10 SONGS: 9/16/2023

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 # 1198. This show is available as a podcast.

THE CATHOLIC GIRLS: Hear My Prayer

New work from the Catholic Girls is pretty much guaranteed a spin on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, and their new single "Hear My Prayer" provides further evidence of why we love the group. This is pop music that mourns its sadness but stands tall in its defiance, its insistence that there will be at least one more day. The single spins again on our next show.

THE MONKEES: The Door Into Summer

Always one of my very favorite Monkees tracks. It's from my favorite Monkees album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd., and its familiar sting of if-only regret suited my own tinges of melancholy as Dana and I were programming this week's show. Sometimes the laughter from that caravan feels ever more distant. Fool's gold stacked up all around us.

But we're okay, right? We acknowledge and move on, at least to the best of our capability. The music of the Monkees has always been a source of comfort, a source of satisfaction. Even their saddest songs can make me happy.

Happy is good. We can use more happy.

AMY RIGBY: Baby Doll

We've been giving a lot of air time this year to tracks from Juniper's recent covers album She Steals Candy, especially to Juniper's cover of Amy Rigby's "Baby Doll." Such a great song, and I don't think we've ever played Rigby's wonderful original. Dana rectified that oversight this week. Good on ya, Mr. Bonn.

Coincidentally, Amy herself posted the above picture to my Facebook page last week. Listen, I'm still pinching myself when artists of Amy Rigby's stature even give me the friggin' time of day, let alone post pictures of my Ramones book sighted in the wild. Amy captioned the pic, From the original Rough Trade in West London!, and I was immediately giddy to the nth degree. Thank you SO much, Amy!

Juniper's "Baby Doll" returns to TIRnRR this Sunday. Amy Rigby returns the following Sunday. We wouldn't dream of doing *ahem* THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO # 1200 without some Amy Rigby. Giddy is as giddy does.

CYNDI LAUPER: I Drove All Night

Is 1989's "I Drove All Night" my favorite Cyndi Lauper track? Yeah, I believe it is. And that's not faint praise; I think Cyndi's great, and I love her big smash hit records, including "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," and especially "Time After Time." I think the first time I heard the latter was when she appeared on The Tonight Show in 1984, delivering an electrifying performance of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and then topping it with a dramatic rendition of "Time After Time." Watching it on my little black and white TV, my jaw dropped. I was impressed, and I believe Johnny Carson also approved. Smart guy, that Carson. Robert Klein seemed to agree, too. Another smart guy!

Memory suggests The Tonight Show also introduced me to "I Drove All Night" a few years later. Hey, who needs radio when ya got Johnny Carson? Whether my first exposure or a reinforcement of established bias, Lauper's "I Drove All Night" knocked me out. Songwriters Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly originally crafted the song for Roy Orbison, and that intent is evident in the song's only-the-lonely DNA even if you've never heard Orbison's own splendid, posthumously-released version. Lauper owns it anyway; can't say that about many Orbison numbers performed by artists who weren't Roy razzafrazzin' Orbison.

In both the Lauper and Orbison performances, "I Drove All Night" just simmers with controlled desire, an earthly passion--burning up inside--accompanying a pristine love, impossible to resist, even if one were foolish enough to want to resist in the first place. Its consummation is sweet and well-earned.

Lauper's best track? Yes. Don't argue with the driver.

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: I Can't Wait 'Till Summer

Librarians With Hickeys' 2022 album Handclaps & Tambourines supplied this little mutant radio program with two perennial go-tos: "I Better Get Home" (TIRnRR's # 25 most-played track last year) and "Can't Wait 'Till Summer," which is guaranteed a berth on our year-end countdown for 2023. We play the hits. I love this gig. And in my mind, I imagine Lauper's "I Drove All Night" as an answer song to "Can't Wait 'Till Summer," the chronology of the two songs notwithstanding. In the Librarians With Hickeys track, love is unrequited, deferred at best, and just as likely to be taken off life support before there's even a hint of the summer sun. In "I Drove All Night," love wins. 

I approve of that message. And it is worth waiting for.

