10 SONGS: 5/30/2026

 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 # 1338

THE HALF/CUBES: Starless Summer Sky

It was a rare treat for us to preview no less than three new and as-yet-unreleased tracks from the Half/Cubes. Their next single (a cover of Jellyfish's "Ghost At Number One") is due out soon, and we gave that li'l gem its debut airing in this week's closing set. We placed the Half/Cubes' ace cover of Gilbert O'Sullivan's "Get Down" in the middle of the show, and we kicked our shindig off with their superb rendition of Marshall Crenshaw's luscious pop treasure "Starless Summer Sky." AND! We threw in another spin of the Half/Cubes' current single, joining forces with Glenn Burtnick for a bravura rendition of the American Breed's "Bend Me, Shape Me." The three new tracks will surely return in eventual future playlists. "Bend Me, Shape Me" plays again this Sunday night.

THE KNACK: Pop Is Dead

Get the Knack! Dana has been quite taken with the new Knack retrospective Knackology: The Zen Recordings, a set that mixes studio and live tracks from the 1990s and early 2000s, supplemented by demos and a live "Let Me Out" from 1979. The Knack's 1998 album Zoom was my favorite album that year, and it's possible that I like Zoom even more than I like Get The Knack. I'm delighted that Dana programmed Zoom's "Pop Is Dead," and you can bet on more Knackology to come on TIRnRR.

GRAHAM PARKER AND THE GOLDTOPS: Hotel Chambermaid

As pop fans worldwide clear space in their music libraries for Quality Footwear: Live At The Brook, the forthcoming new live album from the mighty Graham Parker and the Goldtops, we've been playing the album's advance singles. This week, I wanted to program a live version of a Graham Parker song that has specific meaning for me.

From a previous 10 Songs:

"Hotel Chambermaid" was the first Graham Parker and the Rumour I recall hearing, a favorite on Utica's WOUR-FM circa '76-'77, my senior year in high school. For some reason, I thought it was by Greg Kihn, whose take on Bruce Springsteen's "For You" was also getting some significant airplay on OUR, and I don't know why my mind put those two songs together. But both were part of my early FM radio listening, along with Nick Lowe's "So It Goes," the Kinks' "No More Looking Back," Joan Baez's "Time Rag," Michael Nesmith's "Rio," and, eventually, the Sex Pistols' "God Save The Queen." Radio's been good to me.

THE AMPLIFIER HEADS: A Song Called Sha La La

And the song chose its name well! The Amplifier Heads' new single "A Song Called Sha La La" is a perfect addition to our sovereign airwaves, channeling the Troggs and fortifying each Sha, La, and La with the essential oomph we require. Sha la LA! All three syllables (and, y;know, the rest of the record, too) return to the playlist on our next show.

THE SMALL FACES: Sha-La-La-La-Lee

Well, how else could you follow our first spin of "A Song Called Sha La La?" The Small Faces answer the call!

THE FLASHCUBES: Got No Mind

I've come to regard the Flashcubes' "Got No Mind" as 'Cubes guitarist Paul Armstrong's signature song. "Got No Mind" made its retail debut in a 4-track recording found (alongside a 4-track of 'Cubes bassist Gary Frenay's "Guernica") on the B-side of the Flashcubes' debut single "Christi Girl" in 1978. The definitive version was recorded live at The Firebarn in Syracuse in 1979, included on the group's 1997 anthology Bright Lights, and eventually reprised on the live at The Firebarn CD document Flashcubes On Fire. In the wake of PA's recent passing, we've been playing it a lot, and we will continue to do so. A friend recently told me that she used to think "Got No Mind" was a Sex Pistols cover rather than a Flashcubes original, and I say that's a testament to the great Paul Armstrong's ability to embody the raucous best of punk, and the Flashcubes' collective knack for making punk pop, and pop punk. Got no mind? I don't mind.

THE RUNAWAYS: Wait For Me

When I was a college student in the late '70s, I became a huge fan of the Runaways, and I consider myself fortunate to have seen them on a 1978 live bill with the Flashcubes and the Ramones (a concert memory recalled here). I played their third album Waitin' For The Night a lot--a lot--and I'm a little surprised we never got around to playlisting the album track "Wait For Me" until this week. Glad they were willing to wait!

THE CYNZ: Ghost Rider

My new book Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies is finished, with a fingers-crossed publication date of June 12th. HEY! That's an excuse to display the book's cover graphic again right here!

