10 SONGS: 11/16/2021

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

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1103.

THE MONKEES: You Just May Be The One

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE GRIP WEEDS: Porpoise Song

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

SPYGENIUS: Paper Sun Love Is Only Sleeping

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

THE DOORS: Hello, I Love You

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

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

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

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

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

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

WENDI DUNLAP: Buildings

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

LITTLE RICHARD: Good Golly Miss Molly

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

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

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

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

HAYLEY MARY: Like A Woman Should

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

MANDY MOORE: Moonshadow

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

THE QUICK: It Won't Be Long

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

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

ANDY WILLIAMS: A Fool Never Learns

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

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

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: 11/9/2021

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

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1102.

THE CHAMBERS BROTHERS: Time Has Come Today

My soul has been psychedelicized. I guess the Ramones' monolithic 1983 cover of "Time Has Come Today" was the first version to really make my brain buzz--I was a huge, huge fan of the Ramones' Subterranean Jungle album--but the Chambers Brothers' incredible 1967 original has become my go-to. TIME! Earlier this year, I picked up both a Chambers Brothers best-of CD and a reissue of their first album The Time Has Come, the latter to get the full-length version of its de facto title track. I doubt we're likely to play that eleven-minute-plus cut much (if ever) on TIRnRR, but the familiar 4:55 single was sufficient to psychedelicize souls on this week's playlist.

THE CHELSEA CURVE: Top It Up

I hate the Chelsea Curve. And by that I mean I love the Chelsea Curve, even as I remain intimidated by their ability to release a compelling new single every freakin' month. Let's face it: they're good, and all radio shows should program the Chelsea Curve. Yeah, even the talk radio shows, ideally in place of the talk. "Top It Up" is yet another rockin' pop triumph in the continuing saga of the Chelsea Curve, and we're gonna keep playing each new Chelsea Curve single for as long as they keep making them. So that "hate" thing is purely rhetorical. How could anyone hate--or even fail to flat-out adore--an act as rock-steadily compelling as the Chelsea Curve? Feel the love, and top it up.

JANILEIGH COHEN: The Blues Run The Game

As I mentioned last week, my wife and I have been watching the TV series This Is Us for the first time, obsessively catching up from the beginning. We're fascinated by the show's storytelling, but a side bonus of watching it has been our belated discovery of the song "The Blues Run The Game." I own the Simon and Garfunkel boxed set Old Friends, so I should have known the song from that resource, but we have no time for should-haves in this fast-paced world of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio. Brenda and I heard Jackson C. Frank's original 1965 version of "The Blues Run The Game" on one of the early episodes of This Is Us, and found it intriguing. And then we were fully captivated by the aching beauty of Janileigh Cohen's 2017 cover.

CIRCE LINK AND CHRISTIAN NESMITH: Satellite

The intrepid and irresistible duo of Circe Link and Christian Nesmith allowed us the use of their effervescent track "I'm On Your Side" for our compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4, and the song was our # 1 most-played cut in 2017. I told the story of how we first encountered Circe 'n' Christian back here, and Circe was a Featured Artist on the November 19th 2017 edition of TIRnRR as part of The Magnificent Six alongside the Jam, the Cocktail Slippers, the Easybeats, the Spinners, and the Clash. Guess it's safe to say we're on their side.

That devoted advocacy continues with their brand-new album Cosmologica. Now, a record that bills itself as progressive rock might not seem the ideal match for the bubblepunk rockin' pop likes of TIRnRR, but prog can also be pop if it wants to be pop. "Satellite" provides irrefutable evidence of that.

RADIO BIRDMAN: Aloha Steve And Danno

I purchased Radio Birdman's Radios Appear LP in '78 or maybe '79, when I was in college. The album included the great "Murder City Nights" and the group's cover of the 13th Floor Elevators' psych-punk classic "You're Gonna Miss Me," but I was most drawn to "Aloha Steve And Danno." I mean, I simply had to blast a loud 'n' fast song about TV's Hawaii Five-0, especially when the song incorporated breakneck bits of the original TV show's theme song. And I was particularly taken with the idea of yelling BOOK 'IM DANNO! MURDER ONE! along with my Birdman boys as their record played on the turntable in my dorm room.

Like (I think) most Americans of my era, I had been a fan of Hawaii Five-0 throughout the early and mid '70s, though my interest had dimmed by the time I bought Radios Appear. My lawyer says I don't have to accept blame for the show's cancellation in 1980. When CBS rebooted the series in 2010, my interest was rekindled, and I watched its first few seasons (before that interest dimmed again). As a side note, I thought it was interesting that the reboot did a gender recast of the role of Kono, originally played the late actor Zulu, and then played in this shiny 21st century by actress Grace Park.

No offense to Zulu, but yeah: upgrade. BOOK 'IM DANNO! MURDER ONE...!

THE SHANG HI LOS: Plymouth Rock

Face front, pilgrim. Boston's phenomenal pop combo (and TIRnRR Fave Raves) the Shang Hi Los return to stuff your bird with an invigmoratin' new single. You'd better be thankful!

