10 SONGS: 11/16/2021

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 # 1103.

THE MONKEES: You Just May Be The One

"You Just May Be The One" is a track from the Monkees' 1967 album Headquarters. It was produced by Chip Douglas (credited under his real name Douglas Farthing Hatlelid) and engineered by Hank Cicalo. Douglas also sang back-up on the track.

You know who else was on that session? The Monkees. And no one else.

The song was written by Michael Nesmith, who sang lead and played electric and acoustic guitars. Peter Tork played bass. Micky Dolenz played drums. Davy Jones played tambourine. Yes, the precise line-up and instrumentation we saw on their TV show. Peter, Micky, and Davy joined de facto deputy Monkee Chip Douglas to sing behind their wool-hatted prime mate Michael. It's the Monkees. For all the ill-informed crap we've heard about the Monkees not playing their own instruments, this is the Monkees. No slight to the amazing Chip Douglas, whose integral contributions made it all happen, but on "You Just May Be The One," it is effectively only the Monkees.

And it's fantastic. It shoulda been a single.

Both Davy and Peter have left us. On Sunday night, as This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio blared its mighty sound across the whole friggin' planet, surviving Monkees Mike and Micky took the stage in Los Angeles for the final date of the Monkees' farewell tour. There will still be a few more stand-alone shows--a cruise with the Beach Boys, and isolated make-up dates for previously-scheduled concerts postponed because of...well, you know--but this is the end of the road. 

We were lucky to have them. Thank you, Micky, Davy, Peter, and Michael. 

Oh, and a side note to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: #inductthemonkees

THE GRIP WEEDS: Porpoise Song

The Grip Weeds appreciate the Monkees. Smart folks, those Grip Weeds. And those very same smart folks have a new covers album called DiG, which is available in single-, double-, and triple-disc editions. You know how sometimes less is more? With the Grip Weeds, more is more, and the two- and three-disc versions of DiG include two Monkees covers, of "For Pete's Sake" and the sublime Gerry Goffin-Carole King number "Porpoise Song." The Monkees' "Porpoise Song" merits a chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), and the Grip Weeds serve the song well. Dig?

SPYGENIUS: Paper Sun Love Is Only Sleeping

Spygenius appreciate the Monkees. And their fab new covers album Spygenius Blow Their Covers also includes two Monkees songs. Both the Grip Weeds and Spygenius cover "For Pete's Sake," and Spygenius deliver their rendition of the Monkees' "Love Is Only Sleeping" as a medley with their take on Traffic's "Paper Sun." This is a brilliant gathering of the tribes, mixing Traffic's classic rock perennial with a Monkees album track. For those of us who remember the condescension some FM radio rock fans used to ooze while smugly disdaining the Monkees, this medley demonstrates the prevailing silliness of that artificial divide, that arbitrary insistence that one thing is hip and one thing is not. In Spygenius' capable hands, the Monkees song is as heavy as the Traffic song, and the Traffic song as pop as the Monkees song. And since Spygenius accomplishes faithful covers of both, that even-handed compasrison applies equally to the originals. I spy genius at work here.

THE DOORS: Hello, I Love You

The Doors appreciated...man, I have no idea whether or not the Doors appreciated the Monkees. But they should have. Let's presume they did.

And my introduction to the Doors was no less (potentially) prosaic as my introduction to the Monkees via a weekly TV show: I first recall learning of the Doors in the pages of a superhero comic book.

In 1972, the 38th issue of the DC Comics title Teen Titans opened with a scene of clairvoyant Titan Lilith dancing to the Doors' "When The Music's Over." Since twelve-year-old me already had a little bit of a crush on our Lilith, her recommendation of what rock group I oughtta be listening to could not be taken lightly. The men didn't know. This little boy understood. Sort of.

Lilith's first appearance, Teen Titans # 25, drawn by Nick Cardy

I was old enough that I must have heard the Doors music before that, but it hadn't registered with me. I later discovered that my sister had the Doors' "Hello, I Love You"/"Love Street" 45, so I did hear the Doors in short order. I hope Lilith will forgive me for never becoming quite the Doors fan she was.