Well, that felt good. The book is a collection of some of my short fiction, and the rock 'n' roll in its DNA mandates passing references to a long list of real-life music performers (and you can read that list here). The Cynz are, of course, among TIRnRR's Fave Raves, so it makes sense that my imaginary planet-hoppin' combo Guitars Vs. Rayguns likes to include the occasional Cynz cover in their own outer space live sets:

"...Now, Leiko, Beckie, and FeeFEE! were all dressed the same as me (though each of 'em considerably better-looking than your boy Rocky), like co-ed Beatles at CBGB. The setlist was still peppered with covers, everything from the Buzzcocks and the Selecter to the Cynz and Etta James...."

Literary immortality! This week, we celebrate the notion of the Cynz as intergalactic superstars by returning their recent single "Ghost Rider" (from their current album Confess) to the real-world airwaves.

RIHANNA: Shut Up And Drive

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE RAMONES: Surfin' Safari

From a previous 10 Songs:

In my continuing efforts to fool people into thinking I'm way cooler than I really I am, I'll casually mention that I first learned that the Ramones had recorded a cover of the Beach Boys' "Surfin' Safari" when Joey Ramone told me that the Ramones had recorded a cover of the Beach Boys' "Surfin' Safari." Gabba Gabba HEY! 

The revelation came during my 1994 telephone interviews with the Ramones [as detailed in my first book, Gabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramones]. Our Carbona-huffin' heroes had tackled the song previously, their version used as a backing track for a 1978 single by Rodney and the Brunettes. That would be legendary DJ Rodney Bingenheimer, with the Honeys handling the vocal heavy lifting. The Ramones had hoped to exhume their original parts (minus Rodney and his Brunette Honeys) to use in their All The Stuff (And More) reissue series, but the tracks could not be located.

Instead, the Ramones wound up recording it again during the sessions for their 1993 all-covers album Acid Eaters. Their '90s "Surfin' Safari" was only used as a bonus track on the album's Japanese edition, though it did eventually appear on a British reissue of Acid Eaters. It has never been released in America.

And lemme just add here in the present day: Surf's UP. A safari awaits.

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 of short stories Guitars Vs. Rayguns!! Short Stories And Other White Lies is due out soon; meanwhile, you can get an autographed copy of my previous book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) here, and you can still get my previous 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: 10/28/2021

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 is the second of two editions of 10 Songs this week. Its predecessor drew exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1100. This one does not. Instead, each of these ten songs was almost included in our 1100th show, and each was in the playlist at some point as Dana and I compiled it.

THE CATHOLIC GIRLS: Someone New

"Boys Don't Cry" was the first Catholic Girls track I ever heard, courtesy of dat ole debbil MTV. The group's video for "Boys Can Cry" may have been my sole communion with the Catholic Girls' music in the early '80s, though I eventually scarfed up a copy of their eponymous 1982 LP. "Someone New" off that album was definitely my favorite, and it later became the first Catholic Girls track ever played on TIRnRR. (I suspect we may have played the Catholic Girls on our pre-TIRnRR series We're Your Friends For Now in '92, but we have no written records of the playlists for those shows.)

We began corresponding with the Catholic Girls' Gail Peterson in 1992, our first full year on the air and also the year that Renaissance Records reissued the above-cited Catholic Girls album on CD. New Catholic Girls music followed, and we were all in. "Niagara Falls." "Make Me Believe." "Somebody In The USA." "Rock'n America." And of course, our latter-day favorite "Should Have Been Mine," from the Catholic Girls' 2005 album Meet The Catholic Girls. We played 'em all, and more.

Our second This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation CD was supposed to include a Catholic Girls track, but a behind-the-scenes issue (beyond our control, and not the Catholic Girls' fault) prevented that from happening. They forgave us, and let us use "Should Have Been Mine" on 2013's This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3, the first compilation over which Dana and I had total control of the content.

For TIRnRR # 1100, we opted to go back to that 1982 debut for another spin of "Someone New," but we weren't able to squeeze it in. Damn these unbreakable laws of time and physics. You'll hear it on TIRnRR # 1101 this coming Sunday night.

