10 SONGS (plus one): 6/27/2026

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

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1342

VICKI PETERSON AND JOHN COWSILL: Sound On Sound

I wrote this as part of the playlist commentary for our June 7th show:

"December of this year will mark the 50th anniversary of my first live rock 'n' roll show. I've seen a bunch of other shows since then, and I hope to see many more. On Thursday night [June 4th], Dana and I had the wonderful experience of witnessing Vicki Peterson and John Cowsill in concert at a local high school. It was, in fact, a high school production, with opening mini-sets by two teen bands and one faculty band, preceded by a solo set by the lead singer of one of the teen bands.

"Sound dire? No. It was amazing. Joyous. Life-affirming. Young bands the Killer Pancakes and Clockwork (and Clockwork singer Isabella Destito) displayed talent, poise, and accomplishment, rippin' through an assortment of covers and--wait for it!--ORIGINALS that delighted the enthusiastic crowd. Faculty band After School Special likewise delivered, and John Cowsill hisself joined them onstage for a cover of Tommy Tutone's '867-5309/Jenny,' recreating his own backing vocals from the original hit record. At the very end of the show, the kids joined Vicki and John for irresistible renditions of the Bangles' 'Manic Monday' and 'Walk Like An Egyptian.' Gooseflesh.

"In between all of that, Vicki Peterson and John Cowsill mesmerized the crowd with a sublime performance. The bulk of their set was drawn from their wonderful 2025 album Long After The Fire, which presented the duo's renditions of songs written by John's late brothers Bill Cowsill and Barry Cowsill; the material was just as riveting in live performance as it is on record. The pair dipped twice into the familiar catalogues of their respective rockin' pop alma maters--the Bangles' 'In A Different Light' and the Cowsills' 'Hair'--and the cumulative effect was just...just beyond. Transcendent. I can't convey in words how happy I was to be there...."

In the immediate aftermath of the live show, it felt imperative for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio to program a spotlight on Vicki and John as Featured Performers. Hey! We should do that THIS week! 

And we did, filling half of this week's playlist with tracks that include Vicki and/or John, together or separately, operating within a variety of rockin' pop dbas. And we kicked things off with my favorite track from Long After The Fire, a Barry Cowsill composition called "Sound On Sound." Sound on sound? A worthy goal, and a promise kept. We'll hear "Sound On Sound" again on our next show.

THE BEACH BOYS: Beaches In Mind

John Cowsill was a touring member of the Beach Boys from 2000 to 2023. When original Beach Boys Brian Wilson and Al Jardine briefly rejoined that other guy for the 50th anniversary reunion album That's Why God Made The Radio in 2012, John played drums on two tracks, "The Private Life Of Bill And Sue" and "Beaches In Mind," and we included the latter in this week's tribute show. 

CONTINENTAL DRIFTERS: The Rain Song

Over the course of several records and varying line-ups, Continental Drifters established themselves as indie favorites in the 1990s and early '00s, and the 2024 compilation White Noise & Lightning: The Best Of Continental Drifters is as essential as essential can be. Which is pretty essential. Vicki Peterson and her eventual sister-in-law Susan Cowsill were among this distinguished legion of Drifters, and the group's 1998 album Vermillion included this lovely, wistful gem called "The Rain Song." Written by Susan and Vicki, "The Rain Song" was subsequently redone by Vicki for the Bangles' 2003 album Doll Revolution, and the Bangles' version was my introduction to the song. Both versions are superb.

VICKI AND DEBBIE PETERSON: I Wanna Be With You

From our friend Ken Sharp's fabulous 2025 compilation Play On: A Raspberries Tribute, we have Vicki joining forces with her sister (and fellow Bangle) Debbie Peterson to cover the 1972 hit record that hooked me on the power pop sound of the Raspberries. Vicki and Debbie Peterson covering Raspberries? I wanna be with that.

TOMMY TUTONE: 867-5309/Jenny

From a previous 10 Songs:

"A little Byrdsy, a little Stonesy, a little Tommy Tutonesy. See, this is why Hallmark refuses to hire me. Bastards. 

"But I digress: great song, then and now. And it came up during a recent vacation, when I discovered that my hotel's WiFi password was 8675309. Jenny could not be reached for comment. But I bet she woulda been pissed."

