10 SONGS: 12/8/2022

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 # 1158. This show is available as a podcast.

GARY FRENAY: Just Like Me

I'm approaching the 45th anniversary of my first Flashcubes show. That took place on January 28th, 1978, just over two months after a 45 of the Ramones' "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" became the record that changed my life. Becoming a Flashcubes fan was as seismic as becoming Ramones fan, which was as seismic as becoming a Beatles fan. The Beatles, the Ramones, and the Flashcubes. My rockin' pop Trinity.

When the Flashcubes split at the end of the '70s, I became an avid fan of both of the separate acts that emerged: 1.4.5. with guitarist Paul Armstrong, and Screen Test with guitarist Arty Lenin, bassist Gary Frenay, and drummer Tommy Allen. 

"Just Like Me" was originally an unreleased Screen Test track from the '80s, and I've cherished the song for decades. This year, a new recording of "Just Like Me" made its CD debut on our compilation album This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 5. Billed as a Gary Frenay track, Gary enlisted Arty and Tommy to help him out, along with Nick Frenay and Fernando Perdomo. Cubic convergence! Ain't that just like me?

THE SPONGETONES: Got Nothing Left To Hide

News that North Carolina's phenomenal pop combo the Spongetones have scheduled a show on March 25th, 2023 at Smokey Joe's in Charlotte, NC gives us an excuse to play the Spongetones on TIRnRR. We...don't need an excuse to play the Spongetones on TIRnRR. But we'll take it! Wish we could see them play at Smokey Joe's, but Charlotte would be a really pricey Lyft ride from Syracuse. HOWEVER! If you're in the Charlotte area on 3/25/2023, we urge you to go see the Spongetones on behalf of those who can't.

No excuses.

VERDELLE SMITH: Life Goes On

The Greatest Record Ever Made!

THE FLASHCUBES FEATURING RANDY KLAWON: Get The Message

Back to the Trinity, and the Flashcubes' current single with Randy Klawon, "Get The Message."  And get this message: A world with a continuing supply of new Flashcubes tracks is a better world. Don't backtalk a member of the Trinity.

THE RAMONES: Touring

The Trinity continues! Drive, drive, drive the night away, straight on through to the break of day. The Ramones remain my American Beatles. I could write a book about 'em. When it's in your blood, it's in your blood. 

THE CYNZ: Narrow Hips
THE BEATLES: I'll Cry Instead

Awright, once more with the Trinity, this time accompanied by the Cynz. We've been playing the Cynz' new single "Narrow Hips" for a few weeks, because we dig playing cool stuff. Reading the hype for our previous week's show, Cynz lead singer Cyndi Dawson was thrilled to see her band promised alongside music from the Beatles. This week, we figured we'd go one better and play the Cynz and the Beatles back-to-back. So yeah (yeah yeah): on TIRnRR, the Cynz just opened for the Beatles. 

We aims t'please, we do. Pretty fab. Encore!

THE MUFFS: Sad Tomorrow

The late, great Kim Shattuck's firecracker amiability shined through in everything she did. In my recent Greatest Record Ever Made! piece about the Muffs' "Saying Goodbye," I described her irresistible performance in the video for Derrick Anderson's "When I Was Your Man" as "a bundle of goofy, guileless energy, a nerd and a rock star at the same time, naturally, unconsciously, absolutely. She's not exactly one of us, but she understands us."

Dana thought that description of Shattuck was even more suited to her appearance in the video for the Muffs' own "Sad Tomorrow." Here's Derrick's video, and here's the Muffs' "Sad Tomorrow" video. I say we're both right. Kim Shattuck was something special, man.

THE MONKEES: You Told Me

Up top, I mentioned the Beatles, Ramones, and Flashcubes as my toppermost of the poppermost. The Monkees have been of nearly equal importance. My favorite Monkees album is Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd., but their preceding LP Headquarters is where the made-for-TV band became a real studio band. That fact gives Headquarters a deservedly special in the hearts of Monkees fans. My first copy of Headquarters was a flea-market find circa 1975-76, snapped up at the same time I acquired my first copy of The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees. 