DOUG DEREK AND THE HOAX: Bobby's Gotta Get Back To Boston [1981 version]

I determined weeks ago that I wanted to open TIRnRR # 1100 with the Brothers Steve's direct statement of intent "We Got The Hits." The track is on the group's Big Stir Records release # 1, and its use at the top of the show prompted Dana to suggest we devote the first set to a few of the labels that have been so good to us. There were more than a mere six likely labels to honor, but we settled on Big Stir, Red On Red, Rainbow Quartz, Rum Bar, Kool Kat Musik, and Jem. Futureman and JAM Recordings were represented elsewhere on the playlist. I regret we didn't get to SpyderPop and Not Lame (among others), but both labels supplied tracks that will be heard on next week's show (the former in its current partnership with Big Stir).

Kool Kat Musik was also a presence throughout our 1100th show, with tracks from our 2017 collection This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4. But we wanted to play at least one Kool Kat track not directly affiliated with us, and I chose Doug Derek and the Hoax with "Bobby's Gotta Bet Back To Boston [1981 version]," from Kool Kat's Doug Derek retrospective Who The Hell Is Doug Derek? "Bobby's Gotta Get Back To Boston" is a fantastic track, but in recording the show, I felt Bill Berry's "1-800-Colonoscopy" (from Kool Kat's 2020 John Wicks tribute album For The Record) was an imperative. It was our # 2 most-played track last year (surpassed only by the Muffs' "On My Own"), we dubbed it "The Love Theme From 2020," and it needed to be represented on TIRnRR # 1100. Yeah, not the first time a colonoscopy disrupted someone's plans.

THE GRIP WEEDS: Rainbow Quartz

Really wanted to include the Grip Weeds in TIRnRR # 1100. New Jersey's phenomenal pop combo has been among our go-to acts here for decades, and they've appeared on two of our TIRnRR compilations ("Out Of Today" on TIRnRR Vol. 2 and "Strange Bird" on TIRnRR Vol. 4). Grip Weeds drummer and lead singer Kurt Reil does appear on our 1100th show playlist as a member of the BAR (with Danny Adlerman and Jim Babjak), but the group's own song "Rainbow Quartz" almost made it in, too. The Grip Weeds have a new all-covers album, DiG, due imminently from the good folks at Jem Records. We'll hear a song from DiG this Sunday night.

MAD MONSTER PARTY: Can't Stop Loving You

For a little mutant radio show, we've done a fair job of providing public services to the rockin' pop public. One of these services was the first (and still only) CD appearance of music by Mad Monster Party, an absolutely incredible but frustratingly obscure all-female SoCal group from the '80s. Mad Monster Party included the fabulous 'n' foxy Gwynne Kahn, ex of the Pandoras, and their then-unreleased tracks are among THE best stuff recorded by anyone in that decade. There was a digital release of the tracks in 2013 (the same year we used "Can't Stop Loving You" on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3), but I think even the download option may have faded from the marketplace since then. Mad Monster Party's humble li'l catalog is, in '80s speak, totally awesome, and way, way overdue for physical release. NOW, dammit!! Calling Big Stir! We got a job for you!

THE PARTIES: Cryin' Shame

Here's one of two cases where I picked one song to represent an artist on this week's playlist and then changed to a different song by the same artist. I was taken with the Parties' first album Can't Come Down back in 2008, and granted well-deserved airplay to a song called "Damned By The Sunshine." I was well and truly blown away away by the title track of the group's 2009 Cryin' Shame EP, and this week I picked that song to represent the Rainbow Quartz label in our opening set. But as I thought more about it, "Let's Call It Love" (from the Parties' 2010 album Coast Garde, the group's most recent release as far as I know) was the Parties' biggest hit with TIRnRR listeners. Couldn't go wrong with any of those choices.

POP CO-OP: You Don't Love Me Anymore

And here's the other case of me switching a band's designated song after tentatively settling on a different song. The lads in Pop Co-Op--Steve Stoeckel, Bruce Gordon, Joel Tinnel, and Stacy Carson--give partial credit to TIRnRR for their existence, which makes us as proud as any Frankenstein you're ever likely to meet. 2017 gave us Pop Co-Op's debut album Four State Solution, and it also brought us "You Don't Love Me Anymore," which the band let us use for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4. "You Don't Love Me Anymore" reminds me a little bit of both Gerry and the Pacemakers and Chad and Jeremy, but it's accomplished with a trifle more essential oomph than either of those British Invasion stalwarts were generally known to...um, oomphify. Perfect track for TIRnRR # 1100! 

