97.9 The WREN

05/06/2024

Cville Made - The WREN Local Music Show

Cville Made with John Henrie is the WREN local music show. It features music from the Charlottesville and surrounding area thus the name “Cville Made”. John Henrie is is involved in the local music scene and is very knowledgeable about the subject. Cville Made airs Sunday evening from 8 PM to 10 PM on Real Oldies 97.9 The WREN! You will be amazed about the incredible quality and range of musical skills there in the Charlottesville area

Join John for a new show on most Sundays!

05/06/2024

Mike & Murphy Feature Friday Special

The Mike & Murphy Feature Friday Special this week will be “So You Want to be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star”. Hmm…should be interesting. I’m sure that we will be hearing from “The Byrds”! Always two hours of great themed oldies on M&M every week!

The show airs this Friday and Sunday from 10 to 12 noon on 97.9 The WREN!

05/06/2024

https://www.979wren.org/wibbly/

05/06/2024

The Wibbly Show

A true music aficionado, Wibbly prides himself on weaving songs along a common thread of one sort or another. Join the fun to discover the Classic Rock Connection, or just let your mind go and enjoy the trek down memory lane!

Join Wibbly 7-9 Weekday evenings on Real Oldies 97.9 The WREN!

31/01/2024

TODAY is my last Facebook post for WREN 97.9. It has been a pleasure posting the interesting, and sometimes bizarre, trivia about rock and roll music history. I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading about the minutiae. It’s a bittersweet departure, but you can tune in everyday to WREN 97.9 for all of your rock and roll favorites with a bit of back story thrown in by the deejays! Thank you, Nancy V.

31/01/2024

JANUARY, 1972 - Aretha Franklin sang a moving version of "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" at the funeral for Mahalia Jackson at the Arie Crown Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. Over 6,000 people packed the Theatre to pay respects to the gospel singer, including Chicago Major Richard J. Daley, Coretta Scott King, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Ella Fitzgerald.

31/01/2024

NEIL YOUNG’S FIRST LIVE ALBUM- “TIME FADES AWAY” - Young was riding high after the success of “Harvest” and “After the Goldrush”, but found his guitarist had a drug problem and he wasn’t happy with his drummer. His new band “The Stray Gators” proved to be a difficult undertaking after a two year hiatus from touring. The tour was scheduled to be recorded and sold as his first live album, so Young was feeling the pressure to succeed. Neil was unhappy with the results, saying, ““It’s the worst record I ever made, but as a documentary of what was happening to me, it was a great record.” Young continues, “It was recorded on my biggest tour ever, 65 shows in 90 days. Money hassles among everyone concerned ruined this tour and record for me but I released it anyway so you folks could see what could happen if you lose it for a while. I was becoming more interested in an audio verite approach than satisfying the public demands for a repetition of Harvest."

31/01/2024

JANUARY, 1973 – LINDA RONSTADT OPENS FOR NEIL YOUNG ON “TIME FADES AWAY” TOUR – In the early 1970's, Linda Ronstadt selected Peter Asher (formerly of Peter & Gordon) to be her manager. His first order of business was to put her in front of as many people as possible, so she was the opening act for Neil Young's “Time Fades Away” tour. Linda said, "So I went from being a club act to playing at Madison Square Garden overnight, which was pretty intimidating," she said. "But I loved Neil's music, and I watched every single show. Neil was using a lot of the same musical elements that I'd used. So it was real reinforcing for me to see somebody doing that so well. So I got a lot of exposure to people. Apparently they like the way I sang, because even in the coliseums they still listened. It was all completely over my head. I didn't know what I was doing. We were just making it up as we went along."

31/01/2024

ARE ANY OF THE BAND MEMBERS BROTHERS? Nope. When they began working on a band name, a friend suggested “doobie” because most of the band members indulged, but because it was the early 70s, they knew it would be controversial and may impede their success. Then adding “Brothers” to the name seemed like it might pass, so they gave it an initial try on local gigs. It stuck.

