10 SONGS: 10/29/2025

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 # 1308

KISS: Talk To Me

Of the four founding members of KISS, late guitarist Ace Frehley would seem the least pop of the bunch. Guitarist Paul Stanley and bassist Gene Simmons were big fans of the Beatles, and also fans of power pop stalwarts the Raspberries, and those interests are evident within the flash and thunder of some of KISS's work. Drummer Peter Criss crooned the hit KISS ballad "Beth" and the Rod Stewart homage "Hard Luck Woman." Ace's style was emphatically that of a Big Rock guitarist, and maybe hooks and 45 rpm aspirations might not be the first things one would look for within the Space Ace's ouvre.

But the pop element is there, at least sometimes, and not just in his pop guitar power embellishing Simmons and Stanley on "Strutter," "Shout It Out Loud," "Rock And Roll All Nite," et al. It's certainly in evidence on the effervescent "Talk To Me," a Frehley-written and Frehley-sung track from KISS's 1980 album Unmasked. 

ACE FREHLEY: Hide Your Heart

When we decided to play several tracks in memory of Ace Frehley, this track from his 1989 album Trouble Walkin' was one of the first possibilities that came to mind. Frehley was looooong outta KISS by '89, but the song was written by his former bandmate Paul Stanley (with Desmond Child and Holly Knight), and the Ace-free KISS included it on their album Hot In The Shade, also in '89. It's said that Stanley and Simmons adamantly did not want Frehley to record and release a competing version of "Hide Your Heart"--hey, dueling KISSes!--and if that's true, Frehley was equally adamant that he was going to do whatever the hell he wanted to do. I like the KISS version just fine, and I saw Gene and Paul perform it in concert (in the Hot In The Shade KISS line-up with drummer Eric Carr and guitarist Bruce Kulick), but I do like Ace's version even more.

KISS: Rock And Roll All Nite [live]

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

BALLZY TOMORROW: Five Personalities

My big project this year was Big Stir Records' various-artists blockbuster Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes. As I began the process of recruiting acts and matching them with appropriate songs written by Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes, I was immediately certain that I wanted rockin' pop wunderkind (und wonderboy) Robbie Rist specifically to sing one of my many favorite 'Cubes songs, "Five Personalities." Under his nom de bop Ballzy Tomorrow, our Robbie rose to that task. The members of the Flashcubes now prefer his version over their own!

Robbie's also a KISS fan, so it was a deliberate choice to include his "Five Personalities" in the same set as our Greatest Record Ever Made! spin of the live "Rock And Roll All Nite." You wanted the best. You GOT the best! And as Robbie's podcast The Spoon approaches its 600th episode, the GREM! spot in our next show will be a li'l something by another '70s rock act Robbie's mentioned on The Spoon a time or several. All right, all right, all right, all right....

KEN SHARP: Rock Show

Our long-time pal Ken Sharp is a writer and musician, the driving force behind Think Like A Key Music's superb new compilation Play On: A Raspberries Tribute, and quite possibly the biggest KISS fan I know. For his 2018 album Beauty In The Backseat, Ken enlisted none other than Ace Frehley hisself as guest guitarist on opening track "Rock Show." Impressive! And I tell ya, it was a match made in Cobo Hall. We know some people who know some people, man. Well done, Ken!

ACE FREHLEY: New York Groove

In 1978, the business of KISS was sufficiently huge to hatch an audacious plan for a simultaneous release of a quartet of solo albums. It probably wasn't a good idea at all, but it sure seemed impressive, right? I can't remember anything at all about the Peter Criss album (beyond thinking that I would never remember anything about it, and thinking that even when I was listening to it). Paul Stanley included the absolutely dynamic, Raspberries-influenced "Wouldn't You Like To Know Me," and Gene Simmons gave us a simply wonderful gem called "See You Tonite," which would have been worthy of Big Star. Gene also had a minor hit (# 47) with a song called "Radioactive."