But y'know what? "It Ain't Easy Being A Boy" (from Four State Solution) is also a perfect track for TIRnRR # 1100. So we went that one instead. IT'S ALIVE! POP CO-OP IS ALIVE...!!

THE PRIMITIVES: Crash

Prerecording shows offers the advantage of shuffling choices around to make 'em fit as best they can. Each week, Dana and I set a playlist of seven six-song sets, a final set of eight songs, and another eight bonus tracks that can serve as an add-on eighth set before the final (ninth) set, if there's time. Very often, there isn't time, so the eighth set either shrinks to six songs, or disappears entirely as some of its tracks merge into that final set instead. Show # 1100 didn't have time for the bonus set, so that eighth set of eight songs dropped four songs and folded into what had been the ninth set, creating a set of twelve songs to close the program.

The Primitives' rockin' pop classic "Crash" was one of the casualties. But rest assured: we'll play it again eventually. As we should.

THE SMALL FACES: You Need Loving

"You Need Loving" by the Small Faces was another of the tracks cut in the smooshing together of our two final sets this week. Yeah, this sounds amazingly similar to Led Zeppelin's subsequent monolith "Whole Lotta Love," and both of these tracks sound amazingly similar to Muddy Waters' "You Need Love," which was written by Willie Dixon and well predates your diminutive visages and metallic dirigibles. The Small Faces' track never got much traction, so Willie Dixon knew who was the best target for litigation when he went after Led Zeppelin instead. Gentlemen, start your lawyers!

THE SKELETONS: Trans Am

They were America's coolest band. The Skeletons were something else, especially as a live act, and I regard "Trans Am" as their signature tune. Another one of the four songs cut when the original eighth set combined with the original ninth set. (I don't remember exactly what song was the fourth; I think it was just one of the tracks that got moved around in planning, so either the Catholic Girls or the Grip Weeds).

THE TWEAKERS: Super Secret Mystery Track

In college basketball March Madness parlance, the Tweakers were the last team out. "Super Secret Mystery Track" would have been the final track on this week's playlist, after the farewell and after the Poptarts' "I Won't Let You Let Me Go" (the first track ever played on TIRnRR) and Dana & Carl (with Dave Murray)'s "The Ballad Of Jah Clampett" (from This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 1). We ran outta time. And no, I'm still not gonna tell you anything about the Tweakers. Can't you read? It's a super secret MYSTERY track! Go buy Futureman's digital download of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 3 and hear for yourself. And come on back Sunday night for TIRnRR # 1101. Gotta keep buildin' to our next milestone. Tweak. Tweak. Tweak.

Is this man a Tweaker, or is he the host of Radio Deer Camp on SPARK Syracuse? Or is he...BOTH?!

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: 7/8/2021

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.

For this week's epic July 4th blowout, we presented a countdown of TIRnRR's 55 all-time most played artists, with each artist's all-time # 1 most-played track. Thanks again to the mighty Fritz Van Leaven for programming the countdown. And in the spirit of the countdown, we'll have three editions of 10 Songs this week, celebrating our 30 most-played acts with their most-played songs. As befits a greatest-hits revue, most of the individual song entries have been seen before on this blog, with maybe a couple of previously-unreleased selections as needed.

You can read part one of this trilogy here. This second of this week's three celebratory 10 Songs begins with the second of two acts tied at # 20 among our most-played artists.

20 [tie]. THE JAM: In The City

In the summer of 1978, as I tried to reassemble my own scattered pieces after a tumultuous freshman year in college, I got a job at Penn-Can Mall. I was a part-time morning maintenance man--i.e., a janitor--at Sears, part of a mostly-young crew that cleaned the store each AM prior to the start of the business day. My friend Tom was on the crew, and he helped me get the job to begin with. Money in my pocket. I could go out, see bands, try to be better. 

Great. Fine. Worthy goals! But let's not forget the reason God created cash in the first place: I could buy records.

