Visit "The Lost 45s" All New Store!
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Visit "The Lost 45s" All New Store! |
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Below you will find a couple of articles that were recently written and published. Check them out!
The Boston Globe: The 25th anniversary celebration of "The Lost 45s with Barry Scott"! Provincetown, Massachusetts' attack on Barry Scott! (updated) Here's the Boston Beats article on Barry Scott!Archives: LISTENERS FIND A FAVORITE IN `THE LOST 45S' Author: Clea Simon, BOSTON GLOBE Date: September 2, 2004 Barry Scott has accumulated an odd collection of chart-topping numbers. Not only does he have the songs he plays every Sunday evening on "Oldies" WODS-FM (103.3) - forgotten favorites from such artists as Sweet, Kiki Dee, and Blue Swede that he calls "Lost 45s." He also has some of the most consistent ratings of any longtime Boston DJ: In its 7-11 p.m. Eastern time weekly time slot (also streaming live at his lost45.com web site), his "Lost 45s with Barry Scott" remains No. 1 with listeners 25 years and older. It's a rank the program has held since Scott turned professional in 1985 - moving his sometimes cheesy but always entertaining show from its college station base (where it began in 1981) to its first commercial outlet. "It's obvious that the listeners just follow it [from station to station] because there's nothing like it," says the host, who has been ensconced at WODS for four years this autumn. "If someone else were playing the Osmonds I'd worry, but there's nothing like it." There certainly isn't, note fans who tune in for their weekly fix of guilty pleasures - from the Osmonds or the Jacksons to David Cassidy or Bobby Sherman. Other stations provide the only limit on what Scott broadcasts. His playlist officially includes any Top 40 song from the '60s and '70s (and, very rarely, the early '80s) that has otherwise disappeared from the airwaves. Which means that every now and then, when one of these oldies starts popping up in somebody's regular rotation - or even Scott's home station - it comes off the "Lost 45s" turntable. Commercials that utilize old favorites are often responsible for such a development. That's how Blue Swede's version of "Hooked on a Feeling," with its familiar "ugga-chukka" refrain, came back to mainstream radio briefly, notes Scott, warning that the Spinners' "Rubberband Man" (now featured in a school-supply ad) may follow. But for the majority of Paper Lace and Lobo fans, Scott's show is the only outlet. "It's become a tradition," says Scott. He still recalls his first Labor Day weekend Top 100 countdown - in 1985, concluding his last summer at Emerson's WERS-FM (88.9). That year, the DeFranco Family's bubblegum "Heartbeat - It's a Lovebeat" topped his listeners' charts. In 2003, the Osmonds' "One Bad Apple" took top honors. Scott notes that the Mormon brothers remain favorites. In 2004 it was "Afternoon Delight" by The Starland Vocal Band. Between the songs, as always, will be Scott's special features. Literally hundreds of interviews with stars of the past, such as Boston native Donna Summer, make up standard song breaks. But Scott has also built up a collection of sonic mementos - television commercials and news clips (covering such era-evocative events as the tennis match pitting Billie Jean King against Bobby Riggs) that help re-create the days when these songs were regularly played on the radio. "It's what you say and do around [these songs] that matters," says Scott. "It makes the following [song] sound different to the listener."Boston-area artists add their spin to "The Lost 45s with Barry Scott" By Dean Johnson Copyright BOSTON HERALD Aug 15, 2003 How many "Lost 45s," tunes that made the charts and then disappeared, have come out of the Boston area through the years? Barry Scott will answer that question Sunday in a special edition of the longtime local program "The Lost 45s," airing from 7-11 p.m. Eastern on WODS-FM (103.3) and streaming live at his web site www.lost45.com. Scott will cover a lot of musical ground, airing fleeting hits from local artists. The show also will be flavored with comments from such local musicians as Donna Summer, Ralph Tavares, Carly Simon, Kate Taylor (sister of James), Sal Baglio of The Stompers, Andy Pratt ("Avenging Annie") and Malden native Norman Greenbaum ("Spirit in the Sky"). "This a fun show with a lot of very cool stuff," Scott said. Taylor will talk about growing up in the Taylor family. Baglio talks about Boston's '70s music scene and shares a story about the Stompers, a big favorite on the local club circuit then.The group recorded an album for the Boardwalk label and hit No. 88 on the charts with the single "Never Tell an Angel (When Your Heart's on Fire)." But the week the song entered the charts, the label's owner died - and that was it for the label and its roster. "A lot of these artists had stories like that," Scott said, "unfortunate timing, label politics and general label crap." Not all the stories have poor endings, though. Scott scored a rare interview with Greenbaum, long known as a very spacey individual. "He still pays his mortagage with that song," Scott said, referring to "Spirit in the Sky." Three different artists recorded versions that went to the top of the charts in England, and it's become a staple of movie soundtracks and television commercials. Other local artists who cracked the Top 100 and are part of Sunday's show include J. Geils, Boston, The Addrisi Brothers, Robin Lane, the Fools, Robert Ellis Orrall, the Barbarians, Face to Face and the Road Apples. Local music trivia is also included. Some people will recall the Road Apples had a minor hit with "Let's Live Together," but not many will know the band's name comes from a euphemism for horse droppings.
