10 SONGS: 4/18/2026

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

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1332

PALMYRA DELRAN AND THE DOPPEL GANG: Hold Tight

Anyone who has ever listened to Palmyra Delran hold court on her SiriusXM Underground Garage radio show Palmyra's Trash-Pop Treasures already knows that Palmyra is the real deal, blessed with impeccable taste and a thorough understanding and appreciation of the rock and the pop. As a performer, she's well capable of channeling her passion and savvy into the creation of trash-pop treasures of her own, accomplished in various incarnations with the Coolies, the Friggs, and other irresistible dbas. 

The latest single from her flagship combo Palmyra Delran and the Doppel Gang serves up an invigmoratin' workout of the '60s UK power pop classic "Hold Tight." The original 1966 version by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich is among my all-time favorite tracks, and it was one of many gems I considered rhapsodizing in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). I didn't have room for it in the book, but in the mean time we're thrilled with the opportunity to program Palmyra and her Gang holding tight and demonstrating their own mastery of the form. It spins here again this coming Sunday night. 

Palmyra knows her stuff. We know enough to keep playing her stuff. And bonus points to Palmyra Delran’s Doppel Gang for including guitarist and long-time friend to this show Michael Lynch.

THE CORNER LAUGHERS: Crumb Clean

There is something just so enticingly sunshiney about the music of the Corner Laughers. The blissful wave of audible illumination continues on the group's new album Concerns Of Wasp And Willow, and its warm glow is in ample evidence on the sublime current single "Crumb Clean." Little darling (as some British guy once said), it's been a long, cold, lonely winter. With the Corner Laughers on the radio, I feel warmer already.

(I'd already selected the Corner Laughers for a spot on this week's 10 Songs when I discovered that they were also guests on this week's new episode of can't-miss podcast The Spoon. Ah, I love it when a plan comes together. Especially when it comes together without benefit of, y'know...a plan.)

ROME 56: Invisible Man

THE SHIRTS: Love Is A Fiction

THE SHIRTS: Tell Me Your Plans

We love the Shirts, and the release of two previously-unissued archival live albums from these classic CBGB stalwarts (last year's 1981 recording Live Featuring Annie Golden, this year's Live At Paradise 1979) has spawned a renewed commitment to programming the Shirts as often as possible. We've heard (unsubstantiated) rumblings of more to come from the big ol' vault of Shirts; if true, we approve.

This week's show includes two tracks by the Shirts, one from Live At Paradise 1979 and one from the Shirts' second album, 1979's Street Light Shine. Our next show will also offer a pair of Shirts, reprising the Live At Paradise version of "Tell Me Your Plans" (my favorite Shirts song) and introducing the belated (and then some) TIRnRR debut of a track from their 1980 album Inner Sleeve. Shirts-O-Rama!

Shirts guitarist Arthur La Monica is currently playing with a cool combo called Rome 56, a fine group that also includes Arthur's wife Kathy La Monica. Past shows have offered a few delights from Rome 56's 2024 album Paradise Is Free and 2025 effort Pony Tales, and this week we return to Paradise Is Free for our first-ever spin of a great, great earworm called "Invisible Man."

THE STRAWBERRY ALARM CLOCK: Incense And Peppermints

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

SEX CLARK FIVE: Plastic All Over The World

THE DAVE CLARK FIVE: It Don't Feel Good

Huntsville, Alabama's phenomenal pop combo Sex Clark Five into the Tottenham Sound of the Dave Clark Five. Sometimes the segues write themselves.

THE RAMONES: All's Quiet On The Eastern Front

From a previous post, discussing my 25 favorite Ramones tracks:

"All's Quiet On The Eastern Front" appeared on the Ramones' 1981 LP Pleasant Dreams, an album that doesn't sound like any other Ramones album. Pleasant Dreams was produced by Graham Gouldman, who achieved great success in the '60s as a songwriter for the Yardbirds, the Hollies, and Herman's Hermits, and subsequently as a performer with 10cc. And, as Johnny Ramone said in our interview, "The guy from 10cc producing the Ramones? 10cc sucks, and it's not right for the Ramones." (My 1994 interviews with Johnny, Joey, Marky, and C.J. appear in my book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones.)

