy improv trick of already having something in the bank and simply used the audience idea to flesh out an idea he already had. All told, the show served him well. His run at the top of the charts was already beginning to draw to a close, but the show would help jump start a briefly successful movie career. Years later he was one of the co-leads in North Dallas Forty. He also took over the Robert Redford role in the pointless sequel to The Sting which brought a quick end to that movie stardom.

By 1974 I was already at the point where a good read through the TV Guide Fall Preview Issue would lead me to looking forward to certain new shows. Such as The Sonny Comedy Revue. I’m not sure how many people remember that following their divorce it was actually Sonny Bono who got his own show before Cher did. (Cher’s variety show would not premiere until 1975.) Sonny’s show was a big letdown & it only lasted 13 weeks. The only real memory I have of it is that it tried to duplicate a lot of the recurring segments of the Sonny & Cher show, but there was clearly something missing. This new one had the same deadpan putdowns directed towards Sonny, but without the Cher panache they fell flat. Simply put it was painfully obvious that Sonny needed Cher a lot more than Cher needed Sonny. He would eventually fall into that guest starring on The Love Boat/Fantasy Island pipeline before leaving show business to enter politics.

Putdowns of a male host would be a major focus of the other big variety show that premiered in 1974. That year saw the premiere of Tony Orlando & Dawn. It’s no surprise that they were hired to host a variety series; their music had such a throwback feel to it that they seemed like a very safe choice for network executives. In addition, Orlando gave off a feeling of old school show biz. Every one of his guests would be described as a wonderful, magical person. It was so hard to tell if he was being sincere or not. This show had lots of music & lots of banter between Orlando & the singers in Dawn, most of which consisted of the singers taking every opportunity to belittle Orlando. Most of the heavy comedic lifting went to Telma Hopkins, which served as good practice for her post-Dawn career. The act broke up around the same time as the show ended in 1976. Hopkins was a busy sitcom actress in subsequent years. Orlando has been a regular in the Branson circuit.

We Have Ourselves A Rematch! Yay?

In my entire life I have never payed as little attention to a Presidential primary campaign than I did to this one. As far back as January 20, 2021 it was inevitable that it would be Biden/Trump 2.0. Why bother spending any time to see which GOP contender would poll highly enough to qualify for a debate? Now it’s all over but the shouting. Trump basically ran the table yesterday and Nikki Haley will suspend her campaign later this morning. Now it’s time to see if she will stand behind her rhetoric or if she will bend the knee like everyone else has. And if she does, what type of knots she will need to twist herself into in order to counteract what she has said on the campaign stump.

And oh look, we will still need to pay attention to Steve Garvey for a few more months. He finished in second in the California Senate primary, so he moves on to the general election to face Adam Schiff. I suppose if all of Garvey’s illegitimate kids vote for him he may have a fighting chance…

Closing Laughs

I see that the bottom of the page is rapidly approaching, so it’s time to wrap it up for today. Thanks as always for carving out a few minutes of the day to read my scribbling. See you all again on Friday.