(And later, when I became a fan of the Kinks during my senior year in high school, I realized that "Hello, I Love You" was very heavily influenced by the Kinks' "All Day And All Of The Night." Lilith may have known. I'm sure she understood.) 

WENDI DUNLAP: Buildings

Pop music. Gorgeous, inviting pop music. What more do you need? Wendi Dunlap's new album Looking For Buildings offers your opportunity to fall heart-first into a dreamy, luxurious bed of pure radio-ready bliss. Wendi Dunlap has just the building you're looking for.

LITTLE RICHARD: Good Golly Miss Molly

I was born in 1960. Growing up in the '60s and early '70s, most of my introductions to 1950s rock 'n' roll came via proxy, and that proxy was usually your John, your Paul, your George, and your Ringo. I first heard the music of Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, and Larry Williams in cover versions by the Beatles on the American hodgepodge LPs Beatles '65 and Beatles VI. That's also how I first heard Little Richard.

For my money, the Beatles improved Berry's "Rock And Roll Music," Holly's "Words Of Love," and Williams' "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" and "Bad Boy," and drew a tie with Perkins on "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby." Even the Beatles couldn't improve on the Georgia Peach. Little Richard's songs were done best by Little Richard. 

(And, ever the adolescent, I'd say Miss Molly sounds like a fun date if she sure likes to ball. No, you grow up.)

For dramatic purposes, the role of Miss Molly will be played by Lilith of the Teen Titans

HAYLEY MARY: Like A Woman Should

Intrepid TIRnRR listener Dave Murray introduced us to Australian singer Hayley Mary with a YouTube video of her 2020 single "Like A Woman Should," with Dave commenting, "I love everything about this song." We agree. Oh man, do we ever agree.

MANDY MOORE: Moonshadow

As I continue my current obsession with the TV series This Is Us, we welcome one of that show's stars, singer and actress Mandy Moore, back to the ol' playlist with a spin of her cover of the Cat Stevens hit "Moonshadow." The original was a big hit during the prolonged heyday of my '70s AM Top 40 thrall, but Moore gives the song a glossy shine that suits it well.

THE QUICK: It Won't Be Long

By the time of my senior year in high school, 1976-77, my radio allegiance had migrated from AM Top 40 to freer-form FM, specifically WOUR-FM, The Rock Of Central New York. OUR played Michael Nesmith, so I exempt the station and its jocks from the charge of anti-Monkees bias I leveled at other, lesser FM outlets a few paragraphs North of here. In that time frame, WOUR also introduced me to Graham Parker, the Rubinoos, Greg Kihn, Nick Lowe, and the Sex Pistols, and the station wasn't afraid to play oldies by the Yardbirds, the Animals, the Rascals, and the Dave Clark Five. 

And WOUR played the Quick. Or at least they played the Quick's cover of the Beatles' beloved Meet The Beatles LP track "It Won't Be Long," from the Quick's 1976 album Mondo Deco. I don't recall having heard anything by Sparks by this point in my time line, so I was oblivious to Sparks' influence on the Quick. And while the Quick's take on "It Won't Be Long" certainly didn't steal any of my affection away from the early Beatles, I did get its quirky pop appeal, then and now.

ANDY WILLIAMS: A Fool Never Learns

Something about following Dana's spin of the Velvet Underground's S & M ode "Venus In Furs" with Andy Williams' jaunty 1964 hit "A Fool Never Learns" was immediately appealing and irresistible. It's all pop music. 

"A Fool Never Learns" was written by Sonny Curtis, whose own rockin' pop c.v. spans working with Buddy Holly before the formation of the Crickets (a group Curtis himself later joined) and writing all-time touchstones "I Fought The Law" and "Love Is All Around," the latter used as the much-loved theme song for The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Andy Williams' "A Fool Never Learns" was yet another part of my cherished soundtrack as a kid. I have learned of no reason to forsake that foolish thing. I suspect it's not really foolish at all.

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You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.

10 SONGS: 11/4/2021

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 # 1101.

