Passages – The Kirkham Report

The Chart King, Joel Whitburn, 1939 – 2022

June 16, 2022 TC Kirkham Authors, Charts, Memory Lane, Music, Passages, PNRNetworks, Pop Culture, Records, The Kirkham Report, Thoughts and Musings, Weblogs

He was the man that fueled millions of chart fanatics around the world. A man who never lost his love for Billboard or its many music charts. A man who took one small book and turned it into a small but beloved musical empire. Joel Whitburn, the founder of Record Research, passed away in his sleep on Tuesday June 14, he was 82 years old. His passion for music and for the Billboard music charts in particular spurred Joel to write his first book, the aptly titled “Record Research – The Billboard Hot 100 Chart 1958-1969” in 1970. Since then,

PASSAGES: Menudo’s Ray Reyes passes at 51

May 5, 2021 TC Kirkham BREAKING NEWS, Music, Musicians, News, Passages, PNRNetworks, Pop Culture, Radio, Records, The Kirkham Report, Thoughts and Musings, Weblogs

If you were a teen girl in the 1980s, chances are you had a poster of Menudo somewhere on your wall; the year (or even the month, heh heh) you had it up would have determined which members of the rotating always youthful Puerto Rican boy band would have been featured. Ray Reyes, who was a member of the band during the days when Menudo attempted (and unfortunately largely failed) to conquer America as they had other countries, passed away on April 30 2021 from a heart attack; he was just 51 years old. Reyes, born in New York City

PASSAGES: Bay City Rollers’ singer Les McKeown dead at 65

April 22, 2021 TC Kirkham BREAKING NEWS, Music, Musicians, News, Passages, PNRNetworks, Pop Culture, Radio, Records, The Kirkham Report, Thoughts and Musings, Weblogs

Another day, another part of my teen years gone… Les McKeown, who sang lead for the major hits from mid-70s teen heartthrob Scottish band Bay City Rollers, died suddenly Tuesday (4/20), he was 65 years old. McKeown was the lead singer for the band during their major hitmaking period from 1973-78, which saw Rollermania spread around the world. They had more hits in their native UK and in Europe than they managed in the U.S. but still managed a number of smashes here, the biggest of which was their 1975 #1 smash “Saturday Night” (which ironically was NOT a single

PASSAGES: Jim Steinman, creator of “Bat Out Of Hell”, dead at 73

April 20, 2021 TC Kirkham BREAKING NEWS, Film, Music, Musicians, News, Passages, PNRNetworks, Pop Culture, Radio, Records, Songs, The Kirkham Report, Thoughts and Musings, Weblogs

He was an incredible songwriter, and an even more incredible producer. Jim Steinman, the man who put Meat Loaf on the map in 1977 with “Bat Out Of Hell” and who helped his career resurgence in 1993 with “Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell“, has died, he was 73. Steinman became one of the most prolific writers and producers in the 1980s and 1990s, writing and/or producing huge hits for a variety of acts that crossed genre lines, including Barry Manilow (“Read ‘Em And Weep“), Barbra Streisand (“Left In The Dark“), Bonnie Tyler (“Total Eclipse Of The Heart”,

TKR on YouTube: Memory Lane – Remembering Helen and Mac

October 1, 2020 TC Kirkham COLUMNS, Fundraising, Memory Lane, Music, Musicians, Passages, PNRNetworks, PNRNetworks Patron Circle, Pop Culture, Radio, Records, Television, The Kirkham Report, Thoughts and Musings, TKR On YouTube, Vinyl Collecting, Vinyl Community, Weblogs

A trip down memory lane this day, remembering two greats from the 1970s – Helen Reddy and Mac Davis… Don’t forget to subscribe to TKR Video Central on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9-8Ha1CgLmTWg9H3tl6blA?view_as=subscriber

PASSAGES: Country superstar Charlie Daniels 1936-2020

July 6, 2020 TC Kirkham BREAKING NEWS, Music, Musicians, News, Passages, PNRNetworks, Pop Culture, Records, Songs, Television, The Kirkham Report, Thoughts and Musings, Weblogs

You know, it seems that ever since I redoubled my efforts to make TKR a fun and entertaining music site again as of the last couple of weeks, 90% of what I’ve been doing is reporting on the passings of a great many amazing people… Country music legend Charlie Daniels died this morning in Hermitage TN of a hemorrhagic stroke; he was 83 years old. A member of the Grand Ole Opry since 2008 and a member of the Country Music Hall Of Fame class of 2016, Daniels was a legend in the music business, with nearly five decades of

PASSAGES: Italian film composer legend Ennio Morricone 1928-2020

July 6, 2020 TC Kirkham BREAKING NEWS, eCinemaOne, Film, Music, Musicians, Passages, PNRNetworks, Pop Culture, Television, The Kirkham Report, Thoughts and Musings, Weblogs

He was truly one of the most prolific film score composers of all time, with an estimated FIVE HUNDRED scores under his belt in his six decade long film music career, and his music influenced countless generations of all types of musicians. Italian film composer Ennio Morricone has died at the age of 91 following complications from a fall. Morricone didn’t start writing film music until 1958, but once he was there, he didn’t look back, sometimes doing multiple scores a year from his studios in Rome, where he always worked. He was notorious for always wanting to work for

PASSAGES: Film composer Johnny Mandel, 1925-2020

June 30, 2020 TC Kirkham Announcements, BREAKING NEWS, Film, Music, Musicians, News, Passages, Planet BiblioMusica, Pop Culture, Records, Songs, Television, The Kirkham Report, Weblogs

If you’ve listened to popular big bands, saw movies in the 1960s and 1970s, or have ever been anywhere near a television set, chances are good that you’ve heard at least one song by Johnny Mandel, the Oscar and Grammy winning composer and songwriter, who passed away at the age of 94 on Monday. Mandel worked with jazz and swing artists throughout his career, and was known for his affiliations with Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, and Peggy Lee among others. He first turned to scoring films in the late 1950s, doing the music for “I Want To Live” in 1958,

PASSAGES: Benny Mardones, 1946-2020, two-time “One Hit wonder”

June 29, 2020 TC Kirkham Announcements, BREAKING NEWS, Charts, Music, Musicians, Passages, Planet BiblioMusica, PNRNetworks, Pop Culture, Radio, Records, Songs, The Kirkham Report, Thoughts and Musings, Weblogs

He will forever be known as a one-hit wonder….twice. With the SAME SONG. Singer/songwriter Benny Mardones passed away today after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease; he was 73 years old. Although he recorded his share of music over the years, and also wrote songs for other artists including Brenda Lee and Chubby Checker, he is perhaps best known as one of the few acts to hit the Billboard Hot 100 twice with the same song. Released in 1980, his hit “Into The Night” remains an early 80’s classic and is fondly remembered by fans, and it hit #11 on

PASSAGES: Pete Carr, 1950-2020

June 29, 2020 TC Kirkham BREAKING NEWS, Music, Musicians, Passages, Planet BiblioMusica, PNRNetworks, Pop Culture, Radio, The Kirkham Report, Thoughts and Musings, Weblogs

Pete Carr was not a household name for most people, but when it came to session musicians, Carr, who passed away yesterday at the age of 70, was a legend. Carr is probably best known to lovers of late 1970’s music as one half of the duo LeBlanc and Carr; he had teamed up with singer/songwriter Lenny LeBlanc for an album on Big Tree Records, and had a #13 Hit on Billboard’s Hot 100 and #11 on the Adult Contemporary chart with the ballad “Falling” in late 1977. But his career spanned over five decades and much of it was