Back in the early 2000’s I was the Afternoon Drive guy on B-95. My shift was from 2pm to 7pm. I got to “kickoff” the weekend every Friday at 5pm. They were calling the 5pm hour “The Drive at Five.” It was far from an original name.
When the clock hit 5PM, I had a factory whistle that I would play followed by the voice guy saying, “Welcome to the weekend!” This was immediately followed by 4 or 5 weekend oriented country songs. Since it is now officially the weekend here in Michigan, I thought I’d showcase some of those songs.
I’d usually start with one of these two classics –
Finally Friday – George Jones
Take This Job and Shove It
Then I would rotate from the following:
Working for the Weekend – Ken Mellons
Redneck Rhythm and Blues – Brooks and Dunn
It’s Five O’clock Somewhere – Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett
Come Friday – Aaron Tippin
Wrong Five O’clock – Eric Heatherly
Yee Haw – Jake Owen
That got me thinking about other formats. What might I play if I was working at an oldies station? Maybe:
Rip It Up – Little Richard
Friday on my Mind – The Easybeats
Five O’clock World – The Vogues
If I was at a classic rock station? Maybe:
Saturday Night – Bay City Rollers
Working For The Weekend – Loverboy
Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting – Elton John
What song is YOUR weekend song? Drop it in the comments!
It is time for another edition of Turntable Talk hosted by Dave from A Sound Day. This is round #35, which means next month I’ll have been contributing to this feature for 3 years! Wow. As long as Dave keeps coming up with interesting topics, I’ll keep writing.
This time around, Dave says that “we’re going Sans Sophomore Slump. We all remember the triumphant debuts to the scene by The Knack, Meat Loaf, the Ramones…but how many recall, let alone listen to ‘But the Little Girls Understand’, ‘Dead Ringer’s or ‘Leave Home’… the follow-ups for them? This month, pick a SECOND album by a group or singer you thought was a standout and at least as good as the first.
When I worked in country radio we often referred to the “Class of ’89.” This was a group of four guys who all stormed onto the scene in 1989. Those guys were Clint Black, Travis Tritt, Alan Jackson, and Garth Brooks.
The four of them were so popular that the brought an entire new group of listeners to the genre. Much of their music focused on storytelling, which also made for some amazing music videos. They helped to make Country music more popular than ever.
Garth Brooks’ self titled album was released in April of 1989. It peaked at #13 on the Billboard 200 and went to #2 on the Top Country Albums chart. From the album, there were four singles, two of them went on to become number 1 hits.
Much To Young (To Feel This Damn Old) went to #8 on the charts for Garth. Not Counting You also went top 10, and was the first hit that Garth completely wrote himself. The Dance and If Tomorrow Never Comes were both #1 smashes! Today, they have reached “classic” status. If Tomorrow Never Comes was so big that it won the Academy of Country Music’s Song of the Year in 1990.
So how do you follow that kind of success? If you are Garth Brooks, you release your sophomore album and watch in amazement.
Like the other members of the class of 1989, fans wanted more of their music! Garth released No Fences in August of 1990 and it was just HUGE! It went to #1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. It went to #3 on the Billboard 200 and stayed in the top 40 on that chart for a whopping 126 weeks!
As for the singles from the album, they have gone on to become Garth classics (just like the ones from album #1). All four singles from the album went to #1 on the Country chart!
The Thunder Rolls not only went to #1, but won the CMA Video of the Year for 1991. The video is a powerful one. When Garth plays the song at live shows he adds another verse where the cheater gets what’s coming to him.
Two of a Kind, Working On a Full House, Unanswered Prayers, and Friends in Low Places also all reached #1. Friends in Low Places also won the Academy of Country Music’s Single of the Year for 1990.
That song is familiar to country music fans and non-fans alike. It still plays everywhere. It was always on the Mobile Beat Top 200 songs for mobile DJs. It plays at parties, weddings and even sporting events. I’d love to see the money that this one song alone makes for Garth Brooks.
Garth’s Sophomore album, No Fences, helped to pave the way into super stardom for him. A simple search of “Awards won by Garth Brooks” will show you just how popular and successful Garth went on to be. One has to wonder what might have happened if No Fences bombed.
Thanks again to Dave for hosting this edition of Turntable Talk. I appreciate him reaching out and including me in such an amazing feature. As always, I look forward to the next topic.
Welcome back to The Music of My Life, where I feature ten songs from each year of my life. In most cases, the ten songs I choose will be ones I like personally (unless I explain otherwise). The songs will be selected from Billboard’s Year-end Hot 100 Chart, Acclaimed Music, and will all be released in the featured year.
I turned 35 in 2005. There was plenty going on in my personal life at this time. We were doing various therapies for my son, who had been diagnosed as being on the Autism spectrum. I had settled into my position at 94-5 The Moose in Saginaw as their afternoon guy and music director. I was certainly loving that. And at some point during the year, my mother’s cancer returned.
At the time, My Space was pretty popular. I was blogging a lot on there. Somewhere, I have a Word document with every one of those blogs. I had to contact them to get them. I had stopped posting there after joining Facebook, and at some point they moved content. I was thankful to get those blogs as they covered the time leading up to my wedding, the birth of my sons and the death of my mom.
I posted a lot about new songs we were playing on the radio, too. A few of them make this list. Let’s head into 2005:
The legendary Ray Charles passed away in 2004, but before he did, he recorded an amazing duets album. Genius Loves Company was the best selling recording of Charles’ more than 50-year career. It was a collection of duets with Norah Jones, Natalie Cole, Elton John, B.B. King, Gladys Knight, Diana Krall, Michael McDonald, Johnny Mathis, Van Morrison, Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor.
The album entered the Top 10 on the US album chart more than 40 years after Charles’ previous appearance on that same chart. This broke the record held by another act who also made his comeback with a duets album. In 1993 Frank Sinatra’s Duets reached the Top Ten 25 years after his previous Top 10 album.
Here We Go Again was a song that Ray had recorded in 1967. Then in 2004 he re-recorded this as a duet with Norah Jones for Genius Loves Company. She recalled collaborating with Charles on this song in a 2010 interview with Billboard magazine:
“I got a call from Ray asking if I’d be interested in singing on this duets record. I got on the next plane and I brought my mom. We went to his studio and did it live with the band. I sang it right next to Ray, watching his mouth for the phrasing. He was very sweet and put me at ease, which was great because I was petrified walking in there.”
This song won Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration in 2005 eight months after Charles passed away. In addition Genius Loves Company was awarded Album of the Year among six other awards, as the American music industry paid lavish tribute to him.