Headquarters is Dana's favorite Monkees album, and it's just been reissued in a four-disc (plus one 45) super-deluxe edition. I already own the three-disc Headquarters Sessions from 2000, but there was no way I was gonna pass on adding this new set to my collection. The package includes Andrew Sandoval's new stereo remix of the album; from the remix, Dana picked the stunning new version of Michael Nesmith's album-opener "You Told Me" for airplay this week, and I look forward to diving into the rest of this super-deluxe treat as soon as possible.

(Y'know, I haven't yet gotten around to purchasing any of the Beatles' deluxe repackages; I've purchased almost all of the Monkees' archive dives. My Trinity's secure, but maybe I should expand it to a Quaternity. Hey, hey.)

FLEETWOOD MAC: Over My Head

"This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio remembers Christine McVie."

That is not a phrase I ever imagined saying on the radio. News of McVie's passing broke last Tuesday, after we had already recorded this week's show. A quick edit placed Fleetwood Mac's "Over My Head" at show's end, acknowledging the loss of an essential performer, someone we never thought we'd have to mourn. 

1975's "Over My Head" was my introduction to McVie, delivered via WOLF-AM in Syracuse. It wasn't the first time I heard Fleetwood Mac; 1969's "Oh Well" scored some airplay at the dawn of the decade, but I wasn't aware of who sang it (so don't ask me what I think of you, I might not give the answer that you want me to). A kid on my bus in middle school had a Fleetwood Mac album, but I didn't attach the group's name to a sound until I heard Christine McVie declare she was over her head. And it sure felt nice.

The song even turned up in an issue of the Marvel comic book Master Of Kung Fu

In 1977, as I completed my senior year in high school and entered college in the fall, the music I listened to was the crucible that forged my tastes in rockin' pop. I had just discovered the splendor of the Kinks. I heard the Sex Pistols, Blondie, Television. The Ramones. January of '78 brought me to the Flashcubes.

And Rumours was still one of my favorite albums. 

There's a line in the introduction to my forthcoming book that attaches a "Believe it or not" to the statement about Rumours being one of my Fave Raves in '77. I guess that could be read as some sort of guilty-pleasure dismissal of Fleetwood Mac's music, but that wasn't my intent and I absolutely disavow any such stupid notion. I won't claim to be one of the world's biggest Fleetwood Mac fans, but there was never a time when I didn't like them. I felt no dichotomy in digging both "Go Your Own Way" and "Blitzkrieg Bop" at the same time. It's all pop music. It remains part of who I am, and proudly so. Over my head? It sure feels nice.

Christine McVie's passing makes me sad. I did not envision that we'd ever have to bid her farewell. Next week's show will open with my favorite Christine McVie Mac track. This week's show closed with my introduction to the singer formerly called Christine Perfect. Perfect name for her. 

Perfect.

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.

THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE: Life Goes On

Drawn from two previously-published posts, this is a tentative addition to my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1).

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!

VERDELLE SMITH: Life Goes On

Written by Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss

Produced by Lee Pockriss and Paul Vance

Single [B-side of "Juanito"], Columbia Records, 1965

The original post has been unpublished for bookkeeping purposes. It can be seen as a chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1)

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: 2/17/2022

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 # 1116.

THE FLASHCUBES FEATURING SHOES: Tomorrow Night

Yes, I already devoted the entirety of this week's playlist rant to the epic new power pop summit meeting between the Flashcubes and Shoes, performing a fresh rendition of the latter's late '70s gem "Tomorrow Night." It deserves MORE hype! This new "Tomorrow Night" opened Sunday night's show, and as the show ended and TIRnRR's Witching Hour encore broadcast began, wise 'n' wonderful TIRnRR listener Mike Browning commented, "I'm staying to hear the Flashcubes and Shoes again." Mike, you are a smart man. (And, of course, a talented recording artist your own self.)

The Flashcubes have been on a tear, with an archival 1979 live show being prepared for release, and a string of new recordings of power pop classics. The string began last year, with Cubic workouts of Pezband's "Baby It's Cold Outside" (recorded with Pezband's Mimi Betinis) and the Dwight Twilley Band's "Alone In My Room." The same string has continued into 2022, with the 'Cubes cover of the Posies' "Flavor Of The Month," and now this shiny collaboration with Shoes. We're told that more is on the way, including another power pop summit meeting with another legendary power pop combo. How can we wait? We will wait gladly, because it's gonna be worth the wait. 