At some point, I probably/possibly/maybe? knew that John Cowsill sang backing vocals on Tommy Tutone's original hit recording of this song, but I had completely forgotten that fact prior to After School Special sayin' so on stage during their set opening for Vicki and John on June 4th. And I certainly shouldn't have been surprised when John bounced on stage to join After School Special in their rendition of sumpin' a little Byrdsy, a little Stonesy, a little Tommy Tutonesy. 

But I was surprised. And thrilled! They got my number, all right. They didn't know me, but it made me so happy.

SUSAN COWSILL: River Of Love

My God. This is heartbreaking...but magnificent.

"River Of Love" was written and first recorded by Barry Cowsill, who lost his life in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The sadness attached to this real-life context makes the song's tale of goodbye even more devastating. In the version recorded by Susan Cowsill (for her 2010 album Lighthouse), the effect is no less haunting, yet somehow its own sense of loss and sorrow finds comfort in beauty, love, and determination.

It also secures strength in family. All of the other surviving members of the Cowsills--John, Bob, and Paul, plus Vicki Peterson Cowsill--sing behind Susan's lead vocal, and Susan plays her late brother Barry's guitar on the track, as well. 

Another day goes rolling through my heart

As if it was another empty cup

And though I’ve wandered through these fields I’ve known before

I will never give up ‘til I see you again

I may never give up at all

And so I will take my precious time to hang around

And I’ll count the beats of my heart one by one

And even if it’s just some silly game I’m playing

Deep down I know it isn’t just for fun

‘Cause when there’s a will then there’s a way

And if I have to kneel and pray

Then I’ll kneel here and pray away

A family band. Family will endure. We'll meet again on the other side.

"River Of Love" written by Barry Cowsill, Bug Music BMI

THE BANGLES: Live

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE BANGS: Getting Out Of Hand

The Bangles' Ground Zero. In 1981, the group was still called the Bangs when they released their first single, "Getting Out Of Hand"/"Call On Me." The A-side was written by Vicki Peterson, with lead vocal by fellow Bang/Bangle Susanna Hoffs. Following a name change, things would start getting out of hand in due time. The Bangles' legend starts here.

THE SMITHEREENS: Now And Then

The Cowsills sang back-up on "Now And Then," a track by Carteret, New Jersey's phenomenal pop combo the Smithereens. "Now And Then" appeared on 1991's Blow Up, the Smithereens' fourth album, the first album following their commercial breakthrough with the 1989 album 11 ("Smithereens 11" coined as a play on the title of the Rat Pack film Ocean's Eleven).

At this point, the Smithereens were running up respectable numbers at retail, and the Cowsills had recently regrouped with an intention to record new material. The 'Reens were fans, and believed they could help the Cowsills score a record deal.

It was not to be. Smithereens guitarist Jim Babjak told me of his frustration with this situation ("...This was at a time when we were selling hundreds of thousands of records. I thought I had a little more clout."). Unable to sign with a label, the Cowsills wound up self-releasing their album Global in 1998.

Global is my favorite album of the 1990s. Major labels are swine.

THE COWSILLS: She Said To Me

ALSO The Greatest Record Ever Made! 

*BONUS TRACK!*

VICKI PETERSON WITH JOHN COWSILL AND JONNY POLONSKY: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

On this show, we play the Ramones just about every week. The American Beatles! The greatest American rock 'n' roll band of all time! Alas, this week's wham-packed playlist did not allow time for even the concise brilliance of da brudders--the Ramones-Paley Brothers collaboration covering the Ritchie Valens classic "Come On Let's Go" was The Last Track Out--but we did carve out a slot for our Featured Performers Vicki and John (with Jonny Polonsky) covering the Ramones. And not covering just any Ramones song; the Ramones' "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" is the literal record that changed my life, and I do not get to my own history as writer or DJ without the specific impact that 1977 45 rpm single had on seventeen-year-old me. It is such an absolute kick to close our celebration of the magic of Vicki Peterson and John Cowsill with this particular blast of pure Carbona-fueled pop. Vicki and John really have it all. Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh YEAH! 

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THE EVERLASTING FIRST: Quick Takes For T [music edition]

Continuing a look back at my first exposure to a number of rock 'n' roll acts and superheroes (or other denizens of print or periodical publication), some of which were passing fancies, and some of which I went on to kinda like. They say you never forget your first time; that may be true, but it's the subsequent visits--the second time, the fourth time, the twentieth time, the hundredth time--that define our relationships with the things we cherish. Ultimately, the first meeting is less important than what comes after that. But every story still needs to begin with that first kiss.

