THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! Donna Summer, "Hot Stuff"

Incorporating pieces from previous posts, this is not part of my current book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), but may appear in the hypothetical GREM! (Volume 2).

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

DONNA SUMMER: Hot Stuff

Written by Pete Bellotte, Harold Faltermeyer, and Keith Forsey

Produced by Georgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte

Single from the album Bad Girls, Casablanca Records, 1979

Rock 'n' roll.

In the late seventies, Donna Summer was the Queen of Disco. Her sovereign status in that realm was undisputed. Who could challenge her? Andrea True? Please. With the seduction-to-the beat of 1975's "Love To Love You Baby," the new wave sound of the future pulsing in 1977's "I Feel Love," and disco smashes like "Last Dance" and "MacArthur Park" in '78, Donna Summer established herself as royalty under the flashing lights, the sun ne'er to set on her every-night-fever empire.

In 1979, Donna Summer wanted to record a rock song. Back in the sixties, Summer had been the lead singer in a rock band called Crow, so why the hell shouldn't the Queen of Disco annex the rock world as well? 

She succeeded, but everyone still considered her rock record "Hot Stuff" a disco song. Really, "Hot Stuff" was both, a dance number with a Big Rock posture, an AOR re-imagining of life under the flashing lights, complete with a guitar solo by classic rock heavyweight Jeff "Skunk" Baxter. As the rock record it is, it's one of the best AOR tracks of the era, maybe the best. AOR snubbed it because it's Donna Summer. Too hot for ya? Not my problem, and I much prefer Donna Summer and "Hot Stuff" to a lot of what was getting album-rock FM play at the time.

My own story of recognizing the song's legit rock cred is, at best, a tangent to the Donna Summer story, and really not even that. It involves a club show I witnessed in 1979, the first time I saw former New York Dolls lead singer David Johansen live. Johansen's encore that night was, of course, the Dolls' signature tune "Personality Crisis."

If you're familiar with the Dolls' original recording of "Personality Crisis," you know there's a pause in the song just before its two-minute mark, followed by Johansen whooping And you're a prima ballerina on a spring afternoon!, the band returning as well with wolf-whistles and guitar grunge. In a live performance of the song, it's a natural spot to throw in a snippet of a different song as a willful non sequitur, illustrating the schizophrenic nature of a personality crisis. In '79, I think I'd read in Trouser Press that Johansen was doing "Personality Crisis" as an unlikely medley with Bonnie Tyler's "It's A Heartache" (a song which channeled Rod Stewart so effectively that I thought Bonnie was Rod; she was, in fact, bigger than Rod). That night at the Slide Inn in Syracuse, I'm sure I half-expected to hear "It's A Heartache" in the middle of "Personality Crisis."

But...no. The song's pause came, and a familiar guitar riff suddenly filled the Slide, as patrons like me, with senses slowed by beer, struggled to mentally name that tune in...OH MY GOD, IT'S DONNA SUMMER!!

I guess the divine Miss S actually appearing at the Slide to duet with David Jo would have been a bigger surprise than just hearing him sing a Summer song, but maybe not by much. Sittin' here eatin' my heart out waitin', waitin' for some lover to call. "Hot Stuff." Donna Summer. One could argue that Summer's own version of "Hot Stuff" was already more of a rock song than it was a disco song. It certainly rocked in the capable hands of the David Johansen Group. 

The connection was monumental. We were punks and rockers, boppin' with unironic intent to a song--a great song--by the reigning queen of disco. Johansen's short cover was faithful and true, so we couldn't claim he'd somehow redeemed the song. The song was already great; our own closed ears may have made us deaf to its charm. Until that instant.

This wasn't my first realization that maybe some disco or disco-related music wasn't necessarily awful. But David Johansen singing Donna Summer, even if it was just an excerpt of one of her songs, performed and contained within a cantankerous classic by the New York Dolls, was an irresistible manifesto for a brokered peace between the battling factions of punk, disco, and rock 'n' roll. Cease fire. War is over if you want it.

