10 SONGS: 4/25/2026

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 # 1333

VICKI PETERSON AND JOHN COWSILL: Downtown

We've been way too late in programming music from the fabulous Vicki Peterson and John Cowsill. We've played their respective alma maters the Bangles and the Cowsills a lot, and we've played Vicki Peterson's work with sister-in-law Susan Cowsill in the Continental Drifters, but so far our pal Rich Firestone's sublime SPARK Syracuse show Radio Deer Camp has enjoyed an exclusive right to fill the airwaves with Vicki 'n' John. Now, news that pop music's favorite couple will be visiting Syracuse's Westhill High School for a show on June 4th has us all giddy. We hope Rich doesn't mind us sharing the love for Vicki Peterson and John Cowsill.

The specifics of the duo's 6/4 Syracuse appearance are especially enticing:

"The first ever West Side Rock Show featuring The Westhill Rock Music Program! The show will feature all of the bands in Westhill’s Rock Music Program including the Killer Pancakes, Clockwork, and our faculty band, After School Special. Student performances to be followed by our headliner and special guests, Vicki Peterson and John Cowsill! Vicki was the lead guitarist and founding member of the iconic all female band in the 1980s, the Bangles. Their hits included "Walk Like an Egyptian," "Manic Monday" and "Eternal Flame." John was part of the Cowsills and also toured with the Beach Boys for almost 25 years. Vicki and John are currently touring in support of their brand new album, Long After the Fire. Vicki will even be performing some Bangles hits with the kids in the Rock Music Program! It will be an amazing evening of great music! Doors open at 6:00 PM. Performance begins at 6:45 PM. FREE CONCERT BUT TICKET RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED!"

To paraphrase Lenny Haise, former guitarist for teen sensations the Wonders: I'm going, you're going, we're ALL going.

And starting this week, TIRnRR is playing selections from Vicki and John's album Long After The Fire. "Downtown" joins TIRnRR here, and another track from the album will spin this Sunday night. We're happy to follow Radio Deer Camp's lead. Giddy, I tell ya. Giddy.

GENERATION X: Ready Steady Go

Congratulations to Billy Idol on being named to The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. My interest in the esteemed Mr. Idol goes back to his pre-solo days with the dynamic punk/pop combo Generation X. Man, I loved Generation X, and my favorite among Gen X favorites remains "Ready Steady Go," a willfully and triumphantly over-the-top celebration of watching the Who on UK TV in the '60s. In love with Cathy McGowan? Can't blame you, Billy. Can't blame you.

THE RAMONES: I Don't Want To Grow Up

Preach, brudders. I understand exactly what you mean.

THE ROLLING STONES: Can't You Hear Me Knocking

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

DEAN LANDEW: Summertime Friday Night

No, it's not summertime yet. And this posts on a Saturday, so even our next Friday feels like a Plimsouls-sanctioned million miles away. No matter! And why wait to the last minute anyway? Dean Landew has the song we need now. Winter? Spring? Summer? Fall? It's a year-round feeling, and I say it's Friday night until the Bay City Rollers declare otherwise.

THE GREENBERRY WOODS: Whenever You Want Me Too

It's All Good, Sugar... is a new album from fabled rockin' pop group the Greenberry Woods, and the very fact that there is such a thing as a new album from the Greenberry Woods oughta be cause for joy and merriment across the friggin' globe. The album reached us too late to include in this week's playlist, and our next show's humble salute to the life and legacy of the late Flashcubes/1.4.5. guitarist Paul Armstrong didn't allow us enough room to program any Greenberry Woods. BUT! This week's extravaganza did include an encore spin of the album's fab advance single "Whenever You Want Me Too." From a previous 10 Songs:

"Rapple Dapple! In my liner notes to Rhino's 1997 compilation Poptopia! Power Pop Classics Of The '90s, I wrote:

" 'The unfortunate fate of the Greenberry Woods offers a sobering reminder that even the best pop bands can still be resolutely ignored by the buying public. Maryland's favorite pop sons released two absolutely dreamy albums--1994's Rapple Dapple and 1995's Big Money Item--only to be met with appalling indifference by retail and radio. Following the group's apparent demise, a couple members resurfaced in a new group called Splitsville, and released an interesting, cartoony debut album on Big Deal in '96. But Splitsville ain't a proper substitute for the Greenberry Woods, whose passing we mourn here with a spin of their signature tune "Trampoline," an impossible-to-resist barrage of singalong charm and halcyon AM-pop style. Come back, guys!"

