10 SONGS: 1/20/2023

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 # 1164. This show is available as a podcast.

THE SMITHEREENS: House We Used To Live In

This week marked my 63rd birthday. The start of my 64th solar revolution coincides with the ritual emptying of my late mom's house, as my family prepares for the transition of our childhood home into the hands of its new owners. It is time, and it's okay. But in that context, there was only one song that could possibly open this week's show. Sing, you Smithereens. 

MIKE BROWNING: Blood Of Oblivion

"Blood Of Oblivion" is the latest single from Mike Browning, an able 'n' engaging cover of a 1967 track by an obscure Denver, Colorado group called the Rainy Daze. I was not at all familiar with the original, so Mike's version prompted me to bop over to YouTube and check that one out, too. And it's pretty good--if it's possible for something to be both psychedelic and sunshine pop at the same time, that description would apply to the Rainy Daze's "Blood Of Oblivion"--and I can dig why Mike Browning was drawn to it in the first place. Hell, I wish I'd heard it a bit earlier in my own timeline.

That said, I do prefer Mike's version. The Rainy Daze bring a period-appropriate...I dunno, preciousness to their recording; it's cool, and very much of its time. Mike approaches the song in a more straightforward fashion, creating a track that's radio-ready in the here and now. Radio-ready? Hey, WE have a radio show! And we're ready to play this again next week.

THE RAMONES: Go Mental

If I seem melancholy about my age or about letting go of the house I used to live in, let me assure you I'm not. I embrace birthdays; every year you can add to your c.v. is another celebratory two-word kiss-off to all of your accumulated naysayers. You even get to choose your own two words, though the second word does tend to be ...YOU! 

I'm not suggesting "Go Mental!" as an appropriate choice either. But the music of the Ramones has been a huge part of my life for 45 years, and I hope it's going to be an even larger part of my life in 2023. Any excuse to play the Ramones is fine by me. And, oddly enough, we'd never gotten around to playing this track from the group's 1978 Road To Ruin album until now. Go mental? Okeydokey. We've never had all that far to go. The road goes on.

PEGGY LEE: Fever

There is cool, and then there is cool. Cool-as-a-fever cool. No other approximation of cool has ever been anywhere near the sizzling cool of Peggy Lee's 1958 absolute annexation of Little Willie John's "Fever." What a lovely way to burn.

THE TRAMMPS: Disco Inferno

The Trammps were a soul group from Philadelphia. They're recalled as a one-hit wonder for "Disco Inferno," though the group did break into the lower region of the Top 40 with previous singles "Hold Back The Night" (# 35 pop, # 11 R & B, and later covered ably by Graham Parker and the Rumour) and "That's Where The Happy People Go" (# 35 pop/# 10 R & B). "Disco Inferno" was their only big hit, and it wasn't really a pop hit at all upon its initial release in 1976, its flame extinguished at a peak of # 53 (though it did manage # 9 on the R & B chart). This particular inferno did not seem likely to provide an eternal flame.

But then: 1977. Saturday Night Fever. And everything changed.

I have never seen this movie. I say this not as some point of smug, misplaced pride in my place outside the mainstream; even as my taste has expanded sufficiently to embrace some of the disco music I once claimed to hate, my disinterest in discos and the disco scene remains stubborn and resolute. Maybe I'd like Saturday Night Fever if I gave it a chance. I have no immediate inclination to give it that chance. And the passage of time has not mellowed my disdain for the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" and "Night Fever."

"Disco Inferno" rises above all of that. Jesus, what an expertly crafted, perfectly produced record. The bass, the beat, the brass, the vocals, the pure soul. I heard somebody say. It transcends disco itself, just as the best power pop tracks transcend genre to be fully and simply what they are: great records. Burn baby burn. The dancefloor's getting hot. The DJ has just the right song for that situation.

