Jango Song Of The Day-Zager & Evans

Artist:Zager & Evans
Song:In The Year 2525
Album:Top Hits of the 60s: Coolest Hits





Sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time to have a hit record. And if you don't follow it up properly, you wind being a one hit wonder. That's the story of the 1969 number one smash In The Year 2525 by Zager & Evans. Denny Zager was born Feb. 18, 1943 in Wymore, NE. Rick Evans was born Jan. 20, 1943 in Lincoln, NE. They met while attending Nebraska Weslayan University and had a group called The Eccentrics. Evans wrote In The Year 2525 in 1964 and they recorded it for Truth Records in 1967. It went nowhere until a DJ in Odessa, TX started playing it around the time of the moon landing in 1969. RCA picked it up for national distribution and it topped the Billboard Hot 100. Zager & Evans recorded two albums for RCA but they flopped and In The Year 2525 was their only chart hit. They are a true one hit wonder and you can get the song on this various artists comp from Collectables. It says on Wikipedia that Rick Evans went on to a solo career but I see no evidence of that. Denny Zager became a music teacher and manufactures his own brand of custom guitars. Here's Zager & Evans performing In The Year 2525 on Music Scene 1969.

Women's MMA pioneer returning on Dec. 11 JEWELS show

JEWELS announced on their blog that they have added one more match to the Dec. 11 Shinjuku FACE show. In a 53.5kg match, Mari Kaneko (pictured) will return to MMA after a four year absence to face Rina Tomita. Kaneko's record is 8-8-1. She lost to Yoko Takahashi in her pro debut in Nov. 2000. She has a 1-1 record against Hisae Watanabe and has also lost to Yuka Tsuji and WINDY Tomomi. Her last fight was a loss to Satoko Shinashi on the July 8, 2005 DEEP show. That was a rematch after the two fought to a draw on the Feb. 12, 2005 DEEP show. Kaneko recently returned to training at the Anan branch of Zendokai. And after an appearance on Zendokai's recent grappling tournament, she has decided to return to the pro ranks. Tomita trains at AACC. Her record is 2-2 and both losses were to Mika Nagano, most recently at the Sept. 13 JEWELS show.

Jango Song Of The Day-Quicksilver Messenger Service

Artist:Quicksilver Messenger Service
Song:Mona
Album:Anthology





Quicksilver Messenger Service was a big part of the Bay Area scene of the late 60s. They were a jam band very similar to The Grateful Dead. The leader of the band was Dino Valenti (born Chet Powers Jr. Oct. 7, 1937). He was a big part of the early 60s Green wich Village folk scene and he moved to Los Angeles in 1963. In 1964, he got together with guitarist John Cipollina (born John Holland Mallet III Aug. 24, 1943 in Berkeley, CA) along with bassist David Frieberg and drummer Greg Elmore & guitarist Gary Duncan from The Brogues. Apparently the group name was based on astrological signs. Just as the band was ready to start playing gigs, Valente was thrown in jail for drug offenses. So they brought in Jim Murray to play guitar and sing. QMS finally signed with Capitol after the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. Murray left at that time. This cover of Bo Diddley's Mona was on their second album Happy Trails. Duncan left and was replaced by keyboard player Nicky Hopkins. By 1969, Valenti had a new group called The Outlaws that went nowhere so he returned to QMS. There were many personnel changes including Cipollina leaving to form Copperhead. But the band existed until 1972 and have reunited several times over the years. Anthology was originally released as a 2LP set in 1973 and was released on CD in 1996. Cipollina died in 1989. Valenti died in 1994. Frieberg was a member of Jefferson Starship. Their inconsistent history makes them lesser known than some of the other bands of the era but they are good. Here's Quicksilver Messenger Service performing Mona 1969.

