10 SONGS: 2/3/2024

 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 # 1218. This show is available as a podcast.

MARY WEISS: Stop And Think It Over

When news broke a couple of weeks ago  that singer Mary Weiss had passed, it felt imperative for TIRnRR to attempt a tribute to her legacy and impact. Weiss achieved the bulk of that impact as lead singer of the Shangri-Las, so yeah, we were absolutely going to play some Shangri-Las. 

The Shangri-Las broke up by the end of the '60s, their final single released in 1967. An attempted reunion in the late '70s didn't pan out. Weiss's first and only solo releases came in 2007.

And man, they were terrific.

Backed by the rock 'n' roll prowess of the Reigning Sound, Mary recorded Dangerous Game for the mighty Norton Records label. It was my favorite new album that year, but the album and its two attendant singles comprise the the entirety of Mary Weiss's solo output.

"Stop And Think It Over" was one of the singles off Dangerous Game.. We played it a lot when it was new, and we played it to open this week's show. Just so happens we're playing it again this coming Sunday night, too. 

Legacy. Impact. Some things endure. With love and respect, This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio remembers Mary Weiss.

JOHNNY THUNDERS: Great Big Kiss

Rules governing internet radio shows limited us to just four Shangri-Las tracks in our three-hour time slot. We played the group's three highest-charting hit singles--"I Can Never Go Home Anymore," "Remember (Walkin' In The Sand)," and "Leader Of The Pack"--and added "Footsteps On The Roof," the B-side from their final 45. We'll have its A-side "Take The Time" on our next program.

We wanted to supplement this fab four with a few covers of other Shangri-Las delights. That plan commenced with the one and only Johnny Thunders, whose former band the New York Dolls owed an obvious debt to the Shangri-Las; the Dolls recorded an originally unreleased cover of "Great Big Kiss," and nicked the song's opening line--"When I say I'm in love, you best I'm in love. L-U-V"--for their original tune "Looking For A Kiss." We included "Looking For A Kiss" in this week's closing set.

Thunders returned to "Great Big Kiss" for his solo debut, 1978's So Alone. Patti Palladin contributed the chick vocals in back-and-forth to Johnny's dude vocals. I regret that Johnny's contrary sense of humor led him to change the original's "Tell me more!" line to something considerably less palatable in his cover's early going, but he changes back to "Tell me more!" after that, and the result is sweeter than you may expect. There's an element of camp or parody, I guess, but it doesn't obscure Johnny's inherent affection for the Shangri-Las. 

The affection wins out. As it oughta. MWAH!

NEKO CASE: The Train From Kansas City

Another Shangri-Las cover, this time a live performance by Neko Case. "The Train From Kansas City" was the B-side to the Shangri-Las' "Right Now And Not Later" in 1965, and both sides deserved much greater success. Case's reverent rendition is spirited in its own right, and I honestly couldn't tell you which version I prefer. That doesn't happen often for me with Shangri-Las covers.

PAUL COLLINS: I'm The Only One For You

One of the new albums I'm most looking forward to hearing this year is Stand Back And Take A Good Look, courtesy of power pop king Paul Collins and the intrepid Jem Records label. I've been a Paul Collins fan since I was in college in the late '70s, listening to his work with the Nerves, the Breakaways, and his own subsequent combo the Beat, aka the Paul Collins Beat. The Beat's 1979 debut LP is an acknowledged classic of power pop, and Paul's "Walking Out On Love" is tentatively scheduled to be celebrated in my tentative book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Power pop fan? That's MY beat!

Based on a spin of the album's first single "I'm The Only One For You" (recorded alongside another power pop great, the late Dwight Twilley), it's a safe presumption that this record's gonna kick what needs kickin'. Stand Back And Take A Look is out February 16th. We played the single this week. We're playin' it again this Sunday night. Can't stop the beat, man. Can't stop the beat.

