10 SONGS: 3/27/2026

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

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1329

THE ANDERSONS!: From The Get-Go

SPECTRAFLAME: I Always Wanted You To Stay

We play the hits. Our little mutant radio show first invaded the airwaves at the very end of 1998, a few months after power pop force of nature the Andersons! released their debut album Separated At Birth. From that album, an insanely infectious track called "From The Get-Go" was a huge, huge favorite during TIRnRR Year One, and it still occasionally makes its winning way to our playlists even now. Our old pal Robbie Rist was a proud member of the Andersons!; the first time Dana and I appeared as guests on The Spoon (Robbie's podcast with co-hosts Chris Jackson and Thom Bowers), Robbie figured that your Dana and your Carl had probably played the Andersons! on the radio, but he wasn't for-sure certain. "Robbie," I assured him, "We were playing the Andersons! from the get-go."

HA! I slay me.

Robbie's worked with tons of artists. One of his current collaborations is with Florida's phenomenal pop combo Spectraflame, whose recent single "I Always Wanted You To Stay" has already just about locked up a berth on our year-end countdown show. Central 'Flame Steve Burgess knows how to craft and execute a pop tune, and our Robbie knows how to help him deliver it. A hit record. It stays on the playlist for our next show.

ANY TROUBLE: Playing Bogart

THE HOLLIES: Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress

Listen: If you're gonna try your hand at playing Bogart, you're gonna wind up sitting in a nest of bad men, whiskey bottles piling high. Any Trouble's "Playing Bogart" into the Hollies' "Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress" may be the most impeccable segue in TIRnRR's long history of impeccable segues. Pop noir!

DEVIL LOVE: Tell Me You Love Me

Devil Love's wonderful current single "Tell Me You Love Me" has become a welcome earworm, playing inside my delighted li'l cranium with remarkable frequency. TIRnRR airplay has not yet mirrored my love for this track, though that's just a byproduct of programming logistics; for example, I planned to play "Tell Me You Love Me" again on our next show, but it was among several selections bumped aside when the passing of Chip Taylor prompted me to wedge in five songs from the Chip Taylor songbook. Devil Love's fantastic single will be back. I tell you: I love it.

(Incidentally: The Chip Taylor tribute will include two obvious hits, one [in some circles] lesser-known album track, and two covers, one of which I mistakenly refer to on-air as the original version. Oops.)

THE SMITHEREENS: House We Used To Live In

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE SHIRTS: Starts With A Handshake

In 2025, the visionary Think Like A Key Music label released Live Featuring Annie Golden, a previously-unissued 1981 live-in-the-studio exhibition by CBGB vet'rans the Shirts. It's invigmoratin', like getting a brand-new classic Shirts record, and its track "Tears Comin' Down" made our year-end countdown show of TIRnRR's most-played tracks in 2025.

Now, Think Like A Key once again emerges from the archives with more new old Shirts. Live At Paradise 1979 preserves a Boston gig broadcast on WBCN, and it friggin' kicks, man. The album includes bravura performances of long-time TIRnRR Shirts favorites like "Tell Me Your Plans" and "Reduced To A Whisper," plus a lotta fab shots we ain't played yet. If there are still more vintage Shirts hangin' in the closet, here's hoping Think Like A Key Music can dig them out as well. And if the label could clear rights to reissue the group's two long-outta-print Capitol Records long-players (and the rest of the group's albums to boot), well, those Shirts would provide the best fit ever.

THE HALF/CUBES: Something's Gonna Happen

We have--of course!--been playing selections from the Half/Cubes' superb current album Found Pearls, as any decent rockin' pop radio outlet should. BUT! We now have a brand-new non-album Half/Cubes single, with Special Guest Bat Villain Glen Burtnik of the Weeklings taking on lead vocals for a cover of the American Breed's "Bend Me, Shape Me." That will open our next show this Sunday night.