Megumi Fujii, pro wrestler

Some MMA fans may not be aware that Megumi Fujii has done some pro wrestling in the past. I actually have this match on DVD but I came across it on Youtube and decided to post it. Nothing says blog hits like Mega Megu. It's Megumi Fujii vs Mariko Yoshida in ARSION May 24, 2003. Joshi puroresu fans know that Yoshida is one of the all time great wrestlers. But she has also trained a whole generation of young girls to wrestle. At the time, she was head trainer at ARSION. She is constantly looking for new training techniques. So one day she walked into AACC to talk to Megumi Fujii. Fujii was already famous in Japan as an amateur champ and was known as The Sambo Queen. The two quickly became friends and Yoshida asked Fujii if she wanted to try pro wrestling. And so she did. Based on this match, I'm sure we can all agree that Megumi is a very quick study. Of course Yoshida makes Fujii look like a veteran though Fujii had never done pro wrestling before. She even taught Fujii her own Spider Twist finisher. When Yoshida started her own Ibuki company in 2005, she would send girls to Fujii for specialized training. I know Fuuka trained extensively with her. Fujii worked a couple of times for Ibuki and I think she last did some pro wrestling a couple of years ago on one of those Lee Presents shows. Obviously she could do more if she wanted but it's just a diversion for her. Megumi Fujii turned pro in MMA in 2004. Enjoy the Match!

Jango Song Of The Day-The Three Degrees

Artist:The Three Degrees
Song:When Will I See You Again
Album:The Best Of The Three Degrees: When Will I See You Again





The Three Degrees were around for quite a while before they recorded the top five hit When Will I See You Again with Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff. The guy behind the group was producer Richard Barrett. He was a member of the doo wop group The Valentines and also discovered Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers and The Chantels when he worked for George Goldner. The Three Degrees were formed in Philadelphia in 1963. They had recorded some singles for Swan Records with no success. By the time they recorded a cover of The Chantels' Maybe in 1970 for Roulette Records, the group members were original member Fayette Pinkney along with Valerie Holiday and Sheila Ferguson. Maybe reached #4 on the R & B charts. When their Roulette contract ran out in 1973, they signed with the Gamble/Huff label Philadelphia International. Their big break came when they did the vocals on the #1 hit TSOP (The Sound Of Philadelphia) by MFSB. This led to When Will I See You Again topping the R & B charts and reaching #4 on rhe Billboard Hot 100 in 1974. It was a Gamble/Huff song and Sheila Ferguson sang lead. Sheila says that when Gamble played the song for her on the piano, she didn't like it because she thought it was too simple. Sometimes simple is good. Fayette Pinkney was replaced by former group member Helen Scott in 1976 and The Three Degrees left for the European label Ariola in 1978. They continued to have success on the R & B charts and in England but never crossed over to the pop charts again. They even performed at Buckingham Palace at Prince Charles' 30th birthday. Supposedly they were his favourite group. Well, they have sex appeal. This Sony/Legacy comp covers their Philadelphia International recordings. Valerie Holiday continues to lead a version of The Three Degrees today. Fayette Pinkney died June 27, 2009 at age 61. Here's The Three Degrees performing When Will I See You Again on German TV 1974.

Megumi Fujii comments on Monday's fight

On the JEWELS blog, Megumi Fujii commented on her win over WINDY Tomomi on Monday's Shooto show. Apparently fans have been wondering why she was in Shooto instead of the Dec. 11 JEWELS show. Fujii said she had not planned to fight until 2010 but the offer to fight WINDY came up at the last minute. She says she has respected WINDY for many years and has wanted to fight her for a long time. She said she wasn't in top shape and had little time to prepare but took the fight anyway. And she was very happy to do so. Geez, what do you think she'd be like if she was in shape. As I have said before, I believe there is still tension between Fujii and JEWELS matchmaker Shigeru Saeki over some of the silly rules like the limited ground and pound. Taking a fight in Shooto that could have been in JEWELS sends a very clear message to Saeki. I will echo that message. Saeki, stop screwing around and standardize the rules. Thank you.

