THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE: O-o-h Child

This was originally written as an entry in my weekly 10 Songs feature. It was also penciled in for use using in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), but is not part of that project's current blueprint.

An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

THE FIVE STAIRSTEPS: O-o-h Child

Written by Stan Vincent

Produced by Stan Vincent

Single, Buddah Records, 1970

For decades, I thought of the Five Stairsteps' sublime 1970 soul hit "O-o-h Child" as a song of comfort offered by a parent to a distraught child, rather than as a larger call for peace in times of social strife. Now I realize that it's both, and the song still resonates in that sense today. Black lives matter. You can say that all lives matter, sure, but all lives can't matter unless black lives matter, too. Our troubles continue, with no immediate path to deliverance. 

But things are gonna get easier. Someday, when the world is much brighter. We can allow ourselves the soothing balm of reassurance, the bond of love, family, friendship, unity, all blessed to us in song. And we'll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun, eyes fixed on the prize. 

Someday.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

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.

BOPPIN's Monthly Day Off

Once a month, an all-too-fleeting flash of common sense takes Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) away from its clinically nuts commitment to daily public posting. That's the day we prep a private post only for our beloved paid patrons. 

And THIS month's private post is an exclusive sneak peek at the edited sixteen-page introduction to my new book, which is scheduled for Spring 2023 publication. No, not THAT book. Different book. I talked about it here and here, and I'm very excited. Details to follow at the appropriate time.

This sneaky look at the book's introduction posts to patrons on Sunday; you can join their proud ranks for a mere $2 a month: Fund me, baby! Barring some unlikely continued burst of rationality, regular daily public posting will resume here tomorrow. Happy New Year from Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do!).

10 SONGS: 12/29/2022

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.

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1161: OUR PRAYER: Love, Hope, And Holding On. This show is available as a podcast.

THE BEACH BOYS: Our Prayer

When I was teenaged college student and early twenty-something college graduate in the late '70s and early '80s, I wasn't much of a Beach Boys fan. That opinion evolved, in large part due to the influence of Bill Yerger, owner of Main Street Records in my college town of Brockport, NY. "Carl," Bill said, "we're gonna make a Beach Boys fan out of you yet." It took a while, and it didn't really click until a few years later, but I don't know how or when it would have happened without the positive influence of Bill and his wife Carol Yerger. I was so lucky to know them.

I was seventeen when I went off to college at Brockport in August of '77. Endless Summer was the sum total of my Beach Boys music library, and all I was ever likely to need (missing only "Good Vibrations" from what I would have thought a complete collection of essential Beach Boys tracks). I did add Pet Sounds to the ol' CC archives before the end of my freshman year, purchased from Bill when he was managing The Record Grove, a year before he opened his own store.

I remained in Brockport for a couple of years after graduating in 1980. That's when the Yergers began to work on me. applying their own set of good vibrations. A pair of two-fer double-LP sets from Main Street's used bin brought Smiley Smile, Wild Honey, Friends, and 20/20 into my collection. That was the first time I heard "Our Prayer."

It would be inaccurate to say my introduction to "Our Prayer" was some immediate revelation; as noted, it wasn't until years later that I realized my folly in delaying my full-on embrace of Hawthorne's Finest. When we settled on the theme for this week's special show, I knew we had to call it OUR PRAYER, and that we needed to open the show with the Beach Boys. 

Our prayer is for love, for hope, and for the ability to hold on. Our prayer is for friends, and our prayer is for music. Sometimes, our prayer is answered. Thank you, Bill and Carol. 

THE RASCALS: People Got To Be Free

I had the good fortune to see the Rascals at a club show sometime around the close of the '80s. It was 3/4 of the original Rascals line-up, with Felix Cavaliere, Gene Cornish, and Dino Danelli present and accounted for, missing only Eddie Brigati. All four Rascals eventually played a show at Syracuse's Landmark Theater in this bright 'n' shiny new millennium, but another commitment prevented me from attending. I wished I coulda made it, but it wasn't in the cards.

Dino Danelli passed away two weeks ago. He was an extraordinarily talented drummer; even though the Rascals are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I'm not sure the group gets all the credit they deserve, and I don't think Danelli's name comes up often enough in discussions of the great rock 'n' roll drummers.