31/01/2024

DOOBIE BROTHERS SINGLES

“Listen to the Music” – 1972, #11
“Jesus Is Just Alright” – 1972, #35
“Long Train Runnin’” – 1973, #8
“China Grove” – 1973, #15
“Another Park, Another Sunday” – 1974, #32
“Black Water” – 1974, #1
“Take Me In Your Arms” – 1975, #11
“Takin’ It To the Streets” – 1976, #13
“It Keeps You Runnin’” – 1976 - #37
“What a Fool Believes” – 1979, #1
“Minute by Minute” – 1979 - #14
“Real Love” – 1980, #5

31/01/2024

Formed in California in 1970, THE DOOBIE BROTHERS enjoyed their peak years in the 1970s; however, they still tour today. In the mid-1970s, they added Michael McDonald as their lead singer which changed the sound of the band from guitar based rock and roll to a soft rock, blue-eyed soul sound. The current lineup includes some of the founding members, but the band was known to add musicians along the way to keep their sound fresh and relevant to changing tastes. With sales over 40 million worldwide, they have been awarded a Grammy and have been inducted into the Rock & Roll and Vocal Group Halls of Fame. And, they are still touring.

31/01/2024

30/01/2024

JANUARY, 1965 - The Rolling Stones began a tour of Australia with two shows at the Agricultural Hall in the Manufacturer's Auditorium in Sydney, with Roy Orbison and Rolf Harris of "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" fame.

30/01/2024

JANUARY, 1978 – Singer/Songwriter RANDY NEWMAN reaches #2 with his “misunderstood” single “Short People”. On the surface, the song is making fun of little people, but "short" is meant in a figurative sense, intending to poke fun at people who are short-tempered and small-minded, which is quite the opposite of the literal meaning. A lot of people didn't get the joke and thought of Newman as a bigot. Many radio stations refused to play it. The Eagles' Glenn Frey sings backup on this track.

30/01/2024

JANUARY, 1968 - Jimi Hendrix recorded Bob Dylan's song "All Along The Watchtower" a month after Dylan recorded it. Guitarist Dave Mason who featured at the session and played an additional 12-string guitar in addition to Hendrix. Halfway through the session, bass player Noel Redding became dissatisfied with the proceedings and left, so Mason then took over on bass. Hendrix's friend and Rolling Stones multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones contributed the dry rattles featured in the intro, played on a vibraslap. Hendrix’s version received a Grammy Hall of Fame award in 2001 and became a Top 20 single from his “Electric Ladyland” album.

While Bob Dylan did the original version of the song, it wasn't well known until Jimi Hendrix released a transformative cover. Dylan liked Hendrix' version so much, he began playing the song in that style. Jimi Hendrix replaced the harmonica parts with guitar and sped up the song.

Dylan has performed this song more than any other in his career. In 2013, it was reported he had performed it 2,160 times, with runner up "Like A Rolling Stone" rendered 2,009 times in concert.

30/01/2024

JANUARY, 1973 - While performing to a sellout crowd in Madison Square Garden in New York City, Neil Young was handed a message onstage and then announced that a peace accord had been reached in Vietnam. The crowd went crazy for 10 minutes.

30/01/2024

URIAH HEEP was formed in London in 1969 and are alive and well today! Riding high on the heavy metal genre during the 1970’s, the band is considered to be a major pioneer developing a fusion of hard rock, heavy metal and progressive rock. They’ve sold over 40 million albums worldwide and charted Top 40 singles all over Europe with their highest US single in the US being “Easy Livin’” which went to #39 in 1972. Like many bands, they have evolved with new personnel over their 50 plus year career. Plus, they released a new album in 2023!

30/01/2024

JANUARY, 1977 – The Clash signed a recording contract with CBS Records, a remarkable feat considering they only played about thirty gigs, almost none as the headliner. All the band members were not in agreement as they found themselves having to justify to their fans at having “sold out” to the establishment. They received criticism from a leading punk music publication stating “Punk died the day the Clash signed to CBS”.

Formed in London in 1976, the band represented the original wave of British punk rock. They received critical and commercial success with their release of their self-titled debut album in 1977, but it was the 1979 “London Calling” album that gave them mainstream commercial success in the United States. They officially disbanded in 1986 citing internal friction. Band member Joe Strummer later described the group's end: "When the Clash collapsed, we were tired. There had been a lot of intense activity in five years. Secondly, I felt we'd run out of idea gasoline. And thirdly, I wanted to shut up and let someone else have a go at it." Of the original four members, three survive.