On Pleasant Dreams, Gouldman's production made the Ramones sound...I dunno, smoother than expected? Phil Spector had done something similar with 1980's End Of The Century, another album that doesn't sound like any other Ramones album. In Spector's hands, the bubblepunk purity of the Ramones got lost in his Wall of Sound; Gouldman turned the Ramones into a new wave pop band. Neither End Of The Century nor Pleasant Dreams is at the same transcendent level as the classic fist four Ramones albums that preceded them.

Ignoring the anomaly of this album's place in the larger Carbona-huffin' picture, though, I need to risk contradicting myself: Pleasant Dreams is a fantastic record. Fantastic. I know Marky liked it, and we've established that Johnny hated it, but the fact that it wasn't Rocket To Russia doesn't prevent it from being compelling in its own right.

Pleasant Dreams is loaded with great Ramones songs, from "We Want The Airwaves" to "It's Not My Place (In The 9 To 5 World)" to "She's A Sensation" to the superb album closer "Sitting In My Room." "The KKK Took My Baby Away" is the best-known of the bunch. Would the tracks sound better if Ed Stasium or Tommy Ramone had produced them? Possibly. They sound pretty good as-is.

"All's Quiet On The Eastern Front" was my immediate pick when I bought the album in '81, and it has remained so. It's the sprightliest song ever done about a serial killer, stalking the street 'til the break of day, a track delivered with decidedly un-Ramoneslike percussion, and with backing vocals from Dee Dee Ramone asking that musical question, Can't you think my movements talk? Hey, you unsuspecting soon-to-be victims: Pleasant dreams!

THE BEATLES: Tell Me Why [Takes 4 and 5]

And speaking of the Tottenham Sound of the Dark Clark Five....

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: 3/7/2026

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

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1326

THE RAMONES: I WANNA BE SEDATED

Compiled from a pair of previous posts:

She was asleep, sitting up, her head resting on my shoulder. I was in love with her. And I was already in love with the music of the band whose new album was about to be played on the radio. Love and music. Reasonable goals. I just want to have something to do.

It was October of 1978. Brenda and I had just met, already exchanged I love yous, and were determined to see where that road would lead us next....

Those were the opening paragraphs of a Love At First Spin piece I had planned to write about the Ramones' fourth album Road To Ruin. I felt the story would have too much overlap with my Love At First Spin tribute to Rocket To Russia, so the Road To Ruin entry will likely remain unfinished. But the facts remain: I first heard Road To Ruin when Rochester's WCMF-FM played it in its entirety, listening as I sat in my dorm suite with my arm around this girl I'd just met and fallen for. Road to ruin? Road to something better.

"I Wanna Be Sedated" stood out immediately, helped in no small part by its superficial resemblance to Alice Cooper's "Elected," transcending that influence with its paradoxical hybrid of a wish to be numbed combined with a full-throttle approach that couldn't be taken down by a flurry of tranquilizer darts. I can't control my fingers, I can't control my brain. Sounds a lot like the act of being smitten. I want it.

The Ramones--I do prefer referring to them with a definite article--never had a hit record. Their Billboard Hot 100 peak was # 66 for "Rockaway Beach" in 1977. Their highest-charting album was End Of The Century (# 44 in 1980), edging out Rocket To Russia (# 49 in '77), the only two Ramones LPs to ascend beyond the # 50 slot. They did better overseas, but as Johnny Ramone once told me, "...It was never no big deal, really, having a hit in England. All that mattered, really, was America. It's okay having a hit in England, but the main thing was you wanna make it at home."

Their legacy endured, and just about everyone now has at least some general familiarity with some of the Ramones' recorded work. Hell, you can hear the Ramones in TV commercials. "Blitzkrieg Bop" is likely the Ramones' most universally-recognized track, but "I Wanna Be Sedated" comes close. It was not released as an American single from Road To Ruin, only achieving 7" status when reissued in the late '80s in conjunction with the best-of set Ramones Mania. One imagines edge-averse 1979 radio programmers wouldn't have been quick to embrace a pop tune about sedation, just as that notoriously timid lot had been skittish about playing the Ramones up to that point. But one also wonders if such a single might have found a wider audience, if only it had been released at the time.

(The Johnny Ramone quote cited above comes from my 1994 interviews with the Ramones, contained within my 2023 book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones.)