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: Radio Nowhere

My favorite Bruce Springsteen album is his 2007 work Magic. This choice may seem deliberately iconoclastic, or even mere clickbait, but I come in peace. I respect Springsteen and his accomplishments, and I certainly don't dislike (most of) his records. But nor do I share the passion for the Boss that many of my peers feel. Dig what you dig.

On the other hand, much of Magic has a shimmery and confident pop essence I don't hear in other Springsteen albums. I think I read somewhere that Springsteen had been listening to the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds when he was making Magic, and if that's not true, it should be. Magic includes "Girls In Their Summer Clothes," which is not only far and away my all-time top Springsteen track, it's also The Greatest Record Ever Made! 

Credit longtime TIRnRR pal Dave Murray for introducing me to this album (even though he thinks I'm nuts for preferring Magic to, say, Born To Run or The Wild, The Innocent And The E Street Shuffle). And that introduction began with the album's first single, "Radio Nowhere." Is there anybody alive out there? Ethereal and, yes, magic. Your magic may vary. Me? I just wanna hear some rhythm. Radio can be magic that way.

SPYGENIUS: Queen Of Eyes

I'm not sure how or why, but I think I completely missed the music of the Soft Boys when the late '70s and early '80s were still, y'know, actually happening all around me. The group's 1980 album Underwater Moonlight woulda been a prime candidate for one of my favorite records of that whole decade, if only I'd heard it at the time. Oh, woe is me!

But I caught up with Underwater Moonlight in my own time, first with the astounding "I Wanna Destroy You" and then with the album itself, particularly the title track and "Queen Of Eyes."

Now, UK believers Spygenius pay tribute with an ace rendition of "Queen Of Eyes" as the first single from their new Big Stir Records covers album Spygenius Blow Their Covers. The album deserves special recognition for a visionary medley combining Traffic's "Paper Sun" with the Monkees' "Love Is Only Sleeping," and deep dives into the Squeeze, Gene Clark, Buffalo Springfield, and Cilla Black catalogs (among others) demonstrate that Spygenius do not blow their covers. Nope, not at all. 

THE WELL WISHERS: Let's Drive

We opened this week's radio extravaganza with "Let's Drive" by the Well Wishers, a track from the WWs' new digital collection Spare Parts. The Well Wishers are, were, was, and am Jeff Shelton, whose reliable pop sounds have been heard here under his various noms du bop (from Spinning Jennies through Hot Nun and Deadlights, and all points sideways) since we started this TIRnRR thing more'n twenty years ago. My all-time favorite Shelton work is the Well Wishers' "See For The First Time," and there've been a ton of other superb Shelton sides over the decades. "Let's Drive" is among his best.

And its title suggests a link with my favorite place to hear music. Here's a section about that from a book I've been writing:

"I listen to music while I'm driving. The car is my favorite place to listen to music; it's also frequently almost my only place to listen to music, but it's not merely my favorite by default. As a former pop journalist, I should try to propagate an image of sophistication and deliberation, retiring to my study, brandy in hand, intent on contemplating the splendor of a virgin vinyl Pet Sounds played through a 5.1 surround stereo system that cost more than I made in twenty years of freelancing for Goldmine. And...no. To be fair, there are decent meals that cost more than I made freelancing for Goldmine, but that's irrelevant. Pop music was meant to be listened to on cheap speakers, loud and distorted, as you're movin' down the highway at 500 miles an hour. 

"(This example is intended as hyperbole. Always obey posted speed limits, even when the Ramones are on.)...

"...Still: music in the car. Irreplaceable. Windows down (or air conditioner up) in the summer, snow tires barreling forward in the winter, the music turned up LOUD. It's a solitary experience, a communion; it's not quite the same when there's a passenger. When the Monkees released the digital single "She Makes Me Laugh," the first tease from the 2016 album Good Times!, I was disappointed with it...until I listened to it in the car. Then I got it, and I loved it. Pop music is made for the car. Driving in nearly any weather, give me my tunes, and I'll get there. The wind, the rain, the sun, and the snow are no match for the power of my music. Sunglasses on. Car stereo on. Let's go."

Yeah, let's go. The Well Wishers have a soundtrack for us to begin the trek.

THE RAMONES: Do You Wanna Dance

Well...do you? If so, you've come to the right place.

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: 11/4/2021

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

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1101.

DOLPH CHANEY: This Halloween

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

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

BARON DAEMON AND THE VAMPIRES: The Transylvania Twist

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

SCREAMIN' JAY HAWKINS: I Put A Spell On You

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

THE COCKTAIL SLIPPERS: Hush

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

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

LEE HARRINGTON AND LYNDA MANDOLIN: Sweet Child

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

KID GULLIVER: You'll Never Know

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

THE MONKEES: Love To Love

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

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

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

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

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

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

QUINT: Good Morning London

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

MILLIE SMALL: Killer Joe

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

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

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

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

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

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

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.