Yeah, I know it wasn't really that simple. Schisms remained, and would remain. But I saw. I heard. I wasn't alone in that. By the eighties, as punk and new wave had slid into new (later alternative) music and disco's commercial day had passed for the time being, lines continued to blur. Much of the mainstream rock crowd still hated us, but that was okay. We were fighting the good fight. Looking for a lover who needs another, don't want another night on my own. Fall in, troops. No sleep 'til victory. A New York Doll says Donna Summer's here, and the time is right for dancing in the streets. 

But really, we should never have needed anyone's Rock Cred stamp of approval in the first place. "Hot Stuff" is cool, paradox be damned, especially when it's Donna Summer. Hot summer! Hot enough for ya? The Queen of Disco rocks. 

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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. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history 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, streaming at SPARK stream and on the Radio Garden app as WESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows are archived at Westcott Radio. You can read about our history here.

10 SONGS: 9/24/2020

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 # 1043.

EDDIE COCHRAN: Somethin' Else

Power pop's point of origin remains a point of contention for many of its fans. Some insist that power pop was a reaction against prevailing musical trends in the '70s, and therefore nothing recorded before The Beatles' 1970 break-up can be called power pop. I don't agree with that at all. Power pop is a genre, a sound; claiming that sound can't exist prior to a specific date reduces it to nostalgia, some kind of retro move, and I reject that notion. Power pop existed in the '60s. Pete Townshend coined the phrase around 1967, and The Who's early records embody the power pop ideal. The Kinks. The Creation. The Nazz. I think the label also applies to some of The Beatles' singles, and I pinpoint "Please Please Me" as power pop's Ground Zero. Writer Gary Pig Gold, in turn, disagrees with me and places power pop's starting line with The Crickets back in the '50s. Gary and I had a very enjoyable debate about the subject, and you can read all about it here.

While I still don't think that the great rockin' pop stuff from Buddy Holly, Phil Spector, or The Beach Boys quite qualifies as power pop--it all strolls amiably, but doesn't LEAN FORWARD with the urgency I expect from power pop--it's difficult to dismiss the power pop bona fides of Eddie Cochran. Cochran's "Summertime Blues" is really close, its stroll balanced by legit power chords and seething teen frustration. The fantastic party anthem "C'mon Everybody" is maybe a further half-step removed, but "Nervous Breakdown" and especially "Somethin' Else" provide concrete evidence of pre-Beatles power pop.

THE HONEY CONE: One Monkey Don't Stop No Show

I don't know if pundits consider bubblesoul to be a proper sub-genre. Unlike power pop, I do think bubblesoul is tied to a specific timeframe: late '60s/early '70s, AM radio music, performed (mostly) by black artists but with an unabashed ambition for crossover success. Think of The Jackson Five's earliest hits, the music of The Foundations, "Band Of Gold" by Freda Payne, the shoulda-been-hits of Josie and the Pussycats, and of course, The Honey Cone. The Honey Cone's lead singer Edna Wright passed away recently. We played the group's biggest hit "Want Ads" not long ago, and we chose to pay tribute to Wright this week with a spin of the lesser hit "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show," an effervescent number with both bubble and soul to spare.

KID GULLIVER: Carousel

Simone Berk first came to my attention as one of the musical architects of WhistleStop Rock, whose single "Queen Of The Drive-In" would seem to be on a likely collision course with TIRnRR's year-end countdown show. Meanwhile, her own combo Kid Gulliver has a new single, "Carousel," which longs for the simple pleasures of childhood while settin' off the sort of sonic pyrotechnics that requires adult supervision. The song's accompanying video is likewise blessed with phantasmagoric splendor, and that video premieres this weekend. Your brass ring awaits.

