5 ABOVE: Sick Day Edition

 5 Above picks five great things within a specific category. Look out below--these are five that rise above.

First off: I'M FINE! Honest. This isn't even my Sick Day. On this week's new episode of the Only Three Lads podcast, a scheduled guest had to concede Under-The-Weather status and cancel her O3L appearance at the last minute. This prompted the show's hosts Uncle Gregg and Brett Vargo to scrap their intended topic and pivot to an alternative: Top five tracks to listen to when you're sick.

Me? I suffer from chronic copycat syndrome. Ain't no cure. So I'm stealing this idea.

The first track to occur to me in this category was "You Sound Like You're Sick" by the Ramones. Upon further review, though, this didn't fit my idea of the concept: Songs you play to cheer yourself up when crusty 'n' contagious cooties bring ya down. We'll allow "You Sound Like You're Sick" the consolation chicken soup of airplay this coming Sunday night on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio With Dana and Carl. For today's list, we're channeling the Partridge Family: Get HAPPY!

For today's 5 Above, we're sticking to the classic alternative era, which O3L defines as the 1970s, '80s, and '90s. But we'll step out of that era for a couple of...

...HONORABLE MENTIONS!

FREDDIE AND THE DREAMERS: Do The Freddie

The transcendence and triumph of the unapologetically goofy. Freddie and the Dreamers' 1965 novelty number "Do The Freddie" never fails to make me smile. My long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is based on the notion that an infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record, as long as they take turns. "Do The Freddie" gets a turn. This should get lots of turns. It's the thing to do! Kids will envy you! Nothing can exorcise the yuckies quite like the Freddie can.

EYTAN MIRKY: This Year's Gonna Be Our Year

If Eytan Mirsky's 2012 track "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" had been released in the O3L era, it woulda been a contender for # 1 on my list, and settled for a close # 2. What a great, GREAT song, absolutely one of my all-time favorites. It's snippy and stubborn, but simultaneously aspirational and full of...hopeless hope. Things probably aren't going to get better. But we're barrelin' ahead anyway. THIS year!

It just occurred to me that "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" came out the same year I lost my dad. What a weird dovetail, but I guess it's also appropriate. There will never be a shortage of heartaches at hand. We will never run out of reasons why we should just give up. For today--maybe even for this year--we will hold those reasons at bay.

And yeah, of course "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" has a chapter in my GREM! book. Duh.

TOP FIVE SICK DAY SONGS IN THE O3L ERA

5. BIG STAR: The Ballad Of El Goodo

Big Star was an after-the-fact discovery for me, initially introduced by the proxy of the Flashcubes' live cover of "September Gurls" in 1978, with exposure to the original records to follow in later years. "September Gurls" was the first track I ever referred to as The Greatest Record Ever Made (though Badfinger's "Baby Blue" was the first GREM! piece I wrote). And my "September Gurls" chapter also mentions the resilience and determination of Big Star's "The Ballad Of El Goodo:"

"A teenaged hitmaker with the Box Tops, a cult-pop legend with Big Star, and a fiercely (and frustratingly) independent solo artist, Alex Chilton was dismissive of his own legacy. But he was a brilliant songwriter, responsible in whole or in part for a handful of what I believe to be among the most affecting, beautiful pop songs ever done. With his Big Star partner Chris Bell, Chilton co-wrote 'The Ballad Of El Goodo,' the single most transcendent expression of triumphant hope that I am ever likely to hear...."

4. THE KINKS: Better Things

At my dad's funeral in 2012, my eulogy concluded with the lyrics from "Days" by the Kinks. It's such a moving, evocative, appreciative song, and I think you can understand why I don't often listen to it anymore. 

Within the O3L era, "Better Things" (from the Kinks' 1981 album Give The People What They Want) is less stiffer-upper-lip and more Partridgesque c-mon-get-happy. And it will serve. I hope tomorrow we all find better things.

(The Kinks are represented in GREM! by a celebration of "Waterloo Sunset," with "You Really Got Me" held in reserve for an even-more-theoretical Greatest Record Ever Made! Volume 2).

