… Here in the land of Ooh-bla-dee, Mad Daddy giggle jiggle with all the glee,
clappin’ and flappin’ to make it happen …
Mad Daddy Pete Myers (©1963, E.C. Productions and Mad Magazine)
On New Year’s Eve 1956, the “House of Moondog” was back in business at WJW
(850) Cleveland, when Pete Myers (1928-1968) arrived at the former digs of Alan Freed’s rock ‘n’ roll party. Freed had left Cleveland for New York in the fall of 1954. Myers became known as “Mad Daddy” in 1957.
Mad Daddy also left Cleveland for one shift at WNEW, and a more successful run at WINS in New York, but not until June 1959 after a stint at WHK. Sadly, Mad Daddy took his own life in October of 1968.
This exceptional and very rare recording of WJW in 1958 features Myers’ trademark rhyming rap, and lost “blues and rhythm” treasures like Service with a Smile, Greasy Chicken and Teenage Machine Age. And we are treated to an obscure single by Mad Daddy himself, I Love a Practical Joke, performed as The Joker.
Here it is – the true roots of American Top 40 radio: An outrageous disc jockey, with
a maniacal laugh, playing “race music”. It’s no wonder that some older folks were terrified by the sounds coming from their radios!