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 # 1282
THE FLASHCUBES: The Sweet Spot
Work continues with blinding bright-lights speed on Make Something Happen! A Tribute To A DIY Power Pop Band Called THE FLASHCUBES. There's a lot of stuff that still needs doin', mind you, but we're on track for the album's planned September release from the good folks at Big Stir Records. We've already played Make Something Happen! contributions from sparkle*jets u.k., Joe Giddings, the Kennedys, Pop Co-Op, the Spongetones, and Super 8 Featuring Lisa Mychols, we've revealed that the album will also include 'Cubes covers by Chris von Sneidern, Callan Foster, and Hamell On Trial, and we have two more tracks to debut on our next show.
We have three Make Something Happen! debuts this week.
In planning a Flashcubes tribute album, I was determined to include at least one new track by the Flashcubes themselves. In fact, we will have a 'Cubic trinity of fresh Flashcubes offerings, one apiece written or co-written by Paul Armstrong, Arty Lenin, and Gary Frenay. This show's already been pummelin' the airwaves with Paul's irresistible new tune "Reminisce," and we'll hear Arty's "If These Hands" on this coming Sunday night's broadcast.
This week's show opens with a sublime new Flashcubes track called "The Sweet Spot." Gary co-wrote "The Sweet Spot" with the late B.D. Love, who was also known to long-time Syracuse music fans as Buddy Love. That's not the NYC pop performer of the same dba, nor is it Jerry Lewis for that matter. Our Buddy/B.D. fronted Buddy Love and the Tearjerkers and My Sin, and he was an integral part of our local scene in the new wave era.
Other than times 'Cubes guitarist Arty Lenin sat in on drums for Buddy Love and the Tearjerkers, I believe "The Sweet Spot" is the first Flashcubes-B.D. Love collaboration. And oh, it's magnificent. We are honored to be able to honor B.D. Love's memory by including this track on Make Something Happen! And we'll hear "The Sweet Spot" again on our next show.
Sweet.
CHUBBY CHECKER: Slow Twistin'
The many, many flaws of The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame notwithstanding, I remain adamant in my view that rock 'n' roll should honor its own. So I keep preaching that the Hall should finally correct its biggest snub to date (INDUCT THE MONKEES!!!), and that such honors should likewise be awarded to the New York Dolls, the Bangles, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Rick James, the Shangri Las, and a long list of other worthies.
NOW, dammit!
After the Monkees, my pick for the Hall's second-most egregious omission to date is Chubby Checker. Unlike these others, Chubby is at least on the ballot this year, so here's hopin'. We'll find out Sunday night.
THE CHOOSERS: Christi Girl
In the summer of 1978, I haunted Gerber Music's Penn Can Mall location, badgering the (remarkably patient) staff about when the Flashcubes' debut single "Christi Girl" would be available for purchase. I was 18 years old, in between my freshman and second years at college, with a part-time job at another Penn Can store (which made it even easier for me to haunt Gerber Music at will).
Anyway. Gerber had a promo copy of the 45 on hand, so even though they couldn't sell it to me just yet, they did let me hear the record play through the store's sound system. And I was fully stoked when it finally became time to trade cash for 'Cubes.
We should have a special place nobody else can go
We should know the things nobody else can know
When I was a teenaged Flashcubes fan, a newly-minted owner of my very own "Christi Girl" 45, could I have imagined that 47 years later I would be involved in getting a bunch of fab rockin' pop bands to record a bunch of Flashcubes songs for a Flashcubes tribute? Would I even conceive the possibility of a Japanese band doing "Christi Girl?"
Whatever I coulda/couldn'ta at the time, these fanciful notions are coming true now. A few years ago, the Choosers offered a live video of their rendition of "Christi Girl," it for damned sure passed the audition, so Gary Frenay reached out to recruit the Choosers for this project. And the Choosers' finished version of "Christi Girl" will indeed help take Make Something Happen! to that special place nobody else can go.
THE POPPEES: She's Got It
The Poppees were an avowedly fab, Beatles-influenced NYC combo machin' schau in the late '70s. The group included Arthur Alexander, who went on to noted TIRnRR Fave Raves Sorrows, and we're fans. An ace 1978 single by the Poppees sported an effervescent beat original called "Jealousy" backed with this boppin' cover of Little Richard's "She's Got It" on the flip.
Remember this 45. We'll be mentioning it again before this week's edition of 10 Songs is done. Got it?
THE COWSILLS: She Said To Me
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE KINKS: Add It Up
As noted here, our pal and stats man Fritz Van Leaven informed us that this week's show would include TIRnRR's 70,000th spin, and that the milestone would be achieved with whatever track wound up being our 44th song of the night. We teased the event a few times throughout the show--Are we up to our 70,000th spin yet, Dana? How about now? Must be there by now, right?--until we were set to begin our next-to-last set with Spin # 69,999.
We called in the house band to help us tabulate. And the Kinks led us into...
BIG STAR: September Gurls
Our 70,000th spin, and it had to be "September Gurls" by Big Star. Had to be! Our all-time most-played individual track, the first song we ever proclaimed on-air to be The greatest record ever made! (way, waaaaay before it even occurred to me to write a Greatest Record Ever Made book), and a song that's emblematic of this little mutant radio show. Great pick, Dana.
SUPER 8 FEATURING LISA MYCHOLS: Pop Radio
Spin # 70,001. As we continue on the road to 100,000 spins, we start the next leg of the journey with a specific salute to the joy of radio. "POP RADIO!" Here's to every AM Top 40 hit and every left-of-the-dial communiqué that built TIRnRR. And we'll hear Trip 'n' Lisa's prototype for what became "Pop Radio" on our next program.
But right now, speakin' of "Radio"....
SORROWS: Radio
"Radio" was the B-side of the Flashcubes' second single "Wait Til Next Week." I bought the 45 directly from Gary Frenay at a show on Bowery in 1979. The song was co-written by Paul Armstrong and Gary Frenay, and although it was a live favorite at the time, it fell into disfavor within the band and was dropped from the set.
Coincidentally, within days of snaggin' my copy of "Wait Til Next Week"/"Radio" from Gary, I also picked up "Jealousy"/"She's Got It" by the Poppees. Yes! The same Poppees 45 referenced a few entries back! I love how this stuff ties together!
Sorrows formed out of the aftermath of the Poppees, and Sorrows' recent album Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow is guaranteed representation on TIRnRR's 2025 year-end countdown show. Guaranteed.
And for Make Something Happen!, Sorrows have given us a cover of "Radio" that is nothing short of full-on freakin' phenomenal.
Listen: You can search the four corners of the globe, and by the time you realize globes don't have corners, you'll already know that I'm the world's most insistent Flashcubes fan. Given that, consider the sheer gravity of me saying that Sorrows have accomplished the definitive version of the Flashcubes' "Radio." Pop music is my religion. Radio is one of my pulpits. With "Radio," Sorrows deliver the sermon we need.
Testify. And put your antenna to the sky.
THE ZOMBIES: What More Can I Do
TIRnRR spin # 70,015. What more can we do? Just keep spinning. Join us again on Sunday night for spin # 70,016 and counting.
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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.
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