MR. BRUCE GORDON: Every Day You Get To Choose

Our pal Mr. Bruce Gordon has been a fixture on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio pret' much from the get-go. The components of that fixture have included Bruce's fine pop work as Mr. Encrypto and Mr. Encrypto and the Ciphers, with Pop Co-Op and TIR'N'RR Allstars, and through current wonders under the Mr. Bruce Gordon dba. As I wrote upon the release of Mr. Bruce Gordon's 2023 release One Tall Order:

"Ladies and gentlemen, MR. BRUCE GORDON! You know him and love him as Mr. Encypto and as one-fourth of the irresistible Pop Co-Op. Now Bruce Gordon is ditching the 'Encrypto' moniker, retaining his alter ego's honorific, and steppin' out under his own name for the first time since the dawn of ever.

"Mr. Bruce Gordon's emergence from the power pop witness protection program results in the sublimely easy-going new album One Tall Order. One Tall Order is a sweet sway of ten engaging tracks steeped in lessons learned from a lifetime of listening: listening to the radio, AM and FM, listening to deep LP cuts, and listening between the grooves, to Motown and new wave, Steely Dan and British Invasion, folk and rock and singer-songwriter, the Church of Brian Wilson, and always to the rising voice within. 

"Fan and artist in one man, this peerless pop mister is ready to reveal his secret identity. Mr. Bruce Gordon. It's time we ALL knew that name."

Now, the unencrypted Mr. Bruce Gordon returns to reinforce the ol' fixtures with a brand-new single, "Every Day You Get To Choose." You can choose to get that here, and you can choose to tune in to hear it again on our next show. 

THE CORNER LAUGHERS: Dusking

"Dusking" is the latest advance tease from the Corner Laughers' forthcoming new album Concerns Of Wasp And Willow, and it serves as yet another inviting point of entry into the group's luscious blend of folk-pop, accomplished with sheer heartwinning beauty. Calling this music "gorgeous" sells it short. As dusk heralds darkness, we'll light a fire and gather together.

SPECTRAFLAME: I Always Wanted You To Stay

Man, we can't keep up with these prolific pop guys. By the time we were able to debut the splendor of Spectraflame's recent single "I Always Wanted You To Stay" on this week's show, the lads had already released another new track, "The Pawn And The Prize." WE CAN'T KEEP UP...!! 

But what the hell--it's worth the effort. We'll give "I Always Wanted You To Stay" another playlist berth on our next show, and we'll attempt to catch up with "The Pawn And The Prize"...eventually. Spectraflame will probably have released a triple-LP live album and a boxed set by then. 

AIMEE MANN: Driving With One Hand On The Wheel

One of the greatest rewards of doing this radio show has been the opportunity to discover so much great new music, and so much great new-to-me music. A lot of those fresh revelations are courtesy of Dana, including his spin this week of Aimee Mann's 1995 non-album single "Driving With One Hand On The Wheel." Supernifty! The road of discovery motors on.

THE CYNZ: You Wreck Me

The Cynz get a significant amount of airplay on this little mutant radio show, mostly because both Dana and I recognize the empirical truth that every rock 'n' roll radio show that claims to be a rock 'n' roll radio show oughta be slotting a significant amount of airplay to the Cynz. I mean, come on, people! Duh!

Lately, TIRnRR has been pummeling the atmosphere with tracks from the current Cynz album Confess, including this resolutely ace cover of Tom Petty's "You Wreck Me." Wreckin' the airwaves for the greater good! It's what a rock 'n' roll radio show should do. We'll return to another track from Confess on our next show. 

DAVID RUFFIN: I Want You Back

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

When working on a new recording, there are times when an artist is absolutely confident the great track at hand will become a surefire hit. Book it. Top of the pops, # 1 with a bullet. In the '80s, the members of a fantastic pop band called the dB's were certain, certain that they'd created an irresistible worldwide smash with their recording of a terrific song called "Love Is For Lovers." The song didn't even chart. But it felt like a hit, and it still feels like it should have been a hit. 

One wonders if David Ruffin had that feeling when he was recording "I Want You Back," that surefire faith that he would hit the toppermost of the poppermost with this new hit. If he did, he could not have been more wrong.

