10 SONGS: 12/20/2024

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 # 1264.

THE ISLEY BROTHERS: Shout (Part One)

Confession time: If sports things play out the way I wish over the next several weeks, I will have unabashed divided loyalties on Super Bowl Sunday. I will, of course, be tuned into This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio as always. But I'm a former resident of Buffalo, and if the Buffalo Bills make it to the Super Bowl, I'm gonna watch, and I'm gonna be shoutin' at the screen the whole time. The Bills make me wanna SHOUT! Not...always for the right reasons. Gimme the right reasons this year, team. Go, Bills!

THE PANDORAS: Melvin

THELMA HOUSTON: Don't Leave Me This Way

A song about a guy named Melvin, segued into a song originally done by an artist named Melvin. If that ain't art, there ain't art.

The Pandoras' "Melvin" is a gender-swapped cover of Them's punk classic "Gloria," but the switch didn't originate with the Pandoras. "Melvin" was first done in 1966 by the Belles, and the Pandoras brought the original's garage-girl grunge glory into their own '80s psych-revival milieu. We pray G-L-O-R-I-A and M-E-L-V-I-N are still together somewhere, and still spelling each other's name with a resilient spark in their eyes.

"Don't Leave Me This Way" was first done by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, and the Blue Notes' version (with its magnificent Teddy Pendergrass lead vocal) merits a chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Thelma Houston had the hit, which is far and away the best-known take on the song. Even when then-teen me hated disco, I still liked Thelma Houston's "Don't Leave Me This Way." We're ALL Melvin!

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: Hello Operator

I'm not sure if we've mentioned recently (nor often enough) how much we love the current Librarians With Hickeys album How To Make Friends By Telephone. "Hello Operator" was the album's first advance single a few months back, and it's still my favorite among a batch of How To Make Friends By Telephone favorites. SPOILER ALERT: We're gonna hear this track again on the countdown show. That's what phone-a-friends are for.

THE MONKEES: A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You

Try as many a mastering engineer might, no CD reissue of this non-LP Monkees single has ever come within a light year of matching the sheer punch and power of the original Colgems Records 45. Most Monkees fans consider this a relatively minor entry in the group's history, a Neil Diamond composition that represented former producer/puppeteer Don Kirshner's last grasp of the Monkees' strings; B-side "The Girl I Knew Somewhere," written by Michael Nesmith and performed by the Monkees themselves rather than by session musicians, is ultimately more important, even though the A-side was the the hit. 

Kirshner's last stand? It's a really, really good last stand. And if consensus dismisses this as an inferior follow-up to Diamond's SuperMegaSmash Monkees hit "I'm A Believer," I actually like it better. Part of the reason is circumstantial: I just love the way the sound of my flea-market 45 jumps out of the speakers, loud and distorted in all the right ways, pounding and popping in a way no reissue has ever managed to recapture. "I'm A Believer" is a better song, and arguably a better record, but I feel a vibrant and pervasive connection to "A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You," a connection its "Believer" big brother can't equal. 

(For a coincidental commentary on Kirshner's exit from the Monkees project, read the lyrics to this song as an approximation of what I think Kirshner shoulda said to the Monkees at the time. Except maybe not addressing the group as "Girl.")

THE COOKIES: Wounded

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE FLASHCUBES: Gone Too Far

Gone TOO far...?! Man, I'd say Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes haven't gone far enough, at least not yet. There's some cool Cubic stuff brewing for 2025, so, y'know, don't go anywhere. Stay tuned.

THE 'B' GIRLS: Fun At The Beach

This week's shindig was our last regular show of 2024, with the annual Christmas and Countdown shows poised to kick us through December's final pair of Sundays. With seasonal sides taking over for now (and countdown tracks set to follow), our last regular non-Christmas/non-Countdown spin this year is "Fun At The Beach," a 1979 single by the 'B' Girls. Boys in bikinis! Girls with surfboards! Wait...that's the B-52's. Wrong B-band! Ah well. Surf's up nonetheless.

LISA MYCHOLS: Joy Is In The Giving

We devoted this week's final set to Christmas music. We rarely play Yuletunes outside of our Christmas show, but the Christmas show itself tends to get its stocking overstuffed very quickly, leaving no room at the Inn. We had a few new seasonal sides in need of at least one spin this year, so we grabbed a few rockin' holiday classics and mixed 'em with these pepperminty-fresh Ghosts Of Christmas Present to form this week's closing set.

That set commenced with "Joy Is In The Giving" by Lisa Mychols. It's not a new track--it appeared on the superfestive 2010 compilation album Hi-Fi Christmas Party Volume 3--but this year it's included on The Very Best Of Hi-Fi Christmas Party, which collects some of the brightest stars from that series in one neatly-wrapped package. Sales of this compilation benefit Versiti Blood Research Institute. Quoting from Versiti's mission statement: "From research and diagnostic testing to the sharing of lifesaving gifts, we advance the field of personalized medicine while providing care, comfort and support to our communities. We are blood health innovators who enhance lives through discovery, diagnosis and treatment (specializing in diseases and disorders of blood)."

Worthy music, worthy cause. And worth another spin next week.

MIKE BROWNING: It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Is it the most wonderful time of the year? Here's hopin'. With this week's closing spin, our pal Mike Browning sets us up for The 26th Annual THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO Christmas Show this coming Sunday night. And we'll hear Mike's rendition of "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year" again at the top of that show. Good cheer provides its own justification. 

We also hope there will be cookies. 

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My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my 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.

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. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.