10 SONGS: 3/10/2023

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

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1171. This show is available as a podcast.

LULU: To Sir, With Love [Museum Outings Montage]

CAROLE KING: Where You Lead

THE MONKEES: Oh My My

Knowing that this week's show would air on my lovely wife Brenda's birthday, I wanted to open with a 1-2-3! half-set of songs for her. Happy Birthday, darlin'!

If Lulu's classic "To Sir, With Love" isn't Brenda's all-time # 1 pick hit, it's pretty damned close. Hell, Brenda used to use it as her ringtone. For TIRnRR purposes, we opted for the out-of-print Museum Outings Montage version from the To Sir, With Love soundtrack, drawn in by that track's additional verse and simpler arrangement. Irresistible! The well-known hit single take is likewise terrific; couldn't go wrong either way.

Carole King is absolutely Brenda's # 1 performer. Young Brenda fell hard for the Tapestry LP in the '70s, and has retained her cherished bond with the feel of the earth moving under her feet. We were able to see Carole King in concert in the '90s, a sublime show and a dream come true for Brenda. For this week's TIRnRR, I wanted a Tapestry track we hadn't played before, and picked "Where You Lead." The song is more familiar to me via King's 2000 remake with her daughter Louise Goffin, a version which served as the opening theme for the TV series Gilmore Girls. As listener Mike Browning said Sunday night while the Tapestry original played, "Lorelei and Rory are smiling."

Both Brenda and I discovered the Monkees' 1970 non-hit single "Oh My My" about a decade after the fact, via a well 'n' truly beat-up copy of the Monkees' sayonara LP Changes. "Oh My My" offers a great lead vocal performance by Micky Dolenz, and I wish the record were much better-known than it is. As I wrote in a piece celebrating my 25 favorite Monkees tracks, "My lovely wife Brenda's favorite Monkees song, a criminally-underrated failed single from 1970 that should have been a massive AM radio smash. Micky's vocal is so soulful, seething with desire as guitars stomp and churn. 'Oh My My' does not get its just due as one of the Monkees' greatest singles." 

THE CHAMBERS BROTHERS: In The Midnight Hour

Sensurround soul! The Chambers Brothers' epic rendition of Wilson Pickett's "In The Midnight Hour" is five and a half minutes of solid, seismic groove from the group's 1967 debut album The Time Has Come. It shares the monolithic everything-everywhere-at-once ambiance of their big hit "Time Has Come Today" (itself heard as an eleven-minute epic on this same album), applied to an already-nonpareil Southern sweat nugget and moving its needle into the redder'n red zone. Soulquake. Talk about feeling the earth moving under your feet.

CHRIS CHURCH: I Think I Think I Like You

Much of this week's playlist served as our thank-you note to some friends of TIRnRR who recently stepped up with a secret fundraiser for our community radio station. Lemme tell ya, we have the best friends. Our on-air parade o' gratitude kicked off with minty-fresh music from the mighty Chris Church, represented by this superfine selection from Chris' forthcoming new Big Stir Records release Radio Transient. "I Think I Think I Love You" translates its titular tongue-tied infatuation into pure love, pure pop, and a pure delight to hear on the radio. 

THE DECIBELS: Why Bother With Us

NEW MUSIC FROM THE DECIBELS! We've earned our keep by hipping you to this one. The Decibels' music is built of hooks and adrenaline, ready-made for rockin' pop radio. Their new album When Red Lights Flash is out TODAY from the visionary Kool Kat Musik label, and it well and truly merits all the decibels our mortal forces can muster. "Why bother with us?" Um...cuz it's GREAT! NEW MUSIC FROM THE DECIBELS!!!