Jango Song Of The Day-Ricky Nelson

Artist:Ricky Nelson
Song:Believe What You Say
Album:Greatest Hits





Ricky Nelson was one of the biggest stars of the late 50s when he sang on his dad's sitcom. He was lumped in with the other teen idols but today his music holds up very well. So I think he's underrated. Believe What You Say was one of his early hits. He was born May 8, 1940 in Teaneck, NJ and of course his parents were bandleader Ozzie Nelson and his wife singer Harriet Hilliard. The Adventures Of Ozzie and Harriet was a very popular radio show and it became a TV show in 1952. Ricky and his brother David were regulars on the show. Ozzie Nelson used the show to promote Ricky's singing career starting in 1957 when Ricky performed Fats Domino's I'm Walkin'. Ozzie made sure Ricky sang great songs Believe What You Say was written by Johnny and Dorsey Burnette. And he also got great musicians to work with Ricky. That's guitarist James Burton in the video. Also, Ricky never appeared on American Bandstand or The Ed Sullivan Show. You had to watch The Adventures Of Ozzie and Harriet to see him. Believe What You Say reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959. It wasn't his biggest hit. Poor Little Fool was his first #1 hit. He had thirty top 40 hits from 1957-62. By the mid-60s, he had changed his name to Rick Nelson and went towards the country music market. The teen idol thing dogged him for most of his career. There was certainly more to him than that. This comp has all his hits and a bonus DVD. Of course Rick Nelson made his big comeback in 1972 with Garden Party and as I'm sure most folks are aware, he died in a plane crash on Dec. 31, 1985 at age 45. Here's Ricky Nelson performing Believe What You Say 1959.

NEO has a BIG show in Nagoya

Here's the S-Arena video digest for Sunday's NEO show at the Chigusa Sports Centre in Nagoya. The first clip is from Yoshiko Tamura & Ayumi Kurihara vs Fuuka & Shuu Shibutani. Tamura & Kurihara have become a very good team. Fuuka is there to be...uh...Fuuka. Shibutani is there to do the job. You don't expecdt Fuuka to job, do you? Shibutani takes quite a pounding at the end before Tamura gets the win. Next is the big...and I do mean big...match on this show. It's Kyoko Inoue vs Dump Matsumoto. The match is what one would expect. It's not what I want to see. Of course Dump can't move so she needs help from one of her cronies and Revolution Amandora. It ends in a big shmozzle and Kyoko wins by a countout. Then she yells at Dump. So obviously they're going to do more of this feud. Ugh! The main event has Nanae Takahashi & Kana defend the NEO Tag Team Titles against Natsuki*Taiyo & Ray. It looks like decent action and I guess that's enough for some fans. But there's no suspense when all four wrestlers are buddies. It's not like anyone believes that Natsuki & Ray could win. At least Takahashi let Kana get the fall over Natsuki. So I'm not crazy about doing this match unless there's a real reason for animosity between the teams. And that's not happening while Takahashi has control over how she is booked. Enjoy the video!

Megumi Fujii kicks butt as usual

OK gang, here's the match video of Megumi Fujii vs WINDY Tomomi from yesterday's Shooto show at the JCB Hall courtesy of the fine folks at MMA Berlin. It was Shooto vs Pancrase. Tomomi trains at Pancrase. Several folks asked me if Tomomi could beat Fujii. Well, she has power so sure if she can hit her. But I didn't think Tomomi would be able to hit her. You can watch the match for yourself. I guess one could say that Tomomi didn't come out aggressively enough. I don't think it would have helped. Fujii is so quick. We all know that her strategy is to go for the takedown. But knowing that doesn't help because of her quickness. Once she gets Tomomi on the mat, the match is a foregone conclusion until Tomomi taps from the armbar. It could have been stopped earlier especially when Fujii was pounding her. She's simply relentless. Megumi Fujii is now 19-0. We're all hoping that DEEP Lightweight Champ MIKU is her next opponent. But I still believe that Fujii is squabbling with DEEP/JEWELS matchmaker Shigeru Saeki over some of the rules, especially the limited ground and pound. I don't know if it matters anymore. Megumi Fujii is a proven draw and all her fights are major events. Given the opportunity in Strikeforce, she would do the same thing here. That's how good she is.

