10 [or maybe 11] SONGS: 12/28/2021; THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO's 10 Most-Played Tracks In 2021

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 collects previously-posted entries about each of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio's 10 most-played tracks in 2021, as revealed on our countdown show 12/26/2021.

1. KELLEY RYAN: The Church Of Laundry

1/26/2021: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio has been happily aboard the Kelley Ryan bandwagon since 2001, when Kelley (then recording under the boppin' dba astroPuppees) placed a track on Shoe Fetish, a fabulous tribute to the pop group Shoes. We began to correspond with Kelley, and astroPuppees' first TIRnRR spin was from Shoe Fetish, a cover of Shoes' "The Tube." Soon thereafter, we started playing a song called "Don't Be" (from astroPuppees' 1996 album You Win The Bride), which I recalled hearing in the 1997 TV movie Friends 'Til The End. Friends 'Til The End was a movie I originally wanted to see because our pals Cockeyed Ghost made a don't-BLINK! cameo appearance. And in the film, actress Shannen Doherty lip-syncs to a made-for-TV cover of astroPuppees' "Don't Be." 

We've gone on to play many, many more astroPuppees and Kelley Ryan tracks many, many times over the course of these last two decades. We're pleased to continue playing Kelley's music, and we're delighted to serve up her new single "The Church Of Laundry" on this week's show. We're friends 'til the end.

2. KID GULLIVER: Forget About Him

11/17/2020: Red On Red Records is a new label operated by the divine Justine Covault, who is already known to the TIRnRR faithful as CRO (Chief Rockin' Officer) of the mighty Justine and the Unclean. And Red On Red fittingly sets our meters into the crimson zone with its first two single releases, "Half Life" by the Neighborhoods and "Forget About Him" by Kid Gulliver. "Half Life" was one of two tracks crowded out of this week's jam-packed show (and we hope the Neighborhoods will take comfort in sharing that distinction with "For Your Love" by the Yardbirds), but "Forget About Him" opened the broadcast with transcendent aplomb. We've already played Kid Gulliver's "I Wanna Be A Pop Star" a couple of times this year, and Kid Gulliver's Simone Berk also sings lead on WhistleStop Rock's TIRnRR Fave Rave "Queen Of The Drive-In." See? Simone Berk's established a proven record of quality tunemakin' for this little mutant radio show!

"Forget About Him" is even better. Justine Covault describes it with authority: Only one of the best power pop songs ever written, about the cad you need to lose. Awright, I'm sold. Here's to Simone. Here's to Justine. Here's to Kid Gulliver, and here's to Red On Red Records.

2/16/2021: We've been playing Kid Gulliver's current single "Beauty School Dropout" these past couple of weeks, but Valentine's Day made us feel like reaching back into Kid Gulliver's treasure trove o' hits. So we played an oldie. Some of you older people might remember it. It's from last year, and it's called "Forget About Him." Like Ian Hunter's "All Of The Good Ones Are Taken," "Forget About Him" is another anti-Valentine, this one told from the perspective of a concerned and compassionate friend and observer. Honey. You can do better than that loser, believe me.

3/23/2021: A spin of Kid Gulliver's fabulous "Forget About Him" on this week's show marks the 19th consecutive TIRnRR to include at least one track with a lead vocal by Simone Berk. It's not a TIRnRR record or anything--one presumes Ray Davies, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Joey Ramone could edge it--but it is evidence of our ongoing Berkmania. Simone made her TIRnRR debut on July 5th of 2020, fronting WhistleStop Rock's "Queen Of The Drive-In." We played that and a bit of Kid Gulliver over the course of subsequent weeks. But it was Kid Gulliver's "Forget About Him" that kicked off this current streak on November 15th, a Berk barrage also maintained by Kid Gulliver's recent single "Beauty School Dropout," WhistleStop Rock, Sugar Snow, and Berek/Lehane. "Forget About Him" is our favorite. Berkmania! Let's make it 20 in a row next week.

Carl's back!

