BOOM!
Pop Culture Chronicles
Bat Out of Hell
The Cleveland Connection
By Mike Olszewski
Boomers are big on anniversaries, and I’ll get to “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” in a bit, but let’s look at another landmark album that turns 40 in October.
Meat Loaf’s “Bat Out of Hell” sold 43 million copies on Cleveland International Records, the brainchild of the late, great Steve Popovich.
Popovich worked at Columbia/Epic and eventually started Cleveland International. I say this with the greatest respect, but sometimes he looked like he slept in his clothes.
Then you went into his office and there are the photos with Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, and on and on. Popovich told Columbia Records to sign Michael Jackson as a solo artist, and there was a photo with him, too.
He insisted that my wife, Janice, and I come out to see this 9-year-old kid singer he was promoting; it was Hunter Hayes. This guy had a Midas touch and was generous to a fault.
Something’s Fishy
There was an ethnic bar on the west side that was famous for its fish fries. A bunch of us, eight or nine radio and record people, were knocking back beers and eating like kings when the door opens and it’s Steve. He came in for take-out, and while he was waiting he sat with us.
When his dinner came he looked at me and said, “Michael, ask me how’s business.”
All right, I’ll bite. “How’s business Steve?”
“Don’t ask.”
He picked up the whole table’s tab and wrote “business conference” on the receipt — the most expensive fish fry he ever bought.
He knew rock ’n’ roll, but he loved polkas. Ian Hunter of Mott the Hoople (“Cleveland Rocks”) was on his label and was sitting in his office one day. Popovich kept saying, “Listen to this. Oh, and this one. Now this.” They were all polkas. Ian got a crash course in Frankie Yankovic.
Steve Popovich passed away in June 2011, but people still talk about him as if they just saw him. One of the best.
BOOM TRIVIA
Last issue I mentioned the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper.” I said you’d find a reference to a Cleveland radio station.
On the left of the album cover is a placard with Shirley Temple, and on the far right is a Shirley Temple doll with a striped shirt that says “Welcome the Rolling Stones.” The left sleeve has the words “Good Guys.” Look at the right sleeve, which is partially obscured, and you see the bottom of the letters WHK.
The WHK Good Guys hosted the 1964 Beatles show at Public Hall. Here’s where the story gets a little weird. In 1992 I was working at WHK’s sister station WMMS, and on the 25th anniversary of “Sgt. Pepper” we did some interviews about the album on the Morning Zoo.
We asked one of the album cover’s designers where the Stones shirt came from, and he mentioned that Mick Jagger brought it. Here’s the twist: When WHK sponsored the Rolling Stones at Public Hall in November 1964, the band was livid because they only drew a thousand people.
They blamed WHK, but keep in mind that there was a snowstorm that night, a presidential election that day between Lyndon Johnson and Barry Goldwater, and the city of Cleveland didn’t want any more concerts at city facilities after the Beatles played here the previous September.
No one knows why Jagger kept the shirt.
Oh yeah, there’s an amazing commemorative reissue of “Sgt. Pepper” with lots of bonuses and extra tracks. It’s a little pricey, but if you’re a Beatles fan, this is an amazing buy. One question: How many times do I have to keep buying the same album?
For next time, back to Steve Popovich. One of his recording artists had a second career as a TV star. I’ll have the answer next issue.
Mike Olszewski ([email protected]) is a veteran award-winning radio, TV and print journalist and college instructor. He’s president of the Siegel & Shuster Society, the nonprofit group promoting Cleveland as the hometown of Superman’s creators.