Jango Song Of The Day-Holly Dunn

Artist:Holly Dunn
Song:Daddy's Hands
Album:Milestones: Greatest Hits





Holly Dunn was a very popular country artist in the late 80s. She has several hits on the country charts before her career faded in the 90s. Daddy's Hands wasn't her biggest hit but it's probably her most memorable song. She was born Aug. 22, 1957 in San Antonio, TX. Her dad was a minister and her brother is songwriter Chris Waters. As a teen, she toured the south with Freedom Folk. And while attending Abilene Christian University, she toured with the school choir called Hilltop Singers. Holly and her brother wrote a song called Out Of Sight, But Not Out Of Mind that was recorded by country singer Christy Lane. So they decided to move to Nashville and worked as staff songwriters for CBS. In 1984, Holly signed with MTM Records. MTM? Mary Tyler Moore? That's right. Of course MTM was mostly a TV production company but veteran music producer Tommy West started their record label in 1984 in Nashville. One of Holly's songs called I'm Not Through Loving You Yet was a top ten country hit for Louise Mandrell. So she got her own record deal and after a couple of singles, her debut album Holly Dunn was released in 1986. Daddy's Hands was the second single and it reached #7 on the country charts. She had several more hits including the #1 hits Are You Ever Gonna Love Me and You Really Had Me Going. MTM was sold to Warner Bros. in 1988. Holly continued to have success but when her 1992 album Getting It Dunn didn't chart, she left Warners. This comp has all her hits. Holly recorded a couple of albums for River North/A & M in the mid-90s. But she retired from music in 2003 and now concentrates on selling her artwork at an art gallery in Santa Fe, NM. Based on the number of folks who post covers of Daddy's Hands on Youtube, it's still a very popular song. But the actual video isn't on Youtube because of their idiotic dispute with Warners. But I found it elsewhere. Here's the video for Daddy's Hands by Holly Dunn.

WWE Divas booking is equally strange

Here is the video of last night's WWE Divas match from Survivor Series. It's in two parts. The match itself is par for the course with some odd booking at the end. But first, a lot of fans have asked me about the Piggy James segment from last week's Smackdown. I did see it while flipping back and forth with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. I guess a lot of you were offended by it. What else is new? I guess that means it was successful because it got a reaction. But I don't think it got the reaction the WWE was after. It's obvious they are desperate to get Michelle McCool over as a heel. And Michelle's performance has been good but the booking has been terrible with that idiotic injury angle. And they want to get Melina over too though she is terrible as a babyface. And that's why Mickie was moved to Smackdown. Fans are complaining about the whole body image thing and that Mickie crying was real. News flash! Mickie was acting. They ran through the segment earlier in the day. As for the body image thing, I seriously doubt the WWE put that much thought into it. But it was the usual ham handed crap. I think it will backfire on them and it won't stop Mickie from leaving for the country music business. OK back to this match. It was nothing special. And the booking at the end was odd. I don't see how that ending gets either Michelle or Melina over. I would have preferred Michelle going over at the end. It would have been more effective than the half assed nonsense that they decided to do. So check out the video. The match starts about nine minutes into the first video and continues on the second video. Enjoy!

WWE.Survivor.Series.2009 - WWW.Desirulez.net- Part 7
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WWE.Survivor.Series.2009 - WWW.Desirulez.net- Part 8
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Jango Song Of The Day-Carla Thomas

Artist:Carla Thomas
Song:Gee Whiz! (Look At His Eyes)
Album:Gee Whiz! The Best Of Carla Thomas






Just so you don't get confused, Irma Thomas is the Soul Queen of New Orleans and Carla Thomas is the Queen Of Memphis Soul. They're both great of course and Gee Whiz was Carla's only top ten pop hit and the song that launched The Stax Sound. She was born Dec. 21, 1942 in Memphis and is the daughter of the legendary Rufus Thomas. In 1960, they recorded the duet Cause I Love You for Satellite Records and it was a regional hit. Satellite signed a distribution deal with Atlantic and became Stax. Rufus tried to shop Gee Whiz to Vee-Jay. But when they turned it down, Atlantic released it and it reached #10 on the Billboard Hot 100. Carla would continue to record through the 60s with a lot of success on the R & B charts especially her Duet with Otis Redding called Tramp. This Rhino comp has all her hits. She hasn't recorded much since 1971 though she did release Live In Memphis in 2002. She continues to perform today. Here's Carla Thomas performing Gee Whiz at the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary 1988.