I still tried to stay within a reasonable budget. But c'mon, I now worked under the same big ol' roof as a Gerber Music store! I wouldn't and couldn't resist the allure of import 45s at Gerber. My preferred rock magazines--Bomp!, Trouser Press, and CREEM--gave me an information pipeline to some of what was out there. I read about the U.K. punk/power pop group Generation X, and snapped up their "Ready Steady Go" and "Your Generation" singles at Gerber. I may have gotten my red-vinyl 45 of the Rich Kids' "Rich Kids" and/or the single of Rich Kids bassist Glen Matlock's former group the Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant" on one of my frequent Penn-Can Sears-to-Gerber beelines. Beyond punk, the sight of George Thorogood and the Destroyers on TV's Midnight Special prompted a cash transaction at Gerber to secure my copy of the "Move It On Over"/"It Wasn't Me" single. I also bought teen pop star Shaun Cassidy's hit single "Hey Deanie" and local group the Alligators' "I Try And I Try." My main interests were rock 'n' roll, punk, new wave, and (especially) power pop. But I wasn't strict. If I liked something, I liked it.

My specific interest in power pop was stoked by Bomp! magazine, which had published a special power pop issue earlier in '78. Gospel to me. And it turned out Syracuse combo the Flashcubes' idea of punk kinda dovetailed with a power-pop approach, evidenced by their original songs and their chosen covers, of acts like the Kinks, the Raspberries, Big Star, Badfinger, the Hollies, and the early Who alongside your prerequisite punks the Sex Pistols. Their originals were fantastic, and they had excellent taste in covers.

And they covered the Jam, a great new British group that came out of punk but were clearly and proudly beholden to the model of '60s Mod, particularly the Who. The Flashcubes covered at least three of the Jam's many fine tunes: "The Modern World," "In The City," and "I Need You (For Someone)." Following my own weird introduction to the Jam's music, my fascination with them had grown by leaps and bounds. I bought the Jam's U.S. single of "I Need You (For Someone)"/"In The City" while away at school, and dutifully trekked to Gerber after Sears shifts that summer to snag import 45s of "The Modern World" and "All Around The World." 

Years later, my wife Brenda and I were watching a collection of Jam videos. As the image showed the lads slamming their way through "In The City" in 1977, Brenda remarked, "They remind me of the Flashcubes." As well they should. Pop with power. In the city there's a thousand things I wanna say to you.

19. THE SMALL FACES: Tin Soldier

The Jam were also influenced by '60s Brits the Small Faces, whom the Who's Pete Townshend cited along with the Beach Boys and his own group of guitar-smashers when he coined the phrase "power pop" in 1967. "Tin Soldier" isn't in the same power-pop landscape as earlier Small Faces tracks like "All Or Nothing" or "Sha-La-La-La-Lee" or "Whatcha Gonna Do 'Bout It," which were 1965-66 Decca Records singles. With the group moved to the Immediate label, 1967's "Tin Soldier" is headier, less overtly pop, a follow-up to their we'll-get-HIGH! anthem "Itchykoo Park," the sound of a group on its way to Ogden's Nut Gone Flake.

18. DAVID BOWIE: Queen Bitch

When Dana and I were guests on The Spoon in May, I mentioned how the death of David Bowie in 2016 somehow compelled me to start a daily blog, a foolish commitment that has nonetheless never missed a day yet. Hosts Robbie Rist, Chris Jackson, and Thom Bowers joked that they'd be worried if each daily blog post was still about Bowie, but while there'd certainly plenty to worry about where I'm concerned, I actually did just the one, and then one updated version of it. The vast majority of Bowie's TIRnRR airplay has been courtesy of Dana, including our # 1 Bowie track "Queen Bitch," from Bowie At The Beeb.

17. ASTROPUPPEES: Over Her Head

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio has been happily aboard the Kelley Ryan bandwagon since 2001, when Kelley (then recording under the boppin' dba astroPuppees) placed a track on Shoe Fetish, a fabulous tribute to the pop group Shoes. We began to correspond with Kelley, and astroPuppees' first TIRnRR spin was from Shoe Fetish, a cover of Shoes' "The Tube." Soon thereafter, we started playing a song called "Don't Be" (from astroPuppees' 1996 album You Win The Bride), which I recalled hearing in the 1997 TV movie Friends 'Til The End. Friends 'Til The End was a movie I originally wanted to see because our pals Cockeyed Ghost made a don't-BLINK! cameo appearance. And in the film, actress Shannen Doherty lip-syncs to a made-for-TV cover of astroPuppees' "Don't Be." 

We've gone on to play many, many more astroPuppees and Kelley Ryan tracks many, many times over the course of these last two decades. Her current single "The Church Of Laundry" is a shoo-in for 2021's year-end countdown. And "Over Her Head," the lead-off track from astroPuppees' 2001 album Little Chick Tsunami, remains Kelley's biggest TIRnRR hit among her many TIRnRR hits.