TELEVISION

So many of the stories of my immersion in pop music begin with things I read, particularly with things I read in rock 'n' roll magazines. The tabloid Phonograph Record Magazine had a seismic effect on me, introducing me to an interest in punk rock. This was the spring of 1977, my final semester as a high school student, and before I'd managed to actually hear (or have any interest in) this broad category of punk music. I read Patti Smith's Penthouse interview in 1976, and I saw a sensationalist news report about the Sex Pistols in late '76/early '77. But it was PRM that really impacted me.

A New York City band called Television was among the many acts I first encountered vicariously, in the pages of Phonograph Record Magazine. The list of artists introduced to me via PRM also includes the Ramones, Blondie, Elvis Costello, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the Damned, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Chris Spedding and the Vibrators, the Dictators, Milk 'N' Cookies, and more. I don't even remember what the writers at PRM said about Television; I only know that I was desperate, desperate to hear them and all of these other groups. Patti Smith was initially a disappointment to me when I first heard/saw her on The Mike Douglas Show, whereas the Sex Pistols thrilled me when WOUR-FM played "God Save The Queen" in the summer of '77. I had to wait until the start of college at the end of that summer to hear some of the other acts that PRM recommended to me.

At school at the State University College at Brockport, I pestered jocks at campus station WBSU to play this stuff for me. Sometimes they refused, sometimes they complied. WBSU gave me my first listen of Television, with a spin (and several requested spins thereafter) of a track from Television's then-recent debut album, Marquee Moon. That track was called "Elevation."

Oh. My. GOD...!!

That was enough to get me to buy Marquee Moon at The Record Grove in Brockport. The rest of the album was also great, but I was well and truly mesmerized by "Elevation," then and now. Here's a bit of what I've written about the song for a tentative spot in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

"Vertigo.

"For the disaffected and dissatisfied in 1977, no track expressed the feeling of rock music in dizzying free fall with greater menace and implied ennui as 'Elevation' by Television. 

"A large part of growing up manifests in staking one's own claim on fresh vistas. We don't necessarily crave a complete break from the past, from the frontiers settled by older siblings or preceding generations. But we want some real estate to call our own...

"...I could never get enough of this jagged, loping, serpentine noise, so mesmerizing, so different, so gratifyingly dizzying in its willful application of elevation going to my head. And staying there. Marquee Moon was among my earliest LP purchases in this broad category of NEW MUSIC circa '77 and '78. It would not be the last. 

"Oh, no. Not even close to the last."

THE TEMPTATIONS

Like the rock reads mentioned above, radio had an enormous influence on my development as a pop fan. Throughout most of the '70s, from roughly '70-'71 or so through leaving home for college in 1977, I listened to the radio nearly every night. Radio is such an ingrained component of everything I am that I can't possibly separate it. Radio gave me everything. Fine, TV gave me the Monkees, and flexi-discs in Trouser Press magazine gave me R.E.M. and Fools Face. I'm very grateful for that. But radio is where I first heard the Beatles, Badfinger, Gladys Knight and the Pips, KISS, Graham Parker, the Raspberries, Johnny Nash, Chuck Berry, the Isley Brothers, Alice Cooper, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Yardbirds, the Who, the Flamin' Groovies, the Hoodoo Gurus, Run-DMC, the Jackson Five, Dusty Springfield, Linda Ronstadt, the Spinners, the Four Tops, Sweet, and...and...

...you get the idea.

Radio also gave me the Temptations. I'm old enough to remember the Temps' legendary '60s sides, but I don't recall them contemporaneously; I came to them all well after the fact. It's especially weird that I don't remember their ubiquitous 1965 smash "My Girl," but the memory does what the memory does, even when it's a Motown memory.

I think I kinda sorta knew the Temptations prior to 1972, in the sense that I sorta kinda knew there was a soul group called the Temptations. I think. But in '72, "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" was the Temps' first hit record released within my prime AM radio era, when my ears were all but superglued to Syracuse's WOLF-AM and WNDR-AM. Maybe I heard the Temptations before "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone," but this was the first time I noticed them.

Once again, we turn to The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1):

"In 'Papa Was A Rollin' Stone,' Papa is every familiar stereotype of shiftless, shifty, amoral grifter made real, the roguish charm he presumably had in life dissipated in death, leaving the palpable pain in the voices of the Temptations as his resigned and unsympathetic eulogy. They mourn him nonetheless.