Some time back, I started writing a celebration of the Rascals' (or the Young Rascals') "Good Lovin'" for my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). I never completed the entry, and it's not part of the book's current plan, but its opening paragraph is worth noting here:

"Little Steven says garage rock is 'white kids trying to play black rhythm and blues and failing--gloriously.' Fair enough. So what do we call it when a white group tries to play soul music, and succeeds? We could call that the Young Rascals."

What a great, great group. Rest in peace, Dino.

ARETHA FRANKLIN: I Say A Little Prayer

If you're gonna bill a radio show as OUR PRAYER: Love, Hope, And Holding On, you had best give Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin her due chance to testify. Doesn't even matter if her testimony in this case happens to secular; a prayer's a prayer, man.

MELANIE WITH THE EDWIN HAWKINS SINGERS: Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

MARYKATE O'NEIL: I'm Ready For My Luck To Turn Around

In this sublime gem that opens Marykate O'Neil's 2006 album 1-800-Bankruptcy, O'Neil and co-writer Jill Sobule declare readiness for luck to finally turn around. At some point in our lives, we all relate to that wish. Here's a bit of what I wrote about the song for The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1);

"...I'm ready for my luck to turn around.

"I used to say that I was made out of hope. Maybe I still am. Marykate O'Neil's wonderful track was one of my most beloved security blankets in 2020, first as I attempted to calibrate my own frustrations and expectations, and then more gravely as the year became...that year. I don't think O'Neil designed the song to be a comfort for anyone. That's just how it turned out. Ultimately, even the artist's own goals fall away as the audience adopts the work as its own. 

"I'm ready for my luck to turn around. As this world continues to give us more and more reason to question what we think we know, to lose faith in what we believe to be unshakeable truth, it's a sentiment worth adopting as both shield and sword. Stand by me. 

"If you're ready."

GREAT BUILDINGS: Hold On To Something

Recommended if you like [your Fave Rave here].

RIYLs can help us find new favorites. But they can also create a false and unfair expectation. In 1981, I read somewhere (possibly in CREEM, maybe in Trouser Press) that Great Buildings were like a male counterpart to the Go-Go's. I believe it was meant as a compliment, and since Beauty And The Beat was my top album that year, the comparison provided sufficient push for me to purchase Great Buildings' Apart From The Crowd LP before I had ever heard a note of the group's music.

And I was disappointed. It didn't sound anything at all like the Go-Go's. I filed it away.

I came back to it, though. Freed of the misconception that it would sound like boys singin' original tunes that channeled "We Got The Beat," I grew to appreciate the LP on its own sterling merit. Opening track "Hold On To Something" freaking knocked me out, once I gave it its proper opportunity. 

Great Buildings' Danny Wilde and Ian Ainsworth had been in the Quick, whose quirky 1976 cover of the Beatles' "It Won't Be Long" got some airplay on Utica's WOUR-FM when I was in high school. After Great Buildings closed up shop, Wilde went solo, and eventually reconnected with Great Buildings guitarist Phil Solem to form the Rembrandts. The Rembrandts scored a Top 20 hit with "Just The Way It Is, Baby," and achieved pop culture immortality with "I'll Be There For You," the theme from Friends. Maybe you're sick of that song--dig what you dig--but it was the number one song on the radio the week my daughter was born, and I will always, always cherish that memory.

Comparing Great Buildings to the Go-Go's was a fake-out, and the disparity between what was teased and what was delivered turned me off. Initially. But without that PSYCH! moment, would I have even gotten around to hearing Great Buildings at the time? No harm, no foul. The apparent dead end of that RIYL still led me to "Hold On To Something," a magnificent track that has now been in my all-time Hot 200 for four decades. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Baby, baby, baby, hold on.

POPDUDES: Share The Land

Going into the planning session for this week's show, our list of potential tracks included three songs associated with the Guess Who: the group's own fabulous rendition of "No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature," the Halfcubes' ace (but currently unreleased) cover of "Hand Me Down World," and this capable take on "Share The Land," courtesy of Popdudes. The Popdudes track made it into the show, and it comes to us from the terrific various-artists set We All Shine On: Celebrating The Music Of 1970. We All Shine On scored some significantTIRnRR airplay this year--we'll hear one of its other tracks in our countdown show this Sunday--and "Share The Land" is certainly among the album's many highlights.

