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 # 1303.
THE TURTLES: Love In The City
A lot of music lovers may not realize how successful the Turtles were in the '60s. Everyone knows the group's huge # 1 smash "Happy Together," and many recall "Elenore," "You Showed Me," and "She'd Rather Be With Me," if not quite in the sheer numbers of those who remember "Happy Together."
Still, four big hits is already a pretty good pop c.v. The Turtles had eight Billboard Top 20 singles, and each of 'em is good to flat-out great: A cover of Bashful Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" (# 8, 1965), "You Baby" (# 20, 1966), "Happy Together" (# 1, 1967), "She'd Rather Be With Me" (# 3, 1967), "You Know What I Mean" (# 12, 1967), "She's My Girl" (# 14, 1967), "Elenore" (# 6, 1968), "You Showed Me" (# 6, 1969)--plus a # 29 showing for 1965's fantastic "Let Me Be." Hell, the Turtles played at the White House in 1969--Presidential daughter Tricia Nixon was a fan--and while a POTUS gig doesn't exactly enhance a rock band's street cred, it does illustrate that the Turtles were a big deal. I wish more people appreciated that fact. I wish the Philistines in charge of The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame would acknowledge it.
Former Turtles singer Mark Volman passed away this month. The Turtles were the Featured Performers on an episode of TIRnRR many years ago, and this week we wanted to expand that feature to also include post-Turtles work by Flo & Eddie (Volman and his long-time musical collaborator and fellow Turtle Howard Kaylan, a partnership that predates their status as Turtles). We programmed four tracks by Flo & Eddie, a number of tracks they did backing other artists, and four tracks by the Turtles.
We did not play any of the Turtles' eight Top 20 hits, nor the # 29 "Let Me Be."
This decision was not born out of some smug hipsterism--the hits are wonderful, and should be played--but out of a desire to go a little further into the Turtles library. Maybe one of the four (the Turtles' version of "It Was A Very Good Year," which predates Sinatra's well-known take) could be called a deep cut. I wanted to play the Battle Of The Bands album cut "Surfer Dan," but time restraints forced us to use the slightly shorter "It Was A Very Good Year" instead.
Our other three Turtles tunes were "Love In The City," "Grim Reaper Of Love," and Warren Zevon's "Outside Chance," and they can generally be found on any decent Turtles best-of set. They are my three favorite Turtles tracks.
We opened with my # 1 Turtles pick, "Love In The City." It comes from 1969's Ray Davies-produced Turtle Soup, the final Turtles album. The song was released as a single, barely charted at # 91, but I love it without reservation.
(This week's playlist commentary contains almost all of a reminiscence I wrote several years about my origin as a Turtles fan. You can read the entire original post here.)
TOMMY BOYCE AND BOBBY HART: I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight
The spotlight on Flo & Eddie didn't leave us sufficient time to salute the late performer and songwriter Bobby Hart. Hart was best-known for his work with the late Tommy Boyce, primarily as songwriters but also as a performing duo who made the rounds of 1960s TV sitcoms Bewitched and I Dream Of Jeannie. "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight" was a # 8 hit in 1968, far and away their highest-charting single as a recording act, but acts like the Monkees and Jay and the Americans had substantial success with gems from the Boyce and Hart songbook. We'll hear a few of those on our next show, as Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart will be our Featured Performers and our Featured Songwriters.
ROB MOSS AND SKIN-TIGHT SKIN: Good Hair Day
Friends of TIRnRR Rob Moss and Skin-Tight have undertaken a series of split-single partnerships with a select group of other performers, with Moss and company recording a cover of one of the guest artist's song, and the guest artist diving into the Rob Moss Songbook. A split-single with Shake Some! A split single with the Amplifier Heads! A split single with Arthur Alexander! And now, a split single with Brother Eytan Mirsky.
After playing a familiar favorite ("My Little Tricycle") from Eytan's own new album All Over The Map in our first set, we opened this week's second set with Rob Moss and his lads covering Eytan's "Good Hair Day." And we played Eytan's version of the Rob Moss classic "What Happened (To The Rock 'n' Roll)?" to kick off our sixth set.