Nationally known air personality Barry Scott is putting his money where his mouth is with the release of his compilation CD series. The notable air personality, archivist, and author released " The Lost 45s Of The 70s And 80s, Volume One" in 1998 through Varese Sarabande Records and Volume Two followed in 2000. The CD series compliments his program; it features top 40 hits from those decades that haven't made it into gold rotation at most top 40s nationwide. Scott's show has aired in Boston for 20 years; was in syndication for six and it's now heard Sunday nights, 7 to 11 Eastern, on Oldies 103.3 (WODS/Boston) and on the internet at www.lost45.com. Among the first CDs 14 tracks are "Without You (Not Another Lonely Night)" from Frankie & the Knockouts, Sneaker's "More Than Just The Two Of Us," Steel Breeze's "You Don't Want Me Anymore," Rupert Holmes' "Him," Chilliwack's "My Girl (Gone, Gone, Gone)," Eric Clapton's "I Wanna Hear It From Your Lips," Kenny Nolan's "Love's Grown Deep," Balance's "Breaking Away," and Tony Carey's "A Fine Fine Day." Where possible, single edits are employed. The second CD volume was released in 2000 and features 18 more "Lost 45s." Scott is the author of " We Had Joy We Had Fun," a collection of 21 interviews with 70s pop stars ranging from Leo Sayer and the Bay City Rollers to Captain & Tennille and the Partridge Family. The book, first published in 1994, is in its fifth printing and available for sale at his web site.
It's a place where the Bay City Rollers and Rick Springfield still rule alongside the Partridge Family and the Captain & Tennile. And while Barry Scott isn't suggesting that these artists become staples of your programming, he's given the music a home with his syndicated show, The Lost 45s. On the air in Boston since 1981, The Lost 45s is now heard Sunday nights, 7 to 11 Eastern, on Oldies 103.3 (WODS/Boston) and on the internet at www.lost45.com. More than just playing hits from the mid 60s, 70s and 80s, Scott re-creates the era through artist interviews and a barrage of sound bites from movies and TV shows, along with archival newscasts and catch phrases from popular commercials. When Scott began the show as a student at
Emerson College, he tells R&R, "There was no Oldies station,
and virtually nobody playing anything that was more than a year or so
old." After launching as an Oldies show that featured music from
the 50s and 60s, Scott says, "I noticed that the 70s songs- especially
those by the Partridge Family, the Captain & Tennille, and ABBA -
were the ones that most people were calling for. That became the focus
of the show as soon as I realized that there was no other outlet for those
people to get these songs." What constitutes a "Lost 45"? Scott answers,
"It's a Top 40 record from the mid 60s, 70s and 80s that isn't given adequate
airplay. There are some reasons for that. Some of them don't test well
when stations do their research. Some of them are novelty songs that I
wouldn't recommend playing as part of a normal format. But when you play
them all together in a group, they take on a different meaning. Listeners
catch on to what we're doing." While the show features one-hit wonders,
most of the music consists of top 10 hits from gold - and platinum - selling
acts. Scott says, "If you look at any generic Oldies station's playlist,
for the most part you'd be lucky if they were playing a couple of hundred
songs. If you look at any chart from the mid 60s, 70s and 80s - and look at a list
of 40 songs - stations are probably programming five or six. That leaves
a good 34 songs that haven't been heard since. I think that that programmers
are underestimating the average listener's intelligence and their memory
of the era." Remembering A 'Hero' With Classic Rock and Classic Hits stations
emphasizing muscle in their programming, isn't there a certain "wimp
factor" involved in playing songs such as "The Night Chicago
Died" by Paper Lace? Scott says, "We don't do a lot of ballads.
