My thoughts on pop music and pop culture, plus the weekly playlists from THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO with Dana and Carl (Sunday nights 9 to Midnight Eastern, SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM in Syracuse, sparksyracuse.org). You can support this blog on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/user?u=2449453 Twitter @CafarelliCarl
All editorial content on this blog Copyright Carl Cafarelli (except where noted). All images copyright the respective owners TIP JAR at https://www.paypal.me/CarlCafarelli
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.
For reasons to be revealed soon--no, really!--I'm gonna be using that three-word-phrase a lot in 2023. So, after last week's epic countdown show, I wanted to open our first regular show of the year with a spin of "Pinhead," the classic Ramones track that introduced "Gabba Gabba Hey!" into the popular lexicon.
In programming the show, I was amazed when I discovered that we had never before played "Pinhead" on TIRnRR. "Pinhead" is one of the Ramones' definitive gems, and the Ramones are among the top most-played acts in this little mutant radio show's long and storied history. But we just never got around to spinning that particular track. We finally corrected that oversight this week.
And again: GABBA GABBA HEY!
RANK AND FILE: Amanda Ruth
The happenstance of "Pinhead" making its overdue TIRnRR debut dovetailed with Dana's determination to play a number of tracks we ain't never played here before. That plan brought the mighty Rank and File into the TIRnRR universe, with a spin of their superb 1982 single "Amanda Ruth." We play the hits. There are a lot of hits out there. Sometimes it just takes us a little while to get to 'em.
JOSIE COTTON: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker
And we're not the only ones who might run late in getting to the rockin' pop gala. Major record label weasels can be among the most guilty parties ever, sitting on perfectly fine potential releases, lettin' 'em languish in the vault as the weasels' myopic attention span flits to some other glittery piece o' pyrite.
In the early '80s, Josie Cotton released two albums on Elektra, 1982's Convertible Music and 1984's From The Hip. She scored some notice with her singles "Johnny, Are You Queer?" and "He Could Be The One," appeared with her band in the movie Valley Girl, and got some MTV play with her cover of the Looking Glass' "Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne" (and I regard her version of that as the version).
Alas, the units sold weren't sufficient to satisfy the weasels, and her 1986 album Everything Is Oh Yeah was not released at the time. It was retrieved and rescued in 2019 by the non-weasel Cleopatra label. Hooray for the non-weasels!
From Everything Is Oh Yeah, Dana selected our Josie's cover of the Ramones' "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" for airplay, adding that it's still as fresh as anything this newfangled 21st century can offer, and that it sounds like it could have been Josie Cotton backed by the contemporary oomph of the Linda Lindas. Which would be a great idea.
Meanwhile: I'm ordering my own copy of Everything Is Oh Yeah, and Dana will be playing another cut off that album on our next show. Can't let the weasels win, man. Can't let the weasels win.
CLIFF HILLIS: Good Morning And Goodnight
Of course, new songs likewise provide an ongoing opportunity to expand the ol' playlist. The new Cliff Hillis single "Good Morning And Goodnight" was co-written by long-time TIRnRR Fave Rave Kelley Ryan, who also sings along with Mr. Cliff on this engaging little number. A check of the archives shows we've played three other Cliff Hillis tracks--"Madeline," "Turn On A Dime," and his cover of Tommy Roe's "Dizzy"--at some points in our first 24 years on the air. We need to play more, and we will. We'll start with another play for "Good Morning And Goodnight" next week.
ABBA: On And On And On
Some of our listeners dig ABBA, and some do not. We're still working on politely bludgeoning the non-believers into compliance. But man, I heard this song last month on Michael McCartney's fabulous show The Time Machine(on Maui's Mana'o Radio), and I knew we needed to get it into one of our own playlists as soon as we possibly could. Thanks for the inspiration, Michael!
How in the world could it be that we've never played either of these Big Stir Records singles? We need a better class of minions. Or, first, I guess we need minions. None of these acts is exactly a stranger to TIRnRR;Dear Stella's simply superlative "Time Machine" was one of our most-played tracks in 2020, we've played a bunch of stuff by the Forty Nineteens(including "Late Night Radio," the A-side of "Crocodile Tears"), and a bunch of Kai Danzberg works, too. Still: any record you ain't heard (or played) is a new record. Looking for new? These are as good as new.
TAJ MAHAL: E Z Rider
Taj Mahal was always a little bit outside my sphere of familiarity. I don't recall hearing him on the radio, though I betcha some FM station may have played a Mahal track or two when I wasn't paying attention. When I was a teenager in the '70s and when I managed a record store in the '80s, I saw Taj Mahal LPs on the racks, but didn't even think about investigating the sounds. There were so many punk and power pop and hyphenate-rock releases to occupy my starry eyes and eager ears; an artist filed under BLUES wasn't toppermost of my poppermost.