ALLAN KAPLON: Notes On A Napkin

My lovely wife Brenda keeps reminding me to stop selling myself short. This admonition may surprise those who hear or read my humility-challenged ranting and bravado. It applies anyway. I contain multitudes. Some of those multitudes have thinner skin than others.

There is an ongoing validation in the connection we make. When people express approval of whatever the hell it is that we do, when listeners respond to our efforts, when artists are delighted or grateful because we programmed one or more of their little ditties, it...well, it means the world to us. In a world of insults and disdain, it feels nice to matter.

I think we matter to singer-songwriter Allan Kaplon. Allan seems genuinely gratified when we play his music, but he also seems engaged and pleased when we can remind him of music by artists he already loves, and when we can introduce him (or sometimes re-introduce him) to artists he may come to love. Connection. Where would we be without connection?

That said, we have a radio show to put on. No matter how much we like Allan on a personal level, we wouldn't be able to play him on the show if we thought his work didn't meet our (admittedly mutant) standards. HA! No worries there! As a previous 10 Songs noted on its own napkin: "Some time back, our friend and listener Allan Kaplon sent us a track called 'Flesh And Blood,' recorded under the dba the Non Prophets. We dug it, and we played it on the radio. Now, Allen's recording under his own name, and his album Notes On A Napkin intrigues and delights. Jamie Hoover of the Spongetones produced six of the album's 11 tracks, Jamie's fellow Spongetone Steve Stoeckel pops up on one of those six, and Elena Rogers chips in some exquisite backing vocals. That Kaplon lad's pretty good, too." 

The title tune from Notes From A Napkin has TIRnRR written all over it, with the guitars lending sheen to the weathered soul singing his pop songs like a match struck in the darkness. Glad to have you with us, Allan. And thanks for being there.

THE BANDWAGON: People Got To Be Free

One of the many, many tracks I considered deifying in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) was the Young Rascals' triumphant 1965 cover of the Olympics' "Good Lovin'." But I only managed to write one introductory paragraph before moving on to other songs:

"Little Steven says garage rock is 'white kids trying to play black rhythm and blues and failing--gloriously.' Fair enough. So what do we call it when a white group tries to play soul music, and succeeds? We could call that the Young Rascals."

Turnabout being fair play, here's an example of a soul group covering the Rascals. The Bandwagon, also billed later on as Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon and Johnny Johnson and his Bandwagon, were an American group in the late '60s and early '70s, but they never got much traction here in the good ol' U.S. of A. They enjoyed some success in England, and they recorded a ton of really great sides, from covers of Bob Dylan, the Monkees, and the Four Seasons to Bandwagon stalwarts like "Breakin' Down The Walls Of Heartache" (which is celebrated in my GREM! book) and the bubblesoul classic "(Blame It) On The Pony Express."

The Bandwagon's version of the Rascals' "People Got To Be Free" is part of the group's underappreciated brilliance. Is it even better than the Rascals' original? I'm gonna say it is. 

THE AVENGERS: We Are The One

"We Are The One" is a fantastic slice of 1977 San Francisco punk, and it was also considered for inclusion in The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). It's not in the current plan, but this is what I started to write about the record:

"The Clash sang that anger could be power. Even before that line appeared in the Clash's London Calling album track 'Clampdown' in 1979, a San Francisco group called the Avengers was on stage at Winterland, opening for the Sex Pistols in that group's final appearance meltdown, and embodying the concept of cathartic fury. Anger. Power. Rock 'n' roll.

"I came to the Avengers' music well after the fact, and actually heard some of Avengers lead singer Penelope Houston's folkier solo work in the '90s--Houston's "Scratch" remains poised to strike at any shuffled moment on my iPod--long before I heard the anger and power of the Avengers. I think 'The American In Me' was my introduction, but 'We Are The One' is indeed The One. The Avengers recorded the song twice, both versions are aces, but I go with the earlier 45 version."