"(Before we go any further, it's important to note that, my '97 self notwithstanding, I soon became a Splitsville fan as well. Pop pundits. We can be a mite slow on the uptake sometimes.)

"And now, the return of '90s pop stars the Greenberry Woods should merit a guaranteed berth on any power pop radio playlist, and their new single 'Whenever You Want Me Too' certainly deserves that instant-add status. Hell, 'Whenever You Want Me Too' woulda fit in on Rapple Dapple, and I further dig its correct titular use of the word 'too' to create an effective pun for would-be lovers everywhere. We want this. We hope you want it too."

COCKEYED GHOST: I Hate Rock 'n' Roll

ARTHUR CONLEY: Sweet Soul Music

"I hate rock 'n' roll." "Do you like good music? That sweet soul music?" Sometimes the segues just write themselves.

THE BEATLES: Taxman

THE MONKEES: The Door Into Summer

Aftermath of Tax Day: With your fools' gold stacked up all around you, declare the pennies on your eyes. Consult your travelogue of maybe-next-year places, and be thankful they don't take it all.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. You can also become a Boppin' booster on my Patreon page.

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.

10 SONGS: 2/15/2025

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 # 1272: THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO celebrates BLACK HISTORY MONTH.

ARTHUR CONLEY: Sweet Soul Music

As a confederacy of dunces seek to disavow the long-held tradition of recognizing February as Black History Month, I hereby declare this and every month from now on will be National Ridicule The Federal Confederacy Of Dunces Month. This will remain in effect until sanity returns and we consign the odious dunces to go bathing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio celebrates Black History Month right here, and for our opening theme we call on the services of Arthur Conley. Do you like good music? You're in the right place.

BIG MAMA THORNTON: Hound Dog

We open the show proper with a long-distance dedication, going out to a not-so-special someone. No names are necessary. Big Mama Thornton knows who you are...and she knows what you are.

DERRICK ANDERSON: Send Me Down A Sign

I think Derrick Anderson is best known as bassist for the Bangles, but he first entered this little mutant radio show's airspace with TIRnRR Fave Raves the Andersons! Yeah, we were playing the Andersons! from the get-go, and that's an absolutely hilarious in-joke. Trust me! It is!

We've also been big fans of Derrick's 2017 solo album A World Of My Own, and its breakout track "When I Was Your Man" accrued significant Dana & Carl spinnage. This week, we figured we'd dig a little deeper into the album for "Send Me Down A Sign," a track I don't think we've ever played previously. I tell ya, this world of Derrick Anderson's own sounds like a mighty fine place to be.

JOAN ARMATRADING: Eating The Bear

From a previous post:

Some days the bear will eat you. Some days you eat the bear. All due respect to the incredible Ms. Joan Armatrading, but there are days when I believe this even-handed ratio to be overly optimistic regarding our collective and individual odds of surviving wholesale consumption by ravenous ursines. I don't think the Ranger's gonna like this, Yogi. 

"Eating The Bear" was (I think) the first Joan Armatrading track I knew, a cut from her 1981 album Walk Under Ladders. It's not the best-known track on that record; both "I'm Lucky" and "When I Get It Right" wound up on her Greatest Hits collection, while "Eating The Bear" remained native to the original album only. I was exposed to all three of those tracks in the same time frame, so I can't say for sure which one I heard first. But, whichever one was first to cross into my sovereign airspace, "Eating The Bear" was the one that had impact. Its impact came via the radio. Of course.