3. DOLPH CHANEY: My Good Twin

2/16/2021: Dolph Chaney's ultraswell new album This Is Dolph Chaney is out this week, courtesy of the good folks at Big Stir Records, and of course you need to own it if you have any hope of ever being one of the cool kids. As an added bonus: you'll like it! The album's first single is "Now I Am A Man," and it's a worthy candidate for saturation airplay. But my favorite is "My Good Twin," so we're gonna carpetbomb the ol' playlist with that one instead. We're all winners in that situation.

3/2/2021: We've discussed this before, but it bears repeating: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl is built upon the stubborn, unshakeable delusion that it's an AM Top 40 radio show. We think we're Casey Kasem, Alan Freed, Cousin Brucie, Murray the K, and Syracuse legends Don Bombard and Dandy Dan Leonard all rolled together into a single three-hour spin-a-rama. The concept is mutated by the fiction conviction that the Ramones were as big as the Beatles, that it's ALL pop music. We play the hits. The real world may not recognize them all as hits. Which just means that the real world is wrong once again. 

"My Good Twin" comes from Dolph Chaney's current album This Is Dolph Chaney. It has not been released as a single off that album, but it is indeed a hit single, in act if not in fact. We play the hits. We play Dolph Chaney. We know a hit when we hear one.

3/16/2021: East Coast kids like your intrepid Dana & Carl did not grow up listening to Rodney Bingenheimer on the radio. Nonetheless, I did know of Rodney via his column in Phonograph Record Magazine, which I absorbed with vigor when I was a 17-year-old high-school senior in 1977. I became aware of the importance of his weekly SoCal broadcast Rodney On The ROQ some time thereafter. To this day, I have never actually heard it; it currently airs on Sirius/XM's Underground Garage channel on Sunday nights, directly opposite This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. I acknowledge the fact that, whatever it is we do on our own little mutant radio show, Rodney was pursuing a similar rockin' pop format before we got around to doing it. TIRnRR predates Underground Garage, and its host Little Steven owes us a beer or two; Rodney On The ROQ predates us all. 

That said, we're kinda jazzed to realize that no less then four recent tracks that debuted on Rodney's show this week are tracks we've already been playing on TIRnRR: the Shang Hi Los' "Sway Little Player," the Gold Needles' "Billy Liar" and their cover of the Hollies' "Have You Ever Loved Somebody," and Dolph Chaney's "My Good Twin." 

We're doing something right! 

Yeah, first time for everything. Alert the media. We may have been the first show to recognize that "My Good Twin" is a natural-born radio hit. We're not the last. And Rodney Bingenheimer likewise knows a hit when he hears one.

4. THE LEGAL MATTERS: Light Up The Sky

2/23/2021: This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio's long 'n' harmonious history with the Legal Matters was detailed here, as part of the expanded supplemental liner notes to our 2017 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4. So! Word of a brand-new Legal Matters album perked up our ears and mandated a playlist spot for its advance single, "Light Up The Sky." The album, Chapter Three, is due from Futureman Records on April 30th, and it is a compulsory purchase for any breathing fan of rockin' pop music. Don't argue. Do what radio tells you to do. 

5. HAYLEY AND THE CRUSHERS: Jacaranda

2/9/2021: Aw man, this pumps! A couple of weeks ago, I don't think I'd even heard of Hayley and the Crushers, a California trio that describes itself as "poolside glittertrash," "one part punk-pop, one part sunny surf," and "a tsunami of bold, bad girl fun." See, I love it when the hype looks like something I would have written. Now, I wanna start a lucrative new religion based on their peppy single "Jacaranda." It also makes me want a rum and Coke, but really, what doesn't? "Jacaranda" comes from Haley and the Crushers' forthcoming Rum Bar Records release Fun Sized, and I'm eagerly awaiting the sacrament of MORE! 

8/10/2021: Another one of 2021's best tracks. You know how some great songs invade your consciousness at random moments?  Hayley and the Crushers' "Jacaranda" (from their current release Fun Sized on Rum Bar Records) doesn't need to invade my consciousness; it's already there! Always! The jacarandas are blooming! Fantastic, fantastic track, conjuring both the allure of ditching small-town doldrums for merrymakin' fun in the tropical sun and the dull frustration of being stuck firmly in place, with not a jacaranda in sight. Screw the small town.