3. MELANIE WITH THE EDWIN HAWKINS SINGERS: Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)

I'm not sure to what extent (if any) the recent passing of Melanie Safka elevated this lovely track on my list for today, but I tell ya, I have always, always adored "Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)." Yes, it gets a GREM! chapter. We can stay dry against the rain.

2. KISS: Shout It Out Loud

Awright, if we're gonna wedge a KISS track into our Sick Day 5 Above, it probably oughta be "Calling Dr. Love." The first step of the cure is...KISS!!

But I'm going with "Shout It Out Loud," as infectious a party tune as anything ever. Perhaps you don't wanna deal with "infectious" when you're sickly. Screw that. Rock 'n' roll is good for what ails ya. Don't let them tell you that there's too much noise. Dr. Love prescribes a SHOUT!

Oh! Almost forgot: The Greatest Record Ever Made! KISS: Shout It Out Loud

1. THE RAMONES: Blitzkrieg Bop

The soundtracks of our everyday days and nights are vast and varied, with individual components set in their places by a divine artistic director that knows what He, She, or They are doing. When a mishap with my car forced me to postpone a long-planned and much-needed road trip originally set for the next morning, I blasted the entirety of Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols to channel my anger and frustration. Decades ago, when a college girl I fancied went out with another guy, I sat on the floor of my dorm room, swilling beer and listening to Paul McCartney warble that he believed in yesterday. 

There are songs for all occasions. The right tune can comfort, console, lift, motivate. It can offer catharsis or escape, band aid or blunt instrument, challenge or confirmation. A time to cast away stones, a time to gather stones together. 

Also dancing. Evidence suggests the right song can inspire dancing.

The music of the Ramones has been a vital part of my existence ever since a November afternoon in 1978, when "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" became the record that changed my life. "Sheena" gets a chapter in GREM!, as does "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?" "I Don't Want To Grow Up" wound up in my other book, published last year. If there's ever a GREM! Volume 2, it will include "Blitzkrieg Bop."

"Blitzkrieg Bop" is the definitive Ramones song. Hey-ho, let's go! It's a compact realization of the group's essence, the purity of their transcendent rockin' pop righteousness, the sheer inevitability of Ramonesified oomph. Take it! It's good, AND it's good for you!

It's certainly been good for me. We're all revved up and ready to go.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. 

Carl's new book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones is now available, courtesy of the good folks at Rare Bird Books. Gabba Gabba YAY!! https://rarebirdlit.com/gabba-gabba-hey-a-conversation-with-the-ramones-by-carl-cafarelli/

If it's true that one book leads to another, my next book will be The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Stay tuned. Your turn is coming.

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. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 SONGS: 4/28/2022

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 # 1126.

NICK FRATER: Buggin' Out

This little mutant wireless TIRnRR shindig has found Nick Frater's 2021 album Earworms to be a productive resource for the sacred task of programming better radio. I mean, you've got the plethora of spotlight-ready pop ditties on the album itself, and you've got the sundry li'l shots of Fab courtesy of the Rubutles, Frater's answer to the rhetorical question of the Rutles and a bonus tangent to Earworms. A tangent known by its trousers. Yeah, of course we're playing Earworms.

And Earworms is the gift that keeps on giving. Its track "Buggin' Out" has been released as a digital single, paired with the non-album "How About It Girl? (Sara Pt. 2)." And that gives us an excuse to open the show with the A-side. Better radio. We thanks ya, Nick.

THE BUSBOYS: Love On My Mind

While I believe the BusBoys shoulda been bigger in the '80s--neither "New Shoes" nor "The Boys Are Back In Town" made the Billboard Hot 100, and their Ghostbusters track "Cleanin' Up The Town" only scared its way up to a chart peak of # 68--they were nonetheless a legit and large part of that decade's pop culture. My favorite BusBoys track is "Minimum Wage," from their 1980 debut LP Minimum Wage Rock & Roll, though I don't remember whether or not I saw them perform the song on ABC's late-night SNL ripoff Fridays. The most indelible '80s memory of the BusBoys remains the sight of them singing "The Boys Are Back In Town" in Eddie Murphy's 1982 breakout flick 48 Hours. C'mon--how was that song not a hit?!

