10 SONGS: 11/1/2024

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 # 1257.

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: Listening

We've been looking forward to the new Librarians With Hickeys album How To Make Friends By Telephone since...yeah, since their last album, 2022's Handclaps & Tambourines. The 2022 record gave us two full-on TIRnRR Fave Raves with "I Better Get Home" and "Can't Wait 'Till Summer," and the teaser singles from How To Make Friends By Telephone ("Hello Operator" and "No More Goodbyes") have likewise brightened our airwaves and compelled our volume controls to reach for magnetic North. We are indeed listening. 

And we like what we hear.

THE CYNZ: Woman Child

With this week's spin, "Woman Child" by the Cynz has scored its fourth consecutive appearance on the TIRnRR playlist. It will notch Week # 5 this Sunday. More to come. Let us be your "Woman Child" resource.

CARLA OLSON AND TALL POPPY SYNDROME: Is It True

With this week's spin, Carla Olson and Tall Poppy Syndrome's supergroovy cover of Brenda Lee's irresistible "Is It True" has scored its fourth consecutive appearance on the TIRnRR playlist. It will notch Week # 5 this Sunday. More to come? That's probably true. The Cynz, Carla Olson and Tall Poppy Syndrome, and all of the stars of our little Play-Tone galaxy. We play the hits.

SPANKY AND OUR GANG: Sunday Will Never Be The Same

It's hard to believe, but Spanky and Our Gang didn't make their TIRnRR debut until...wait, is this right? Last week?!  We've been running this rock 'n' roll radio dog and pony show since the end of 1998, which means it took us almost twenty-six years to get around to programming Spanky and Our Gang. It's a damned good thing we have tenure.

Now, the merry Spanksters notch up two weeks in a row on this little mutant radio show. Up and coming band! After spinning the group's cover of the Beatles' "And Your Bird Can Sing" last week, we move to one of their own hits this week: "Sunday Will Never Be The Same." I do remember playing the track on our old early '90s show We're You're Friends For Now (the precursor of whatever the hell it is we do on TIRnRR), and I woulda swore we played it here as well...

...but I woulda been wrong. Now we have played it on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. Better late than never! Sundays will chart their own independent path from here on out.

THE BINGS: Don't Stop Dancing

I am constantly amazed to discover great decades-old rockin' pop music I never knew about. The Bings are a case in point. I first heard of the Bings when the group's singer and guitarist David Chrenko left this comment on my exhaustive history of power pop:

"Excellent article. Greg Shaw would be proud. I was a staff member of Bomp! Records and Bomp! magazine in the late '70s. The Hollywood scene of which Bomp! was a mover 'n' shaker was not unlike Liverpool in 1962-64. I took all I'd learned from Greg and Suzy Shaw and in 1980 formed the Bings. We took the best music of the club scenes in London, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles and combined it with our own originals (what is now known as Power Pop) and unleashed it on the Southern California suburbs. In March 2024 Bachelor Records released a vinyl album of our studio and live recordings, which is getting airplay in America, Canada, Europe, Scandinavia, and Asia - 40 years after the Bings packed it in! ...Hope you can still POGO to it!"

The album is called Power Pop Planet (The Lost Tapes), and man, where has this record been all my life? Any record you ain't heard is a new record, and I'm dead chuffed to hear this now. Power Pop Planet has TIRnRR written all over it. Channeling my inner Bruce Brodeen: EXTREMELY highly recommended!

THE COWSILLS: She Said To Me

My favorite album of the 1990s remains the Cowsills' wonderful 1998 release Global. The record never got anywhere near the acclaim it deserves, and it's been difficult (and pricey) for those who missed it at the time to catch up with what they missed. I'm delighted that Omnivore Recordings will be remedying that situation in one week, with a deluxe reissue of Global due out on November 8th. If you're a rockin' pop fan, you've gotta get this. I've had (and loved!) the CD for decades, but I'm buying the reissue for its bonus tracks, and because I like buying Cowsills albums. A world with more Cowsills albums is a better world. (And I would very much like to see the Cowsills record a new album with Christian Nesmith producing; that would be a match made in Heaven.)

