10 SONGS: 4/26/2025

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 # 1282

THE FLASHCUBES: The Sweet Spot

Work continues with blinding bright-lights speed on Make Something Happen! A Tribute To A DIY Power Pop Band Called THE FLASHCUBES. There's a lot of stuff that still needs doin', mind you, but we're on track for the album's planned September release from the good folks at Big Stir Records. We've already played Make Something Happen! contributions from sparkle*jets u.k., Joe Giddings, the Kennedys, Pop Co-Op, the Spongetones, and Super 8 Featuring Lisa Mychols, we've revealed that the album will also include 'Cubes covers by Chris von Sneidern, Callan Foster, and Hamell On Trial, and we have two more tracks to debut on our next show. 

We have three Make Something Happen! debuts this week.

In planning a Flashcubes tribute album, I was determined to include at least one new track by the Flashcubes themselves. In fact, we will have a 'Cubic trinity of fresh Flashcubes offerings, one apiece written or co-written by Paul Armstrong, Arty Lenin, and Gary Frenay. This show's already been pummelin' the airwaves with Paul's irresistible new tune "Reminisce," and we'll hear Arty's "If These Hands" on this coming Sunday night's broadcast.

This week's show opens with a sublime new Flashcubes track called "The Sweet Spot." Gary co-wrote "The Sweet Spot" with the late B.D. Love, who was also known to long-time Syracuse music fans as Buddy Love. That's not the NYC pop performer of the same dba, nor is it Jerry Lewis for that matter. Our Buddy/B.D. fronted Buddy Love and the Tearjerkers and My Sin, and he was an integral part of our local scene in the new wave era.  

Other than times 'Cubes guitarist Arty Lenin sat in on drums for Buddy Love and the Tearjerkers, I believe "The Sweet Spot" is the first Flashcubes-B.D. Love collaboration. And oh, it's magnificent. We are honored to be able to honor B.D. Love's memory by including this track on Make Something Happen! And we'll hear "The Sweet Spot" again on our next show.

Sweet.

CHUBBY CHECKER: Slow Twistin'

The many, many flaws of The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame notwithstanding, I remain adamant in my view that rock 'n' roll should honor its own. So I keep preaching that the Hall should finally correct its biggest snub to date (INDUCT THE MONKEES!!!), and that such honors should likewise be awarded to the New York Dolls, the Bangles, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Rick James, the Shangri Las, and a long list of other worthies.

NOW, dammit!

After the Monkees, my pick for the Hall's second-most egregious omission to date is Chubby Checker. Unlike these others, Chubby is at least on the ballot this year, so here's hopin'. We'll find out Sunday night. 

THE CHOOSERS: Christi Girl

In the summer of 1978, I haunted Gerber Music's Penn Can Mall location, badgering the (remarkably patient) staff about when the Flashcubes' debut single "Christi Girl" would be available for purchase. I was 18 years old, in between my freshman and second years at college, with a part-time job at another Penn Can store (which made it even easier for me to haunt Gerber Music at will). 

Anyway. Gerber had a promo copy of the 45 on hand, so even though they couldn't sell it to me just yet, they did let me hear the record play through the store's sound system. And I was fully stoked when it finally became time to trade cash for 'Cubes.

We should have a special place nobody else can go

We should know the things nobody else can know

When I was a teenaged Flashcubes fan, a newly-minted owner of my very own "Christi Girl" 45, could I have imagined that 47 years later I would be involved in getting a bunch of fab rockin' pop bands to record a bunch of Flashcubes songs for a Flashcubes tribute? Would I even conceive the possibility of a Japanese band doing "Christi Girl?" 

Whatever I coulda/couldn'ta at the time, these fanciful notions are coming true now. A few years ago, the Choosers offered a live video of their rendition of "Christi Girl," it for damned sure passed the audition, so Gary Frenay reached out to recruit the Choosers for this project. And the Choosers' finished version of "Christi Girl" will indeed help take Make Something Happen! to that special place nobody else can go.

THE POPPEES: She's Got It

The Poppees were an avowedly fab, Beatles-influenced NYC combo machin' schau in the late '70s. The group included Arthur Alexander, who went on to noted TIRnRR Fave Raves Sorrows, and we're fans. An ace 1978 single by the Poppees sported an effervescent beat original called "Jealousy" backed with this boppin' cover of Little Richard's "She's Got It" on the flip.