THE RAMONES: Do You Wanna Dance

A new year looms. I'm going to be mentioning the Ramones a lot in 2023. Wanna dance? I sure hope so.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Girls In Their Summer Clothes

Love's a fool's dance

I ain't got much sense but I still got my feet

The original plan was to close the main portion of OUR PRAYER with the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again," setting up Eytan Mirsky's incredible "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" as our post-signoff bonus track. We wound up running way, way over time, so we hadda remodel the plan a bit. Some songs came out, some songs came in, and a few tracks were moved around. All in the service of building a better playlist.

Bruce Springsteen's "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" was going to occupy this week's Greatest Record Ever Made! spot (because it is, after all, The Greatest Record Ever Made!). Figuring the paradox of fragile durability expressed in "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" provided an appropriate note to conclude our theme, we moved Melanie into the GREM! slot and switched Bruce into the finale. Bruce, in turn, set up Eytan for the encore.

(And yeah, Eytan Mirsky's "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" is also The Greatest Record Ever Made! An infinite number, my friends, as long as they take turns.)

EYTAN MIRSKY: This Year's Gonna Be Our Year

That's our prayer. Every year. Every day. This year? Why the hell not?

Like Eytan Mirsky, Spider-Man is also from Forest Hills

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

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.

TV: Yet Another Updated List Of TV Series I've Seen From Start To Finish

Above image by Tyrone Biljan, courtesy of 13thdimension.com

In 2021, I posted a list of TV series that I've seen in their entirety, every episode. This is another update of that list, still missing a number of shows my memory can't retrieve, but adding some recent completions.

I like TV shows. This is an attempt to list every TV series I've ever watched in its entirety, from Season 1 Episode 1 through the blowout finale. It includes mini-series, broadcast series, cable series, and streaming series without discrimination. And it includes some series I saw piecemeal, as long as I'm sure I saw all of the episodes in whatever sequence I got to them. Some I saw on first run, others I watched after the fact. It is a woefully incomplete list--because, y'know, memory--but it's a start. I may come back here to add more series as I remember them.

The Adventures Of Superman

Angel

Arrow

Batman

Being Erica

Bionic Woman [2007 series]

Birds Of Prey

Black Lightning

The Bob Newhart Show

Bosom Buddies

The Bronx Is Burning

Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Bunheads

The Crazy Ones

Daredevil

The Defenders [Marvel Comics series]

The Dick Van Dyke Show

Ellery Queen

The Event

The Falcon And The Winter Soldier

Firefly

The Flash [1990-1991 series]

Flashforward [2009-2010 series]

Freaks And Geeks

Friends

Get Back

Gilligan's Island

Gilmore Girls

Glee

Go On

The Good Place, quite possibly my all-time favorite TV series (other than Jeopardy!)

The Good Place

Gotham

The Green Hornet

Hawkeye

Heroes

High Fidelity

Inhumans

Iron Fist

Jessica Jones

Krypton

Luke Cage

M*A*S*H

Mad Men

Marvel's Agent Carter

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

The Middle Man

The Monkees

Moon Knight

Mrs. America

Ms. Marvel

The Munsters

The Newsroom

No Ordinary Family

Pan Am

Police Squad!

Powerless

Pushing Daisies

Quantum Leap [1989-1993 series]

The Queen's Gambit

Reaper

Ringer

She-Hulk: Attorney At Law
Sherlock

Smallville

Smash

Square Pegs

St. Elsewhere

Star Trek

Stargirl

*The Steven Banks Show

Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip

Supergirl

This Is Us

Timeless

Unorthodox

V [2009-2011 series]

Veronica Mars

The Village

WandaVision

We'll Get By

The West Wing

The Wonder Years [1988-1993 series]

Younger

Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist

If I forgot any series you think I must have seen from start to finish, I welcome attempts to jog my stubborn memory.

There is one series cited with an asterisk: the 1994 PBS comedy series The Steven Banks Show. I saw all of the broadcast episodes, but there were additional episodes completed but never aired. Haven't seen those, so...asterisk. (Previous versions of this list also asterisked NBC's 2017 DC Comics sitcom Powerless, but I have now seen all of its episodes, including the three that were never broadcast. I also found the series' unaired original pilot on YouTube; the pilot was very different from the later pilot and series, and I wish the show had followed its original direction.) 