STEVENSON AND COMPANY: Insane

Loyal TIRnRR listeners know Stevenson and Company from their magnificent little ditty "Talking Down To Me," which appeared on our most recent compilation album This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5. A previous 10 Songs revealed that "Talking Down To Me" was "originally brought to our attention by every pop fan's best bud Steve Stoeckel. Steve's best known for his work as a member of the Spongetones and Pop Co-Op (the latter of whom are also represented on TIRnRR # 5), and 'Talking Down To Me' is a li'l gem originally written by Steve's friend Danny Stevenson. Steve subsequently earned a co-write on the song, and added bass and vocals to what Danny and his drummin' brother Bruce Stevenson had already done. We loved it! And we played it on the radio, crediting it to the nom de bop King Mixer. 

"When it came time to address the idea of slapping together a fifth TIRnRR compilation, 'Talking Down To Me' was an automatic choice. At the artists' request, the billing has been changed to Stevenson and Company. Which is just as well; a King Mixer could have cost us a fortune in breach-of-promise cases...." 

There's your preamble, and we're thrilled that Stevenson and Company have just released their debut album Out Of Time, and it most assuredly swoops 'n' sways the way a rockin' pop record oughta. Let me say here what my overlords won't allow me to say on the air: BUY IT!!! We played one of its many fine tracks on this week's show, and promised more in the weeks ahead.

So yeah: we'll hear another one this Sunday night. We would not be able to afford a breach of promise suit, believe you me. That would be insane.

DOLPH CHANEY: Ice Cream Embers

What does Dolph Chaney have in common with the Catholic Girls? Rhetorical question! New music from Dolph Chaney is also pretty much guaranteed a spin on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. Catholic Girls? Meet Dolph. Dolph, the Catholic Girls. I'll get us some beverages.

Ah. Dolph brought his own refreshment. 

Our lad Dolph has been a Fave Rave here, most especially for his all-time TIRnRR Pick T' Click "My Good Twin." Now, Dolph's back with his brand-new album Mug, courtesy of the benevolent visionaries at Big Stir Records. So this week: Catholic Girls and Dolph Chaney. Two great treats that treat great together. Or something like that.

And ya wanna know what else the Catholic Girls' "Hear My Prayer" and Dolph Chaney's "Ice Cream Embers" have in common? We'll hear 'em both again next week! 

I pray there'll be ice cream.

THE JAM: That's Entertainment

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE RAMONES: Oh Oh I Love Her So

We've established that the Monkees make me happy. Same goes for the Ramones. My motto remains that a day without the Ramones would be like...I don't have any idea what a day without the Ramones would be like. Nor do I ever intend to find out.

"Oh Oh I Love Her So" is an explosion of adrenaline-charged joy, one of my favorite Ramones tracks. Like most of the Ramones' best works, it is pure in a way that may seem unexpected by heathens who don't worship at the Church of Ramones.

But it is pure. It is exciting and life-affirming and vividly real, even at its most cartoonish, even in the midst of its Bowery-bred seediness, the danger of its genesis redeemed by the exuberance of its pop. Fast. Loud. Pure. Oh oh, I love it so.

JACK "PENETRATOR" LIPTON: It's My Life

During Labor Day weekend, we learned that Jack "Penetrator" Lipton, a fixture of the Syracuse rock 'n' roll scene and a long-time friend of this show, had taken his own life. We were not yet at liberty to share this news publicly, and I wouldn't have had the will to do so anyway. That Sunday night, as I listened to this year's edition of Dana's Funky Soul Pit on TIRnRR, my mind wandered, and its meandering path kept strolling to Jack Lipton, and to Jack's decision to exit this mortal world.

Jack and I weren't especially close. I don't want to compare my sense of loss to the aches felt by his tightest friends and family. But I would say we were on good terms, and Jack's enthusiasm and boundless good will always made him seem like a pal. Maybe those who knew Robin Williams recognize that sense of seeming delight and humor, an illusion of cheer that hides whatever troubles may brew beneath. Where there tell-tale signs? I don't know. Probably not, not really...but I don't know. Neither do you.