In 1981, I was a recent college graduate (State University College at Brockport Class of 1980), living in an apartment with my girlfriend (who was still completing her undergrad studies at Brockport), working at McDonald's, drinking beer, listening to my music. Brockport is a small village on the Erie Canal. It's located in Western New York, about 19 miles west of Rochester, and the city of Buffalo sprawls another 64 miles or so farther away. We could usually get radio stations from Buffalo and even from Toronto. Buffalo had a generic album-rock station called 97 Rock, a bland AOR outlet that usually wasn't of much interest to me. Sunday nights were the exception. That's when this cookie-cutter rock station transformed itself temporarily into something greater: A weekly showcase called 97 Power Rock.

97 Power Rock claimed a more adventurous format, programming new wave rock and other fare that was presumably edgier than the station's prerequisite diet of Loverboy and Journey. 97 Power Rock played the likes of The Teardrop Explodes, U2, Psychedelic Furs, Viva Beat, Joy Division, Spandau Ballet, the Vibrators, Mission of Burma, old school rock by Andy Fairweather Low, even reggae by Dillinger. It was sufficiently eclectic and vibrant to secure my loyalty.

Joan Armatrading's music was part of that. Walk Under Ladders had a little bit of a post-punk vibe, partially attributable to Steve Lillywhite's production plus Thomas Dolby's synthesizer work on the album. That perceived level of cool opened 97 Power Rock's playlist for entry, and Armatrading's own songs, singing, playing, and pure presence did the rest. Man, this sounded fantastic on the radio. It didn't quite move me to buy the album--I was still a few years away from grasping Armatrading's brilliance--but it got my attention. I heard the songs, and a radio ad for the album, all of which prompted me to scrawl Walk Under Ladders in my spiral notebook, on the long, long list of LPs I wanted to buy once I'd accumulated enough burger-flippin' cash to buy all of the albums I wanted.

"Eating The Bear" was the Armatrading track for me. In 1981, I'd never heard the phrase Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you, so I had no idea whatsoever of the song's subject matter, no proper understanding of its stubborn fatalism, its determined swig from a half-empty glass that we'll refill if we survive, and smash in the face of any critter that says we won't. I just thought it sounded great, and it still sounds great. 

For years, Armatrading's Greatest Hits was her sole representation in my music collection, and "Me Myself I" is discussed in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). "Eating The Bear" subsequently popped into my head again, and I snagged a CD of Walk Under Ladders, a wonderful album that I wish had made the transition from my notebook list to my record shelf forty-odd years ago. 

Better late than never. Sometimes it takes a while, but radio gets the job done eventually. Bear necessities. Mind your manners there, Yogi. I ain't a-gonna be in no pic-a-nic basket. I'll keep you off my menu if you keep me off yours.

THE CHAMBERS BROTHERS: Time Has Come Today

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

RIHANNA: Shut Up And Drive

I remember hearing Rihanna's hit "Umbrella" in 2007, and not being especially taken with it. In 2008, the updated version of her Good Girl Gone Bad (Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded) landed into my consciousness via my then-teen daughter, whose interest in "Take A Bow" and "Disturbia" brought those songs to my attention as well. I was a little surprised to discover I liked them (especially "Disturbia"), but I did indeed like them.

I missed out on the track "Shut Up And Drive." I've heard it, but I never noticed it until a random search for playlist ideas brought me to it earlier this month. It was like a brand new song to me, and I loved it.

(How did I know I loved it? The fact that I played it on obsessive repeat would be a pretty clear clue to that.)

Wikipedia describes "Shut Up And Drive" as a new wave song--no, really!--based on "Blue Monday" by New Order. No offense to the mopey British guys, but I prefer it the way Rihanna did it.

RAY CHARLES: Hit The Road Jack

Yep. I direct this sentiment at the precise dunces to whom you would think I'd direct it.

