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 # 1323
BALLZY TOMORROW: Double Our Numbers
Our Featured Performer this week was the late, great Parthenon Huxley, and I think we managed an effective and loving tribute to this wonderful artist. We played a lot of Parthenon's music, including material under his own nom de bop, with his group P. Hux, fronting latter-day Electric Light Orchestra incarnation the Orchestra, as a member of Veg, as Rick Rock, with 3KStatic, collaborating with Jeffrey Foskett, and as part of his "pretty good band" with Rusty Anderson, Jen Condos, and Rob Ladd. It was Hux to the max, all in memory of a TIRnRR idol.
For all that, we deliberately skipped my favorite Parthenon Huxley song: "Double Our Numbers," from his brilliant 1988 album Sunny Nights. Our pal Robbie Rist is one of the biggest P. Hux fans we know, so we wanted our P. Hux tribute to include Robbie's cover of "Double Our Numbers," marketed under Robbie's alter ego Ballzy Tomorrow. From a previous edition of 10 Songs:
We have said this many times, yet it bears repeating: Enthusiasm is its own reward.
Enthusiasm drives our individual fandom, and I mean that in a good way. It certainly drives this little mutant radio show. Sure, there can be something said on behalf of detached objectivity...but ferchrissakes not in pop music, or at least not when we're listening to pop music. Objectivity? No. Not on our watch.
Robbie Rist occasionally feigns detachment, but he's never afraid to let his enthusiasm be known. Robbie loves pop as much as anyone loves pop; he loves it unashamedly, proudly. As a performer, Robbie will not hesitate to share his own enthusiasm with the audience
Case in point: Robbie Rist loves the music of Parthenon Huxley, particularly the music on Parthenon Huxley's 1988 album Sunny Nights, and most particularly the Sunny Nights track "Double Our Numbers."
Robbie is right about all of that. "Double Our Numbers" is exquisite, and the subject of one of my Greatest Record Ever Made! rants (and a seeming shoo-in for the hypothetical GREM! Volume 2). The song never became the rockin' pop staple it deserved to be, and I don't think it's available on any current streaming service.
So Robbie's kept the song alive, with a faithful rendition released under his Ballsy Tomorrow dba, all the while tipping his hat and dutifully applying heart to sleeve in recognition of Parthenon Huxley's original.
If you love a song, you wanna play that song, sing that song, dance to that song. And you want to introduce that song to your friends.
Double our numbers. Triple our numbers. Robbie Rist has the right idea. Greater strength in numbers. Enthusiasm rewards and renews.
We'll hear Parthenon Huxley's original version of "Double Our Numbers" on our next show. We're enthused. And we're doubling down.
THE CYNZ: You Wreck Me
We're also enthusiastic about the music of the Cynz, and we've been playing selections from the group's new album Confess with zealous, righteous conviction. This week, we turn to their absolutely ace cover of Tom Petty's "You Wreck Me," and we may have wrecked a speaker trying to crank this one up to proper volume. So worth it. We'll circle back to a previous Pick Hit from Confess on Sunday night.
TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS: American Girl
From an American girl singin' a Tom Petty song into Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers singing "American Girl." I tell ya, sometimes the segues just program themselves.
SORROWS: Just One Fool To Blame
I continue to be amazed at the gift of Sorrows' 2025 release Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow, a previously-unreleased 1981 one-night-studio-stand that serves as the group's in-era farewell but sounds like it was recorded tomorrow. The album was a consistent fixture on our playlists last year, and we just debuted its epic John Lennon salute "Cricket Man" on our January 25th show. Two weeks later, we return to the well of constant Sorrows for "Just One Fool To Blame," which turns out be just one more winner from an album overflowing with post-teenage heartbreak of the sweetest kind.
THE FLASHCUBES: I Won't Wait Another Night
In the course of my work curating my passion project Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes for Big Stir Records in 2025, I had a series of communications with Parthenon Huxley about the possibility of him recording a Flashcubes cover for the compilation. His schedule didn't allow him a lot of opportunity to get this done, but he was friendly and open to the idea, and settled tentatively on doing a solo acoustic 12-string rendition of 'Cubes guitarist Arty Lenin's lovely ballad "I Won't Wait Another Night."
