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Turntable Talk #7 – One Hit Wonders

This blog is part of Turntable Talk, hosted by Dave at A Sound Day. Each month he provides us with a new topic for discussion. This time around Dave’s topic is One Hit Wonders.

He says, “While we mostly all love the Beatles, Stones, U2s and Springsteens who stick around for years if not decades and roll out memorable hit after memorable hit, we can’t forget all those ‘one and done’ acts from Alphaville to Zager and Evans. We’d be much poorer , musically, if all those acts hadn’t contributed their one biggie.

So, talk about One Hit Wonders. Write about your favorite one if you like, or one that surprised you because you thought they’d be a many-hit wonder, or anything else that catches your fancy on the topic.”

I tend to agree with Dave. I love a good One Hit Wonder. My iPod is full of them! In trying to decide which one I would write about I looked online decade by decade and scanned through countless songs. How do I pick just one? The 1950’s brought us Earth Angel by the Penguins, Tequila by the Champs, and Sea of Love by Phil Phillips. The 1960’s brought us Hey Baby by Bruce Channel, Wipe Out by the Surfaris, Cool Jerk by the Capitols, and 96 Tears by ? and the Mysterians. The 1970’s offered up Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum, Bang a Gong by T Rex, My Sharona by the Knack, and Black Betty by Ram Jam.

If I had to guess, I’d say the 1980’s brought about more One Hit Wonders than any decade (I could be wrong). At least it seems that way. There was Funkytown by Lipps Inc, Tainted Love by Soft Cell, Mickey from Toni Basil, Puttin’ on the Ritz by Taco, Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Da Butt by EU and SO many more (including my choice).

I used to have a book that had great write ups on many of the best One Hit Wonders by Wayne Jancik.

Without that book at my disposal, I glanced through a list on Wikipedia, which can be found here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_one-hit_wonders_in_the_United_States

As I looked through the list, there were many that stood out for one reason or another. I actually think that I could do a feature on my blog called “One Hit Wonder Wednesday” and keep it going for weeks! There was one song that took my back to some fun times in high school. I remember picking up the single on 45 and recording it to our cruising “mix” tape.

The Georgia Satellites debut album hit stores in 1986 and their debut single was Keep Your Hands to Yourself. The single was released in November of 1986 and it reached the number 2 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in February of 1987. The only reason it didn’t hit number 1 was Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer.

Many consider the band a rock band, but I would call them more of a Southern Rock band. I remember hearing the opening guitar lick on the radio for the first time and it just stood out from the “pop” stuff that filled the airwaves. There were so many songs that were heavily produced and loaded with synthesizers at the time, so it really caught my ear.

As soon as Dan Baird started singing I was hooked. His voice was rough and he sang with almost a yodel as he belted out one of the great first lines in song: “I gotta little change in my pocket goin’ jing-a-ling-a-ling…” The line came to him on a bus ride.

In a Rolling Stone interview he said that he was riding a bus home from a construction job he was working at the time. He says his mind was “full of Carl Perkins licks and four dollars in change” in his pocket. “Yes, that’s dumb,” he says of the opening lyric. He began to fall asleep on the drive. “I thought of the yodel part as I was passing out, and I thought, ‘You better wake up. You’re onto something.’ It basically wrote itself on the bus ride home.”

While the song was released to mainstream radio, some country songs began playing it. Baird said the band was thinking, “This is a rock & roll song; it’s not a country song! We love country music, we know what it is – we’re not it!”

Many country singers cite “Hands” as an influence to their music, including Chris Stapleton, Jason Aldean, Justin Moore, and Travis Tritt to name a few. Moore says, “I played that song a million times in a bar. It is one of those songs that instantly, from the time you kick it off, people go nuts. It’s a perfect American rock & roll song.” Stapleton calls it “a monumental piece of rock & roll.”

The song was a staple at weddings and parties for years when I was DJing. When I hosted karaoke between radio gigs, it was one that someone came up to sing every night. It is a song that party crowds and bar crowds loved alike.

I could be mistaken, but I believe that this was the song that often was the first song on our driving tape. It was the perfect song to set the mood as my and my buddies would go out wasting gas with the radio turned up. Naturally, we were all singing along, most likely off key!