Remember this 45. We'll be mentioning it again before this week's edition of 10 Songs is done. Got it?

THE COWSILLS: She Said To Me

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE KINKS: Add It Up

As noted here, our pal and stats man Fritz Van Leaven informed us that this week's show would include TIRnRR's 70,000th spin, and that the milestone would be achieved with whatever track wound up being our 44th song of the night. We teased the event a few times throughout the show--Are we up to our 70,000th spin yet, Dana? How about now? Must be there by now, right?--until we were set to begin our next-to-last set with Spin # 69,999.

We called in the house band to help us tabulate. And the Kinks led us into...

BIG STAR: September Gurls

Our 70,000th spin, and it had to be "September Gurls" by Big Star. Had to be! Our all-time most-played individual track, the first song we ever proclaimed on-air to be The greatest record ever made! (way, waaaaay before it even occurred to me to write a Greatest Record Ever Made book), and a song that's emblematic of this little mutant radio show. Great pick, Dana.

SUPER 8 FEATURING LISA MYCHOLS: Pop Radio

Spin # 70,001. As we continue on the road to 100,000 spins, we start the next leg of the journey with a specific salute to the joy of radio. "POP RADIO!" Here's to every AM Top 40 hit and every left-of-the-dial communiqué that built TIRnRR. And we'll hear Trip 'n' Lisa's prototype for what became "Pop Radio" on our next program.

But right now, speakin' of "Radio"....

SORROWS: Radio

"Radio" was the B-side of the Flashcubes' second single "Wait Til Next Week." I bought the 45 directly from Gary Frenay at a show on Bowery in 1979. The song was co-written by Paul Armstrong and Gary Frenay, and although it was a live favorite at the time, it fell into disfavor within the band and was dropped from the set.

Coincidentally, within days of snaggin' my copy of "Wait Til Next Week"/"Radio" from Gary, I also picked up "Jealousy"/"She's Got It" by the Poppees. Yes! The same Poppees 45 referenced a few entries back! I love how this stuff ties together!

Sorrows formed out of the aftermath of the Poppees, and Sorrows' recent album Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow is guaranteed representation on TIRnRR's 2025 year-end countdown show. Guaranteed. 

And for Make Something Happen!, Sorrows have given us a cover of "Radio" that is nothing short of full-on freakin' phenomenal. 

Listen: You can search the four corners of the globe, and by the time you realize globes don't have corners, you'll already know that I'm the world's most insistent Flashcubes fan. Given that, consider the sheer gravity of me saying that Sorrows have accomplished the definitive version of the Flashcubes' "Radio." Pop music is my religion. Radio is one of my pulpits. With "Radio," Sorrows deliver the sermon we need.

Testify. And put your antenna to the sky.

THE ZOMBIES: What More Can I Do

TIRnRR spin # 70,015. What more can we do? Just keep spinning. Join us again on Sunday night for spin # 70,016 and counting.

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

10 SONGS: 7/23/2021

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 # 1086.

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

We've been dyin' to tell folks about this for a while, and now the story's out: Syracuse's phenomenal pop combo  the Flashcubes have recorded a brand-new single, covering Pezband's '70s power pop classic "Baby It's Cold Outside." And, like all true pop fans, the 'Cubes get by with a little help from their friends. In this case, the friend is Pezband's own Mimi Betinis, who wrote and originally recorded the song for his group's 1977 debut LP.

The Pezcubes! The Flashband! The Flashpez Cubesband, and the Pezflash Bandcubes! This new version of "Baby It's Cold Outside" kicks, serving further proof that our janglebuzz heroes can still detonate a jukebox with the best of them. The single is out July 30th, courtesy of the visionaries at Big Star Records, and available to preorder RIGHT NOW. Go! Don't be left out in the cold on this one, baby.

THE FLASHCUBES: It's You Tonight

Okay. We got a NEW Flashcubes track reinforced with celebrity guest power-pop oomph. There's also Flashcubes On Fire, an irresistible archival Flashcubes live show due for release in the fall, preserving an incendiary 1979 'Cubes performance. What else can we do in the Cubic realm? Oh yeah, we can note that the Flashcubes' 1993 recording of "It's You Tonight" appears on a fantastic new Big Beat Records compilation called Rockets Of Love!, setting the Flashcubes in their rightful place alongside fellow icons the Knack, Candy, Cheap Trick, the Kinks, the Records, Marshall Crenshaw, the Searchers, Tommy Tutone, the Greenberry Woods, and teen sensations the Wonders, among others. Yeah, it's clear that the people at Big Beat have taste and smarts. 

