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December 25, 2022 7:45 am  #1


Raise a Little H***

In the summer of 1978, Trooper's "Raise a Little Hell" was its only US Top 100 Hit.   It did NOT chart on CHUM.    Raise a Little Hell has gone on to be enjoyed from time to time at NFL games.    AM 740, a progressive Canadian nostalgia radio station, (some may disagree) now has Raise a Little Hell on its play lists, thx to past & present professionals like Brian Peroff, Neil Hedley and Robbie Lane

Is anyone prepared to disclose the story?   Let's start 2023 by uncovering a lingering mystery.    After 45 years, the truth should be known.  Was CHUM too nervous for "Hell"?   Doug Thompson, what light are you prepared to shed?     



  

 

December 25, 2022 1:24 pm  #2


Re: Raise a Little H***

I don't think CHUM had a problem with the word Hell.  They did play and chart Pagliaro's What The Hell I Got back in 1975.  This song pre dates Raise A Little Hell. 

Probably lots of familiar songs that CHUM for one reason or another didn't play or chart.  Wild Eyes was a reasonable hit for The Stampeders but didn't get airplay on CHUM. One that surprised me was This Flight Tonight by Nazareth and written by Joni Mitchell.  This was a hit in Canada, UK and Germany but as far as I am aware never was played or charted on CHUM. I looked at some of the charts from 1974 when the song was peaking but didn't see it anywhere on the CHUM charts. 

 

December 25, 2022 2:20 pm  #3


Re: Raise a Little H***

I think I remember CHUM playing Raise A Little Hell, but it was on the B-side of Round, Round We Go which they did chart for 11 weeks and which I thought was a much better song. I'm wondering if they weren't really wanting to chart double-sided hits by that time ... I can certainly recall double-sided hits from earlier in the 1970s, but I can't recall if they were still charting any by 1978.
And I'm sure that they never played This Flight Tonight. CKOC played it and it did quite well on their chart, and I thought CHUM should have played it as well because I really liked the song and it was Cancon. But CHUM had a significantly tighter playlist than CKOC, and I think the issue might have been that it was more hard rock than what they were typically playing at the time. As the 1970s went on, I kept noticing that there would be songs that were significant hits on other top 40 stations, which I felt that CHUM wasn't playing because of this issue. I do wonder if CHUM might have played Wild Eyes because I don't recall it as a song that I only heard elsewhere. I know that they played a lot of Canadian songs that they never charted, including some other Stampeders songs (Monday Morning Choo Choo, Then Came The White Man, and Oh My Lady being ones from 1972-73 that I recall in that regard). 

 

December 25, 2022 3:30 pm  #4


Re: Raise a Little H***

Here's another question. Why was "Don't You Worry" by Randy Bishop never a ht? Nice little pop song and Canadian content, It got airplay on CHUM, but never charted there. It peaked at #80 on RPM - don't know who else played it. You can hear "Don't You Worry" at then beginning of this aircheck of Jim Van Horne from April 4, 1974.

http://rockradioscrapbook.ca/chum-vanhorne-apr4-74-u.mp3


"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram
 

December 25, 2022 4:23 pm  #5


Re: Raise a Little H***

I didn't even recall Don't You Worry, although when I listened to the clip I did remember it. I did a search and found that it was released on a label called Good Noise, which I'd never heard of ... I could only find a few other releases on it, none of which were familiar to me. So it looks like it was on a small label that may not have been able to promote and/or distribute the record that well, and that wouldn't have helped any. 

 

December 25, 2022 4:36 pm  #6


Re: Raise a Little H***

Here are a couple more hits that raised the eyebrows of local music and program directors, causing them to either not play the tunes or give them a second look - and an edit.




Can't say I've ever heard the Rutter song, but if you want to check it out, it's here. As a bonus, he's accompanied by Crowbar. 



 

December 25, 2022 4:47 pm  #7


Re: Raise a Little H***

good heavens, one can't forget the Nine Inch Nails classic "Closer To God"

interesting that over the years some radio stations, 102.1 included, have gone from cutting the whole f word to just blurring the f, while leaving the uck

 

December 25, 2022 5:02 pm  #8


Re: Raise a Little H***

Here's a holiday-themed song that always causes controversy in Britain because of its explicit and offensive lyrics. Yet The Pogues' "Fairytale of New York" is said to be one of the U.K.'s all-time favourite Christmas songs and every year, there's concern over whether to censor some of the lyrics before it gets played on the radio there.