GRANDMASTER AND MELLE MEL: White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)

From my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

"...New Music Radio [WBNY-FM in Buffalo, a station to which I was religiously devoted in the '80s]  included hip hop. Like Herman's Hermits, rap was part of the atmosphere, part of the flavor of WBNY. WBNY was my introduction to Run DMC (with 'Rockbox'), and it was my introduction to Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. 'The Message.' Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge. Music journalists told us 'The Message' was the first big hip-hop track to ignore party-time bragging to focus instead on social commentary, to chronicle inner-city living in disadvantaged black neighborhoods. It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under. We didn't need to be told how powerful it sounded on the radio.

"The importance and impact of 'The Message' notwithstanding, 'White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)' meant more to me, then and now. It's more pop than 'The Message,' with its seductive rang-dang-diggety-dang-de-dang melody, propulsive bass, and Melle Mel's cry of 'BASS!,' the latter sucker-punching you when you realize it's meant as a deceptive homophone for 'base,' as in freebase cocaine...

"...'White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)' is a Melle Mel record; former cohorts Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel had parted company prior to 'White Lines,' but the record was credited to Grandmaster and Melle Mel in an attempt to capitalize on the familiar name and the previous success of 'The Message.' It is often referred to as a Grandmaster Flash record, and that's what I thought it was when I heard it on WBNY. Whatever and whomever, I couldn't hear it enough...."

CEELO GREEN: Forget You

Maybe not the first specific "F YOU!" that comes to mind in these troubling times. Though, come to think of it, it wasn't the first "F YOU!" that came to CeeLo Green's mind either. One of the marks of how great this is as a pure pop song is that the original "Fuck You" is incidental; it works just as well in FCC-friendly format. "Forget You" is perfectly radio-ready without the potty mouth, and perfectly pissed-off in any incarnation.

JAMES BROWN: Say It Loud--I'm Black And I'm Proud [Pt. 1]

There is much reason for pride. We celebrate it throughout the year. And we circle it on our calendar every February for Black History Month. Say it loud.

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.

10 SONGS: 2/7/2025

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 nine of its selections from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1271, with the tenth song offering a sneak peek at our next show.

THE FLASHCUBES: Reminisce

sparkle*jets u.k.: Make Something Happen

THE SPONGETONES: Nothing Really Matters When You're Young

On this week's show, we finally got around to admitting that the secret project we've been referring to only as [REDACTED] is indeed what a lot of people knew it had to be: A tribute album honoring Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes. Redacted no longer, Make Something Happen! A Tribute To A DIY Power Pop Band Called THE FLASHCUBES is gonna be fantastic, bringing together 21 newly-recorded covers of Flashcubes songs, performed by some of your favorite stars from TIRnRR's little Play-Tone galaxy. As if that weren't enough, we're also going to include three brand-new tracks by the Flashcubes themselves.

This week's radio show opens with one of those new 'Cubes tracks. "Reminisce" was written by Flashcubes guitarist Paul Armstrong, with lyrics that look back in wonder at the heady days of the Flashcubes' brilliance under the bright lights in the late '70s. The music struts and commands like a Flashcubes song oughta, and the chorus is just magnificent, jaw-dropping, a compelling incitement to raise the ol' fist and be there like you wuz there.

Man, I was there. "Reminisce" captures what it was like.

With "Reminisce" setting the stage, we followed with two more irresistible tracks from Make Something Happen!, courtesy of two more of our Fave Raves. sparkle*jets u.k. give us a luxurious, inviting rendition of the album's title track (written by Gary Frenay), and the SpongeTones drop the mic with deliberate intent, flashing one specific finger at teen alienation with a defiantly confident victory lap through Arty Lenin's "Nothing Really Matters When You're Young." Man, if I weren't already such a big fan of the Flashcubes, sparkle*jets u.k., and the SpongeTones, these tracks would spontaneously generate fresh, full-on thralldom on their own merit. 