16. THE PRETENDERS: Talk Of The Town

In the '70s and '80s (and still sporadically since then), it wasn't at all unusual for me to read about an artist well before I heard any bit of their music. I read about the Pretenders (probably in Trouser Press), and I was intrigued about news of this four-piece, with female lead, whose first single was produced by Nick Lowe. Oh, and that first single was a Kinks cover, "Stop Your Sobbing," so the rock rags had done their due diligence in attracting my interest in these Pretenders. I missed seeing "Stop Your Sobbing" on retail racks, but snapped up the Pretenders' second single "Kid" at first opportunity. 

And...I didn't like it.

I mean, not at first. Can't explain the why or why not. I got fully on board by the time debut LP Pretenders hit the shops, and I was a full-on Pretenders fan in short order. Saw 'em live at Syracuse nightclub Uncle Sam's in 1980, with opening act the Necessaries (featuring guitar god Chris Spedding!). Great show, though one of my principle memories of it is watching Chrissie Hynde on-stage as she told a concert-goer to hit the road. "You! OUT!!" Talk of the town.

"Talk Of The Town" wasn't on that debut album, though most of us owned it subsequently as part of the Extended Play EP the Pretenders released in '81, a stopgap between Pretenders and Pretenders II. Pretenders II reprised "Talk Of The Town" and its EP comrade "Message Of Love," but the rock magazines declared the album a step down from the debut. And who were we to disagree? The original quartet disintegrated after that, and drug use killed bassist Pete Farndon and guitarist James Honeyman-Scott. Drummer Martin Chambers returned with Hynde for 1984's Learning To Crawl. 

15. SEX CLARK FIVE: Fool I Was

Huntsville, Alabama's phenomenal pop combo Sex Clark Five began their reign of quirky brilliance in the ‘80s, commencing with 1987’s Strum & Drum! album. Masters of short songs with unconventional titles (e.g., “Too Much Mongol Business,” “The Men Who Didn’t Know Ice,” “The Wreck Of The Ella Fitzgerald”) and hook piled upon hook piled upon hook, they have remained consistent purveyors of intelligent, catchy pop tunes that are utterly, uniquely Sex Clark Five. They continue unabated today. "Fool I Was" is my top SC5 pick, and one of TIRnRR's defining tracks.

14. PAUL McCARTNEY: Maybe I'm Amazed

My favorite Paul McCartney solo track. "Maybe I'm Amazed" is the equal of anything the Beatles did from 1967 on, fully worthy of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the best of Abbey Road, and better than anything on Let It Be (and I do like Let It Be, honest!).

13. THE SPONGETONES: (My Girl) Maryanne

Where and from whom did I first hear about the Spongetones? My gut and aging memory both claim I learned about the fabulous 'Tones online from my friend Greg Ogarrio in the early '90s. Greg was among a handful of power pop pals I met via Prodigy, an online service that flourished briefly and then disappeared entirely. Prodigy was my introduction to the wonder of the internet, and it was through Prodigy's auspices that I found myself within a small pop community, talking about things like Big Star and the Raspberries, trading mix tapes, and trying to turn new friends on to personal fave raves. I introduced Greg to the music of the Flashcubes. Greg introduced me to the music of the Spongetones. We both did pretty well in that exchange.

"(My Girl) Maryanne" is a Steve Stoeckel composition from the group's 1984 EP Torn Apart. Its matrix was crafted in Liverpool, a root design shared by the Knickerbockers, Utopia, and all things Fab, assembled with justifiable pride in the U.S.A. The influence is evident and eager, yet more than mere imitation, in the same sense that the Beatles' "Thank You, Girl" was more than a mere imitation of the Isley Brothers. It's something new. 

And it's irresistible. The guitars combust, the harmonies sail, the beat and the music surge, and the singer expresses his own giddy delight in the rat-a-tat sound of his chatty lover's extended soliloquy. Pop songs that complain about a woman who talks too much are a dime a dozen; in "(My Girl) Maryanne," Maryanne has a lot to say, and not enough minutes in the day. Our hero hangs on each syllable, reveling in the reward of how every word makes him love her more. YES! The word is love. And that love is as pure as the pop music we adore. Keep talking, Maryanne.

12. THE HOLLIES: I Can't Let Go

Oh I try and I try but I can't say GOODBYE!

