When DJs Sing, Part One (14 MP3s)

I've always said that DJs should be heard and not seen, but after compiling this batch of singles recorded by DJs, I'll have to update that aphorism to: DJs shouldn't be seen or heard, unless they're on the radio being DJs. (I promise not to keep this in mind next year during the WFMU marathon finale.)

With few exceptions, most DJs who tried to parlay their radio fame into chart success ended up creating 45 rpm embarrassments. Of course, radio is full of DJs who went on to successful recording careers - Sly Stone, Terry Knight, and country DJ/singers like Zeke Manners and Rosalie Allen, to name but a few.

But those are the exceptions. Here are the rules (all links are MP3s):

The Real Don Steele - Cecil, The Unwanted Frenchfry
LA's Real Done Steele tells the story of a lovable spud named Cecil who dreams of becoming a delicious frenchfry. When he finally does, he laments that the rest of his fry buddies are bought by a customer, and Cecil is left alone. (Thanks Pseu and Fusco! From 365 Days 2004)

Dandy Dan Daniel - Where Were You?
One of the original WMCA Good Guys, Daniel co-wrote this moving tribute to the great 1965 East Coast Blackout. (Thanks Spazz!)

Dick Whittinghill - Apology at Bedtime
The regrets of a lousy Dad. After singing with the Tommy Dorsey Big Band, Whittinghill did a show on LA's KMPC (owned by Gene Autry) for thirty years. He would often read maudlin monologues on the air to great acclaim, so he put out an entire album of such material entitled The Square. (Thanks Irwin!)

Harry Harrison - May You Always
I don't think this was actually released as a single. Dave the Spazz taped it off the air from the old CBS-FM, when it's airing was an annual ritual.

Rick Dees - Disco Duck
The biggest and most horrible DJ hit of all time, rivaled only by Byron Macgregor's Americans, which doesn't count since Macgregor was a news anchorman, not a DJ. Dees is still on the air in Los Angeles and has never disavowed this song.

Rosko - Jo   |   Where Are You Mama?
New York's Rosko was one of the original freeform DJs, first on WOR and then on WNEW, where both he and Scott Muni held down the fort. Both Muni and Rosko include the word "womb" in their DJ songs. Coincidence? Jo is from Rosko's 1987 LP Private Moments, while the bizarre Where Are You Mama was released as a single. Where did you get those buns?

Scott Muni - Letter to an Unborn Child
The 28th Fifth Beatle recorded this on an RCA single that seems to date to around 1965. Little is known about this lugubrious slab of wax, but hopefully the comments section to this post will change that.

Wink Martindale - Deck of Cards
In 1959, while a DJ in LA, Martindale re-recorded T. Texas Tyler's recitation Deck of Cards and scored a number 7 hit single with it, with sales propelled by a performance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Tex Ritter and Phil Harris had both had their way with the song prior to Martindale.

Lonesome Long John Roller - Flagpole Rock
Commemorating a wonderfully moronic 1958 stunt in which KHAT radio personality Roller spent a world's record 211 days and 23 hours sitting in a Ford Fairlane perched on a flagpole at the old Read
Mullen Ford car dealership on Van Buren Street in downtown Phoenix. Features Al Casey on guitar. (Thanks Spazz)

Wolfman Jack - Wolfman Boogie, Part I   |   Free Shots
Robert Weston Smith, aka Wolfman Jack, probably has more records released under his name, as well as about him, than any other DJ.

Lynn Tolliver - I Need A Freak
Originally release on Heat/Montage in 1983, a nasty electro-funk hit written, produced, and performed by former mailman Lynn Tolliver (aka David Payton), DJ and Program Director at urban WZAK, Cleveland. Released under the artist name Sexual Harrassment,  It went on to go gold and was sampled by Black Eyed Peas on their huge and horrible hit, "My Humps." (Thanks Monica and Mike!)