COKE BELDA: Renacerá

Oh, this is just fab. I don't think I'd even heard of the group Los Brincos until just over a week ago, but I'm informed they were Spain's answer to the Beatles in the swingin' '60s. Reliable rockin' pop guy Coke Belda has recorded new cover versions of a fistful of Los Brincos tunes for his own new album Coke Belda 6: A Tribute To Los Brincos. And it is indeed fab, muy fab. I've since sought out a few of the original versions, and I wish I'd heard them all years ago. But we can hear Coke Belda sing 'em right now. And you know that can't be bad!

CHEWY MARBLE: The Things You Do

The Flashcubes aren't the first group to cover a Shoes song. The earliest Shoes cover I recall at the moment was UK pop act Squire's 1984 rendition of "Boys Don't Lie"--it just so happens that we played Shoes' original version of that song on this week's show--and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that some other band's effort at Shoesmania predates Squire's Shoes cover.

And in 2001, pop journalist and noted good guy John M. Borack was at the helm for an entire album of Shoes covers, the right swell Shoe Fetish: A Tribute To Shoes. This tribute album looms large in TIRnRR's legend for introducing us to the splendor of astroPuppees, but the damned thing's also loaded with compelling efforts by the Spongetones, Matthew Sweet, Lolas, DM3, and I'm gonna stop now before I wind up naming all of the album's contributors, because they're all good. If I had to guess, I'd say Chewy Marbles' ace take on "The Things You Do" (Dana's favorite Shoes song) has scored the most individual burn of Shoe Fetish tracks on TIRnRR playlists.

Now: we need a Flashcubes tribute CD!

IRENE PEÑA: In This Room

I don't remember when it was that we started referring to singer-songwriter Irene Peña as America's Sweetheart. We did call her a sweetie in this 2017 piece, which chronicled our path to discovering the sweet wonder of Irene's music. However the billing manifested, it's an ongoing testimony to the prevailing vibrance of the Irene Peña sound. "In This Room" is one of the eleven tracks on Irene's 2011 debut album Nothing To Do With You, each of which was issued as an individual digital single last year. Now we need a physical reissue of the entire album, right? Yeah! That would be sweet.

VERDELLE SMITH: Life Goes On

This week marks the second-ever appearance of '60s soul singer Verdelle Smith on TIRnRR, and her second-ever appearance in 10 Songs, both times with the obscure 1965 B-side "Life Goes On." SPOILER ALERT! We're playing it again next week; no word yet on if it'll make the next 10 Songs, too. But Lordy, this is such a great, great pop number. If it had been the hit it deserved to be, it would have been covered by everybody, from soul to jazz to country to pure show biz; it would have appeared in TV variety show performances by Raquel Welch and Barbara Eden, Sammy Davis Jr. would have belted it out on Jerry Lewis' Labor Day Telethon, and it woulda been seared into our collective pop consciousness alongside Stevie Wonder's "For Once In My Life" and Blood, Sweat & Tears' "Spinning Wheel." 

And still: nothing would have eclipsed Verdelle Smith's smoking original. It should have been a hit. But...it wasn't. And life goes on.

THE BEATLES: Thank You, Girl

We played this as a birthday spin for our pal Sparky, but playing it was its own reward. 'Cuz it's The Greatest Record Ever Made!

CHRIS CHURCH: History

Here's another little peek at what's behind the curtain in our ongoing TIRnRR wizardry. As we continue to program and record the show from remote, Dana and I set the playlist via telephone conversation on Tuesday night, I gather the songs and record patter on Wednesday, and then Dana waggles his Philosopher's Stone to perform the alchemy that turns it all into radio gold. See? Wizardry!

Since we're not tracking or performing the show in real time, we're not certain how close (or how far over) we are to hitting our three-hour target. So we come up with a batch of eight bonus tracks, four each, that we can slot in together as a bonus set if it fits. Sometimes all eight fit, or sometimes just six, and those eight or six songs form our next-to-last set of the week. Sometimes we have to skip the bonus set; on those occasions, we may shuffle a few of those songs into an extended closing set, or (on weeks where we have too many four-minute songs) we may cut them out entirely. 

"Pillar To Post," a track from Chris Church's recent Big Stir Records release Darling Please, was among my bonus tracks this week. Great song, of course, and we like to play Big Stir stuff anyway. But we didn't have room for it, so it was cut alongside other worthies by Neil Diamond, Wendi Dunlap, Herman's Hermits, the Kinks, Fats Domino, International Submarine Band, and more. 