THE DIXIE CUPS: Iko Iko

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE FLASHCUBES FEATURING RANDY KLAWON: Get The Message

RANDY KLAWON & JIM BONFANTI: Marlo Maybe

Guitarist Randy Klawon established his bona fides in the Cleveland music scene during the '60s, playing with the Choir and Cyrus Erie. He entered the TIRnRRverse last year, when Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes recruited Klawon to work with the 'Cubes on their cover of Cyrus Erie's "Get The Message." Klawon also teamed with Flashcubes bassist Gary Frenay and drummer Tommy Allen to form the Halfcubes, whose ace cover of the Guess Who's "Hand Me Down World" makes us eager to hear more.

Now, Klawon has joined forces with former Raspberries drummer Jim Bonfanti for a new single, "Marlo Maybe." Commenting on the track's origin, Klawon says, "I wanted to write a song that I imagined could have been a single by the Hollies, tapping into their great harmonies and fingerprint guitar lines." Mission accomplished! Will next week's TIRnRR bring another spin of "Marlo Maybe?" Strike the "maybe." Marlo for sure, my friends. Marlo for damned sure. 

THE CYNZ: Tell That Girl To Shut Up

A Holly and the Italians cover? Yeah, we approve. I confess I didn't really get into Transvision Vamp's UK hit version at the time of its 1988 release (though I like it a lot more now than I did then), but the Cynz can nearly stand toe-to-toe with Holly and her paisans. Considering the fact that Holly and the Italians' 1981 album The Right To Be Italian remains among my favorites of the '80s, that ain't faint praise. Tell that girl to TESTIFY!

THE RAMONES: I Don't Want To Grow Up

As always: Don't wanna. Won't need to. Ain't gonna.

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.

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE: Iko Iko

This was prepared as a chapter in my hypothetical book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), but is not part of that project's current blueprint.

An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

THE DIXIE CUPS: Iko Iko

Written by James Crawford, Barbara Ann Hawkins, Rosa Lee Hawkins, and Joan Marie Johnson

Produced by Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Ellie Greenwich, and Jeff Barry

Single, Red Bird Records, 1965

Like Mary Poppins and the Ramones, the Dixie Cups' "Iko Iko" is practically perfect in every way. There's also much to be said for the group's originally-unreleased alternate 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.

"Iko Iko" predates the Dixie Cups, beginning its life as "Jock-A-Mo," a 1953 Checker Records 78 by Sugar Boy and his Cane Cutters. It was written by James "Sugar Boy" Crawford himself, a New Orleans pianist who crafted the tale of conflict between tribes of Mardi Gras Indians. Y'know, like West Side Story, without the star-crossed romance, and a few years before Officer Krupke. It didn't matter what the song's story was about; listeners heard lyrics about "jock-a-mo" and "iko iko" and presumed it was another "Lawdy Miss Clawdy." Crawford likely had no grander ambition than that anyway.

The Dixie Cups, a vocal group comprised of two sisters and a cousin--Barbara Ann Hawkins, Rosa Lee Hawkins, and Joan Marie Johnson--were also from New Orleans. They had a # 1 smash in 1964 with the Jeff Barry-Ellie Greenwich song "Chapel Of Love," the first single issued by Mike Leiber, Jerry Stoller, and George Goldner's Red Bird Records label. The Dixie Cups followed "Chapel Of Love"  with the # 12 hit "People Say," also by Barry-Greenwich, also on Red Bird, also in '64. Subsequent singles did not fare as well. 

The group's next and final hit was "Iko Iko" in 1965. In his liner notes to the Dixie Cups compilation The Complete Red Bird Recordings, music journalist Bill Dahl chronicles the genesis of the record:

"'Iko Iko' was a percussion-laden Carnival Day strut with saucy lyrics; its taping was unplanned. 'My grandmother used to sing that to us as kids,' says Barbara. 'We were in the process of doing some overdubbing or whatever, or we had just finished with the band, because all of the musicians were gone. And we started singing, and for the music we used a chair, a drumstick, a Coke bottle, an ashtray, and we put drums on it. Got the beat we wanted, and started singing.

