Falladions - Spiral Starecase

The Fylladions (sometimes spelled Falladions)

The Fylladions formed in Sacremento, California with Dick Lopes as sax player; Bobby Raymond on the bass; Harvey Kaye on organ; Vinnie Parello on drums and Pat Upton as lead guitarist and vocalist, who was from Alabama. 

The group auditioned for Columbia Records, who hated their name, but loved the group's music.  Dick Lopes scooped up the name "Spiral Starecase" from a movie with a slight variation in spelling, and they secured their contract.  Assigned to producer Gary Usher, their first two singles were released to regional successes in markets like Phoenix. At this time, Sonny Knight (himself a one-hit wonder with "Confidential" on Dot) was brought in as producer. Upton, encouraged by Usher to write original material for the group, had brought in "More Today Than Yesterday," which became the next single and their breakthrough hit. Considering the long-lasting impact of the song on oldies radio, it seems inconceivable that the tune charted no higher than number 12 nationally. The Starecase released one album and a couple more singles before poor management and squabbles over finances caused the group to splinter by 1969. Harvey Kaye led an ersatz version of the group for a brief period, while Upton fled to session work, eventually joining up with Rick Nelson as a backup vocalist. In the mid-'80s, after Nelson's death, Upton became a staple on the oldies
round robin cirucit. 

Kaye returned to Las Vegas where he re-formed the band. That line-up featured Mike Caschera (aka. Michael Anthony) (lead vocals), Al Sebay (guitar), Gene Austin (electric bass) , Mark Barrett (drums), and Tim McRoberts (backup drummer and vocals). The band toured extensively and played every major venue in the United States, Canada, and Mexico in the late 1970s through the mid 1980s with a full horn section and two backup girl singers to replicate the trademark sound of their biggest hits.  Kaye headed a management company in Las Vegas with his wife Candy. He died on August 17, 2008. Candy still owns SMASH Productions and holds the trademark for "Spiral Starecase". Parello is retired in Southern California but Upton still performs various times throughout the year. Raymond died in 1984.

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While the Spiral Starecase may be a one-hit wonder group, their songs actually deserved better showings; it just appears they got lost in the black-hole in the music world and never recovered.  However, their legacy song - Love You More Today Than Yesterday is still a much played song on the oldies stations, and a song everyone identifies with, but never seems to place the group's name.  Thus the black hole robbed a obviously fantastic group of greater fame and fortune.  So let's try to rectify that by giving them some much deserved recognition here and on air.  (Tune in http://www.partycentralradio.com/ - where White Rose will be playing their tunes).  (Tues/Thurs nites 9-the bewitching hour).............

The band is known for their hits "More Today Than Yesterday" (U.S. #12), released in January 1969, and the follow-up "She's Ready".   In 1969, "More Today Than Yesterday" charted #12 in the Billboard Hot 100, (in Cash Box, it reached #7) but sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.  "More Today Than Yesterday" has been widely covered by, among others, Diana Ross and the band Goldfinger, and was featured in the 1991 film My Girl, on the soundtrack of The Waterboy in 1998, and in an episode of Ally McBeal entitled Silver Bells.

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Discography:   http://www.45cat.com/artist/the-spiral-staircase

Don't forget to tune in White Rose -- Tues/Thursday Nites - http://www.partycentralradio.com/  and check out http://whiterose.us/ 

Til next time .... Keep the Music rolling...........

Atlanta - Not Mylanta Anymore

Ice on Old Milton Parkway

The Charlie Brown Tree is Still Glowing Brightly LOL
But think Charlie found a warm spot somewheres.

Snow on Christmas in Atlanta at least an inch - first time in 100 or so years LOL.
Now the blizzard to rival 1992 - ok ENOUGH ALREADY....
I'm ready to be putting my ass in the sand and toes in some warm salt beach water elsewhere!

I'll share some pics -

MY Charlie Brown Christmas

Everyone should have a Charlie Brown Christmas or a CB Moment at least --

So here's my CB Tree this year, although its slightly taller than CB's, it still has the CB Spirit

Now listen to Linus Tell Charlie Brown What Christmas IS all about!

Dont forget to meet me tonite - 9-12 midnite - http://www.partycentralradio.com/

Thank You All - WB Party

It was a marvelous time last night at Party Central Radio; the kind words by DJ Kiasami (Kia-sam E') were greatly appreciated, as were those by DJ Lola Bunny.  The chat room was a buzz with laughter and refreshments and requests and I rolled out my latest (well a few of them anyway) new fave songs.  The chat room and my yahoo folks kept me hopping, and as I was a bit rusty from not being on air of late, I was double checking to make sure I had played all requests. 

I do have to extend special thanks to Buns, Southern and Spyder who kept sharp eyes on chat and kept me in check :)   So big hugs to all.