This leads to the jigsaw portion of show prep. I sift through options to see if there are shorter songs that might work in place of longer ones. At 3:29, Chris Church's "Pillar To Post" isn't all that long, but switching to the 2:42 track "History" from the same album gave us an eensy bit more elbow room to manipulate those pesky jigsaw pieces. Within a flurry of similar pruning and swapping, the bonus set was saved and Chris Church made it back on the playlist, albeit with a different song than the one I intended. 

It's a cool tune, too. The happenstance of wizardry and alchemy put it on the radio. However it got there, we're glad it did.

You can support 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: 8/3/2021

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 # 1088.

THE ANDERSON COUNCIL: I'd Love Just Once To See You

This is our second week in a row spinning the Anderson Council's invigmoratin' cover of the Beach Boys' "I'd Love Just Once To See You," from Jem Records' invigmoratin' various-artists tribute album Jem Records Celebrates Brian Wilson. We've also been programming the Grip Weeds' "You're So Good To Me" and Lisa Mychols and Super 8's "Pet Sounds (Story)" from the same album, with more from Jem Records Celebrates Brian Wilson likely in future weeks.

Of course we play them. It's what we do.

THE BEACH BOYS: Sloop John B

Way back in the early '80s, Bill and Carol Yerger vowed to make me a fan of the Beach Boys. Bill and Carol owned Main Street Records in my college town of Brockport, NY, I bought a ton of stuff there, and I thought they were both pretty high on the list of the best people ever. 

But, their recommendation notwithstanding, I just wasn't much into the Beach Boys at the time. I liked some of the hits, and even owned a copy of Pet Sounds, but my full-on recognition of the group's brilliance was still years away. Carol asked me to name my favorite Beach Boys song; as noted elsewhere, my reply of "Sloop John B" caused her to turn away, muttering, "Who's favorite Beach Boys song is 'Sloop John B'...?!"

That song was why I bought Pet Sounds in the first place. As a freshman in college, 1977-78, the song somehow got into my head something fierce. I was also trying to learn the song for my guitar class (part of my futile effort to try to figure out how to make music).

Anyway. My Beach Boys collection consisted solely of the 2-LP Endless Summer, so I made a beeline for The Record Grove (then managed by Bill Yerger, before he opened his own store the following year) and bought the album. Yeah, even as a perpetually cash-strapped college student, I could occasionally be expected to buy an LP just to get one song. And hey, Pet Sounds also had "Wouldn't It Be Nice," so, y'know, that's two songs! 

The rest? Filler, I guess, though I developed some small interest in the track "Here Today." "God Only Knows" did not even register with me when I was 18; now, it rates a chapter in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). I regard Pet Sounds as one of my favorite albums, and I was delighted to see it performed in concert by Brian Wilson. 

"Sloop John B" is no longer my favorite Beach Boys song. But it's one of them. One of many. It took a while, but the Yergers accomplished their goal of making me a Beach Boys fan.

THE COOKIES: Wounded

This lesser-known girl-group gem from 1967 is almost a mirror-image of the Shirelles' 1960 classic "Will You Love Me Tomorrow." Where the Shirelles worried about a horndog lover losing respect for the singer the morning after he and she decide to do it--IT!!--the Cookies' "Wounded" presents the sympathetic story of the girl who says no. The Cookies are best-remembered for their 1963 hit "Don't Say Nothin' (Bad About My Baby)," and for "Chains," a 1962 single later covered by the Beatles. The Cookies went through varying line-ups, and I think "Wounded" was their final single. The girl group era was well over by '67 (or at least it was over if you weren't the Supremes), but "Wounded" was an incredible record that deserved much, much wider attention and acclaim. Hell, the Supremes' own "Love Child" could be seen as (an unintentional) part of this trilogy of a sexual cautionary tale. 

KISS: Anything For My Baby

"Anything For My Baby" comes from KISS's third album Dressed To Kill, the 1975 work that gave an unsuspecting world a li'l sumpin called "Rock And Roll All Nite." You keep on shoutin', you keep on shoutin'. Yeah, that's far and away the biggest thing on Dressed To Kill, the most iconic number in the entire KISS catalog, but I think we've played "Anything For My Baby" a lot more on TIRnRR than we've played "Rock And Roll All Nite." We're funny that way.