The Flashcubes, in a formal setting

THE GUESS WHO: Rain Dance

A forgotten AM radio hit. Well, I forgot about it anyway. I just picked up a copy of the Guess Who's Greatest Hits last week--my first record store visit since before...y'know--and figured I'd probably plop one of the group's bigger numbers into the ol' playlist as an image song. It's all about the image, folks. 

And then I heard "Rain Dance." 

And I'm still sittin' with my next door neighbor sayin', "Where'd you get the gun, John?"

Man, I haven't even thought about that song and its undefined aura of menace in years, not since its reign on WOLF-AM and WNDR-AM in 1971. I did not recognize the title, and didn't remember the song...until it played. Don't you wanna rain dance? 1971 again. Radio on.

THE LINDA LINDAS: Never Say Never

I've taken to referring to the Linda Lindas as the buzz band of 2021. They've earned all of that buzz, and I hope we get to hear much, much from this young quartet for years to come. Their song "Claudia Kishi" is currently on a direct flight into our year-end countdown show, and deservedly so. But "Never Say Never" is my favorite among the Linda Lindas tracks I've heard so far. More to come? Never say never.

LISA MYCHOLS & SUPER 8: Pet Sounds (Story)

Here's another go'geous track from the Jem label's go'geous Jem Records Celebrates Brian Wilson, a set which is as fine a tribute album as you could possibly hope for. We've been playing the album's advance track (the Grip Weeds' cover of the Beach Boys' "You're So Good To Me"), and we're delighted to add "Pet Sounds (Story)" to our little Play-Tone Galaxy o' Stars. Lisa Mychols and Super 8 are no strangers to the TIRnRR playlist, having previously scored spins with an ace little number called "Timebomb." "Pet Sounds (Story)" takes the title instrumental from Pet Sounds and adds lyrics from various other Beach Boys songs, all as sung sweetly by Ms. Mychols. It's a gimmick, sure, but it's an agreeable gimick executed by capable hands at this pop music stuff. Rumor has it there may be more Lisa Mychols and Super 8 yet to come from the good folks at Jem. Wouldn't it be nice?

THE PEPPERMINT KICKS: Hey Fanzine!

Yeah, I like this. The Peppermint Kicks are Sal Baglio from the Amplifier Heads and Dan Kopko from the Shang Hi Los and Watts. "Hey Fanzine!" is a peppy paean to DIY rock 'n' roll rags, fannish enthusiasm expressed in low 'n' maybe smudgy print runs. MAXIMUM Peppermint Kicks! I betcha the rest of the record's pretty good, but I keep fixating on this one track. See, I'm a fan, too.

THE RAMONES: Judy Is A Punk

I'm pretty sure this is the first time we've ever played a track from Loco Live, the 1992 live album that served as the Ramones' farewell to Sire Records. 1979's It's Alive! is generally our default choice for live Ramones, though we have played a few live Ramones tracks from other resources. Loco Live has never been a favorite, but I'm going to attempt a fresh listen in the near future. In the mean time, as our friend and Radio Deer Camp host Rich Firestone pointed out when we played this Sunday night, "Even for the Ramones, there's such a thing as TOO fast!"

SORROWS: Christabelle

This may come as a shock to some of you, but the history of the record industry is littered with examples of avarice, treachery, betrayal, and heartbreak. Yeah, I was surprised to learn that, too. In the late '70s, a New York City-based group called the Poppees plied their British Invasion-influenced popcraft on stage and on vinyl. I recall buying their Bomp! Records 45 "Jealousy"/"She's Got It" on a 1979 trip downstate; I saw the Flashcubes at a Bowery club called Gildersleeves (where I bought the 'Cubes' then-new single "Wait Till Next Week" directly from the song's author Gary Frenay), and visited my friend Jay at Stony Brook (where a jaunt to Smithtown Mall included snagging Poppees and Siouxsie and the Banshees 45s at Sam Goody). I hadn't heard either the Poppees or Siouxsie singles prior to purchase, but I dug 'em both.

By 1980, the Poppees had evolved into Sorrows, who were less overtly Beatley, with a goal of competing with the Knack or the Romantics rather than with, I dunno, the Rutles. Sorrows signed to the CBS-associated label Pavillion. The group's debut LP Teenage Heartbreak featured a killer title tune, and if the record didn't set any new sales landmarks, it served notice that Sorrows could be prime power pop contenders.