8/17/2021: An ongoing illustration of TIRnRR's symbiotic benevolence is that sometimes either Dana or I will obsess with playing a specific song, and then the other one of us starts playing it, too. It's happened many, many times over the course of--gulp--1090 shows and counting; I credit Dana with getting me hooked on Mannix, Anny Celsi, the Stallions, Mary Lou Lord, and many more. This week's playlist includes two examples of Dana running with a song that I'd been playing a lot. "Jacaranda" by Hayley and the Crushers is one of the two, and it remains a righteous blast of YEAH! on the radio, regardless of which one of us put it there.

6. LESLIE ODOM, JR.: Good Times

2/9/2021: If the account [in this video] portrays my teen self as a smug know-it-all, well...yeah. I really wish I'd grown out of that at some point. But I was never the only one of my peers who understood and appreciated pop music's larger picture. One such peer was a guy named Les Odom, whom I've previously mentioned in some detail here. Brenda and I were casual friends with Les and his girlfriend Yvette, and nowadays we're fans of their son, actor and singer  Leslie Odom, Jr. Leslie the Younger (best known for playing Aaron Burr in the original Broadway cast of Hamilton) plays Sam Cooke in One Night In Miami, and he's just riveting in the role. Watching him play Cooke conjured a random memory from more than forty years ago, when his dad and I had a brief discussion about Sam Cooke. It was a kick to remember that while watching the film, watching Les and Yvette's son bring this legendary singer back to life. Good times.

4/27/2021: Since this year's Oscar telecast happened to fall on a Sunday night--y'know, like always--we used that as an excuse to open our counterprograming exercise with a set of songs from movies. I love movies, but I'm not a movie buff, and I rarely get around to seeing many (sometimes any) of a given year's Oscar nominees. This is observation, not criticism nor confession. As always: dig what you dig.

I did see One Night In Miami..., a fascinating film about a true-life evening in 1964 when Sam Cooke, Malcolm X, Jim Brown, and Muhammed Ali (then still called Cassius Clay) got together. We don't know what they did or discussed that night, so the movie itself is fiction, but it's compelling fiction. And it scored a few Oscar nominations, including a Best Supporting Actor nod for Leslie Odom, Jr., who plays Cooke to mesmerizing effect.

This week's TIRnRR kicked off with Odom as Cooke, covering Cooke's "Good Times," becoming Sam Cooke in a way that transcends mimicry. Magic. And an Oscar nomination well, well deserved.

7. EYTAN MIRSKY: This Year's Gonna Be Our Year

7/9/2020: How did singer, songwriter, and dashing man about town Eytan Mirsky first learn about This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl? Damned if I remember. But somehow he did hear about us, thought we might be interested in playing his stuff on the radio, and then sent us a copy of his second album, 1999's Get Ready For Eytan! We've been playing him ever since.

We've had a number of Eytan favorites over the years, but there is something just remarkable and special about "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year," a track from Eytan's 2012 album Year Of The Mouse. Like Big Star's "The Ballad Of El Goodo" and the Zombies' "This Will Be Our Year," even the Beatles' "Getting Better," it evokes an optimism that may not have any discernible grounding in the real world, but which still feels palpable and immediate. Eytan's song is considerably less starry-eyed than these other worthies, but its determined sense of one-foot-forward, what-the-hell ultimately makes it more plausible. The song knows we're gonna get kicked in the teeth again, that our individual Lucys are gonna pull the freakin' football away from us gullible Charlie Browns again, that the house has the deck stacked against us again and again and again...and it knows we're gonna keep hitting back for as long as our fists can form. Maybe this year? Well...why the hell not?

As a true zealot, I keep mentioning my concept of The Greatest Record Ever Made! An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. When I first began to seriously contemplate trying to turn this concept into a book, I knew a chapter on Eytan Mirsky's "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" had to be in the book, and that it had to be employed in climactic fashion, something almost like a closing argument. In my eyes, the book would not make sense without that chapter near the end.

My book has been stuck in development, and COVID-19 has not helped its status. But I still believe in the project, and Eytan Mirsky's song is still at its core. This year? Next year? I'll have my year yet. One foot forward. What the hell.