DOLPH CHANEY: This Halloween

Even though this week's show fell on October 31st, I wasn't all that interested in playing many Halloween songs. I'm not opposed to Halloween at all, but nowadays I'm largely (and benignly) indifferent to its celebration. I buy candy to give out to the few kids who ring my doorbell, and I do still dig that part of Halloween; but, with one exception (which we'll get to in a couple of paragraphs), I didn't care to program much in the way of All Hallows' Eve tunes this year. There would be no Monster Mashing in this show.

However, we certainly couldn't pass up an opportunity to play a new gem from TIRnRR hitmaker Dolph Chaney. Dolph's new Big Stir Records digital single "This Halloween" was the precise no-trick treat we needed to kick off a quick three-song half-set of Halloween songs. And that led into the one Halloween track I will never, ever tire of hearing....

BARON DAEMON AND THE VAMPIRES: The Transylvania Twist

The Greatest Record Ever Made! Grab a hold of your baby, and hold her tight.

SCREAMIN' JAY HAWKINS: I Put A Spell On You

Other than the above classic by the Baron and his Bloody Buddies, there aren't a lot of songs I'm moved to play for Halloween. I could make a case for the Lollipop Shoppe's incredible '60s side "You Must Be A Witch," or Tegan and Sara's irresistible "Walking With A Ghost," and I guess a number of tracks by KISS or Alice Cooper would qualify by default. There are a few other viable choices, but I've gotta give it up for Dana's selection of "I Put A Spell On You" by the maniacal Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Man, this is great stuff, and it's a track I don't think I've appreciated as much as I shoulda in previous spins. Something about it clicked for me this year like never before. Because you're MINE...! BWAAH-HA-HA-HAAAA! 

THE COCKTAIL SLIPPERS: Hush

One Sunday a few weeks back, two shows here on the mighty SPARK! Syracuse--This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio and Rich Firestone's Radio Deer Camp (the latter heard every Sunday from 5 to 7 pm Eastern at your familiar http://sparksyracuse.org/)--both played different tracks from the Cocktail Slippers' new album Shout It Out Loud!  TIRnRR opted for "Be The One," and Reechie played the group's cover of the Billy Joe Royal/Deep Purple perennial "Hush." This week, we got around to playin "Hush." Your move, Reechie!

(Or not. Rich programs his show just fine without our input.)

LEE HARRINGTON AND LYNDA MANDOLIN: Sweet Child

Generally speaking, any Red On Red Records single is pretty damned likely to get at least one spin on TIRnRR. Among the label's releases so far, just about all of them have been prime examples of radio-ready rockin' pop, and the only reason we don't play more of them more often is because we only have a three-hour radio show. I'm thinking we should do a Red On Red feature on some future show, similar to a Big Stir Records feature we did earlier this year, and I'm waiting for one specific Red On Red release before we look into doing that. In the mean time: MORE RED ON RED! Lee Harrington and Lynda Mandolin's "Sweet Child" maintains Red On Red's above-cited string o' radio-ready reliables, and so does a new single by the Chelsea Curve that we'll be hearing on next week's show. We're all ready for more Red On Red.

KID GULLIVER: You'll Never Know

Speaking of Red On Red, Kid Gulliver's Kismet was the label's first full-length album release, and (I think) the first Red On Red physical media product. HuzZAH! Of course I bought it; I'm a fan! We've played a number of Kismet's tracks as digital singles--"Forget About Him" has earned particular distinction as an all-time TIRnRR Fave Rave--and now we add "You'll Never Know" to our Kid Gulliver parade of hits.

THE MONKEES: Love To Love

In 1967, when the members of the Monkees tried to assert some measure of control and/or participation in the making of records that bore their brand name, golden-eared (but shortsighted) musical supervisor Don Kirshner resisted the change. Seeking to maintain his preferred status quo, Kirshner snuck Davy Jones into the studio to record lead vocals for a trio of tracks prepared the old-fashioned way: Kirshner-controlled, with the Monkees only singing and never frickin' playing, ever. Two of the tracks, "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" and "She Hangs Out," were issued as a single in Canada, an action that infuriated higher-ups in the Monkee machinery and resulted in Kirshner being shown the door into summer instead.

