Nitpicks: No Ws (so Mello Yello), also it wasn’t an exact clone of Mountain Dew as it was, as the name would suggest, yellow in color.
Although Wikipedia has reminded me that there was a Mello Yello Cherry variant that was developed to compete against Mountain Dew Code Red, so the two concoctions were definitely intended to occupy the same marketing niche.
ETA: apologies for the hijack.
I have always thought of Mellow Yellow and Mountain Dew as being direct competitors for the same type of drink.
I never hear Hendrix anymore, even on the classic rock station.
Well enough known in my area that my millennial co-workers knew about it.
That’s weird. Yesterday “Purple Haze” was on at about 7 p.m. on WDRV (“the Drive”) here in Chicago. I hear Hendrix reasonably regularly (about once a week).
And if you do, it will be “Purple Haze,” “All Along the Watchtower,” “Foxy Lady” and perhaps “Voodoo Child (Slight Return.”) Most classic rock stations don’t play the Beatles much anymore, except for “Revolution.” A few 60s tunes by the Rolling Stones get played, like “Paint It, Black” and “Gimme Shelter,” but you’re more likely to hear their songs from the 70s and 80s. Cream did no other songs but “Sunshine of Your Love” and “White Room,” apparently. You might hear “Crossroads” occasionally, but probably not.
It depends on the station and the history of the market, but the Classic Rock format is designed to focus on the 70s, 80s and 90s, and evolve within a specific demographic (men in their 30s, 40s and 50s). It’s likely that within a few years, you will no longer hear music from the 70s, because the people who lived that music will no longer be a desirable audience for advertisers.
It’s the same reason Oldies stations, which focused on Pop hits from the 60s and early 70s, disappeared. The audience aged and were no longer considered active consumers.
I gave up on Classic Rock stations when they started playing U2.
Re: “Hocus Pocus,” my experience was completely backwards. When I was a teenager in the mid 80s, first getting into progressive rock, there was a weekly prog show on the radio (Bay Area, “StoneTrek”, in case anyone remembers it). I heard this great song called “Eruption,” by a band called Focus, on an album called Moving Waves. So I went out and bought the album, and the first track was this thing called “Hocus Pocus.” That was my introduction to the song, having never heard it, or of it, before that!
I then recall sometime in the early 90s, I heard “Hocus Pocus” on the local classic rock station one day, and I was completely floored that I was hearing this song on the radio. That was when I found out the song had once been a minor hit.
It was used quite cleverly in a frenetic action sequence in 2017’s Baby Driver, with everything following the beats of the song. Do not watch the scene if you don’t like spoilers, but the movie is worth watching if you like shoot-em-ups with a reasonably sympathetic lead.
As noted it is a minor subject of fascination on the internet due to reaction videos to this masterful super sped-up live version.
Minor hit? It went to #9 in the U.S.
Every once in a while, a “KMRY” formatted station will pop up, featuring hits from the 30s through the early 1960s. They usually don’t last very long. (KMRY meaning K-Memory)
And while we’re on the subject of men with extreme vocal ranges, this is worth checking out. (TL : DW - he liked it. Hey, Silas!)
I swear we’re living on different planets or something. “Wind Cries Mary” and “Hey Joe” will get plenty of play around here and are just as likely, if not more, than the others to get play. The Jimi Hendrix tune for the day on our local classic rock station was “Red House”. Beatles repped with “Come Together.”
Well then, you are fortunate to have an over-the-air Classic Rock station with a playlist that is deeper than most. And I should have put “Hey Joe” on my list. It’s one of my favorite Hendrix tunes and I simply forgot about it. “Red House” and “Mary” I never hear on either of the two CR stations in my area, unfortunately.
As I said, a lot of it depends on the market (some towns have more of a heritage as Rock towns than others), the competition and the level of corporate control (if any) that is exerted upon local management. One CR station in a city can take some chances and go deep. Two CR stations in the same city often won’t.
If you go to their HD2 station, which only my wife’s car can receive, the playlist is even better, as that’s the Deep Tracks station! Their regular station is just wayyyyy too heavy on the Stones.
I think I’ve heard the Deep Tracks station, or at least one of them. I was at an ethnic supermarket in my town a while back, and while I only knew a few of the songs, all of the artists were identifiable by the way the music sounded. It was great!