12/16/2021: It's not ironic. It's not snarky or self-deprecating, it's not too-cool-for-school, nor any other nonsense that could detract from the purity of its message. Eytan Mirsky's "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" is the audio equivalent of getting up in the morning, grabbing our coffee, and facing the day. Frequently, the day--the year--is gonna kick the livin' chicklets out of us. But we keep going. And we say to ourselves, "This year." We believe it in spite of all evidence to the contrary, and someday it may even be true. The year is what happens while we're busy making other plans. My Mom was proud of me. I intend to keep right on trying to justify that pride, in my own mind, year after year. Testify, Brother Eytan. Testify.

8. ARETHA FRANKLIN: Save Me

4/13/2021: Any record you ain't heard is a new record.

The recent National Geographic TV biopic mini-series Genius: Aretha Franklin introduced me to a 1967 Aretha album track called "Save Me." We all know the Queen of Soul's classic singles, but I don't really know many (if any) of her non-single LP cuts. Hearing the TV soundtrack cover of "Saved" compelled me to seek out and purchase Aretha's original. See, television's job is to sell records.

And it's a fantastic track. The riff is "Gloria." The horn part shares DNA with "Tell Mama" by Etta James. But it's Aretha becoming Aretha. The TV version's lyrical references to superheroes Superman, Batman, the Green Hornet, and Black Panther also caught my attention, though I figured the latter reference was an anachronism; Black Panther had been introduced as a supporting character in the Fantastic Four comic book in 1966, and wasn't likely to have been known by anyone except Marvel Comics devotees when "Save Me" was recorded in '67. (The actual lyric in "Save Me" refers to the Caped Crusader, the Green Hornet and Kato, each of whom was also a TV star in the '60s.) 

"Save Me" is on I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You, Aretha Franklin's first album for Atlantic Records, following a disappointing stint with Columbia. And the above reference to "Aretha becoming Aretha" is not made lightly; where Columbia didn't seem to know what to do with the natural force of Aretha Franklin, she came into her own at Atlantic. Aretha becoming Aretha. Save me. The city is safe.

6/15/2021: Why does this lesser-known Aretha Franklin LP track from 1967 appear to be set on a collision course with our year-end countdown? Playlists are built on whatever groove we hear in our heads, regardless of whether or not anyone else can hear it as easily. "Save Me"'s mix of a "Gloria" riff with a casual lyrical reference to "the Caped Crusader, Green Hornet and Kato, too" establishes a groove that compels me to play it. Aretha's will. I am as Aretha made me. 

9. THE COASTERS: Yakety Yak

1/19/2021: 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.)

10. THE LINDA LINDAS: Claudia Kishi

5/11/2021: Our appearance on The Spoon was mostly a talk show, a back-and-forth exchange fueled by giddy enthusiasm and (in my case) a cup of hot cocoa. But in addition to two examples of The Greatest Record You've Never Heard (tracks by the Flashcubes and Eytan Mirsky), the show opened and closed with songs also picked by us: an excerpt of the Bay City Rollers' "Wouldn't You Like It" at the top, and a complete spin of the Linda Lindas' "Claudia Kishi" at the sign-off spot. Whatta song! The Linda Lindas are a quartet of teen (and even preteen) musicmakers channeling the Muffs to engagingly lethal effect. Plus, they named their band after a song by Japan's Phenomenal Pop Combo the Blue Hearts! Acts that channel the Muffs and rip their noms du bop from the inspiration served up by other cool bands score automatic points on the TIRnRR WOW! scale. The Linda Lindas are a natural fit for whatever the hell it is we do.

(And, although my daughter Meghan was an avid fan of The Baby-Sitters Club books when she was younger, I did not recall that one of the series' main characters was named Claudia Kishi. So, add a literary reference to the many reasons why TIRnRR has just gotta play the Linda Lindas.)

BONUS TRACK!