THE SHANGRI-LAS: Leader Of The Pack

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

TWINKLE: Terry

One measure of a musical act's impact is the sincere flattery of attempts at imitation. The Shangri-Las' "Leader Of The Pack" was a # 1 hit in 1964. That same year, a British singer called Twinkle had a UK hit with "Terry," a song that doesn't sound like the Shangri-Las, but swipes its tragic biker love story directly from "Leader Of The Pack."

As a kid in the '60s, I actually knew "Terry" way before I was aware of "Leader Of The Pack." "Terry" wasn't a hit in the States, but the American Tollie Records 45 was in our family record collection. I don't know if one of my siblings bought it, or if I picked it out on one of the occasions my parents took me to J.M. Fields and let me pick out a 45 of my own.

And its flattery remains sincere. Decades later, I bought a Twinkle best-of CD, and "Golden Lights" became my favorite among her works. Still love "Terry," too.

THE RAMONES: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

Ain't it the truth, brudders. Ain't it the truth.

MARY WEISS WITH THE REIGING SOUND: Tell Me What You Want Me To Do

Our show-opener "Stop And Think It Over" is my # 1 solo Mary Weiss track. "Tell Me What You Want Me To Do" is a very close second, and further illustration of the sheer enduring vibrance of Dangerous Game. 

THE DOWNBEAT 5: Dum-Dum Ditty

One more Shangri-Las cover, and it's a good one. The Downbeat 5's lead singer Jen D'Angora has become a TIRnRR Fave Rave with both the Shang Hi Los and Jenny Dee and the Deelinquents, but we first heard the rock 'n' roll power of Jen's vocals with the Downbeat 5. 

And it makes our hearts go dum-dum-ditty-boom-boom. Of course!

THE SHANGRI-LAS: Remember (Walkin' In The Sand)

REMEMBER!

As if we could ever forget. Godspeed, Mary Weiss.

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: GABBA GABBA HEY! The Cutting Room Floor

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 is the first of two editions of 10 Songs this week. Tomorrow's entry will discuss some tracks from This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1183, our special GABBA GABBA HEY! A Celebration Of The Ramones. Today's post deals with ten worthy Ramones-related tracks that were considered for this week's playlist, but ultimately left out.

THE HEARTBREAKERS: Chinese Rocks

Some tracks are omitted from playlists as a result of the normal give-and-take of slappin' a show together. This is equally true whether it's one of our normal weekly Dana & Carl collaborative set lists, or a solo programming effort like the annual Dana's Funky Soul Pit! extravaganzas or this week's Ramones special. We have three hours of airtime, including patter. Some things fit within the time slot. Some things do not.

But omitting the Heartbreakers' "Chinese Rocks" this week was a straight-up mistake on my part. The song was written by Dee Dee Ramone, probably co-written with the Heartbreakers' then-bassist Richard Hell. Johnny Ramone vetoed "Chinese Rocks" as a Ramones song (because of its heroin references), so the Heartbreakers did it instead. Johnny later reversed his decision, and the Ramones recorded it a few years later for their fifth album End Of The Century.

The Ramones' version (called "Chinese Rock") was produced by Phil Spector, and it did not match what the Heartbreakers did with the song. Spector was very much the wrong choice to produce "Chinese Rocks." Oddly enough, the first time I heard "Chinese Rocks" was when the Ramones performed it live on July 6, 1979, a few months before I scored my copy of the Heartbreakers' fantastic Live At Max's Kansas City LP, and certainly before the 1980 release of End Of The Century.

And our Ramones special should have included the Heartbreakers! My bad. I also considered "I Love You"--my favorite Heartbreakers track, and a song the Ramones covered on ¡Adios Amigos!--but I knew "Chinese Rocks" was an essential choice. I wrote it down in my notes. I forgot to put it into the work-in-progress playlist, and therefore forgot about it when assembling the actual show. My girlfriend's cryin' in the shower stall. Oops.

RICHARD HELL AND THE VOIDOIDS: Blank Generation

I knew I wanted to include something by Dust, which had been Marky Ramone's first group. I also wanted to play either "Blank Generation" or "Love Comes In Spurts" by Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Marky's group immediately prior to joining the Ramones. Dust made it into the show, but I wound up cutting the Voidoids. 