Unlike Frank Sinatra and Willie Nelson, Ray Charles’ voice is as strong as ever on this recording. I felt Sinatra’s voice was weak on his duets albums. Willie is still putting out albums and at times he sounds like he’s just speaking the lyrics. Ray, however, sounds fantastic. I love the blending of these two voices.
Here We Go Again
The next song is an example of a song that I first heard in a polka. You read that right – a polka. Weird Al Yankovic has done quite a few polka medleys on his albums. The medley usually contains a verse or chorus from a pop song done as a polka. When I first heard Beverly Hills by Weezer on the radio, I found I liked it.
Weezer lead singer (Rivers Cuomo) explained in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine that this song is about how he could live in Beverly Hills, but he wouldn’t fit in. “I could live in Beverly Hills, sure,” he says, meaning he could afford it easily. “But I couldn’t belong there.'”
Songfacts explains:
The song comes off as satire, but that wasn’t what Rivers Cuomo had in mind when he wrote it. “I was at the opening of the new Hollywood Bowl and I flipped through the program and I saw a picture of Wilson Phillips,” he said. “And for some reason I just thought how nice it would be to marry, like, an ‘established’ celebrity and live in Beverly Hills and be part of that world. And it was a totally sincere desire. And then I wrote that song, ‘Beverly Hills.’ For some reason, by the time it came out and the video came out, it got twisted around into something that seemed sarcastic. But originally it wasn’t meant to be sarcastic at all.”
The music video was shot at the Playboy mansion. It included appearances by Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and some of the Playboy bunnies. Two of those bunnies were Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt.
Beverly Hills
When I was music director at the Moose, I spoke with a lot of record people. One of the industry folks knew I loved music from the Rat Pack. She asked me if I had heard of Michael Buble’. I hadn’t. She sent me some MP3’s of his music and I was hooked.
The song could have been sung by just about any artist who tours. The lyrics sound as if they could be autobiographical. It is sung by someone who spends a lot of time on the road with great success. With that success, there is sacrifice. He is missing his home, particularly the woman he loves.
Despite the fact that Home only reached #72 on the Hot 100 chart, it was a breakthrough song for him. The song hit #1 on the Adult Contemporary survey in July 2005. Three years later Blake Shelton reached #1 on the Country chart with his cover of Bublé’s hit.
Bublé and Blake Shelton teamed up in 2012 to record a holiday version of this song for Shelton’s, Cheers, It’s Christmas album. The collaboration happened after Shelton sent Bublé an email saying he hoped to record a yuletide-themed rendering of the tune. “I had the idea of doing a Christmas version of ‘Home,'” he said.
This was the song that proved to folks that Michael was more than a cover artist. His original songs are just as good as the standards he records. He is also more than just a Christmas artist. It bugs me that people pigeon hole him and label him like that. He’s one of my favorites.
Home
My on air name was “Keith Allen.” As a music director, I got to hear all the new music before it went on the air. I popped Play Something Country by Brooks and Dunn in the CD player and loved it. On my first listen, I thought they said my name – Keith Allen. I suppose, in a way, they did. But the lyrics refer to Toby Keith and Alan Jackson:
Said, I’m a whiskey drinking, cowboy chasing, hell of a time I like Kenny, Keith, Alan and Patsy Cline.
I have to tell you my favorite story about this song. When my program director and I first heard this, we said, “That’s a number one song!” We told our consultant that we wanted to add it. He said he didn’t feel like it was a hit. We were both shocked. We both told him that we felt it would be number one. He fought us.
He fought us for a few weeks on this one. He finally said that if we really felt it was a hit, we should add it. We wound up making a wager. I told him that if it didn’t go to number one, we’d buy him dinner. He said if it did hit number one, he would buy US dinner. The week it hit number one, he called us for our weekly music call. When we answered we started giving him restaurants we could go to!
His issue with the song? The “wolf-like” howl of the chorus.
Play Something Country
The next song is one that everyone jokes about on October 1st every year. “Someone needs to go wake up the guy from Green Day!”
This song reminds me of Fastball’s The Way. I say that because it starts with a simple acoustic guitar behind lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong. Then the song kicks in with drums and the rest of the instrumentation. I love the sound of that.
Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong wrote this song about his father, who died of cancer on September 1, 1982. At his father’s funeral, Billie cried, ran home and locked himself in his room. When his mother got home she knocked on the door to Billie’s room. Billie simply said, “Wake me up when September ends,” hence the title.
“My father died in September of ’82, and I purposely, up until that point, never went there,” Armstrong said in an interview. “I think really what I was doing was processing that loss that I had with this person that I never really knew. So I wrote that song for my father and about that loss and how 20 years had passed. I remember right after I wrote it, I felt this huge weight off my shoulders.”
Wake Me Up When September Ends
Another country newcomer makes my list this week. I have actually written about him, and the song. Here is that blog:
The next song is one of the slowest chart climbers in history. It was on the American Hot 100 chart for 23 weeks before it entered the Top 40. KT Tunstall’s “Suddenly I See” was inspired by another artist, Patti Smith. Tunstall said, “The inspiration for the song was Robert Mapplethorpe’s photograph of Patti Smith on the cover of her album Horses. I was staring at it one day thinking it was incredible. It’s everything I love about music – mysterious, inviting, frightening.”
Suddenly I see This is what I wanna be Suddenly I see Why the hell it means so much to me
“The chorus was me thinking, ‘that’s what I want to be,'” Tunstall told The Guardian. “Not a famous pop star with lots of money, but like this woman who’s living her life as an artist. I’d been trying for more than 10 years to be a professional musician. I was just exhausted from trying to persuade other people I was good enough.”
I remember hearing this song shortly after realizing that my first marriage was over. After all I learned and discovered through therapy, the title spoke to me. Suddenly, I saw just what was going on and I realized that I couldn’t do it anymore.
Suddenly I See
There were some really good country songs around this time. There were many new artists and some really distinct sounds that were on the radio. I was impressed with Josh Turner from the first time I heard him. I couldn’t believe the tone of his low voice.
Your Man is a song that I wish I could have written. Here is a guy who has been thinking about his woman all day long. He tells her to lock the door, turn the lights down low, and play some music.
I’ve been thinking about this all day long Never felt a feeling quite this strong I can’t believe how much it turns me on Just to be your man
That’s LOVE right there!!
I love the entire feel of this song. It’s the perfect song to “sway” to.
Your Man
As the “Nostalgic Italian,” I think it is safe to say that I believe in the power of a photograph. The memories that can come from looking at an old picture just amazes me. My Friday Photo Flashback is always fun to do. I think that is because of the stuff that comes to mind with those old pictures.