SERGIO CECCANTI: Leave The Past, Don't Look Behind

From a previous 10 Songs:

"Our little mutant radio show has a long and rewarding history with the mighty Kool Kat Muzik label. Even before Ray Gianchetti (Mr. Kool Kat hisself) made his superfine rockin' pop imprint the home of our TIRnRR compilation albums, we've been programming Kool Kat cuts since the dawn of ever. Every new Kool Kat release is automatically under consideration for TIRnRR airplay, and almost all of them result in at least one track getting a spin on one (or more!) of our playlists. We're FANS!

"And right now, I'm a big fan of Leave The Past, Don't Look Behind, the new Kool Kat Musik release by Sergio Ceccanti. The title track is just perfect--perfect!--for the radio-ready vibe we crave, channeling a '60s garage-pop atmosphere in service of a steely-eyed determination to seek a sure-footed next step forward...."

Like Devil Love's "Tell Me You Love Me," Mr. Ceccanti's "Leave The Past, Don't Look Behind" hasn't yet received the TIRnRR exposure it deserves. But it will spin again this Sunday, and on some future Sundays thereafter. Leave the past. We'll barrel ahead from here.

THE CYNZ: Love's So Lovely

Awright, this one we HAVE been playing, and we're not stopping now. So lovely. So right. From their current album Confess, the Cynz supply the love we all need.

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

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

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

10 SONGS: 1/10/2026

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

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1318

EYTAN MIRSKY: This Year's Gonna Be Our Year

THE FOUR TOPS: Reach Out I'll Be There

The news of the world this week does not inspire optimism. Nonetheless: We open the new year with testimonials of hope and resilience courtesy of Eytan Mirsky and the Four Tops. Both songs are given chapters in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). The book was not intended as fiction, the brutal nature of the real world notwithstanding.

You can read an earlier version of my GREM! celebration of Brother Eytan's fantastic "This Year's Gonna Be Our Year" in its blog appearance right here. For now, let me add this bit from the book's chapter about the mighty Four Tops:

"...'Reach Out' is no less melodramatic than 'Standing In The Shadows Of Love' or 'It's The Same Old Song' or 'Seven Rooms Of Gloom.' But its sense of heightened emotion is put to a higher purpose: Not just lamenting lost love, but planting feet firmly, chin set, and reaching out to help a loved one make a stand when the chips are down. It's pure, it's inspirational, and it's spine-chillingly convincing and uplifting...."

We need that, especially in these times of trouble, when we feel like we can't go on. All hope isn't quite gone, not just yet. It's time to rewrite our stories. This year. Reach out. 

TAYLOR SWIFT [FEATURING SABRINA CARPENTER]: The Life Of A Showgirl [dressing room rehearsal version]

Look: I realize that I'm not in Taylor Swift's demo. But I respect her talent, I respect her accomplishment, and I very much respect her super ability to piss off a lot of people who piss me off. I've already waxed rhapsodic about Swift's sublime 2020 track "The Last Great American Dynasty," while simultaneously noting that most of her work is likely to fall outside my chosen pop parameters.

With that said, the fact that I don't listen to any contemporary hits radio format means I didn't hear the title tune from Swift's 2025 album The Life Of A Showgirl until a few weeks ago. I think the studio version of this collaboration between Swift and Sabrina Carpenter was played incidentally during the six-part Disney + docuseries Taylor Swift: The End Of An Era, but what got my attention was Swift and Carpenter's dressing room rehearsal performance of the song. That was stunning, allowing the words and melody to breathe free, unencumbered by extraneous (to me) gloss and thump. This rendition became an immediate personal pop obsession, prompting me to buy the track and put it on a radio show that's generally more known for playing the Ramones and the Flashcubes rather than Taylor Swift. See, great songs can fit in anywhere.

THE CYNZ: Love's So Lovely

The Cynz were TIRnRR's 13th most-played artist in 2025, and they placed two songs among our 50 most-played tracks. One of those tracks, "Heartbreak Time," was a single that has now been remixed as part of the brand-new Cynz album Confess, which is due out this month from the Jem Records label. As we commence a new year of countdown stats, we debut "Love's So Lovely," the latest single from Confess, and we'll be playing it again on Sunday. We confess a love of Cynz.