The Canadian single was withdrawn, and "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" was issued as a U.S. 45, paired with a track sung and played by the Monkees, a Michael Nesmith song called "The Girl I Knew Somewhere." The Monkees later remade "She Hangs Out" for their album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. 

"Love To Love" was the third of those three final Kirshner tracks, and it remained in the vault for more than a decade. It first surfaced (in lo-fi form) on an Australian compilation called Monkeemania around 1979, and it was subsequently exhumed by Rhino Records in better-sounding state for some Monkees repackages. Like "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You," and like earlier Monkees releases "I'm A Believer" and "(Look Out) Here Comes Tomorrow," "Love To Love" was written by Neil Diamond. It was remixed and tweaked (with new backing vocals by Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork) for the Monkees' triumphant 2016 album Good Times! No offense to "I'm A Believer," but "Love To Love" is my favorite Monkees performance of a Neil Diamond song, and possibly my single favorite Davy Jones vocal.  

MANDY MOORE: I Could Break Your Heart Any Day Of The Week

Although my daughter was a Radio Disney listener in the Y2K decade, and I heard my share of Britney Spears and the like because of that, I completely missed Mandy Moore's teen pop offerings. Which is just as well, since it turned out that I didn't like 'em anyway. I do recall sampling (and buying) Moore's versions of XTC's "Senses Working Overtime" and Joan Armatrading's "Drop The Pilot," prompted by my friend John Borack's recommendation of her 2003 covers album Coverage. The production on Coverage is too slick for my taste, but Moore's performances are good, and you can see some stripped-down live performances on YouTube that provide a better showcase of her talent (and a glimpse of what the album could have been).

Her 2009 album Amanda Leigh gave us "I Could Break Your Heart Any Day Of The Week," a perfect pop song co-written by Moore and the Candy Butchers' Mike Viola (the voice of the Wonders!). My wife and I recently started watching the TV series This Is Us for the first time, bingeing episodes from the first and second seasons (and counting); Moore is one of the ensemble drama's co-stars, and that was sufficient motivation for "I Could Break Your Heart Any Day Of The Week" to make its return to the TIRnRR playlist.

QUINT: Good Morning London

We're gonna need a bigger boat. Our pal Robbie Rist didn't realize we've played his ace British punk pastiche "Good Morning London" a time or three on TIRnRR. But we have, and rightly so. Recorded under the nom du chomp Quint for the epic Sharknado film franchise, "Good Morning London" is...well, I was gonna say it's Jawsome, but that would be beneath even my lenient humor standards. Nonetheless, the song fits (wait for it!) swimmingly with whatever the hell it is we do on this show, so of course we played it again. Can't resist a sequel, right?

MILLIE SMALL: Killer Joe

Like "The Transylvania Twist," the great Millie Small's "My Boy Lollipop" is slated for individual attention in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). In prepping to write that chapter, I figured I oughtta immerse myself in a little more of Small's work, so I snagged a nice 2-CD set called The Best Of Millie Small. One of its highlights is our Millie's take on the Rocky Fellers's "Killer Joe," flipping the gender POV from the original's fretting about his girl Marie dancing with that lothario Killer Joe to Millie Small lamenting as her guy Joe trips the light fantastic with that tramp Marie. It's Roshomon with a beat! Listen, kids: just ditch faithless Joe and Marie, and try a dance with each other instead. Hmmm. Wonder if Marie's boy might be named "Lollipop."

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.

10 SONGS: 5/13/2020

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.



Everything's on a one-day delay this week. This Wednesday edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1024.

THE BEATLES: No Reply



I wrote a piece some time back asking the rhetorical question "Is Beatles VI Really My All-Time Favorite Album?" And it is, especially if we could combine it as a two-in-one with its predecessor Beatles '65, creating a compilation of two American record company cash-grabs. Beatles '65 and Beatles VI were Capitol Records hatchet jobs, scarfing up tracks from the British Beatles For Sale along with scattered single sides, mods, rockers, and mockers. But they were glorious hatchet jobs, and they were how I (like most Americans at the time) came to know and cherish this material. Pretty much everything The Beatles released from 1964 through 1966 forms my collective touchstone of what pop music can be. That is not likely to change, ever. And I was introduced to all of it via Capitol's Philistine patchworks.