DIE TOTEN HOSEN [WITH JOEY RAMONE]: Blitzkrieg Bop

Other than deciding (enthusiastically!) to play two versions of "I Wanna Be Sedated"--an elevator music cover by the Nutley Brass and the Ramones' epic "Ramones-On-45 Mega-Mix!"--I was determined not to duplicate songs. One "Rockaway Beach" (General Johnson and Joey Ramone). One "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" (Josie Cotton). And one "Blitzkrieg Bop." 

Our designated "Blitzkrieg Bop" was gonna be a remake by German group Die Toten Hosen, from their 1991 album Learning English, Lesson One. Joey Ramone hisself shows up here to sing along, and the result is nearly as invigorating as the nonpareil original.

My blueprint was solid. I was going to play a clip of my 1994 interview with Johnny, so our listeners could hear him crediting the Bay City Rollers' "Saturday Night" as the specific inspiration for "Blitzkrieg Bop," follow that with the Rollers chantin' S!A!T-U-R! D-A-Y! NIGHT!!, and then the combined forces of Joey with Die Toten Hosen answering HEY-HO, LET'S GO! Foolproof!

Proper staging demanded a different approach. It seemed to me the show really needed to open with a cry of "Hey-ho, let's go!," and I didn't want our first song to be by anyone else but the Ramones. I also wanted our first selection to include the four Ramones I interviewed--Joey, Johnny, Marky, and C. J. Ramone--which meant a live version of "Blitzkrieg Bop." Then Johnny talking about Bay City revelations, and the Rollers singin' about their favorite weekend evening. 

It was the only opening sequence that made sense. We'll get to to Die Toten Hosen on a near-future show.

RODNEY & THE BRUNETTES: Surfin' Safari

The "Rodney" of Rodney and the Brunettes is legendary SoCal DJ Rodney Bingenheimer. I believe our Rodney did a total of two releases with two different bands o' Brunettes. I knew the first one, a cover of Ronnie and the Daytonas' "Little GTO" recorded with members of Blondie; the second was this remake of the Beach Boys' "Surfin' Safari," with Beach Boys-affiliated girl group the Honeys singing lead, backed by the Ramones themselves.

My first awareness that this even existed was when Joey Ramone told me that Japanese editions of the Ramones' 1993 all-covers album Acid Eaters contained da brudders' otherwise-unavailable take on "Surfin' Safari."  As if I didn't already IMMEDIATELY want that then-elusive Japanese issue of "Surfin' Safari," Joey then mentioned the Rodney and the Brunettes version. Arghh. Forbidden fruit!

I've never seen a copy of this. It only appeared on a 1984 compilation album called All Year Party!, which also treats us with the Ventures playing "Surfing And Spying," a song Charlotte Caffey and Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's wrote for them. I eventually tracked down an mp3 of Rodney, Honeys, and Ramones goin' on safari to stay, but I deemed it too lo-fi to meet the radio show's needs.

Note to somebody: REISSUE THIS!!!

JOAN JETT & THE REMAINS OF THE RAMONES: Bad Reputation

In addition to its looming status as our designated father-daughter dance when my darling daughter Meghan gets married this fall, Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation" is a great, great track that is influenced by the Ramones without stealing from the Ramones. 

And this live version enlists a couple of actual Ramones, as Marky and Dee Dee Ramone endorse Ms. Jett's admirable absence of damns about her bad reputation. The track was included on a 2013 expanded reissue of Jett's first album, and the only reason it didn't make our playlist was because I didn't wanna take the time to do a radio edit for (mild) language. See, per George Carlin, shit is still one of The Seven Words. No radio edit, so no airplay.

It's okay. Joan Jett doesn't give a damn about it anyway. More power to her!

SLEATER-KINNEY: I Want To Be Your Joey Ramone

In addition to Ramones tracks, Ramones collaborations, individual Ramones working outside the group's aegis, and covers of Ramones songs, our celebration of the Ramones also needed some songs about the Ramones. CELEBRATIONS! My two favorites in this category are Mötorhead's "RAMONES" and Amy Rigby's "Dancing With Joey Ramone." Not even a celestial intervention could have kept either of those tracks out of this show.