As I listened to it one final time before writing this, I was surprised at something. The song is 3:25 long. Believe it or not, the guitar is the star. The song consists of 2:09 minutes of guitar and only 1:16 of vocals. I guess that really doesn’t matter though, because people still jam (and probably play air guitar) to it.

While the group only really had this one hit, they do have some other songs worth checking out. I believe Max from the Power Pop blog recently wrote about their cover of Hippy Hippy Shake, which was in the Tom Cruise movie Cocktail. They also do an amazing and rocking cover of Whole Lotta Shaking Going On. My buddy Steve and I liked their song Battleship Chains from their debut album. I’m sure you can find You Tube links to those songs.

Thanks to Dave for once again finding a great topic and allowing me to be a part of this feature. I’m looking forward to reading about the One Hit Wonders that the other bloggers will be writing about. As I looked through that wiki list, I kept thinking, “Max will be picking that one” or “Dave will be writing on that one.” Can’t wait to see the other selections!

Keep Your Hands To Yourself

I got a little change in my pocket goin’ jing-a-ling-a-ling
Wants to call you on the telephone baby, a-give you a ring
But each time we talk, I get the same old thing
Always no hug-ee no kiss-ee until I get a weddin’ ring
My honey my baby, don’t put my love upon no shelf
She said don’t hand me no lines and keep your hands to yourself

B-B-B-baby baby baby why you wan’ treat me this way
You know I’m still your lover boy I still feel the same way
That’s when she told me a story, ’bout free milk and a cow
And said no hug-ee no kiss-ee until I get a weddin’ vow
My honey my baby, don’t put my love upon no shelf
She said don’t hand me no lines and keep your hands to yourself


See I wanted her real bad, and I was about to give in
But that’s when she started talking about true love,
Started talking about sin
And I said, honey I’ll live with you for the rest of my life,
She said no hug-ee no kiss-ee until you make me your wife-a
My honey my baby, don’t put my love upon no shelf
She said don’t hand me no lines and keep your hands to yourself

Something’s Missing!

Warning – Band Alumni Rant To Follow!

It is no secret to anyone who follows my blog that I am a Band Nerd through and through! I have many wonderful memories of playing in band when I was in school. Many memories surround the high school Homecomings.

Homecoming was always on a Saturday. We’d start the day in the morning by marching in the parade. There would be an hour or so break between the end of the parade and the actual homecoming game. After the game, we’d all go home to shower and get ready for the dance that would take place that evening. It was an all day event.

Sam had mentioned earlier in the week that the homecoming parade for our local high school was tonight. We talked about taking the kids to watch it. The route is a short distance from our house, so we all dressed and loaded up the stroller and walked to get a good spot.

From where we stood, we could look down the street to see where the parade would be starting from. At 5pm on the dot, I could see the drum major leading the band out onto the main drag. Local police and fire trucks were usually at the head of our homecoming parades, but this one had the band front and center.

As the band approached, I awaited the “roll off” which would ultimately prompt the band to play the school song. The school song was always a song played on parade routes for us. There was usually one or two other songs we’d rotate through as we marched. If we were marching in a holiday parade, we might have a Christmas song in there.

The band kept coming closer and there was still no music. I figured they were waiting for a spot full of spectators before playing. Our drum majors often did this. If there was a stretch with just a few people, we marched without playing. However, if there was a big line of people along the route, you could rest assured we were playing.

Then I noticed why there was no music – the band members didn’t even have their instruments! The only ones who did were the drummers. I was floored (and disappointed) by this. It was a beautiful day – sunny and about 65 degrees at parade time – why were they not playing? I couldn’t even fathom this.

The band walked by and were all chanting or yelling something. It was probably “Go Mustangs” or “Hurray for Clio” or something like that. Why wouldn’t you want to belt out the school fight song along the route? I don’t get it. You are at the front of the parade – it’s your time to shine. You have that golden opportunity to set the stage for everything else that follows, and you just walk on by. Heck, they may as well have been throwing candy into the crowd like everyone else did in my opinion. They were no different than the boy scouts sitting on a flatbed …

When I think of a band in a parade, I think of brass players right out in front with their notes piercing through the air and letting everyone along the parade route know they are coming! They are belting out the school fight song that alumni along the road can sing along with and little kids can clap along with. Maybe it’s just a great march from John Phillip Sousa to fire up the crowd before they all file into the stands to watch the grid iron competition. The band is such an important part of a parade.