The Global track "She Said To Me" has been a frequent fixture on TIRnRR playlists, and the group allowed us to use the song on our 2006 compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 2. My book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) includes a chapter about "She Said To Me." I've heard that Bob Cowsill was tickled that "She Said To Me" was given the GREM! treatment, but man, this song absolutely deserves it. Global: My favorite album of the 1990s. And "She Said To Me" is a large part of the reason why that's so.

THE ARCHIES: Get On The Line

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

And I most certainly did get on the line: I voted

THE RAMONES: I Wanna Be Sedated

Given my anxiety about the election, yeah, sedation sounds GREAT, thanks

THE MONKEES: Terrifying

Will there ever be a deluxe edition of Good Times!, the superb 2016 album by the Monkees? The original album (subject of the only record review I've written since deciding I didn't want to write those things anymore) was accompanied by four scattered bonus tracks which have never been available in one package. "A Better World" was only issued on the FYE-exclusive version of Good Times!, "Love's What I Want" was on the Japanese release, and "Terrifying" and "Me & Magdalena [Version 2]" were digital-only. The four tracks were gathered on a Record Store Day vinyl edition, but have not yet appeared together as part of any legit issue of Good Times! "Love's What I Want" and "A Better World" aren't even available for streaming.

I don't buy or play vinyl. I have a CD-R of the whole thing, but I really want an official CD release that presents the entirety of the Good Times! experience, perhaps adding unreleased bonus material if any such thing exists.

Note to Rhino Records: Take my money, awready.

LESLEY GORE: You Don't Own Me

A sneak peek at our next show. Enough with chipping away at the glass ceiling. Let's breach that sucker.

Let's breach that sucker now. We're not going back.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. 

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.

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.

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! The Archies, "Get On The Line"

Expanded from a previous post, this is not part of my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

THE ARCHIES: Get On The Line

Written by Jeff Barry and Andy Kim

Produced by Jeff Barry

From the album Jingle Jangle, Kirshner Records, 1969

Incidental music for a Saturday morning TV cartoon series. Beyond the hit singles (which were intended to compete with the Beatles and the 5th Dimension for space on Top 40 radio and for disposable income [or allowances] from young listeners), most of the music released under the Archies' brand name was pure pop, carefully crafted and exquisitely rendered. "Sugar, Sugar" was the biggest hit by far, "Jingle Jangle" my pick for a favorite, and the four Archies LPs contain a decent selection of lesser-known but worthy numbers.

The records were far, far better-made than they had to be, better than they had any right to be. Lead singer/de facto Archie Ron Dante was blessed with a voice made for radio, a masterful pure pop comfort with the subtlest hint of swoon-worthy soul. Pop veteran and celebrated songwriter Jeff Barry was at the helm, and he had world-class session musicians spinning the sugar he required. It was bubblegum, sure, much of it sweet enough (and then some) for the dessert menu at Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe, but some of it grounded in a real world, or at least a comic-strip reflection of the world. Even in cartoons, and even in cartoon tunes, you can only get so far without a little verisimilitude. If you're a fan of Superman, you have to believe a man can fly, and you have to accept the ideal of truth, justice, and the American way. With the Archies, you have to imagine cartoon teenagers singing and playing as they fall in and out of love within their animated escapades. The imaginary group's sound had better live up to the demands of your imagination.

The Archies' records did live up to those demands. The Archies didn't exist, but their music did. 

From the Archies' third (and best) album Jingle Jangle, 1969's "Get On The Line" is my top pick among the Archies' album tracks, and it's second only to "Jingle Jangle" in my overall estimation of the output of Riverdale's Finest. It's infectious, and it implies a sense of greater purpose. It bears a superficial resemblance to Neil Diamond's "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show" (also from '69), just in terms of a shared vibe and a shared call to faith in something larger and better.

We started something

Gonna get it together

Every man and woman, boy and girl

Lovin' one another

All the sisters and the brothers

Lovin' one another 'round the world

Get on the line!

Get on the line for love, hey!

Get on the line!

Get on the line for love, hey!