Pfui...but water under the bridge. In our shiny, shiny 21st century, the BusBoys are back with a new single, "Love On My Mind," and it's a worthy continuation of the A-list material that shoulda been top of the pops during the Reagan regime. No nostalgia moves here; good stuff is timeless, and this is good stuff.

AMOEBA TEEN: New Material World

Listen: we know a good idea when we steal it.

When we were programming this week's show, Dana asked me if I was planning on playing Amoeba Teen. "Why, yes!," I replied, "I am going to play Amoeba Teen!" And then Dana informed me of his plan....

Now, UK pop sensations Amoeba Teen have a new album, Amoeba Teen, its release preceded by a digital single of its track "New Material World," which we already played on a recent edition of TIRnRR.  Norman Weatherly reviewed the album for Weathered Music, and gave it the appropriate rave. In his piece, Weatherly noted that "The single...is as New Wave as a song can get. It bristles with guitar lines that would have been at home in a New Wave playlist nestled between Brinsley Schwarz and Rockpile."

We know a good idea when we steal it.

Dana played Brinsley Schwarz' "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?" I swapped out my original intent to spin Amoeba Teen's "Melody Told You" and reprised "New Material World" instead. Dana followed with Rockpile's "Heart." We conceded credit to Weatherly on air; it was his idea. 

But it's ours now!

GYMNASIUM: Coast To Coast Companion

Aw, I like this. We're predisposed to dig stuff from the mighty Red On Red Records label anyway, and this latest single from Gymnasium rewards that interest with exactly the sort of toe-tappin' sense of invigmoration we seek. The track will be on Gymnasium's forthcoming album Hansen's Pop 'n' Rock Music '22, and I betcha we'll be predisposed to dig that, too.

POP CO-OP: Extra Beat In My Heart

Great song. Fabulous song. And I know something about it that you probably don't know. It has something in common with [redacted]. It's enough to put an extra beat in any heart. 

THE FLASHCUBES: Soldier Of Love

Unsung soul legend Arthur Alexander's classic "Soldier Of Love" is probably best-known as a Beatles performance originally heard only on bootlegs. I certainly heard the Beatles' then-unreleased "Soldier Of Love" well before I heard Alexander's original, and I may have heard Marshall Crenshaw's cover even before I heard John Lennon pleading for his lover to lay down her arms.

But, before Arthur Alexander, Marshall Crenshaw, or the Beatles, I was introduced to "Soldier Of Love" by Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse the Flashcubes. Visiting my girlfriend in NYC over spring break in 1979, I dragged her to a Bowery club called Gildersleeves to see the 'Cubes. 

They were fantastic, of course. The Flashcubes were always a great live band, and they were at their peak in 1979. And they included "Soldier Of Love" in their set, as they piledrived their way through covers and originals in a performance that caused even supposedly jaded New Yorkers to yell up at the 'Cubes on stage, "Hey, you guys are good!"

A couple of months later, in May of 1979, the Flashcubes were still playing "Soldier Of Love," and it's on the tape of an incendiary live show captured on the recent archival release Flashcubes On Fire. Before Arthur Alexander, Marshall Crenshaw, or the Beatles, the Flashcubes were the first to teach me a song called "Soldier Of Love." Jaded New Yorkers knew they were good. The rest of the world is still trying to catch up.

FREDDIE AND THE DREAMERS: Do The Freddie

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

HOOVER AND MARTINEZ: The Scene Of The Cryin'

We've been corresponding with Jamie Hoover for ages, honestly. The Spongetones! The Van deLecki's! Jamie and Steve! Stepford Knives! Whatever rockin' pop dba Jamie utilizes in the moment, it's likely gonna score a berth on the ol' TIRnRR playlist. Hoover and Martinez, our Jamie's current collaboration with Christine Martinez, is no exception to established pro-Hoover policy. Plus it's, y'know, swell! The 3P is their debut three-song digital single--available NOW!!!--and it commences airplay with this week's spin of "The Scene Of The Cryin'." We'll have another track from Hoover and Martinez next week. Policy, man. Gotta stay with our policy.

THE MONKEES: Love Is Only Sleeping

I love sooooooo many of the Monkees' tracks. "Porpoise Song" is my top pick, but I had difficulty narrowing my Monkees faves raves to even a Top 25. 