TREVOR BLENDOUR: She's Still My Baby

About a month ago, I got a text from beloved actor/musician/producer/debonaire man-about-town Robbie Rist:

"Sir.

Trevor Blendour (pronounced blender)

Look him up.

I think he's a great addition to TIRnRR.

Has a new album called Breaking Up With Trevor Blendour.

Find it."

We hear and we obey. Thanks for the tip, Robbie! (And, um...how did you get this number? Just askin'...)

MIKE BROWNING: It's Festival Time

Festival time? Man, it's ALWAYS a festival when Mike Browning releases a new single, and "It's Festival Time" puts that sentiment in writing. And if the snowy season in Syracuse doesn't immediately conjure images of FESTIVAL!, we can close our eyes, listen, and wave the ol' cigarette lighter high. We'll wave it again this Sunday. Don't argue with festivals.

THE TROGGS: Wild Thing

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

ELVIS PRESLEY: Hard  Headed Woman

The ONLY King we acknowledge.

SPECTRAFLAME: Love Don't Live Here No More

Another tip courtesy of the charmingly ubiquitous Robbie Rist, and this time it's a project he's involved in. "Love Don't Live Here No More" is the latest single from St. Petersburg, Florida's phenomenal pop combo Spectraflame, a fab force commanded by singer, songwriter, and guitarist Steve Burgess. Our Robbie adds drums, bass, backing vocals, and MORE GUITAR!, Lee Pons plays the keys, and the result is ready-made for rockin' pop radio. HEY! That's where WE come in! I knew we'd get to play some kinda part in this. Our part is to play it this week, and again next week. The love of pop music still lives here, and it lives here with gusto to spare.

(Er...our apologies to Spectraflame for announcing the song on-air last week as "Love Don't Live Here ANY More." I'd say we learned our lesson, but we did it again on our next show. Jeez, it's a good thing we're so adorable.)

THE VOGUES: Five O'Clock World

Good enough for Drew Carey. Good enough for us.

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

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

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

10 SONGS: 12/23/2025

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 # 1316: The 27th Annual THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL RADIO Christmas show

THE WEEKLINGS: Gonna Be Christmas

Why, yes! It IS gonna be Christmas! Very soon! Following our standard Christmas show introduction--John and Yoko's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)"--The 27th Annual THIS IS ROCK 'N' ROLL Christmas show opens with this delightful track from the Weeklings' Christmas album. It's a perfect song to kick off our seasonal celebration, its eyes bright with wonder and its heart open to the promise of possibility. It's gonna be Christmas. Here's a toast and a wish for the best of what that might be.

BLAINE CAMPBELL AND THE CALIFORNIA SOUND: Christmas Day

The annual TIRnRR Christmas shows are built in large part with familiar favorites. We don't want to do the same ol' show every December, but Dana and I do have a few specific tracks we're hell's-jingle-bells bent on programming. We never even come close to accommodating all of the music we wanna play, and this year's holiday playlist (like its 26 predecessors) did not have time to include a number of our perennial picks. Santa understands our dilemma, and he does not assign us naughty points for our omissions.

As berths on the playlist fill up faster'n a little kid's Christmas wish list, we still try to squeeze in a little bit of new Yuletunes alongside our beloved classics. We debuted 2025 offerings by Perilous, Jamie Hoover, and the Krayolas on last week's show, and saved this gem from Blaine Campbell and the California Sound's recent Holidays EP for this week. 

QUINT: Almost Christmas Eve

I'm not much of a Hallmark-style Christmas TV movie fan, but I recognize the sweet sugar-cookie comfort appeal of those flicks, and more power to those who celebrate. Love at Christmas? Can't fault that.

Before my mom passed in 2021, I used to catch extended glimpses of some works within this ho-ho-Hallmark genre playing in the common room at her nursing home. I think the only one I've ever deliberately watched in its entirety is 2021's Blending Christmas, which I made a point of seeing because TIRnRR's long-time friend Robbie Rist is in it (as are some of his former castmates from The Brady Bunch). I didn't get around to seeing Blending Christmas until well after he fact--I don't think I was aware of its existence until last year--but it was inoffensive and agreeable, and there's nothing wrong with that.