Kaori Yoneyama not injured

Here's the S-Arena video digest for JWP's Nov. 20 Itabashi Green Hall show. I'll explain the header in a moment. This show is advancing future angles. The first clip has Commando Bolshoi, Ayako Sato & Tojuki Leon in a three way match for a shot at Kaori Yoneyama's High Speed Title on the Dec. 6 Shinjuku FACE show. The pinfall is a little confusing but Sato got the win and the title shot. Next is Kayoko Haruyama & Kei'to vs Sakura Emi & Humuko Hoshi. This is standard booking leading up to Haruyama defending the JWP Open Weight Championship against Emi on the Dec. 6 show. The JWP vs Passion Red feud continues with Natsuki*Taiyo & Yumiko Hotta vs Sachie Abe & Tsubasa Kuragaki for a shot at Kaori Yoneyama & Sakura Emi's JWP/Daily Sports Tag Team Titles at the Nov. 29 Osaka show. Passion Red gets the win. But you'll notice that the other Passion Red members stop her whenever Hotta pulls out a chair. You know where that's going to lead. The main event had Azumi Hyuga continuing her retirement road by losing to Kaori Yoneyama. Some fans are praising Hyuga for putting wrestlers over on the way out. I think she's doing too much jobbing and that has become predictable. Does she have to job to everyone? JWP has announced that in her retirement match Dec. 27 at Korakuen Hall, Hyuga will team with Commando Bolshoi vs Kayoko Haruyama & Kaori Yoneyama. I suppose it's anticilmactic but usually the retiree requests a specific match as a retirement match. I guess this is who she wants to work with. Afterwards, there were reports that Yoneyama suffered a head injury and she did cancel her appearance on Saturday's Ice Ribbon show. But I don't see any evidence of an injury in this video and she did appear on today's JWP Dojo show. So something else is going on and Yoneyama is not injured. Enjoy the video!

Jango Song Of The Day-Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons

Artist:Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
Song:Sherry
Album The Very Best Of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons





I guess the best way to describe Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons is The Last Doo Wop Group. They first broke in the early 60s and were one of the few groups to survive The British Invasion. The two main guys behind the group were lead singer Frankie Valli (born Francesco Castellucio May 3, 1934 in Newark, NJ) and keyboard player and songwriter Bob Gaudio (born Nov. 17, 1942 in Bronx, NY and grew up in Bergenfield, NJ). Valli had recorded as Frank Valley in 1953 and along with Four Seasons guitarist Tommy DeVito recorded as The Four Lovers. Meanwhile Gaudio was a member of The Royal Teens and co-wrote their big hit Short Shorts. They met when both were doing session work for producer Bob Crewe. Gaudio joined The Four Lovers in 1960 and the name was changed to The Four Seasons. The fourth member was Nick Massi. They signed with Vee-Jay Records in 1961. Sherry was their first chart hit and their first number one hit. Bob Gaudio wrote it as a tribute to Jackie Kennedy and the original title was Jackie Baby. The Four Seasons would have several more number one hits but Vee-Jay was in financial trouble and the group took legal action to switch to Philips Records in 1964. Their success continued until the late 60s when they moved to Motown's Mowest label. Valli has also had a significant solo career usually working with Gaudio. This Rhino comp has all their 60s hits. The Four Seasons were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1990 and of course the show Jersey Boys is about them. They've had a lot of longevity. Heres Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons performing a medley of hits 1967.