This list arbitrarily excludes animated shows, only because I didn't want to rack my brain to identify which cartoon series qualified; the cartoon list would include things like The Flintstones, Batman: The Animated Series (and the subsequent related Superman and Justice League series that were part of that B:TAS universe), and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Among live-action shows, Arrested Development and Twin Peaks would have been listed on the basis of their original network TV runs, but both have since been revived, and I haven't seen any of the latter-day episodes. (On the other hand, I have seen the continuations of Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars, and approve of both.)

Current series that will probably make this list some day include Firefly Lane, The Flash (The CW's version, which is distinct from the '90s series), Loki, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Superman and Lois, and the reboots of Quantum Leap and The Wonder Years. I bailed on Batwoman before its cancellation in 2022. Having seen the first season of Dollhouse, I may go back to see its second and final season. 

I own home video copies of just a handful of complete TV series. I have The Monkees on DVD and on Blu-ray, Batman on Blu-ray (and I proposed a Batman-Monkees comic-book mashup here), Shindig! on an unauthorized set of DVD-Rs (and I really need to go back and finish watching those), homemade VHS copies of The Green Hornet, and Police Squad!, and, if we count non-physical media, the 2011-2012 series Pan Am on iTunes. I may write about Pan Am some day; the timing of its original network run coincided with some emotional turmoil in my life, and the idea of jetting off to Europe seemed mighty appealing to me. The pilot episode of Pan Am would serve as part of the climax in the first chapter of a long-gestating memoir I call Spain, a piece which, frankly, I doubt I'll ever getting around to writing. 

There are still a lot of older TV series that should probably be on this list. It's likely that I've seen every episode of Get Smart, The Beverly Hillbillies, F Troop, The Odd Couple, The Andy Griffith Show, WKRP In Cincinnati, Hec Ramsey, Switch, When Things Were Rotten, and a big ol' bunch of others, but my reasonable doubt is sufficient for me to omit them from this list. There are some other older shows--The Guns Of Will Sonnett, the 1960s Tarzan, Disney's Zorro--I'd like the opportunity to re-visit, but for now, I don't think I've seen all of those episodes.

Yet. But Zorro's been added to Disney +....

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

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.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO: OUR PRAYER: Love, Hope, and Holding On [master list to build a playlist]

Although the Dana and Carl radio shows date back to January of 1992, today is the 24th anniversary of the first episode of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. That cataclysmic radio event TIRnRR # 1--a first-in-a-series collector's item!--aired on WXXE-FM Fenner/Syracuse on December 27th, 1998. Our previous radio collaborations had been sporadic and short-lived. TIRnRR stuck around. This Sunday, January 1st, we'll present TIRnRR # 1162. That's gonna be our big year-end countdown show, playing back the 60 tracks we played the most over the course of 2022. New songs and old songs, the release dates don't matter. As always: great records don't care what year it is.

But this past Sunday, December 25th, we wanted to do something special, too. We didn't want to do the Christmas show or the Countdown show on Christmas Day, but nor did we wanna transition too abruptly from the station's holiday programming for the day.

Instead, we settled on a theme: OUR PRAYER: Love, Hope, And Holding On. No Christmas music (except maybe Yoko Ono's "Listen, The Snow Is Falling"), but a collection of songs that look ahead through light and darkness alike. The idea was to pick tracks that either recognize something good in the here and now, or see something brighter in the future. We wanted some songs that were happy, and we also needed some songs that were less so. This was the master list of tracks we drew from in programming OUR PRAYER:

[*denotes a track that was included in the actual show, which is available as a podcast]

