10 SONGS: 11/22/2025

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 # 1311

SQUEEZE: Goodbye Girl

SQUEEZE: Vicky Verky

SQUEEZE: If It's Love

From a previous 10 Songs regarding "Goodbye Girl" by Squeeze:

"My favorite Squeeze song. Although I was a relative latecomer to Squeeze fandom, I fell hard for 'Pulling Mussels (From The Shell),' and also liked 'Annie Get Your Gun.' Then they broke up. Then they got back together! I didn't own any of Squeeze's stuff until the late '80s, when Singles--45's And Under became one of my early CD purchases. More purchases would follow. I now have many favorite Squeeze songs. 'Goodbye Girl' remains my # 1."

With the passing of former Squeeze drummer Gilson Lavis, it seemed imperative for a pop-obsessed radio show like ours to attempt some sort of proper salute and appreciation. We figured our best way to do that was to open the show with three Squeeze classics in a row, then circle back to one more Squeeze perennial near the end of the show.

And I wanted to start with "Goodbye Girl," not just because it's my top Squeeze track, but because Lavis's distinctive arrangement of the song's percussion stands as testimony to his talent and ingenuity. Squeezing our way forward, the 1980 Argybargy album track "Vicky Verky" has been a frequent fixture on TIRnRR playlists, and "If It's Love" (from 1989's Frank.) finally makes its long-overdue TIRnRR debut this week, as This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio remembers Gilson Lavis.

THE PEPPERMINT KICKS: Number One Record

"Number One Record?" Hey! We PLAY the hits! "Number One Records" is the latest single from the Peppermint Kicks' exquisite new album Pop Rocks In My Chewing Gum, and it's an exercise in needle-to-groove exuberance directed by a benevolent deity toward eager disciples of rock 'n' roll radio. Since this IS rock 'n' roll radio, it's our Heavenly obligation to play the Peppermint Kicks. Writhe with the tithe, baby. Like the Rutles before them, the Peppermint Kicks are number one, number one.

THE ARMOIRES: You're Not The Police

It was my great, great pleasure to curate the 2025 various-artists blockbuster Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes. The album was released by our friends at Big Stir Records, and I'll piddle all over the sin of false modesty and tell you it's really, really good. As further evidence of the set's essential 'n' undeniable awesomeness, we offer another spin of Big Stir's de facto house band the Armoires and their irresistible channeling of Cheap Trick and the Byrds for this epic cover of the Flashcubes' "You're Not The Police."

THE LEMON TWIGS: Play On

My pal Ken Sharp is to the ace compilation Play On: A Raspberries Tribute as I am to Make Something Happen!, a passionate rockin' pop advocate eager to proclaim and celebrate the legacy of an all-time favorite combo. Among the many 'Berries-flavored treats Ken assembled for Play On, he recruited current pop buzzsters the Lemon Twigs to contribute a sublime rendition of the album's title track, a song which also happens to be one of my own top Raspberries tunes. We'll hear two more tracks from Play On: A Raspberries Tribute on our next show, including a Raspberries rocker by Ken Sharp hisself. Play on? Damned straight we will.

MATERIAL ISSUE: I'd Wait A Million Years

Material Issue's cover of the Grass Roots' hit "I'd Wait A Million Years" comes to us via Yellow Pills Volume 4, the beyond-fab 1997 chapter in Jordan Oakes's essential series of power pop compilations. I'm a little surprised to see we've never played it before, but its presumed million-year wait for TIRnRR airplay ends now, thanks to Dean Brownrout. 

Dean was the co-owner of the Big Deal Records label, which was the home of the Yellow Pills CDs and to a big, big stack o' worthies by a big, big roster of TIRnRR Fave Raves. Dean has been promoting his new book No Big Deal (subtitled "Chasing the indie music dream in the last days of the record business"), and that promotion brought him to an appearance on the 1000 Greatest Misses podcast. You can hear that episode right here. The music on this very special Big Deal edition of 1000 Greatest Misses included Material Issue's "I'd Wait A Million Years" (alongside worthies by Wondermints, Adam Schmitt, Splitsville, and the Sighs), and we couldn't miss this inspiration and opportunity to program a Material Issue track we ain't played before. Worth the wait!

BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD: Sit Down I Think I Love You

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE FLASHCUBES: Reminisce

Also from Make Something Happen! A Tribute To The Flashcubes, one of three new nonpareil tracks by the Flashcubes. 'Cubes guitarist Paul Armstrong's "Reminisce" serves as the album's opening salvo, it was the first advance single, and it is without question my top track of 2025. Reminiscing AND looking forward. It's all I want to do.

SQUEEZE: Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)

My first favorite Squeeze song. "Goodbye Girl" more or less supplanted it over time, but it's still just fantastic, and you can't go wrong with the best of Squeeze. Godspeed, Gilson Lavis.

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.

POP-A-LOOZA: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! Squeeze, "Tempted"

 

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. Continuing to recognize that an infinite of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made (as long as they take turns), the latest shared post casts the Greatest Record Ever Made! spotlight on "Tempted" by Squeeze.

This chapter is not in the blueprint for my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). I'm working on yet another slight tweak to that plan, sticking to the 135-track model but swapping out a few of the individual selections. If I like the result, I'll share the new Table Of Contents here in the near future.

Selecting (and changing) songs for a project like this is an interesting process. I don't make any claim to being objective--why in God's name would anyone ever want to be objective about pop music?--but I am pursuing a POV that's a little larger than just songs I like a lot. A number of my all-time favorite tracks will not be in this book at all. Choices are made to serve the book's flow and narrative, so I choose songs I feel like rantin' about this context. Other than one sidebar exception, the book won't include anything I don't like; each song in GREM! is something that obsessed me to some degree at some time, or at least caught my attention in some positive and lasting way. But nor is it representative of my Hot 100.

While I have a different book coming out first, the GREM! project is never far from my mind, and I still hope to see it through. Meanwhile, a Greatest Record Ever Made! celebration of Squeeze takes its own infinite turn as the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

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

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

10 SONGS: 9/8/2022

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 # 1145.

THE HALFCUBES: Hand Me Down World

Guess who? It's the Halfcubes! And that would be Gary Frenay and Tommy Allen (precisely one-half of Syracuse's power pop powerhouse quartet the Flashcubes), aided und abetted by Randy Klawon (of the Choir), Mike Kallet, and Nick Frenay for this absolutely ace cover of the Guess Who's 1970 hit "Hand Me Down." Listen: I love the Guess Who's original; this is even better. And it's a de facto teaser track for a forthcoming various-artists project that I don't know all that much about yet, and about which I suspect I'm not even supposed to tell you what little I do know. Guess who? Guess WHAT...!

IN DEED:Peace & Quiet

AMY RIGBY: Tom Petty Karaoke

Two in a row from our new compilation album This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5. We are so blessed to know such talented people willing to share their work with us, all on behalf of whatever the hell it is we do here. (I've given up hoping that someone will eventually explain to us what we're doing. We're gonna just keep doing it. Whatever it is.)

The CD is still on track for--we think--a release this very month. Oh, and TOMORROW: check back here for your first look at the irresistible cover graphic for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5.

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN: A Little More Love

"A Little More Love" was one of my favorites among Olivia Newton-John's hits, probably second only to "If Not For You." Its late 1978 release came about a year into my full-throttle embrace of punk rock, so ya might not expect me to also love such an unabashed middle-of-the-road radio pop tune.

But "A Little More Love" isn't as MOR as many/most of her preceding hits, your "I Honestly Love You"s or your "Please Mister Please"s. A pal at the time described "A Little More Love" as like ON-J backed by the Kinks; I don't quite buy into that, but it does have a more tangible rock feel than one finds in our Olivia's lighter fare.