"'We didn't realize that Jerry and Mike were in the booth listening. So when we started singing it, they said, "Hey girls, that sounds good! Do it again! Do it again!" So we did, and they turned the tape on. And then afterwards, they came out and talked to us. They said, "Well, what is that?" So we told 'em what it was all about. And that's how it was born...

"'...In my entire life, I had never heard "Jock-A-Mo,"' states Barbara unequivocally."

The members of the Dixie Cups received the songwriting credit on the Red Bird 45 of "Iko Iko," a notable accomplishment by itself, given how routinely the names of producers, moneymen, and random passers-by often made their way into the lucrative publishing end of hitmaking during this era. That seeming triumph is tarnished by tales of group members being screwed over financially and physically abused behind the scenes, an all-too-common occurrence within the cruel world of the entertainment industry. And elsewhere.

It's not implausible that Barbara, Rosa Lee, and Joan really did think "Iko Iko" was just a song their grandmother sang to them...but "Iko Iko" is indeed "Jock-A-Mo," albeit a "Jock-A-Mo" rearranged and rethought from its original solid but generic R & B bop into an all-time girl-group classic. Crawford's name was eventually added back to the credit.

The Dixie Cups deserve credit, too. Would we even know "Jock-A-Mo"/"Iko Iko" if the Dixie Cups hadn't rescued it from obscurity, and remade it into something better? No, most of us would not. For us to notice it, somebody had to set the damned flag on fire. That task fell to the Dixie Cups. Talkin' 'bout hey-now....

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 he

10 SONGS: 10/7/2021

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

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1097.

THE RAMONES: I Just Want To Have Something To Do

Well. Don't we all? Watch this space. Take it, C.J.!

THE CRUSHING VIOLETS: A Groovy Kind Of Love

We are a DIY radio show. We operate on a not-for-profit community radio station, broadcasting on low-power FM in the Syracuse market and webcasting to the four corners of the globe. The latter exercise continues to puzzle us, as we do realize that globes don't have corners. Nonetheless: onward! We pick our own playlists, concoct our own hype, and hope that only the music explodes, and not the equipment.

Each week, Dana and I sift through past favorites, recent acquisitions (both fresh and vintage), and sparklin' NEW releases to slap a show together. The process is as benevolent as an evil agenda can be.

Antanina Brooks has been following TIRnRR for a little bit, and she reached out to us to see if we might be interested in playing something by her own combo, the Crushing Violets. Okeydokey! Antanina sent us the latest Crushing Violets EP A Dream Without Color, and we picked their cover of the Mindbenders' "A Groovy Kind Of Love" to introduce the Crushing Violets to our little PlayTone Galaxy O' Stars. We'll aim to include one of the group's original songs in next week's show. 

THE DIXIE CUPS: Iko Iko

A sneak peek behind the curtain of TIRnRR's programming: this track was not originally in this week's playlist, at least not as Dana and I set it up on Tuesday. Prerecording the shows allows the luxury of occasionally changing my mind about one of my selections. I had another song in this spot--a popular hit record from the '70s, and a fine tune its own right--but it just didn't fit the flow of the playlist. Feel is a huge part of this little mutant radio program, and the feel wasn't there in this case. The Dixie Cups were available to come off the bench instead. The show is saved!

THE DUKES OF STRATOSPHEAR: Vanishing Girl

XTC, calling themselves the Dukes of Stratosphear, sounding like the Hollies, but in reality still XTC. I'm resilient when it comes to pop music, so none of that makes my head hurt. There are days when this is my favorite XTC track.

KID GULLIVER: Stupid Little Girl

Kid Gulliver has become a TIRnRR Fave Rave over the last, I dunno, year and a half or something. Sometimes a specific song--in this case, Kid Gulliver's fabulous "Forget About Him"--just sticks, and we wind up playing it a lot, a go-to track that defines whatever it is we do on this show. This feeds an interest in playing more of the artist's work. We generally play each Kid Gulliver single as soon as it's released.