"Love Is Only Sleeping" is for damned sure one of my Monkees essentials. I discovered it in mid-'70s reruns of the TV show; even though I watched the show in prime time during the '60s and on Saturdays in the early '70s, I don't recall noticing that song until I was a teenager watching cable TV out of New York. And I really tuned into the song when a girl I knew somewhere let me borrow her copy of Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. during my senior year in high school, spring 1977. 

It made an impression.

LINDA RONSTADT: You're No Good

There is no progress to report on the status of my above-mentioned, long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). A publisher has the completed manuscript, and is reviewing it to determine if it's a suitable project for his company. It's a long shot, but it's within the realm of plausible possibility. 

This wonderful Linda Ronstadt song is among the 175 tracks discussed in the book's current draft, and it's also in the slightly shorter back-up blueprint I've prepared. I remain hopeful that you'll get to read it someday.

Wouldn't that be good?

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.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 SONGS: 8/4/2020

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 # 1036.

ARTHUR ALEXANDER: Soldier Of Love



Songs The Beatles taught us. The great soul singer Arthur Alexander never achieved the pop success that should have been his due. 1962's "You Better Move On" was his only Billboard Top 40 hit, but The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Bashful Bob Dylan were fans, each recording at least one Arthur Alexander tune. Arthur Alexander is the only songwriter to have his material covered by all three of those rock icons. Paul McCartney has said that the early Beatles really wanted to be a soul act, and he cited Arthur Alexander as an example of the sort of performer they had in mind as a model for what they did.

The Beatles covered Alexander's "Anna (Go To Him)" on their debut album, shortening the song's title to just "Anna." The Fab Four also covered his "Shot Of R & B" and "Soldier Of Love" in radio performances, and those cuts found a larger clandestine audience via Beatles bootlegs in the '70s. The Flashcubes used to cover "Soldier Of Love" in their 1979 live sets, stating that they'd learned the song from Beatle boots (the vinyl sort rather than the footwear, I'm guessing). Marshall Crenshaw also covered it on his eponymous debut. The Beatles' recording has since been made available as an official release.

Arthur Alexander's original version remains definitive. Having written it, of course, he gets the words right, which puts him one up on John Lennon's (nonetheless great) attempt to approximate the lines he thought he heard on a 45 brought by boat from America to the docks of Liverpool. Alexander's performance has a soulful sway that The Beatles couldn't quite match...though they did pretty well with it, didn't they? They wanted to be a soul act, like Arthur Alexander. The Beatles' cover of "Please Mr. Postman" surpasses The Marvelettes' original, and John, Paul, George, and Richard likewise acquitted themselves admirably with their takes on Chuck Berry, The Miracles, and Little Richard, demonstrating their ability to process their influences and make them their own.

But there was only one Arthur Alexander. Lay down your arms, soldier of love. Surrender to Arthur.

ALICE COOPER: School's Out


This was the clarion call for summer in the '70s, as each June traded pencils, books, and teacher's dirty looks for the presumed pleasures of the sunny school's-out season. Of course, as a teenage wannabe-writer, I kept right up with pencils (or pens) and books, but at least I was out of range of any disapproving glances a school administrator might cast with scorn in my direction. Plus: swimming!

From the Alice Cooper chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

To an adolescent or young teen in the early to mid 1970s, nothing in the world was cooler than Alice Cooper. Before KISS, before punk, Alice Cooper was gaudy and dangerous, potentially the most scandalous, depraved character on AM radio. It didn't matter that it was all an act--show biz!--or that David Bowie was ultimately a far more potent threat to the straight-laced status quo; at the time, Alice Cooper seemed the most dangerous, and therefore the most alluring. Within this fist-pumpin' time frame, a kid that couldn't relate to "School's Out," or didn't want to turn the radio up louder than it could actually go whenever that song came on...well, that kid just would not have been me....