HAROLD MELVIN AND THE BLUE NOTES: Don't Leave Me This Way

As much as I once loathed disco, it's become clear that I do indeed appreciate some of it, like some of it, and even love some of it. My book-in-progress The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will include entries about Donna Summer's "I Feel Love," The Trammps' "Disco Inferno," and Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes' original version of "Don't Leave Me This Way," which was later a (quite wonderful) hit for Thelma Houston. From the book:

At the height of its popularity, disco was anathema to me. I had, at best, a superficial familiarity with soul and R & B to begin with, and little appreciation for it anyway. I don't know if an embrace of dance-oriented pop and Philly soul a bit earlier in my timeline might have made me more receptive to the throb of dat ole debbil disco, but the scene turned me off immediately. I liked The Bee Gees before "Jive Talkin'" and not after; I loathed KC and the Sunshine Band. And I despised discos; my few visits to those places were unpleasant and uncomfortable. It wasn't even just the music that turned me off; it was the whole atmosphere, the artificial vibe, the mix of the smug and smarmy, an insincere mating ritual without substance. I wouldn't have minded dancing, making out, maybe accompanying a dance partner elsewhere, but it all felt so...empty. Fake. I didn't even stick around long enough to try to talk to any girls. I just hated being there...

..."Don't Leave Me This Way" was originally recorded by Philly soul legends Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes in 1975. Like previous Blue Notes hits "If You Don't Know Me By Now," "The Love I Lost," and "Bad Luck," "Don't Leave Me This Way" featured a commanding lead vocal performance by Teddy Pendergrass; unlike those, however, "Don't Leave Me This Way" was not a pop hit for Melvin, Pendergrass, and company, missing Billboard's Hot 100 entirely when released as a single. It was a # 5 hit in England, and it made it to # 3 on Billboard's Disco chart.

And it's flippin' fantastic. As a punk-pop fan with a notoriously short attention span, I generally favor the 3:22 single edit to the 6:04 album track, but I would do that, wouldn't I? It's a simply transcendent record at either length, Pendergrass slipping with silky, slender ease from the seductive coo of the verse to the demonstrative Ohhhhhhhhhhhh BABY! that signals the triumphant pleading of the chorus. Hell, even as I write this, I'm listening to the long version for the first time in forever, and damn if my short attention span isn't waiving a white flag and succumbing to the sweet sway of Philadelphia soul at its finest. "A broken man with empty hands/Oh baby please, please don't leave me this way"....

THE MONKEES: Birth Of An Accidental Hipster

The Monkees' 2016 album Good Times! was eagerly anticipated, and it lived up to desperately sky-high expectations. It is indeed a pretty damned good album, and I still listen to it often. And I still think of "Birth Of An Accidental Hipster" as THE one track that just kicks the whole thing to the next level. Here's what I wrote about the track in a discussion of my 25 all-time favorite Monkees tracks:

No one saw this one coming. The surprise announcement that surviving Monkees Dolenz, Tork, and Nesmith--Jones passed away in 2012--would mark the group's 50th anniversary in 2016 with a new Monkees album called Good Times! was unexpected enough, and word that Noel Gallagher of Oasis and Paul Weller of The Jam and Style Council had collaborated on a new composition for this new Monkees record bordered on the flabbergasting. But the result? Lord! "Birth Of An Accidental Hipster" builds a rainbow bridge from the best of The Monkees circa 1968 into this far-future world of the 21st century, a track that sounds simultaneously classic and contemporary. If it had magically appeared on The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees or the Head soundtrack in '68, it would have been the greatest cut on the former and the second-greatest on the latter. Yet it doesn't sound retro at all, at least not to my ears. Nesmith sings this with a force and conviction that almost sounds like he's still that young maverick of fifty years ago, just a bit more seasoned, certainly wiser, but resolutely unbowed. Dolenz chimes in vocally to make it a pop song. Together, they make it a masterpiece. Listeners of the ultracool satellite radio station Little Steven's Underground Garage voted "Birth Of An Accidental Hipster" as The Coolest Song In The World for 2016.