The sun is rising

On a brand new morning

Got to tell the people everywhere

Got to pass it on

Before all hope is gone

Let the light go by you if you dare

Get on the line...!

"Get on the line for love." Words to live by. Especially right now.

And if you think I mean something political when I say "especially right now," with the imminent, plausible concern that in two weeks American voters may choose to repeat the grievous error of 2016, double down on the worst-ever self-inflicted wound in this nation's history....

...Yeah. You can bet your ass I mean something political. Harris/Walz 2024. Get on the line. We are NOT going back.

GET ON THE LINE...!!

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. 

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.

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.

POP-A-LOOZA: Archie Meets Ramones

 

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is my celebration of a fantastic comic book from 2016, Archie Meets Ramones.

I've written a lot more about the Ramones than I've written about the Archies. My biggest stand-alone Archies piece was "The Archies: An American Band," a short story answering the question, "What if the Archies had been a real band?" My interview with Ron Dante, the voice of the Archies' actual records, was part of my extensive history of bubblegum music. And, although I quickly grew tired of The CW's Archie reboot Riverdale, my initial enthusiasm is chronicled here and then here. 

Before we get to the Ramones, here's an Archies tangent from a June 2020 edition of my weekly 10 Songs feature, spotlighting Wilson Pickett's cover of the Archies' "Sugar Sugar:"

"There are some people who are offended by the very existence of this track. The offended parties tend to be those who rightly view the great Wilson Pickett as one of the great soul voices, but view the idea of the wicked, wicked Pickett lowering himself to sing a lowest-common-denominator weenybop tune by a crass, artless, and, by the way, imaginary cartoon concoction such as--ACK!!--the Archies to be blasphemy. I guess there are maybe some Archies fans who don't dig it either. 

"Aw, but man--that's so limiting.

"Wilson Pickett's 'Sugar Sugar' is an audacious mix of swaggering soul with the sweetest of sweet, sweet bubblegum. I'm an unapologetic bubblegum fan; the music of the Archies easily transcends its purely-commercial origin as Saturday morning television soundtrack music spun off as cash-grabs for an undiscerning younger audience. The records are good--well-produced, catchy, with compelling lead vocals from the great Ron Dante. Wilson Pickett was--how shall I put this?--WILSON FREAKIN' PICKETT. A force of Southern R 'n' B nature, the source of 1,000 dances in the midnight hour. If you don't like Pickett, I question your possession of a pulse. I just happen to have a pulse. Wilson Pickett's "In The Midnight Hour" earns a chapter in my book, The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Rightly so.

'I also love the Archies. My favorite Archies track is 'Jingle Jangle,' with honorable mentions to 'Get On The Line' and 'Who's Gonna Love Me,' and certainly props to 'Sugar Sugar,' which was my favorite song on the radio when I was nine. I still like it, and the fact that I like Wilson Pickett's version even better isn't a slam against the original; they're both wonderful. Purists? Please show yourself out. Thanks for stoppin' by. For the faithful: Let the summer sunshine pour its sweetness o'er us. Amen."

As for the Ramones, well, we'd be here all night going through the tons of stuff I've written about the group I call the American Beatles. For now, let's start with Greatest Record Ever Made! pieces about "Blitzkrieg Bop," "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker," "I Don't Want To Grow Up," and "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?," plus my video blog about the latter song. We'll supplement those with a bit about the Ramones' fabulous B-side "Babysitter," my entry inducting the Ramones into the Power Pop Hall of Fame, an appreciation of Rocket To Russia, and a look back at my first Ramones concert, also starring the Runaways and the Flashcubes.

Still wanna read more about the Ramones? There are additional blog pieces that can be accessed via my Ramones link. Pack a lunch. And I'll have more to say about the Ramones in a forthcoming project I've been teasing for months. In the mean time, we head back to CBGB's via Riverdale. Archie Meets Ramones is the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

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.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.

10 SONGS: 11/3/2020

10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. Given my intention to usually write these on Mondays, the lists are often dominated by songs played on the previous 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 # 1049.