"On Syracuse's WOLF-AM, where I first heard this compelling diatribe in all its beaten and defiant glory, there was a Sunday night public affairs program called The Black Experience. I think it was a local program, though it may have been syndicated for all I knew. I usually switched the station over to rival WNDR on Sunday nights; I was a suburban white kid, and not remotely part of the show's target audience (and besides, if I was gonna listen to talk radio, I'd try to find a rebroadcast of a 1930s episode of The Shadow or The Green Hornet on public radio instead). What little I thought I might understand of the black experience was conveyed through pop culture, through my peripheral awareness of blaxploitation flicks like Shaft and  Superfly, perception through a fisheye lens. 

"In my sheltered environment, the Temptations' "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" felt genuine. Vocals by Dennis Edwards, Melvin Franklin, Richard Street, and Damon Harris convey dismay, disappointment, and reluctant acceptance in paradoxically equal measure. The controlled funk of the musical underpinning conjures emotional and economic desolation, possessed with a will to shrug it all off as if the artists are too cool to succumb to the big, bad world. I thought Damon Harris's falsetto lines were performed by a female singer, and I also thought that all Papa left his poor abandoned family was a loan, but even in my cluelessness I recognized the song's power, its disillusionment, its ache, its fury. Its sense of irreparable loss. The Temptations told a story. I listened. And I thought maybe--maybe--I understood. It was a sad story. I wished it could have a happy ending...."

TOMMY TUTONE

Jenny, I got your number/I'm gonna make you mine....

No, not that song. Before we all heard all about getting Jenny's number, my introduction to the music of Tommy Tutone was delivered by Breaking The Rules, a 1980 2-LP loss-leader sampler that included the band's song "Cheap Date." I confess I was more taken with Breaking The Rules tracks by Elvis Costello ("Tiny Steps"), Rachel Sweet ("I've Got A Reason" and her cover of the Velvet Underground's "New Age"), the Joe Perry Project ("Let The Music Do The Talking"), Rockpile ("Wrong Again [Let's Face It]"), and especially Quincy's "Critics' Choice" and "Turn The Other Way Around." There was also the Beat's "Don't Wait Up For Me," plus the Boomtown Rats' "I Don't Like Mondays," but I already owned those tracks prior to buying Breaking The Rules at Brockport's Main Street Records.

So my first exposure to Tommy Tutone didn't make much of an impression, nor did the track "Which Man Are You," which opened a 1981 loss-leader set called Exposed II: A Cheap Peek At Today's Provocative New Rock. Exposed II also repeated "Cheap Date" from Breaking The Rules, but I was too busy playing Holly and the Italians' "Tell That Girl To Shut Up" and the Psychedelic Furs' "Pretty In Pink" over and over to care about the Tutone tracks.

But yeah, 1982's "867-5309/Jenny" blew me away. Just like it did everyone else. I bought the 45, the only stand-alone Tommy Tutone record I've ever owned. I recall hearing 1983's "Get Around Girl" a few times on the radio, but Tommy Tutone remain pretty much a one-hit wonder for me. A deeper dive into their catalog may be in order, just to see if any other numbers might also be worth getting.

THE TROGGS

Yes, that song. Wild thing, you make my heart sing. But the Troggs' 1966 smash recording of "Wild Thing" wasn't my introduction to the song, at least not my conscious introduction to it. I mean, I must have heard those Troggs warblin' on the radio about where the wild things are (and what the wild things do) at some point in the '60s, but I didn't really notice. I may have also heard "Love Is All Around," but it likewise would have been background music rather than something that made me feel it in my fingers and feel it in my toes.

So when an act called Fancy had an AM radio hit with their version of "Wild Thing" in 1974, it was a new song as far I was aware. I didn't remember the Troggs, and I'd certainly never heard the Wild Ones' forgotten original 1965 "Wild Thing." I didn't particularly like Fancy's hit, except that I picked up some hint of pouty sexiness in the chick vocals, which did intrigue my teen hormones even if I didn't care about the record. I would have been more intrigued if I'd known that breathy lead singer Helen Caunt had posed for Penthouse magazine. Wild thing, I think you move me.