THE ROYAL GUARDSMEN: The Return Of The Red Baron

While the Hanna-Barbera TV cartoon tie-in Secret Squirrel was probably the first LP I ever owned, my first pop music album was Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron by The Royal Guardsmen. I also had the Laurie Records 45 of its first sequel, "The Return Of The Red Baron." I played the single often, probably drawn in part by the illicit thrill of the group almost cursing on record (The German shook his fist, you could hear him swearing/"Ach Du Lieber!" and the closing refrain of One of these days he's gonna make you pay/And you'll go straight to...Well, watch out, Red Baron!). I was seven years old, and I felt like a rebel. My first punk record? I was on the highway to Well.

JIMMY SILVA: Weight Of The Wind

The Beau Brummels' lead singer Sal Valentino lent his magnificently earthy folk-rock voice to this world-weary Heartland shrug from 1986. The late singer-songwriter Jimmy Silva was an amazing talent, and it's a shame he never achieved the recognition he deserved. "Weight Of The Wind" is my favorite Silva track, a song enriched to such an unforgettable degree by that voice, the Sal Valentino who sang "Laugh, Laugh" and "Just A Little" and "You Tell Me Why" and "Don't Talk To Strangers." In my head, I hear "Weight Of The Wind" as one with the best of The Beau Brummels, even though our Sal is the only Brummel in sight here. God, such a great song.

TELEVISION: Elevation

From Television's debut album Marquee Moon, the track "Elevation" just fascinated me when I was 17. Fall of 1977, freshman in college, trying to finally hear all these punk or new wave or whaddayacallit bands I'd read so much about in the pages of Phonograph Record Magazine. I asked the campus radio station for help, and was rewarded with the sounds of The Ramones, Blondie, The Dictators, The Adverts, The Jam, Willie Alexander and the Boom Boom Band, The Runaways, and oh yeah!, Television. 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 TEXTONES: Vacation

An illustration of how much a song can change. The Textones' original version of "Vacation" was a left-of-the-dial DIY number written by one of the group's co-founders, Kathy Valentine. Valentine took the song with her when she became bassist for The Go-Go's, and her new bandmates Charlotte Caffey and Jane Wiedlin helped to revamp it into an almost-new pop ditty, sharing DNA with The Textones' tune but markedly glossier, catchier, more vibrant and exciting. Both versions are cool, but they're different songs. Sisters, maybe?

TOOTS AND THE MAYTALS: Reggae Got Soul

The late reggae great Toots Hibbert transcended genre. "Reggae Got Soul" and "Funky Kingston" were the first two Maytals songs I ever heard of, while "54-46 Was My Number" was the first I ever actually heard, many years later. "Pressure Drop" ultimately became my favorite, and it's vying for position with "54 46, That's My Number" (the earlier version of "54-46 Was My Number") for a spot in The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). But kudos also to "Reggae Got Soul," a sublime record that states its case with rock-steady eloquence and authority.

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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

Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1)will contain 165 essays about 165 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).

Didn't Hear THAT Coming! (Unexpected Covers In Concert): DAVID JOHANSEN, "Hot Stuff"

Didn't Hear THAT Coming! (Unexpected Covers In Concert) discusses songs I was surprised to hear covered in a live show by an act I'd gone to see.

Cover songs can add zip and spark to a rock 'n' roll group's live repertoire. In their earliest gigs, most groups start out playing covers, and integrate more of their own original material into their sets as they play more dates, develop more of an identity, and attract more fans with an interest beyond just hearing bar-band interpretations of songs associated with other acts. It's a basic long-term strategy for groups hoping to get noticed, to get somewhere; there's a reason The Rolling Stones cut back on Chuck Berry songs and started writing their own material.

Still, a well-placed cover tune can enhance a live set, while the wrong choice can result in irritating a fan who doesn't want to hear a fave rave act pandering to a lower common denominator. Whether it works or falls flat, the unexpected cover prompts us to say, "Wow--didn't hear THAT coming!"