I know there are plenty of people who hate Nickelback. However, Photograph is a song that I can relate to in so many ways. (From songfacts): This song is about reviewing the memories (missed and forgotten) from the band’s childhood in Hanna, Alberta. The lyrics are a chronicle of real events and personal landmarks lead singer Chad Kroeger recalled as he wrote it.
“It’s just nostalgia, growing up in a small town, and you can’t go back to your childhood. Saying goodbye to friends that you’ve drifted away from, where you grew up, where you went to school, who you hung out with and the dumb stuff you used to do as a kid, the first love – all of those things. Everyone has one or two of those memories that they are fond of, so this song is really just the bridge for all that.”
Someone once said, “If you don’t think photos are important, wait until they are all you have left.” I couldn’t agree more.
The photograph Kroeger is holding in the video is the one that inspired the song: It’s a shot of him and their producer, Joey Moi, at a New Year’s Eve party.
Photograph
We wrap up 2005 with a One Hit Wonder. Defining a “one hit wonder” isn’t really easy. Most feel it is when the artist fails to have their follow up released crack the Top 25. There are certainly many songs that fit into that category.
Daniel Powter’s album was released in America in 2006. Bad Day was released in the UK in 2005. In the fifth season of Americal Idol, the song was played over a video montage of the contestant that was being sent home that week. This helped the song gain popularity.
Powter is from British Columbia who later moved to Los Angeles. “Bad Day” was his first single released on a major label (Warner Bros.), and his only hit. He later described it as “a blessing and a curse.” Powter said:
“I was touring the world and performing for thousands of people, but I felt like the song was starting to define me. I actually found myself getting almost angry about it.”
This was the top-selling digital download of 2006. This was the star of people prefer downloading songs to buying CDs. It was part of a shift toward digital distribution of individual songs. In America, the album sold 500,000, but the single was digitally downloaded over 3 million times!
My mom was doing chemotherapy and radiation for her breast cancer at this time. She found the song to be inspiring. It basically says that even if you have a bad day once in a while, things will get better. My mom always tried to have a positive outlook. She battled cancer for 10 years and by this point she was tired.
My mom had the gift of gab. She was always on the phone. She assigned Bad Day to be the ringtone for her cell phone. I believe it was on there until she passed away. When I hear this song, I am taken back to those final weeks of her life.
Bad Day
What song from 2005 did I miss that was your favorite? Drop it in the comments.
Next week, we’ll focus on 2006. On my list is a song about a steeplechase runner, a song that became a hit because of Grey’s Anatomy, and a song that was a hit on the Adult Contemporary Chart and the Country charts. It also has a great Drifter’s cover song, one that took on a whole new meaning for me when my daughter was born, and a creative way to insinuate profanity without actually using it.
Thanks for reading and for listening! See you next week.
Welcome back to The Music of My Life, where I feature ten songs from each year of my life. In most cases, the ten songs I choose will be ones I like personally (unless I explain otherwise). The songs will be selected from Billboard’s Year-end Hot 100 Chart, Acclaimed Music, and will all be released in the featured year.
This will post on January 1, 2025, so let me start off by saying Happy New Year! I am sure that I will be posting something of a New Year’s Wish as well today.
Off to the side of my 2003 list I wrote, “Difficult year!” This could mean that it was difficult to pick ten songs. It could also mean that it was difficult to narrow the list down to ten songs. With my life, it could mean that 2003 was a difficult year personally. I’m not sure. I know that as I got deeper into the 2000’s, there were fewer songs that I liked. Maybe that is it?
Anyway, let’s drift into 2003:
Drift Away was a top 5 hit for Dobie Gray in 1973. In 2002, Gray recorded this as a duet with Uncle Kracker. When the song reached the Billboard top 10 in 2003, 30 years later, it broke a record. Dobie broke the record for the biggest gap between top US top 10 appearances and held that record for 17 years.
How did Uncle Kracker come to record it? You can thank a radio DJ for that. Songfacts explains:
“Although Uncle Kracker liked this song, he only performed it out of necessity at first. He was making the rounds on the morning radio shows to promote his solo debut, Double Wide (2000), which was mostly rap-rock tracks except for the mellow hit single “Follow Me.” Because he was expected to perform a few songs during his appearance, he needed something else to sing in the same vein, and the DJ Scott Shannon suggested the Dobie Gray tune.“
Kracker said, “If it wasn’t for him, that song would have never gotten cut, he pretty much put the bug in my ear for that.”
I like the fact that the cover included the original singer. People liked it, too. It was #1 for 28 weeks in 2003-04 on the Adult Contemporary chart. It broke the record for the longest run atop the tally and held the record for 15 years.
Drift Away
I had my first child in 2002. Over that first year, it was amazing to see the changes in him. I never really understood how fast time flies, until having children.
I was working in country radio in 2003 and I remember hearing Then They Do for the first time. I knew that it would be a huge hit because any parent could relate to the lyrics. They are delivered perfectly by Trace Adkins.
The song begins and describes a typical morning where the singer’s children are causing trouble on the way to school. Naturally, he thinks things will be easier when the children grow up. In time, the children go off to college and get married. It is then that the parents realize that they have more time to themselves now. Their children have accomplished their dreams, but their house and lives feel a lot emptier nonetheless.
It’s sort of a “be careful what you wish for” kind of thing. Be present and enjoy the memories.
Then They Do
The next song is one that I really liked. I don’t necessarily pray to angels when I am down or when I am hurting, but I do pray. I pray to God and ask Him to give me guidance or comfort. I did an in depth study for Sunday School at our church about angels once. That is why I don’t pray to them.
That being said, I do understand that in certain situations, people will often pray. Some, pray to angels. I think in essence, they pray to heaven for help. That’s kind of what I got from Train’s Pat Monahan’s inspiration for the song.
From Songfacts:
The song was inspired by something his therapist, Judy Bell, told him. Monahan told Buzzfeed, she said: “Just remember that we are made up of angels and traitors, and the angel is the one that says, ‘You’re beautiful and you can do anything you want,’ and the traitor is the one that says, ‘You’re ugly and you can’t get anything right.'”
“That song just came from that conversation of, if we all called our angels, what a cool life this would be for all of us,” he said.
The song went to number one on the Adult Contemporary chart.
Calling All Angels
I have always loved Willie Nelson. Some of his duets are just fantastic. I loved Pancho and Lefty with Merle Haggard. I loved To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before and Spanish Eyes with Julio Iglesias. I loved Seven Spanish Angels with Ray Charles. Last week, I could have included Mendocino County Line, his duet with Lee Ann Womack. When he did his duet with Toby Keith, it was a monster country hit.
