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 # 1194. This show is available as a podcast.
THE FLASHCUBES: Do Anything You Wanna Do
I've been itching to do another all-covers TIRnRR for a while. They're fun to put together, they present a deep range of programming choices (as evidenced here), and the result is always cooler'n cool.
The August 11th release date for both the Flashcubes' incomparable new covers album Pop Masters and the new various-artists Kinks tribute album Jem Records Celebrates Ray Davies presented a no-time-like-NOW! opportunity for an all-covers rockin' pop radio show.
Pop Masters is magnificent, an utterly ace new album from my long-time Cubic Fave Raves. The album's current single is a cover of the Motors' "Forget About You," and that was a carved-in-stone prerequisite for this week's all-covers playlist. We would not forget about that.
Still, I wanted to open the show with one of the Flashcubes' older covers: "Do Anything You Wanna Do." The 'Cubes did the song for their 2003 album Brilliant, and theirs is the definitive version. Yeah, even though Eddie and the Hot Rods' superswell original rendition earns a chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). The Flashcubes' cover is even greater.
(What? Ya can't qualify an absolute? Nothing can be greater than greatest? Sorry: Objection overruled. It's what I wanna do.)
HEADGIRL: Please Don't Touch
God, this is such an irresistible steamroll through a Johnny Kidd and the Pirates tune most Americans never knew about in the first place. Hell, most of us didn't know about Headgirl, the one-time-only 1981 team-up of piledrivin' British metal groups Motörhead and Girlschool. I did hear (and dig) the Pirates' original many years ago, but I encountered the Headgirl headbang for the first time in 2021. For several days after that initial exposure, it was the ONLY track I played, over and over. I could stand to hear it again right about now. It's such an incredible, storm-the-barricades assault, yet still as pop as anything. It's as great as, like, the Ramones, and c'mon--there ain't anything as great as the Ramones! Impossible but true. I wish I knew this record decades ago.
BEN VAUGHN: My Reservation Has Been Confirmed
Ben Vaughn is a colleague, at least technically. We've never met, though I did interview him (via telephone) for Goldmine magazine in the '90s. More to the point is the fact that his weekly radio show The Many Moods Of Ben Vaughn is carried in Syracuse by our own SPARK! WSPJ. Yes! The same mutant radio outfit that brings you This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio With Dana & Carl also serves up your recommended weekly allotment of Ben Vaughn's wireless audio mood menu. So: colleagues! Sort of.
Anyway, like the new 'Cubes album and Jem's Ray Davies tribute, the release of Ben's new covers EP Interpretations coincided with the planning for TIRnRR's covers show. Can't exclude a colleague! We opted to spin Ben's interpretation of Herman's Hermits' "My Reservation Has Been Confirmed;" independently, SPARK!'s own Rich Firestone also opted to program the track in Sunday's edition of Rich's show Radio Deer Camp. All good. We have no reservations about the appeal of a heapin' helping of Vaughn-accomplished Hermitage. Here's to our colleagues!
THE SUPREMES WITH THE FOUR TOPS: Love The One You're With
Continuing my current obsession with '70s works by the Supremes, our covers show turns to an agreeable take on Stephen Stills' "Love The One You're With." This li'l gem comes from the 1973's Dynamite, which was the third (and last) album by the combined forces of the Supremes and the Four Tops. Magnificent, and I very much prefer this to Stills' original.
THE MIDNIGHT CALLERS: Come Dancing
From Jem Records Celebrate Ray Davies, the Midnight Callers take on one of the Kinks' two all-time biggest U.S. hits. The original Kinks version's # 6 berth on the Hot 100 matched the pop sales position of 1965's "Tired Of Waiting For You," but I think "Come Dancing" enjoyed slightly more chart dominance than its '65 predecessor. I've never disliked "Come Dancing," but it's certainly not my favorite Kinks song. Most casual fans would be amazed to learn that it outperformed "You Really Got Me," "All Day And All Of The Night," and "Lola"--the Kinks' only other U.S. Top 10 hits--but I guess that's what the Electoral College picked, or something.
The Midnight Callers do an excellent job of boppin' this one up. It's not a radical remake, but it does up the oomph factor enough for us to dig it anew. Don't be afraid--come dancing! It's only natural. And yet another track from Jem Records Celebrates Ray Davies will make its TIRnRR debut on our next show.
TIRnRR ALLSTARS: Waterloo Sunset
Well. We certainly couldn't attempt an all-covers TIRnRR without playing this, could we? Once again, we thank our friends for their support. Ray Davies was wrong. We do need our friends. And with them, we are in paradise.
AL HIRT: Green Hornet Theme
The Greatest Record Ever Made!
LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: Listen, The Snow Is Falling
Librarians With Hickeys cover Yoko Ono. Because what's an all-covers playlist without an earnest attempt at Yokomania?
THE RUBINOOS: I Think We're Alone Now
The Rubinoos' splendid cover of the Tommy James and the Shondells classic "I Think We're Alone Now" just missed the Top 40 in 1977, standing alone at a peak position of # 45. It is somehow the only one of the Rubinoos' many, many superlative records to ever breach the Billboard Hot 100. The fact that the Rubinoos didn't have the long string of monumental chart hits their work merits is nothing short of a crime against music. At the very least, the Rubinoos' original song "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" shoulda been huge. Huge.
I know I'm not alone in thinking that.
THE FLASHCUBES: Forget About You
Album of the year. Maybe single of the year, too. You should maybe oughta buy it.
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Carl's new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is now available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. Gabba Gabba YAY!! https://rarebirdlit.com/gabba-gabba-hey-a-conversation-with-the-ramones-by-carl-cafarelli/
If it's true that one book leads to another, my next book will be The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Stay tuned. Your turn is coming.
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, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.