I'm not sure when Taj Mahal's music finally did enter my sovereign airspace, but he's been an occasional star in our playlists over the past year or so. I was particularly taken with "Ain't That A Lot Of Love" (which he also performed on The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus) and his ace cover of Dave Dudley's country touchstone "Six Days On The Road." I had these as digital tracks, but in October I added a CD of his 1968 album Taj Mahal to my library of physical media. More to come.
THE RAMONES: I Wanted Everything
Yet another Ramones track we somehow failed to program until now. In 2001, as a freelance writer for Goldmine magazine, I reviewed Rhino's CD reissues of the first four Ramones albums, and I regret to say I gave short shrift to their incredible fourth album Road To Ruin.
I disavow that now.
Sure, Road To Ruinwas heavier than its rockin' pop punk predecessors Ramones, Leave Home, and Rocket To Russia, but it ain't exactly metal, dig? And it is as absolutely, utterly unforgettable as the first three Ramones albums. "I Just Want To Have Something To Do." "I Wanna Be Sedated." The bubblecountry experiment "Don't Come Close," the twangy ballad "Questioningly," the cover of the Searchers' "Needles And Pins," the breathless rush of "She's The One"...Great googly-GABBA-GABBA!-moogly, this stuff is great. WHAT WAS I THINKING...?!
So I've been listening to Road To Ruin again. I first heard the album late in 1978, when Rochester radio station WCMF-FM played the record in its entirety. It was a midnight album spin, and I sat in the suite area of my college dorm room, my new girlfriend Brenda dozing, her head on my shoulder. I just want to have something to do.
And I wanted everything.
Brenda and I had just started dating. We're still together now. For Christmas this year, knowing that 2023 was looking to be a big Ramones year for me, Brenda gave me a Ramones hoodie and a Road To Ruin jigsaw puzzle. The road to ruin? That's not the path we traveled, but it is the soundtrack we chose. And another Road To Ruin track will make its belated TIRnRR debut next week.
Yeah: I wanted everything. I got it. Here's to the road, and its rewards. The pieces come together when they can.
If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.
This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.
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.
"Girl Don't Tell Me" occupies an incongruous but significant slot in my story of belatedly becoming a fan of The Beach Boys. I've previously written (principally here and here) of my slower'n slow path from thinking The Beach Boys were uncool to regarding them as one of my favorites.
But I don't think I've mentioned the specific importance of "Girl Don't Tell Me" in that evolution. It was almost incidental; I knew the song from my old copy of the Endless Summer compilation, so it wasn't anything new to me when I heard it again in, I guess, the late '80s. I had borrowed a copy of the Capitol Records two-fer CD reissue of Beach Boys albums Today! and Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), a loan courtesy of the local library.
My interest in The Beach Boys at this point was slightly more than perfunctory, considerably less than devoted. But something clicked for me this time. I was enjoying the CD, but for some reason that familiar 17th track stood out, and hooked me in a way it hadn't before. "Girl Don't Tell Me." It had a Beatles aura about it, yet it sounded uniquely American, Californian, Beach Boys '65. It was roughly contemporary to my favorite Beatles albums. It was fantastic, just inviting and all-encompassing.
And it set me on the better-late-than-never path to discover and eventually adore this Beach Boys music I'd mostly ignored for so long. I bought all the Capitol two-fers. I bought the Pet Sounds CD reissue as soon as it hit the stores. Later, I bought the Pet Sounds boxed set, the first of a few occasions where I shelled out cash for a multi-disc collection of what had originally been a single LP. All worth it, though. And for me, a proper appreciation of The Beach Boys began with "Girl Don't Tell Me."
BOW WOW WOW: C30 C60 C90 ANDA!
Bow Wow Wowsinging in Spanish? ¡Me gusta esta!
DEAR STELLA: Time Machine
I can't get enough of this track. In a previous 10 Songs, I compared Dear Stella's "Time Machine" to Olivia Newton-John fronting Cheap Trick. That first impression reinforces itself every time I listen. Like, what if Cheap Trick had replaced Electric Light Orchestra in collaborating with Newton-John for the music in her 1980 flick Xanadu? No, I didn't see the movie either, but that's beside the point. The sound woulda been awesome, and it would have sounded at least a bit like "Time Machine." This is absolutely one of my favorite tracks of the year.