In this situation, some hubris would have seemed justified, really. Ruffin had been a proven and experienced hitmaker with the Temptations. If Motown was the sound of young America in the '60s, the Temptations were arguably the sound of Motown. Their hits were many, their popularity vast, and "My Girl" in particular is immortal, and perhaps the definitive Motown single...

...Ruffin had been the lead voice on "My Girl," as well as on the Temptations' "Ain't Too Proud To Beg," "(I Know) I'm Losing You," and "I Wish It Would Rain," among others. But by 1968, being one of the Temptations had ceased to bring Ruffin sunshine on a cloudy day. With that, he was no longer a Temptation.

Solo success ultimately proved fleeting for Ruffin. 1969's "My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)" was a Top 10 hit on both the pop and R & B charts, and "I've Lost Everything I've Ever Loved" and "I'm So Glad I Fell For You" were Top 20 soul hits ignored by the pop Top 40. As the success of the Temptations continued into the early '70s, the group's former lead singer could have used a sweeter song than the birds in the trees. For Ruffin, the hits had stopped.

Could Ruffin's version of "I Want You Back" have been the hit it deserved to be, the hit Ruffin's recording career kinda needed it to be? Alas, not in the real world. Some believe that Ruffin recorded "I Want You Back" roughly contemporary to when the Jackson Five cut the version that would become their smash debut Motown single. It was, after all, standard operating procedure for acts within Berry Gordy's empire to record competing versions of the same song, with a designated Chosen One then anointed as hit-worthy. But the J5's "I Want You Back" ascended the charts in 1969; Ruffin's version was likely recorded in 1970, part of the sessions for a proposed 1971 album shelved by Motown. 

Nonetheless: It should have been released. And it should have been a hit....

THE RUNAWAYS: School Days

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

SAM COOKE: (What A) Wonderful World

"Wonderful world?" With all due respect to the legendary Sam Cooke, I'd like to get a second opinion regarding his diagnosis of this world's attributes. At its core, Cooke was right: There is great wonder to be found within the heart of this frantic planet. Alas, we are led by far too many who don't know much about history. 

Nor anything else.

THE BEATLES: Carry That Weight/The End

The love you take is equal to the love you make? That sounds like a lot of weight to carry, lads. Here's hoping Abbey Road leads to a freeway.

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: 6/14/2025

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 # 1289

THE GRIP WEEDS: Soul Bender

This little mutant radio show is always delighted to play brand new music from the Grip Weeds. We're also delighted to play familiar music from the Grip Weeds. We are remarkably--and delightedly--consistent on that point. And an opportunity to open a show with a new single from the Grip Weeds? We're ON it! "Soul Bender" is the advance single and title track from the group's eagerly-anticipated new album, and delight rules the friggin' day. Delight will renew itself with another spin of "Soul Bender" on our next show.

KID GULLIVER: 24 Hours

We are also delighted to play both new and familiar music from Kid Gulliver. We're fans! The group's "Forget About Him" is a proven TIRnRR Fave Rave, and we included it on our 2022 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5. It's been a bit since we've had anything new from these Kids, but the wait is over! New single "24 Hours" is a little more Ramonesified than previous Kid Gulliver classics, though the comparison to your Joey, your Johnny, and your Dee Dee is in terms of the track's forward-lunging rhythmic thrust. The resulting flourish of pretty pop music is pure Kid Gulliver. Welcome back, Kids.

AMY RIGBY: Bitter

JILL SOBULE: Someone's Gonna Break Your Heart

Tribute.

Our time in this mortal plane is steeped in loss, reluctant farewells whispered again and again. Beyond the devastation of personal losses, we also mourn people we've never met, but who nonetheless became a part of our lives through the magic of the art they created. We are inundated with constant, rapid-fire reminders of our fragile nature. On this week's show, we felt the fresh wound of losing Terry Draper, and since then the losses of both Sly Stone and Brian Wilson. 

And we still feel the sting of the recent loss of Jill Sobule. Amy Rigby acknowledges that sting, and she's channeled the lingering ache into a homemade cover of Sobule's "Bitter," a song Sobule wrote with Richard Barone of the Bongos. The track is now available as a single, with sales benefitting The Jill Fund. A worthy tribute for a worthy cause.