THE SPONGETONES: (My Girl) Maryanne

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE BANGLES: The Real World

Our above-cited parade o' gratitude continued throughout this week's playlist, with spins of music by our generous and talented pals Pop Co-Op, Irene Peña, Eytan Mirsky, the Click Beetles, Allan Kaplon, Steve Stoeckel, Dolph Chaney, the Phenomenal Cats, Mr. Encrypto and the Ciphers, and that little old Gilmore Girls and Carole King fan Mike Browning. We also served up dedications to more friends and supporters, accomplished with we-know-you're-gonna-dig-this! selections by the Spongetones, Marshall Crenshaw, Arrogance, and Screen Test. 

For true-believer Michael McCartney (of the fabulous radio program The Time Machine on Maui's Mana'o Radio), the power of second-guessing suggests we maybe shoulda played Dear Stella's "Time Machine," an exuberantly triumphant gem that conjures a world where Olivia Newton-John made Xanadu with Cheap Trick. But that's hindsight, and we're good with our decision to dedicate the Bangles' "The Real World" to our Michael. Michael has expressed his fondness of the Bangles, and I know he appreciated this dedicated blast of Vicki, Debbi, Susanna, and Annette in his honor.

(As for Dear Stella's "Time Machine," that stellar Stella cut is way, way overdue to be heard again on the TIRnRR playlists. Next week's playlist will be devoted in its entirety to special countdown show, but Dear Stella will return to the Syracuse airwaves in the very near future.)

MR. ENCRYPTO AND THE CYPHERS: Home On The Radio

This track from This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 will be part of next week's special countdown show. Hope you can join us back here, right where we belong: home on the radio.

THE RAMONES: Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio is, of course, named after a line in the Ramones' "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?" Most weeks, Dana's unique TIRnRR edit of that track serves as our show's opening theme song, the "Where You Lead" to our Stars Hollow. This week, as part of the parade o' gratitude, we turned the lead-in spot over to Steve Stoeckel's "This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio Thank You." That left us free to close the show with "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?," specifically a live version from the Ramones' 1996 Greatest Hits Live! If memory serves, this was the final Ramones album released prior to the band hangin' up the ol' leather jackets for good. (We're Outta Here!, a document of their very last show, was released after the Ramones' individual roads to ruin diverged.)

The Ramones. The American Beatles. The greatest American rock 'n' roll band of all time. This is my year of the Ramones, like all other years, but more so. 

We need change and we need it fast

Before rock's just part of the past

'Cause lately it all sounds the same to me

Rock 'n' roll radio. Let's go. The Ramones did their part. We're doing ours, thanks in large measure to support from our friends. 

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. Stay tuned for more rock 'n' roll.

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Carl's new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is now available for preorder, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. Gabba Gabba YAY!!

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.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 SONGS: 12/22/2020

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 The 22nd Annual This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio Christmas Show.

JOHN AND YOKO: Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" was my favorite rock 'n' roll Christmas song for a long, long time, and it's still probably my all-time # 3 (and yes, the two that surpassed it will appear in the paragraphs below). I know that some folks don't like it or are sick of it, and that some even prefer that dishwater Paul McCartney thing (aka "The Cringe That Stole Christmas") when 'tis the season. 

I don't get that. Dig what you dig, of course, but man...I don't get that. To my ears, John and Yoko's Christmas single remains a stirring and engaging plea for peace on Earth, good will toward all. An obvious sentiment? I'm not looking for Proust here. "Happy Xmas" supplies the feels I want in my holiday music, its childlike hope (and children's chorus) never falling prey to the cynical or the overly earnest. It added an aching sense of melancholy forty years ago this month. But I never get tired of hearing it.

I'm not one of those who blithely bash Paul McCartney, either. Seeing Macca perform live in 2017 was the highlight of my concert-goin' career, I listen to solo Paul more often than I listen to solo John, and they were equal partners in the greatest rock 'n' roll band this world will ever experience. Nonetheless: I can't stand "Wonderful Christmastime." I absolutely adore "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)."

LAURIE BIAGINI: Can't Wait For Christmas

It has been way, way too long since the last time we heard Laurie Biagini on TIRnRR. We love Laurie's music, and her absence from recent playlists is the result of a three-hour weekly gig flyin' by before Dana and I even realize what we want to play. We'd make this a daily show if we weren't pretty sure the effort would kill us. One of my many goals for 2021 is to play some more Laurie Biagini on a few upcoming Sunday nights in Syracuse.

