Sunday Showcase August 19, 1973

It's Sunday again so let's grab an old issue of The Tennessean and see what's in my favorite section of the paper. This week's Sunday Showcase is from the August 19, 1973 paper and features a bunch of people wearing chimpanzee suits. The 29th edition of Holiday On Ice was coming to town soon.

There was a big concert on that very Sunday night over at Riverside Raceway Park. It was billed as the 2nd annual Rock 'N Roll Holiday. Check out the awesome line-up! The first Rock 'N Roll Holiday had been held in July in 1972 at the Fairgrounds and it boasted a killer bill also. 

 

Focus live October 1973

Johnny Cash was helping Hendersonville High School raise money for band uniforms. 

Holiday On Ice would be at Municipal Auditorium for 5 days of its "world famous ice show." I guess the Holiday On Ice was like car models as this was the all new 1974 edition, but 1973 wasn't over.

Holiday On Ice 1973 Spectrum Rock

Cain-Sloan had some handsome 10 speed racing bicycles for sale this week. 

Once you picked up a new 10 speed you could roll on over and pick up a pair hiker biker shoes.

The Tennessee State Fair was coming up in September and fair goers would have 2 chances to see Sonny and Cher one day and Frank Zappa was playing 2 shows a couple days later. Far out! I'm pretty sure those shows ended up being canceled.

Zappa 1973 Stockholm

I wonder if the Charles Dickens Restaurant was a chain concept? Perhaps someone will stumble across this blog who knows. 

If you thought K Furniture only sold furniture then think again. I don't remember specifically going into K Furniture, but I do remember when furniture stores would have record sections. You could buy your console stereo along with the latest LP's and 45's.

What was the hottest records in Nashville pop music for this week. Helen Reddy's version of "Delta Dawn" took the top spot. I know that I learned all the words to Jim Croce's "Big, Bad Leroy Brown" that summer. 

Badder than ole King Kong

need a shot of rhythm and blues

they called her Delta Dawn

Sunday Showcase December 3, 1972

This Sunday Showcase review is from the December 3, 1972 edition. I was a mere 6 years old. Apollo 16 had successfully gone to the Moon earlier in the year and the last manned mission, Apollo 17, was going to launch in just a few days so my head was filled with visions of outer space around this time. It would have been apropos for someone to gift me with the last David Bowie record for Christmas, but I think I got a Sesame Street one instead. My parents should have shopped at 100 Oaks Mall.

The Top Ten Records in Nashville for this week are a mix of soul, singer songwriter, rock, and pop. It's interesting to see old rockabilly cat Billy Lee Riley in the top ten with the Tony Joe White penned tune "I've Got A Thing About You Baby." It was recorded at American Recording Studio in Memphis by Chips Moman and was probably just a local Southeastern hit since it only hit #93 nationwide. This is really quite a good top 10. 

There were a couple of concerts coming up at Municipal Auditorium in the next few weeks. The country rock band Poco was playing December 8, 1972 with It's A Beautiful Day and Jim Croce. You could have picked up tickets for as low as $4 at Sgt. Pepper's record store in Rivergate Mall. I wish I could find a photo of that store. I'm sure it was cool. I was way too young to attend this concert, but I would have loved to have been there, admittedly mainly because of Jim Croce. He was truly one of a kind. 

If you had some gifts you needed perhaps you could do some Christmas shopping at The Hobbit with 2 locations. Perhaps some older Nashvillians can comment and let me know exactly what sort of store The Hobbit was. I found an ad a year later noting they were a licensed seller of Sony stereo products, but maybe they sold more than audio equipment. 

Another big concert coming to town was the Godfather of Soul himself; James Brown. The whole James Brown Show would be at Municipal on December 9, 1972. Funny Man Clay Tyson, female preacher Lynn Collins, and the J.B. Blues Band are on the bill. If you were either there, or been reading my Sunday Showcase posts, you know that James Brown played Nashville often in the early 70's. I hope many reading this got to see him. I'm sure it was incredible. 

Finally, if you still hadn't made your New Year's plans back in December of 1972 and you considered yourself an "Action People" you could get tickets to the King of the Road Motor Inn's big New Year's Eve Party. Ronnie Milsap was the featured attraction. That's it for this trip back into the past. Next week we'll be in December 1980 which will see the arrival of a bikini brief wearing guy from Minnesota for a show. Hope to see you there.