We followed Amy Rigby's version of "Bitter" with another spin of what's become my favorite Jill Sobule track, "Someone's Gonna Break Your Heart." With hearts born to be broken, we do our best to avoid becoming bitter.

THE CORNER LAUGHERS: Speak To The Sky

Last week's exciting edition of 10 Songs extolled the virtues of the new various-artists collection Second By Second By Minute By Minute: The Songs Of Rick Springfield. My favorite Rick Springfield song is his very first single, 1972's "Speak To The Sky." On the new tribute album, the Corner Laughers offer a loving and heartfelt rendition of "Speak To The Sky," capturing the ache of looking to the heavens and communicating with the cherished memory of a departed father, speaking to the sky every night. More loss. The comfort is sweet and welcome. 

We'll play this again on Sunday. Father's Day. Love you , Dad. It's been thirteen years, but I know you're still with me all of the time.

PAUL REVERE AND THE RAIDERS: Just Like Me

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE FLASHCUBES: The Sweet Spot

SORROWS: Radio

After many months of gleeful teasing, we have announced the track listing for the long-promised tribute album honoring Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes. Due out in September from the irresistible rockin' pop force of Big Stir Records, our twenty-four track salute Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes gathers twenty-one new covers of songs written by members of the 'Cubes, and supplements 'em with three new recordings by the Flashcubes themselves. This week, we reprised a couple of already-proven Make Something Happen! favorites--the Flashcubes' "The Sweet Spot" and Sorrows' epic cover of "Radio"--as we look toward the bright lights of September. The sweet spot! Let us be your radio.

(And on our next show, we'll debut two more tracks from Make Something Happen!, as Graham Parker and Mike Gent take on "Pathetic" and Rob Moss and Skin-Tight Skin conjure up a "Bad Dream." We will also have encore spins of Flashcubes tribute album tracks by Tom Kenny and the Hi-Seas and Librarians With Hickeys, another run through Make Something Happen!'s first single "Reminisce," and we'll even throw in the Slapbacks' previous cover of "Make Something Happen" from This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4. The tribute you take is equal to the tribute you make.)

KLAATU: Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft

We mentioned the passing of Terry Draper. Draper was best-known as the drummer for Klaatu, and he also crafted an impressive body of work as a solo artist. Terry was always nice to us, and we mourn along with his friends and family. We've played a fair amount of his music over the years, both solo and with Klaatu, and also working with Ray Paul. This week, our opening set included "For The Few" from Draper's 2024 album In The Beginning. And we circled back near show's end for a spin of Klaatu's most famous track, "Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft." We are your friends. Godspeed, Terry Draper.

THE BEATLES: Within You Without You

From a previous post about Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, picking up the narrative with Side 2, Track 1:

"...The mystic hum of Indian music invites us back inside. Many will skip over George Harrison's meditative 'Within You Without You' on subsequent spins, and your humble blogger would be among them for a while, until the song's beguiling, subtle magic eventually completes its spell, capturing the heart forever thereafter...."

We were talking about the love we all could share. Life goes on within you and without you. Music endures. Memory endures for as long as we can hold it. We endure for as long as we can hold on.

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.

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: 5/5/2020

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 # 1023.

THE BOOKENDS: She's Got It



The Bookends are two cousins, Karen Lynn and Sharon Lee, whose shared DNA manifests in a love of the 1960s and all things Beatley. I've been Facebook friends with Karen for years, and I've been delighted to hear the music Sharon 'n' Karen have made together as The Bookends. Their first album, 2018's Far Away But Around, was deliciously fab and far out, and I eagerly await more. Now that The Bookends are signed with Marty Scott's storied Jem Records label, they've released a couple of cool singles, the most recent of which is "She's Got It." "She's Got It" has got it in spades.

THE BROTHERS STEVE: We Got The Hits


This is just such a great radio song. The Brothers Steve include three former members of the group Tsar (Jeff Whalen, Jeff Solomon, and Steve Coulter, the latter also a cool mystery writer under the nom du pulp S. W. Lauden), and "We Got The Hits" is an irresistible de facto statement of intent. We got a radio show. Of course we got the hits! The song also serves as an illustration of the sometimes-symbiotic nature of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio; I began playing it last year, Dana got hooked on it immediately, and now he's the one playing it as I stand to the side applauding his choice. It works both ways, as I'll often run with some great track that Dana played first. That's what makes a hit.

