10 SONGS: 2/18/2026

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

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1324

MIKE BROWNING FEATURING ELENA ROGERS: Over And Under And All Around

THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO TEAM-UP! Like the first time Marvel Comics bowslinger Hawkeye joined forces with Marvel Comics bowslinger other Hawkeye, TIRnRR Fave Raves Mike Browning and Elena Rogers pool their mighty talents for the amazing, fantastic, and incredible new single "Over And Under And All Around." I can do this all day, and I can play this all day. AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!

DAVID RUFFIN: I've Got A Need For You

From a previous 10 Songs: 

"I continue to be mystified about why Motown Records didn't release David Ruffin's proposed album David in the early '70s. It's such a fantastic record, and I wish we'd been able to experience it fifty years ago...

"...Sublime stuff. It borders on heresy, but I may even prefer the tracks on David to Ruffin's classic work with the Temptations."

From the originally-unreleased David, Ruffin's exquisite take on the Jackson Five's "I Want You Back" earned a chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), and we've programmed a number of the album's other tracks at various times here on TIRnRR. Stellar, stellar album. I can't fathom what Motown execs were thinking when they shelved it. 

MICHAEL SIMMONS: America

America feels like a dream to me now.

As duly ranted here, I'm in absolute thrall to Fun Where You Can Find It, the recent all-covers album by Michael Simmons. Among its garden of earthly sweets 'n' treats, my go-to selection has become Michael's lovely and moving version of Simon and Garfunkel's "America." Much of this interest is driven by the need for comfort in the midst of the country's spiraling miasma. The song provides some of that comfort, at least to the extent that a record can provide comfort. 

GLADYS KNIGHT AND THE PIPS: I Heard It Through The Grapevine

Most music-lovers likely consider Marvin Gaye's performance of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" definitive, and I would agree. If I understand the story right, Gaye recorded the song before Gladys Knight and the Pips did, but Gladys's "Grapevine" reached retail well before Marvin's, and it became a hit. Years ago, and for many years thereafter, I dismissed the Pips' take as too...show biz? Vegas, even? That was nonsense--nonsense!!--and I disavow my former POV as the hopelessly chuckleheaded take it was. Stupid young punk! 

WORMSTEW: Spinning

SUPERgroup! SoCal pop combo Wormstew has been around for ages honestly, originally as a solo DIY recording project for songwriter Mike Schnee. Now a trio, with the right honorable Mr. Schnee joining forces with longtime TIRnRR stalwarts Teresa Cowles and the above-mentioned Michael Simmons, Wormstew's new digital single "Spinning" heralds the release of their forthcoming album Last Days Of Loma. We're spinning! It's what good DJs do.

THE FLASHCUBES: Reminisce

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE HALF/CUBES: Whenever You're On My Mind

As we continue to bliss out with the pristine perfection of the Half/Cubes' current album Found Pearls, a long-player filled t'burstin' with nonpareil covers of underappreciated  pop pearls, my mind wanders to prolonged consideration of what other worthy source material our Half/Cubes could unearth for a hypothetical third album. It's...a long list, and I'm still adding to it as an idle exercise in delighted daydreaming. In the here and now, we're enthusiastically digging the latest single from Found Pearls, a go'geous cover of Marshall Crenshaw's "Whenever You're On My Mind," which the Half/Cubes accomplish with able assistance from Tom Teeley and Robert Crenshaw. Whenever pop music's on my mind, the Half/Cubes are THERE!

PARTHENON HUXLEY: Double Our Numbers

ALSO The Greatest Record Ever Made! We played Ballzy Tomorrow's ace cover of "Double Our Numbers" on last week's epic tribute to Parthenon Huxley. We program the original version this week. Once again: Godspeed, Parthenon.

TELEVISION: Elevation

Yet another hero passes, as This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio remembers Television bassist Fred Smith. Television's 1977 debut album Marquee Moon is rightly recognized as classic, and I've always been particularly drawn to its Side Two opener "Elevation." From its chapter in my GREM! book:

"Vertigo.

"For the disaffected and dissatisfied in 1977, no track expressed the feeling of rock music in dizzying free fall with greater menace and implied ennui as 'Elevation' by Television...

