# "Rockin' Radio News" redux

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rockin-radio-news-redux/378351>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [October 29, 2006, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rockin-radio-news-redux/378351 "2006-10-29T19:00:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Grey\_Mouser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@Grey\_Mouser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey_Mouser)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2006, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rockin-radio-news-redux/378351/1 "2006-10-29T19:00:11Z")

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Close, but no cigar. The A side of the Medallions’ first recording was “Buick '59,” not “Buick 69.” Todd Rhodes’s “Rocket 69” was never as big a hit as all that, which probably made ripping it off for “Buick '59” all the easier. At the time, Rhodes was considered to be more a jazz musician than an R&B musician. Both sides of the Medallions’ recording were popular after its release in 1954. (I was seventeen, then.) And it was not popular just on the West Coast. I grew up in Saint Louis. In the fall of 1958, when the '59 Buicks came out, “Buick '59” was re-released and became an R&B hit all over again, together with “The Letter,” at least in Saint Louis.

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2006, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rockin-radio-news-redux/378351/2 "2006-10-29T21:59:24Z")

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Welcome to the SDMB, G.M. Love the name, by the way. Where’s Fafhrd?

A link to the column is appreciated. Providing one can be as simple as pasting the URL into your post, making sure to leave a blank space on either side of it. Like so: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4\_065.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_065.html)