But of the four, only Ace Frehley produced a genuine hit single, a cover of the British group Hello's 1975 UK hit "New York Groove." Ace's version said hello to the # 13 spot on Billboard's Hot 100, making it the fifth highest-charting single in the KISS canon (behind "Beth" [# 7], "Forever" [# 8 in 1989], "I Was Made For Loving You" [# 11], and the live "Rock And Roll All Nite" [# 12]). Guess whoever called him "Ace" was onto something.

sparkle*jets u.k.: Eyeball Eater (From Outer Space)

DOLPH CHANEY FEATURING THE SPEED OF SOUND: Zombie Century

We've been serving up tricky treats from Big Stir Records' epic Halloween compilation Chilling, Thrilling Hooks And Haunted Harmonies for as long as Rutles guitarist Stig O'Hara has been dead--for ages, honestly--and there's for damned sure no need to stop as All Hallows Eve approaches. This week's show included two more debut spins from this horrific-in-a-GOOD-way set, with sparkle*jets u.k.'s righteously boppin' novelty tune "Eyeball Eater (From Outer Space)" and Dolph Chaney Featuring The Speed Of Sound's atmospheric "Zombie Century." And even as we chill, thrill, and haunt our way past October 31st, we'll have another track from Chilling, Thrilling Hooks And Haunted Harmonies on our next show.

BARON DAEMON AND THE VAMPIRES: The Transylvania Twist

Syracuse's gift to Halloween, and to all seasons, courtesy of the best vampire ever. And like "Rock And Roll All Nite," it's also The Greatest Record Ever Made! Happy Halloween from This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl.

KISS: Shout It Out Loud [live]

And it wouldn't be Halloween without KISS. Godspeed, Ace

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: 5/17/2025

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 # 1285

JILL SOBULE: Someone's Gonna Break Your Heart

As we mourn the passing of Jill Sobule, the commentary accompanying this week's posted playlist wondered out loud why TIRnRR hasn't played more--a lot more--of Jill Sobule's music over the years. "Someone's Gonna Break Your Heart" is a prime example of the sort of sublime rockin' pop splendor this show favors; I can't offer any excuse for the fact that I've owned the track (from Sobule's 2000 album Pink Pearl) for a quarter of a century, yet we didn't program it until now.

But we're playing it now, and we'll play it again on our next show. No shortage of broken hearts, not then, not now, nor in any direction going forward. Godspeed, Ms. Sobule.

GRAHAM PARKER AND THE GOLDTOPS: Last Stretch Of The Road

I've been digging the music of Graham Parker since I was in high school, when WOUR-FM in Utica, NY started playing "Hotel Chambermaid." That was almost five decades ago, meaning my interest in GP predates my subsequent thralldom to the Rubinoos, the Ramones, and the Flashcubes. 

The esteemed Mr. Parker has a brand-new, as-yet unreleased track we hope to play for you within the next few weeks. I've heard a work-in-progress mix, it's flippin' fantastic, and I can't wait for the moment when you'll be able to hear it. 

Meanwhile, we play "Last Stretch Of The Road," the de facto title track from Graham Parker and the Goldtops' 2023 album Last Chance To Learn The Twist. Last chance? Man, we're just getting started. 

THE BONGOS: In The Congo

Although I can't claim to have been a fan of the Bongos for quite as long as I've been into Graham Parker, it's only about a five-year discrepancy, still totaling nearly 45 years since a couple of tracks on a various-artists live compilation called Start Swimming served as my introduction to the wonderful world of the Bongos.

The Bongos' tracks on Start Swimming were "Telephoto Lens" and "In The Congo," and the studio versions on their first album Drums Along The Hudson remain my top two Bongotunes. Both are represented on the new archival live album The Shroud Of Touring--Live In 1985, due out soon from everyone's friends Jem Records, and we spin that in-your-face in-concert "In The Congo" on this week's show. We'll hear another Shroud Of Touring selection on the radio this coming Sunday night. We are, in fact, gonna glow in the dark that night. Glow with us!

NELSON BRAGG: We're Gonna Laugh About It

A new single from long-time TIRnRR Fave Rave Nelson Bragg? Yeah, we're playing that for sure. Our man Nelson's tenure playing with Brian Wilson serves him well on his luxurious new confection "We're Gonna Laugh About It," and we've now learned that this perfect li'l pet sound will be on a cool new Nelson Bragg anthology called Mèlodie De Nelson: A Pop Anthology. HuzZAH! We're not laughing. We're CHEERING! 

SONNY: Laugh At Me

THE SKELETONS: Trans Am

How to build nonpareil rock 'n' roll radio playlists, Lesson One: Know what works and, y'know, do that. In this example of better radio through better radio, Dana followed my spin of Nelson Bragg's "We're Gonna Laugh About It" with Sonny (of Sonny and Cher) warblin' his amiable 1965 protest single "Laugh At Me." As one does if one is a superior radio programmer like Dana.