ELVIS COSTELLO: Watching The Detectives


I've written elsewhere of my experience seeing Elvis Costello & the Attractions live on campus during my freshman year at college. Although I had read about Costello (primarily in Phonograph Record Magazine), "Watching The Detectives" was the first Costello song I actually heard, delivered to me when ol' Declan and his Attractions subbed for The Sex Pistols on Saturday Night Live in December of 1977. I thought the performance was riveting, though ya can't beat the incendiary cool of their second song on the show, as they started and suddenly stopped playing "Less Than Zero" and switched to "Radio, Radio" instead. The readers of Trouser Press later crowned that as TV's all-time # 1 rock 'n' roll moment. 

"Watching The Detectives" is pulp fiction made into music, a quick distillation of film noir and Gold Medal paperbacks rendered with a jagged, reggae-influenced beat and simmering punk anger. The record was not produced by Mickey Spillane...but it coulda been.



FREDDIE & THE DREAMERS: Do The Freddie



Ahem. THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

THE GO-GO'S: Club Zero



A new single by The Go-Go's! And it's fabulous, continuing the group's streak of always meeting and surpassing expectations. From their original early '80s heyday through sporadic reunions, The Go-Go's have never disappointed.

Yet they're still criminally underrated, and that pisses me off more than I can articulate. We'll talk a little bit more about The Go-Go's tomorrow.

HOLLY & THE ITALIANS: Youth Coup


I can't pinpoint my specific introduction to Holly & the Italians, but I can narrow it down a little bit. There was a Holly & the Italians flexi-disc for those (like me!) who subscribed to Trouser Press magazine, and there was a CBS Records loss-leader various-artists set called Exposed II: A Cheap Peak At Today Provocative New Rock, both in 1981; the former offered a song called "Poster Boy" backed with a medley, and the latter included "Tell That Girl To Shut Up" and "Rock Against Romance" alongside its Tommy Tutone (not that song), Gary Myrick & the Figures, Psychedelic Furs, Karla DeVito, and Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons. And there was CREEM magazine's rave review of the group's debut album The Right To Be Italian, which compared the Holly sound to Lesley Gore or The Angels backed by Leave Home-era Ramones. Okeydokey. SOLD! Where do I sign?

I scored my copy of The Right To Be Italian at a used record store in Manhattan, probably in or near the Village, though I don't really remember for sure. It was my last trip to the city for many, many years. The LP's cover was water-damaged, but the record played fine, and it was an immediate favorite. Among many great tracks, "Youth Coup" eventually became my single biggest go-to cut. A fantastic album overall, and it was the only album Holly & the Italians did. Lead singer Holly Beth Vincent later did a single with Joey Ramone (as "Holly & Joey") and uncredited Italians covering Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe," and went on to a solo career thereafter.

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: I Enjoy Being A Boy (In Love With You)


Librarians With Hickeys have a brand-new album, Long Overdue, out on the ever-cool Big Stir Records label. Long Overdue is very, very good, and we opened this week's show with a spin of its current single "That Time Is Now," a lovely tune which finds our passionate bibliophiles supplemented by the able talents of Lisa Mychols. Later in the show, we also played the single's non-album B-side, which is this cover of a song originally done by Saturday morning's phenomenal pop combo The Banana Splits. 



Everybody remembers the insidiously catchy theme song from The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, and if mention of The Banana Splits didn't immediately set off a resounding TRA-LA-LAA! TRA-LA-LA-LAAA! to drown out your inner monologue, I betcha it has now. No need to thank me; consider it a public service courtesy of Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do). I did watch the show during its original 1968-1970 run (and in mid '70s cable TV reruns), and "I Enjoy Being A Boy (In Love With You)" is the only other Banana Splits song I can recall. I can still picture Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper, and Snorky cavorting on my screen as the song played in all its psychedelic bubblegum glory. Librarians With Hickeys do a fine job channeling that vibe.

THE O'JAYS: Put Your Hands Together


From The O'Jays' chapter in The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

Put your hands together.

We've talked about rock 'n' roll as The Devil's Music. But what about rock's celestial roots? In the wicked consummation of the orgiastic union of the rock and the roll, Gospel music was a participant no more reserved and no less sweaty than R & B, country, honky tonk, and blues. Now that was a party! Bless us, Lord!....