Toby posted the story behind Beer For My Horses on his website:
“When I was a kid I worked for a rodeo company,” says Toby. “The old timers who worked the stock and stuff in the back would carry a pint of whiskey in their pocket – they were just old cowboys. They would pull it out and say, ‘Here’s to me, here’s to you, we got screwed, so screw you, here’s to me.’ They always had some little toast. One was to hold up the bottle for a drink and say, ‘Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses.’ I kept that in my head a long time thinking I’d write it some day.“
“We did finally, trying to say that maybe it’s time that justice gets back into the judicial system. The big posse goes out and catches the bad guys and everybody comes back to lick their wounds, remember the ones they lost and celebrate with the ones that made it back. You raise your glass and say, ‘Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses, bartender.’ One of those conceptual deals. Soon as we got done writing it I thought man, it’d be cool if we could talk Willie Nelson into singing the Texas verse on that. Obviously he went for it and I think it’s the biggest multi-week #1 either of us ever had.“
In 2008, Toby and Willie starred with Rodney Carrington in the movie of the same name.
Beer For My Horses
The next song was a top five hit for 3 Doors Down. Lead singer, Brad Arnold told Songfacts:
“The song’s just about being away from someone, or missing them,” he clarifies. “And it really doesn’t matter if you’re here without them for all day or all month. It’s just kind of about the lonely and missing of somebody, but people kind of take that sort of as a little bit of a sad song. And in a way, I kind of meant it as a happy song. And the reason being because it’s talking about being here without you, but she’s still with me in my dreams. ‘And tonight, it’s only you and me,’ so the song was really just about that dream. And being in a state of peace, because you’ve got that person there with you in your sleep. And in that way I kind of meant for it to be a little bit of a happy song.”
The song means a lot to many military personnel. Especially those who find themselves away from their loved ones with their lives in danger. At the same time, many think about someone who has passed away and that miss them. However you interpret it, it really is a great song.
Here Without You
Josh Turner is one of the nicest singers I’ve ever had the chance to meet. His voice can rattle things hanging on a wall it is so deep. I remember when his first single (Long Black Train) hit my desk. Personally, I loved it. I got it. I understood it. However, it had a Christian theme to it and I wondered how the listeners would like it.
I love hearing him tell the story of how the song came about. He told AOL Music:
“‘Long Black Train’ was inspired by a vision that I had of a long, black train running down this track way out in the middle of nowhere. I could see people standing out to the sides of this track watching this train go by. As I was walking, experiencing this vision, I kept asking myself, ‘What does this vision mean and what is this train?’ It dawned on me that this train was a physical metaphor for temptation. These people are caught up in the decision of whether or not to go on this train. And this came about in a time of my life where I was trying to figure out who I was as an artist and as a person… I was trying to learn how to deal with the freedom that I had away from home for the first time. ‘Long Black Train,’ the song and the album, are very special to me. It was just one of those things that I felt like God gave to me for a purpose, and I’ve been out here promoting that purpose.”
He wrote the song after listening to some old Hank Williams Sr. songs. He was a college senior. He said he started strumming the guitar and the verses came to him. He never had any intention of releasing the song and noted that when he wrote it, “I didn’t even have a record contract yet!”
Long Black Train
Next is song that has been covered a few times. The First Cut is the Deepest was written by Cat Stevens. He did a demo of the song in 1965. In 1967, it was a hit for P.P. Arnold in Britain reaching #18 in the charts.
In America, the first version to chart was by Keith Hampshire, who took it to #70 in 1973. Rod Stewart covered it in 1976, taking it to #21 US and #1 UK. Sheryl Crow released her version in 2003, which made #14 in the US and #37 in the UK.
Sheryl recorded it for her hits compilation, “The Very Best of Sheryl Crow.” It was one of her biggest radio hits. It also became her first solo top-40 country hit following the success of her duet with Kid Rock (“Picture”)
First Cut Is The Deepest
Next, the third duet on my 2003 list. This was another one of those songs that after hearing it, I knew it would be a hit. How could it NOT be with Jimmy Buffett on it?
The song came about when writer Don Rollins had with the line “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere.” It was written for another artist whose album wanted a Jimmy Buffett vibe to it. The artist passed on the song and eventually it came to Alan Jackson. Rollins explains,
“I got the call that it was on hold for Alan, which I thought was strange, because if you hear the demo it’s very island-ly. There are acoustic guitars and steel drum samples, very much Buffett. The idea that someone as country as Alan Jackson might be interested in that song never even occurred to me. Then I got wind that he was wanting to do a duet with Buffett, and it made a little bit more sense at that point.”
This song spent eight weeks at #1 on the Country charts, and won the 2003 Grammy for Best Country Song. It was the first #1 song on the Country chart for Jimmy Buffett.
It’s Five O’clock Somewhere
Last week I picked a remix of Elvis Presley’s A Little Less Conversation. In 2002, the remix had worldwide success. Because of that English record producer Paul Oakenfold took another Elvis song and did a remix of it. This time it was Rubberneckin’.
Rubberneckin’ was a song that Elvis sang in the movie A Change of Habit. It was released as the B-side of Don’t Cry Daddy. It was a top ten hit for him.
The remix only reached number 94 on the Hot 100 chart in the US, but it was big elsewhere. It peaked at number two in Canada, and number three in Australia. It also reached the top 10 in Denmark, Finland, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
Some folks dislike these remixes. I can see where a bad remix would make me feel that way. I really thought these two Elvis remixes were great. I was loving how many people danced to them at parties.
Rubberneckin’
The final song of 2003 is probably the most bizarre. It just sticks out, and the band knew this! I’m talking about I Believe in a Thing Called Love by The Darkness. This was a song that was brought to my attention by my ex. I had never heard it before, but one time I was asked to play it at a party and the crowd went crazy!
From Songfacts:
The British magazine Classic Rock named this as their Greatest Rock Song of the ’00s. The band’s frontman Justin Hawkins commented: “All The Darkness ever tried to do was bring a little joy into the glorious realm of rock, but ‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ crossed over big time and changed our lives forever. To have been awarded ‘Song Of The Decade’ is overwhelming and I’m very grateful to Classic Rock for everything.”
The band’s former guitarist, Dan Hawkins, told Classic Rock the story of the song: “‘I Believe In A Thing Called Love’ was such an important song for The Darkness, but when we wrote it I really wasn’t sure about it. The chorus is so stupidly catchy, I thought people were just gonna take it as a complete joke! Right from the start, this song stuck out like a sore thumb.
We started with the riff, which Justin came up with. It sounded really great right away. But when he sang the chorus for the first time, I just said, ‘No, you can’t do that – it sounds ridiculous!’ I really thought people would just laugh at us when they heard it. So for the rest of the song, I tried to make it sound cool, more ‘rock.’ The rest of the song is all in minor key.“
Songfacts also presents this very funny review:
The New York Times wrote that this song “sticks to the listener like hair gel.”