THE ARCHIES: Get On The Line

Incidental music for a Saturday morning TV cartoon series. Beyond the hit singles (which were intended to compete with The Beatles and The 5th Dimension for space on Top 40 radio and for disposable income [or allowances] from young listeners), most of the music released under The Archies' brand name was pure pop, carefully crafted and exquisitely rendered. "Sugar, Sugar" was the biggest hit by far, "Jingle Jangle" my pick for the best (and a serious contender for inclusion in my Greatest Record Ever Made! book), and the four Archies LPs contain a decent selection of lesser-known but worthy numbers.

From The Archies' third (and best) album Jingle Jangle, 1969's "Get On The Line" is my top pick among The Archies' album tracks, and it's second only to "Jingle Jangle" in my overall estimation of the output of Riverdale's Finest. It's infectious, and it implies a sense of greater purpose. It bears a superficial resemblance to Neil Diamond's "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show" (also from '69), just in terms of a shared vibe and a shared call to faith in something larger and better.

We started something

Gonna get it together

Every man and woman, boy and girl

Lovin' one another

All the sisters and the brothers

Lovin' one another 'round the world

Get on the line!

Get on the line for love, hey!

Get on the line!

Get on the line for love, hey!

The sun is rising

On a brand new morning

Got to tell the people everywhere

Got to pass it on

Before all hope is gone

Let the light go by you if you dare

Get on the line...!

"Get on the line for love." Words to live by. Especially right now.

CHUCK BERRY: Back In The USA

Vote.

THE CHI-LITES: (For God's Sake) Give More Power To The People

Though best-known for '70s soul classics "Oh Girl" and "Have You Seen Her," The Chi-Lites also pleaded eloquently on behalf of giving more power to the people. And there remains a simple and effective means to achieve that goal: 

Vote.

THE CLASH: Clampdown

Let fury have the hour/Anger can be power/How can you refuse it?

See, The Clash knew what they were talking about.

THE MC5: Kick Out The Jams

Of course, back when the future members of The Clash were still just kids playing and laughing and dreaming idly of maybe someday rocking the casbah, the guys in The MC5 were already angry and loud, the rockin' and rollin' embodiment of PISSED OFF!!! in the '60s. As the world seemed set to burn, The MC5 were a testimonial, heralded by the fiery threat of revolution and an incendiary battle cry of Kick out the jams, motherfuckers! Cathartic anger. Irresistible anger. Anger without end, Amen.

PACIFIC SOUL LTD.: We Go High

While anger can inspire positive action, anger can't be what defines us. We can be better. Our friends on the right can do the same. I often fall short of the ideal. Recently, the odious sight and sound of a small horn-honkin' caravan of Red Hats prompted me to respond with my version of an emphatic thumbs-up, except I chose to use a different finger.

Childish? You betcha. 

But it felt right in the moment. It felt necessary in the moment. Sometimes a situation requires anger. This year, I didn't just vote; I voted angry. Like, seething angry, vote-that-fucker-out angry. 

Anger should fade over time. If the good guys can prevail over our horrid Buffoon-In-Chief and his craven enablers, the good guys aren't going to govern angry. They're going to build. They're going to include. They're going to redeem. This land is our land. The high road beckons us. Pacific Soul Ltd. has the precise song we need as we seek to make America good again. 

To make America America again.

IRENE PEÑA: I Won't Back Down

Earlier this year, America's Sweetheart Irene Peña recorded this delightful cover of Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down," and released it as a digital single on behalf of Rock The Vote. And we don't wanna argue with America's Sweetheart.

THE RAMONES: I Believe In Miracles

Johnny Ramone was a hard-right Republican. Joey Ramone was a liberal Democrat. It's probably pretty clear who each would back if either Ramone were still with us for Election 2020. But I wonder....

When I interviewed The Ramones for Goldmine in 1994, Johnny told me about the ordeal of working with legendary asshole producer Phil Spector. And something Johnny said about Spector has stayed with me: 

He'd be nice to us, but he'd be so horrible to everyone around. And I don't care if he's being nice to me. I'm sure Joey is gonna feel different, he's like their idol, Joey and Marc. But if the person isn't a nice guy, I don't care if I liked his work. It doesn't mean anything. And if he's being nice to me but horrible to everybody else, still he's not a nice guy.

