Remembering King Harris

I was saddened to hear of the passing of King Harris. He was the face of KEYT news for almost two decades, but my friendship with him was based on something else, something far more important than the news or politics of the day — our mutual love of ’50s and ’60s rock & roll trivia. I hosted a radio show in those days called “The Sixties Revisited” on KTYD, and it was over a piece of trivia that he wanted to correct that we met. (It turned out that we were both right — a songwriter had changed his name.)

Eventually, we started our annual “Trivia Face-off.” Before a small group of fellow oldies aficionados, we answered questions and even tried to stump each other. The prize was a big ugly trophy, probably an old bowling or golf trophy that someone had pawned. The winner got to keep it until the next face-off, a dubious distinction since it was not the kind of thing anybody would want to display. As I recall, King won more face-offs than I did, but I ended up with the trophy. I even remember the question that gave me the victory: “Who played the harmonica on ‘My Boy Lollipop’”? (It was Rod Stewart.)

That was the last “Trivia Face-off,” though we didn’t know it at the time. It just sort of faded away, and eventually King left Santa Barbara. We lost touch after that, but I’ll never forget talking oldies trivia with him. RIP, King.