THE DIXIE CUPS: Iko Iko
Like Mary Poppins and The Ramones, The Dixie Cups' "Iko Iko" is practically perfect in every way. I considered playing the originally-unreleased a cappella version (which refers to a boy as "a sex machine," and probably wouldn't have made it to the radio in 1965), but nothing compares to the well-known hit rendition. The Greatest Record Ever Made? Well...yeah.
THE FOUR TOPS: Baby I Need Your Loving
It is possible for a pop song to be both smooth and powerful at the same time. I mean, The Righteous Brothers demonstrated it with their version of "Unchained Melody," and The Four Tops owned the concept on their break-through 1964 hit "Baby I Need Your Loving."
THE KINKS: (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman
Bert Parks' greatest hit. Sort of.
The Kinks' 1979 album Low Budget brought the group a commercial resurgence in America, moving them from modest concert halls to arenas. Its release was preceded by the single "(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman," which was a seemingly incongruous mix of our dedicated followers of fashion with a disco beat. Faster than a speeding leisure suit, more powerful than a mirrored ball, able to leap over tall velvet ropes in a single bound, the record is flush with Ray Davies' characteristic cantankerousness, and it was accepted by rockers who would not have been caught dead with any kind of Saturday night fever. Disco? The Rolling Stones did it. KISS did it. Blondie had their first U.S. hit by doin' it. Even the razzafrazzin' Grateful Dead did it with "Shakedown Street," though every Deadhead I knew denied the fact and the beat. So why shouldn't The Kinks make a disco record? The Kinks pulled it off, and The Kinks got bigger.
And then...Bert Parks.
1979 was the final year that Parks would host the annual Miss America beauty pageant. He had been that show's host since about, oh, the dawn of time, and he was about to be kicked aside and replaced by someone younger, if not exactly hipper. "Hipper" and "Miss America beauty pageant" were definitely not two great tastes that taste great together. Actor (and former TV Tarzan) Ron Ely took over the job in 1980 and '81.
By '79, I was not in the habit of watching the Miss America broadcast. Whatever interest I could have derived from seeing pretty girls on my TV screen was overshadowed by the sheer hokiness of such an emphatically four-cornered spectacle. But that year, my girlfriend asked me to be her plus-one at the wedding of one of her dearest friends, so I accompanied her out of town for the event. We had some down time one evening, and we found ourselves watching TV.
Miss America.
Bert Parks.
The...Kinks...?!
No, Muswell Hill's finest didn't show up to warble "Theeeere she is, Miss America...!" That would have been odd, but interesting. Instead, Bert Parks himself lent his golden throat to a never-before, never-again, why-in-God's-name-in-the-first-place performance of "(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman." Parks concluded the brief songlet by ripping open his shirt to reveal the Superman shield on his chest.
I was horrified. Transfixed, car-crash hypmotized, unable to turn away, scarred for life, damaged beyond repair, a gas-strike, oil-strike, lorry-strike, bread-strike pinned-in-place deer in the disco lights. Hey, girl. We gotta get out of this place.
You don't believe me? Lord, I wish it had only been the hallucination it seemed. But no! It was real. Check out this YouTube clip, and go directly to the 38:08 mark...IF YOU DARE!
So. Bert Parks' final gig as Miss America pageant host. Coincidence? Maybe. Or further evidence that you don't tug on Superman's cape. And, for God's sake, you don't mess with The Kinks.
THE LAST: Lies
When I was in college, my favorite rock magazine was Bomp!, which I adored even more than I adored CREEM and Trouser Press. I read about The Last in Bomp! circa 1979, and I was sufficiently intrigued by the write-up (without having heard the music) to make a mail order purchase of The Last's debut single "She Don't Know Why I'm Here." It arrived alongside its partner purchases (The Romantics' "Tell It To Carrie" 45 and The Sex Pistols' Spunk bootleg), and it did not disappoint. I remember telling Flashcubes guitarist Paul Armstrong about "She Don't Know Why I'm Here," describing it as a cross between the Pistols and The Castaways (of "Liar, Liar" fame). The Last and The Flashcubes were both on a Bomp! compilation album called Waves. I bought The Last's debut album L.A. Explosion!, and eagerly awaited more from this fab combo.
"More" did come eventually from The Last, but the specific follow-up to L.A. Explosion!--1980's Look Again--was not released at the time. It has just finally seen the light of day, proving that even 2020 is good for something. I'm very, very happy.
IRENE PEÑA: It Must Be Summer
Willful denial as winter approaches. Though this cover of the Fountains Of Wayne gem (performed by America's Sweetheart Irene Peña) retains the original's sense of a bummer of a summer, which is certainly fitting for 2020.