I've written before of how suicide affects the survivors, or at least how it affected me when one of my best friends killed himself in 1979. No one can save us. But there are potential paths to facilitate our rescue: the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is within reach via a phone call to 988, and often our loved ones will be willing, eager, to help in any way they can. It may feel like no one will listen, that no one will understand. But someone, somewhere will listen, and they'll try to understand. Repeating what I said earlier this week: your life is worth saving. Our lives are worth saving.

Jack always wanted us to play his cover of the Animals' "It's My Life" on the show. We never did, not during his lifetime. It was too long for our chosen format, so we played some of Jack's other work instead, both solo and with the Penetrators and Mark Doyle and the Maniacs. 

We played Jack's "It's My Life" this week. It's a good cover of one of my very favorite songs. It hurts to play it now. 

But it was high time we did.

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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, streaming at SPARK stream, archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 SONGS: 10/28/2021

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 is the second of two editions of 10 Songs this week. Its predecessor drew exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1100. This one does not. Instead, each of these ten songs was almost included in our 1100th show, and each was in the playlist at some point as Dana and I compiled it.

THE CATHOLIC GIRLS: Someone New

"Boys Don't Cry" was the first Catholic Girls track I ever heard, courtesy of dat ole debbil MTV. The group's video for "Boys Can Cry" may have been my sole communion with the Catholic Girls' music in the early '80s, though I eventually scarfed up a copy of their eponymous 1982 LP. "Someone New" off that album was definitely my favorite, and it later became the first Catholic Girls track ever played on TIRnRR. (I suspect we may have played the Catholic Girls on our pre-TIRnRR series We're Your Friends For Now in '92, but we have no written records of the playlists for those shows.)

We began corresponding with the Catholic Girls' Gail Peterson in 1992, our first full year on the air and also the year that Renaissance Records reissued the above-cited Catholic Girls album on CD. New Catholic Girls music followed, and we were all in. "Niagara Falls." "Make Me Believe." "Somebody In The USA." "Rock'n America." And of course, our latter-day favorite "Should Have Been Mine," from the Catholic Girls' 2005 album Meet The Catholic Girls. We played 'em all, and more.

Our second This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation CD was supposed to include a Catholic Girls track, but a behind-the-scenes issue (beyond our control, and not the Catholic Girls' fault) prevented that from happening. They forgave us, and let us use "Should Have Been Mine" on 2013's This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3, the first compilation over which Dana and I had total control of the content.

For TIRnRR # 1100, we opted to go back to that 1982 debut for another spin of "Someone New," but we weren't able to squeeze it in. Damn these unbreakable laws of time and physics. You'll hear it on TIRnRR # 1101 this coming Sunday night.

DOUG DEREK AND THE HOAX: Bobby's Gotta Get Back To Boston [1981 version]

I determined weeks ago that I wanted to open TIRnRR # 1100 with the Brothers Steve's direct statement of intent "We Got The Hits." The track is on the group's Big Stir Records release # 1, and its use at the top of the show prompted Dana to suggest we devote the first set to a few of the labels that have been so good to us. There were more than a mere six likely labels to honor, but we settled on Big Stir, Red On Red, Rainbow Quartz, Rum Bar, Kool Kat Musik, and Jem. Futureman and JAM Recordings were represented elsewhere on the playlist. I regret we didn't get to SpyderPop and Not Lame (among others), but both labels supplied tracks that will be heard on next week's show (the former in its current partnership with Big Stir).

Kool Kat Musik was also a presence throughout our 1100th show, with tracks from our 2017 collection This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4. But we wanted to play at least one Kool Kat track not directly affiliated with us, and I chose Doug Derek and the Hoax with "Bobby's Gotta Bet Back To Boston [1981 version]," from Kool Kat's Doug Derek retrospective Who The Hell Is Doug Derek? "Bobby's Gotta Get Back To Boston" is a fantastic track, but in recording the show, I felt Bill Berry's "1-800-Colonoscopy" (from Kool Kat's 2020 John Wicks tribute album For The Record) was an imperative. It was our # 2 most-played track last year (surpassed only by the Muffs' "On My Own"), we dubbed it "The Love Theme From 2020," and it needed to be represented on TIRnRR # 1100. Yeah, not the first time a colonoscopy disrupted someone's plans.