I love that track, but I don't recall hearing Sonny's original until many years after the fact. In place of Mr. Bono, my initial exposure to "Laugh At Me" came from witnessing America's Coolest Band the Skeletons cover it in their live sets in the early '90s. In programming this week's show, that specific Sonny-to-Skeletons connection compelled me to respond to Dana's pick with the Skeletons' own original 1980 protest single "Trans Am." That, in turn, prompted Dana to say that he'd almost played the Skeletons' studio cover of "Laugh At Me" instead of Sonny's. Serendipity at work, my friends. Superior playlist achieved. Plenty of laughter in that ol' Trans Am.

THE RAMONES: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

From the previous piece "Chewin' Out A Rhythm On My Bubblegum: My 25 Favorite Ramones Tracks:"

We don't generally think of the Ramones as balladeers. But the Ramones were raised on AM Top 40 radio when AM Top 40 was fantastic, bred by the sounds of girl groups, British Invasion, Motown, garage, bubblegum, rock, and pop. Ballads were part of that environment.

And the Ramones were--perhaps incongruously--great at ballads. That should not be true...but it is. I'm not much for power ballads myself. But Ramones power ballads? The Ramones made power ballads cool.

We got a new album out. It's called Rocket To Russia. This one's called "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow."

With Dee Dee's count-in following Joey's introduction, the first time I heard "Here Today. Gone Tomorrow" was when the Ramones played it at my first Ramones live show. Stunning, and a remarkably effective slow burn amidst the fast-loud-rules of the Blitzkrieg Boppin' and Cretin Hoppin' that surrounded it in concert. 

By then, I think I'd already read Greg Shaw's rave about the song in the pages of Bomp! magazine. Hearing it live delivered on Shaw's promise, and the studio track lived up to it. The Ramones as balladeers. Someone had to pay the price.

It was worth it.

THE FIVE STAIRSTEPS: O-o-h Child

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE FLASHCUBES: If These Hands

As we settle everything into its perfect Cubic place for Big Stir Records' forthcoming various-artists set Make Something Happen! A Tribute To A DIY Power Pop Band Called THE FLASHCUBES, we've been treating our lucky listeners to serial advance immersions in itty-bitty teases of this fabulous record's bounty. This week's show includes spins of Make Something Happen! tracks by Librarians With Hickeys and Chris von Sneidern, our next show will debut new Flashcubes covers by the Mayflowers and the Peppermint Kicks, and there's way more bright-lights brilliance to come. I may have suggested a Rumour of one as-yet-unrevealed Make Something Happen! participant earlier in today's post. 

At our beggin...er, our request, the Flashcubes have contributed three newly-recorded tracks to Make Something Happen! Each of those fresh gems--Paul Armstrong's "Reminisce," Gary Frenay's "The Sweet Spot," and Arty Lenin's "If These Hands"--will also be issued as digital singles, prepping an eager power pop world for the album's September release. It's all happening!

BARON DAEMON AND THE VAMPIRES: The Transylvania Twist

I've spoken elsewhere of the importance of Syracuse television personality Mike Price, particularly in his role as our beloved 1960s local TV vampire Baron Daemon. His single "The Transylvania Twist" (credited to Baron Daemon and the Vampires) earned a chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), I did a video about it, and Price's death last week marks the loss of yet another cherished part of my childhood. I wrote about that here. And it's worth repeating this portion from the introduction of my GREM! book's chapter about "The Transylvania Twist:"

"My home town of Syracuse, NY is best known for its snowfall, its college basketball, and its foolproof plan to turn the area into a tourist Mecca by building a really big shopping mall where a bunch of oil tanks used to squat. What could possibly go wrong?

"But in the early 1960s, Syracuse gave the world Baron Daemon, the willfully goofy TV vampire host of Baron Daemon's Buddies on Channel 9. Believe me, if you were a kid around here at that time, Baron Daemon was as big as the Beatles to you.

"In the fifties and sixties, many local markets had their own flamboyant vampire kiddie TV host. Only Syracuse had Baron Daemon. From 1962 to 1967, the Baron and his cohorts cavorted in televised escapades and performed schtick between cartoons and Flash Gordon serial adventures, live (or undead) from the Channel 9 studio in the basement of the Shoppingtown shopping center. Every kid in Syracuse was a fan of Baron Daemon...."

And as I added last week:

"Today, Syracuse mourns its favorite vampire. Mike Price had a long and successful career with Channel 9, racking up a résumé that went far beyond just the bloody Baron. But the Baron could never be just a footnote. The Baron was too big for that.

"Our area has produced its share of stars, from Richard Gere to Tom Kenny, David Muir, and so many more. They're all great, and we're proud they came from the 315. But Syracuse has never produced a bigger star than Baron Daemon...

"...This bloody buddy will never forget 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.