Although I heard The O'Jays on the radio quite often during my prime AM Top 40 years, and frequently heard my suitemates' copy of their live album during my second year at college, I don't remember "Put Your Hands Together" at all. It's so uplifting, so infectious, so absolutely irresistible. Put 'em together. PUT 'EM TOGETHER! Now, dammit!

SQUEEZE: Goodbye Girl



My favorite Squeeze song. Although I was a relative latecomer to Squeeze fandom, I fell hard for "Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)," and also liked "Annie Get Your Gun." Then they broke up. Then they got back together! I didn't own any of Squeeze's stuff until the late '80s, when Singles--45's And Under became one of my early CD purchases. More purchases would follow. I now have many favorite Squeeze songs. "Goodbye Girl" remains my # 1.

UTOPIA: I Just Want To Touch You



As my friend Bruce Gordon says: Let's be The Beatles! The urge to imitate and even try to effectively become the act we've known for all these years is widespread and enduring. The Knickerbockers pulled it off on an incredible single called "Lies." The Rutles created a mirror image that was at least as much affectionate pastiche as it was parody. And somewhere in between The Knickerbockers and The Rutles was Deface The Music by Utopia.



I guess the album's supposed to be something of a lark, which is fine by me. It's been said that Utopia's Todd Rundgren finds the process of writing and recording pure pop songs too limiting, too predictable, too boring. But I have loved this album ever since its release. It's far and away my top Utopia record; it is, in fact, the only Utopia record I'm ever likely to listen to. Other than "Couldn't I Just Tell You," "We Gotta Get You A Woman," and some of Todd's 1960s stuff with The Nazz, Deface The Music is also my favorite Rundgren work overall. Hell, I like it better than "I Saw The Light" or "Hello It's Me," but that's just me. Deface The Music is willfully derivative, a deliberate and almost wiseass rip of The Beatles. Original? Nope, not a chance. Pure pop fun? Three loud YEAHS should answer that. Let's be The Beatles? Sounds like a worthy goal to me, mate.


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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 155 essays about 155 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).

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE: "Do The Freddie"

An infinite number of rockin' pop records can be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!



FREDDIE & THE DREAMERS: "Do The Freddie"

No, I'm not kidding.

Listen, man: The Greatest Record Ever Made doesn't have to be deep or meaningful. It can be; pop music is capable of transcending its commercial trappings and money-grubbing origins, able to soar into the heavens with a sound that thrills, a message that inspires, lyrics that open the mind, atmosphere and artistic accomplishment that touch the eternal soul. It can be art. It can be timeless. But it can also just be something that sounds nifty on the radio. The Greatest doesn't have to answer to any silly preconceived notion. It's great because it's great.

Virtually no one would list "Do The Freddie," a throwaway novelty number by the lower-tier British Invasion group Freddie & the Dreamers, among rock 'n' roll's essential singles. If some fluke in the rulebook mandated a Freddie & the Dreamers song for such honors, the selection would default to "I'm Telling You Now," a bubbly and irresistible pop confection that a ton of casual listeners would incorrectly attribute to Herman's Hermits. There would be no grassroots groundswell of support for something as trivial and inconsequential as Freddie Garrity doin' the freakin' Freddie.

But when the song plays...!

Maybe it's just me. Fine. It is just me. I don't care. When "Do The Freddie" appears on a nearby set of speakers, I want to turn the volume up to magnetic North. From its simple brass riff to its (mocking?) nyaa-nyaa backing vocals and its deceptively (if ersatz) soulful backing backing vocals, the chirp and bounce of "Do The Freddie" takes complete control of my world. No other song exists. There is but The Freddie. There is only The Freddie.




Freddie's band the Dreamers--guitarists Derek Quinn and Roy Crewsdon, bassist Peter Birrell, drummer Bernie Dwyer--had a gawky, awkward look and stage presence, seeming less like a rock 'n' roll combo and more like a bunch of guys from the office pickin' up instruments to play an inept but earnest approximation of The Big Beat at the annual company whoop-de-do. Rawk! On the other hand, leader Freddie Garrity appeared as a giddy, gleeful pixie, leaping about and laughing maniacally, a sugar-/caffeine-/adrenaline-/amphetamine-/magic razzafrazzin' dust-powered second cousin to comedy icon Jerry Lewis, but without Lewis' sober restraint. On stage, Garrity's stodgy but game co-workers the Dreamers did their level best to keep up with the goofy madman in front, kicking their feet up, swinging their arms up too, moving their heads both ways like they'd see him do.

