Deejay theme song thread

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Fri Jan 19, 2018, 05:42 PM - Edit history (4)

What deejay theme songs do you remember from the 50s, or 40s, or whenever?

Back around 1965, a deejay on DC's WOL, 1450 kc, used Elmore James's "Dust My Broom" as his theme song.

I'm looking for a cover of "Night Train." Not the original, IIRC, but still a saxophone solo, that was used by someone, maybe on Arlington, Virginia's WEAM, 1390 kc, in the late 1950s.

Here's a song that I thought was a theme song, but apparently it was not. The deejay just played it all the time.

Heartaches (song)

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Ted Weems version

The biggest recorded version of the song was by the Ted Weems Orchestra, with Elmo Tanner whistling. The recording was made in 1933 on Bluebird B-5131 (in a novelty fast rhumba tempo) to low record sales. Weems dissolved his band in early 1942 after leaving to fight in World War II.

In early 1947, Kurt Webster, a disc jockey on WBT in Charlotte, North Carolina, a 50,000-watt station that reached across the East Coast, played Weems' version of "Heartaches". Webster enjoyed the tune and it entered his regular rotation, leading to listeners frequently requesting it and "Heartaches" gaining national attention and Weems reviving his band briefly to capitalize on the record's success.

The 1947 recording was jointly released by RCA Victor Records as catalog number 20-2175 and Weems' 1938 re-recording on Decca Records as catalog number 25017. The Victor version first reached the Billboard magazine Best Seller chart on February 21, 1947 and lasted 16 weeks on the chart, peaking at number 1.

This could get interesting. I'll dig up the songs WHFS DJ "Weasel" closed his shows with on Friday afternoons in the 80s when I have some more time. I posted that here a few years ago. One was Joe "King" Corrasco (sp?) and the Coconuts "Party Weekend." Another was the Beastie Boys " (You've Got to) Fight for your Right to Party." The third was Nick Lowe (?) "Here Comes the Weekend."

WHFSA DJ Damien had some cajun tune. I'll have to find that. Another WHFS DJ used Steely Dan's "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo," originally by Duke Ellington. Which DJ was that? I'll have to ask at DCRTV.

Oh, the original is a lot different:

What if you were a deejay: what song would you choose?

Me? For Friday afternoons, this probably:

[Floyd R. Turbo]

1. 📻Alan Freed and Wolfman Jack📻

Not sure if this was his theme but I love the sign off!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Such a classic. I remember listening to XERF.

XHRF-FM (Redirected from XERF)

XHRF-FM is a radio station in Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila. It gained fame on the AM band as XERF-AM, a Mexican clear-channel station on 1570 kHz and a 250-kilowatt border blaster owned by Ramón D. Bosquez and Arturo González, used by famed disc jockey Wolfman Jack. Now branded as La Poderosa, it is owned by the Instituto Mexicano de la Radio (IMER), a Mexican public broadcaster.
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Cross-national operation (1949-86)
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The 1959 border blaster

Prior to 1959, XERF retained the Wilson and Howard Radio Advertising Agency to handle its United States ad sales. In that year, Bósquez and González formed a Texas corporation called Inter-American Radio Advertising, Inc. which was located on Pecan Street in Del Rio, Texas. While XERF's concession remained with Compañía Radiodifusora de Coahuila, the actual control of the airtime and the management of the facilities in Ciudad Acuña were under the control of Inter-American Radio Advertising.

The Texas company purchased a 250,000-watt RCA transmitter to beam an omni-directional clear channel signal on AM 1570, which originated some distance from the old XERA facilities within three new prefabricated concrete buildings with flat roofs.
....

Wolfman Jack (1962 to 1964)

With the birth of rock and roll and its promotion by disc jockeys such as Alan Freed, a new interest was taken in the unrestricted superpower airwaves that were available in Mexico. Alan Freed had originally called himself the Moondog after hearing the name used by an experimental street musician in New York City. Freed not only adopted the name but used the recording of a howl to give his early broadcasts a unique character since he was featuring African-American music that was getting a great reception from America's White teenagers.

One of Freed's fans was Bob Smith, a disc jockey who also adopted the Moondog theme by calling himself Wolfman Jack and adding his own sound effects. Smith took his act to Inter-American Radio Advertising, who sent him to the studio and transmitter site of XERF. It was here that Wolfman Jack invented his own style of border blasting by turning the airwaves into one long infomercial featuring music and off-the-wall products.

Wolfman Jack gained a huge audience which brought in enough money to not only pay the bills, but to cause bandits and corrupt officials to also take enough interest in taking over his promotions for themselves. As a result Smith began to pay his own security force to protect him, because although he lived in Del Rio, Texas, because of the Brinkley Act he had to actually broadcast from the station itself in Ciudad Acuña in Mexico.

[red dog 1]

4. Thanks for that

Speaking of the original "Moondog"..Alan Freed, if you haven't already seen it, there is a great movie about Freed called: "Mr Rock & Roll:The Alan Freed Story"

Wolfman Jack's character was based in part on the manner and style of bluesman Howlin' Wolf.
It was at KCIJ in Shreveport, Louisiana that Bob Smith first began to develop his famous alter ego, Wolfman jack.

Another great movie about the early blues musicians like Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Little Walter & others is a movie about the legendary Chess Records label called "Cadillac Records" (2008)
It has a great cast, including Beyonce Knowles as Etta James, Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters, Columbus Short as Little Walter, Cedric the Entertainer as Willie Dixon, Eamonn Walker as Howlin' Wolf, and an actor named Mos Def who is superb as Chuck Berry.
Adrien Brody plays Leonard Chess.
(The only flaw in the movie is that Phil Chess, who co-founded Chess Records with his brother Leonard, is hardly even mentioned)

[rsdsharp]

3. Dan Ingram Tri Fi Drums by Billy May and The Reel Don Steele You Can't sit down by Phil Upchurch