11. THE FLASHCUBES WITH MIMI BETINIS: Baby It's Cold Outside

7/23/2021: We've been dyin' to tell folks about this for a while, and now the story's out: Syracuse's phenomenal pop combo  the Flashcubes have recorded a brand-new single, covering Pezband's '70s power pop classic "Baby It's Cold Outside." And, like all true pop fans, the 'Cubes get by with a little help from their friends. In this case, the friend is Pezband's own Mimi Betinis, who wrote and originally recorded the song for his group's 1977 debut LP.

The Pezcubes! The Flashband! The Flashpez Cubesband, and the Pezflash Bandcubes! This new version of "Baby It's Cold Outside" kicks, serving further proof that our janglebuzz heroes can still detonate a jukebox with the best of them. The single is out July 30th, courtesy of the visionaries at Big Star Records, and available to preorder RIGHT NOW. Go! Don't be left out in the cold on this one, baby.

More music from the Flashcubes in 2021--stay tuned!

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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.

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10 SONGS: 2/18/2020

10 Songs is a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. Given my intention to usually write these on Mondays, the lists are often dominated by songs played on the previous night's edition of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. The idea was inspired by Don Valentine of the essential blog I Don't Hear A Single.


This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1013.

THE CONTOURS: Do You Love Me



If memory serves, a cover of "Do You Love Me" was the first British hit for The Dave Clark Five in 1963, and it subsequently became (I think) their third hit in the U.S. in '64, following "Glad All Over" and "Bits And Pieces." No chart histories were consulted in the making of this reminiscence. The Contours' original was one of the early Motown hits, and it's the best-known version, thanks in part to its return to the charts in the '80s (courtesy of the Dirty Dancing soundtrack). I knew and adored the DC5 take long before I heard The Contours, and I also heard a cover by Johnny Thunders with his band The Heartbreakers prior to discovering the original. Hell, I'm pretty sure I heard local Syracuse rockers The Most perform the song live before my first conscious exposure to The Contours. In fact, when I complimented members of The Most for covering The Dave Clark Five, guitarist Derek Knott sneered at me for not knowing The Contours. Punks, man....



I came to know The Contours' "Do You Love Me" quite well in the '80s. Not from Dirty Dancing, but from oldies radio airplay that hooked me on the track a few years before anyone warned anyone else not to put Baby in the corner. I've vacillated between the Contours and DC5 takes as my favorite, but the overwhelming consensus is that The Contours' original is definitive.

EDDIE & THE HOT RODS: Get Out Of Denver



TIRnRR used Bob Seger as a cartoon bogeyman for years, scaring listeners with the idle threat of playing the hated "Old Time Rock & Roll" if they misbehaved. We still hate "Old Time Rock & Roll" and "We've Got Tonight," but the Seger joke ran its course, and we finally played Seger's great "Get Out Of Denver" as potent proof that some of Seger's older stuff is far more interesting than his better-known bucket o' yechh. Seger's fantastic "2 + 2 = ?" was among our most-played tracks in 2018, and it will merit a chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).



For years before we lifted our embargo on Seger's records, we were occasionally playing Eddie & the Hot Rods' ferocious, fast 'n' faithful cover of "Get Out Of Denver." I first knew the song via live performances by The Flashcubes in '78, when 'Cubes guitarist Paul Armstrong introduced the song as something Seger did "10 years ago, when he was still cool." The Flashcubes, of course, were doing it as an Eddie & the Hot Rods cover, from that group's Live At The Marquee EP. All three versions--Seger, Hot Rods, 'Cubes--rock with righteous authority.

THE FAST: Kids Just Wanna Dance


In that late '70s Syracuse music setting, when I saw The Flashcubes as many times as I could, my favorite local nightspot was The Firebarn on Montgomery Street. I first knew The Firebarn through the Syracuse Cinephile Society, which screened its classic film presentations upstairs at The Firebarn. I saw Dead End, The Adventures Of Robin Hood, and the complete 12-chapter Adventures Of Captain Marvel movie serial in that upstairs room in the early to mid '70s. 

What do you mean you can't serve me a beer unless I show ID...?!