DAVE CLARK AND FRIENDS: If You've Got A Little Love To Give




Somewhere within my mid '70s dive into learning all I could about the British Invasion, my study of The Dave Clark Five informed me of the existence of Dave Clark And Friends, a 1972 album that was the final collaboration between Clark and the DC5's incredible lead singer and keyboardist Mike Smith. I have never seen a copy of that LP. However, several years ago I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a two-for CD of suspect legitimacy--the sort of release that record sellers used to winkingly refer to as a "rare import" rather than a "bootleg"--combining Dave Clark And Friends with the final official DC5 album, The Dave Clark Five Play Good Old Rock & Roll. MINE! I couldn't buy it fast enough.



THE CORNER LAUGHERS: Sisters Of The Pollen


The Corner Laughers' new album Temescal Telegraph is due out June 5th from the good folks at Big Stir Records, it's flippin' fabulous, and I'm ordering all of you to buy it. NOW! Don't argue with the blogger. Led by singer-songwriter Karla Kane, The Corner Laughers made their TIRnRR debut in 2006 with "You Two Are The Ones," a track from their album Tomb Of Leopards. Tomb Of Leopards was released by Sandbox Records, which was piloted by the late, great Marty Rudnick. Marty hipped me to the beauty, the splendor, the wonder of The Corner Laughers, and I remain grateful. A lot of the songs on Temescal Telegraph remind me of XTC without feeling at all derivative, and with more ukulele. If I did year-end Top Ten lists, this would already be a strong contender. 



THE FLASHCUBES: No Promise



I've been writing a book called The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). When I get self-conscious about how often I mention the book here, I remind myself that, y'know, what's the point of having my own blog if I can't gush about the projects that get me fired up? I've been reviewing and tightening the chapters already written, and my stupid, fannish enthusiasm for my own work remains undiminished.

And The Flashcubes' "No Promise" is The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE FOUR TOPS: Standing In The Shadows Of Love


I'm not sure when I realized that The Four Tops were my favorite Motown group. My first conscious exposure to the Tops wasn't even with a Motown record, but with their 1973 AM radio hit "Are You Man Enough" on ABC-Dunhill. Although it's likely that I heard a bunch of their earlier gems as a little kid in the '60s, I didn't retain any awareness of them. Instead, I rediscovered all of that in the late '70s.

I think my gateway to Motown-era Four Tops was "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)," which led me to "It's The Same Old Song," which led me to a beat-up Motown anthology at the flea market, which led me to a used copy of The Four Tops' Greatest Hits. That LP was probably the first single-artist Motown album I owned. I liked The Supremes and The Temptations and The Miracles and Stevie Wonder, but yeah, The Four Tops were indeed tops with me. Levi Stubbs, man. No one could invest more passion and force into a 45 rpm record than Levi Stubbs could.

"Standing In The Shadows Of Love" has never been my # 1 favorite Four Tops track--that designation has shifted back and forth between "It's The Same Old Song" and "Reach Out I'll Be There"--but it's up there. In college circa 1979, I remember actively despising Rod Stewart's smarmy cover of the song. Rod Stewart was okay, I guess. But he was no Levi Stubbs.



THE JAM: The Eton Rifles



I've written previously of how I became a fan of The Jam in the late '70s. "The Eton Rifles" is from The Jam's 1979 album Setting Sons, which is not only my favorite Jam album, but one of my all-time Top 25 albums in any category. The album is long overdue for a retrospective in my series Love At First Spin.

THE JIVE FIVE: What Time Is It?



Back to The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Here's a snippet from the chapter discussing "What Time Is It?" by The Jive Five:

The Jive Five's "What Time Is It?" (a song much later covered by Marshall Crenshaw) is one of the most heavenly-sounding records ever made. And it sums up the sweet anticipation of the big date tonight with greater joy and eloquence than any other record I've ever heard...

...The giddy wellspring of hope and promise, the potential redemptive power of a love story about to write its introductory chapter, are essential components in our collective concept of the first date as a rite of passage. And it is the irresistible tableau of The Jive Five's dreamy, delicious celebration "What Time Is It?"....

Better hurry up and put my tie on.