I Believe in a Thing Called Love
So there you have it. Did I miss one of your favorites from 2003? Make sure to tell me about it in the comments.
Next week, I’ll present my list from 2004. The list include one of the funniest group names to say on the radio, a monster debut song, movie music, a dance craze that is still going strong, and a song that still brings me to tears.
Welcome back to The Music of My Life, where I feature ten songs from each year of my life. In most cases, the ten songs I choose will be ones I like personally (unless I explain otherwise). The songs will be selected from Billboard’s Year-end Hot 100 Chart, Acclaimed Music, and will all be released in the featured year.
In 2001, I turned 31. It is a year that I will not forget. It was that year that I found out I was going to be a father for the first time. To say that I was freaking out a little was an understatement. My mom continued to get treatment for breast cancer. There was a time where I prayed that she would be around for my wedding. Now I was praying that she’d be around to meet her first grandchild. My first song was inspired by, coincidentally, a mother with cancer.
It was also the year of the 9/11 attacks. I, of course, was around for the Challenger accident. Many folks called that the “JFK assassination” of my generation. As sad as the Challenger accident was, 9/11 was on an entirely different level. I remember sitting alone wondering about the world we were welcoming our baby into. The event caused many of us to think … more on that shortly.
Train’s Drops of Jupiter came from devastating loss for lead singer Pat Monahan. In a VH1 interview, he revealed that he wrote this song about the death of his mother. Train was were touring in 1988 when Monahan’s mom was dying of lung cancer – she was a heavy smoker. Cell phones had not yet become widely used. This found Monahan making many stops to pay phones on the tour to speak with his mom. It was in December of that year, his mother died.
In early 1999 Train was working on their next album when their record company started pressuring them for a hit. Monahan returned to his childhood home in Pennsylvania, and woke one morning with the words “back in the atmosphere” in his head. Beginning a time of healing, he started to compose the song. Pat said: “Loss of the most important person in my life was heavy on my mind, and the thought of ‘what if no one ever really leaves? What if she’s here but different. The idea was, she’s back here in the atmosphere.”
He recorded a demo of the song and played it for the president of their record company at Columbia. The president loved it and told him it was his Grammy song. He was right: It won Grammys for Best Rock Song and Best Instrumental Arrangement With Accompanying Vocalist. The label had Train record the song quickly. That way they could put it on the album and use it as the title track.
Pat Monahan is quoted as saying, ““It was an obvious connection between me and my mother. ‘Drops of Jupiter’ was as much about me being on a voyage and trying to find out who I am. The best thing we can do about loss of love is find ourselves through it.”
That is SO true.
Drops of Jupiter
I mentioned when I did my list in 1999 that I’ll Be by Edwin McCain is hard to listen to. It was the wedding song my ex and I used. In 2000, Edwin released I Could Not Ask For More, which is a more beautiful song, in my opinion.
This song itself is about spending time with your true love. It is about realizing you do not need anything else in life to make you happy. The song was written by Diane Warren, who has written quite a few songs that I have written about. McCain said that he had to speed the song up to suit his voice. He said, “The tempo of the song was actually half of what it is now. At first, I wasn’t into it. Now it’s a popular wedding song; every night on tour people tell me that it was their wedding song.”
It was in 2001 that country singer Sara Evans covered the song. While not too different from McCain’s version, I love her version more. I have always felt that she has one of the best female voices in country music. She is also one of the most beautiful singers I have met. I loved watching her perform this live.
I Could Not Ask For More
This next song is on my list for one reason and one reason only – the video! I can still remember the first time I watched it and was blown away by Christopher Walken. I had no idea he could dance like this!
Weapon of Choice appeared on Fatboy Slim’s third album and featured Bootsy Collins. Bootsy is, of course, known for his work with Parliament-Funkadelic and Bootsy’s Rubber Band. Boosty co-wrote the song and plays bass on it.
According to Songfacts:
The official music video for “Weapon of Choice” reveals a surprising side of Christopher Walken, known for his intense, often villainous roles in films like Pulp Fiction, The Deer Hunter, and True Romance. What most of us didn’t know until this video appeared is that Walken is a great dancer – he trained at the Washington Dance Studio and appeared in musicals such as 1981’s Pennies from Heaven. In a 2014 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Walken said he accepted the role before he became “too decrepit to dance.”
He choreographed the video with Michael Rooney, son of Mickey Rooney, and performed stunts, including flying across the mezzanine in a harness. Reflecting on the humor and playfulness of the video, Fatboy Slim told Higher Frequency in 2006: “I think it’s full of irony, and to see an actor that I really admire but who’s famous for playing psychopaths, to see him do that silly un-psychopathic dancing made me smile and made everyone else smile.”
The “Weapon of Choice” music video was a huge hit! It won six MTV Video Music Awards in 2001. It won for Breakthrough Video, Best Direction, Best Choreography, Best Art Direction, Best Editing, and Best Cinematography. It also went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Music Video. To top it all off, it was named the greatest music video of all time by VH1 in 2002.
Weapon of Choice
I recently saw where Brian Cranston, Jane Kaczmarek, and Frankie Muniz announced that they will reunite for a reboot of Malcolm in the Middle. The show debuted in 2000 and did very well. I always watched it because I could relate to the constant fighting between the brothers. I also loved the humor of the show.
They Might Be Giants recorded this song specifically for Malcolm in the Middle, and can be found on the show’s soundtrack. The show used other songs from the band throughout the run of the show.
The rumor is that the song is about guitar player John Flansburgh’s brother. I can totally see this. We may not have used the exact phrase growing up, but I know my brother and I often said that the other couldn’t boss the other around. It hits home in that way for me.
Boss of Me
The next song was a triumphant return for Weezer. Their fans were a little worried about the band in the late ’90s. After touring for their 1996 album Pinkerton, they took some time off and went through some lineup changes. It was during this time that Rivers Cuomo was taking classes at Harvard. He enrolled there in 1995 and attended sporadically when it suited his schedule. “Island In The Sun” was welcome relief for fans, showing that the band was back and in a good place. (Cuomo did eventually graduate Harvard, earning a degree in English in 2006.)
Songfacts says, “Unlike many Weezer songs, there’s no trace of pathos and no deeper meaning, making it an easy song to enjoy even if you’re not a big fan of the band. It became one of their most popular songs, although it was never a bit hit, reaching a chart peak of just #111 in the US.”
This is another one of those songs that I remember hearing a lot on the radio. I find it hard to believe that it only reached #111 on the charts. It was obviously good enough for them to play on TV. Weezer played it along with “Hash Pipe,” when they were musical guests on Saturday Night Live, May 19, 2001. It was their only guest appearance on the show.