The Flashcubes were my first live band at The Firebarn, also upstairs, in 1978. I was not among the dozen or so who saw The Police play with the 'Cubes there, but I did see a ton of shows at The Firebarn, upstairs and downstairs alike. At one point, probably in 1979 or '80s, Fritz the bartender would see me walk in and have an ice-cold bottle of Miller waiting for me at the bar by the time I got there. One night, I was one of several onlookers pulled onstage by The Most's lead singer Dian Zain to sing screeching back-up on "Got No Mind;" the stage collapsed as we rocked upon it, but I had secure footing and caught Dian before she could fall. See? I was a hero! Tell that to your sneering guitarist Derek, Dian!

The Most

The Fast

NYC's power-pop punks The Fast were another of my upstairs concert treats at The Firebarn, playing on a bill with The Flashcubes in 1978. They were very Who-influenced, and their set included covers of "I Can See For Miles," Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walking," and Tommy Roe's "Sheila." I loved them, and I bought their way swell 1977 single of "It's Like Love"/"Kids Just Wanna Dance" at my first opportunity. The Fast later re-recorded "Kids Just Wanna Dance" with Ric Ocasek producing, but the single is, oh, a gazillion times better.



A specific event prompted me to play The Fast this week. On Sunday, I set foot in the former Firebarn location for the first time since 1981. It's now called Wolff's Biergarten, and the upstairs doesn't seem to be open to the public anymore. It's been remodeled, the bar on the opposite side of where it was, and Fritz wasn't there (nor had he been there when I last visited in '81). But I sat with my wife and daughter, sipped a delicious mug of Coca-Cola (I was driving) and nibbled on peanuts, thrilled and grateful to be back inside this building that meant so much to me.



HOLLY & JOEY: I Got You Babe



Starting around 1980 or so, I began telling everyone within earshot that The Ramones should cover the Sonny & Cher staple "I Got You Babe," and rope in Blondie babe Debbie Harry to serve as Joey Ramone's duet partner. It seemed a natural prospect to me, especially given that guitarist Johnny Ramone had already played a similar folk-rock riff on The Ramones' cover of The Searchers' "Needles And Pins." I was a visionary! Sort of. This 1982 single credited to the one-off Holly & Joey was the closest manifestation of that vision, with Holly Beth Vincent playing the Cher to Joey's Sonny, backed by Holly's own group Holly & the Italians. A friend of mine was amazed and enthused that I'd predicted it as closely as I had, even though it really wasn't all that close at all. When I interviewed Joey for Goldmine in 1994, he told me he really wanted to work with Holly again. When I was briefly in touch with Holly Beth Vincent a few years back, I shared with her what Joey had said, and she immediately broke off all contact with me. Oops? Maybe I'm not quite the visionary I fancied myself to be.

Debbie & Joey. Holly could not be reached for comment.

HOLLY GOLIGHTLY: Time Will Tell



Different Holly! My favorite Kinks cover, bar none, and also the subject of a chapter in The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). I always presumed Holly Golightly was a stage name, but Holly was born Holly Golightly Smith. Dream-maker, you heartbreaker. Holly's recorded a ton of cool tracks over the years, and you should check 'em all out.

JONI MITCHELL: Free Man In Paris



I didn't have any particular affinity for Joni Mitchell when I was a teen in the '70s. But I liked her hit "Help Me" enough to buy the single, I loved "Big Yellow Taxi," and I just about worshiped Judy Collins' cover of Mitchell's "Both Sides Now;" a few years later, I wondered how it would have sounded if The Byrds had also covered "Both Sides Now," with jangly 12-string Rickenbackers and sweet, chiming Roger McGuinn lead vocals. I'm sure I must have heard more of Mitchell's work, but I didn't specifically engage until I picked up a used-LP copy of the Court And Spark album in the '90s. At the time, I was researching a (later abandoned) project about the definitive albums of the '70s, scarfing up miscellaneous Me Decade records with determined impunity. 

And Court And Spark got to me, in such a warm and inviting way. I listened to it often in my upstairs office at home, simply captivated. "Free Man In Paris" became my favorite, and it still is.