So: second album! Great! The suits at Pavillion call in legendary producer Shel Talmy, veteran overseer of certified '60s classics by the Who, the Kinks, the Easybeats, and the Creation, and that shoulda been a match made at the Marquee or Radio Caroline.

Didn't quite work out that way.

The resulting album, 1981's Love Too Late, was not at all the record Sorrows wanted to make. Label interference, significant creative differences, the copious use of session players (against the actual band's will)...let's let it go at that. Success did not follow. Whether a consequence of evil intent or inept execution, nothing screws up the best interests of music and artists with greater overall mishegas than a lousy record label.

In 2021, Sorrows have aligned with a good record label--a great record label--in Big Stir. You remember Big Stir, discussed up top in the section about the new Flashcubes/Mimi Betinis single. Under Big Stir's aegis, Sorrows have gone back to the original blueprint and remade Love Too Late as it should have been: as an actual Sorrows album. I'm generally not a fan of a band remaking its old material, but Love Too Late--The Real Album is a stellar exception to that. We played its first single "Christabelle" on this week's show, and we'll get to one of the album tracks on Sunday. The history of the record industry is littered with examples of injustice. Every once in a while, there's an example of justice served. It's never too late for love.

STEVE STOECKEL: Birds

If we weren't so intent on remaining stubbornly averse to the concept of humility, we'd admit the fact that it's such a rush that TIRnRR grants us this ongoing opportunity to connect with musicians we've admired for so many years...decades, even. Jeez, through the cockeyed portal of this little mutant radio show, we've been able to communicate back 'n' forth with members of Sorrows, Pezband, the Rubinoos, the Records, the Beat, the Pandoras, the Cowsills, the Smithereens, Nikki and the Corvettes, Wednesday Week, Blue Ash, the Catholic Girls, 20/20, and many, many others. It grants us an illusion of relevance we may not really deserve, but I dunno...they make the records, we play the records, and we're delighted to be involved in that process in whatever way we can.

Count the Spongetones among those artists we've been so dead chuffed to connecticate with. The Spongetones are friends of TIRnRR, and while we've never met, we've broken virtual bread with the group's Jamie Hoover and Steve Stoeckel a time or several. We're alway eager to hear about their new projects, and honored when they send us something new to play on the radio.

"Birds" is a new Big Stir single release from the above-mentioned Mr. Stoeckel, and it's a beguilingly unassuming little number that enchants the airwaves with its delicate flight. Fly, Steve Stoeckel, fly.

STEVIE WONDER: Higher Ground

Have you seen Summer Of Soul yet? I'm naturally prone to hyperbole--it's my super power--but this 2021 release may be the best live music documentary I've ever seen. Filmed over the course of six weeks at the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969, the footage was mostly unseen by the public (beyond a few YouTube videos), literally sitting in a basement for decades. Questlove has used some of that footage to craft an amazing and effective permanent record of what should have been a positive flashpoint in popular music and popular culture (and would have been if people had the chance to see it 50 years ago). The classic performances mingle with moving and emotional contemporary interviews with people who were there, artists and attendees, creating a riveting musical and cinematic experience. 

And it's tough to pick out a favorite performer in the film. Maybe the 5th Dimension, whose live set so thoroughly transcends any preconceived notion of who or what that group was. Or Gladys Knight and the Pips, who personify Motown in all of its best aspects. Or Sly and the Family Stone, who are Sly and the Family Stone. The Staple Singers? David Ruffin? The Chambers Brothers? Too many good choices. Best thing to do is to just pick everyone. 

And obviously that includes 19-year-old Stevie Wonder. The events of Summer Of Soul predate Wonder's full ascension to superstar status (and well predates my belated realization of Wonder's genius), but he was on the verge, and had already enjoyed significant success on both the R & B and pop charts. Wonder is on fire in Summer Of Soul, his set highlighted by an extended drum solo--Stevie Wonder on the drums!--that's far more fascinating to watch than you might expect of a drum solo.

Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" came later, a Top 10 hit in 1973, part of the incredible run that made Stevie Wonder into STEVIE WONDER!! Higher ground. The goal remains relevant. We're still in search of higher ground this summer, every summer, every season. It's out there somewhere. In this life or the next. Gonna keep on trying.

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10 SONGS: 5/19/2020

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 will be the first of two separate editions of 10 Songs this week, each drawing exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1025. Today's list is all about the late, great Little Richard.