From Beatles '65, or from Beatles For Sale if you must, "No Reply" is staggering, just irresistible in its majesty and mastery of pop form. It's one of my 25 favorite Beatles tracks, and its middle eight may be the single best bridge ever accomplished by anyone. Its main competition for that title is also by The Beatles: "I Don't Want To Spoil The Party," from Beatles VI (or from Beatles For Sale, if you must). I will never tire of hearing this stuff. Even sitting here just thinking about this music, with the stereo off, makes me smile. I saw the light. I saw that light a long, long time ago. It shines for me still.

CULTURE CLUB: Church Of The Poison Mind



Culture Club may seem one of the odder entries in my concert-goin' ticket-stub gallery, but my then-fiancee Brenda and I did indeed see Boy George and his cohorts in 1984 at the Aud in Buffalo. My most distinctive memory of the show is the young girls going batty over the members of the group, as one such female fan squealed with delight, Oh my God, she touched him...! I thought that sequence of events was amusing, but not in a condescending or (worse) hipper-than-thou way; I was in favor of pop mania, from The Beatles to, I dunno, Duran Duran, so I approved of such teen idolatry. 

Why were we there? Why not? We couldn't afford to go to many concerts, but this must have come along at the right moment, we liked Culture Club's radio hits, so yeah, why the hell not? Maybe I wouldn't have gone for it just on the basis of "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" or "Time (Clock Of The Heart)," or even "Karma Chameleon." "Church Of The Poison Mind" was a different story. 

"Church Of The Poison Mind" was one of my favorite songs on the radio in '83. I'm not sure if I heard it first on the AM Top 40 station 14 Rock or on the engagingly eclectic WUWU-FM, but I found the song pleasingly reminiscent of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and I adored it. 

DIRTY LOOKS: Let Go



Statement of intent. This Staten Island trio's eponymous debut LP was released on the Stiff America label in 1980, and "Let Go" was an immediate fave rave on 97 Power Rock, a Sunday night alternative-rock showcase aired on Buffalo's 97 Rock FM. Hmmm. A Sunday night rock 'n' roll radio show? I may have made note of that particular notion for possible future use. "Let Go" is a perfect post-punk radio pop song, fueled by new wave rock energy, rooted in catchy 1960s radio fare, and dead certain that The Ramones, The Who, Joe Jackson, and Paul Revere and the Raiders are Heaven-sent inspirations. It's not easy to write a song about rock 'n' roll. It's not. Too many attempts at rock anthems feel forced, or overly earnest, pompous, clueless, heavy-handed, and...blechh. With "Let Go," Dirty Looks pull it off with style, and they make it seem like a cinch. Don't you know that rock 'n' roll is still the best drug? The drumming is hyperactive, the bass pushy (in a good way), the guitar simple and authoritative, the vocals and harmonies steadfast, reflecting the confidence of a group secure in the knowledge that it has God on its side. All you gotta do, let go, let go, let GO! GO! GO! GO! Belief is infectious. And godDAMN, this sounds so exhilarating on the radio. It always has.

THE GRIP WEEDS: For Pete's Sake (Stay At Home!)



The Grip Weeds are a great, great band. They're a superb live band, they make fantastic records, they're a bunch of nice folks, and we like 'em a lot. They've allowed us to use two of their tracks on TIRnRR compilation albums, and this is part of what I wrote about them when their "Strange Bird" appeared on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4:

...The chronology of my rapid and total indoctrination into the blissful Grip of Weedsmania blurs. I may have become more interested via the group's connection with The Rooks, another of the great pop bands of the '90s. Rooks guitarist Kristin Pinell was (and is) also in The Grip Weeds. Kristin's husband Kurt Reil was (and is) the drummer and lead singer for The Grip Weeds, and he played with The Rooks, too. I don't know whether or not guitarist Rick Reil also served any Rooks time, but either way: The Grip Weeds seemed like a band I oughtta know.