Our conversation began in February of 2025. I then sent Parthenon several possibilities for him to evaluate from the Cubic catalog, and after considering another Arty tune ("Cycle Of Pain"), he picked "I Won't Wait Another Night" as his preference. He had a lot of working and gigging commitments, including a cruise. In March, he noted that he was closing in on an arrangement of the song. In April, he moved his Make Something Happen! participation status from tentative to "I will participate."
A downturn in Parthenon's health prevented that participation. He remained friendly and engaged in subsequent messaging, but I told him that it was more important for him to get better and feel better than it was to for him to risk damaging his vocal chops while trying to recover from a persistent cough. I expressed appreciation and gratitude for his interest and indulgence, and he expressed hope that we might meet in person some day.
This week, we played the Flashcubes' own original version of "I Won't Wait Another Night." A toast to absent friends, and a toast to what might have been.
P. HUX: Better Than Good
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
And yes, I did indeed repurpose much of this for my subsequent GREM! celebration of "Double Our Numbers." Serving the greater good, and that's much better than good.
HOLLY AND THE ITALIANS: Tell That Girl To Shut Up
Holly and the Italians' 1981 debut long-player The Right To Be Italian is a perfect record from start to finish. The 'tude classic "Tell That Girl To Shut Up" is the best-known among the original LP's ten tracks, but they're all great, presenting an irresistible oomph-a-thon of girl-group pop, New York punk, and undeniable rock 'n' roll climbing in the back seat and pulsating to the backbeat. One of my all-time favorite albums.
ELVIS COSTELLO: (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shows
I saw Elvis Costello and the Attractions perform on campus when I was a Freshman at Brockport in early 1978, and I wrote an extended reminiscence of that experience here. The performance did not include the 1977 My Aim Is True track "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes," but we did hear (but not see) Declan and the lads run through the tune that night. Let's look back at that part of my in-concert recollection:
"...Costello's debut album, My Aim Is True, featured studio backing by a group called Clover; he formed the more raucous, willfully chaotic Attractions after that. My Aim Is True was well-received by critics; I suspect a few critics may have embraced it because it was tangentially punk, but not really, and endorsing it might make such critics seem slightly hipper than they actually were. But My Aim Is True was a terrific album, deserving of accolades regardless of the unconscious reasons prompting such praise.
"Still, it was surprising to return to Brockport and discover that Elvis Costello was scheduled to perform on campus. Although there was some underground support for punk and new wave among a beleaguered minority of students (and a very small handful of DJs on the student-run radio station WBSU), Brockport was simply not a hip place. The predominant musical taste of Brockport students was embodied by the Grateful Dead, Southern rock, and similar shit-kickin' and/or stoner stuff. It was either that, or dat ole debbil disco. The campus newspaper The Stylus had dismissed the Sex Pistols' album in a fit of blind, frothing fury: "Simply put, this album sucks." This was not a CBGB's crowd...
"...This was only my third rock concert. I'd seen KISS in 1976, and (yechh!) the Charlie Daniels Band in '77. More importantly, though, I'd seen my first club show and my first punk or new wave or trend du jour show in January, when I witnessed Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes for the first time. I already knew that was a life-changing experience; why not hope for another revelation, with Elvis Costello and the Attractions?
"As we waited outside the ballroom before showtime, Costello rushed sullenly and silently past us, en route to his soundcheck. We heard run-throughs of 'Alison' and '(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes' coming from behind the closed doors of the ballroom. It would be the only time we'd hear either of those songs that night...."
So, a question for the armchair pundits in our audience: This was my only Elvis Costello show; are "Alison" and "Red Shoes" a part of my virtual ticket stub gallery, or not? The well-shod angels in our midst await your decision.
THE BEATLES: Here Comes The Sun [Take 9]
Listen, man: Here in Syracuse, we're still waiting for proof of this elusive "sun" of which you speak. We'll believe it when we see it.
PARTHENON HUXLEY: Beautiful
Another one of the biggest P. Hux fans we know is loyal TIRnRR listener Eleanor Cook. Our Eleanor has guest-programmed a couple of shows for us, and one of those shows included "Beautiful," a go'geous tune from Parthenon Huxley's 2013 album Thank You Bethesda. Beautiful. And a beautiful way to conclude our tribute. Godspeed, Parthenon.
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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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