(Its release also coincided with a burgeoning new relationship that began that same fall of '78, a meeting-of-hearts that would lead to a marriage that still survives decades later. Will a little more love make it right? Eh. Couldn't hurt. Thanks, Olivia!)

DAVID RUFFIN: It's Gonna Take A Whole Lot Of Doin'

I continue to be mystified about why Motown Records didn't release David Ruffin's proposed album David in the early '70s. It's such a fantastic record, and I wish we'd been able to experience it fifty years ago. From that album's sessions, we played Ruffin's "It's Gonna Take A Whole Lot Of Doin'" on this week's show. My iPod just treated me to Ruffin's cover of Brook Benton's "Rainy Night In Georgia," also from David. Sublime stuff. It borders on heresy, but I may even prefer the tracks on David to Ruffin's classic work with the Temptations.

IRENE PEÑA: Come And Get It

America's Sweetheart Irene Peña covers Badfinger's McCartney-scribed 1970 hit "Come And Get It," from the WAY fab various-artists musicfest We All Shine On: Celebrating The Music Of 1970. Yeah, 1970 was a pretty swell year for pop music, wasn't it? Lotta great songs to cover from that year, more than even a great single album like this can include.

For now. At least, that's what I would guess.

THE COWSILLS: She Said To Me

Before we talk about this great '90s track by the Cowsills, we have to pause and shout at you for a second. Ahem. THE COWSILLS HAVE A NEW ALBUM OUT THIS MONTH!! Rhythm Of The World is scheduled for release on September 30th, and I for damned sure preordered my copy. For this week's show, we reached back, not to the Cowsills' superfine '60s hits, but to their incredible Global album, which is my favorite album of the 1990s. The Global track "She Said To Me" has its own chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), and the Cowsills were nice enough to also grant us its use a few years back on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 2. 

In the present day: we've heard the new teaser single from Rhythm Of The World, and we're very much looking forward to programming it into future TIRnRR broadcasts. NEW COWSILLS! Oh, man....!!

SQUEEZE: Tempted

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE MONKEES: I Never Thought It Peculiar

A guilt-free pleasure!

And ya wanna know what this gawky, clunky, basically unloved little deep cut has in common with two of the Monkees' biggest hits, "I'm A Believer" and "Daydream Believer?" Like those two perennial smashes, "I Never Thought It Peculiar" did not make the list of my 25 favorite Monkees tracks. And you know what separates it from those? "I Never Thought It Peculiar" is one of the 53 Monkees tracks on my iPod; "Daydream Believer" and "I'm A Believer" are not.

I know. Peculiar, right?

THE DONNAS: Living After Midnight

Metal chicks! Sort of. It would be more than a little stretch to refer to the Donnas as a metal band, even when they pull off such a capable and credible (and invigmoratin'!) cover of the Judas Priest juggernaut "Living After Midnight." We've been playing the Donnas since our earliest days here, and I initially thought of them as successors to the Runaways (who also weren't metal) rather than, say, Girlschool (who were metal). One could also compare the Donnas to the Pandoras, if we can imagine a version of the Pandoras less beholden to '60s garage/punk and more influenced by the Ramones. And the Runaways.

(And, come to think of it, the Pandoras themselves took a turn toward hard rock toward the end of the career. Maybe that is the comparison we should be making, if we're gonna make a comparison.)

This all speaks only of image and approach; I don't believe the Donnas ever really sounded much like the Runaways, Girlschool, or the Pandoras, and we fall into a trap when the emergence of an all-female rock band prompts us to automatically look for similarities/differences in relation to other all-female rock bands. People still compare/contrast the Go-Go's and the Bangles ferchrissakes, two groups I absolutely love but who share very little in common beyond gender and a love of the '60s.

The Donnas have developed a side career in bludgeoning their way through covers of everything from Billy Idol to Bachman Turner Overdrive. They're quite good at it, though we're overdue to give some fresh spins to some Donnas originals one of these weeks. Meanwhile, my favorite among Donnas covers is this righteous steamroll through "Living After Midnight." Metal? Close enough.