"...From Television's debut album Marquee Moon, the track 'Elevation' just fascinated me when I was 17. Fall of 1977, freshman in college, trying to finally hear all these punk or new wave or whaddayacallit bands I'd read so much about in the pages of Phonograph Record Magazine. I asked the campus radio station for help, and was rewarded with the sounds of the Ramones, Blondie, the Dictators, the Adverts, the Jam, Willie Alexander and the Boom Boom Band, the Runaways, and oh yeah!, Television. I could never get enough of this jagged, loping, serpentine noise, so mesmerizing, so different, so gratifyingly dizzying in its willful application of elevation going to my head. And staying there. Marquee Moon was among my earliest LP purchases in this broad category of NEW MUSIC circa '77 and '78. It would not be the last...."

SLYBOOTS: If We Could Let Go

The only thing more powerful than hate is love. And yes, Slyboots' "If We Could Let Go" is indeed another sterling example of The Greatest Record Ever Made! My favorite individual track of 2024 and one of my favorite tracks of the decade, we'll hear this wonderous gem again on our next show. 

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider a visit to CC's Tip Jar. You can also become a Boppin' booster on my Patreon page.

I compiled a various-artists tribute album called Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, and it's pretty damned good; you can read about it here and order it here. My new book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) is now available, and you can order an autographed copy here. You can still get my previous book Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones from publisher Rare Bird Books, OR an autographed copy here. If you like the books, please consider leaving a rating and/or review at the usual online resources.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. You can read about our history here.

10 SONGS: 7/8/2023

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 # 1188. This show is available as a podcast.

THE MIDNIGHT CALLERS: What Goes Around

We've been poundin' pretty good with "Baby Let Me Be," the advance single from the Midnight Callers' fantabulous new album Rattled Humming Heart. The album itself is finally out now, and it seemed high time to play one of its other fantabulous tracks. We opted for "What Goes Around," but we had a lot of superstellar choices at our disposal. We're switching back to the single on our next show, but expect more from Rattled Humming Heart as these weekly radio bopathons continue. Saturation airplay suits the Midnight Callers just fine.

GLADYS KNIGHT AND THE PIPS: Midnight Train To Georgia

"Midnight Train To Georgia" dominated my beloved AM radio stations in 1973, but I wasn't initially much of a fan of the song. Don't know why this was so, but the track didn't clickety-clack in place for me until I saw Gladys Knight and the Pips perform it on some TV show. I have no idea what show it was, and I can't even swear whether Gladys and her Pips were actually singing or just lip-syncing, but whatever: the performance fascinated me. And it wasn't the visual of the Pips' dance moves that got to me; it was the singing. Gladys Knight. And the Pips. I didn't notice how great they sounded until I listened to 'em on TV. I've adored this song ever since that night.

I recently got the chance to witness Gladys Knight sing live. My God, she's magnificent. My slight disappointment that the concert ended with an abbreviated version of my favorite Gladys Knight song--omitting the entire verse about He kept dreaming that some day he'd be a star--didn't matter. I'd still heard her sing that song, and so many others, in live performance, and I'd heard her deliver them with absolute mastery. If you have a chance to see Gladys Knight, man, you need to get on board.

I know you will.

THE FLASHCUBES: Nothing To Do

Of course we've heard Pop Masters, the forthcoming new rockin' pop covers album from Syracuse's own power pop powerhouses the Flashcubes. We've had the digital files for months, I wrote part of the liner notes, and we've been carpet bombing the playlist with Pop Masters, because why even have a playlist if you can't carpet bomb it with the Flashcubes?  

That's all well and good. But I can't wait for the razzafrazzin' thing to be released. I wanna hold the CD package in my indifferently-manicured hands, and I wanna revel in the physical manifestation of a new record by one of my all-time favorite groups. The Beatles, the Ramones, and the Flashcubes. That's my Trinity.

There's another new digital single from Pop Masters due out soon (and up for preorder now), with the album itself slated for August release. We've been playing that track, an ace cover of the Motors' "Forget About You," and we're set to pound it into your cranium again in the coming weeks. For this week's show, since Dana closed our first set with  "The Mona Lisa's Packing, She's Leaving Tonight" from the new Sparks album The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte, we opened our second set with the 'Cubes' Pop Masters take on Sparks' "Nothing To Do." Nothing to do? Everything to do! And we do it all for you, our loyal listeners. Radio's job is to sell records. We've done our part. Now you do yours.