MIKE PRICE: Syracuse mourns the best vampire ever

I met Syracuse's beloved TV personality Mike Price only once. I think it was some time in the early '90s. Price was looking for help with a universal remote control, and his search brought him to the retail outlet where I work. While I was speaking with Mike, my co-worker David Murray said to him, "Hey, Mike!" As Mike looked up in response, Dave pointed to me and said, "He's a big fan, Mike. Do the Baron for him."

The Baron. If you grew up in Syracuse in the 1960s, you damned well knew Baron Daemon, the kitschy, campy TV vampire created and played by Mike Price. As I wrote in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

"My home town of Syracuse, NY is best known for its snowfall, its college basketball, and its foolproof plan to turn the area into a tourist Mecca by building a really big shopping mall where a bunch of oil tanks used to squat. What could possibly go wrong?

"But in the early 1960s, Syracuse gave the world Baron Daemon, the willfully goofy TV vampire host of Baron Daemon's Buddies on Channel 9. Believe me, if you were a kid around here at that time, Baron Daemon was as big as the Beatles to you.

"In the fifties and sixties, many local markets had their own flamboyant vampire kiddie TV host. Only Syracuse had Baron Daemon. From 1962 to 1967, the Baron and his cohorts cavorted in televised escapades and performed schtick between cartoons and Flash Gordon serial adventures, live (or undead) from the Channel 9 studio in the basement of the Shoppingtown shopping center. Every kid in Syracuse was a fan of Baron Daemon."

And standing in my store in the '90s, decades removed from televised black-and-white dealings with cool ghouls and bloody buddies, the great Mike Price responded to Dave's request and said to me in the Baron's unforgettable mock-Transylvanian accent, "Oh, but that vas so long ago...!"

Today, Syracuse mourns its favorite vampire. Mike Price had a long and successful career with Channel 9, racking up a résumé that went far beyond just the bloody Baron. But the Baron could never be just a footnote. The Baron was too big for that.

Our area has produced its share of stars, from Richard Gere to Tom Kenny, David Muir, and so many more. They're all great, and we're proud they came from the 315. But Syracuse has never produced a bigger star than Baron Daemon.

I can't add much more beyond what I wrote here about "The Transylvania Twist," the fantastic rock 'n' roll novelty 45 credited to Baron Daemon and the Vampires. Godspeed, Mike Price. This bloody buddy will never forget you.

HALLOWEEN with BARON DAEMON and "THE TRANSYLVANIA TWIST"

For Halloween, I'm directing today's fresh Boppin' traffic to my Greatest Record Ever Made! celebration of "The Transylvania Twist" by Baron Daemon and the Vampires:

The Greatest Record Ever Made! "The Transylvania Twist" by Baron Daemon and the Vampires

We also have My YouTube video version of the Baron Daemon chapter

And for trickin' and treatin' bonuses, here's one other Halloween-related post from 2019:

This Mask, This Candy Bar

Finally, a collection of information about (and links to BUY!) the book that contains the final edit of the Baron Daemon piece: The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

Hug a vampire today!

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.

BOPPIN' PLAYS THE HITS! My 25 All-Time Most-Viewed Posts

Above image by Tyrone Biljan, courtesy of 13thdimension.com

My clinically stupid commitment to keep a daily blog commenced on January 18, 2016. I haven't missed a day yet. 

Along the way, a few of my posts have found an audience. Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) passed the one million clicks mark in January, and continues to amass views on its own modest scale. Sure, some posts draw the cyber equivalent of bupkis. Some draw thousands.

These are the twenty-five Boppin' posts that have drawn the most traffic. The list is based on what Blogger's logistics tell me, and comparing viewer stats for each individual post. The result does not match what Blogger lists publicly in the Popular Posts columns on the blog page itself. 

Stupid algorithms. 

I don't know which list is more accurate, but the list I've compiled below is based on what analytics claim as accumulated clicks for each post. Right or wrong: Let's BOP!

HONORABLE MENTION: THE KINKS and QUICK TAKES FOR K

Two posts in my series The Everlasting First fell short of making our countdown, but there's an asterisk that would have placed them. Both The Everlasting First: Quick Takes For K [music edition] (March 3, 2017) and The Everlasting First: The Kinks (March 6, 2018) would have been Top 40 posts on their own. But they were originally a single post, with the Kinks bit the featured part. I revamped the format for The Everlasting First in 2018, retroactively separating main features from Quick Takes. If I hadn't done that, the combined stats would have lifted the original Kinks plus Quick Takes post to # 8 overall.