And that's not a shot against "Rock And Roll All Nite," a classic which I love and always will love. But not enough stations play "Anything For My Baby." I read somewhere that KISS guitarist Paul Stanley (who wrote the song) largely dismisses it, which would mean I like the song a lot than its author likes the song. I agree with me on this one.

THE LINDA LINDAS: Oh!

New music from the Linda Lindas, the buzz band of 2021. Of course we played it! It's what we do.

CIRCE LINK AND CHRISTIAN NESMITH: I'm On Your Side

Monkee Mania Radio is a new 24-hour Live365 station dedicated to the Monkees. Well, we approve already. MMR curators Alan Williams and Ken Mills are indeed Believers, and while real-world music licensing restrictions prevent them from going All Monkees All The Time, they supplement their mandated limitation of one Monkees track per hour with oodles and oodles of related treats, including solo works by individual Monkees Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Peter Tork, and Michael Nesmith, various combinations thereof (including Dolenz, Jones, Boyce and Hart and Tork's Shoe Suede Blues Band), other acts associated with the Monkees, and covers of Monkees songs. Play, Magic Fingers! 

Ken Mills elaborates: "Alan Williams is the main program director and it took a team of folks who just wanted a place to feature THE MONKEES music and culture, the MANIA that surrounds their story and times. We have some great people involved. Jodi Ritzen got involved and we all figured out how to make it a reality. 

"While we always hoped to play as much Monkees music as possible, we are beyond thrilled to play the music of the people who helped create the Monkees, from the songwriters to acts they toured with, and people that are part of the Monkees story and culture. More importantly, to feature the music of David Jones, Peter Tork, Michael Nesmith, and Micky Dolenz as artists beyond the project known as 'The Monkees.' This is when you hear what they are about. In their solo works or in bands they formed, there is a world of music beyond the first five or six Monkees albums that some fans never allowed themselves to explore. That is one of the biggest joys of this project."

And the station received a boon from the great Christian Nesmith, who is allowing Monkee Mania Radio license-free use of his recordings for a year. Hey-HEY! In celebration of Christian Nesmith's kindness, we played Circe Link and Christian Nesmith's "I'm On Your Side," which Christian 'n' Circe were kind enough to allow US to use on our 2017 compilation This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4, and which was TIRnRR's most-played track in 2017. Here's to you Jodi, Ken, and Alan, Circe and Christian, and Monkee Mania Radio. We're all on your side.

THE MONKEES: For Pete's Sake

And we will make the world shine.

IRENE PEÑA: Don't Hang Up

Another new archival single from Irene Peña, continuing to observe the tenth anniversary of her debut album Nothing To Do With You by releasing each of its tracks as Big Stir Records digital singles, one track at a time. "Don't Hang Up" is the sixth single out of eleven. Of course we played it! It's what we do.

VERDELLE SMITH: Life Goes On

There is so, so much great pop music out there, and few of us know more than a fraction of it. Soul singer Verdelle Smith's "Life Goes On" is an obscure track from 1965, and I'm not even certain if it was the A-side or the B-side (to the also-obscure "Juanito"). Smith's only Top 40 hit (and a minor one at that) was "Tar And Cement" in 1966, and I'd say she's virtually unknown outside of the community of Northern Soul aficionados. But man, "Life Goes On" is a good one! Our thanks to intrepid TIRnRR listener Dave Murray for making us aware of this song's existence. Like life, the hunt for great pop music goes on.

DANNY WILKERSON: You Still Owe Me A Kiss

The above-mentioned Big Stir Records is also partnering with the ever-fab SpyderPop label to reissue Wilkerson, the fantastic 2018 album by the incomparable Danny Wilkerson. Wilkerson includes a stellar track called "Let It Go Tonight," which was among this little mutant radio show's most-played songs in '18. Rightly so! If you somehow missed Wilkerson then, you'll have a fresh opportunity now, thanks to BigSpyder StirPop. And the reissue is heralded with the digital single release of this wonderful Wilkerson track "You Still Owe Me A Kiss."

Of course we played it. It's what we do.

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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 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.