For the TIRnRR Christmas shows, the Hallmark and Company movie music content comes from Beaus Of Holly, a 2020 production with soundtrack contributions by Quint, which is our Robbie with film director Anthony C. Ferrante. Some years we play "Bows Of Holly," the de facto title theme as performed by Quint with guest vocalist Karen Bassett. Sometimes we go with "Almost Christmas Eve." Can't go wrong either way, and you can stuff your own virtual stocking with digital copies of both songs on the Quint collection Yes, It's Christmas. 

Warmth and comfort. Love for Christmas. Meet cute. I refuse to summon snark against anything that brings joy to the world. 

ELVIS PRESLEY: Santa Claus Is Back In Town

King Elvis I. Repeating what I've said in previous years: It's not Christmas without the King.

DARLENE LOVE: Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

One long-ago holiday season, back when our pal (and Radio Deer Camp host) Rich Firestone was slavin' away in commercial radio, a clueless suit once told him that nobody wants to hear anything from Phil Spector's Christmas album A Christmas Gift For You. See, that guy's getting coal for Christmas. The late Spector himself is also getting coal; in fact he's probably helping to produce the (literally) damned coal nowadays--warm and toasty!--but I digress. 

We endeavor to include a track from Spector's Christmas album in each year's TIRnRR Xmas Xtravaganza. The picks vary from year to year; last year and the year before, it was the Ronettes' "Frosty The Snowman," and in 2022 it was the Ronettes' "Sleigh Ride." We've skipped some years, but A Christmas Gift For You is always in the mix as we consider what to play on our Christmas show.

The above-mentioned "Sleigh Ride" is the track I most remember hearing on December AM radio airwaves when I was younger, and it's a fabulous number indeed. But the truest classic on the Spector Christmas album is Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," and it was way overdue for a return to our playlist. This year, it finally comes back home.

SLADE: Merry Xmas Everybody

Slade's 1973 we're-gonna-have-a-GLITTERY-Christmas treat "Merry Xmas Everybody" was a huge, huge hit in the band's native England, but it's merely something of a cult fave rave on these shores. Pity, because I've absolutely adored it since first hearing it on a various-artists Christmas collection more than a decade later.

Does your Granny always tell you that the old songs are the best? Then she's up and rock 'n' rolling with the rest

Old and new. As the philosopher Linus once told his friend Charlie: That's what Christmas is all about.

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: Listen The Snow Is Falling

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE MONKEES: House Of Broken Gingerbread

Last week, for the first time in a long time, I listened to the Monkees' 2018 album Christmas Party. At the time of the album's release, I was disappointed--very disappointed--that the Monkees were following up the sheer triumph of their 2016 album Good Times! with a Christmas record rather than, y'know, a real record. This disappointment grew three sizes when the subsequent deaths of Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith meant that Christmas Party would be the final Monkees studio album.

The playlist for this year's Christmas show was already set, and the show itself already recorded, before I listened to The Spoon podcast's 2025 Christmas show. The Spoon, hosted by that Robbie Rist guy with his buds Chris Jackson and Thom Bowers, is always a must-listen event, and their holiday presentation this year includes a track from Christmas Party, as Michael Nesmith croons "The Christmas Song." Papa Nez wasn't exactly Nat King Cole, nor did he wish to be, but his rendition is warm and inviting. I didn't hate it.

That was sufficient impetus for me to spin the whole album again, half of it during my Saturday morning commute, the rest of it when I arrived at work. It's a better record than my knee-jerk resistance to it would have conceded at the time of release. Micky Dolenz has always been one of my favorite pop singers, and he acquits himself well here, even on a palatable version of Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Dishwatertime," or whatever we wanna call that awful Macca song I've despised for decades. Mostly produced by the late Adam Schlesinger, Christmas Party is almost a Dolenz solo album, with two independent contributions from Nesmith, two archival tracks by Davy Jones (whom we lost in 2012), and a heavily-autotuned solo vocal and banjo performance by a very fragile-sounding Tork on "Angels We Have Heard On High;" cancer claimed Tork in February of 2019, mere months after Christmas Party came out.