DAVID JOHANSEN: Hot Stuff [Donna Summer]

In the late '70s, disco and punk were supposed to be at war with each other. As a self-professed punk rocker in that era, I can attest that, yeah, punks didn't like disco, and the bumpin'-n-hustlin' set was appalled by the loud and fast noise my people favored. Hatfields and Capulets, meet McCoys and Montagues. Never mind the fact that the mainstream rock crowd held both punk and disco in nearly equal disdain; this was war!

Except that it wasn't. I'm skeptical of the notion that many of the Saturday Night Fevered ever took much interest in The Damned or The Dead Boys, but some among the new wave brigade did eventually allow their ears and minds to be a bit more open to non-pogo dance music, to the beat of dat ole debbil disco. Maybe it was just me, but I was a pop fan anyway; my intense dislike of disco music evolved into occasional tolerance, and tolerance evolved into a sporadic realization that some of the records weren't bad. Plus, Donna Summer was gorgeous. I feel love.




At the age of 19 in 1979, my belated discovery and embrace of early '70s proto-punks The New York Dolls was still at an early stage. My local Syracuse heroes The Flashcubes introduced me to the Dolls' classic "Personality Crisis" via their own Cubic live cover in '78. By the end of my spring '79 semester at college in Brockport, I think I may have heard former Dolls lead singer David Johansen's solo track "Funky But Chic" on the Brockport campus radio station WBSU. I had heard a handful of Dolls tracks, "Personality Crisis," "Who Are The Mystery Girls?," and probably "Babylon," and I was aware of the group's importance at Ground Zero of my cherished punk movement. Given an opportunity to see ex-Doll David Johansen live, with The Flashcubes opening the show, I had just enough basic familiarity with the headliner (and abundant enthusiasm for the opening act) to declare there was no way in Hell I was missing that show.



The show took place at The Slide Inn in Syracuse. A quick check of Pete Murray's Flashcubes timeline reveals that the date was 7/26/79. Prior to reconciliation and reunions in later years, it was the last time I saw the original line-up of the 'Cubes, just a few days before guitarist Paul Armstrong parted company with the group, ejected over musical differences. With no knowledge of the tension within The Flashcubes at the time, I just thoroughly enjoyed their set, a set which included my first exposure to a trio of 'Cubes originals: Paul's "You're Not The Liar," Gary Frenay's "I Wanna Stay All Night," and Arty Lenin's "Nothing Really Matters When You're Young."



The David Johansen Group were amazing. Johansen's fellow former Doll Sylvain Sylvain was no longer in David's group by the time I saw them, but it was an incredible show nonetheless. It didn't matter at all that I didn't know many of the songs; I knew 'em by the end of the show. "Frenchette," in particular, floored me, and I immediately adored "Cool Metro" and "I'm A Lover," all three of those gems turning out to be from Johansen's eponymous debut solo album, an LP I purchased not long after hearing it played live at the Slide.



Johansen and company also did a little bit of Dolls material: "Babylon" and their Bo Diddley cover, "Pills." The encore was "Personality Crisis."

If you're familiar with the Dolls' original recording of "Personality Crisis," you know there's a pause in the song just before its two-minute mark, followed by Johansen whooping And you're a prima ballerina on a spring afternoon!, the band returning as well with wolf-whistles and guitar grunge. In a live performance of the song, it's a natural spot to throw in a snippet of a different song as a willful non sequitur, illustrating the schizophrenic nature of a personality crisis. In '79, I think I'd read in Trouser Press that Johansen was doing "Personality Crisis" as an unlikely medley with Bonnie Tyler's "It's A Heartache" (a song which channeled Rod Stewart so effectively that I thought Bonnie was Rod; she was, in fact, bigger than Rod). That night at the Slide, I'm sure I half-expected to hear "It's A Heartache" in the middle of "Personality Crisis."