When they plan the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, they choose 10-12 high school or university bands from across the country to perform. That, in itself, tells you of the importance of the presence of a marching band in a parade. Last year in the Detroit Thanksgiving parade, there were 5 bands that performed. Even in the Mickey Mouse photo above, the characters are playing musical instruments. To me, this says that a band is vital to a good parade.

I remember vividly that our band director, Tom Shaner, would take us out at least once during homecoming week to march around the neighborhood in preparation for the parade. It was always neat to see people standing on their front porches to watch us go by. The kids who were too young to be in school would watch us and jump around and dance to the school song. Marching bands and music make people smile!

By definition, Homecoming is a long-standing American tradition where colleges and high schools would welcome alumni back to campus and the community. So when I graduated, we got some of the old band gang back together to march in the homecoming parade. Mr. Shaner was more than happy to have us back. A highlight of getting ready for the parade was meeting together a few weeks before hand to rehearse music. With all of us sitting around in the band room, it was like old times.

That first year we gathered up quite a group with good instrumentation and we marched. We used to joke that we’d need oxygen at the end of the parade! For many, we hadn’t picked up our horns in months or years! We always counted on the newly graduated to sort of carry the older folks.

A buddy’s brother designed our logo to put it on sweatshirts so we could all sort of be in uniform. What a blast we’d have getting together every year. Once Mr. Shaner retired, the interest to get together started to fade. I sure do miss playing my trumpet in those parades.

I’m not 100% sure why the local band didn’t play in the parade. Perhaps there is a specific reason. I don’t know. As a former band student, I was disappointed – not only for me, but for my kids (and all the kids on the parade route). I wanted them to hear the sounds of the band! I’m also disappointed for the band members. What is there to remember about your homecoming parade if you weren’t playing a special piece of music? Even if all you played was the school fight song 5-10 times along the route – play something! What kind of memory is just walking along? What is a marching band without music? I guess it’s just a bunch of people walking ….

Friday Photo Flashback

For this week’s edition of the Friday Photo Flashback, we go back to Spring Break of 1989. I had graduated high school, was working at my first radio job, and my high school band was heading to Florida to perform at Disney World. My brother was still in band at the time and my parents and I tagged along on the trip as chaperones.

My grandmother and aunt had moved to Florida. At some point on the trip, my grandmother met up with us. If my memory serves me correctly, my friend Steve also came on this trip, and we were hanging out together. I wish I had spent a little more time with my grandma on this trip, but you know how 19 year old kids are …

I love this picture of my mom and my grandma. They both would be diagnosed with breast cancer and their lives would be cut short by it. In this picture, they are both healthy. This is the way I will always remember my grandma. She always seemed to wear her hair that way. It was the late 80’s, so both her and mom have those big round lenses on their glasses. I can see the watch that she always wore, too.

My mom is wearing a T-Shirt with the Kiss-FM logo. That was my first radio job, and I am sure I was still working there when this was taken. What I wouldn’t give to have one of those shirts today! Blonde was not my mother’s natural hair color, but I always loved when she wore it that color. Her hair seems to be a bit short in this picture, too.

The more I look at this photo, the more I think that this was taken just before we all loaded up the busses to head back home, or maybe before my grandma was heading home. Mom is holding shopping bags, so we had probably all just come back from one last trek to buy souvenirs. It is hard to say.

I don’t think this was the same trip (mom’s hair looks longer), but it could be.

When I found out my grandma had cancer, I avoided seeing her. I regret this. A lot. It is one of those things that comes up a lot in my mind. If I could turn back the clock, I would. I didn’t want to see her sick. I remember someone had taken some pictures of her after she had gone through some chemotherapy or radiation and she was a shell of her former self.

Those pictures sort of assured me that I was doing the right thing by not seeing her. Well, at least I thought so. I know now it was not. I should have seen her. I should have called her. I should have held her hand and said I love you. I should have had the chance to say goodbye. In Sinatra’s “My Way,” he says, “Regrets. I’ve had a few…” This is one of my biggest regrets. The only good thing about my not seeing her sick is that when I think of her, she is just as she was in these photos.