THE GRIP WEEDS: Rainbow Quartz

Really wanted to include the Grip Weeds in TIRnRR # 1100. New Jersey's phenomenal pop combo has been among our go-to acts here for decades, and they've appeared on two of our TIRnRR compilations ("Out Of Today" on TIRnRR Vol. 2 and "Strange Bird" on TIRnRR Vol. 4). Grip Weeds drummer and lead singer Kurt Reil does appear on our 1100th show playlist as a member of the BAR (with Danny Adlerman and Jim Babjak), but the group's own song "Rainbow Quartz" almost made it in, too. The Grip Weeds have a new all-covers album, DiG, due imminently from the good folks at Jem Records. We'll hear a song from DiG this Sunday night.

MAD MONSTER PARTY: Can't Stop Loving You

For a little mutant radio show, we've done a fair job of providing public services to the rockin' pop public. One of these services was the first (and still only) CD appearance of music by Mad Monster Party, an absolutely incredible but frustratingly obscure all-female SoCal group from the '80s. Mad Monster Party included the fabulous 'n' foxy Gwynne Kahn, ex of the Pandoras, and their then-unreleased tracks are among THE best stuff recorded by anyone in that decade. There was a digital release of the tracks in 2013 (the same year we used "Can't Stop Loving You" on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3), but I think even the download option may have faded from the marketplace since then. Mad Monster Party's humble li'l catalog is, in '80s speak, totally awesome, and way, way overdue for physical release. NOW, dammit!! Calling Big Stir! We got a job for you!

THE PARTIES: Cryin' Shame

Here's one of two cases where I picked one song to represent an artist on this week's playlist and then changed to a different song by the same artist. I was taken with the Parties' first album Can't Come Down back in 2008, and granted well-deserved airplay to a song called "Damned By The Sunshine." I was well and truly blown away away by the title track of the group's 2009 Cryin' Shame EP, and this week I picked that song to represent the Rainbow Quartz label in our opening set. But as I thought more about it, "Let's Call It Love" (from the Parties' 2010 album Coast Garde, the group's most recent release as far as I know) was the Parties' biggest hit with TIRnRR listeners. Couldn't go wrong with any of those choices.

POP CO-OP: You Don't Love Me Anymore

And here's the other case of me switching a band's designated song after tentatively settling on a different song. The lads in Pop Co-Op--Steve Stoeckel, Bruce Gordon, Joel Tinnel, and Stacy Carson--give partial credit to TIRnRR for their existence, which makes us as proud as any Frankenstein you're ever likely to meet. 2017 gave us Pop Co-Op's debut album Four State Solution, and it also brought us "You Don't Love Me Anymore," which the band let us use for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4. "You Don't Love Me Anymore" reminds me a little bit of both Gerry and the Pacemakers and Chad and Jeremy, but it's accomplished with a trifle more essential oomph than either of those British Invasion stalwarts were generally known to...um, oomphify. Perfect track for TIRnRR # 1100! 

But y'know what? "It Ain't Easy Being A Boy" (from Four State Solution) is also a perfect track for TIRnRR # 1100. So we went that one instead. IT'S ALIVE! POP CO-OP IS ALIVE...!!

THE PRIMITIVES: Crash

Prerecording shows offers the advantage of shuffling choices around to make 'em fit as best they can. Each week, Dana and I set a playlist of seven six-song sets, a final set of eight songs, and another eight bonus tracks that can serve as an add-on eighth set before the final (ninth) set, if there's time. Very often, there isn't time, so the eighth set either shrinks to six songs, or disappears entirely as some of its tracks merge into that final set instead. Show # 1100 didn't have time for the bonus set, so that eighth set of eight songs dropped four songs and folded into what had been the ninth set, creating a set of twelve songs to close the program.

The Primitives' rockin' pop classic "Crash" was one of the casualties. But rest assured: we'll play it again eventually. As we should.