But...no. The song's pause came, and a familiar guitar riff suddenly filled the Slide, as patrons like me, with senses slowed by beer, struggled to mentally name that tune in...OH MY GOD, IT'S DONNA SUMMER!!



I guess the divine Miss S actually appearing at the Slide to duet with David Jo would have been a bigger surprise than just hearing him sing a Summer song, but maybe not by much. Sittin' here eatin' my heart out waitin', waitin' for some lover to call. "Hot Stuff." Donna Summer. One could argue that Summer's own version of "Hot Stuff" was already more of a rock song than it was a disco song. It certainly rocked in the capable hands of The David Johansen Group. 



The connection was monumental. We were punks and rockers, boppin' with unironic intent to a song--a great song--by the reigning queen of disco. Johansen's short cover was faithful and true, so we couldn't claim he'd somehow redeemed the song. The song was already great; our own closed ears may have made us deaf to its charm. Until that instant.



This wasn't my first realization that maybe some disco or disco-related music wasn't necessarily awful. I already liked Donna Summer's percolatin' hit "I Feel Love," and (as I've noted elsewhere) I'd already approved of "In The Navy" by The Village People, figuring that the sound of an openly gay group chanting They want you! They want you! They want you as a new recruit! on American Top 40 radio was more punk than The Sex Pistols.

But David Johansen singing Donna Summer, even if it was just an excerpt of one of her songs, performed and contained within a cantankerous classic by The New York Dolls, was an irresistible manifesto for a brokered peace between the battling factions of punk, disco, and rock 'n' roll. Cease fire. War is over if you want it.



Yeah, I know it wasn't really that simple. Schisms remained, and would remain. But I saw. I heard. I wasn't alone in that. By the '80s, as punk and new wave had slid into new (later alternative) music and disco's commercial day had passed for the time being, lines continued to blur. Much of the mainstream rock crowd still hated us, but that was okay. We were fighting the good fight. Looking for a lover who needs another, don't want another night on my own. Fall in, troops. No sleep 'til victory. A New York Doll says Donna Summer's here, and the time is right for dancing in the streets. 



WHEN DIDN'T HEAR THAT COMING! RETURNS: Love, The Bangles



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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

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 133 essays about 133 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).

10 SONGS: 1/14/2020

This is the start of a new (presumably) weekly series called 10 Songs. Each entry in this series will list ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. Given my intention to usually write these on Mondays, the lists will probably be 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 inaugural edition of 10 Songs draws exclusively from the many fine tracks played on This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio this week: TIRnRR # 1008.

BONEY M: Painter Man



My relationship with disco is complicated. I hated it during its heyday, but began to re-think my position as it became clear that some (not all) of the Disco Sucks movement was built upon a foundation of tacit racism and homophobia. I further realized that a lot of the disco LP-burnin' Fascists hated my preferred punk and power pop almost as much as they hated dat ole debbil disco, so...enemy of my enemy is my friend. Eurodisco group Boney M was a breed apart anyway, willfully weird but extremely pop. The group is best-remembered for their smooth cover of The Melodians' "Rivers Of Babylon." My favorite Boney M song is their cover of The Smoke's '60s mod-psych classic "My Friend Jack," but props also to this cover of The Creation's power pop touchstone "Painter Man."

THE DODGERS: Don't Know What You're Doing



This 1976 U.K. single is so damned catchy, and it looks to be my song of the week. The Dodgers included two former members of Badfinger, Tom Evans and Warner Brothers-era addition Bob Jackson. In the category of Badfinger-related tracks, I might rank "Don't Know What You're Doing" just below "Baby Blue," "Day After Day," and "No Matter What," on a par with "We're For The Dark" and "Gotta Get Out Of Here," possibly even above "Come And Get It." And I love all of those songs.