(Beginning with the 2021 release of the Flashcubes' first Big Stir Records single [and eventual Pop Masters track] "Baby It's Cold Outside," TIRnRR has played eleven out of the twelve tracks on Pop Masters. We've been holding the remaining one in reserve, and we'll get to it very soon.)

JOHNNY JOHNSON AND THE BANDWAGON: You

Whether they're billed as the Bandwagon, Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon, or their come-on-now! over-specification as Johnny Johnson and HIS Bandwagon, we love playing stuff from this magnificent, underrated soul combo. "Breakin' Down The Walls Of Heartbreak" (by the Bandwagon) is a stone classic, "(Blame It) On The Pony Express" (by Johnny Johnson and his Bandwagon) is the epitome of 1970 bubblesoul, and the group (by whatever name) absolutely nailed a bunch of distinct and delightful covers of everyone from Bob Dylan to the Monkees to the Four Seasons to the Rascals to the Hollies and more. More pop fans need to jump on this particular Bandwagon.

Our latest recruit is none other than intrepid listener and Radio Deer Camp host Rich Firestone, who responded to this week's spin of the Bandwagon's "You" by saying, Okay, you finally broke me with that last song...I finally bought that Johnny Johnson CD!

Radio at work, my friends. Radio at work.

sparkle*jets u.k.: Mahnsanto

The new sparkle*jets u.k. album Best Of Friends has been a big hit here on The Best Three Hours Of Radio On The Whole Friggin' Planet. It's a stunning tribute to the indie pop scene that thrived as the 20th century ceded space to the 21st, the scene that brought us sparkle*jets u.k. in the first place. Best Of Friends is loaded with superfine covers of everyone from Big Hello to the Shazam, Linus of Hollywood to the Masticators, Cockeyed Ghost to Walter Clevenger and the Dairy Kings.

I'm not familiar with the Negro Problem's original version of "Mahnsanto;" I know a little bit of TNP's work, but my lack of awareness of the bulk of their well-regarded catalog is a gap in my pop consciousness, and I need to remedy that. The TIRnRR archives say we've played the Negro Problem's "Submarine Down," "Monica Oyster," "She's Flying Naked Through The Air," "The Magic Touch," and "Sabrina Drill" at some points in our storied past, as well as TNP leader Stew's "North Bronx French Marie." But it's been a while, and we should probably oughtta do something about that. Hell, Cockeyed Ghost's early TIRnRR Fave Rave "About Jill" was about TNP accordionist Jill Meschke Blair, so Stew and company are certainly part of this radio show's DNA. Even if we don't know them all that well.

"Mahnsanto" is tabula rasa for me, but sparkle*jets u.k.'s rendition is instantly catchy, and a loop of the band's Susan West rapping To Disneyland in winter, to Disneyland in winter has been blasting non-stop in my pop-obsessed noggin all week. We'll hear a different Best Of Friends track on our next show, as sparkle*jets u.k. cover a song familiar to long-time listeners from its appearance on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 1.

PARALLAX PROJECT: Put It Out

The next time someone tries to tell you that there's no good music being made anymore, you are within your God-given rights to call that ninny a freakin' ninny. Each and every week, Dana and I sort through stacks of new stuff, some of it negligible, but some of it fantastic. We are determined to mix new, old, and in-between in every show. It's an ongoing challenge to play some reasonable representation of all the fine tracks we want to play.

That situation also results in a lot of things we like getting played once on the show, and then never played again. I keep a list of TIRnRR airplay possibilities, and I refer to that list each week when Dana and I are assembling the new playlist. A quick scan of that reference list shows tracks by the Crushing Violets, Earth Quake, Rose Guerin, Dave Cope and the Sass, Barry Holdship, Popular Creeps, Carol Martini, Råttanson, Brad Marino, Janne Borg, the Gypsy Moths, the Weeklings, the Summertimes, Rooftop Screamers, and more, each one awaiting its return to the TIRnRR playlist, each one in the potential mix for this week's show, and each unable to secure a slot in this week's program, nor in our July 9th show. They remain on the list, and the list carries on. There's always another show to build, next week.

