I have a lot of catch phrases that I like to use. I mean, I have a lot of 'em by any standard, but especially a lot for someone who isn't (and isn't likely to become) famous. Nonetheless, my preferred catch phrases come in handy when I'm writing, when I'm pontificating, and when I'm yelling into a mic for a radio audience that numbers nearly into the dozens.
"Great records don't care what year it is." "Radio's job is to sell records." Others, regarding the greatest record ever made, the American Beatles, Her Majesty's Ramones, et cetera anna half. And one catch phrase of particular relevance for this week's year-end countdown show:
Any record you ain't heard is a new record.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio's # 1 most-played track in 2024 was "Girl Songs," recorded in the early '90s by SoCal's phenomenal pop combo Wonderboy (with Robbie Rist, a long-time friend of TIRnRR), and unreleased until 2018. Because our long-time friend Robbie never bothered to tell us about the track and its native album Hero Isle, we heard the track and the album for the very first time in February of this year, and we started playing "Girl Songs." Um...a lot, hence its # 1 status in our countdown. We hadn't heard it before. It was new to us.
Not that new versus old has much meaning here anyway. Art is timeless. That can apply to commercial art as well; pop music is certainly commercial art, but imbued with the power and ability to transcend its specific intent (to, y'know, give radio something to sell). We've established that great records don't care what year it is. The best stuff always resonates.
There are so many tracks--by Dusty Springfield, the Kinks, Chuck Berry, the Ramones, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Badfinger, the Go-Go's, Eytan Mirsky, the Four Tops, KISS, the Isley Brothers, Lulu, Cocktail Slippers, the Smithereens, the Flirtations, P. P. Arnold, Slade, the Monkees, Todd Rundgren, Ronnie Spector, Bruce Springsteen, the Flashcubes, Sly and the Family Stone, Mannix, Anny Celsi, Amy Rigby, the Sex Pistols, the Cowsills, the Selecter, yadda und glorious yadda--that I will never tire of hearing, no matter how many times I've heard them before. Play 'em again.
But also play something we ain't played before.
At the beginning of this year, we had never heard Wonderboy's stellar track "Girl Songs." Then we did hear it. We embraced it. We played it. New. And now, in our eyes and ears, a classic. Congratulations to Wonderboy and "Girl Songs," This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio's most-played track in 2024, and to all of the other irresistible performers we played throughout the year.
Our annual countdown show is one of TIRnRR's best opportunities to answer Irwin Shaw's challenge to writers and to all who create: This is where we think we are, and this is what this place looks like today. Thanks to the mighty Fritz Van Leaven for keeping track of that chronicle for us, providing the year-end stats that make a countdown show possible.
2025 awaits. We'll have more new and more old to help us face the challenges of our next chronicle. Happy New Year from Dana and Carl! And this is what rock 'n' roll radio sounded like on Sunday nights in Syracuse this year.
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, streaming at SPARK stream, and on the Radio Garden app 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).
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Carl's new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get Carl's previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.