We try to keep it a little up-tempo. People have a fondness for some of
those wimpy songs from when they were growing up. They probably wouldn't
like those songs if they came out now while they were adults."
'"Billy Don't Be A Hero' [by Bo Donaldson
& The Heywoods] is a good example. I was 11 when that song went to No.
1 in 1974. I loved that song. Now I'm a 35-year-old-guy, along with my listeners,
and I still have a fondness for that song, as silly as it is. " People
have a wide range of musical tastes, and a lot of programmers don't take
that into account.
Much of the show's success comes from the
extras Scott provides from his custom library of CDs, including 63 of
TV and film clips and 14 CDs of news clips. He says, "When you're
playing Captain & Tennille or 'Saturday Night' by the Bay City Rollers,
what you play around it makes the songs sound different. You want to create
the whole era and put everything together to make it sound like your living
in that era." Emphasizing that there are "gray-area
Lost 45s" that might be occasionally programmed on an Oldies or Classic
Rock station, Scott says, " We play those, but we'd rather play those
that are perfectly "Lost 45s"- the ones that you know this is the only
place you'll hear them. There are songs like 'YMCA' by The Village People.
I'll play that if a listener requests it, but I know that there are still
a lot of disco-oriented shows in most markets, and that the song is still
heard fairly often. I'd play 'In The Navy' or 'Macho Man' instead. Even
Elton John has a few "Lost 45s." If you look at his output of Top 40 records,
there are quite a few that nobody plays anymore." Finding A Home "The interesting thing about this show
is that your not going to find these songs programmed on the station that's
hosting it, for the most part," Scott says. " It fits demographically
in a variety of formats, but it doesn't fit musically in virtually any
of them." Although the program now airs in a variety of formats,
including AC, Classic Rock, and Classic Hits, Scott admits that syndicating
The Lost 45s has sometimes been difficult. However, he adds, "
If you look at anyone's personal record library, they might have a Led
Zeppelin album and a Lynyrd Skynyrd album, but they might also have the
Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. People have a wide range of musical
tastes, and a lot of programmers don't take that into account." Scott is also the first to admit that he
doesn't possess the generic air voice usually found on syndicated radio
shows. He says, "We've had a couple of syndicators suggest replacing
my voice with a New York/L.A. big bass voice. To be honest with you, if
you're going to be playing the Partridge Family - or 'Stumblin' In' by
Suzi Quatro or 'Rock Me Gently' [Andy Kim] - it would be silly to have
a voice that's not as average and typical as the records I'm playing.
I'd like people to think that this is an average guy in his basement playing
45s." "I have a love for this. These songs
are songs I love. I don't think any person just voicing the show could
possibly match someone who absolutely loves the era and the music. When
these songs are playing, I'm usually cranking them up in the studio and
singing with them, much to my producer's delight." We Had Joy We Had Fun, Scott's book of artist interviews, is now in its fifth
printing, and Varese Sarabande released a 14-song CD compilation, Barry
Scott Presents "The Lost 45s" Of The 70s And 80s in 1998. A second
CD volume was released in 2000 and features 18 more charted Top 40 "Lost 45s." Additional information is available
on Scott's website, www.lost45.com. Is there a "Lost 45" from the mid 60s, 70s and 80s
that Scott would refuse to play? Perhaps one that should remain lost?
"Only as a chronological example," he says. "This show
was on the air when Debbie Gibson and Tiffany and New Kids On The Block
came out, and we play that era now. I've learned never to say never!"
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