That big ol' roundabout above finally brings us to "Put It Out" from the new Parallax Project album Autologous. It's a nice, radio-ready offering that merits repeat play. But it elbowed aside another Kool Kat Musik release by the Parlophonics to get into this week's show, and the Parlophonics in turn squeeze past Parallax Project to score a berth on our next show.

Parallax Project will return. They're on the list. The list abides.

THE RUBINOOS: I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

JAMIE HOOVER: Bourbon Understands

"Bourbon Understands" is the brand new single from the mighty Jamie Hoover, a countryesque number that Jamie co-wrote with TIRnRR's longtime pal Richard Rossi. We'll drink to that.

THE SUPREMES: Where Did Our Love Go?

Timing is everything. We've seen that demonstrated again and again since we began prerecording our shows more than three years ago. There was the time we closed a show with a spin of Ray Charles' "Hit The Road, Jack," which wound up airing the week that malevolent putz Putin invaded Ukraine. There have been several occasions when a beloved performer passed in between a show's recording and airing, and a work by that performer just happened to be on the playlist that week. There's no relevant intent, because we didn't know what context the world would provide after we'd already prepped our little mutant radio show; we just wanted to play the damned song.

This week, I felt like playing something by the Supremes. No real reason, just whim. A check of the database revealed that we'd never played "Where Did Our Love Go?," so that became my pick. Move on to the next song.

Cruel context arrived on June 30th, the Friday before the show. It happened to be the day after my wife and I stopped for a drink at Stonewall in Greenwich Village. I wrote about our NYC trip here, but this short passage bears a repeat in this spot:

"Stonewall is a bar in Greenwich Village, recognized as the place where Pride began. It's not the same bar that stood in 1969, when a riot became the flashpoint for recognition of gay rights. The Stonewall of today remains in that spot as a monument to the importance of what happened there. By coincidence, our visit to Stonewall was one day after the 54th anniversary of the riots, and one day before six reactionary justices on the U.S. Supreme Court effectively ruled that religious-based discrimination against the LGBTQ community is, in the Court's view, just fine and dandy. That is, in MY view, a big ol' pile of piggy poop. Love is love is love. The fight goes on."

Where did our love go? Love is love is love. Timing is everything...and nothing. We'll apply deliberate intent to open our next show.

MAURICE WILLIAMS AND THE ZODIACS: Stay

Just a little bit longer?

But no, this week's show has run its rockin' pop course. Hope you can join us again next time.

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.

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, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 SONGS: 5/5/2022

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 # 1127.

THE BABLERS: You Are The One For Me

England's phenomenal pop combo the Bablers commence a new series of digital singles for the mighty Big Stir Records with "You Are The One For Me." You remember in That Thing You Do! when Mr. White tells teen sensations the Wonders that their single is snappy? "You Are The One For Me" is snappy, and it just so happens that I want something snappy. And I just happen to co-host a radio show built of all things snappy. Maximum snappiosity. We look forward to future snaps from the lads.

RONNIE SPECTOR: Something's Gonna Happen

The late, great Ronnie Spector recorded a handful of collaborations with Marshall Crenshaw about thirty years ago. They recorded five Crenshaw songs together in the late '80s or early '90s, though the public didn't get to hear them until 2003. I wasn't even aware of these until after our dear Ms. Spector passed in January. But this is just fantastic stuff, and we are poorer for not having the opportunity to experience them when they were new. And the record industry is a big moronhead for not embracing the project and demanding an extended Spector-Crenshaw team-up.

As is: working with Marshall Crenshaw, Ronnie Spector accomplished a minor miracle. Her renditions of Crenshaw's songs are even better than his already-incredible original versions, and they're on a par with the best recordings she ever made. The Ronettes' "Be My Baby." Ronnie Spector and the E Street Band's "Say Goodbye To Hollywood." Ronnie and Marshall's "Something's Gonna Happen." Pretty good company to keep. It's happening, all right. 

LUCINDA WILLIAMS: Passionate Kisses

I think "Passionate Kisses" is probably best-known via Mary-Chapin Carpenter's 1992 cover. Carpenter does a very nice reading, but my heart belongs to Lucinda Williams' 1988 original. I first heard it in a mix tape compiled by my friend Andrea Ullman, part of a flurry of cassette exchanges I had in the late '80s/very early '90s with her and with her future husband Greg Ogarrio. Ah, the mix tapes of our lives!