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

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

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE: Tempted

This is not scheduled for inclusion in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). Consider it a bonus track!

An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

SQUEEZE: Tempted

Written by Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford

Produced by Roger Bechirian and Elvis Cpstello

Single from the album East Side Story, A & M Records, 1981

I may as well make this confession straight up: I did not care for "Tempted" at all when I first heard it. I saw the video a couple of times on MTV, didn't even realize it was Squeeze, and dismissed it as the sort of dull and dreary wallpaper pop I associated with acts like Daryl Hall and John Oates. I did not like Daryl Hall and John Oates, and my only pleasant association with any of their music was the memory of seeing my first stripper several years before that, disrobing to the tune of "Rich Girl."

It's difficult to reconstruct my own Squeeze timeline. It's likely that "Cool For Cats" was the only Squeeze song I heard while I was still in college, and that wasn't sufficient to interest me in the group. A little bit later, I simply adored Squeeze's "Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)," and loved seeing Squeeze play that and "Annie Get Your Gun" in what was supposed to be their farewell performance on Saturday Night Live in 1982. I came to retroactively recognize the pop brilliance of Squeeze as the '80s trudged on. "Tempted" was part of that brilliance, even if I was slow to comprehend that truth. I can't explain why I was initially so dismissive of such an engaging temptation.

Singer and keyboardist Paul Carrack was only a member of Squeeze for a very brief time, replacing original member Jools Holland in 1981 and squeezing himself out in '82. He happened to be the lead singer on "Tempted," Squeeze's biggest number in the States, leading casual observers to think of Carrack's role in Squeeze as a much larger part than it really was. In reality, it's no slight to Carrack (nor to Holland, nor to any other member of that band) that Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford were and are the defining principal players in Squeeze. Whomever Glenn and Chris play with, the result is considered Squeeze by default.

In 2020, Squeeze planned to tour as an opening act for Daryl Hall and John Oates. The personal symmetry of that happenstance borders on the WTF. I did eventually develop a tolerance for Hall and Oates, but I doubt I'll ever be a fan, and the tour therefore wasn't for me (even if the quarantine scene hadn't sent 2020 itself to the cornfield instead). If it had happened, I doubt I would have gone even just to see Squeeze.

No, not even if there were strippers. But Squeeze? I admit: I was tempted. 

If you like what you see here on Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do), please consider supporting this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon, or by visiting CC's Tip Jar. Additional products and projects are listed here.

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.

10 SONGS: 8/4/2020

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 week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1036.

ARTHUR ALEXANDER: Soldier Of Love



Songs The Beatles taught us. The great soul singer Arthur Alexander never achieved the pop success that should have been his due. 1962's "You Better Move On" was his only Billboard Top 40 hit, but The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Bashful Bob Dylan were fans, each recording at least one Arthur Alexander tune. Arthur Alexander is the only songwriter to have his material covered by all three of those rock icons. Paul McCartney has said that the early Beatles really wanted to be a soul act, and he cited Arthur Alexander as an example of the sort of performer they had in mind as a model for what they did.

The Beatles covered Alexander's "Anna (Go To Him)" on their debut album, shortening the song's title to just "Anna." The Fab Four also covered his "Shot Of R & B" and "Soldier Of Love" in radio performances, and those cuts found a larger clandestine audience via Beatles bootlegs in the '70s. The Flashcubes used to cover "Soldier Of Love" in their 1979 live sets, stating that they'd learned the song from Beatle boots (the vinyl sort rather than the footwear, I'm guessing). Marshall Crenshaw also covered it on his eponymous debut. The Beatles' recording has since been made available as an official release.