THE MONKEES: A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You


Try as many a mastering engineer might, no CD reissue of this non-LP Monkees single has ever come within a light year of matching the sheer punch and power of the original Colgems Records 45. Most Monkees fans consider this a relatively minor entry in the group's history, a Neil Diamond composition that represented former producer/puppeteer Don Kirshner's last grasp of The Monkees' strings; B-side "The Girl I Knew Somewhere," written by Michael Nesmith and performed by The Monkees themselves rather than by session musicians, is ultimately more important, even though the A-side was the the hit. But man, I just love the way the sound of my flea-market 45 jumps out of the speakers, loud and distorted in all the right ways.

RADIO BIRDMAN: You're Gonna Miss Me


Before my very first spin of the essential 2-LP various-artists set Nuggets in 1979 introduced me to the cantankerous brilliance of The 13th Floor Elevators, I already knew their signature tune "You're Gonna Miss Me" from this slammin' cover, courtesy of Australia's Radio Birdman. The track was on the American version of the group's debut album Radios Appear in 1977, and I bought a promo copy of that in '78. Radio Birdman's Hawaii Five-0 tribute "Aloha Steve & Danno" (which incorporated extended bits of the TV show's theme song) was my focus track on the album, but "You're Gonna Miss Me" woulda been my second choice, then acing out my eventual favorite "Murder City Nights."

SCREEN TEST: Make Something Happen


"Make Something Happen" was written by Flashcubes and Screen Test bassist Gary Frenay, and I don't understand why someone hasn't covered it to multi-platinum success. The Monkees should have done this for their Good Times! album in 2016. Mary Lou Lord should have covered it. The Slapbacks did cover it, and they did a wonderful job with it. It was first recorded by Screen Test in 1985, and again by The Flashcubes in 2003. It was used in last week's episode of the TV show Young Sheldon, but it played in the background in a bar scene as characters from the show kept yammerin' on, their inane dialogue drowning out the sound I really wanted to hear. Arghh. Where's my TV Brick?



(If you happen to be in Central New York on Wednesday, February 19th, I betcha you'll get to hear it at the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel during its 5-8 pm Happy Hour. That's when Gary and his fellow rockin' pop troubadour Arty Lenin will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the start of their regular weekly Wednesday residency at the Sheraton. It's the longest-running weekly gig in the history of the Syracuse music scene, and I hope you'll join Gary & Arty as they play a set of Beatles songs, a set of their own Flashcubes, Screen est, and solo numbers, and a set of requests. A good time is strongly implied for all, and I look forward to seeing you there.)

THE SPINNERS: My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)



There are so many paths we may take to discover our favorite records. My path to this one wound through the Liverpool Public Library. That's Liverpool, NY, one of Syracuse's Northern suburbs, rather than, y'know, Gerry & the Pacemakers and "Ferry Cross The Mersey" and your John, your Paul, your George, and your Ringo. No; the other Liverpool. The Liverpool Library was the resource for my first CDs, which I borrowed during that period around 1987 to '88, when I had a CD player but wasn't yet quite ready to start buying CDs. A bit later on, the burgeoning popularity of CDs prompted the library to get rid of its LP collection. One of the Liverpool Library's vinyl cast-offs was Motown's The Best Of The Spinners, which I snapped up for a buck or so. 

Unidentified Liverpool librarians

Nearly all of The Spinners' hits came after the group's tenure with Motown. That meant this presumed Best Of The Spinners included the Motown-era smash "It's A Shame," but was not graced with the likes of "I'll Be Around" or "Rubberband Man" or "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love." But what the hell, it was a buck. And its purchase invited me into the glorious comfort of The Spinners' sublime version of the David Ruffin hit "My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)." Ruffin's version never meant much to me, but I was instantly taken with the sweet sway of The Spinners' interpretation, which I love to this day. When I played it again on the show this week, Dana was surprised that I've never owned it on CD. But no; it was a B-side, relatively unrecognized by the greater pop world at large, included as filler on a cash-grab "best"-of LP by a label that didn't own the rights to the group's most popular material. I did buy an mp3 of the track to hear on my iPod, and I still have my vinyl, courtesy of the Liverpool Library. The Best Of The Spinners? You know, maybe it is, after all.

Hey, look! A Liverpool library!

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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.

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Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 133 essays about 133 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).