Music City to Rock Back to Its Oldies Roots : Entertainment: A few weeks after renaming the Hop and adding country to the mix, singer Bill Medley will try a ‘60s-’70s format at his Fountain Valley dance club.

Riding the country music boom didn’t rope enough customers into Bill Medley’s Music City nightclub, so the Righteous Brother is reinstating a rock ‘n’ roll oldies format at the club.

In August, after buying out musical and business partner Bobby Hatfield, Medley turned the 8-year-old Righteous Brothers’ Hop into Music City, with disc jockeys spinning a blend of country music and rock oldies. Medley now says the experiment didn’t work out, and on Oct. 14 the club will revert to its former focus on rock oldies.

“The people who were in love with the old rock ‘n’ roll didn’t want to know about country, and the people who love country didn’t want to hear rock ‘n’ roll,” Medley said earlier this week in a telephone interview from Las Vegas.

“There was a definite clash,” Medley said, although he believes it had more to do with perceptions than with the music itself. “In my experience as a singer and a musician and a writer, the new country is very close, if not the same thing, as old-time rock ‘n’ roll.”

The decision came after Music City had been open only about five weeks, but Medley doesn’t believe he’s pulling the plug too quickly. “It was real apparent to me (that the new format isn’t working), and I just didn’t want to stay in a wrong situation too long. I didn’t have a point to prove,” he said.

“I’ve learned on stage: If I sing a song and they don’t applaud, they don’t like it.”

Medley said the format at the Hop, which emphasized music of the ‘50s and ‘60s, was beginning to lose its appeal with customers and also was becoming difficult to promote. “There wasn’t anything new to do,” Medley said. Under the new format, the club will emphasize music of the ‘60s and ‘70s in an attempt to capture the “classic-rock” crowd.

Also, Medley added, “it’s easier for me to go down there and perform when it’s a rock ‘n’ roll situation.” Medley will perform there Oct. 14 and 15 with fellow ‘60s veterans Gary Puckett and Paul Revere. He also plans to continue to perform occasionally with Righteous Brothers partner Bobby Hatfield.

Hatfield may also do solo dates at the club, Medley said.

Under the new schedule, Music City, which will keep its new name, will hold onto one reminder of its fling with country: free country dance lessons on Sunday evenings. The club, at 18774 Brookhurst St., will feature dancing to “classic rock” records and live music Wednesday through Saturday.