THE SMALL FACES: You Need Loving

"You Need Loving" by the Small Faces was another of the tracks cut in the smooshing together of our two final sets this week. Yeah, this sounds amazingly similar to Led Zeppelin's subsequent monolith "Whole Lotta Love," and both of these tracks sound amazingly similar to Muddy Waters' "You Need Love," which was written by Willie Dixon and well predates your diminutive visages and metallic dirigibles. The Small Faces' track never got much traction, so Willie Dixon knew who was the best target for litigation when he went after Led Zeppelin instead. Gentlemen, start your lawyers!

THE SKELETONS: Trans Am

They were America's coolest band. The Skeletons were something else, especially as a live act, and I regard "Trans Am" as their signature tune. Another one of the four songs cut when the original eighth set combined with the original ninth set. (I don't remember exactly what song was the fourth; I think it was just one of the tracks that got moved around in planning, so either the Catholic Girls or the Grip Weeds).

THE TWEAKERS: Super Secret Mystery Track

In college basketball March Madness parlance, the Tweakers were the last team out. "Super Secret Mystery Track" would have been the final track on this week's playlist, after the farewell and after the Poptarts' "I Won't Let You Let Me Go" (the first track ever played on TIRnRR) and Dana & Carl (with Dave Murray)'s "The Ballad Of Jah Clampett" (from This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 1). We ran outta time. And no, I'm still not gonna tell you anything about the Tweakers. Can't you read? It's a super secret MYSTERY track! Go buy Futureman's digital download of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3 and hear for yourself. And come on back Sunday night for TIRnRR # 1101. Gotta keep buildin' to our next milestone. Tweak. Tweak. Tweak.

Is this man a Tweaker, or is he the host of Radio Deer Camp on SPARK Syracuse? Or is he...BOTH?!

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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
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I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.

10 SONGS: 1/19/2021

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 is drawn exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1060.

THE CATHOLIC GIRLS: Someone New

I saw the video for The Catholic Girls' early '80s single "Boys Can Cry" on MTV, probably just once; I didn't have cable at the time, and just happened to catch it when I was staying at my parents' house for a visit. I liked the song, but it was my only exposure to the group until many years later. 

Some time in (I think) the '90s, I picked up a used copy of Catholic Girls, the LP that gave the world "Boys Can Cry," and discovered that I liked its lead-off track "Someone New" even more than I liked "Boys Can Cry." I don't remember if I got the album in time to play a track on any of the pre-This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio Dana & Carl radio shows 1992-95 or so. But The Catholic Girls certainly became a presence on TIRnRR. I began corresponding with the group's guitarist Gail Petersen around 1999 (when that debut album was reissued on CD), and we ran with it, and with their sublime 21st century recordings, too. They even let us use "Should Have Been Mine" (from their 2005 album Meet The Catholic Girls) on our 2013 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3. Heaven, here we come!

And now, The Catholic Girls have a new two-CD archival set, Rock N' Roll School For Girls, which tethers together one disc of demos and alternate takes with a disc of The Best Of The Catholic Girls. Bless us. We played the demo version of "Someone New" on this week's show.

THE COASTERS: Yakety Yak

Is "Yakety Yak" by The Coasters the single best-ever song about the generation gap? Yes. Unequivocally. You can argue on behalf of The Who's "My Generation," but that track falls short of The Coasters' wiseass pinnacle. Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" is a very close second, but even You can't use the car 'cause you didn't work a lick can't quite match Tell your hoodlum friends outside you ain't got time to take no ride. "Yakety Yak." Don't talk back.

(And, in a minor bit of pop culture serendipity, this week's playlist was settled and the show recorded prior to the Friday premiere of the new Marvel Comics TV show WandaVision on Disney+. The first episode of WandaVision makes specific and effective use of "Yakety Yak," and if we were doing live shows instead of prerecorded remote shows, the song's appearance on WandaVision would have probably influenced me to include it on our show, too. Happy coincidence.)

THE FLASHCUBES: No Promise

In January of 1978--43 years ago this month--The Flashcubes for the first time. Guitarists Paul Armstrong and Arty Lenin, bassist Gary Frenay, and drummer Tommy Allen created a Wall Of Noise that captured my attention at first pummel. They've been one of my all-time favorite groups ever since. My eventual book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) includes a chapter about The Flashcubes' most extraordinary shoulda-been-a-hit gem, "No Promise:"

The Flashcubes. Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse. I saw my first Flashcubes show in January of 1978. That night ranks with seeing The Beatles in A Hard Day's Night at the drive-in in 1964 and the first time I heard The Ramones' "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" in 1977 to form my Holy Trinity of rock 'n' roll epiphanies.