You'll get your chance to hear the whole thing in all its Cubic splendor this September. when the mighty Big Stir Records releases this tribute to a DIY power pop band called the Flashcubes. You can read a (largely still redacted) early blueprint for the tribute album right here.

THE GRIP WEEDS: Flowers For Cynthia

One of the motivations driving my determination to do a Flashcubes tribute album is that all of the group's new recordings over the last twenty years have been covers. They've been superb covers, and I've been so delighted to have 'em, but they take focus away from the Flashcubes' prowess as songwriters. Last year, when I was discussing this still-secret Flashcubes tribute project with a (very) knowledgeable music biz person, he expressed surprise, saying, "Aren't the Flashcubes a cover band?" I can see how one could reasonably come to that conclusion. That made it all the more imperative to provide evidence of the power of the Flashcubes' original tunes.

Like the Flashcubes, the Grip Weeds' recent representation at retail has been all-covers. That status upgrades now, with the group's way ginchy new three-song digital EP Early Clues. And yeah yeah yeah, Beatle people, it is an early clue to the new direction, as it heralds the release of the all-new Grip Weeds album Soul Bender some time in 2025. From Early Clues, we plucked "Flowers For Cynthia" to add to TIRnRR's bountiful bouquet. More from Early Clues in the weeks ahead, and we can't wait to follow those clues all the way to Soul Bender.

THE HANDCUFFS: I Cry For You

From a previous 10 Songs back in 2022:

I first heard the pulse-poundin' prowess of drummer Brad Elvis when he was in the group Screams in the '70s, and subsequently when he was with the Elvis Brothers in the '80s. Later, I became a big fan of Big Hello, an ace combo that included Brad and his wife, super-powerhouse singer-guitarist Chloe F. Orwell. Brad 'n' Chloe eventually bid farewell to Big Hello to form their current team, the Handcuffs.

On this little mutant radio program, we've played Screams, the Elvis Brothers, Big Hello, the New Monkees covering the Elvis Brothers, Brad's other group the Romantics, and we've played tracks from each 'n' every one of the Handcuffs' previous albums, Model For A Revolution, Electroluv, and Waiting For The Robot, continuing through their most recent effort, Burn The Rails. Let's face it, we have a history with Handcuffs. That...doesn't sound right. But we dig the Handcuffs, and we play the Handcuffs.

2025 addendum: And we still do. The Burn The Rails gem "I Cry For You" has become my Handcuffs go-to. With Brad and Chloe, we have a proud tradition to uphold.

THE BECKIES: Song Called Love

I know of the Beckies, but I don't feel like I really know the Beckies. Famed in pop circles as the short-lived act that included the Left Banke's auteur Michael Brown--y'know, the guy who wrote "Walk Away, Renee"--the Beckies' only released album was their eponymous debut record in 1976. The Beckies is considered a lost classic, and I believe it's one of pop pundit David Bash's all-time tippy toppermost of the poppermost albums. I'm not sure that I've ever heard it. I tell ya, I think I owned a copy of it at some point in my vinyl-hoarding past, but I don't have it now and I don't recall ever listening to it. My loss.

Omnivore Records to the rescue! Not content to preserve my favorite album of the '90s (the Cowsills' Global), Omnivore has performed the additional public service of returning the Beckies to retail. Good To Know: The Beckies Story bolsters its reissue of the entirety of The Beckies with thirteen previously-unreleased demos. Writer and photographer Daniel Coston provides the vision and the liner notes, and I'm grateful for this opportunity to get to know this act that others have known for all these years. 

SORROWS: Never Mind

My gosh, the new Sorrows album Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow is so, so good. Recorded in 1981, unheard until right now, is classic Sorrows, a peer (at the very least) to their superfine 1980 debut Teenage Heartbreak. I mean, the title track from Teenage Heartbreak should be a prerequisite consideration for anyone attempting a credible list of the best power pop of the '70s and '80s, and the material on Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow stands Beatle boot toe to Beatle boot toe with that. The new album's opening track "Never Mind" is my initial pick t'click, but I'll be immersing myself in Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow over the coming weeks. 