EURYTHMICS: Would I Lie To You



Far and away my favorite Eurythmics track, sounding to me like Aretha Franklin backed by The Kinks and The Memphis Horns. I don't own any Eurthymics CDs, so the impulse to play "Would I Lie To You" on this week's show prompted me to borrow the band's Greatest Hits CD from my daughter. Thanks, Meghan!

MARY LOU LORD: Right On 'Till Dawn



A relatively obscure track from Mary Lou Lord's 2001 Speeding Motorcycle EP, "Right On 'Till Dawn" is a demo-recording duet by Lord and Nick Saloman (The Bevis Frond). Saloman wrote the song, and it's an underrated, unrecognized gem in both the Mary Lou Lord and Bevis Frond collections.

THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY: Somebody Wants To Love You



Listen: forget about the ephemeral TV show soundtrack and 16 magazine pinup pejoratives our oh-so-hip consciousness demands us to attach to something as crass and mundane as music from a sitcom about a fake family band. Although merely the B-side to a lesser song ("I Think I Love You") that, y'know, topped the charts, "Somebody Wants To Love You" is mature and accomplished, David Cassidy could really sing, and only a hopeless curmudgeon would deny the sheer groove and panache on display here.

SAM PHILLIPS: Baby I Can't Please You



Suffering from withdrawal during this long, long wait until the next season of Amazon Prime's TV series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, lovely wife Brenda and I have begun re-watching Maisel creator Amy Sherman-Palladino's previous series Gilmore Girls. Most of the scene transitions on Gilmore Girls are accompanied by exquisite off-screen la-la-lalala-laaaaas, all courtesy of singer Sam Phillips. That was sufficient motivation for me to grab one of my Sam Phillips CDs off the shelf and make room for Ms. Phillips on this week's playlist.

RUSH: Circumstances



The ceaseless parade of mortality that continues to claim our idols creates a risk that our radio playists can be transformed into morbid obituaries of the week. I very often find myself torn between an ongoing desire to pay tribute to artists we've lost and a fear of trivializing those passings. I was never really a Rush fan, but I've always liked the song "Circumstances," from Rush's 1978 album Hemispheres; that track managed to get through to this punk and power popper. The death last week of Rush drummer Neil Peart compelled me to play that song again, and it is definitely still a song buzzing pleasantly in my head this week. Respect.

TOOTS & THE MAYTALS: Reggae Got Soul



I first saw Toots & the Maytals name-checked in some magazine (either Rolling Stone or Playboy, possibly both) in the late '70s, though I wasn't conscious of the music until many years thereafter. I recall that Linda Ronstadt was among those praising the essential nature of Maytals LPs Funky Kingston and Reggae Got Soul, and if I couldn't quite fit reggae into my new wave rock 'n' roll world view at the time (The Clash notwithstanding), I did get there eventually.

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND: Sunday Morning



"Sunday Morning" was the Velvet Underground song most likely to be covered by The Monkees, and believe me, I mean that as a compliment. It was also the first VU song I ever heard, when I snapped up a (very) used copy of The Velvet Underground & Nico on my way to a lost long weekend visiting friends in the spring of 1981. 

THE WEEKLINGS: Change Your Mind



We opened this week's show with a public service for rockin' pop fans, identifying for our listeners what will certainly be one of their favorite albums of 2020. The Weeklings' new album 3 is irresistible, a collection of confident, exuberant performances that draw equal, enthusiastic inspiration from the '60s British Invasion and '70s power pop. Covers of The Beatles ("Baby, You're A Rich Man") and The Easybeats ("Friday On My Mind," with lead vocals by Special Guest Bat-Weekling Peter Noone) are fab as fab can be, but the original tunes freakin' rule, especially "I Want You Again," "In The Moment," and "Change Your Mind." We will hear many terrific albums in 2020; The Weeklings' 3 is an early clue to the new direction, and an early lock on a berth in many a year-end Top Ten.

The Gilmore Girls approve of 10 Songs.

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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:

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Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 100 essays (and then some) about 100 tracks, plus two bonus instrumentals, 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).