In the mean time, we return to Laurie's boppin' li'l holiday record "Can't Wait For Christmas," a lovely seasonal side that employs her Beach Boys-bred pop sensibility in delighted and delightful eagerness for the joy and wonder that awaits.  

THE DECIBELS: Christmas Wish

We missed the boat last year with A Kool Kat Kristmas Vol. 3, a fab 2019 compilation that we somehow didn't get around to hearing until after the Christmas show had aired. It's a terrific collection, and this track by The Decibels is one of many highlights. Can't go wrong with The Decibels!

BIBI FARBER AND THE MICHAEL LYNCH ORCHESTRA: Gonna Ask Santa Claus

My favorite pop-rock Christmas song of this young century so far, and my second favorite all-time. (We'll talk about my # 1 pick in just a sec.) This track is magic, and I mean it as a compliment when I say it sounds like something of a much older vintage, classic '50s or '60s rather than 2013. It's never been issued on CD. Somebody should remedy that.

RICHARD X. HEYMAN: I Can't Wait

Anticipation. I remember tossing and turning through the endless hours leading up to Christmas morning, finally bounding out of bed at an unholy and unlit early hour on the 25th to see what Santa had brought me. And yes, I remember all of this because it was just last year. Duh. Richard X. Heyman also remembers, and he expresses that sensation with effervescent eloquence in "I Can't Wait."

THE IDEA: It's About That Time

I can't fully explain why I love this song so much. Oh! I know! Because it's perfect. Perfect blend of giddy abandon and cool control, perfect embrace of December joy, perfect use of casual holiday elements--streets painted white, windows aglow with colored lights, on the TV It's A Wonderful Life--to craft a perfect Yuletune like no other. Yuletunes is the name of the 1991 Christmas compilation that gave us "It's About That Time" by The Idea (later Phil Angotti and the Idea), and it remains one of the all-time greatest Christmas albums. "It's About That Time" will likely always be my all-time favorite rockin' pop Christmas songs. Perfect.

THE MONKEES: Riu Chiu

In 1967, The Monkees did a live a cappella rendition of the 16th century Spanish song "Riu Chiu" in the Christmas episode of their TV series. The performance is riveting, and it should be used as a blunt instrument to strike any knuckleheaded pundit who still clings to the fiction that The Monkees were a talentless group of hacks. You, sir, are getting coal again this year. The Monkees' "Riu Chiu" will be the subject of this week's video rant in my YouTube series The Greatest Record Ever Made!

QUINT [featuring KAREN BASSET]: Bows Of Holly

Yes, it's a Sharknado Christmas! Sort of. "Bows Of Holly" comes to us courtesy of our pal Robbie Rist, who is one-half (with Anthony C. Ferrante) of Quint. Ferrante directed the Sharknado films, cinematic milestones that have employed a Quint track or two in their time. 

If it seems like something of a long shark-jump to get from Sharknado to bows of holly, well, chalk it up to visions of sugarchum: Ferrante's also the director of Beaus Of Holly, a holiday rom-com that debuted this month on ION Television. Movies need a soundtrack like shark-hunters need a bigger boat, so our lads Quint made with the seasonal sounds. And they recruited former Pandoras drummer (and TIRnRR Fave Rave) Karen Basset to sing lead on the homophonic title theme "Bows Of Holly." Jaws to the world!

THE SOUL STIRRERS: Christmas Means Love

We mistakenly identified this on-air as a track by the late, great Sam Cooke. It is not Sam Cooke, but it is Cooke's former group The Soul Stirrers. Oops. See, this is what we get for believing things read on the internet.

GEORGE HARRISON: Ding Dong, Ding Dong

Ring out the old, ring in the new. DEAL! Where do I sign...?!

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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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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.