Sing along…. “Hip. Hip.”
Island in the Sun
What do Neil Diamond, The Monkees and Smash Mouth have in common? One MONSTER hit!
Neil Diamond wrote I’m a Believer in 1966. Don Kirshner was looking for material for the Monkees to record and liked it. Neil was allowed to record it as well as part of their deal and did so in 1967. The Monkees version went to #1in ’66.
Jump ahead 35 years to 2001. Smash Mouth recorded a version of the song for the Dreamworks animated movie, Shrek. The song was picked because it fit the movie’s theme, as it was a sort of fairy tale. The opening line of the song is “I thought love was only true in fairy tales.”
Smash Mouth’s version is a great modern take on the song and still fun to sing along with. When I hear it, I am taken back to watching this movie with my oldest son. He loved Shrek and we watched it MANY times.
I’m a Believer
The next song was one that I often used as a first song at parties and weddings. It was a good one because it was the “kick off” song and literally got the party started.
Songfacts.com says: Get the Party Started was written by Linda Perry of 4 Non Blondes. After the group broke up in the early ’90s, Perry released two solo albums and started writing for other artists. She learned that hits of the ’00s were made digitally. She bought Akai MPC and Korg Triton digital workstations and started experimenting with them. As she was learning how to use them, she came up with the track by adding layer after layer, then she quickly banged out a lyric with every party cliché she could think of, arriving at lines like:
I’m your operator, you can call anytime I’ll be your connection to the party line
It worked: “Get The Party Started” was a huge hit for Pink and launched Perry’s songwriting career. Her next hit was “Beautiful” for Christina Aguilera.
The song is synonymous with Pink, but it was almost offered to another singer. Thankfully, a phone call changed that. Perry initially thought this could be a hit for Madonna. However, Pink happened to call her the week after she wrote the song. Pink was a huge 4 Non Blondes fan. She sought out Perry, who was very surprised to get a call from a pop star. When they met, Perry gave Pink an MP3 copy of the “Get The Party Started.” Pink’s management loved the song and arranged for them to work together on her second album.
Get The Party Started
When an artist’s first single is a ballad, it is usually because the ballad is amazing. Most record labels want uptempo songs. (Honestly, most radio stations want uptempo stuff, too!) There are no shortage of ballads waiting to get airplay!
When it came time to release his first single, Enrique Iglesias fought to get “Hero” released. “Everybody thought first singles at the time had to be uptempo,” he told People. “But I knew that it was one of those songs that when I wrote it it just felt special.” It was, and he was right. Iglesias attributes the success of this song to a combination of good lyrics, melody, and excellent production. He feels those three qualities need to work together to make a timeless hit.
The song took on a whole new meaning shortly after it was released. This song was released on August 14, 2001, just a month before the September 11 attacks on the US. The song doesn’t describe the type first-responder heroes, but the theme of standing by a loved one resonated at this time. The song became quite popular because of that, reaching a chart peak of #3.
One pastor taught a message on husbands and wives. He stated that what a husband wants is to be his wife’s hero. That’s the guy who will take away her pain and be there through thick and thin.
Hero
MercyMe is a contemporary Christian group. They had an Adult Contemporary crossover hit with a song that was written by their lead singer Bart Millard. I Can Only Imagine is simply about imagining what it will be like meeting Jesus for the first time.
In a Songfacts interview, Bart said that he that he wrote the song in about 10 minutes. He said that it was one of just three songs he wrote where he felt like he was “a spectator watching the song being written.”
Regarding the song’s meaning, Millard stated: “When my father died of cancer in 1991, he left me with the assurance that he was headed to a better place. For several years following his death, I would find myself writing the phrase ‘I can only imagine’ on anything I could find. That simple phrase would give me a peace thinking about what my dad was finally experiencing. Years later, in 1999, MercyMe was writing songs for an independent project. I remember coming home from a show and being wide awake on our bus at 2 o’clock in the morning. I was trying to write lyrics in an old notebook of mine, when all of a sudden, I stumbled across that phrase. About ten minutes later, the song was written. Some people say it’s amazing that it was written in ten minutes, when really it had been on my heart for almost ten years.”
This one means a lot to me personally. I am so grateful for my faith and my Savior. It is an amazing thing to imagine….
I Can Only Imagine
I can still vividly remember the morning of 9/11. I was in a meeting with my boss at the radio station when the morning gal came in and told us that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. We went into the newsroom and were shaken to the core when we watched the second plane it the Twin Towers. That would be one of the longest and most emotional days in my radio career.
I worked at a country station at the time. We saw a lot of patriotism come out of those attacks. Songwriters wrote songs about being an American and such, but none of the equaled the contribution made by Alan Jackson.
The 9/11 attacks made a lot of us stop and think about life. We were left with so many questions. We were left shocked and scarred by the images we watched on TV. It was constantly on our minds. Alan Jackson seemed to be on the same page as everyone else, and conveyed it all perfectly in the song Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)
He wrote the song alone, with the idea coming to him at 4am in the morning. He explained to The Boot that the lyrics really “came out of nowhere.” “It was just a gift,” he said. “I got up and scribbled it down and put the melody down so I wouldn’t forget it, and the next day I started piecing all those verses together, thoughts I had or visuals I had.”
The song made its debut on the Country Music Association’s annual awards show on November 7, 2001. I still cannot believe that he was able to sing the song without breaking down. Alan considers this to be one of his biggest (if not the biggest) accomplishment. He said in an interview: “I [recently] did a radio interview, and the guy was talking about being at the [CMA] Awards the night I sang ‘Where Were You,'” he explained. “Even though that was a hard performance for me and an emotional time, I still get so many comments about that. Of all the awards, and all that kind of stuff, the music is still what I like. To be able to create a song that really affects people and makes a mark in the music industry, I would have to say that would be a highlight.”
To this day, the song still gives me chills. I’m sure you will never forget where you were when the events of that day unfolded either.
Where Were You
Sorry to wrap up the year on a somber note, but that wraps up my list. How about you? What song from 2001 did I miss that was your favorite. Mention it in the comments.
Next week, we’ll head to 2002. My list features movie music, an in your face patriotic song, a song full of 70’s and 80’s nostalgia, a cover song, an appearance by the Muppets, and the return of the King! I hope you’ll check it out.
Until next week, thanks for listening and for reading!
It is time for another round of Turntable Talk, hosted by Dave at A Sound Day. This is the 12th round that I have participated in and it has quickly become one of my favorite “features” to participate in. There has not been a topic that Dave has presented that has not been interesting for me to explore. This round is no exception. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out his site and read the contributions of other music lovers, too!