When did I discover the Troggs themselves? Memory is imprecise, but I'm sure it was part of my overall embrace of '60s music--especially British Invasion--as a teen in the mid '70s. My first Troggs acquisition was "With A Girl Like You" on the 2-LP The History Of British Rock Vol. 2, received for Christmas in 1976. That collection looms largest in my legend for giving me my first Kinks record ("All Day And All Of The Night"), but it also led to more Troggs. I grabbed used 45s of "Wild Thing," "Love Is All Around," and the incredible "I Can't Control Myself." 

My first Troggs LP was a cutout-bin purchase of their 1975 album The Troggs, which didn't carry quite the same frenzy as their '60s work. I eventually secured the Troggs' double-album best-of set The Vintage Years, and much, much later the Archeology 2-CD set. Oh, and the 1992 Athens Andover album, which found the Troggs working with members of R.E.M. Love is all around. Wild thing, I can't control myself. 

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10 SONGS: 9/16/2021

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

This week's edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the playlist for This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1094.

ALICE COOPER: Clones (We're All)

New wave Alice Cooper! Dunno if the mighty Alice could have really felt threatened by punk or new wave circa 1980; his essential place in rock history was already secure, but I guess we should concede that it might not have seemed so at the time. Whether an attempt to beat Gary Numan at his own game or just Alice being Alice, "Clones (We're All)" was a minor hit (# 40 in Billboard), following a string of middle-of-the-road pop single successes in the late '70s. Cooper could do shock, schmaltz, and electric friends riding in cars (and, later, hair metal, as in his '89 hit "Poison"), and he could do 'em all with style. His style. Alice Cooper was never anybody's clone.

BO DIDDLEY: Bo Diddley 1969

Bubblegum Bo Diddley! It's heresy that this chewy-chewy trifle is my favorite Bo Diddley track, but I am as the Bo Diddley beat made me. And let's be clear: "Bo Diddley 1969" isn't bubblegum just because of its songwriters' identities (bubblevets Bo Gentry and Ritchie Cordell) or that it was a Super K production, like records by the Ohio Express and the 1910 Fruitgum Company; it's bubblegum because it's friggin' bubblegum. And I'm okay with that. Hey baby, I'm back and I'm feelin' fine...!

THE EQUALS: Softly Softly

I have mixed feelings about this song. On the one hand, it's just insanely catchy, maybe the single most infectious track the Equals ever did. And the Equals did a lot of great tracks, including sole U.S. hit "Baby Come Back," the forgotten original of "Police On My Back," and a Bomp! magazine-approved power popper called "I Can See But You Don't Know." So...great!

But the song's lyrics bug me. "Softly Softly" concerns a guy who claims to love his girl Jenny, but he's in imminent danger of losing her because...uh, because she found out he was trying to cheat on her with a hinge-heeled girl named Lucy? My sympathy for this would-be Lothario is limited. Still a catchy song, but the jerk got what he deserved. And he didn't even kiss Lucy.

HARMONIC DIRT: Passport

Syracuse's fabulous folk-roots combo Harmonic Dirt was responsible for the song "Maybe," which was TIRnRR's most-played track in 2018. We've been playing "Blue Moon Atlas" from the group's most recent full-length album Rhode Island Street, and now they also have a brand-new EP called Blame The Horizon. "Passport" from that EP made its TIRnRR debut this week, and [SPOILER ALERT!] it will make a return appearance on next week's show. 

JUSTINE AND THE UNCLEAN: Vengeance

Every story starts somewhere. The Rum Bar Records single of "Vengeance" was our introduction to the music of Justine and the Unclean in 2020, a track which wasted no time in casting us in its eager thrall. We must obey the will of Justine. Justine's will must be obeyed. This led to more airplay for Justine and the Unclean and associated group Justine's Black Threads, which led us to Justine's involvement with WhistleStop Rock. More airplay. Simone Berk, lead singer on WhistleStop Rock's "Queen Of The Drive-In" single, became aware of us, and began sending music for us to play. Justine started her own Red On Red Records label. Airplay upon airplay. From this spontaneous, interconnected generation, we were able to stuff our playlists with music from Sugar Snow, Kid Gulliver, the Chelsea Curve, Andrea Gillis, the Jacklights, Linnea's Garden, Cold Expectations, Nightspell, Quest For Tuna, and this coming Sunday night's spin of the new single by the Daylilies.

This elements of this story all started with "Vengeance." And it's a happier story than you might think vengeance would bring. Thank you, Justine!