Heartbreak, capitulation and acceptance--and that's all apparently taken place before the song's even started.The ultimate stiff-upper-lip ditty, as the ex-lover bows out gracefully, but leaves the girl with his card...just in case things change.
VAN HALEN: Dance The Night Away
The death of a popular performer can strike one in surprising ways. This can be true even when it's a performer you were never really into to begin with. Sudden, overdue perspective can strike from anywhere. I was never a Van Halen fan, and guitarist Eddie Van Halen's unexpected passing this year isn't going to change that. But I've always liked (and occasionally loved) VH's 1979 hit "Dance The Night Away," and its eventual addition to TIRnRR's little Play-Tone Galaxy O' Stars was inevitable. With this week's show, we've now played the song twice, and odds are we'll play it again.
What wasn't inevitable--and, in fact, I woulda thought you flat-out loco if you suggested it--was for me to ever consider adding a Van Halen entry to my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Crazy. Absurd! And yet...yeah, it's there, in the updated Table of Contents: Van Halen, "Dance The Night Away," currently nestled in between The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer In The City" and a piece about The Tottenham Sound of The Beatles. Didn't see that coming, but it feels undeniable now. DANCE!
You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 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.
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.
It's likely that I had read about British group Bow Wow Wow in the pages of Trouser Press prior to snagging an import copy of their debut single "C30 C60 C90 GO!" at Brockport's Main Street Records in the early '80s, but I had not yet heard the music itself. I think I bought that on the same record store visit that netted me the "Older Women" 45 by Rochester new wave aces New Math, and possibly at the same time that I also scored a used copy of The Velvet Underground's first album. Productive day. I associate all three platters with a trip to see friends in Albany, a time spent partying and playing records with my high school pals Jay and Beth. The Bow Wow Wow single was definitely a part of that.
A bit later, Bow Wow Wow scored in America with a hit cover of The Strangeloves' "I Want Candy," prompting me to buy another Bow Wow Wow 45. I like that version, but I regret that so few Americans seem aware of any of the group's other work. "Do You Wanna Hold Me?" did gather some recognition, via a little bit of radio play and a little more MTV play.
SOLOMON BURKE: Everybody Needs Somebody To Love
Solomon Burke's soul nugget "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" was at the heart of one of the many weird moments in the long and storied history of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. I don't remember when exactly it was--probably somewhere during our first few years on the air, say from 1999 to 2001, 2002, maybe 2003, whatever. One Sunday night in the studio, Dana played The Nails' left-of-the-dial stalwart "88 Lines About 44 Women." And I had an epiphany. Yeah, another one. I'm just full of epiphanies.
Then, as now, TIRnRR playlists were generally concocted on the fly, as Dana would react to whatever track I played and vice versa, that essential rockin' pop volley hammering out the framework for whatever the hell it is we do on the radio. But that night, as I listened to The Nails rattling off their 88 lines about their 44 women, I suddenly realized that only one song could possibly follow it.
Solomon Burke. "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love." Of course.
And I was convinced that if I didn't play Solomon Burke's testimonial of everybody needing somebody to love immediately--IMMEDIATELY!--after The Nails' record ended, some cosmic force would strike me dead right then and there. I quickly rummaged through my shoebox of CDs. Did I even have the song with me? I thought I did, and...YES! There it was! I fumbled the CD case into Dana's hands, his disinterested demeanor never changing as he popped the disc into the player and segued smoothly from the fading Nails into King Sol. I was saved!
As were we all. Testify, Brother Solomon. Testify.
DEAR STELLA: Time Machine
Dear Stellais the DBA of Stefanie Drexler, a singer, songwriter, and producer originally from Austria. Dear Stella's just-released debut EP Time Zonesfinds Drexler working with such pop luminaries as Bleu, Eric Barao, David Myhr, and Kai Danzbergto craft a sextet of scrumptious confections that call to mind everyone from Klaatuto Mandy Moore, ELO to Idina Menzel, everywhere from Broadway to the beach. It's modern pop music, potentially capable of connecting with a mainstream audience, and simultaneously imbued with an innate sense and command of pop history.
Billed as the record's overture, "Time Machine" (co-written by Drexler and Bleu) summons all influences in an over-the-top kitchen-sink approach that's captivating and agreeable. Ambitious, sweeping, and confident, "Time Machine" sets the WABAC for some imaginary era where Olivia Newton-John fronts Cheap Trick. And it accomplishes all of this without resorting to pilferage, building upon influences to generate something new. Man, when the guitars and vocals go all seismic at about the 2:05 mark? Magic. Magic. More!