Arthur Alexander's original version remains definitive. Having written it, of course, he gets the words right, which puts him one up on John Lennon's (nonetheless great) attempt to approximate the lines he thought he heard on a 45 brought by boat from America to the docks of Liverpool. Alexander's performance has a soulful sway that The Beatles couldn't quite match...though they did pretty well with it, didn't they? They wanted to be a soul act, like Arthur Alexander. The Beatles' cover of "Please Mr. Postman" surpasses The Marvelettes' original, and John, Paul, George, and Richard likewise acquitted themselves admirably with their takes on Chuck Berry, The Miracles, and Little Richard, demonstrating their ability to process their influences and make them their own.

But there was only one Arthur Alexander. Lay down your arms, soldier of love. Surrender to Arthur.

ALICE COOPER: School's Out


This was the clarion call for summer in the '70s, as each June traded pencils, books, and teacher's dirty looks for the presumed pleasures of the sunny school's-out season. Of course, as a teenage wannabe-writer, I kept right up with pencils (or pens) and books, but at least I was out of range of any disapproving glances a school administrator might cast with scorn in my direction. Plus: swimming!

From the Alice Cooper chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

To an adolescent or young teen in the early to mid 1970s, nothing in the world was cooler than Alice Cooper. Before KISS, before punk, Alice Cooper was gaudy and dangerous, potentially the most scandalous, depraved character on AM radio. It didn't matter that it was all an act--show biz!--or that David Bowie was ultimately a far more potent threat to the straight-laced status quo; at the time, Alice Cooper seemed the most dangerous, and therefore the most alluring. Within this fist-pumpin' time frame, a kid that couldn't relate to "School's Out," or didn't want to turn the radio up louder than it could actually go whenever that song came on...well, that kid just would not have been me....

ELVIS COSTELLO: Watching The Detectives


I've written elsewhere of my experience seeing Elvis Costello & the Attractions live on campus during my freshman year at college. Although I had read about Costello (primarily in Phonograph Record Magazine), "Watching The Detectives" was the first Costello song I actually heard, delivered to me when ol' Declan and his Attractions subbed for The Sex Pistols on Saturday Night Live in December of 1977. I thought the performance was riveting, though ya can't beat the incendiary cool of their second song on the show, as they started and suddenly stopped playing "Less Than Zero" and switched to "Radio, Radio" instead. The readers of Trouser Press later crowned that as TV's all-time # 1 rock 'n' roll moment. 

"Watching The Detectives" is pulp fiction made into music, a quick distillation of film noir and Gold Medal paperbacks rendered with a jagged, reggae-influenced beat and simmering punk anger. The record was not produced by Mickey Spillane...but it coulda been.



FREDDIE & THE DREAMERS: Do The Freddie



Ahem. THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

THE GO-GO'S: Club Zero



A new single by The Go-Go's! And it's fabulous, continuing the group's streak of always meeting and surpassing expectations. From their original early '80s heyday through sporadic reunions, The Go-Go's have never disappointed.

Yet they're still criminally underrated, and that pisses me off more than I can articulate. We'll talk a little bit more about The Go-Go's tomorrow.

HOLLY & THE ITALIANS: Youth Coup


I can't pinpoint my specific introduction to Holly & the Italians, but I can narrow it down a little bit. There was a Holly & the Italians flexi-disc for those (like me!) who subscribed to Trouser Press magazine, and there was a CBS Records loss-leader various-artists set called Exposed II: A Cheap Peak At Today Provocative New Rock, both in 1981; the former offered a song called "Poster Boy" backed with a medley, and the latter included "Tell That Girl To Shut Up" and "Rock Against Romance" alongside its Tommy Tutone (not that song), Gary Myrick & the Figures, Psychedelic Furs, Karla DeVito, and Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons. And there was CREEM magazine's rave review of the group's debut album The Right To Be Italian, which compared the Holly sound to Lesley Gore or The Angels backed by Leave Home-era Ramones. Okeydokey. SOLD! Where do I sign?

