From the Vault – Top Hits of 1969

 

Matt (the current WAA historian and half a webmaster) here. I’m starting a new series of posts featuring documents found in the WCPR archives. Each document has been lovingly scanned for your viewing pleasure.

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Starting things off with a blast from the past, this document from the WCPR vault shows the top 100 hits for 1969. And what a year it was (besides the important political and historical stuff)!

  • The Doors, The Stones, The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Blood Sweat and Tears dominated the charts. Also up there were The Zombies, Johnny Cash, Three Dog Night, Creedence Clearwater Revivial, The Supremes…the list goes on and on (but luckily only for 100 songs.)
  • The Bee Gees were just showing up on the charts (and hadn’t made the move to Disco yet!)
  • Henry Mancini and His Orchestra was in the top 10 with “Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet”, though you may know him from his themes to “The Pink Panther” and “Peter Gunn,” as well as over 100 movie themes for Universal Pictures.
  • The Edwin Hawkins Singers had a hit with “Oh Happy Day”…yeah, remember that one?

Take a look and lets us know in the comments if you’ve got any memories from that era of WCPR. Or, if you weren’t born in 1969, let us know if you’re still listening to any of this music, or if it all makes your ears bleed.

Note: All disparaging comments about The Doors will be judged and found wanting.

-Matt

 

9 Replies to “From the Vault – Top Hits of 1969”

  1. Notes to Matt: The “Notify me of comments/posts” lines are impossible to read against the background.
    Also, on the “About us” page, “station” is misspelled “statio”.
    It would be cool to see a pic of the revised record library shelves, fwiw….
    –Daddio

  2. Thanks Ron! I’m looking into the Notify Me text issue. I’m not seeing the “statio” misspelling, can you give me the sentence I’m looking for?
    And I’ll ask the undergrads for a photo of the new shelves.
    -Matt

    1. My bad…it’s on the Daddio on the Raddio post:

      “Welcome to the WCPR Alumni Association website! We formed WAA so that WCPR alums could get together, enjoy the company of friends and make new ones, and support the undergrad WCPR members and the statio as a whole.”
      ===================^^^^^

      Was there something on the other side of the Top 100 Survey?

      — Ron

  3. We got the typo, and also figured out the color scheme problem for the comments form. How many engineers does it take to spot a config radio button on a website? Turns out it’s 4.
    And I’ve got our top man looking for the back of that survey sheet.
    -Matt

  4. I do not remember that list, it may have come out in the fall. When I joined WCPR, it was WSRN, and was in the Navy Building. To the best of my memory, Jan Jubon led the change to WCPR. I was part of the move to Stevens Center. My father and I made the white pine and Masonite album and cassette storage racks here in Pittsburgh and brought them to Hoboken. The station had a portable studio made of cardboard on a wood frame and made to look like an outhouse.
    I have pictures. I also have a reel-to-reel recording of Muhammad Ali giving a lecture at Stevens
    during his suspension.

    I’m listening to the hip-hop music 6/4 at 1:27 pm. Thank you! Jim Frost, class of 1969.

    1. Hi Frosty. Hope you’re well. We put that together right before winter break in December 1969.

      Mike Ferriola ‘71

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