Was it parody, a post-Merseymania (albeit from a Manchester group) lampoon of the choreographed moves of legendary British rockers The Shadows, an across-the-pond kin to uber-Caucasian Canadian act The Diamonds' willfully condescending hit bleaching of The Gladiolas' R & B ditty "Little Darlin'?" Was it all in good fun, a winking, amiable, self-aware update of Andy Hardy puttin' on a rockin' pop show? Neither? Both? I concede the plausibility of Freddie as parody, lean toward the hope of Freddie as celebration, and concede that reality may kick its own feet up somewhere in the middle.




Freddie & the Dreamers were stars in England, with three Top Ten hits--"If You Gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody" (# 3), "I'm Telling You Now" (# 2), and "You Were Made For Me" (# 3)--in rapid succession from 1963 to '64, and a # 5 hit with "I Understand (Just How You Feel)" later in '64. Only "I'm Telling You Now" crossed the Atlantic for pop success, hitting # 1 in 1965. Freddie and his Dreamers made the rounds of American TV programs, doing the Freddie on Shindig!, The Ed Sullivan Show, and The Merv Griffin Show. They made their U.S. television debut on Hullabaloo, a lip-synced performance in England, introduced by The Beatles' manager Brian Epstein. "I'm Telling You Now" was Freddie & the Dreamers' only Top Ten hit in the States.

"Do The Freddie" was the only other Freddie & the Dreamers 45 to invade the upper half of Billboard's Top 40, peaking at # 18 in 1965. It was not even released as a single in the U.K. It was plainly a cash grab, a mere novelty, cobbled together to capitalize on the hoot-inducing appearance of Freddie & the Dreamers doing whatever the hell it was they were doing while they warbled "I'm Telling You Now" on the telly...er, the tube. It was America, after all. The song was concocted by the American songwriting team of Lou Courtney and Dennis Lambert, and it wouldn't surprise me if you told me the recording itself was made in America, possibly with just Freddie Garrity and Yankee studio guys. The single would seem to be the very epitome of product.

Glorious product.



Greatness can be more than its basic, unassuming intent. It can rise above questionable origin, become more than the crass sum of its nondescript parts. I do not mean to be an iconoclast when I confess that, on most days, I would rather hear "Do The Freddie" by Freddie & the Dreamers than any version of anything written by Bob Dylan (with the possible exceptions of The Byrds' sublime covers of "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "My Back Pages"). And on some days, I would prefer "Do The Freddie" to any other great, great rock 'n' roll record. I remember once doing the Freddie with Maura Kennedy at a Screen Test show, giggling with delight as the group performed "I'm Telling You Now." I remember moaning with disappointment when my future wife Brenda recalled that she'd owned Freddie & the Dreamers' Do The "Freddie" LP when she was a kid, but that her copy of the album was long, long gone by the time of our courtship. I remember finally scoring my own copy of the song on the one-half of a double-LP British Invasion collection I dug out of the used bin at a Yonge Street record shop while honeymooning in Toronto in 1984. (Record shopping on my honeymoon? Well...duh.) I still have that. Even as I've since acquired a CD set of the best of Freddie & the Dreamers, I still have that second-hand partial Britboom retrospective, that incomplete treasure that first allowed me to play "Do The Freddie" again and again on my own turntable.

And I did indeed play it again and again.

Chubby Checker did a tie-in song called "Let's Do The Freddie." The Beas referenced the Freddie in their under-appreciated girl-group rockin' pop classic "International Girl" ("It's a hullaballoo and a shindig, too/Are you ready now to do the Freddie now?").  The "Freddie & the Dreamers" brand name would later be applied to "Susan's Tuba," a fab proto-10cc record with Garrity vocals.  I love all of these, especially the Beas record. But "Do The Freddie?" Man! Hear the happy feet dancing to the beat of the Freddie.  Don't be ashamed. Just laugh, and dance. It's the thing to do, kids will envy you, so do the Freddie.

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