I think of these two brave women every October – Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I miss them both very much.

Chilly Bedtime Prayers

Ella Story #1

My wife texted me about this earlier tonight and then posted it on Facebook:

We say prayers every single day before nap time and bedtime. Saying prayers tonight, Ella stopped me mid prayer and told me we needed to pray for Elsa and Anna (the princesses from the movie Frozen)

Me: why do we need to pray for Elsa and Anna?

Ella: Mommy, we always say thank you for the sunshine days, and daddy playing with us. I need to say thank you for Elsa and Anna making me so happy!

So we prayed for the Disney Princesses tonight.

It is always interesting to see who is on her heart when we pray. My co-worker Amy invited Ella to her daughter Maddie’s birthday party earlier this month. So we pray for them a few times a week now. Earlier this week, she prayed for Toodles – Nana and Papa’s dog! She is such a sweet soul.

Ella Story #2

I have no idea how to post video on here that isn’t a YouTube video, but I shared one on Facebook earlier this week. When I woke up, I had read a few chapters of Romans in my Bible before she woke up. I had set the Bible on the back of the couch. When I saw that she was awake in the monitor, I went to go get her.

As usual, she brought out her favorite “Nana blanket” and crawled up next to me on the couch. She saw the Bible and read the cover. She said, “B – I – B- L – E.” Something clicked and she began to sing, “The B I B L E, yes that’s the book for me!” It was the cutest thing. I had to get it on video, so I prompted her again as she was flipping pages. It really made me smile.

A Holiday I Like a Latte!

It’s a Brew-tiful day for a cup of Joe! It is National Coffee Day (Not to be confused with International Coffee Day which comes up on October 1)! Pour yourself a cup of Go Juice, Go Go Juice, Bean Juice, Brain Juice or Jitter Juice and guzzle that Java!

In celebration, many places have some National Coffee Day deals for you. Here are just a few, courtesy of USA Today:

Krispy Kreme

Panera 

Tim Hortons

  • $.25 medium hot or iced coffee all day long when you order through the Tim’s app or website.
  • In addition, Oct. 1 is International Coffee Day and Tim Hortons is offering a $1 medium hot or iced coffee during the entire month of October when you order on the Tims app or website.

Dunkin’

  • Free medium-sized coffee on Sept. 29. Customers must sign up for the Dunkin’ rewards program to claim it.

Caribou Coffee

  • $3 medium brews for Caribou Perks members on National Coffee Day. Plus, if you’re a new Caribou Perks member, you’ll get a free drink after your first visit when you sign up.

What about Starbucks and McDonalds?

Starbucks will not have a National Coffee Day offer this year. Neither will McDonalds, a spokesperson told USA TODAY on Wednesday.

Here are a few others:

Barnes and Noble

B&N Cafes are celebrating National Coffee Day with a free tall hot or iced coffee with the purchase of a bakery item of your choice.

Bean Box

Use promo code FREECOFFEE  on the Bean Box website through Oct. 1 and get a free 12-ounce bag of coffee.

Biggby Coffee

Valid on Sept. 29 only, participating Biggby Coffee locations are offering free 20-ounce hot or iced brewed coffee for National Coffee Day.

Bonus Comedy Clip

In honor of National Coffee Day – Here is the great Chris Farley

Perk up a pot today and enjoy – leaded OR unleaded.

45 – Not a Colt or a Record

Back in July I wrote: “since I started posting about my weight loss journey, I have been followed by just about every keto diet page, healthy living page, eat better/workout more page and such. This irks me for some reason. I post my stuff here to keep myself accountable. On the weeks I gain weight I will post that, too. This is my journey – if you are here to cheer my on, fine. If you are just here to sell your products, you may unfollow me at any time. I don’t plan on following you back.”

These follows continue, and I keep deleting them. I am doing things my way and am not interested in the content of these pages. On occasion, I will get a follow where the page doesn’t even exist, however that works. It’s weird.

At any rate, after staying at the same weight last week, I racked up a 4 pound weight loss this week. This brings my total weight loss to 45 pounds. I am very happy to see the weight coming off, although now I need to start thinking about getting some new clothes. My scrubs are falling off me at work and I put on jeans this weekend and really had to tighten the belt.