A perfect pop record. There has never been a more exquisitely constructed pop single than "I Can't Let Go" by the Hollies. It aches with longing, apprehension, and anticipation, soars with possibility, teases a promise of redemption, and hints at a hope that maybe--just maybe--we might actually get the girl when all is said and sung. Harmonies. Guitars! Love. A perfect pop record? That's selling it short.

There was a three-year span on TIRnRR where I decided I wanted to pursue some long-form programming gimmick throughout the course of a year. In 2009, we did The 50 KISS Strategy, which was a promise to play 50 different KISS tracks between New Year's Day and New Year's Eve. We dedicated 2011 to 301 Songs About 301 Girls, a very well-received effort to play a whole bunch of songs with girls' names in the title.

In between KISS and the girls, 2010 brought us The Hundred Hollies Initiative. We announced the gimmick with the playlist for our 1/10/2010 show:

Beginning with our spotlight on the Hollies last week, we have made a solemn vow to play 100 different Hollies tracks on TIRnRR before the end of 2010. A daunting task? You betcha! But the Hollies have a lot of terrific tracks to choose from, so we should be equal to the task.  Besides, the price of failure is too terrible to consider: if we fail in our effort to play 100 different Hollies tracks this year, our penance will be to play something so horrible, so SICKENING that it offends the mind, the heart and the soul. I can barely bring myself to type it, but it must be entered into the public record:

If we play less than 100 different Hollies tracks this year, then we've gotta play "Old Time Rock And Roll" by Bob Seger as our punishment. (Y'know, it's difficult to type while holding one's nose.) But don't worry! We won't let you down! We've played 16 Hollies tracks already, so it's only 84 to go. You can count on us! We hope....

Yeah. We made dead certain to play 101 different Hollies tracks. Just to be sure. And that's part of the reason the Hollies are among our all-time most-played artists.

And here's to the power of radio. Our friend and listener Rich Firestone credits the Hundred Hollies Initiative with rekindling his own interest in the Hollies. Radio's job is to sell records. We were happy to do our part.

11. KISS: Calling Dr. Love

Trying to satisfy the voracious hunger of a daily blog means I'm constantly kicking around ideas that may or may not lead me to write something. One idea I've noted but not yet pursued is called "The Idea Of KISS." That would be about how I have greater affection for KISS as an abstract (if you will) than I have for their actual records or performances. This is not to say that I don't like KISS. KISS was my first rock concert, The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will include a chapter on "Shout It Out Loud," I still wear my KISS t-shirt pretty regularly, and I'm always eager to get right back in the face of any punter who dares to question my right to like KISS if I want to like KISS. 

But my love of KISS is not on the level of my love of the Beatles, the Ramones, the Monkees, the Kinks, the Flashcubes, or any of dozens of other acts. I have a sporadic blog series called All-Time Top 25, wherein I talk about my 25 favorite tracks by a designated artist. I've published All-Time Top 25s about the Beatles, the Monkees, and Paul McCartney, and I've begun drafts of still more: the Hollies, the Kinks, the Rolling Stones...and KISS. The Stones piece is a placeholder, but I'll have no trouble coming up with a long list of great tracks that I'll need to narrow to a mere 25. The Hollies' short list is currently 28. The Kinks' short list is 48! 

With KISS, I only have 20 songs listed, and even a few of those are a stretch. I could do a rock-solid Top 10, and it would include some obscurities as well as some of the more familiar KISS tunes. But my passion for the music of KISS simply doesn't match my interest in the idea of KISS. It's complicated. But I love it loud. And I love "Calling Dr. Love," which would absolutely be in that above-mentioned rock-solid KISS Top 10. It was my first KISS favorite, from my first KISS album (Rock And Roll Over), which my sister Denise gave me as a high school graduation gift in 1977.

I'm used to people rolling their eyes whenever I say something positive about KISS. When that happens, I have a wide variety of two-word replies at the ready, and I usually settle on "Okay, then," because I'm, y'know...polite. 

I like KISS. I don't like 'em without reservation, and I don't bother trying to make excuses for bassist Gene Simmons and his frequently boorish behavior. I don't like everything they've done (nor even most of it), but what I like, I like a lot. Call the doctor. The doctor is in.

This 10 Songs trilogy concludes here tomorrow, with TIRnRR's all-time Top 10 most-played artists. Anxious about who edged out KISS to take the # 10 spot? Don't worry, baby.

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.