And getting to know The Grip Weeds was its own sweet reward...

...The Grips Weeds are a treasure. They kick ass live, too; Dana and I had a chance to see 'em in Rochester on the How I Won The War tour (with special guest Ray Paul), and The Grip Weeds deliver, man. If you've never heard them, we firmly recommend you gather everything they've ever released directly from the band, and beg their forgiveness for taking so long to get hip. But it's okay. Music has no expiration date. I discovered Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly in the early '70s, and that music was as fresh to me then (and now) as it woulda been if I'd been spinning 45s in the fabulous '50s. We always say: right now is the best time ever to be a rockin' pop fan, because you have everything that came before, everything in the moment, and everything yet to come. Turn it up. That's what it's there for.

And right now--in this generation, in this loving time--The Grip Weeds have a brand new cover of The Monkees' shoulda-been-a-hit "For Pete's Sake," the song that used to close second-season episodes of The Monkees' television series. We used The Grip Weeds' version to open this week's radio show. With its title altered slightly to "For Pete's Sake (Stay At Home!)" for our quarantined times, there's a fab YouTube video of the song, and the track may or may not find its way into the next Grip Weeds album. This is something we all need.

MANDY MOORE: I Could Break Your Heart Any Day Of The Week

I don't remember who it was that hipped me to "I Could Break Your Heart Any Day Of The Week," an absolutely ace 2009 single by Mandy Moore. I may have read about it on a blog, but wherever I discovered it, I loved it at once.

Prior to that single, I didn't know all that much about Moore. Other than her capable covers of some XTC and Joan Armatrading material (from her 2003 all-covers album Coverage, which John Borack had recommended), I don't remember hearing any of Moore's earlier records. I must have heard her on Radio Disney when my daughter was young, but I have no recollection of that. And I don't think I've ever seen any of her movies; I do remember seeing her brief guest tenure on the TV sitcom Scrubs. I've never seen This Is Us or A Walk To Remember. I know who Mandy Moore is, but my awareness of her work doesn't even rise to the level of perfunctory.

But this song, man. This song...!

"I Could Break Your Heart Any Day Of The Week" was co-written by Moore with Mike Viola of The Candy Butchers (and the voice of The Wonders' "That Thing You Do!"). It's from her album Amanda Leigh, and while I've owned the digital single for more than a decade, I've just picked up a copy of the CD. It's time I learned more about Mandy Moore. But meanwhile: this song, man. Any day of the week.



THE MYNAH BIRDS: It's My Time



The Mynah Birds' story is one of pop music's most intriguing almost/what-ifs. The group included both Rick James and Neil Young, and they were set to release a single of "It's My Time"/"Go On And Cry" on Motown in 1966. We can debate genre labels, but I think The Mynah Birds would have been Motown's first rock group. Instead, the single's release was cancelled when James was arrested for being AWOL from the Navy. The Mynah Birds ended, Young and fellow group member Bruce Palmer wound up joining Buffalo Springfield, and Rick James went on to craft '70s and '80s punk funk of his own after leaving the hoosegow.

What might have been? "It's My Time" is a strong pop single, and while there's no guarantee it would have been a hit even if it had been released, one wonders how things could have played out differently. The handful of Mynah Birds tracks that surfaced decades after the fact are intriguing, and I wish we could have been enjoying those tracks, along with more that were never made, over all these years that have passed. I wouldn't want to sacrifice Buffalo Springfield. But The Mynah Birds coulda been something.

THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY: I Woke Up In Love This Morning



I don't care.

I don't care that this is supposed to be teenybopper pop music, created as a TV sitcom soundtrack, marketed to a puppy-eyed Teen Beat demographic of adolescent girls staring with undefined intent at their David Cassidy pinup. I don't care if it was created in a boardroom, a stockholders' meeting, a business planning session, or on the island of Dr. Moreau. I don't care if anyone thinks it's uncool, because anyone who does think that way is wrong, period. This record rocks. That's all I care about.