Have a listen to one of those new faves below:     I can identify with all of this song, in fact, I was talking to someone the other day and said people talk about gambling, but growing up like I did on a farm in rural NC, gambling is planting a crop and hoping the rains come at the right time, not too much, not too little; hoping the blight or a varmit doesn't decide to hit the crop, and hoping the price in the market place isn't rock bottom when it is time to harvest and sell.  Real is saving those seeds from this year's crop to plant next year, and "REAL" is when a tragedy hits and you are left standing there wondering what you are going to do now.  But the "REAL beauty of growing up there, was that there were always friends and neighbors ready and willing to lend you a hand when you needed it; and we were always ready and willing to lend our hands, (our own, not hired hands), the "real", is that it was a hard way of living, but looking back, I wouldn't trade it for a mansion on a hill, because that "real", made me who I have been the rest of my life.   This girl left the country, but you can't take the country outta the girl..........
Real - James Wesley 
500 Channels and there ain’t much on tonight


But reality shows about some folks so called lives

A pretty girl cries cause she don’t get a rose

But she’ll find love next year on her own show

And they call that real



Real, is the hand you hold 57 years

Real, is a band of gold trembling with fear

And it’s the first long tear down an old man’s face

Watching his angel slipping away

His heart so broke, it’s never gonna heal

I call that real



Where I live, housewives don’t act like that

And the survivors are farmers in John Deere hats

Our Amazing race is beating the check

Praying that the bank ain’t ran it through yet



Real, like too much rain falling from the sky

Real, like the drought that came around here last July

It’s the damn old weevils and the market and the weeds

The prayer they prayed when they plant the seeds

And the chance they take to bring us our next meal

I call that real



Real, like a job you lose ‘cause it moves to Mexico

Like a momma and a baby with no safe place to go

Like a little dream house with a big old foreclosed sign

Like a flag draped coffin and a 21 gun goodbye

I call that real



Man I call that real

Oh I call that real

We Need A Little Christmas "Warming"

Dec. 15, 2010

The Big "A" (Atlanta)has been experiencing some freezing, whew I do mean freezing temperatures. 15 degrees yesterday morning, I go out to pick up a couple items and the Volvo who's heater was working beautifully the night before suddenly decided to not work. The heated seats however do work, but that does not help the toes and fingers that are needed to function in metro-Atlanta traffic. So, we need a little Christmas without the cold, please, if the weather goddess is listening. The poor folks in Miami are out purchasing space heaters, but before you go feeling too sorry for them, their temps, unlike ours, are due to head back to the 70s. So, now that I have barraged you with the cold and my unfortunate heater demise, let's get onto the music....

I love this Christmas Tune, a vintage Percy Faith Orchestra version of this tune hit No. 24 on the Holiday Songs chart in 2005, and former American Idol contestant Kimberley Locke's cover rose to No 19 on Adult Contemporary in Jan. 2009.

Persimmons

Bounties of the Fall

For anyone that has not tasted the delectable Persimmon fruit, if you love peaches, a Persimmon is actually sweeter when it is ripe.  The key word to that statement is ripe.  You will get the puckers if it is not ripe, and they will last quite awhile.  Below is the tree that I was picking from this morning; as you can see, it was not overly tall, but required a ladder to reach that delicious bounty. 

Below you can hear Ikuko Kawai - She also does a Persimmon Lullabye Song which I
was unable to find on tube for your listening pleasure. 

 

The Good, Bad, and Ugly (Part Two)

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Can someone please explain to me why there are children sleeping in a portable building in Waco, Texas that are two (2) years old, twins, ALONE?  Now to make matters worse, the story in a Dallas paper stated the mother and boyfriend were staying in a mobile home nearby, and that the children sometimes slept in the portable building that was once utilized for storage. A fire broke out in the portable building, and thanksgiving night the twins, just five days short of their third birthday, now no longer will be here on this earth to be in a storage building alive, alone. 

So if you are reading this, please do one thing, for the sake of those two and others, if you know of a family that does not have adequate living arrangements, or if you know children are being left alone like the two above, please do something, but please do not make situations worse for parents that are trying!  Times are very hard for people these days, the economy has left people in situations that they have not had to face before, and sometimes people are left without a home.  Instead of calling DFS, on parents that are trying and that are at least providing shelter, food and care for their children, go to your refrigerator, take out that block of cheese, that gallon of milk that you haven't opened yet, that box of cereal that your kids won't eat; or that extra box that will expire and go into the trash....  give it to a family that is trying!  Now, with that being said, if children are being left alone unattended, are in danger, then obviously stronger measures need to be considered.  The first step is looking into the situation in depth, know the "facts", please do not "do guess work", "guess work harms families that are attempting to do the right thing, and appearances sometimes are VERY misleading.  Make sure you know a child is in danger, unattended, etc.  Then, contact the appropriate agency in your area.  The first step should be to contact the local church to ensure that someone can be located to take in a child that is taken into custody, that will provide a safe home, if at all possible, until appropriate steps are taken by authorities. 

WIth the rise of Meth use in America, the toll that it has on children of the users is horrendous, once caring and doting parents are turned into seemingless "mindless people, with one thought, to attain that next "high in search of the same high that burned out their pleasure center in the brain initially".  (For those of you unfamiliar with this epidemic, please google and look at the effects on children, on the users, the signs, etc.  Be mindful of people around you that may have fallen prey to this dreadful addiction, and please help their children, because quite honestly, they are not capable of doing so. 

The two lives lost on Thanksgiving night, should be a reminder to all of us of our responsibilities towards other human beings, whether it is a child, adult, or elderly person or animal.  Kindness and caring .... without those you have the bad and the ugly!

It is never ok to look the other way........

This is what life should have been like for the two that perished....
Hat's off to Raymond --- He's found the "real meaning of life".....




If only the world could be as near perfect as Axel's. We'd have a Happy World.