For this round, Dave’ says, “This time around I’m calling it “First Time’s The Charm.” Let’s look at an artist whose debut really impressed you. It can be one that just knocked you out first time you heard it when it was brand new, or one you went back & discovered later. As long as it showed a band or singer that hit the ground running.“
In talking with one of the other participants this week, I mentioned that with each topic, one choice always seems to hit me immediately. Then I begin to think about other possibilities, and without fail I always seem to come back to the first choice. This time around, I decided not to consider anything else and go with the first thing that came to mind.
It is 1989. In our living room is the shelving unit that contains my dad’s stereo system. One shelf holds the receiver/amplifier while the cassette deck and Sony Mini-disc players sit on top of each other on the shelf above that. Two speakers sit on top of the unit. A turntable sits on a shelf that slides out on the top left of the unit. Under that, on a shelf all by itself is a Sony CD player.
My dad calls me out to the living room and says, “Keith, you’ve gotta hear this!” My dad has certainly played a major role in sharing great music with me. The above phrase was spoken by him to me more times than I can count. Oh, the music he introduced me to! I would have to say that 9 times out of 10, it has always been something that I have really liked. The CD he popped in the player was the debut album from The Kentucky Headhunters.
The group started back in the late 60’s and called themselves “Itchy Brother.” In 1980, the group was almost signed to a record deal at Swan Song Records, which was a small label founded by the band Led Zeppelin. However, Zeppelin drummer John Bonham died that year and the label folded. Itchy Brother disbanded in 1982. In 1985, there was an attempt to reunite the group. This attempt led to a few new members joining while some original members decided not to be a part of the group. Now missing some of the original members, a new name was chosen for the band – The Headhunters. It didn’t take long to find out that there was another band using that name, so “Kentucky” was added to the name.
The group decided to take out a loan to record a demo. That demo included some original songs and some cover songs. They had hoped to press copies of the demo to sell as merchandise at their live shows. It didn’t take long for that demo to get noticed by folks in Nashville. The group was not really interested in signing a record deal, but their manager suggested that they talk with producer Harold Shedd at Mercury Records. They were signed to their deal in 1989 and the demo was released as their debut album “Pickin’ on Nashville.
I hadn’t intended on listening to the whole album that day, but when my dad hit play, I really liked what I heard. While they certainly had a Southern rock sound, it wasn’t really completely Southern rock, if that even makes sense. It is kind of a mixture of country, Southern rock, a bit of blues, classic rock, a little rockabilly, and maybe even a little bit of metal. It was like nothing I had heard in some time. It was a very unique mix of various styles and types of music.
The first cut on the album was a cover of Bill Monroe’s Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine. Bill’s version has a very bluegrass feel to it. The Headhunters had me from the opening guitar lick. Then I was really digging the harmonies of the group. The guitar solo had a rock/B.B. King feel to it, which I just loved. The debut single reached number 25 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles Chart, the first of 4 Top 40 singles for the band.
The second single from the album is probably their best known song, but not quite their biggest hit. It almost didn’t make the album, though. Dumas Walker is a song that is about a Kentucky hangout. The lyrics tell of hanging out there eating a “slawburger, fries, and a bottle of Ski.” Folks in Kentucky knew that a slawburger was a burger with cole slaw on it, and a bottle of Ski is a soda that is a lot like Mountain Dew. The record company wasn’t too keen on it, though.
Producer Harold Shedd felt that the song was too local. He felt like no one outside of Kentucky would connect with the song. He asked band member Richard Young if they would be willing to leave the song off the record. After much discussion, Young says that he convinced Shedd to keep it on the record. He said that Shedd was missing the point – that every place had their own “Dumas Walker’s and they can relate to that!” He was right. The song was a top 20 hit for the band in 1990.
Another thing that helped get the band recognition was CMT (Country Music Television), which was the country version of MTV. The early headhunter videos are a blast to watch. How could anyone possible turn off a video set in a bar with people playing marbles, the lead singer juggling bowling pins, and the drummer banging on his drum kit with no shirt and a coon skin cap on!? Incidentally, the video was nominated for the CMA video of the year in 1990.
Richard Young says that the group had a “magnetism that people just couldn’t resist” and compared it to watching the old Monkees TV show. He said, “People want to be entertained. If you can’t hold their eyes, they will wander.” Watch a few of their videos and you will certainly be entertained.
The third single from the album was another cover song. This time it was a cover of Don Gibson’s “Oh, Lonesome Me.” Gibson’s version is very typical 1960’s country. The Headhunters version kicks it up a notch with a driving beat and video that really fits the “Monkees” description above. This song peaked at number 8 and would be the band’s only Top 10 hit. The fourth and final single from the album was “Rock and Roll Angel,” which is mostly forgettable.
The band enjoyed great success in 1989/1990 because of their debut album. In 1990, they won the Academy of Country Music’s Top New Vocal Duo or Group Award , The Country Music Associations Vocal Group of the Year, and the CMA Album of the Year. They also won a Grammy for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group that year.
Sadly, their follow up album Electric Barnyard was a major disappointment. It was certified gold, but the singles released to radio didn’t get much airplay. Citing creative differences, Ricky Lee Phelps and Doug Phelps left the group in 1992 to form their own band, Brother Phelps.
The band has continued to tour with a variety of different members and their last album was released in 2021. They never really enjoyed much success after that debut album. That being said, I believe their fresh sound really paved the way for (and had a big influence on) some of the more recent country singers who have a more “rock” sound.
One thing I think is important to mention is that the Kentucky Headhunters hit the scene at a very unique time in country music. In 1989, this new group stood out during a time that also saw country music’s amazing “Class of ’89” hit the scene. They were in the thick of things at the same time that Alan Jackson, Clint Black, Travis Tritt, and a dude by the name of Garth Brooks were getting their debut’s as well. The fact that they made waves amongst those guys is a testament to that first album.
It is hard to say what factored into the decline in popularity. Was it hard to get airplay with all of those other big names taking off? Was the music that followed just not good enough? Did the loss of the Phelps Brothers put the nail in the coffin for the band? Maybe it is a little bit of each of those things. The Kentucky Headhunters recorded 9 studio albums, but you really only need to get their debut, Pickin’ on Nashville. It is as good as it gets.
The more I thought about my last two blogs, the more I realized how many memories I have that are tied to certain songs and the people in my life. My family members alone, and the music that I connect them with is an entirely separate blog! For this one, I jotted down a few songs and the friends (and memories) I connect with them.