LITTLE RICHARD: Ready Teddy


Ready. Set. Go, man, go. From 1956, and this is as direct a statement of intent as any rock 'n' roll anthem to follow, from Jerry Lee Lewis to The Ramones. Little Richard excelled at creating party music, amped-up songs of whooping abandon that drew musically from Gospel while embracing...embracing, extolling the hedonistic virtue of vice. The records aren't sexy so much as they just embody sex itself. Ready! Ready-ready-teddy, I'm READY! Ready to...rock 'n' roll? It's not even a euphemism. Cigarette...?

LITTLE RICHARD: Good Golly Miss Molly


When my wife Brenda was pregnant with our daughter Meghan in 1995, the first time Brenda ever felt the baby kick was when we were watching some TV history of rock 'n' roll music. Little Richard appeared on the screen, singing his signature WOOOOOOO!, and Meghan made her presence known. Awright!, I thought, THAT'S my kid! When she also subsequently kicked in response to [shudder] Michael Bolton, I wondered if perhaps a blood test would be in order. But no--the latter was an anomaly, thank God. Meghan's a rocker, even if our specific tastes diverge far more often than they coincide. Good golly!

I don't remember if "Good Golly Miss Molly" was the Little Richard song that prompted prenatal Meghan's first rockin' and/or rollin'. For the sake of narrative, let's presume it was, which means "Good Golly Miss Molly" was the start of many shared musical moments between my daughter and me. I'll take that, and the collective memories always make me smile. 

LITTLE RICHARD: Tutti Frutti



Relentlessly whitebread crooner Pat Boone has insisted his relentlessly whitebread covers of essential rock 'n' roll fare like Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" helped the originator cross over to a white audience. Boone's claim may have some historical credence (even though I mostly reject it), but there's just no comparison between Boone's bland, bloodless interpretation and the manic original fury of Little Richard. 

THE BEATLES: Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey



Many of my introductions to the pioneers of rock 'n' roll came via proxy, and specifically via cover versions performed by The Beatles. My first Chuck Berry song was "Rock And Roll Music" by The Beatles. My first Buddy Holly song was "Words Of Love" by The Beatles. My first Carl Perkins song was "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby" by The Beatles. And my first Little Richard song was "Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey" by The Beatles.

All of the above came to me through the combined splendor of Beatles '65 and Beatles VI, a pair of haphazardly-assembled LPs slapped together by The Beatles' U.S. record label Capitol (LPs which also allowed The Beatles to introduce me to Larry Williams' "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" and "Bad Boy"). Both of those albums were in the family record library when I was growing up, and I remain inordinately fond of them.

THE BEATLES: I'm Down



The sincerest form of flattery. I'm tempted to say that "I'm Down" is to Little Richard as The Knickerbockers' "Lies" is to The Beatles, but that wouldn't be accurate. For one thing, while the Lennonesque lead vocals of The Knickerbockers' Beau Charles could plausibly convince some that "Lies" was an actual Beatles 45, Paul McCartney doesn't quite succeed in his effort to become Little Richard on "I'm Down." The effort itself is evident, and transcendent in and of itself. Paul wanted to sound like his idol. But not even a Beatle could pull that off; there was only ever one Little Richard.

That said, "I'm Down" remains an amazing record, thrown away as a non-album B-side to the more familiar "Help!" Perhaps it was the gulf between trying to be Little Richard and being Little Richard that led to McCartney to dismiss "I'm Down" as "plastic soul, man, plastic soul" during its recording, but he was wrong. When I wrote my very first attempt at rock journalism in late '77/early '78, "I'm Down" was one of the songs I listed to represent the epitome of rock 'n' roll music. That view has not changed. 

JOHN LENNON: Slippin' And Slidin'



I was a teenage Beatles fan. But I was a teenager in the '70s, a little late for Beatlemania, yet old enough to remember it and to remain in its thrall. Any chance to see one of The Beatles on television was an opportunity that could not be missed, whether it was Paul's 1973 TV special James Paul McCartney or 1975's A Salute To Sir Lew Grade: The Master Showman. The latter featured a live performance by John Lennon.

At the age of 15 in 1975, I knew little or nothing of the back story surrounding Lennon's appearance in this program, honoring a man who had managed to gain ownership of the lucrative Lennon-McCartney publishing catalog, a catalog our John and our Paul would have preferred to own themselves. Gentlemen, start your lawyers. 