SPLITSVILLE: I Was A Teenage Frankenstein
Why it CAN be: The return of Splitsville with their ace 2025 album Mobtown has been all hit and no split, and they postscript the triumph of Mobtown with a better-than-the-original remake of their own neckbolt-outta-the-blue "I Was A Teenage Frankenstein." It's ALIVE! Well, it's studio, but never mind that, 'cuz it's SWELL! And it comes to us as part of Big Stir Records' epic various-artists Halloween blowout Chilling, Thrilling Hooks And Haunted Harmonies, so Frankie say Hey, cool! More of the chilling, the thrilling, and the haunted on our next show, courtesy of North Carolina's phenomenal pop combo the Spongetones.
THE VERBS: I Need Glue
Speaking of epic various-artists sets from the Big Stir label, let's treat you to another airing of Meegan Voss, Steve Jordan, and their rockin' pop dba the Verbs' cover of the Flashcubes' "I Need Glue." It's all part of Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and we encourage you to buy multiple copies of that album right here.
THE GROOVIE GHOULIES: (She's My) Vampire Girlfriend
Love bites.
SLYBOOTS: If We Could Let Go
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
THE RAMONES: Chop Suey
Flo & Eddie provided backing vocals for two tracks by the Ramones. We played "Poison Heart" (from the Ramones' 1991 album Mondo Bizarro) earlier in the show, and returned to the scene of the lobotomy in our next-to-last set for a spin of "Chop Suey." "Chop Suey" comes from the soundtrack of the 1983 movie Get Crazy. In the 1994 interviews that eventually became my book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones, both Joey Ramone and Johnny Ramone remembered the song. Johnny's recollection of "Chop Suey" was not fond:
Before the next album, the Ramones contributed a track called “Chop Suey” to the soundtrack of a movie called Get Crazy. The track was produced by Busta Jones.
JOHNNY: Oh, horrible track. I don’t even know if I’m on it anymore. I don’t hear me on it. I played, but I don’t hear it. I don’t know whose harebrained idea that was—probably [Ramones manager Gary Kurfirst]’s [laughs]. Bad idea.
JOEY: [Rock 'n' Roll High director Allan Arkush]’s next film was Get Crazy. I had written a song called “Chop Suey.” Originally, I had got the B-52's to sing on it, and there was some kind of a problem. And then Flo and Eddie sang on it [instead]. So, eventually maybe we can put out that [original] record.
There was a report around that time that you were going to be doing an album with Busta Jones.
JOEY: I don’t think it was really true. Around that period, I was hangin’ out with Busta Jones and Jerry Harrison. I was hanging out at Electric Lady with them, and the B-52's, and he was working with them. He mentioned about, you know, doing a song with us, and that’s really how [“Chop Suey”] came about. And initially the B-52's were singing background on those parts, the “Chop Suey” parts.
JOHNNY: The song sucked, right [laughs]?
[One other little oddball ricochet relating to the Ramones and Flo & Eddie, and it's something I didn't know when I interviewed the Ramones in 1994: Bruce Springsteen had originally intended to give his song "Hungry Heart" to the Ramones. It is, frankly, a song I've never liked, and I can't even imagine how a Ramones version would sound. Didn't matter; Broooce kept the song for himself, and it became his first legit hit single in 1980. Flo & Eddie sang back up on Springsteen's version.]
THE MOTHERS: Happy Together
Our plan to avoid the Turtles' biggest numbers didn't preclude playing this live version of "Happy Together." When the Turtles broke up in 1970, Volman and Kaylon joined Frank Zappa's group the Mothers of Invention. It was as duly-appointed Mothers that Mark & Howard began billing themselves as Flo & Eddie, originally the Phlorescent Leech & Eddie. Turtles bassist Jim Pons also joined the Mothers, so we got your Turtles rock band street cred right here, pal. A 1971 recording of the Mothers at Fillmore East preserves an exuberant performance of Flo & Eddie singin' the Turtles signature tune.
THE CROSSFIRES: Fiberglass Jungle
Before becoming Flo & Eddie or fronting the Turtles, Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan were presumably happy together in an early '60s surf instrumental combo called the Crossfires. I think I first heard the Crossfires on a Rhino Records surf instrumental compilation in the '80s, I somehow heard their unique take on "The William Tell Overture" some time after that, and "Fiberglass Jungle" is on the Ace Records set The Birth Of Surf, a CD which held a permanent berth in my CD carrying case during the pre-pandemic days when TIRnRR was a live studio broadcast.
We've played "Fiberglass Jungle" at least once before. This week, we play it again as This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio salutes Flo & Eddie.
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I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. 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. You can read about our history here.
