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Oakland by the Goodtime Washboard 3.
Do you remember this tune? Composed, performed, and written by the Goodtime Washboard 3, the Oakland Song saw the light of day in 1963. While making an appearance on Don Sherwood's KSFO radio show, the San Francisco disk jockey urged the trio to write a song about Oakland, bemoaning the lack of a song about our city. A classic was born. Berkeley's Fantasy Records recorded the song, first as a 45 and later, in 1964, as part of an album. The trio performed this ditty for the Oakland city council in chambers in July of 1964 and also performed it on the Oakland Tribune marquee. Trio member Bruce Bratton recalls a period of a week or more when "every major radio station in the San Francisco Bay Area would play the Oakland Song at exactly the same moment. So you could literally go up and down the radio dial and hear the Oakland song everywhere without missing a beat." |