20/20: Song Of The Universe

5TH DIMENSION: Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In

ARCHIES: Get On The Line

JOAN ARMATRADING: Eating The Bear

P. P. ARNOLD: The First Cut Is The Deepest

*ASTROPUPPEES: On My Way

*B-52'S: Roam

BAD COMPANY: Silver, Blue And Gold

*BADFINGER: No Matter What

*BANDWAGON: Breakin' Down The Walls Of Heartbreak

*BANGLES: Live

JIM BASNIGHT: This Is Where I Belong

*BEACH BOYS: Our Prayer

*BEATLES: Here Comes The Sun 

BEATLES: Two Of Us

JEFF BECK: People Get Ready

CHUCK BERRY: Promised Land

*BIG STAR: The Ballad Of El Goodo

BOX TOPS: Neon Rainbow

*MIKE BROWNING: All The Love Is Here

SOLOMON BURKE: Everybody Needs Somebody To Love

*BYRDS: My Back Pages

CARPENTERS: Only Yesterday

CHAMBERS BROTHERS: Time Has Come Today

CHEAP TRICK: Way Of The World

CHEEPSKATES: I'll Be Around

CHICAGO: Feelin' Stronger Every Day

*THE CITY: I Wasn't Born To Follow

DAVE CLARK FIVE: Catch Us If You Can

PETULA CLARK: Colour My World

*CLICK BEETLES: If Not Now Then When

*CLOUD ELEVEN: Things Will Work Out Fine

JUDY COLLINS: Both Sides Now

ELVIS COSTELLO: (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding

COWSILLS: Ya Gotta Get Up!

MARSHALL CRENSHAW: T.M.D.

JIM CROCE: I Got A Name

DAVE DEE, DOZY, BEAKY, MICK & TICH: Hold Tight

NEIL DIAMOND: Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show

DENNIS DIKEN & BELL SOUND: The Sun's Gonna Shine In The Morning

DOORS: Break On Through

DRIFTERS: On Broadway

WENDI DUNLAP: Season Of Loss

*EDDIE & THE HOT RODS: Do Anything You Wanna Do

EVERLY BROTHERS: On The Wings Of A Nightingale

FIRST AID KIT: America

*FIVE STAIRSTEPS: O-o-h Child

FLAMIN' GROOVIES: First Plane Home

*FLASHCUBES: When We Close Our Eyes

*FLEETWOOD MAC: Hold Me

FLESHTONES: I've Gotta Change My Life

FOOLS FACE: Stand Up

*FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE: Better Things

FOUR SEASONS: Walk Like A Man

*FOUR TOPS: Reach Out I'll Be There

*ARETHA FRANKLIN: I Say A Little Prayer

FRISBIE: Comes N Goes

GERRY & THE PACEMAKERS: It's Gonna Be Alright

GIGOLO AUNTS: Where I Find My Heaven

GO-GO'S: Can't Stop The World

ROBERT GORDON: Someday Someway

GRATEFUL DEAD: Uncle John's Band

*GREAT BUILDINGS: Hold On To Something

GUADALCANAL DIARY: Litany (Life Goes On)

GUESS WHO: No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature

HALFCUBES: Hand Me Down World

*GEORGE HARRISON: What Is Life

LILLY HIATT: Under The Milky Way

HOLLIES: I'm Alive

HOODOO GURUS: Something's Coming

PARTHENON HUXLEY: Double Our Numbers

ISLEY BROTHERS: Summer Breeze

*JACKSON FIVE: I'll Be There

JOE JACKSON: Steppin' Out

*JAM: But I'm Different Now

JAYHAWKS: I'm Gonna Make You Love Me

*JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS: Light Of Day

*ALLAN KAPLON: Every Single Day

*KENNEDYS: Life Is Large

KENNEDYS: Safe Until Tomorrow

BEN E. KING: Stand By Me

KINKS: Animal Farm

KINKS: Waterloo Sunset

KISS: Shout It Out Loud

*LEGAL MATTERS: Light Up The Sky

*JOHN LENNON: Power To The People

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: I Better Get Home

LINDA LINDAS: Never Say Never

CIRCE LINK & CHRISTIAN NESMITH: I'm On Your Side

CHRIS LUND: Every Thing Is Fine

LYRES: You Won't Be Sad Anymore

*MAMA CASS: It's Getting Better

MARVELETTES: I'll Keep Holding On

HAYLEY MARY: Like A Woman Should

CAROLYNE MAS: In The Rain

MAVERICKS: Brand New Day

*PAUL McCARTNEY: Hope Of Deliverance

*MELANIE WITH THE EDWIN HAWKINS SINGERS: Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)