"Stupid Little Girl" is the latest single, originally part of the group's 2021 EP Gimme Some Go! It was the only Gimme Some Go! cut we hadn't gotten around to playing--primarily because..hey, SQUIRREL!--but we've now remedied that with deliberate dispatch. We're not, y'know, stupid. It's also a video, and it's part of Kid Gulliver's first-ever full-length album, the just-released Kismet. Kismet collects all of your Kid Gulliver go-tos in one irresistible package, from "Boy In A Bubble" and "Beauty School Dropout" through TIRnRR Pick Hit "Forget Abou Him" and their cover of the Bee Gees' "I Started A Joke." Your helpful radio hosts suggest you buy it awready. Fave Raves need love, too.

THE ON AND ONS: Better Every Day

The On And Ons' 2020 EP Menacing Smile scored some significant burn on the ol' playlists, particularly with the ace track "9 Days." And you'd best prepare for additional scorch marks, because the On and Ons are BACK FOR MORE! Yes, as in Back For More, which is the title of their brand-new album. I am so clever it itches. But man, is this ever good stuff. Haven't decided yet whether we'll skip around the record for additional tracks, or if we'll just keep on (and on) pounding "Better Every Day." We win either way. And so do you!

IRENE PEÑA: In This Room

As much as I hate being late to a party, a great party can embrace the tardy and make us feel as welcome as its first revelers. It's been ten years since the release of Nothing To Do With You, the debut album from Irene Peña. We didn't hear about Irene until late 2016 (a story told here), and we've been playing catch-up ever since. 

And Irene's made it easy for everyone to catch up, as she continues the tenth-anniversary celebration of Nothing To Do With You by issuing each of its eleven tracks as individual digital singles, one single per month. We're up to track/single/divine gift # 8 with "In This Room," another luxurious sample of the sublime songcraft of Irene Peña. Late to the party? Yeah, that's me. Sorry about that! But I'm glad to be here now.

PRINCE: Hot Summer

"Hot Summer," from Prince's 2021 release Welcome 2 America, has become such a welcome earworm that I don't care that I'm still playing a summer song as the leaves fall and the temperature drops. I don't even care that I despise hot weather anyway. This song shines. Hot summer, yeah!

THE ROMANTICS: National Breakout

I never owned very many prerecorded cassettes. There were a few I recall--the soundtrack to Billy Jack, the New York Dolls' Too Much Too Soon, the Pretenders' Learning To Crawl, a fantastic Kinks collection called Golden Hour Of The Kinks, a various-artist gem called Garage Sale, a couple of budget Beatles albums, tapes by various local and/or indie acts, and a few others--but cassettes were mere conveniences for me. I'd occasionally pick up a cassette if the, y'know, real album--the LP--wasn't available.

I don't know why an LP of the Romantics' second album,1980's National Breakout, wouldn't have been available when I was in the market for or it; for whatever forgotten reason, I wound up with the tape instead. And I loved the title tune, which remains one of my top Romantics tracks. It should have been their national breakout, but the Romantics were still waiting for that grand success in 1980. Yeah, "What I Like About You" was on their debut album, but it wasn't a hit at the time; it became familiar after the fact, courtesy of MTV, but it never breached the Top 40. Nor did anything from National Breakout, nor from their heavier follow-up Strictly Personal. 1983's In Heat, with its hit singles "Talking In Your Sleep" and "One In A Million," was what finally gave the Romantics the national breakout they deserved.

I have the National Breakout album on CD now. I still have the cassette, too. I never did own it on vinyl.

THE NUTLEY BRASS: I Wanna Be Sedated

Well. Don't we all?

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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

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.

10 SONGS: 12/8/2020

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 # 1054.

THE BEACH BOYS: Girl Don't Tell Me

"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 Wow singing 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.

THE SPINNERS: I'll Be Around

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

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!

Just, like...y'know, keep Bert Parks out of it.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

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.