As noted above, our Christmas show was wrapped 'n' ready before I heard Michael Nesmith on The Spoon extolling the virtues of chestnuts roasting on an open fire, before my re-listen to Christmas Party. The Christmas Party track "House Of Broken Gingerbread" made its way to our playlist on its own virtue and vice and everything nice. Co-written by Adam Schlesinger and novelist Michael Chabon, "House Of Broken Gingerbread" is sung from the POV of a child of divorce, spending part-time holidays at the separate households of his estranged parents. Perhaps not the stuff from which traditional Christmas cards were crafted. Dolenz sings it so well, so commandingly, applying a candy-cane coating that does not conceal its underlying ache and discontent.

(The Monkees have appeared in some form on most of our 27 annual Christmas shows. Our usual go-to Christmas Monkees track is the simply gorgeous a cappella "Riu Chiu" from 1967 [discussed here], but we occasionally play "House Of Gingerbread" instead. This year, I was thinking of subbing "Christmas Is My Time Of Year," a 1976 single by Dolenz, Jones, and Tork, but as I was mulling song choices, Micky's insistent Fa la LA la la la-la-laaaaa from "House Of Broken Gingerbread" stage-dived into the visions of sugarplums that had been dancing in my head, causing 'em to flee for their lives. So: "House Of Broken Gingerbread" got the slot. Fa la LA...!)

THE RAMONES: Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)

Seems like a worthy goal.

THE IDEA: It's About That Time

John and Yoko at the top. George Harrison's "Ding Dong, Ding Dong" at or near the end. In between, our Christmas show perennials generally include "The Man In The Santa Suit" by Fountains Of Wayne, "Purple Snowflakes" by Marvin Gaye, "Gonna Ask Santa Claus" by Bibi Farber with the Michael Lynch Orchestra, "Jesus Christ" by Big Star, "Christmas" by the Rooks, "I Don't Intend To Spend Christmas Without You" by Margo Guryan, "2000 Miles" by the Pretenders, usually "Father Christmas" by the Kinks, usually something by James Brown, the Waitresses' "Christmas Wrapping" when we can carve out enough space for it. Other than the Beatles' Christmas messages 1963-1969, no individual track has been played on all 27 of our annual Christmas shows.

The Idea's "It's About That Time" has been on most of them. It's my # 1 all-time favorite Christmas track, and it's not Christmas for me if I can't play it.

It's about that time. Gather 'round the Christmas tree, or just around the artifact of your choice. "Happy Holidays!" remains one of many valid and welcome expressions of well wishes, and these trying times are in dire need of as many well wishes as we can generate. Peace on Earth. Good will toward all. It should always be about that time. We wish you the merriest.

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

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

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

10 SONGS: 11/29/2025

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 # 1312

THE RAMONES: Punishment Fits The Crime

Each week, when getting ready to plan the show's playlist with Dana, I keep a list of potential track choices to consider. The list includes new stuff, recent faves, old faves, old tracks we've never played before, and assorted items of varying vintage and familiarity that might fit into the presumed master plan of whatever it is we do on TIRnRR. The list carries through from week to week, its contents adjusted as we go.

The Ramones' "Punishment Fits The Crime" has been on that list for many weeks. The song was written by bassist Dee Dee Ramone and Plasmatics guitarist Richie Stotts, sung by Dee Dee, and included on the group's 1989 album Brain Drain (the last Ramones studio album to include Dee Dee as anything other than just songwriter). Frankly, Brain Drain is a contender for my least favorite Ramones album, but it does give us the fantastic "I Believe In Miracles," plus "Pet Sematary" and "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)," proving that even the merest Ramones album is still A RAMONES ALBUM!! Anyway, "Punishment Fits The Crime" fits in the category of "old tracks we've never played before," and that status is what placed it in my week-to-week list of playlist possibilities.