Like The Monkees before them, the music of The Partridge Family didn't have to be good; it just had to be commercial. The fictional Partridges didn't reach the effervescent zenith of the less-fictional Monkees, nor of the Partridges' real-life inspiration The Cowsills, but their machinery was likewise well-constructed, and with Cassidy's accomplished lead vocals backed by the studio magic of The Wrecking Crew, The Partridge Family were occasionally able to transcend their test-tube genesis. Unlike The Monkees or The Cowsills, The Partridge Family never existed. But their records did. Some of those records were actually pretty damned good, with debut LP tracks "Somebody Wants To Love You" and "Singing My Song" particularly worthy of a fresh and appreciative listen.

"I Woke Up In Love This Morning" is the truest gem. Drummer Hal Blaine is just a monster on this track, and David Cassidy once again proves he was so much more than just a face, with a voice so perfectly suited to deliver on the promise of pop music. The little girls understood. Maybe we should pay attention, too.

A token picture of Partridge Family actress Susan Dey, who had nothing whatsoever to do with "I Woke Up In Love This Morning."

PRINCE: I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man



We'd been playing Prince's "When Doves Cry" on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio a bit throughout the first few months of 2016, and I betcha it would have made our year-end countdown even if Prince had remained one of our greatest living rock stars into 2017. His death in April sealed the case for that year's ongoing infamy, prompting me to post, "2016 is fired."

"I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man" was never a song I thought much about before--if I were going to play Prince, I'd be more likely to go with "When Doves Cry" or "When You Were Mine"--but a request for the song from TIRnRR listener Joel Tinnel prompted us to play it on the show the week after Prince died. And it just clicked with me, suddenly but unerringly. I've been playing it ever since.

WILLIE MAE "BIG MAMA" THORNTON: Hound Dog


From this song's chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

Where and when did rock 'n' roll start? There are a few key records that one could name as possibilities for the first rock 'n' roll record. "Rocket 88" by Jackie Brentson and his Delta Cats (1951, and really Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm) is the closest we have to a consensus choice, though some would point to "The Fat Man" by Fats Domino (1950). I would at least add Amos Milburn's "Down The Road Apiece" (1947) to the discussion, and no less an authority than Lenny and Squiggy (on TV's Laverne And Shirley) spoke on behalf of "Call The Police," a 1941 single Nat King Cole made with The King Cole Trio. There are other progenitors and trailblazers from across the heady mingling of jump blues, R & B, country, and swing that birthed this bastard child we call rock 'n' roll. What was the daddy of them all? Not even a blood test is going to make that determination...

...Most of us know "Hound Dog" best from Elvis Presley's incredible 1956 hit rendition. But as much of a legitimate threat as King Elvis I represented to the straight-laced status quo in the '50s, his version of "Hound Dog" is an agreeably goofy novelty tune, patterned after a sanitized 1955 cover by Freddie Bell and the Bell Boys rather than Big Mama Thornton's rude and salacious kiss-off. Elvis' version is still great--it's freakin' Elvis in his prime, for cryin' out loud--but not even the King could touch the sheer orneriness of Thornton kicking that ol' hound dog out the door....

Among songs closely associated with Elvis, there aren't very many that I would concede the heresy that someone else did it better than the King did. Wanda Jackson's "Let's Have A Party" may be one exception. Big Mama Thornton's "Hound Dog" definitely is another.

THE TWEAKERS: Super Secret Bonus Track


I would like to tell you all about this track: its mysterious origin, the players hidden in the shadows, the mythic circumstances that sparked its creation. But I can't. It's not just a secret; it's a super secret, just like its title insists. Rumor has it that the song was written and originally recorded by a left-handed bass player from England--Sir Prize, or Sir Plus, something along those lines--and that eventual TIRnRR singin' star Rich Firestone is connected to it in some way. It's currently only available on the digital download version of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3. I can say no more. Shhhh. It's a secret.


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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.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download

Volume 2: CD or download

Volume 3: download

Volume 4: CD or download

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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).