Commercials – as cool as the music was – the commercials were even more cool! Here are a few sponsors I remember: Rockin’ Doc Abrams Drug Store, Herb Ross’ Rhythmland Record Store, Sam the Wailin’ Tailor, Ben Glaser’s, Big Bob & Pal Al – The Happiness Boys, Mad Man Muntz TV, The Salad Bowl Restaurant, Tony Carruba’s Good Gulf Station, Eddie & Jessie’s Chicken on Wheels, Mama Goldstein’s Top of the Vine Wine, Richard’s Wild Irish Rose Wine(accompanied by Larry Liggett’s instrumental version of My Wild Irish Rose), Al Maroone Ford, Cavage’s, Rab’s Righteous House of Rockin’ Records,etc.
It would be really cool to hear those commercials again.
Other background music: Barrellhouse by Chuck Calhoun’s All-Stars on Atlantic(actually the Atlantic house band), Night Life by Jesse Stone on Atco(almost always played behind The Hound talking), etc. I have a list somewhere – I know there are more.
One night after a Bison game at Offerman Stadium we came wheeling down Main Street just as The Hound was pulling out of the KB lot in his ’56 Ford ragtop. We yelled out at him. He yelled back and waved frantically in a blue cloud of cigarette smoke and was gone down Utica Street, probably headed for The Zanzibar. Cool, very cool. Unforgettable!
Also very cool was “Make It or Break It” when he would ask listeners to call in on new records. If the tune was a loser he broke it – probably in those days it was a 78 – 45s were a little tougher.