We supplemented Lemmy and Ms. Rigby's efforts with works by U2, Lugless Booth, PurrBox, the Rulers, and Huntingtons, even Boris the Sprinkler's "Kill The Ramones." Sleater-Kinney's "I Want To Be Your Joey Ramone" was an almost, one of the last tracks deleted to force-fit the three-and-a-half-hour show into its three-hour time slot.

It's a cool track, and I regret we couldn't squeeze it in. I also regret having to admit this is the only Sleater-Kinney track I know offhand. Gonna have to remedy that.

HELEN LOVE: Debbie Loves Joey

It has been a very, very long time since we've heard the music of Helen Love on TIRnRR. "Punk Boy," Helen's duet with Joey Ramone, was an obvious choice, but her solo "Debbie Loves Joey" seemed, y'know, obviouser. 

Nonetheless, we had to cut it for time. "Debbie Loves Joey" and the New Piccadillys' "Judy Is A Punk" were The Last Tracks Out.

THEE HEADCOATEES: Pinhead

Because a special show with GABBA GABBA HEY! in its title should probably oughtta present some version of the Ramones song that birthed that phrase, I did want to push a "Pinhead" in here somewhere. Thee Headcoatees' rendition was selected, prepped...and then dropped anyway. Gabba Gabba, we don't accept you. Time constraints again.

RONNIE SPECTOR [WITH JOEY RAMONE]: You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory

Joey Ramone produced Ronnie Spector's She Talks To Rainbows EP. The EP includes a Beach Boys cover ("Don't Worry Baby"), a live performance of the Ronettes' "I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine," two Ramones covers (the title tune and "Bye Bye Baby," the latter a duet with Joey), and Ronnie with Joey on this cover of Johnny Thunders' "You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory." 

We played "She Talks To Rainbows." This track remained but a memory.

CC AND THE PERILOUS 1.4.5.: Rockaway Beach

Okay, I was tempted. A little bit. But no, we never seriously considered programming this one.

Trust me. You hadda be there.

Hey! Speaking of being there!

IN-PERSON EVENT! On June 29, I will be making an in-store appearance at GENERATION RECORDS, 210 Thompson Street in NYC on behalf of my  new book GABBA GABBA HEY! A CONVERSATION WITH THE RAMONES. The book contains my 1994 interviews with Joey, Johnny, Marky, and C.J., which were cited by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as essential reading. I'll be at Generation to chat with fellow Ramones fans, talk about the book, the interviews, and how the music of the Ramones impacted my life. If you are in the New York area on June 29th, I would love to see you at Generation Records. Hey-ho, let's GO! 

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/

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: 5/20/2020

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 is the second of two separate editions of 10 Songs this week, each drawing exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1025.

MICHAEL CARPENTER AND MICHAEL OLIVER: It Only Hurts When I Breathe



Both Michael Carpenter and Michael Oliver have been long-time Fave Raves on TIRnRR, so it makes perfect sense that we should fall so fully for their new collaboration "It Only Hurts When I Breathe." We've been playing these guys for years, as solo artists and under group titles (Carpenter singing lead for The Finkers as well as with a series of his own combos like Michael Carpenter and the Cuban Heels, Oliver fronting Michael Oliver and Go, Dog, Go!), and they really oughtta be household names already. They've appeared on TIRnRR compilations, and each of their contributions has been a stunning highlight; hell, when I heard Oliver's This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 submission "You Won't Do," I immediately contacted Dana and Kool Kat Musik's Ray Gianchetti to tell them we'd just received a track that would single-handedly justify our project. Stunning stuff, and the Michaels offer rich catalogs of music that will delight you.  You can get "It Only Hurts When I Breathe" right here.