WKSG
My first program director, Paul Christy, was such a great guy to work with. I remember that when we didn’t have a song, he’d contact a couple local guys (Tom or Tom) and get it. Those songs would come to us on a reel to reel tape. He used to talk about the song Gee by The Crows on the air and he finally played it off of one of those tapes. He raved about how much he loved it. It was one of the first Doo-Wop songs. Now there were plenty of other songs that came to him on tape, but the other one that sticks out was a song that a listener always asked him for – Blame It On The Bossa Nova by Eydie Gorme. Not that I hear it often, but every once in a while on Sirius XM it plays and I think of Paul.
One of the morning show guys was Vince. Vince and I share a love for The Blues Brothers movie (because it is a masterpiece). Vince and I often cracked up behind the scenes while Paul was on the air. Besides The Blues Brothers Soundtrack, two songs make me think of him. Fats Domino’s My Blue Heaven is the first. I’m not even sure how it came about, but we both talked about how it sounded like Fats mumbled almost the entire first line of the song and then you finally could make out “My … Blue …. Heaven”. We’d often pass each other in the hall mumbling that first line.
The other song is Leap Frog by Les Brown. It was Les’s Theme song, and was used in the prom scene in the Jerry Lewis film, The Nutty Professor. In the scene, Jerry’s character is standing and listening to the music, which slowly he gets more and more into. Jerry ends up doing this ridiculous dance to the song. Vince could do that dance move for move. Damn, just the thought of it makes me laugh!
I was lucky enough to follow Johnny Molson each night after his show. Many of the songs that remind me of him are related directly to stuff that happened off air or with his listeners. Examples of this would be Miracles by Jefferson Starship and Rocket Man by Elton John. I think of Johnny, because of two listeners in particular who had … unique … ways of requesting them.
Wind Parade by Donald Byrd wasn’t even a song we played on our station, but I had to find it to hear what it sounded like. It is on my iPod today and when it comes up, I think of Johnny and our mutual friend Joe Crawley, who requested this often (no matter what the station format was). This was one of Joe’s favorite requests, but he had more: Do You See My Love by Jr. Walker and the All Stars, Julie Do You Love Me by Bobby Sherman, Got To Be There by Michael Jackson and Home Cookin’ also by Jr. Walker. All remind me of Molson. Finally a song that reminds me of classic Johnny moment is Walk Away Renee by the Left Banke (because of an on air blooper).
My friend Victor Hughes just so happens to be the guy who was the lead singer for the group The Tymes on their hit single So Much In Love. Vic s responsible for me getting to finally shake hands and meet one of my idols – Soupy Sales. Vic used to work in law enforcement in New York and often saw Soupy there. He sent his business card back stage and next think I know, I’m shaking hands with him. It was pretty cool! I still remember Vic showing me his gold record for this song.
They started as listeners, but remain life long friends today. Roxanne, Gary, and Lee all used to call and BS through the night on the request lines. Roxanne would laugh about Elvis’s Wear My Ring Around Your Neck, Gary would always ask for some surfing instrumental called Penetration by the Pyramids, and Lee would ask for Grady Martin and the Slew Foot Five!
WHND
Richard D. used to have a feature called The Off-the-Wall Record. He’d say, “To my right is a wall. On the wall is a peg. On the peg – records. When I take one of the records of the peg on the wall and play it on the air, it becomes a Tricky Dickie Off-The Wall Record”. When he did this feature it usually consisted of rare or obscure tunes. One day I gave him Stormy Weather by the Spaniels to play. He LOVED it. He told me that was one of his favorites.
He often spoke of the group the Hi-Los and told me about the “tight” harmonies that they had. He was right. Good stuff! As a fan of the big bands, I let him listen to The Spitfire Band’s version of Cherokee, which featured an AMAZING trombone part. Again, he loved it and I think of him when it plays on the iPod.
Long story short – I gave him hell one day because he played a Dean Martin song and made some comment about him. I told him that we were both Italian and I could make some calls if he bad mouths our heritage again or something stupid like that. He laughed and then went on the air and said that I had come in and thrown him around the room and trashed the studio because of what he said about Dean. He said “I had no idea Keith Allen was the President of the Dean Martin Fan Club”! After his last show on Honey Radio, a listener suggested I play a Dean Song in Richard’s honor….I chose “I Will”. The first line of the song is “I don’t wanna be the one to say I’m gonna miss you, but I will…” it fit the somber occasion.
Then there was Rob, my morning show partner in crime. The list of songs that remind me of him are plenty. Most because he sang them at Karaoke (And I Love You So – Perry Como, Delilah – Tom Jones, There Goes My Everything – Englebert Humperdinck, and My Cup Runneth Over -Ed Ames). Three stick out for other reasons. The first two stand out because of a hillbilly character he did named Red Neckman! He’s always get “giddy” when we played Ringo by Lorne Greene and Waterloo by Stonewall Jackson. The one that I can’t believe we played on the air was by actor Robert Mitchum. Rob had this song called My Honey’s Lovin’ Arms from an album that Mitchum did. It was catchy and Bob actually sounds ok singing it…..unlike some of his other songs.
Lesley Ronson and I have “hated” each other since high school. She used to call me all the time when I was at Honey and ask me to play her a song or something. Personally, I think she just liked hearing her name on the radio. One day, I hit the wrong button and played a sound effect of the Frankenstein monster moaning and screaming (which we said was Richard warming up for his show) and said it was for Lesley…..The song I wanted to play – and eventually did – was Mean Woman Blues by Roy Orbison.
WFBE
I was in a meeting with my program director Brian Cleary when the first plane hit the World Trade Center on 9/11. We were called out of the office by the morning show gal and we watched in horror as the second plane hit. To this day, when I hear Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning by Alan Jackson, I think of that morning.
On the less serious side, Brian was/is a big Simpsons fan. I have on the iPod the 45 second classic song from the Stonecutters episode “We Do”. It still is my ringtone for him on my phone.
My morning show partner from my second go around at B95 was Stephanie Carroll. Three songs stand out immediately that make me think of her. She has a very unusual infatuation with George Strait. I’m sure he has some sort of restraining order on her. Give It Away reminds me of her. One of the coolest stars we had in studio was Jeff Bates. He was a blast. Funny. Talented. Boy, he could sing! Rub It In always makes me think of Steph.
Our newsman, Hal, was doing some story about a guy who was truck by lightnight more than once and Steph responded by saying, “Lightning always strikes three times”. Hal said, “No, its Knock Three Times on the ceiling if you want me”….which led to this crazy Tony Orlando and Dawn rant. I quickly found the hook of the song and without telling her, I waited till she started to read the traffic sponsor and just started playing it…she lost it. I did this a couple more times until I finally just jumped in and finished while she laughed. One of my favorite bits and the song will forever be connected with Steph (and Hal)!
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 