All politics is local. The same could be said of musical combos, the local rock group down the street that's trying hard to learn their song. In the garages, in the clubs, in practice spaces, school dances, rec hall hops, coffeehouses, open fields, and cellars full of noise, plugged in or unplugged, sparks ignite when someone says Let's put on a show! Aping Chuck Berry or Chuck D, Joan Jett or Joni Mitchell, The Rolling Stones or The Banana Splits, mighty things can happen when a musician near you starts to play.

In Zion, Illinois. In Minneapolis. Fort Worth. Nashville. Arlington. Bethesda, Maryland. Springfield, Missouri. Toronto. Liverpool. Osaka. Don't forget the Motor City. The beat goes on, and renews itself everywhere. Sweat and adrenaline, soft drinks or beer, virtue and vice, the love of a sound, an urge to participate. Band, meet audience. Audience, meet the band.

A lot of the great local acts across the decades, across the country, and across the globe should have become household names. Most remained obscure. In the eyes of their fans, though, they were stars. Stars.

Just like The Flashcubes are stars to me...

...The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and The Rolling Stones channeled Chuck Berry to build something new. The Ramones took inspiration from The Beach Boys to make glue-sniffing into potential AM radio fare. Gary Frenay took the inspiration of Raspberries' Best--the horny singles ("Go All The Way," "I Wanna Be With You," "Tonight," and "Ecstasy") written by The Raspberries' Eric Carmen--and wrote "No Promise." 

How do you see me?

Do you trust what you see?

Don't you know it's not easy

Being what I'm trying to be?

Guess I'm just a romantic

I only wanna fall in love

But you do something to me that I never thought I'd feel

And it makes it harder to say

No promise

No guarantee

No promise, baby

You'll never get one from me

Pure pop, earnest in its goals and earthy in its desires, a bruised heart stapled to a torn sleeve. The guitars from Armstrong and Lenin cut, slice, and soar above love and lust, Tommy Allen's propulsive drumming could drive a freakin' rocket to the moon, Frenay's deep bass lines and sweet vocals agree to disagree on their differences, and everyone rocks the house with the seismic authority of the San Andreas Fault. The shimmering, incandescent result embodies the Bomp! magazine power pop ideal: power pop means pop with power, not some whimpering simp in a Beatles haircut...

Yeah. I do like The Flashcubes.

NEIL HEFTI: The Batman Theme

The Batman TV series debuted 55 years ago this month, and six-year-old me had his life changed by that colorful explosion of POP and POW! in short order. Although the CD collection The Music Of DC Comics: Volume 2 credits this version of "The Batman Theme" to the song's author Neil Hefti (who did record it), it is actually the TV version, performed by Nelson Riddle and his orchestra. This is the version I consider definitive, and it's the one discussed in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

I grew up in a time when TV theme songs routinely entered the public consciousness. The catchy ditties that opened shows like Gilligan's Island, F Troop, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Patty Duke Show, and Car 54, Where Are You? weren't hit records in the usual sense, but within our shared pop culture they were nonetheless as big as any 45 spinning on the radio. 

Many theme songs were sufficiently hook-laden to prompt release as a single, sometimes by the original artist and sometimes in cover versions, and sometimes to chart success. The Cowsills' swell cover of "Love American Style" wasn't a hit, but it should have been, and it remains a staple of their live act. The Ventures, Perry Como, Henry Mancini, and Johnny Rivers all made the Top 40 with their respective renditions of themes from Hawaii Five-0, Here Come The Brides, Peter Gunn, and Secret Agent Man. Television tunes continued to maintain a radio presence throughout the '70s and '80s. In June of 1995, The Rembrandts' "I'll Be There For You," the theme from the NBC sitcom Friends, was the # 1 song on radio the week my daughter was born. I thought that was appropriate, and pretty cool.