'A Fairytale of New York': A complicated Christmas classic collides with cancel culture
 

 

December 26, 2022 9:02 am  #9


Re: Raise a Little H***

Despite the emotional pain of having been brutally shunned by 1050 CHUM forty-five (45) years ago, (what's left of) Trooper is booked to perform in Burlington, ON in February

     Thread Starter
 

December 26, 2022 9:17 am  #10


Re: Raise a Little H***

Yes, but if you want to see them, don't wait too long.

They're here for a good time.

Not a long time.

 

December 26, 2022 9:25 am  #11


Re: Raise a Little H***

RadioActive wrote:

    They're here for a good time.     Not a long time.

Have a good time; the sun can't shine every day
 

     Thread Starter
 

December 26, 2022 10:06 am  #12


Re: Raise a Little H***

The way the weather has been this past week, I'd settle for just one single day!

 

December 26, 2022 12:34 pm  #13


Re: Raise a Little H***

Lorne wrote:

I think I remember CHUM playing Raise A Little Hell, but it was on the B-side of Round, Round We Go which they did chart for 11 weeks and which I thought was a much better song. I'm wondering if they weren't really wanting to chart double-sided hits by that time ... I can certainly recall double-sided hits from earlier in the 1970s, but I can't recall if they were still charting any by 1978.
And I'm sure that they never played This Flight Tonight. CKOC played it and it did quite well on their chart, and I thought CHUM should have played it as well because I really liked the song and it was Cancon. But CHUM had a significantly tighter playlist than CKOC, and I think the issue might have been that it was more hard rock than what they were typically playing at the time. As the 1970s went on, I kept noticing that there would be songs that were significant hits on other top 40 stations, which I felt that CHUM wasn't playing because of this issue. I do wonder if CHUM might have played Wild Eyes because I don't recall it as a song that I only heard elsewhere. I know that they played a lot of Canadian songs that they never charted, including some other Stampeders songs (Monday Morning Choo Choo, Then Came The White Man, and Oh My Lady being ones from 1972-73 that I recall in that regard). 

You may be right Lorne, 74/75 saw a lot more pop and the beginnings of disco on the charts.  Although CHUM did play Radar Love by Golden Earring the same time that This Flight Tonight was on CKOC.  CHYM in Kitchener charted Nazareth back then when I was an operator at the station in '74.  CHUM charted D'yer Maker by Led Zepplin, so they weren't necessarily always adverse to heavier cuts.  CHUM actually got heavier even slightly alternative/new wave late 1979 into 1983.  I remember them playing Rebel Rebel by David Bowie later in the '70's/1980 but I am not sure they played the song in 1974 when released as a single.  It never charted. 

 

December 26, 2022 1:31 pm  #14


Re: Raise a Little H***

It's really interesting that you mention Radar Love, because I thought of that myself when I made the comments about This Flight Tonight. Because of them playing Radar Love, I really didn't think at the time that they should have had a problem with playing This Flight Tonight, but they obviously did and I can only think that it went beyond what they were willing to play. The vocal had a rougher edge than Radar Love or D'yer Mak'er, so that might have contributed, plus those songs were both top 20 US hits whereas This Flight Tonight wasn't a US hit at all. But re D'yer Mak'er, I remember being very aware at the time that even though it got to #7, they did not give it nearly as much airplay as top 10 hits were normally getting. I'm pretty sure that this was partly because of dayparting; I wasn't aware of the term at the time, but I certainly noticed how I'd only hear heavier songs like that later in the day. 
As for Rebel Rebel, I'm sure they didn't play it at all in 1974. And yes, they really changed into a new wave/hard rock station during the period you mention, but I regarded what they did then as amounting to a kind of format change ... there were lots of mainstream top 40 hits that they didn't play during that time, such as all of Olivia Newton-John's hits including Physical. 

 

December 26, 2022 6:24 pm  #15


Re: Raise a Little H***

Pretty sure they were tabulating for the charts, but understanding that this is not an exact science.  CHUM based part on record and retail sales, requests on the hit line and other charts. I never heard it was the other way around and I don't know how that would work anyway.  Retailers partially based their orders for new singles on the chart. Record companies were pumping and hyping new artists and songs to radio before they would to most retailers.  

 

 

December 26, 2022 6:40 pm  #16


Re: Raise a Little H***

I always found it interesting that songs like "The Boys of Summer" by Don Henley and "The Heat is On" by Glenn Frey never made the CHUM Chart, even though both those songs were played on the station and they were Top 20 hits in both the U.S. and Canada. I guess whatever means they were using to tabulate the chart didn't register those songs as hits, for whatever reason or another.


PJ


ClassicHitsOnline.com...If you enjoy hearing the same 200 songs over and over again...listen to the other guys!
 

December 26, 2022 11:08 pm  #17


Re: Raise a Little H***

C-F-R-A in Ottawa edited out "crap" in Paul Simon's "Kodachrome."