I don’t want to get too crazy with a new wardrobe yet, as I still have more weight to lose. I think it is safe to say I at least need a new pair of jeans and a couple of shirts.

I wish I had gotten a good “before” picture. I never think to do something like that. Even though I am seeing the results with clothes, I really hadn’t started to notice it elsewhere until I shaved today. I can kind of see my face is a little thinner. It’s a good feeling.

The journey continues and I will, as Paul says in his book to the Philippians, “keep pressing toward the mark.”

Gourd Ahead, Make My Day!

Saturday morning, when I got home from work it was raining. I had hoped to come home and take the kids to the local orchard to pick up pumpkins. I love going there because they do a hay ride that takes you out to the pumpkin patch and you can go get your own pumpkin. Along the way they have wooden cut outs of super heroes, cartoon characters, and things the kids get a kick out of.

The rain let up in the afternoon, and we decided that it was probably too muddy to go to the pumpkin patch. Sam, however, remembered that there was a local stand that had pumpkins, corn stalks, hay bales, and more near her mom’s house. We had to head that way, so we decided we’d make a stop.

As soon as we were out of the car, Ella began her search for a pumpkin. I grabbed a wagon and once she found the one she wanted, we put it on the wagon. Sam picked out one for Andrew and that went on the wagon next. Sam saw these “stacking” pumpkins she wanted for the front porch, so we picked up some of those, too. On the way out, Ella found a table with little pumpkins and she started throwing them on the wagon!

It was the first time Andrew has ever seen a real pumpkin! It was fun to see him look at all of them.

Because of all the pumpkins, we didn’t have enough cash to get corn stalks or hay, so we may have to go back out to get those another day. I still hope to be able to get to go on our autumn hay ride.

For now, the various gourds make the house ready for fall.

Life Turns On A Dime

Just what does that even mean – “Life turns on a dime?” A quick Google search will offer up some explanations for folks unfamiliar with the phrase:

“Since a dime is the smallest U.S. coin, the ability to “turn on it” is a figure of speech meaning you can change direction very quickly in a very small space. In this case, it means that life can change course very quickly. Depending on the circumstances, it can be either good or bad, but either way it will be rapid.“

To “turn on a dime” means turning sharply and/or suddenly. To say that “life can turn on a dime” means that a person’s life can change radically in an instant (or very quickly). It’s more often used to mean someone going from a “good place” to a not-so-good place, but it can also mean suddenly taking a turn for the better.

Turn on a dime is an English idiom meaning change dramatically, suddenly and without warning or coming out of the blue unexpectedly. It usually results from a single event that dramatically alters the course of events either as a negative or a positive.

Stephen King uses that quote quite a bit in his time travel book 11.22.63. It is almost like a theme throughout it. One thing can change history (as in the case of the book) in the blink of an eye. I guess another way of explaining it is that life can change just like that (imagine a finger snap here.)

I had totally prepared to work on my article for the next round of Turntable Talk today, but some things have been tossed into our path that has led to this one instead. I write this as a reminder to you and myself to take nothing for granted. I write this as a reminder to live each day to it’s fullest. I write this as a reminder that life is a fragile thing.

In the baseball game of life, we are thrown many curveballs. Some of those we see coming and some brush us off the plate. Some of those we get ahold of and can knock them out of the park, while many of them we swing at – and miss.

Enjoy every moment. Never miss an opportunity to say “I love you.” Life is too short to hold grudges. These are all things that I have said in one way, shape or form in previous blogs.

It has been hard for me to scroll Facebook lately. So many of my friends are hurting because of sickness, death, grief, or struggle. I pray for each of them daily. Sure, there are plenty of happy moments shared on social media, but in amongst those things are people I care about – hurting. Life turned on a dime for them. Factor in some other news that we’ve been made aware of over the past few weeks and we see life turning on a dime again, this time closer to home.

The storm is off the coast. It is clear as day on the radar. Heading toward us. We will watch it’s course and the skies. We will prepare the best we can. We will do our best to be ready for it. In the meantime, we will enjoy the moments and savor each one.

Friday Photo Flashback

Time for another Friday Photo Flashback. I was going to say that I am not digging too deep for this week’s picture, but when I realized that it is probably at least 10-15 years old. Is that considered old? You decide.