(Rumors persist that there will also be at least one new Sorrows track--a cover--appearing later this year. In September, I'd say.)

SLYBOOTS: If We Could Let Go

Another spin of Slyboots' "If We Could Let Go," which was my favorite new track of 2024. Its plea for harmony feels especially urgent now, and I fear the goal is slipping ever more out of our reach. 

But there are things we should hold on to nonetheless. We should hold on to our values, our love, our respect. Our hope. Our music.

And we should hold on to each other, while trying to let go of the things that drive us apart. Here's a song to accompany that effort. Hold on to what we can. 

Let go of what we can't.

(And rumors persist that there there will be at least one new Slyboots track--a cover--appearing later this year. In September, I'd say. Hold on.)

THE HOLLIES: I Can't Let Go

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

ARTHUR CONLEY: Sweet Soul Music

This week's show was already programmed and recorded before official news broke that the Federal government will no longer recognize February as Black History Month. But I'm looking at a calendar right now, and the February page very clearly states "BLACK HISTORY MONTH," so I'm goin' with that. This Sunday, we'll have a special edition of TIRnRR, as This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio celebrates BLACK HISTORY MONTH. Say it loud. Say it proud. Arthur Conley's "Sweet Soul Music" will serve as our theme song. Do you like good music? Well, have we got a show for you.

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.

10 SONGS: 7/3/2024 [THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!, Part 1]

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 will really be 40 Songs, presented in four parts. The selections draw from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1240, presenting a few of the tracks featured in my new book THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (VOLUME 1).

We played 48 tracks on this week's show; for ten of those, I read on-air excerpts from the book's chapter about that track. This four-part collection of 10 Songs columns will offer snippets on behalf of the other 38 tracks, with two bonus tracks at the end.

BADFINGER: Baby Blue

..."Baby Blue" is the embodiment of why I fell in love with the radio in the first place. It’s an enduring testimony to why I still love radio's potential, in spite of all efforts to make me give up on that love. Radio gave me Badfinger. I can never repay that debt....

CHUCK BERRY: Promised Land

...Chuck Berry knew well the travails of the downtrodden. Dark skin, humble origin, and destined to transcend everything to become one of the most significant performers in the history of rock 'n' roll. His mind was quick, his fingers precise, wedding intricate, unforgettable wordplay to a guitar he played like a-ringin' a bell. He struggled. He pushed. He got noticed. He got pushed back. He kept pushing back in turn, smiling and duck-walking, while seething behind his flamboyant mask. A nice man? Possibly not, but beside the point. An important man? If you've ever loved rock 'n' roll, you should be ashamed to even ask that question...

...Into this tinderbox, Chuck Berry brought an electric match: Black music that made white kids dance. He wrote in code—most famously, the irresistibly potent brown-skinned handsome man who became (wink) a brown-eyed handsome man—but he crafted and chronicled the American teen-age dream with greater eloquence than anyone else, black or white....

DUSTY SPRINGFIELD: I Only Want To Be With You

...Writer Greg Shaw noted that Dusty Springfield's "I Only Want to Be With You" explodes with as much pure pop noise as any Dave Clark Five record. The horns propel, the strings soar, the girl-group spirit celebrates, the music leans forward. Miss Dusty Springfield presides over all of it, dancing by herself at the microphone, singing sweetly of her love, her happiness, her contented fulfillment in the arms of her chosen one. Her only wish, only ambition, is to be with the object of her desire. We hope it can really be as simple as that....

ELVIS PRESLEY: Heartbreak Hotel

The entire world was about to change in an instant. No one knew what was about to happen. If they say they did, they're lyin'.

Unless, maybe, "they" happened to be Sam Phillips....