What would Johnny have thought of President Trump? I mean, if ever there was a public figure who plainly is not a nice guy, it's Trump. Trump and Spector seem a lot alike in that respect. Would that have been enough to cause Johnny to question his own Fox News dogma? Even if he couldn't bring himself to support a Democrat, would Johnny have been as disdainful of not-a-nice-guy Donald Trump as he was of not-a-nice-guy Phil Spector?

I fear we know the answer to that. Fox News dogma runs deep. But I wonder. And I believe in miracles.

WAR: Why Can't We Be Friends?

We can be friends. But politics do matter. What happens in politics affects all of us, as we determine the way our society should function on a day-to-day basis. Friends care about what happens to friends, about what happens to friends of friends. Friends don't vote with the specific shallow goal of making liberals cry again. Friends don't delight in the notion of progressive heads going all Scanners if America's Biggest Mistake somehow wins a second term. And friends, on the right or the left, don't gloat when the other side loses. That's crass and insensitive. We go high. That's what friends do. That's what everyone ought to do.

Man, we don't have to agree on everything. We don't even have to agree on all that much. Why can't we be friends? At the end of all of this: why the hell can't we be friends?

THE ZOMBIES: This Will Be Our Year

One hopes. One hopes.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

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.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1)will contain 165 essays about 165 tracks, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).

POP-A-LOOZA: What If THE ARCHIES Had Been A Real-Life Band?

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares a post or two from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archive. The latest shared post is "The Archies: An American Band," my fanciful answer to the question: What if the cartoon bubblegum group The Archies had been a real-life band?



In our sometimes-mundane and sometimes-fascinating reality, a recording entity billed as The Archies made actual records, including the # 1 hit "Sugar Sugar." Rather than the fictional combo of Archie, Betty, Veronica, Reggie, and Jughead that appear in comics, on TV, and in my make-believe history of the group, the flesh-and-blood purveyors of that Riverdale sound were assembled by Don Kirshner and fronted by lead singer Ron Dante. I interviewed Dante in 1997 as part of my extended history of bubblegum music, and lemme tell ya, Ron Dante is one of the nicest, most gracious performers that it's ever been my pleasure to interrogate. I never spoke with the late Don Kirshner; some would say he was also a nice guy, and some would say he was not. The truth's likely in the middle. I wrote about Kirshner's clash with The Monkees here.




Other than the make-believe back story I concocted for Riverdale's finest, I haven't written much about the original Archies characters. One thing I did write was an appreciation of Archie Meets Ramones, a superb 2016 one-shot comic book that merged the worlds of Arch and his gang and Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, and Tommy with magnificent results. I also wrote about Riverdale, The CW's stab at making the familiar characters edgier 'n' stuff for a jaded modern audience. Pfui. But I was initially intrigued by the concept, and I wrote two pieces about the series around the time of its 2017 debut. I'm no longer interested in the show, but those two pieces remain for posterity: Riverdale and Riverdale, And Graded Expectations. Bang-Shang-A-Lang.



I wrote "The Archies: An American Band" in, I think, the late '90s or thereabouts, and it originally appeared in a fanzine called Angst & Daisies. Other than an awful 1980s humor piece purporting to be a Rolling Stone interview with a debauched and dissipated Archie Andrews (an embarrassingly puerile piece I submitted to National Lampoon, whose editors had the good sense to reject it outright), the Angst & Daisies piece was my first real attempt to fabricate a rock group's history. I returned to that concept with A Brighter Light In My Mind, my extended imagining of a world where my favorite power pop group The Flashcubes received the acclaim and adulation they should have had in the late '70s, and a piece about a make-believe 1976 Beatles reunion concert. Off on a tangent, there's also "Home Of The Hits," my 2019 short story about the record industry. And the hits just keep on coming.





And the hits start with "The Archies: An American Band," the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza. I'm gonna make your life so sweet.


TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

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.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download

Volume 2: CD or download

Volume 3: download

Volume 4: CD or download

Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 155 essays about 155 tracks, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).