RUSH: I’m looking for a couple of hits here from the past. I’ve got one of them here on my computer. They are looking for it in New York. The other one we got. One song, 1968, Sandy Posey, Born a Woman. And there’s all kinds of these songs out there. The songs that just sent Gloria Steinem and the gals through the roof. Wishin’ and Hopin’, by Dusty Springfield. Now, the reason for that, this would be Dusty Springfield’s 73rd birthday today. I think her real name was Mary O’Brien. The Look of Love from the Thomas Crown Affair. You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me, which, by the way, they aired, they used in the first episode of Mad Men this year. What a great tune. “You don’t have to say you love me; I’ll never tie you down.” Of course all lies, but still, what a voice.

But Wishin’ and Hopin’, one of her first tunes in 1964, we’re digging it out of the Grooveyard of Forgotten Favorites. I want you to listen to this, 1964, for those of you who may never have heard this song in this audience. This was a hit, this was a huge hit in 1964 from Dusty Springfield. This is what young girls grew up thinking life was all about.

(playing song)

Wishin’ and hopin’ and thinkin’ and prayin’
Plannin’ and dreaming each night of his charms
That won’t get you into his arms

So if you’re lookin’ to find love you can share
All you gotta do is
Hold him and kiss him and love him
And show him that you care

RUSH: That was all you gotta do.

(continued playing of song)

Show him that you care just for him
And do the things he likes to do
Wear your hair just for him, ’cause
You won’t get him
Thinkin’ and a-prayin’
Wishin’ and a-hopin’

Just wishin’ and hopin’ and thinkin’ and prayin’
Plannin’ and dreamin’ his kiss is the start
That won’t get you into his heart

RUSH: This is it. This is the root, folks. Cook his meals. Iron shirts. Put out his slippers.

(continued playing of song)

So if you’re thinkin’ heartbreak
True love is
All you gotta do is
Hold him and kiss him and squeeze him and love him
Yeah, just do it and after you do, you will be his
RUSH: Cook his meals. Iron his shirts. Put out the slippers. And do it with a smile.

(continued playing of song)

Show him that you care just for him
Do the things he likes to do
Wear your hair just for him, ’cause
You won’t get him
Thinkin’ and a-prayin’
Wishin’ and a-hopin’

Just wishin’ and hopin’ and thinkin’ and prayin’
Plannin’ and dreamin’ his kiss is the start
That won’t get you into his heart

So if you’re thinkin’ heartbreak
True love is
All you gotta do is
Hold him and kiss him and squeeze him and love him
Yeah, just do it and after you do, you will be his
You will be his
You will be his

RUSH: And that’s what it was all about. Now, I was 13 when this song hit. And I knew when I was 13 I wanted to be in radio. In 1964, I was three-year, four years away from my first job in radio. So now that’s that. Mike, see if you can find the Syndicate of Sound, Hey, Little Girl. We gotta do the male version of this. We’ve got the biggest Grooveyard of Forgotten Favorites. But first, now, here’s a different spin on it. This is 1968, and this is Sandy Posey, the daughter of Jim Posey.

(playing of song)

It makes no difference
If you’re rich or poor
Or if you’re smart or dumb
A woman’s place in this old world
Is under some man’s thumb

RUSH: Listen to it, listen to it.

(continued playing of song)

And if you’re born a woman
You’re born to be hurt
You’re born to be stepped on
Lied to, cheated on
And treated like dirt

RUSH: Hurt, not heard.

(continued playing of song)

Ah, if you’re born a woman
You’re born to be hurt

RUSH: Again that’s hurt, not heard.

(continued playing of song)

A woman’s lot is to give and give
And go on giving

RUSH: And give some more.

(continued playing of song)

A woman’s got to love and lose
And go on living

Well, I was born a woman
I didn’t have no say
And when my man finally comes home
He makes me glad it happened that way
Because to be his woman
No price is too great to pay

RUSH: No price. No price.

(continued playing of song)

Yes, I was born a woman
I’m glad it happened that way
Oh, I was born a woman
I’m glad it happened that way

RUSH: In fact, that song was one of our early feminist update theme songs. If you remember Snerdley back about 23 years ago. So that’s 1968, I was 17 then, you can imagine the modern era of feminism, literally two years later, one, two years later sprung up. And oh, gosh, big changes. I’ll tell you when I knew it. Well, this is too inside baseball esoteric. No, I’ll tell you. On Saturday mornings I had to take our remote turntable and broadcast equipment and go to Sears and do a couple hours of a radio show from Sears. One day the program director got the idea — ’cause I was in high school — to bring couple high school girls in and have a discussion about something. I’m still taking orders back in those days. And one of the high school girls that showed up started talking about women’s lib.

I’m 18 and I’m hearing militancy, and she was one of the most popular girls. This was not some angry, you know… One of the big clique. And I wasn’t smart enough to realize, I just thought, “Ah, well.” I didn’t know what I was in the middle of then, but it didn’t take me long to figure it out. I was a junior, senior in high school, and this girl was angry, she was ticked off. I’d never heard anything like this before. So at the time I didn’t know what she’d been reading. Anyway, I can’t find the Syndicate of Sound, Hey, Little Girl, but it’s the male version of what’s expected to go along with Sandy Posey and Dusty Springfield. Dusty Springfield’s real name was Mary O’Brien, and she would have been 73 years old today.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I’m just sitting here listening to Under My Thumb by the Rolling Stones. That’s from, I think, ’64-’65. I got fired for playing that song. One of my seven or eight times of being fired was for playing that song too often in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, at WIXZ. I really got fired. I got fired for violating the program format by playing that song too often in the rotation. It was an oldies format. I just liked the song and I got canned for it.