Twelve years after Syracuse University student Dick Clark was heard on WOLF radio in Syracuse, another Syracuse University student who would go on to great heights in broadcasting was host of a daily 6-9 p.m. show on WOLF. The student? Marv Albert, who would go on to be the voice of the New York Knicks and Rangers for many years.
As Dick Clark was giving his payola testimony in Washington, D.C., Newsweek published an article in its May 2, 1960, issue about Clark headlined "Disk Jockey and Friends." The article was not very complimentary to Clark:
Describing Bandstand: “A torpid diurnal ritual in which teenagers gum-chew their moony way around a linoleum dance floor in a barn-like Philadelphia studio to rock ’n’ roll records.”
“It is the Clark clambakes which pioneer teen-age styles in dress and lingo, introduce dance crazes (sample: “The Madison”), and help mold the under-talented, over-pompadoured teenage culture gods whom a shocking number of young Americans seem to adore.”
It wasn't long after the payola hearings that Chubby Checker became a national sensation with his recording of The Twist. It appears as if the marketing people at Parkway Records didn't know that The Twist was the plug side of Checker's record because in the first ad for the record that appeared in Billboard magazine on July 4, 1960, it was the flip, Toot, that was touted.
Things got fixed in a hurry, but Toot has largely been forgotten. Until now. Give a listen:
Author Larry Lehmer's book about Dick Clark and American Bandstand -- Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll --is available from Sunbury Press. Go here to learn the story behind the writing of Bandstandland or here to listen to the Pennsylvania Cable Network's interview with author Larry Lehmer.
Larry Lehmer's book about the last tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -- The Day the Music Died -- is available at Amazon.