THE WALKER BRIGADE: Shake Shimmy

The above-mentioned Andrea Ogarrio was a member of the SoCal pop band the Bunny Rabbits, and Andrea and her fellow lepus janglus comrades co-wrote an ace 'n' angry pop tune called "Fallout." The Walker Brigade covered "Fallout" as a Big Stir single in 2020, and that same track now serves as the opening salvo on the Walker Brigade's new album If Only.  We'll be playing the Walker Brigade's "Fallout" again on a very near-future show.

But this week, we felt we oughtta pound the console on behalf of If Only's release by spinning something we ain't played before. That honor fell to this boppin' li'l number "Shake Shimmy," which we will also be playing again on a very near-future show. The way we Walker is just the way we...never mind.

SCOTTY GRAND, JACOB YOFFEE, AND ROAHNE HYLTON: All I Know (The Wonder Years Theme)

In writing my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), the many entries I completed but then removed from the book's Table of Contents include three songs associated with TV series: the Dandy Warhols' "We Used To Be Friends" (a track known by many--me included--as the theme song for Veronica Mars), "The Batman Theme" by Nelson Riddle, and "The Green Hornet Theme" by Al Hirt. As a more recent TV theme song (from ABC's current reboot of The Wonder Years) makes its way to the TIRnRR playlist, these paragraphs from the Nelson Riddle chapter seem relevant:

"I grew up in a time when TV theme songs routinely entered the public consciousness. The catchy ditties that opened shows like Gilligan's Island, F Troop, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Patty Duke Show, and Car 54, Where Are You? weren't hit records in the usual sense, but within our shared pop culture they were nonetheless as big as any 45 spinning on the radio. 

"Many theme songs were sufficiently hook-laden to prompt release as a single, sometimes by the original artist and sometimes in cover versions, and sometimes to chart success. The Cowsills' swell cover of 'Love American Style' wasn't a hit, but it should have been, and it remains a staple of their live act. The Ventures, Perry Como, Henry Mancini, and Johnny Rivers all made the Top 40 with their respective renditions of themes from Hawaii Five-0, Here Come The Brides, Peter Gunn, and Secret Agent Man. Television tunes continued to maintain a radio presence throughout the '70s and '80s. In June of 1995, the Rembrandts' 'I'll Be There For You,' the theme from the NBC sitcom Friends, was the # 1 song on radio the week my daughter was born. I thought that was appropriate, and pretty cool...."

I've been digging the new Wonder Years, and a recent episode included the show's theme song "All I Know" within the episode itself. That spotlight made me notice the song in a way I hadn't noticed it before. "All I Know" sounds like a period-appropriate late '60s soul song, and I bought the digital single immediately. TV on the radio!

THE MONKEES: Terrifying

This week's show marked the sixth anniversary to the day of our first spin of "She Makes Me Laugh," the first advance single from the Monkees' 2016 album Good Times! The album was one of the highlights of a miserable year. And one of its best individual tracks was "Terrifying," a digital bonus track that has still not been issued on CD, nor in any physical form outside of limited-edition vinyl. The situation remains terrifying.

GLADYS KNIGHT AND THE PIPS: Midnight Train To Georgia

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

DAVE COPE AND THE SASS: Julee

Don't ever let anyone get away with trying to tell you there's no worthy new music. That's nonsense. Maybe the good new stuff doesn't reach your ears as effortlessly as it did when you were younger. But it's out there, and it's worth the effort to find it. Every week on TIRnRR, Dana and I try to do our part to mix the great new stuff with the great familiar stuff. Right now is always the best-ever time to be a fan of rockin' pop music.

"Julee," the title tune from a 2022 Kool Kat Musik release by Dave Cope and the Sass, is my favorite new track of this year so far. That's saying something, because as crappy as the year has been in general terms, there's been a rush of fabulous new music, courtesy of Kool Kat, Big Stir, Red On Red, Jem, Rum Bar, and so many others. In my head, "Julee" conjures a million different influences I can't quite isolate or identify; I hear some kind of mid/late '60s British vibe, which may be imaginary, but I don't care. Can't play this one enough.