Prior to this week's programming session, I realized it had been a little while since we'd opened a show with the Ramones. I considered programming one of my many, many Ramones Picks T' Click in that leadoff spot, but opted to finally give "Punishment Fits The Crime" its long-overdue TIRnRR debut.

Throughout the process, it didn't even occur to me that the song's title could apply to...you know who. Let's hope we find a legal punishment to fit that guy in the very near future. As another punk band said: All crimes are paid.

THE LEGAL MATTERS: Everybody Knows

The minute I found out that the Legal Matters were doing a new album for Big Stir Records, I immediately petitioned the band and label for permission and access to play the then-forthcoming advance single. The album, Lost At Sea, is due in 2026, and the single "Everybody Knows" was released to radio just after this week's show was recorded. But we got it! Everybody knows we would be playing it; we knew we could not wait another week to do so. And everybody should know now: We're playing it again this Sunday. 

SHOES: Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)

We don't get many opportunities to program new music by power pop legends Shoes, and we've never before had an opportunity to play Shows covering power pop's Ur group Raspberries. Opportunity SEIZED! Shoes' rendition of the Raspberries hit "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" comes to us from the superb various-artists 'Berries salute Play On: A Raspberries Tribute, a tribute curated by our friend Ken Sharp. Want a hit record? Look no further.

(Raspberries' original version of "Overnight Sensation (Hit Record)" ands Shoes' own incredible 1978 single "Tomorrow Night" are among the 145 tracks--one 45 at a time!--I discuss in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! [Volume 1]. SPOILER ALERT: I like both of those records a lot. You can read all about them and their 143 GREM! brethren and sistren by ordering your own copy of the book. I'm Carl Cafarelli, and I approve this message.  The Greatest Record Ever Made [Volume 2] is [very] tentatively planned for 2027.)

THE BUSBOYS: The Boys Are Back In Town

When Robbie Rist saw in this week's show hype that we were playing the BusBoys, he immediately wanted to know if we were playing new music by this great group. Alas, although we did program the BusBoys' then-recent single "In My Heart" back in 2024 (and likewise with "Love On My Mind" in 2022), we weren't even aware that there was new BusBoys music available. Honestly, I'd fire the TIRnRR research department, but that department is, y'know, me, and I've got tenure.

Robbie's (presumably) figurative headslap to our collective noggin prompted a fresh search for new BusBoys tuneage, resulting in a purchase of the 2025 digital-only album In My Heart. Target acquired! The album includes both of the 2020s singles mentioned above, and we'll debut another track from In My Heart on Sunday. Thanks for the nudzh, Robbie! Meanwhile, here's another spin of the BusBoys' best-known track "The Boys Are Back In Town," as heard when the BusBoys appeared in the 1982 Eddie Murphy-Nick Nolte flick 48 Hours. 'Cuz when the boys are back, there ain't no foolin' around.

THE MONKEES: Papa Gene's Blues

PLAY, magic fingers!

TAYLOR SWIFT: The Last Great American Dynasty

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

KEN SHARP: I'm A Rocker

One more from Play On: A Raspberries Tribute, "I'm A Rocker" as performed by the set's auteur Ken Sharp. I owned the original Raspberries 45 of "I'm A Rocker" when I was a teen in the '70s, and I was puzzled that it wasn't on the Raspberries' Best Featuring Eric Carmen compilation LP. Our Ken knows Raspberries' best better'n anybody, and he honors that legacy here.

DIRTY LOOKS: Let Go

Staten Island's phenomenal pop combo Dirty Looks with their signature tune. From a previous 10 Songs:

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.

ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE ATTRACTIONS: Clowntime Is Over

Is clowntime over? All respect to Elvis Costello and the Attractions, but clowntime ain't really over until we heed the words of the Ramones:

Let the punishment fit the crime.

THE HIGH FREQUENCIES: Cleanup Time

And if there is any justice, clowntime will give way to cleanup time. "Cleanup Time" is my favorite track on the High Frequencies' super groovy new album Get High, and like our opening track by the Ramones, the title's topically apt nature didn't strike me until after the fact. Nonetheless: CLEANUP ON PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE! Mops at the ready. Let's go.

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

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

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