This is one of my favorite photos of me with my dad and brother. This photo used to come up for both of them if they called me. With each new phone and contact transfer, the photo got more and more pixilated. I wasn’t even sure I still had a copy of the original until I found it saved on a hard drive.

My brother, as you may recall, lives in Ohio. He usually gets up to Michigan a couple times a year. This was taken during one of those visits.

We had obviously gone to lunch or breakfast at Leo’s Coney Island, because we are in the parking lot there. My dad and brother must have drove up to see us. If I had to guess this may be around 2009 because I am wearing my B95 coat (and I still have some hair). I’m guessing that this was springtime as the trees in the background are still green.

What I love about this picture (and many subsequent ones of the three of us) is that there is no doubt we are all related. The older my brother and I have gotten, the more we started looking alike. The older we get, I also feel like we look more like my dad.

What I hate about this picture is knowing when it was taken. I was still with my ex and I’m sure that any time I was allotted to see my brother and father was based loosely around whatever she had to do or wanted me to do. My time with them was never as much as it should have been. To this day, I look back and wish I knew then what I know now. I lost out on a LOT of time with my family.

On the bright side, I feel like my relationship with both my father and brother are stronger now than they have ever been. For that, I am glad. I love this picture and love them both.

Two Day Trip to Italy

One of the things I love about blogging is “meeting” other bloggers and reading what they are writing about. One of the blogs I follow is written by Beth (a fellow Michigander) who writes at “I didn’t have my glasses on…” In a recent blog, she mentioned a book she was listening to that had her laughing out loud. She went on to mention that it was set in Italy. Her blog can be read here:

https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/11420585/posts/4258084624

The book was “The Patron Saint of Second Chances” by Christine Simon. On Beth’s recommendation, I requested it at the library. I picked it up yesterday and finished it today. I am sure that I easily could have read it in one sitting. It was a delightful read that did have me laughing out loud at times. Here is the Goodreads synopsis:

Vacuum repairman and self-appointed mayor of Prometto, Italy (population 212) Signor Speranza has a problem: unless he can come up with 70,000 euros to fix the town’s pipes, the water commission will shut off the water to the village and all its residents will be forced to disperse. So in a bid to boost tourism—and revenue—he spreads a harmless rumor that movie star Dante Rinaldi will be filming his next project nearby.

Unfortunately, the plan works a little too well, and soon everyone in town wants to be a part of the fictional film—the village butcher will throw in some money if Speranza can find roles for his fifteen enormous sons, Speranza’s wistfully adrift daughter reveals an unexpected interest in stage makeup, and his hapless assistant Smilzo volunteers a screenplay that’s not so secretly based on his undying love for the film’s leading lady. To his surprise—and considerable consternation, Speranza realizes that the only way to keep up the ruse is to make the movie for real.

As the entire town becomes involved (even the village priest invests!) Signor Speranza starts to think he might be able to pull this off. But what happens when Dante Rinaldi doesn’t show up? Or worse, what if he does?

It was a book that did not require a lot of thinking and at times was ridiculous, but I loved every second of it. Perhaps I could see a little bit of my Italian relatives in some of the characters. To me, the book read like a very funny sitcom episode or like an old radio comedy show. At times there was some predictability, but it doesn’t take away from the story at all.

On the back flap of the book it says this about the author, “Christine Simon grew up in a very large and very loud Italian family…” I don’t know any Italian who doesn’t have great stories about their family! In the acknowledgments section of the book, she mentions family members who were the inspiration of some of the characters.

One of the things that I must give kudos for is the fact that this book is very “family friendly.” I don’t recall an overabundance of profanity. As a matter of fact, I think the word “ass” is mentioned once or twice and that’s it. There are no long and detailed paragraphs describing sexual acts. There is a kiss or two. Violence is kept to a minimum as well. It’s just a really fun book.

The book was written by the author while in quarantine, and it is her first novel. This is the second “first novel” from someone that I have read and really enjoyed. The other was The Measure by Nikki Erlick. Maybe I need to check out more unknown authors?

I know today is the first day of fall, but it won’t be long before we’re all shut in because of the cold and snow. This book is an easy read that provides lots of laughs and is the perfect book to enjoy over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine.

Thanks, Beth!