BARBRA STREISAND: Stoney End

I do believe this is the first time we've ever played Barbra Streisand on TIRnRR. I didn't check with our intrepid stats man Fritz Van Leaven, and it wouldn't shock me if I turned out to be wrong about this, but I'm pretty sure about it. I loved the Funny Girl soundtrack LP when I was a kid, but neither it nor most of Streisand's pop hits are the sort of thing I'm terribly likely to play nowadays, either for myself or for others. I mean, my top Streisand moment is her co-starring role in the 1972 comedy What's Up, Doc?, a non-musical flick that is absolutely one of my all-time favorite films.

Streisand's 1970 Top Ten hit "Stoney End" popped into my head last week. I have no idea how or why it got there, but as I sang along silently (or not) with its virtual spin in my pop-obsessed brain, I knew we needed to include it in the ol' playlist. Dana has certainly played the song's author Laura Nyro on occasion, and I think we may have played Nyro's own version of "Stoney End"...maybe? I dunno. It's a fabulous tune in either incarnation. And it's ALL pop music. Yesterday I learned that June Millington of Fanny played on Streisand’s recording. That makes it even cooler, I say.

CAROLYNE MAS: In The Rain

Great, great, great track by Carolyne Mas. It's out of print. For 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 here.

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 SONGS: 7/27/2021

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 # 1087.

THE ANDERSON COUNCIL: I'd Love Just Once To See You

The fabulous 2021 tribute album Jem Records Celebrates Brian Wilson has already fed the ravenous needs of the TIRnRR playlist with sweet treats from the Grip Weeds and Lisa Mychols and Super 8, and this week's edition adds the Anderson Council to that sun-kissed roll call. The Anderson Council turn in a lovely reading of the Beach Boys' cheeky "I'd Love Just Once To See You," which we took the liberty of dedicating to Miss February.

Wherever she is.

THE BEATLES: Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

"Picture yourself in a boat on a river with tangerine trees and marmalade skies?"

Hmph. A boy band tries to go all progressive on us. 

NO! I KID! I'm a kidder. I'm on record (again and again) stating my absolute adoration of the music the Beatles released before Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play, but I'm also on record praising Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and the White Album. When it comes to the Beatles, I'm just a guy who can say yeah-yeah-yeah. 

Always loved "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds." In high school and college, late '70s, most of my peers preferred Elton John's then-recent cover of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" to the peerless original; I did like how ol' Reg did the song (especially with its participation from John Lennon hisself), but I never thought it within light years of the exquisite version rendered by the act I've known for all these years. 

(And this week's playlist was set, the show recorded, before I saw Paul McCartney discussing "Lucy In The Sky With iamonds" with Rick Rubin on the third episode of the Hulu show McCartney 3, 2, 1. The act we've known for all these years? There's still so much more left for us to discover. Cue the girl with kaleidoscope eyes. As always: yeah yeah yeah!)

MIKE BROWNING: Picture Book

We played Mike Browning's able take on the Kinks' "Picture Book" a few weeks back. It returns to the playlist now, just in time for the announcement of Mike's upcoming album Class Act. Class Act collects a number of recordings our lad Mike did for Jamie Hoover's recording and production class, including covers of familiar faves by the Monkees, Tommy Tutone, the Spencer Davis Group, XTC, Bashful Bod Dylan (via the Byrds), the Strangeloves, the Springfields, and the Reflections, plus the surfer dudes and British boy band mentioned in the two 10 Songs entries above. And THE KINKS! We've only heard the Kinks cover so far, but that's enough to make us wanna hear more. Classy!

FANNY: Hey Bulldog

I have a lingering feeling that I had at least some sort of peripheral awareness of the all-female '70s rock group Fanny some time prior to my first conscious exposure to their music. Maybe? I remember seeing them on American Bandstand in August of 1974, lip-syncing their covers of the Bell Notes' "I've Had it" and the Rolling Stones' "Let's Spend The Night Together." Both tracks were from the group's '74 LP Rock And Roll Survivors, their fifth album, their last album, and their only album for Casablanca Records. The group's founder, guitarist June Millington, left the band before Rock And Roll Survivors, and one could argue that it wasn't really Fanny after June's departure.