BIG MAMA THORNTON: Hound Dog

...Where and when did rock 'n' roll start? There are a few key artifacts to consider in seeking to ID the first rock 'n' roll record. "Rocket ‘88’" by Jackie Brentson and his Delta Cats (1951, and really Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm) is the closest we have to a consensus choice. Some would point to "The Fat Man" by Fats Domino (1950). I would at least add Amos Milburn's "Down the Road Apiece" (1947) to the discussion, and no less an authority than Lenny and Squiggy (on TV's Laverne and Shirley) spoke on behalf of "Call the Police," a 1941 single Nat King Cole made with the King Cole Trio. There are other progenitors and trailblazers from across the heady mingling of jump blues, R & B, country, and swing that birthed this bastard child we call rock 'n' roll. What was the daddy of them all? Not even a blood test is going to make that determination.

"Hound Dog" is not the first rock 'n' roll record. But its original release does predate the Rock 'n' Roll Era. It was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller specifically for rhythm and blues singer Big Mama Thornton. Thornton's "Hound Dog" single topped the R & B chart in 1953. Fittingly, her performance of the song is as much a growl as it is anything else, a snarling dismissal of a worthless cur who can wag his tail, but she ain't gonna feed him no more...

PATTI SMITH: Gloria

Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine.

That may be the greatest opening line in rock 'n' roll's long and thumping history. It's iconoclastic. It's rebellious. It swaggers, it shrugs, and it seethes with the promise of desire, the pursuit of quick-fix happiness. It's a precise moment of rules breaking beyond meaningful repair. It's a confession. It's a sacrament. It's sacrilege. And it's all in service of a freakin' cover song.

Patti Smith's "Gloria" is a medley, grafting her own rant "In Excelsis Deo" onto Van Morrison's surly juggernaut "Gloria." Morrison's group Them recorded the original “Gloria” as a British B-side (to "Baby, Please Don't Go") in 1964. In the US, radio programmers objected to the lines And she comes to my room/Yeah, she makes me feel all right, deeming the song too salacious for airplay. A 1966 cover by the Shadows of Knight excised the offending line and hit the Top 10. And American youth was safe.

One wonders what 1960s moralists would have said about Patti Smith's "Gloria" if they could have heard it a decade before it even existed.

Probably nothing. Hearing it would have struck them mute....

LITTLE RICHARD: The Girl Can't Help It

Stranded in this conformist world of the 1950s, Little Richard was the Georgia Peach, a wild and effeminate black man, flamboyant, a strange visitor from another planet with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. His performances were electrifying, pounding, an irresistible symphony of WOOOOO! A-wop-bopa-loo-bop-a-lop-bam-boom. In the late fifties, only Jerry Lee Lewis could match the sheer fervor of Little Richard. Little Richard was as bright a star as this dull world had ever seen.

And he was certain that he was going to Hell....

NEIL DIAMOND: Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show

Faith is infectious. Its specifics can vary from believer to believer, even among those who share a covenant. 

Among his vast résumé of well-known pop compositions, Neil Diamond wrote both "I'm A Believer" and "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show." The former is a love song that casually employs elements of the celestial. The latter evokes Gospel without being Gospel, a not-quite-secular/not-quite-sacred first-person report of a man with a Bible in his hand, a sermon in his heart, and a tent full of believers primed for salvation on a hot August night....

THE RAMONES: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

Dangerous. Deplorable. Degenerate. The Ramones were supposed to be dirty, filthy punks, likely to slit your throat for spare change, or just for kicks. They were loud. They were sloppy. They were beneath contempt.

And they were one of the greatest pop bands in the world.

That seeming incongruity has never quite resolved itself. In certain circles, one risks immediate scorn for the sin of considering the Ramones a power pop band. But it was never a sin.

It was a revelation....

ARTHUR CONLEY: Sweet Soul Music

...Do you like good music? You've come to the right place. Oh yeah!

TOMORROW: PART 2!

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My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available for order; you can see details here. My 2023 book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is also still available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. 

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