Nor did I know that John had recently reconciled with his wife Yoko Ono. I had previously seen a picture of John with May Pang, but I was confused by it; I didn't know about John and Yoko splitting to begin with, so I also didn't know about John's interim girlfriend Pang. And of course I wasn't aware of John and Yoko getting back together because the separation hadn't worked out. I only knew I was going to see John Lennon sing and play on TV.

And I found it odd, but riveting. The players in Lennon's band wore masks on the backs of their heads, presumably implying the two-faced nature of honoree Lew Grade. Although the internet tells us that they performed three songs that night, only two were broadcast: "Imagine," and a cover of Little Richard's "Slippin And Slidin'." Lennon had recorded "Slippin' And Slidin'" for his 1975 covers LP Rock 'n' Roll, but this was the first time I had heard the song in any context. 

As we speak of these things that I didn't know, we must also mention what no one knew at the time: this would be John Lennon's final public performance. After this event, Lennon took a five-year break from show biz, returning in 1980 with Double Fantasy and fresh plans to play and promote his new record.

Those plans were cut short.

THE POPPEES: She's Got It



B-side of NYC power pop group The Poppees' Bomp! Records single "Jealousy," which I picked up at Sam Goody's in Smithtown Mall on Long Island during spring break 1979. I didn't hear Little Richard's original version of "She's Got It" until many years later. For this particular spring break, I had first gone to Staten Island to meet my then-girlfriend Brenda's parents. The trip included an evening at a Bowery club called Gildersleeve's, where we saw Syracuse's own power pop powerhouse The Flashcubes dazzle a small crowd of supposedly-jaded New Yorkers, and where I bought the 'Cubes' brand-new 45 "Wait Till Next Week"/"Radio" directly from bassist Gary Frenay. The stop at Sam Goody's was part of a side visit I made via the Long Island Railroad to Stony Brook to see my high school friend Jay, who would eventually serve as my best man when Brenda and I were married in 1984. Oh, and I also picked up Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Hong Kong Gardens" single at Goody's; as a poor college student, I couldn't afford to buy any albums that week.

Out of those three 45s, I wound up playing the Flashcubes single the most often. By far. I did like the A-sides of both the Siouxsie and the Banshees and Poppees singles; this week's show was the first time I've heard The Poppees' "She's Got It" in many years. It's a sturdy cover, but the Beatley "Jealousy" was the right choice for the top side.

SUZI QUATRO: Keep A-Knockin'



My teen rock 'n' roll crush Suzi Quatro covered Little Richard's "Keep A-Knockin'" for her second album, 1974's Quatro. It's nearly impossible to take ownership of a Little Richard song--of all the times artists have covered Little Richard classics, I can't think of a single instance where anyone (including The Beatles) improved on the original--but Quatro deserves credit for successfully recasting the song into her own style, crossing it with a little Eddie Cochran, applying a touch of U.K. glam with the steady hands-across-the-water of her native Michigan. This song is dedicated to all you 16-year-old girls out there! Joan Jett would have probably been about 15 when she heard it. Close enough.



THE BEATLES: Long Tall Sally



In 1977, my senior year in high school, Capitol Records ignored objections from John, Paul, George, and Ringo and released the first official Beatles live album, The Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl. I was stoked beyond belief, and bought it as quickly as I could (which led to a tiny bit of personal drama detailed here, and yes, my arm still hurts). I'm always going to love this album, without regard for whatever faults others may insist that it has.

The album mixes performances from The Beatles' 1964 and '65 concerts at this legendary venue, and it closes with the Fabs paying tribute to their mentor once again, singing Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally." Over the screams and right through the hysteria, you can still hear--still feel--the sheer enthusiasm of four young men from Liverpool who called themselves The Beatles. They loved music, rock 'n' roll music, so they played the music they loved. Chuck Berry. The Isley Brothers. Little Richard. You can't change the world if you don't believe in what you're doing.

The Beatles' 1964 Hollywood Bowl shows ended with "Long Tall Sally." Though not heard on the LP, their '65 Hollywood Bowl shows ended with "I'm Down." Little Richard was their active model in both cases.



LITTLE RICHARD: The Girl Can't Help It



Title theme from the first great rock 'n' roll movie, and The Greatest Record Ever Made! The Georgia Peach did indeed have a lot of what they call the most. We will never see another performer like Little Richard.


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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

Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 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).