The AB appearance was my introduction to Fanny--I'm pretty sure I never heard them on the radio before (or after) that--and it may have been the first I heard of them, too. But...I dunno. I have this nagging pinprick at the edge of my consciousness, insisting that I'd read about Fanny in a magazine or seen a print ad for one of their albums (or even seen one of their albums on the racks at Gerber Music) before seeing their cathode-ray image talking with Dick Clark. Nagging pinpricks can't be trusted, mind you, but they should be acknowledged. Sometimes they're even right.

Fanny's cover of the Beatles' "Hey Bulldog" comes from 1972's Fanny Hill, Fanny's third album. For further Beatleproofing, the album was recorded at Apple, and engineered by Geoff Emerick. And I wish I'd heard all of this a lot earlier in my timeline.

THE FLASHCUBES WITH MIMI BETINIS: Baby It's Cold Outside

Radio's job is to sell records. Let's get to work! "Baby It's Cold Outside," the new single from the Flashcubes with Mimi Betinis, is out this Friday from the visionary pop people at Big Stir Records. But it's available as a preorder RIGHT NOW. So--how to put this delicately?--BUY IT AWREADY!!!! Do what your radio tells you to do. That's your job!

JOHNNY JOHNSON AND THE BANDWAGON: Mr. Tambourine Man

Ignoring Golden Throats crap like William Shatner's phasers-on-blechh reading from the Book of Zimmerman, one of the most unusual but still agreeable Dylan covers has gotta be "Mr. Tambourine Man" by the great Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon. The song is almost unrecognizable, but fascinating in its willful determination to cast its dancing spell its way. It's not folk, it's not folk rock, and it eschews the easy notion of jingling or jangling in favor of an AM radio groove that can only be called bubblesoul. The Bandwagon never breached the Billboard Hot 100, but "Breakin' Down The  Walls Of Heartache" and "Blame It (On The Pony Express)" deserved much wider acclaim, and the same could be said of their "Mr. Tambourine Man." Dylan goes eclectic!

GLADYS KNIGHT AND THE PIPS: I Heard It Through The Grapevine

Until fairly recently--say, within the last several years--I never cared for Gladys Knight and the Pips' version of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine." I must have had rocks in my head, and/or stale cotton candy stuffed in my ears. I didn't especially care for Creedence Clearwater Revival's cover, but I preferred it to Gladys and her Pips' rendition at the time. I always adored Marvin Gaye's definitive take on the song--neither rocks nor cotton candy could diminish me to quite that extent--but as I developed a belated appreciation of Motown in the late '70s and early '80s, my tone-deaf audio receptors thought the Pips' version sounded--wait for it!--too show biz, too Vegas.

Rocks. Cotton candy. Musta been somethin' in there, occupying all that nothing.

And it took me way too long to see the error of my ways, to knock the stupid outta my noggin and let Gladys and company testify with righteous fervor about the ugly ramifications of word-of-mouth revelations. It certainly wasn't a case of me not recognizing the talent in play here--I've loved "Midnight Train To Georgia" for nearly five decades now--but I guess I couldn't sufficiently loosen my embrace of Marvin Gaye's definitive version to allow myself the pure pleasure of Gladys Knight and the Pips' own stirring chronicle of a loose and faithless lover exposed by loose and chatty lips. Vegas...?! I should eat the rocks and throw the cotton candy in Charlie Brown's trick-or-treat sack.

I know better now. And I knew it before watching Summer Of Soul, where Glady Knight and the Pips' mesmerizing live performance of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" is an absolute highlight in a film loaded with highlights. I betcha wonder how I knew. Glorious. I shoulda listened earlier.

PAGLIARO: Some Sing Some Dance

Like the Equals' "I Can See, But You Don't Know" (which also graced this week's playlist), Pagliaro's "Some Sing Some Dance" was cited in Bomp! magazine's 1978 power pop manifesto as one of the defining examples of the style. Much later, Ray Paul and Emitt Rhodes teamed for a lovely cover of the song, but I don't think it's all that well-known among power pop fans even now. Nonetheless: power pop. Bomp! said so.

SORROWS: Play This Song (On The Radio)

An easy direction to follow, and we were happy to comply. From Sorrows' minty-fresh album Love Too Late--The Real Album, courtesy of Big Stir Records. 

DIAN ZAIN/THE MOST: Take A Chance

Rest in peace, Dian Zain.

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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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