25. VIRTUAL TICKET STUB GALLERY: THE RAMONES, THE RUNAWAYS, and THE FLASHCUBES (1/25/2017)

24. THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! The Dave Clark Five, "Any Way You Want It" [1/10/17]

23. THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT! THE HISTORY OF POWER POP [2/25/2016]

22. SINGERS, SUPERHEROES, AND SONGS ON THE RADIO: My Life In Pop Culture, The 1960s [4/2/2016]

21. ONCE UPON A ONCE-IN-A-WHILE: My 25 Favorite Monkees Tracks [9/13/2017]

20. ON BROADWAY [6/17/2016]

19. HE BUYS EVERY ROCK 'N' ROLL BOOK ON THE MAGAZINE STANDS, PART 3: Power Pop Means Pop With POWER! (Not Some Whimpering Simp In A Beatles Haircut) [3/9/2018]

18. GAME SHOWS, PART TWO: MTV'S REMOTE CONTROL [3/8/2018]

17. MAIN STREET RECORDS, BROCKPORT, NY [1/26/2016]

16. THE MONKEES BRING THE SUMMER: A GIRL I KNEW SOMEWHERE [5/4/2016]

15. AMAZING HEROES: Who's...WHO?! Lesser-Known Characters In The DC Comics Universe [6/3/2016]

14. PAT DiNIZIO [a guest tribute by RICH FIRESTONE] [12/14/2017]

Pat DiNizio, State Theater, Falls Church, VA. January, 2012. Photo courtesy Laura Lynn Music Photography

13. THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! The Searchers, "Hearts In Her Eyes" [3/14/2018]

12. MY ALL-TIME HOT 100 [With An Asterisk] [9/11/2018]

11. MOVIES IN MY MIND [BEHIND THE SCENES]: The Fictional Players In JUKEBOX EXPRESS [2/15/2018]

(NOTE: This was an annotation for a previous flight of fancy called Jukebox Express; the annotation drew considerably more clicks than its source material did.)

10. THE MONKEES: Me And Magdalena [5/20/2016]

9. THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! Badfinger, "Baby Blue" [10/27/2016]

(NOTE: This was the very first entry in my long-running Greatest Record Ever Made! series, dedicated to the notion that an infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. And they've GOTTA take turns! They're records! That's what records do!

You see a few other GREM entries sprinkled within this Top 25, and there have been dozens of others that have appeared on this blog, and still a bunch more that have not. I have written a book called The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1); that book is in the hands of a potential publisher. As always: Here's hopin'. And I guess that's all I have to say.)

8. THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! Baron Daemon and the Vampires, "The Transylvania Twist" [10/31/2017]

7. THE MONKEES: GOOD TIMES! review [5/26/2016]

6. THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! The First Class, "Beach Baby" [2/24/2017]

5. THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! The Smithereens, "Behind The Wall Of Sleep" [7/10/2019]

4. THE FLAMIN' GROOVIES, PART 1: Red-Hot & Groovy [5/26/2018]

(NOTE: I've always thought it weird that this introductory piece got so much more traction than PART 2, which was my 1993 interview with the Groovies' Cyril Jordan.)

3. THE MONKEES: Welcome To The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame [9/10/2016]

2. BATMAN MEETS THE MONKEES [4/14/2017]

1. AN INFORMAL HISTORY OF BUBBLEGUM MUSIC [7/30/2016]

And let me tell ya: This wasn't even close, and it doesn't even account for additional clicks from when I presented the piece in serialized form. This bubblegum history, which I originally wrote for Goldmine magazine in 1997, is certifiably my greatest hit. An edited version also appeared in the 2001 book Bubblegum Music Is The Naked Truth.

BONUS TRACKS!!

A good retrospective plays the hits. A great retrospective adds deeper cuts. These are a few of my favorite Boppin' posts that bubbled under--in some case WAY under--our Top 25:

THE FLASHCUBES: A Brighter Light In My Mind [11/23/2016]

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! Material Issue, "Kim The Waitress" [8/1//2018]

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! Eytan Mirsky, "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" [1/17/2019]

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! Stevie Wonder, "I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever" [7/21/2020]

I've Got The Music In Me (And That's Where It's Gonna Stay) [1/21/2017]

And what may be my # 1 favorite:

The Road To GOLDMINE [12/20/2016]

Your Boppin' may vary. But there's always tomorrow. And the next day. And the next....

My first book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones was published in 2023. I don't think it would have happened if not for this blog. Will The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) be next? Stay tuned....

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

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, 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.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl