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 # 1307
THE HALF/CUBES: Hard To Get
Ever since we first heard the entirety of the Half/Cubes' then-unreleased new album Found Pearls this summer, we've been jonesin' for an opportunity to share it with listeners. We started programming its advance single "I'll Be Taking Her Out Tonight" (with Peter Noone hisself helping the Half/Cubes remake this fab tune Noone first did with the Tremblers) as soon as it was cleared for airplay, and the release of the album prompts us to proclaim the Half/Cubes as this week's Featured Performers. No half measures for us!
We gathered tracks from both of the Half/Cubes' albums (Found Pearls and debut long-player Pop Treasures), added a few single releases, and a full-on Half/Cubes feature was achieved. We even threw in their unreleased cover of the Guess Who's "Hand Me Down World" as a bonus track at show's end.
Our first Half/Cubes track this week was the Found Pearls gem "Hard To Get," a sublime cover of Starclub's epic 'n' atmospheric MTV classic. I have worshiped this song for decades, and it is so fulfilling to hear the Half/Cubes deliver the oomph the track requires.
THE COWSILLS: The Next In Line
The general record-buying public has no freakin' clue about the sheer wonder of the Cowsills. Some folks remember the group's big 1960s hits, "The Rain, The Park & Other Things," "Indian Lake," and "Hair," some may recall their non-hit but definitive cover of the theme from TV's Love American Style, and some will think of the Cowsills' real-life status as the inspiration for the fictional Partridge Family. A few will be aware of the heartbreak revealed in the sobering documentary Family Band: The Cowsills Story.
But all of the above merely scratches the surface of how much greatness can be found in the Cowsills' catalog. I'm not kidding when I say the Cowsills' 1998 record Global is my favorite album of the '90s. All phases of the Cowsills' long recording career have produced many, many moments of absolute pop magic, from the boppin' garage-folk splendor of 1965 debut single "All I Really Want To Be Is Me" through their 2022 album Rhythm Of The World.
The visionary Omnivore Recordings label's recent release of the 1978 Cowsills sessions known as The "Cocaine Drain" Album offers another clear glimpse of the durable through-line of the Cowsills' brilliance. I wish I could have heard this in the '70s; I'm grateful and gratified to hear it now.
RICK SPRINGFIELD: Go All The Way
Rick Springfield's girlfriend tells him to go all the way. I don't know if this was before or after she was Jessie's girl. I feel so dirty when they start talkin' cute.
Our friend Ken Sharp is the primary director of Think Like A Key Music's outstanding new collection Play On: A Raspberries Tribute, and I tell ya, the boy done good. Ken is one of the biggest Raspberries fans I know, and he did his idols justice with this compilation. Rick Springfield's cover of "Go All The Way" opens Play On with nearly nonpareil rockin' pop panache, and the earnest urgency never lets up from that point forward. Great, great tribute to one of power pop's defining groups, and the material Ken has assembled lives up to that legacy. We'll hear another fine example of Play On's exuberant accomplishment on our next show. You need this. You'll love this. You want this.
(In addition to his above-mentioned status as a Raspberries fan, Ken Sharp is also one of the biggest KISS fans I know, maybe THE biggest. Sunday night's TIRnRR will spotlight the late Ace Frehley as our Featured Performer, and that feature will include a track from Ken's 2018 album Beauty In The Backseat, a nugget Ken recorded with Half/Cubes stalwart Fernando Perdomo AND special guest guitarist Ace Frehley. We know some people who know some people.)
CROSSWORD SMILES: Black Cats & Broken Mirrors
It has been our great pleasure to debut a track from Big Stir Records' amazing compilation Chilling, Thrilling Hooks And Haunted Harmonies in each of our last six shows. This week's spin of Crossword Smiles' Chilling, Thrilling Hooks And Haunted Harmonies track "Black Cats & Broken Mirrors" makes seven weeks in a row to serve up at least one previously-unplayed cut from this spookeriffic collection, and we're gonna add two more on our next show. Even as Halloween 2025 folds its candy bags, stashes its costumes, and smashes its pumpkins, don't be surprised if additional Chilling, Thrilling Hooks And Haunted Harmonies treats still turn up on future shows. Seasons change, sure. But candy is perennial!
THE TAMS: I've Been Hurt
I don't have any recollection of any version of the song "I've Been Hurt" from when I was a kid in the '60s. I discovered Bill Deal and the Rhondells' 1969 hit (# 35) rendition waaaay after the fact, when the early '80s merging of my record collection with my then-girlfriend (and eventual wife)'s record collection brought that Rhondells 45 into our community property.
Bill Deal's "I've Been Hurt" was resolutely adequate, but belated exposure to the 1965 original by Southern soul combo the Tams rendered all subsequent cover versions irrelevant. I insist that 1965 was pop music's best year ever. The Tams' "I've Been Hurt" is yet another piece of compelling evidence on behalf of that belief.
MONOGROOVE: Take You Anywhere
Our go-to selection from Monogroove's current album Popsicle Drivethru has been "That Girl," an amiably radio-ready that seems pretty damned likely to score a berth on our 2025 year-end countdown show. Diversifying our good-natured sense of manic obsession, the same album also gives us the equally nifty "Take You Anywhere," so...let's play that one, too! See? It turns out you CAN take us anywhere.
THE FLASHCUBES: No Promise [4-track]
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
TODD RUNDGREN: Couldn't I Just Tell You
From my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):
"This is an example of the latest musical trend. It's called power pop.
It was 1978. The band Utopia was appearing on The Mike Douglas Show. The song that Utopia's front man Todd Rundgren introduced as 'the latest musical trend' was practically a golden oldie, a track Rundgren had recorded and released much earlier in the decade, on his 1972 album Something/Anything? The song 'Couldn't I Just Tell You' had not been a hit, its 1972 single release barely making it into the Hot 100, peaking at # 93 with an anchor. For Rundgren to refer to this six-year-old song as the latest...anything could have only been an example of the prickly performer sneering haughtily at trendy hipsters, hip trendsters, and, one supposes, anyone who liked pop music. Yeah, screw them.
Wait, wait! 'Anyone who liked pop music?' That's me he was sneering at, damn it! Oh, the humanity...!
But I didn't care. God, it was such a great song. Seeing it performed on TV asserted the song's hold on me, a hold that was already there, but which tightened its grip securely and permanently with this televised faux embrace of the latest musical trend. Power pop. Suits me just fine...."
THE VERBS: I Need Glue
YEAH! Big thanks to fabulous Underground Garage DJ Palmyra Delran for spinning "I Need Glue," the Verbs' essential contribution to the various-artists blockbuster Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes. And not only did Palmyra afford spinnage to "I Need Glue" on her superlative satellite radio show Palmyra's Trash Pop Shindig, she named it as her pick for the week's official Tomorrow's Treasure Today. HuzZAH!
THE HALF/CUBES FEATURING PETER NOONE: I'll Be Taking Her Out Tonight
The first single from Found Pearls. The second single is their ace cover of Crabby Appleton's "Go Back." We also played that one this week, and we'll play it again on Sunday night. A true pearl. It's well worth going back to that.
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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.
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