The two massive files, below will take those of us who were there right back to the decades that formed our musical psyche, from Dean Martin to Whitney Houston and everything in between.

Enjoy!

Every Billboard #1 from 1956-1983

Every Billboard #2 from 1983-1993

Thanks to Megan Gebhart, for turning me on to this one. It’s one of the best gifts a person could give to someone who played just about every one of these at one time or another.

Those of us who saw the Beatles Love show in Vegas, and bought the associated CD, marveled at the magic that Fab Four producer George Martin, and son Giles Martin, worked. We’ve worked their re-mix of “Get Back” into the Scott Owens Show rotation.

The same attention to detail has been given to the Beatle catalog we all bought as 45s, LPs and CDs over the years.

The question some of the Scott Owens Empire has been asking this week is, “Is it worth the money?” With the Beatle re-master box priced north of $200 bucks, is the quality really THAT much better to justify shelling out the bucks again?

It all depends on your ears. For some, your current Beatle CD collection will suffice. It sounds great and brings back all those memories just as vividly as it did when you listened on your HiFi. But for others, the additional nuances of each track will jump out to your trained ears. Paul’s bass lines are that much more precise, reminding us again that he’s an outstanding musician. The harmonies behind John’s lead are so crisp that if you put headphones on, you may feel like you’re in Abbey Road Studios back in the 60s when all this was happening for he first time.

One of the benefits of being a DJ is that we get our hands on this stuff a tad before the rest of the world. When I took a listen, I immediately wrote the kids telling them to throw in together to get Dad the Beatle Box for Christmas.

If sales statistics mean anything, the Beatles are again one of the top selling rock acts. The box sets are flying off the shelves and a whole new generation of baby boomers are discovering the Rock Band game, Beatle style. If you’re a Beatle freak, you’ve probably already taken delivery of your digitally re-mastered collection. If not, find someone who has one and listen for yourself.

In the early years of the decade, you might see Niel Diamond, recently a pre-med student, struggling to find his muse. This was raw talent that needed polish and mentors to model the behaviors and fire the imagination. It would become a creative process that record company excecs would simply label “The Brill Building Sound”.

Among the Brill brilliance, few touched as many lives as did Ellie Greenwich.

Born Oct. 23, 1940, in Brooklyn, Eleanor Louise Greenwich first placed her fingers on a keyboard at age 11. The accordion quickly evolved into a piano, and by the time she enrolled at Queens College she had already recorded a single featuring two songs she wrote.”Silly Isn’t It” and “Cha-Cha Charming.” She was 17.

When she transferred to Hofstra University, she met Jeff Barry, a kindred spirit with a sense for mixing melody and lyrics that caught attention. They married in 1962 and were soon writing as a team.

The Brill Building was the center of the universe for aspiring songwriters and Ellie found her way there. As the story goes, she was waiting to meet another writer and started absently playing one of her compositions on the piano. Jerry Leiber was walking down the hall. What he heard sounded a lot like one of his other stars, Carole King and when he discovered that the music came from Ellie’s brain, it wasn’t long before she was writing for Leiber and Stoller’s Trio Music.

Phil Spector was always on the lookout for fresh talent and he mined Greenwich and Barry’s collaboration, producing hits like “Da Doo Ron Ron,” “Chapel of Love” and “Be My Baby”.

Greenwich’s output during her brief prime was extraordinary and contributed to the success of dozens of artists. Examples include “Then He Kissed Me” (the Crystals), “Hanky Panky” (Tommy James & the Shondells), “Maybe I Know” (Lesley Gore), “River Deep, Mountain High” (Ike and Tina Turner), “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” (Manfred Mann) and “I Can Hear Music” (The Ronettes, Beach Boys).

Brian Wilson told the LA Times that Greenwich was “the greatest melody writer of all time.” But that was only one dimension. She was also one of the first high profile female record producers, crafting smash hits like, “Cherry Cherry,” “Solitary Man” and ” Kentucky Woman” for Niel Diamond.

Few outside of the business knew her name, but when Ellie Greenwich died this week at age 68 those of us who appreciate the alchemy of talent, timing and luck that give birth to timeless recordings, pulled our dusty 45s out of the attic to listen again to Ellie’s enduring legacy.

Links: Ellie Greenwich Interviewed
Link: Videos of Ellie’s hits

From Noon till 1PM MT, we focus on that time, 40 years ago this week when we sent a man to the moon. We have sound bytes from the late,  great Walter Cronkite, lunar themed tunes from the Flamingos, Frank Sinatra, Creedence and Van Morrison.  We’ll also feature a Real Oldies 1600 double shot of “You’re No Good”, with the original Betty Everett rendition juxtaposed with Linda Ronstandt’s 1975 smash and a mash-up of “Earth Angel” featuring three million selling artists from the Real Oldies era, plus a surprise ending you’ll instantly recognize.

From 1 till 4, we intersprse stuff from 1969 with your input via twitter.com/realoldies1600, our Real Oldies fan page on Facebook and from the good ole comment line at 505 931-1600.

Thanks to executive producer and KRKE morning ace Craig Collins for being the mand behind the curtain!

The Scott Owens Cool Link of the Week: WeChooseTheMoon.org a real-time multi-media re-creation of Apollo 11′s trip to the moon, as it happened. Thanks to Jeff Smith in Rochester Hills, Michigan for sharing it with us.

We celebrate the World’s Oldest Teenager on the 53rd anniversary of the launch of American Bandstand.

Do you know who was the original king of pop? It’s not Michael Jackson and it’s not Elvis. We’ll tell you and play one of his summertime hits.

The Twist is Chubby Checker’s signature tune.. but do you remember who wrote it?

And we’ll take you back to a time when hit songs came from the Sunday funny papers.

All that and much more, this weekend on the Scott Owens Show.. Noon to 4PM Mountain Time on Real Oldies 1600!

Be part of the Scott Owens Nation, weeknights from 6-9PM and every Saturday after Dick Clark’s Rock, Roll and Remember on Real Oldies 1600.

CNN said, we’ll get to see his body one more time this Friday during a viewing at his Neverland Ranch. How does that work after two autopsies? There is a 30 car motorcade planned. (Susan Whitall tells me that CNN jumped the gun and plans aren’t final.)

The Wall Street Journal says MJ did, after all, have a will and that he left everything to his mom and his kids.

TMZ.com, what breaking-news journalism seems to be coming to in this Internet world, claims that MJ isn’t the father of his kids. A surrogate dad fertilized a donated egg and Debbie Rowe was only the carrier (of the first two kids).

Could this get any stranger? I’m starting to feel the discomfort I feel when watching a Sacha Baron Cohen film.