*EYTAN MIRSKY: This Year's Gonna Be Our Year

MONKEES: As We Go Along

MOODY BLUES: Ride My See Saw

MORNING LINE: Might Believe

JOHNNY NASH: I Can See Clearly Now

*NAZZ: Forget All About It

MICHAEL NESMITH: Rising In Love

NEW MATH: Die Trying

NEW PORNOGRAPHERS: All For Swinging You Around

O'JAYS: Put Your Hands Together or Love Train

PHIL OCHS: I Ain't Marching Anymore

RICHARD ÖHRN: Time's Not Running Out

*MARYKATE O'NEILL: I'm Ready For My Luck To Turn Around

*YOKO ONO: Listen, The Snow Is Falling

PACIFIC SOUL LTD: We Go High

PALEY BROTHERS & RAMONES: Come On Let's Go

PANDORAS: It's About Time

GRAHAM PARKER: Don't Let It Break You Down

PARTIES: Let's Call It Love

PARTRIDGE FAMILY: Singing My Song

POLICE: Message In A Bottle

POP CO-OP: Suspension

*POPDUDES: Share The Land

NOLAN PORTER: Keep On Keepin' On

*PRETENDERS: I'll Stand By You

PRINCE: Let's Go Crazy

R.E.M. (or TROGGS): Love Is All Around

*JOEY RAMONE: What A Wonderful World

RAMONES: I Believe In Miracles

RAMONES: Something To Believe In

*RASCALS: People Got To Be Free

*REMAINS: Don't Look Back

REMBRANDTS: I'll Be There For You

*AMY RIGBY: Tom Petty Karaoke

*ROLLING STONES: Happy

ROLLING STONES: I'm Free

ROMANTICS: When I Look In Your Eyes

ROSE ROYCE: Wishing On A Star

ROXY MUSIC: Take A Chance With Me

RUBINOOS: Nothing A Little Love Won't Cure

EVIE SANDS: If You Give Up

SEARCHERS: Don't Throw Your Love Away

DEL SHANNON: Keep Searchin'

SHIVVERS: Please Stand By

JIMMY SILVA: The Weight Of The Wind

SIMON & GARFUNKEL: The Boxer

*SLAPBACKS: Make Something Happen

SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE: Everybody Is A Star

SMALL FACES: Get Yourself Together

PATTI SMITH: Dancing Barefoot

*PATTI SMITH: People Have The Power

VERDELLE SMITH: Life Goes On

*SMITHEREENS: Face The World With Pride

SNIFF 'N' THE TEARS: Driver's Seat

*SONNY: Laugh At Me

SPINNERS: I'll Be Around

SPONGETONES: Anyway Town

*BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Girls In Their Summer Clothes 

STANDELLS: Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White

*RINGO STARR: It Don't Come Easy

SUN SAWED IN 1/2: The Beholder And His Eye

SUPREMIUM: What She Needs

TEENAGE FANCLUB: Don't Look Back

TEGAN & SARA: Walking With A Ghost

TRANSLATOR: No Time Like Now

SUZANNE VEGA: Left Of Center

VILLAS: Someone To Hold On To

VOGUES: Lovers Of The World Unite

WHO: Won't Get Fooled Again

STEVIE WONDER: Higher Ground

ROY WOOD: Songs Of Praise

YOUNGBLOODS: Get Together

ZOMBIES: Time Of The Season 

This master list would have filled a nine-hour show. We whittled it down to three hours, programming back-and-forth like we always do. The original template was to open with "Our Prayer" by the Beach Boys, close with the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again," and add Eytan Mirsky's "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" as the bonus track at the very end. In assembling the show, it felt better to replace "Won't Get Fooled Again" with Bruce Springsteen's "Girls In Their Summer Clothes," but the Beach Boys and Brother Eytan retained their designated places.

The only track on the final playlist that wasn't on the master list was "Do You Wanna Dance" by the Ramones. It just seemed to fit. Our prayer includes the hope that there'll be some dancin' going on.

And I tell ya: TIRnRR has been asking you to dance for 24 years now. Year 25 begins with the countdown show on January 1st. We pray you'll join us.

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, on the web at  http://sparksyracuse.org/, and via the TuneIn Radio and Radio Garden apps as Westcott Radio.

You can read all about this show's long and weird history here: Boppin' The Whole Friggin' Planet (The History Of THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO). 

TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATIONS are always welcome.

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

***And NOW AVAILABLE! This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5!***

     CD or download