DAVE EDMUNDS: Queen Of Hearts



Even though I already owned Dave Edmunds' Repeat When Necessary album (purchased specifically to snag Edmunds' extraordinary cover of Elvis Costello's "Girls Talk") well before Juice Newton's "Queen Of Hearts" hit radio in 1981, I didn't immediately realize that this fabulous Juice Newton single was a cover of a song on Repeat When Necessary. Oops? That happens sometimes; I get preoccupied with one track--"Girls Talk" in this case--and forget about the rest of the album. I am as God made me. I admit the heresy of digging Juice Newton's version even more than the Edmunds original, but man, you can't go wrong with either version. 

THE FIRST CLASS: Beach Baby



I know that "Beach Baby" by The First Class occasionally shows up on some folks' lists of the all-time worst hit songs, but I must respectfully disagree. "Beach Baby" is an amazing evocation of the mythic California sound, executed by a British studio group, pulling the whole magic trick off without ever sounding like a Beach Boys imitation. Tony Burrows sings lead, and Dana and I like to refer to Burrows as the world's only five-time one-hit wonder, since he also lent his voice to the sole Billboard smashes credited to Edison Lighthouse ("Love Grows [Where My Rosemary Goes]"), White Plains ("My Baby Loves Lovin'"), The Brotherhood Of Man ("United We Stand"), and The Pipkins ("Gimme Dat Ding"). "Beach Baby" is Burrows' finest moment. One of the all-time worst? Please. "Beach Baby" earns its own chapter in my eventual book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

THE HEARTBREAKERS: Love Comes In Spurts


Although I was a teenage punk fan in 1977, I didn't have much enthusiasm for Richard Hell and the Voidoids. I loved The Sex Pistols and The Ramones, and I appreciated the naughtiness of a title like "Love Comes In Spurts," but even when I won a free copy of the Voidoids' debut album Blank Generation from my college campus radio station, I could find no reason to keep it in my collection.

Before the Voidoids, Hell had been bassist with The Heartbreakers, the legendarily disheveled group fronted by The New York Dolls' former guitarist Johnny Thunders. Hell was long gone from The Heartbreakers by the time of their lone studio album L.A.M.F., but Dana pulled out this 1975 demo of Hell 'n' Heartbreakers for airplay on this week's show. Musically, this earlier version of "Love Comes In Spurts" sounds a lot more like The Heartbreakers' subsequent L.A.M.F. track "One Track Mind"--one of my three favorite Heartbreakers cuts--than it does to the familiar Voidoids recording of the same song. And I like it a lot.

HÜSKER DÜ: Eight Miles High



Given my general affinity for melody and disdain for noise, Dana was surprised to discover how much I like Hüsker Dü's chaotic cover of The Byrds' "Eight Miles High." The Byrds' 1966 recording of "Eight Miles High" was probably the first Byrds record I ever owned, an oldies reissue 45 purchased when I was still a high school student in the mid '70s. I was (and remain) taken with the audacity and ambition The Byrds brought to the original, mixing their well-known vocal blend with an adventurous arrangement intended to adapt the free-form improvisational style of jazz saxophonist John Coltrane to a pop song played by an American folk-rock guitar band at the height of the British Invasion..

If there was a subtle embrace of cacophony inherent in The Byrds' creation of "Eight Miles High," Hüsker Dü grabs the noisier elements in a freakin' headlock, wringing out every bit of grunge and distortion to be found. On paper, I shouldn't dig this, and should probably hate it. But I've loved it for decades, ever since hearing it on Buffalo's WBNY-FM in the mid '80s and snappin' up my copy of the 45 from visionary rock writer Gary Sperrazza! at Apollo Records. As much as I still adore The Byrds' version, Hüsker Dü's cover has become my preferred take on "Eight Miles High."

THE MONKEES: The Door Into Summer



I like The Monkees. Their new live album The Mike & Micky Show is just fantastic, and this is its best track. Wonderfully played by a superb group of musicians (who, again, REALLY NEED TO RECORD A NEW MONKEES STUDIO ALBUM!), expertly and lovingly reproduced for your home enjoyment. Michael Nesmith is in fine voice, Micky Dolenz is always in fine voice, and I'm sorry, but I can't stop talking about how great their band sounds with them. New studio album. Now. Please?