THE PALEY BROTHERS AND THE RAMONES: Come On Let's Go



The combined forces of The Paley Brothers and Ramones provided me with my second-hand introduction to Ritchie Valens's fantastic 1958 debut hit "Come On, Let's Go." As much as I came to dig the Valens original, I regard the Paley/Ramones cover version as definitive.

The track was originally issued in 1978 on a Paley Brothers EP, but I knew it from the soundtrack of The Ramones' 1979 movie Rock 'n' Roll High School. I don't remember whether I bought that album right before or shortly after first seeing the film in a crowded nightclub on July 6th of '79, a Friday at the end of a week from Hell. The screening preceded lives sets from The Flashcubes and The Ramones themselves, and lemme tell ya, that's how ya celebrate a rock 'n' roll movie. 



I think I bought the album after seeing the film, though it could have been the other way around. It became one of my go-to albums that summer. Syracuse's 95X had been playing the movie's title track, so I definitely at least heard that song prior to seeing the movie (and to hearing The Ramones include it in their live set). The LP included great stuff by Devo, Alice Cooper, Brownsville Station, Chuck Berry, Nick Lowe, and Eddie and the Hot Rods, the film's star (and my newest crush) P. J. Soles warbling her version of "Rock 'n' Roll High School," less interesting (to me) selections from Eno and Todd Rundgren, some live Ramones cuts, and two new Ramones studio tracks heard in the film, the lovely ballad (Ballad...?!) "I Want You Around" and, of course, "Rock 'n' Roll High School." It did not include the Paul McCartney, MC5, and Velvet Underground songs played within the film itself. It did include "Come On Let's Go," its credit reversed to "Ramones with The Paley Brothers." Sorry boys; gotta give top billing to the stars of the picture.

But enough about them. Let's talk about P. J. Soles....



THE ROLLING STONES: Get Off Of My Cloud

Hearing "Get Off Of My Cloud" on the radio is my earliest memory of The Rolling Stones. The songs earns a chapter in The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

1965 was pop music's best year ever. I was five, and although I was old enough to know a bunch of songs I heard on the radio, I didn't start to truly appreciate the year's bounty until more than a decade later, when I began to discover essential '65 gems by The Kinks, Wilson Pickett, James Brown, Buck Owens, The Yardbirds, The Beau Brummels, The Byrds, The Four Tops, The Temptations, Paul Revere & the Raiders, Fontella Bass, The Small Faces, The Dixie Cups, The Vogues, The Who, The Zombies, The Miracles, The Hollies, George Jones, Stevie Wonder, and so, so many more. Whatta year! The best stuff was popular, and the popular stuff was the best.

"Get Off Of My Cloud" was the first Rolling Stones song I ever knew, a radio smash in '65. Even if I had to wait until teendom to understand the splendor that was all around me when I was five, there was still much I knew as it happened. I certainly knew "Get Off Of My Cloud." I may not have had reason to believe The Rolling Stones were substantively different from contemporary hitmeisters like The Dave Clark Five, Herman's Hermits, The Castaways, or Gary Lewis & the Playboys, but I remember that voice bellowing out of transistor radios: Don't hang around boy, two's a crowd! At five, I thought the twisting of the familiar "Two's company, three's a crowd" maxim was interesting. This record was probably my introduction to the idea of a song having swagger...

...As an avowed pop fan, I've found that some rock fans think that maybe I don't like the Stones. But I do. For a very brief period in the early '80s, I even preferred The Rolling Stones to The Beatles (though I got over that phase pretty fast!). Granted, there are a number of Stones perennials--"Brown Sugar," "Miss You," "Start Me Up"--that I would be just fine with NEVER EVER HEARING AGAIN. Ahem. I'm pretty well over "Shattered" by now, too. But The Rolling Stones were a pop band, especially in the '60s. They were, in fact, a terrific pop band. I like to invoke Bob Segarini's joke about The Rolling Stones being "The World's Luckiest Bar Band," but even a really, really lucky bar band doesn't come up with the riffs, doesn't quite pull off the attitude, and--most importantly--doesn't craft those hooks that made The Rolling Stones essential radio fare. And if you think that ain't good enough for pop music...well, don't hang around, boy--two's a crowd....

On my cloud, baby.

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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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Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 134 essays about 134 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).