THE FOUR TOPS: Something About You
Dumplin'! Dumplin'!
My memory insists that I first became aware of "Something About You" via Dave Edmunds' cover version on his 1984 album Riff Raff. My memory is probably correct in this case, but I did own a copy of The Four Tops' Greatest Hits album by then, and that LP includes The Four Tops' original version of the song. Looking back, I guess my interest in Tops classics "It's The Same Old Song," "Reach Out I'll Be There," "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)," "Baby I Need Your Loving," "Standing In The Shadows Of Love," and "Bernadette" just overshadowed "Something About You" to an extent sufficient to cloud my mind so I couldn't notice it.
But it's a fantastic track. Edmunds did a swell job with it, but ya can't compete with the Tops' Levi Stubbs. The choice of opening the song with cries of "Dumplin'" as a term of endearment is...unique. On-line lyric sites insist the line is Darlin'! Darlin'!, but Stubbs is clearly singing Dumplin' on at least the second word (though it probably is Darlin' on the first). DUMPLIN'! Well. The girl he loves must indeed be the apple of his eye, then.
GRETCHEN'S WHEEL: You Should Know
When it comes to the music of Lindsay Murray and her nom du bop Gretchen's Wheel, I was late to the party, and I still have a lot of catching up to do. I was floored by the song "Plans" on the 2018 Gretchen's Wheel album Black Box Theory, and Murray's newest GW effort Such Open Sky does not disappoint in the slightest. "You Should Know" is the Such Open Sky track selected for airplay this week, but we could just as well have gone with "Sharp Relief" or "Infernal Machine" or "Can't Shake The Feeling" or "Interloper" or...yeah, the whole record. You can't go wrong with Gretchen's Wheel.
KID GULLIVER: Forget About Him
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 TIRnRRFave 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.
"Words" was one of the kingpins, along with "The Door Into Summer," "Daily Nightly," "Love Is Only Sleeping," and "What Am I Doing Hangin' 'Round?," all from the Pisces album. I loved the way the bass line seems to coil like a cobra poised to strike, the shimmering, mesmerizing vibe, the pounding throb as it heads near the chorus, the sheer majesty of Micky Dolenz's vocal, and...and...
...and Peter Tork.
Tork did not take many lead vocal turns in the official Monkees canon. Vault raids in subsequent decades would exhume a few additional Tork-sung artifacts, and our Peter would much later deliver his best-ever vocal on "Wasn't Born To Follow," contained on the group's 2016 triumph Good Times! But in the midst of original Monkeemania, producers deemed his singing pitchy, and didn't use him. Tork's voice is really heard but four times on that era's records: warbling the silly novelty number "Your Auntie Grizelda" on More Of The Monkees, rocking his own "Long Title: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again" on the Head soundtrack, sharing a back-and-forth lead with Davy Jones on the Headquarters track "Shades Of Grey," and doing the same thing with Dolenz on "Words."
"Words" was and remains my pick of the bunch.
ORBIS MAX WITH EMPEROR PENGUIN: Talk To Me
Orbis Max is one prolific pop act, a hands-across-the-land-and-water combo that's been collaborating from remote locations since long before pandemic cooties introduced the rest of us to such things. Orbis Max is no stranger to the TIRnRRplaylist. "Talk To Me," a joint venture between Orbis Max and Emperor Penguin, is their best yet. And by "best" I mean THIS IS FRIGGIN' AWESOME...!!
DUSTY SPRINGFIELD: I Only Want To Be With You
The Greatest Record Ever Made!Settled law. Evidence presented here, video testimonial here.
THE SWING SET: Trying To Get You Out Of My Mind
I don't really know anything at all about the Rochester, NY group The Swing Set or their 1985 single "You That I'm Thinking Of"/"Trying To Get You Out Of My Mind." The tracks were brought to my attention by Mike Murray, host of the fabulous radio show Whole Lotta Shakin', heard Saturdays from 4 to 6 pm Eastern at WRUR-FM in Rochester, WITH-FM in Ithaca, and webmorized at https://www.wrur.org/ If you like TIRnRR, you'll like Whole Lotta Shakin'.
And Mike figured--correctly--that I would dig The Swing Set. Both tracks are jangly, catchy examples of '60s-influenced pop music, but "Trying To Get You Out Of My Mind" is particularly boppin' and sprightly, and appropriately impossible to get out of your mind once you've heard it. I can imagine unique covers of the song by The Knack, Any Trouble, The Go-Go's, The Bangles, or even The Supremes, although The Swing Set's original doesn't really sound like any of those acts. Somebody oughtta play this stuff on the radio.
You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 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).