MÖTORHEAD: RAMONES



I think I read about this song (from Mötorhead's 1991 album 1916) somewhere in the rock press, certainly long before I heard the track itself. My introduction to Mötorhead's music came back in the '70s, when their blistering track "Motorhead" was included on a sampler album called Geef Voor New Wave, a compilation that also included tracks by The Rubinoos, The Motors, Johnny Moped, Eddie and the Hot Rods, The Adverts, Generation X, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Jonathon Richman, The Sex Pistols, The Dwight Twilley Band, The Radiators From Space, Radio Stars, and Earth Quake. Geef Voor New Wave was one hell of a collection, and my copy of that LP has withstood every attempted purge of excess items in my vinyl collection. I still have that record, and it deserves a separate post of its own some day.

My Geef Voor New Wave and me. Evidence suggests this is a recent photo.

"Ace Of Spades" is probably the best-known Mötorhead track overall, and I heard that in the early '80s, probably not all that long after its 1980 release. I dug the idea of Mötorhead--grungy, unapologetic hard rock that was both punk and metal while violently shrugging off any attempt to categorize it--more than I really listened to them. But I loved the song "Motorhead," and I liked "Ace Of Spades" a lot.

I first heard Mötorhead's own original salute to The Ramones as a cover by--of course!--The Ramones themselves. The Carbona Quartet recorded two versions of the song, with bassist C. J. Ramone singing lead on their first released version (on 1995's ¡Adios Amigos!), and Joey Ramone resuming his usual place at the microphone for a studio cut on the 1996 album Greatest Hits Live. The Ramones included the song in their final live performance, August 6th of '96, with shared lead vocals by C.J. and Mötorhead's Lemmy (documented on the 1997 live album We're Outta Here!). I finally grabbed a copy of 1916 to hear the Mötorhead version after that. It's my favorite Mötorhead song. Duh.

THE MYNAH BIRDS: I Got You (In My Soul)



The Mynah Birds appear in 10 Songs for the second consecutive week. The historical hook for this lost 1966 Motown group is that it included both Rick James and Neil Young before they were famous, but honestly, I'm caring less and less about that curiosity. This stuff just cooks, and it's a shame it wasn't released in the '60s. A total of four tracks have been made available on digital compilations, and if there's still any more left in the vaults, I hope someone exhumes it all soon. I would buy a Mynah Birds CD right now, if only such a thing existed.

POPDUDES: Ridin' In My Car



Popdudes' ace cover of NRBQ's "Ridin' In My Car" returns to the playlist and to 10 Songs, as the track (previously available only as a digital single) is now available for the first time as a physical product. The occasion is the release of the brand-new compilation CD Big Stir Singles--The Sixth Wave, which collects virtual As and Bs from Popdudes, Librarians With Hickeys, Dolph Chaney, Jim Basnight, The Walker Brigade, Paula Carino, Joe Normal and the Anytown'rs, Trip Wire, The Corner Laughers, and Spygenius, a double A-side of XTC covers by Glowbox and Tom Curless and the 46%, plus The Well Wishers' fab "We Grow Up." 23 tracks! Good stuff! And a good cause, with 25% of the proceeds benefiting Sweet Relief's Musician Assistance Fund. Radio's job is to sell records; we've done our part, so now do yours: Big Stir Records compilations

THE STEMS: Never Be Friends



This week's playlist was dominated by our tribute to the late Little Richard. The pop world also lost Richard Lane, who had been a founding member of an absolutely incredible Australian pop group called The Stems. The Stems--Lane, Dom Mariani, Julian Matthews, and David Shaw--released one brilliant album, 1987's At First Sight Violets Are Blue before combusting. I can't get along with you/I can't can't get along with you/I can't get along with you/I can't get along with you. The album included this exuberant power pop kiss-off "Never Be Friends," and the song's verve and swagger shines on the radio, where it belongs.


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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 134 essays about 134 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).