29/01/2024

JANUARY, 1965 - Petula Clark’s hugely popular "Downtown" reaches #1, holding off "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" by the Righteous Brothers. Written by fellow Brit Tony Hatch after visiting New York City for the first time. He says, “"I was staying at a hotel on Central Park and I wandered down to Broadway and to Times Square and, naively, I thought I was downtown. ... I loved the whole atmosphere there and it came to me very, very quickly". He was standing on the corner of 48th Street waiting for the traffic lights to change, looking towards Times Square when "the melody first came to me, just as the neon signs went on." The song was in the Top Ten in several international countries and would sell over 3 million copies worldwide, half in the US alone.

29/01/2024

JANUARY, 1964 - Dusty Springfield first appeared on the chart as her first single--"I Only Want To Be With You" debuted. Her hit would peak at #4 in the UK and #12 in the US. Written by songwriter Mike Hawker who was inspired by his intense feelings after marrying three years prior, he was approached by Springfield’s label looking for a song "which is going to put this girl into the charts … have you got a song that's a guaranteed hit?"

29/01/2024

JANUARY, 1966 – The Outsiders, a garage band from Cleveland, release “Time Won’t Let Me” on the Capitol label. The band was a local favorite since 1958 under the band name of The Starfires. They updated the band’s name to The Outsiders in the wake of the British Invasion and recorded their hit at the Cleveland Recording Company, owned by the band’s guitarist’s uncle. After a scout for Capitol heard the local hit, they were signed by the label and had a million seller which stayed on the charts for 15 weeks peaking at #5. The band would tour with Paul Revere & The Raiders, Gene Pitney and others plus make a television appearance on “Hullabaloo”; however, they couldn’t match their 1966 hit with subsequent releases.

By the end of the decade, the members went their separate ways – they married, joined the Air Force, pursued other careers - however, one of the members, Sonny Geraci, would stage a comeback in 1972 with a new band named “Climax” and have a #3 hit with “Precious & Few”.

29/01/2024

JANUARY, 1967 – New Orleans native Aaron Neville reached the #1 spot on the R&B chart and #2 on the Billboard 100 with "Tell It Like It Is". Released on a small New Orleans label, Par-Lo, co-owned by local musician/arranger George Davis, a friend from school, and band-leader Lee Diamond. The song topped charted right behind #1 "I'm a Believer" by the Monkees. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. It was not the label's only release, as some sources claim. At least five other Par-Lo singles, three of them by Neville himself, are known to exist. Neville enjoyed a successful career for several decades before retiring at age 80 in 2021.

29/01/2024

JANUARY, 1968 – Paul Mauriat’s instrumental version of “l’amour Est Bleu” or “Love Is Blue” shoots to #1 in the US. The song previously placed 4th in the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest. Its popularity started when a DJ in Minneapolis played the recording and asked listeners to respond. He was inundated with calls and its popularity spread like wildfire.

29/01/2024

MOODY BLUES MONDAY!

JANUARY, 1965 - The Moody Blues reached #1 in the U.K. with "Go Now!". The song was a cover first recorded a year earlier by Bessie Banks, the wife of the song’s writer, Larry Banks. Unfortunately, her version was overshadowed by The Moody Blues version when US DJ’s were promoting the British Invasion. Their version peaked at #10 and was followed up by their two other big hits “Nights in White Satin” and “Tuesday Afternoon” in 1968.

29/01/2024

BREAKING:

The Jersey Shore-born musician, who performed songs such as "Beautiful People" on the first day of Woodstock in 1969, has died, her children said.

29/01/2024

MOODY BLUES MONDAY!

JANUARY, 1973 – The Moody Blues release “I’m Just A Singer in a Rock & Roll Band” which would chart to #12 in the US, their highest outside of the UK. Written by the band’s bassist, John Lodge, and would be the band’s last release before a five-year hiatus to pursue solo careers.

Lodge says, “When we started there was just five of us and a roadie, and by the time Seventh Sojourn came around we had our own touring company, our own publishing company, a string of record shops, and we had lots of people working for us.” After returning from a tour, Lodge came home to find a group of fans camped in his garden, awaiting him like he was some kind of guru. He had no interest in being a messiah, so he wrote this song to make his position clear.