The campy 1966 Batman TV series had a seismic effect on me when I was six. No other television program could ever equal Batman's lasting impact on impressionable li'l me, creating a life-long interest in comic books and superheroes in general, and in the Caped Crusader specifically. I didn't understand that the show kinda poked fun at the character, because actor Adam West played the title role straight, and to perfection. As West said decades later in a guest appearance on The Big Bang Theory: "I never had to say 'I'M BATMAN!' When I showed up, people knew who the hell I was...."

One evening in 2016, when I was chatting with actor/comic/voice artist/singer/swell person Tom Kenny, he told me about the time he introduced Neil Hefti to the great voice actor Gary Owens, which is a tough story to top in casual conversation. Best I could manage was, "I once got a phone call from Joey Ramone!" It's the only item on my standing-next-to-greatness resumé, so Tom politely let me have the imaginary win. Like I said: swell person.

THE KINKS: All Day And All Of The Night

It's important to note the significance of "All Day And All Of The Night" in the story of how I became a fan of The Kinks. "Lola" was the first Kinks song I ever knew. My sister's copy of The Live Kinks was the first Kinks album I ever saw. But "All Day And All Of The Night" was the first Kinks track I ever owned, contained on the 2-LP compilation History Of British Rock Vol. 2 I received as a Christmas present in 1976, less than a month prior to my 17th birthday. Essential. And loud! The track was also on my first Kinks LP, Kinks-Size, purchased early in '77. I've accumulated a few more Kinks tracks since then.

PAUL McCARTNEY: Another Day

A previous post about my all-time top 25 favorite post-Beatles Paul McCartney songs included "Another Day" in its roll of honor: 

When your first band is the greatest rock 'n' roll group of all time...man, how do you follow that? Paul McCartney was about 28 years old when The Beatles rolled up their Long And Winding Road and filed it away. What now? 28 is an awfully early age to start your twilight years, to just do nothing, no matter how much money you've made. So McCartney re-invented himself. It wasn't a radical re-invention; he was still the Cute One who'd sung "Blackbird" and "Yesterday," the pop balladeer with a wink and a smile. But he was also the keen songwriter who'd chronicled a disintegrating love affair with such devastating precision in "For No One" on Revolver. The 1971 non-LP single "Another Day" is a spiritual descendant of "For No One," similarly telling a sad, so sad story of a lonely life yearning for meaning and connection.

MELANIE AND THE EDWIN HAWKINS SINGERS: Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)

Why am I suddenly obsessed with this song? Part of the answer is its newly-minted availability to me: it was on a CD-R I received in December from Radio Deer Camp host Rich Firestone, and a spin of that rekindled my interest in a song I always loved. It also reminded me that I had a little crush on Melanie when I was a pre-teen, and it immersed me in a belated realization of how friggin' transcendent The Edwin Hawkins Singers are as they back up Ms. Safka on a simply incredible, transcendent recording. There's a great YouTube clip of them performing the song together on a TV show in The Netherlands, I will not deny my obsession, and the track is gonna be in my GREM! book. Lay down already.

POP CO-OP: You Don't Love Me Anymore

We love Pop Co-Op, as evidenced by how much airplay we eagerly gave to their two albums (so far), 2017's Four State Solution and 2020's Factory Settings. I have a lot of Pop Co-Op fave raves, but it occurs to me that "You Don't Love Me Anymore" is my fave among faves. The lads gave us use of the track for 2017's This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4, and there's something about it that resonates. I know I'm generally an uptempo rockin' pop guy, but I'm also a sucker for songs of regret, songs that effectively convey the ache of love slipping away, chances slipping away. The Factory Settings track "Persistence Of Memory" has that ache in spades, and so does "You Don't Love Me Anymore." It's like Chad and Jeremy playing with The Smithereens, and--as another versatile pop group noted elsewhere--you know that can't be bad.

KID GULLIVER: Forget About Him

Wednesday at Noon Eastern. At long last.

STEVIE WONDER: Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours

That's this Wednesday at Noon. Time to make America good again.

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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). My weekly Greatest Record Ever Made! video rants can be seen in my GREM! YouTube playlist. And I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.