Murray the K - The Lone Twister
This is actually good, which makes you wonder why it's included here at all. It was recorded under the name The Lone Twister and can be found on the Wavy Gravy Vol. 1 compilation.

Comments

[mike]

Another good one (well, not so good) is Steve Dahl's "Do You Think I'm Disco," which was released in the wake of his Comiskey Park disco record burning.

He also recorded a version of "My Sharona" called "Ayatollah," but I don't know if that ever came out on a record.

[James]

The existence of Disco Duck is bad enough. Even more depressing - it was the only hit for the label Estelle Axton formed after selling her share in Stax Records. What a fall!

[fatty jubbo]

Disco Duck was one of my first records. I loved it.

[Rory Murray]

Thanks Guys!
I haven't heard 'Cecil' for over 30 years, back when Dr. Demento ruled the airwaves at KMET (little bit of Heaven,94.7FM). At that time, the real Don Steele, an AM jock hosted a show called BOSS CITY. This show featured an extremely foxy female dancer by the name of CAM NELSON. Does anyone out there know what became of this blonde beauty from the late 1960's?!!

[Ron Erwin]

I was just starting my radio career at KHAT when Long John Roller went up the flagpole. I remember visiting at night when the honey bucket was lowered and some female visitors went up. Apparently somebody's male friend found out and one night, after John came down from the pole, we were standing outside the country station where I worked and talking. Someone took a shot at John, which missed us both. At least I think it was directed at John. I don't know what happened to him after.

[Peter Altschuler]

Murray actually recorded several novelty records... before he became a disk jockey: "Out of the Bushes" and "The Crazy Otto Rag." And, of course, he co-wrote the lyrics to "Splish Splash."

[Dale Hazelton]

WCBS played that Harry Harrison thing every holiday season, I believe. It's burned into my memory from the 80's, when I first started listening to them. I still remember his banter with Mr. G in the morning. I finally tuned out, they never seemed to evolve, but I guess that is what was so nice about the station. I miss Cousin Brucie though.

And Ron--I don't want to even imagine the honey bucket! Who got the privilege of emptying it?

[Tracy (Trace The Ace) Reynolds]

Look for a single from Briggs Gordon "They Changing All The Signs" I think this was when Briggs was in Illinois. He was a DJ in Bowling Green and Paducah, Kentucky and hosted a kid's cartoon show in Cairo(?) Illinois as Uncle Briggs in the early 80's. The local college, SIU (?) devoted a two page spread to him in teir yearbook. The song wsa about changing highway distance signs from miles to kilometers. Listening to Briggs in Bowling Geen, KY is why I got into radio.

[Ron Gerber]

Steve Dahl's "Ayatollah" did in fact come out as a 45. I have it at home in a small pile of songs I will never ever play on the air, along with "Bomb Iran". Really repugnant stuff.

Rick Dees's follow-up single to "Disco Duck" was "Disgorilla", which is pretty much what you think it is.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Casey Kasem. I know of three records of his, and there may be more: the singles "A Letter From Elena" and "No Blade Of Grass", as well as the full album "Astrology For Young Lovers".

Doctor Demento fans may remember "Rock Me Jerry Lewis" by Mike Elliott & Bud LaTour. Mike still works in radio in Bangor, Maine, and I had the privilege of working with him at KRQ/Tucson in the mid-'90s.

I believe that Nervous Norvus ("Transfusion") was a DJ.

And Peter Wolf, the lead singer for the J. Geils Band, was a DJ.

[calzone]

I totally dig 'Lone Twister'...rides that line between 'stupid and clever'. Don't forget the amazing 'Fat Daddy's Christmas' by Baltimore DJ 'Fat Daddy' that popped up on the John Waters Xmas comp a couple years back.

[Johnny Donovan]

I have been searching for a Scott Muni air check to use on the WABC yearly "Rewound " special for years. Don't know if Scott would want to be remembered for that tune. (G) If anybody has a Scott Muni on WABC air check that can be restored ..call me at WABC radio.

[murcuryvapor]

I remember hearing 'Letter to an Unborn Child' on Stern in the mid-80s. I also remember that Vanilla Bean sorta handed it over to the show, and was pissed that Stern didn't give him any credit for doing so.

[Zack]

Steve Dahl not only had Do You think I'm Disco and Ayatollah, but dozens more... most played only on air. However, a few years ago, several of his parodies (and some originals) were released on his 4-CD retrospective "20 Years in the Can." (www/dahl.com) I grew up listening to Steve Dahl & Garry Meier, and really enjoy the Stever's music.

[Ken K.]

Harry Harrison's "May You Always" was in fact issued as a single, on the Amy label. It actually reached #17 on WMCA's weekly survey at the time. (WABC, predictably, never played it). WCBS-FM would play it when they would count down the WMCA Survey from that time. It also made the Billboard "Christmas Singles" chart.

[anon]

That "Wolfman Boogie" should be part 2, shouldn't it? The album listed in its ID3 tag can be traced to showing part 2, not part 1; check allmusic.com & amazon.com and listen to their samples to verify.

[Steven A.]

I don't why WCBS-FM at the time should've evolved. But Harry Harrison's May You Always around the Holidays had an important message in it. Something that a lot of people don't want to live by.

[mike]

i am looking for the original emporor rosco show,60s,sounded like a mix of future sound fx,with rosko bieng himself,and the best motown on the planet,it was a album,rosko even says,"flip this over to side two,and i got a special message just for you"at the end of side one, and then starts off with "come on over".
can anyone help me with this please?
Regards mike.

[Kay Butler]

I noticed Ron Erwin's comment on this topic. I'm looking for Ron for a class reunion to be held in Phoenix in November 2008. Can someone get my email address to him?

[[email protected]]

I'm looking for RON ERWIN for a class reunion to be held in Phoenix in November 2008. Can someone send my email address to him...or can YOU give me an address or phone number for him?

[Richard]

Disco Duck by Rick Dees & his Cast of Idiots-who were actually the studio musicians-topped the charts with this incredible disc which in the disco age managed to sound like a 60s song especially Dear Lady Twist by Gary U S Bonds.
The disc in fact was just about the last true classic in a tradition which began with Chubby Checker and at least 2 years into the British Invasion.
Manfred Mann could have done this one.So in fact could Chubby Checker.
I mean look at that great lyric of profoundness:
"Went to a party the other night
All the ladies were treating me right...."
That's pure Freddie Cannon.Its pure Fabian.Its pure Kingsmen.
Its a lyric which goes on with an even more incredible line:
"...got on my knees and began to cluck
Look at me I'm the Disco Duck..."
Thats absolute genius.Perfect rhyming and perfect phrasing.
Disco Duck needs to be restored to its Frat Greatness.
And all you who knock this record ought to remember its only lighthearted fun like David Seville's Witch Doctor.But somewhere along the way Dees created a classic

[Richard]

Missed out here is JACK GALE who discovered my penfriend GINNY WRIGHT in 1953.He cut a single called High School Deck of Cards which is quite hilarious:
"...and when I look at the 5 it reminds me of the number of years I've wasted here....."
The lyric goes on to indicate that the narrator didn't like school!
Gale has a website and has written a book about his radio years which you can get autographed straight from him

[WeatherDJ]

"The Flag" by former LA radio DJ Charlie Van Dyke. Came out during the bicentennial. I still have the 45.

I heard a sample of "Ayatollah" by Steve Dahl. That version said "The Shaw's hangin' out and he's taking chemotherapy." The version that I remember on Dr. Demento said, "The Shaw's in New York and he's taking chemotherapy." Why the 2 versions?

[Pete]

I am looking for a lp by Rosko (William Roscoe Mercer) named PRIVAE MOMENTS .