BILL LLOYD: Satellite

The mighty Big Stir Records has partnered with SpyderPop Records to bring some renewed retail focus to some SpyderPop releases that didn't get the attention they deserved on their first go-around. These include Bill Lloyd's lovely 2018 album Working The Long Game, represented here by the ace single "Satellite." The Big Stir-SpyderPop alliance also features stellar work from TIRnRR Fave Raves Danny Wilkerson and Lannie Flowers. And we're gonna play 'em all. It's a crusade, man. We all gotta do our part.

RUMBLE STRIP: Adam West

Rumble Strip is a collaboration between Dave Nachmanoff and TIRnRR's old friend Richard Rossi, servin' up a new five-song EP called Let's Roll. The partnership grew out of For The Record, the simply fantastic John Wicks tribute album that Richard curated last year. Awright, given that genesis, we're fans already. And it certainly doesn't hurt that the EP's single is named after the star of the Batman TV series (prompting me to shout HOLY ARBITRONS! when we played it on Sunday's TIRnRR). 

As cool as "Adam West" is, though, Let's Roll's amiable Americana vibe thrives on more than mere novelty. It may not even be my favorite song on the record, but we'll investigate the matter over the course of further Bat-times at this Bat-channel. With or without a Caped Crusader on hand, Richard's words and Dave's music meet in that no-frills friendly diner off the interstate, music for that moment when the waitress smiles at you as she pours your cup o' coffee. I...yes, I think I will have another cup of coffee, thanks, and another piece of pie. Rumble Strip's on the jukebox. All is right with the world.

TOMMY TUTONE: 857-5309/Jenny

A little Byrdsy, a little Stonesy, a little Tommy Tutonesy. See, this is why Hallmark refuses to hire me. Bastards. 

But I digress: great song, then and now. And it came up during a recent vacation, when I discovered that my hotel's WiFi password was 8675309. Jenny could not be reached for comment. But I bet she woulda been pissed.

VELOCITY GIRL: I Can't Stop Smiling

My first exposure to this song (and to Velocity Girl in general) came when Rhino Records hired me to write liner notes for the 1997 compilation Poptopia! Power Pop Classics Of The '90s. The good folks at Rhino sent me the tracks, and I had sufficient hubris to suggest (in vain) that Velocity Girl shouldn't be on the comp, because this certainly isn't power pop in any way, shape, or form. 

Which doesn't mean I don't like song; I do like it, and I played it on the radio this week, even if I still don't think it fits into any discussion of power pop. 

Ah, meaningless labels. What can ya do? Here's what I said about the song in those Poptopia! liners:

"On the more alternative side of pop, Velocity Girl offers a sound that Rolling Stone described as 'haunting yet hummable noise pop.' The group has done a whole passel o' records for Sub Pop, with 'I Can't Stop Smiling' coming to us from 1994's ¡Simpatico! It may not be power pop in the traditional Beatles/Who/Beach Boys/Big Star sense, but it sure is catchy nonetheless."

THE WELL WISHERS: Wonderful Life

I was at Denny's last week--no, I don't care what you think about that--and when I was settling the bill the server joked that my AARP discount represented something good about getting older. I smiled and said, "There's a lot of good about getting older. I saw BANDS...!"

And it's true. I saw the Ramones nine times. I saw the Kinks three times. I saw Prince, David Bowie, KISS, the Animals, the Everly Brothers, Ray Charles, Paul McCartney, the Pretenders, the Runaways, Iggy Pop, the Rolling Stones, Tina Turner, the Replacements, the Fleshtones, the Beach Boys, the Georgia Satellites, the Smithereens, the Monkees, the Searchers, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Ian Hunter, Joe Jackson, Talking Heads, the Clash, Cheap Trick, the Saints, 999, Culture Club, the dB's, the Bangles, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Wang Chung, Regis Philbin, and...it's a long list. (Wait...Regis Philbin?! And Wang Chung?) And it doesn't even get to the records I heard, the comic books I read, the movies I saw, the books I wrapped all around me. The friends. The meals!  The love of my life, and the daughter we cherish. I'm okay with being middle-aged. I have health; I don't have as much hair as I wish, sure, but it's been a wonderful life so far.

"Wonderful Life" is also the title of the latest single from the reliable pen of Jeff Shelton and his jangly band the Well Wishers. Sales of the digital single benefit the California Community Foundation's Wildfire Relief Fund, helping families displaced by the devastation of wildfires. Wonderful song, wonderful cause. Pop music doing good in the real world. Folks of any age should appreciate the wonder of that.

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

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

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

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.