I scored my copy of The Right To Be Italian at a used record store in Manhattan, probably in or near the Village, though I don't really remember for sure. It was my last trip to the city for many, many years. The LP's cover was water-damaged, but the record played fine, and it was an immediate favorite. Among many great tracks, "Youth Coup" eventually became my single biggest go-to cut. A fantastic album overall, and it was the only album Holly & the Italians did. Lead singer Holly Beth Vincent later did a single with Joey Ramone (as "Holly & Joey") and uncredited Italians covering Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe," and went on to a solo career thereafter.

LIBRARIANS WITH HICKEYS: I Enjoy Being A Boy (In Love With You)


Librarians With Hickeys have a brand-new album, Long Overdue, out on the ever-cool Big Stir Records label. Long Overdue is very, very good, and we opened this week's show with a spin of its current single "That Time Is Now," a lovely tune which finds our passionate bibliophiles supplemented by the able talents of Lisa Mychols. Later in the show, we also played the single's non-album B-side, which is this cover of a song originally done by Saturday morning's phenomenal pop combo The Banana Splits. 



Everybody remembers the insidiously catchy theme song from The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, and if mention of The Banana Splits didn't immediately set off a resounding TRA-LA-LAA! TRA-LA-LA-LAAA! to drown out your inner monologue, I betcha it has now. No need to thank me; consider it a public service courtesy of Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do). I did watch the show during its original 1968-1970 run (and in mid '70s cable TV reruns), and "I Enjoy Being A Boy (In Love With You)" is the only other Banana Splits song I can recall. I can still picture Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper, and Snorky cavorting on my screen as the song played in all its psychedelic bubblegum glory. Librarians With Hickeys do a fine job channeling that vibe.

THE O'JAYS: Put Your Hands Together


From The O'Jays' chapter in The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

Put your hands together.

We've talked about rock 'n' roll as The Devil's Music. But what about rock's celestial roots? In the wicked consummation of the orgiastic union of the rock and the roll, Gospel music was a participant no more reserved and no less sweaty than R & B, country, honky tonk, and blues. Now that was a party! Bless us, Lord!....

Although I heard The O'Jays on the radio quite often during my prime AM Top 40 years, and frequently heard my suitemates' copy of their live album during my second year at college, I don't remember "Put Your Hands Together" at all. It's so uplifting, so infectious, so absolutely irresistible. Put 'em together. PUT 'EM TOGETHER! Now, dammit!

SQUEEZE: Goodbye Girl



My favorite Squeeze song. Although I was a relative latecomer to Squeeze fandom, I fell hard for "Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)," and also liked "Annie Get Your Gun." Then they broke up. Then they got back together! I didn't own any of Squeeze's stuff until the late '80s, when Singles--45's And Under became one of my early CD purchases. More purchases would follow. I now have many favorite Squeeze songs. "Goodbye Girl" remains my # 1.

UTOPIA: I Just Want To Touch You



As my friend Bruce Gordon says: Let's be The Beatles! The urge to imitate and even try to effectively become the act we've known for all these years is widespread and enduring. The Knickerbockers pulled it off on an incredible single called "Lies." The Rutles created a mirror image that was at least as much affectionate pastiche as it was parody. And somewhere in between The Knickerbockers and The Rutles was Deface The Music by Utopia.



I guess the album's supposed to be something of a lark, which is fine by me. It's been said that Utopia's Todd Rundgren finds the process of writing and recording pure pop songs too limiting, too predictable, too boring. But I have loved this album ever since its release. It's far and away my top Utopia record; it is, in fact, the only Utopia record I'm ever likely to listen to. Other than "Couldn't I Just Tell You," "We Gotta Get You A Woman," and some of Todd's 1960s stuff with The Nazz, Deface The Music is also my favorite Rundgren work overall. Hell, I like it better than "I Saw The Light" or "Hello It's Me," but that's just me. Deface The Music is willfully derivative, a deliberate and almost wiseass rip of The Beatles. Original? Nope, not a chance. Pure pop fun? Three loud YEAHS should answer that. Let's be The Beatles? Sounds like a worthy goal to me, mate.


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

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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 155 essays about 155 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).