10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. The lists are usually dominated by songs played on the previous Sunday night's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. The idea was inspired by Don Valentine of the essential blog I Don't Hear A Single.
LAURIE BIAGINI: Hey Mr. DJ
Man, it has been way too long since we've heard from singer-songwriter Laurie Biagini. Laurie's been a long-time TIRnRR Fave Rave, and we're delighted to hear that she's hoping to release her new album Stranger In The Mirror in 2022. HuzZAH! This week, Laurie graced us with this teaser from Stranger In The Mirror, a giddy li'l single called "Hey Mr. DJ." Hey Mr. DJ, play me a song. These DJs are happy to comply. Welcome back, Laurie.
DAVID RUFFIN: Anything That You Ask For
I've been writing a book called The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it here at some point (or a billion), fighting my natural shyness about self-promo...skip it. David Ruffin's fascinating version of the Jackson Five's "I Want You Back" earns its own entry in that long-threatened GREM! tome. Ruffin recorded the track in the early '70s, but it remained in the vaults, unreleased, for decades. As maddening as that is, it's even more flabbergasting that David, the proposed 1972 album for which "I Want You Back" was intended, likewise remained unissued and unheard. I finally heard the whole album last week, and it's fantastic, easily the best stuff Ruffin did after leaving the Temptations. I cannot fathom why in the world Motown refused to release this record. "Anything That You Ask For" offers a fine taste of the great Motown album that Motown didn't want you to hear.
THE BROTHERS STEVE: Electro-Love
Both Dana and I are adamantly on board the Brothers Steve bandwagon. While we continue to fixate on the irresistible "We Got The Hits" from their debut album # 1, we also wanna keep heaping radiophonic electro-love on their superswell 2021 record Dose. "Electro-Love" is the latest Big Stir Records single off Dose, and none can deny its divine right to sovereign airplay space. So much to love!
(And we remind the intrepid Steves: first album was # 1, second album is Dose, and third one really oughtta be Dry. We humbly suggest the title of SUZI!! for your fourth album. Sink and Sicks can follow that. This has been a public service from This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl.)
PETULA CLARK: Colour My World
Although I remember hearing and digging Petula Clark on the radio when I was a kid--especially with her wonderfully ubiquitous 1964 smash "Downtown"--I don't have any recollection of this song. It (very) belatedly caught my fancy when Rich Firestone gave it a spin on his own essential show Radio Deer Camp some time back, prompting me to finally purchase a Petula Clark best-of CD for my collection. Radio's job is to sell records. And loyal TIRnRR listeners should be sure to catch Rich's Radio Deer Camp every Sunday from 5 to 7 pm Eastern, right here on SPARK! Your wallet will hate you, but that's okay. Radio's job, man. Radio's job.
TAMAR BERK: In The Wild
One of the first-world problems of co-hosting a rockin' pop radio show is that there are always so, so many wonderful tracks to consider and a finite amount of time to play them each week. We received Tamar Berk's album The Restless Dreams Of Youth in 2021, played its fab track "Skipping The Cracks" precisely twice, with the intent of playing more, and more often. It took us this long to get back to it. My trusty iPod recently shuffled its way to Tamar's track "In The Wild" and I cursed myself for not playing the damned thing here sooner. We remedied that oversight on this week's playlist. So much great music. So little time. We'll try to play more Tamar Berk in 2022.
THE TROGGS: Lost Girl
TIRnRR has begun its 24th year as The Best Three Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet. But like the Golliwogs before Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Superman-Batman team before they became the lead feature in World's Finest Comics, the Dana & Carl radio partnership began well before its current mutant incarnation. On January 15th, 1992, Dana and I visited a fly-by-night radio studio in Syracuse to pitch our idea of a rock 'n' roll radio show; our 90-minute audition went on the air that same night as the inaugural edition of our show We're Your Friends For Now, with subsequent three-hour shows to follow each week thereafter (until we succeeded in bringing the whole station down with us by summer).
More radio collaborations continued sporadically throughout the '90s, eventually leading to This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio's debut on December 27th, 1998. You can read about our weird history here. But that history did not start in 1998. We're Your Friends For Now was an embryonic version of TIRnRR, with time, title, location, and experience the only real differences between our Golliwogs then and our CCR now. 30 years of Dana & Carl. We're still here, and we're celebrating our inexplicable longevity with a 30th anniversary blowout show this Sunday.
We're Your Friends For Now did have a greater emphasis on theme shows than TIRnRR has retained (though we've still done our share of those, too). One theme show idea we were kickin' around before the old place imploded was "Debut Singles And Demo Tapes," which would have been a three-hour presentations of...debut singles and demo tapes. This ain't rocket surgery, people. That theme was directly inspired by our love of the Troggs, and a specific wish to spotlight their beguilingly ornery introductory side "Lost Girl." I don't know what other songs we would have wound up playing in this never-realized theme show. But I can guarantee you we would have played "Lost Girl."
POPDUDES: Share The Land
Popdudes is/are/am the long-standing (mostly) covers combo featuring my former Goldmine magazine colleague John Borack on drums, joining various other ace musicmakers to capture that pop music sound you crave. Michael Simmons is almost always one of John's fellow Popdudes, and sundry line-ups of Popdudes have supplied original songs to three out of the four This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation CDs. This capable cover of the Guess Who's "Share The Land" includes Robbie Rist, and was the virtual B-side to Popdudes' 2020 Big Stir Records single cover of the Five Stairsteps' "O-o-h Child." Worth sharing.
THE FLASHCUBES: Alone In My Room
Oh, those Flashcubes. I tell ya, they're up to something. We know they're working on a new archival release called Flashcubes On Fire, preserving an incendiary 1979 live show for eventual consumption by an eager power pop public. And they did two new tracks in 2021--covers of Pezband's "Baby It's Cold Outside" (recorded with Pezband's Mimi Betinis) and the Dwight Twilley Band's "Alone In My Room"--both of which made the countdown of TIRnRR's most-played tracks of the year. The former was released as a Big Stir Records digital single, while the latter was officially unreleased as of this week's show (with a digital single release now due Friday). Comments from [source redacted] indicate cause for anticipation regarding these Cubic rockin' pop covers, and the arrival this week of a third newly-recorded pop cover by the Flashcubes further ratchets the anticipation up and up and up. That newest cover will open next week's show. In the mean time, here's another spin of the Flashcubes' version of "Alone In My Room."
And keep an eye (and ear) on those Flashcubes. They're up to something, they are.
THE RAMONES: I Don't Want To Grow Up
My January song, every year. A Greatest Record Ever Made! celebration of this song is set to appear in a book I wrote, a book that is NOT the still-homeless GREM! book. This other book is tentatively planned for publication late this year. I hope. For now, I repeat my dismissal of the silly and pointless prospect of growing up: Don't wanna, won't need to, ain't gonna.
LULU: To Sir, With Love
I'm not 100% certain that the late Sidney Poitier was my lovely wife Brenda's all-time favorite actor, or if his film To Sir, With Love is her all-time favorite movie, or if that flick's title theme song is her all-time favorite individual track. In each category, though, I'm positive Brenda would rate Sidney, To Sir, With Love, and the plaintive voice of Lulu singing of crayons and perfume at or near the toppermost of her poppermost. We had already recorded this week's TIRnRR when we heard that Poitier had passed, but Dana had time to add this live BBC performance of "To Sir, With Love" at the end of the show. Brenda appreciates it. I appreciate it, too. Thank you, Sir.
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This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.
The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:
Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio: CD or download
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