Phil Collins, Elton John, and Gloria Estefan dominated Adult Contemporary radio back in the 1980s and '90s, yet have disappeared from modern radio. Seemingly, the only time you ever hear them is at the grocery store or your local CVS. This blog remembers the music, the stories and the quirky characters from my days working in Adult Contemporary radio.
Is there any chance you can talk to Todd today and ask him if he can do a little voice recording for me? I need his golden pipes! If he has the time all I need him to say/record is "You're listening to The Dream Weaver, 95.5." And then if possible, have the chorus of that Gary Wright song start playing?
The ultimate question is "why the hell do you need this?", but I never asked questions. I simple complied and enjoyed seeing the White Sox actually win a game in 2011.
Withe copies of their debut album in hand, the boys from the band Starbuck hand-delivered Moonlight Feels Right to more than 400 radio stations across the US in the winter of 1975, but the majority of the stations didn't play any of their songs. One radio station from Birmingham, Alabama claimed the song (of the same name) sounded more like something that would be played in the Spring and they promised to do that. Discouraged, Starbuck returned to the studio to try a different sound when that same Birmingham radio station started spinning "Moonlight Feels Right". Other radio stations followed and the song became a hit...in the spring of 1976.
Yacht Rock fans now can sport t-shirts and earrings while sipping Bartles & Jaymes from their nautical-themed mugs thanks to the revival of the smooth sounds of Yacht Rock music. The genre that features soft rock of the late-'70s and early-'80s enjoyed a renaissance during the mid-2000s thanks to the web-based Yacht Rock series from J.D. Ryznar. Even today, the format continues to ride the wave throughout the country. Sirius/XM, Pandora, Spotify, and even traditional radio stations now feature the nautical sounds of Yacht Rock music on their respective channels and playlists. The first episode of the web-series featured the strangely-addictive "Breezin'" from George Benson in an episode all about the birth of The Doobie Brothers' "What A Fool Believes"--the song, according to the show's founders, is the purest form of smooth music ever created. Sail on...
Our family sat in the same church pew each week from the early-1980s until my parents' divorce in 1992. We attended 4:45 P.M. mass each Saturday as a family and, if we were lucky, my dad treated us to pizza afterwards. We were your typical Midwest family with my dad working in a steel mill while my mom made minimum wage holding down various clerical positions. My parents tried. They did. They married after only dating for a short time because they "had to". Their marriage survived until year 10 when "irreconcilable differences" drove them apart. Then, one night dad returned with all his belongings and moved back into a house that was no longer our home -- that home was sold months earlier with their divorce imminent. Seeking a return to normalcy, they built a new home in our old subdivision. We all moved in together and six years later, my parents gave up again. This time, my dad didn't return with his belongings. My parents officially divorced in 1992 on the first day of my sophomore year of high school.
On Christmas Eve 2018, my two aunts, mother, brother, his two children and his fiance attended mass at our old church in Indiana. We even sat in our old pew. Since we expected seating to be limited, we arrived nearly 30 minutes early. This allowed ample time for thinking. Too much thinking. As I sat there, 26 years later, emotions washed over me that I never expected. Not much had changed at this church during my absence -- it looked just like I remember it...maybe a little smaller, but still the same. This same church was where I last saw my Grandfather alive...four days before he died of a heart attack in 1989. This same church was where my Grandmother stood as my Confirmation sponsor in 1991. Earlier that Christmas Eve afternoon, we all watched old family movies including a VHS recording of my Grandmother speaking at her surprise 70th birthday in 1998. My memories of the night are cloudy for personal reasons, so I was touched hearing Grandma speak so eloquently on that tape about how the reason we all celebrated that night was because of love. "Love was what kept us all together especially after John (my Grandfather) died, " she said. Grandma died in 2004 after a long and painful battle with cancer. Already working overtime, my limbic system struggled to maintain balance. And that's when it happened.
Unexpected, my dad walked to the front pew of church where we all once sat as a family and joined us. He sat down next to his grandchildren. The rest of the pew took notice and waved excitedly. Even my mom's two sisters who always loved my dad. For a moment, I was a kid again...on Christmas Eve. In fact, I believe the red coat my dad was wearing was the same coat he wore back when my parents were married. I felt tears welling up in my left eye. I didn't know why, exactly, because I came to terms with my parents divorce long before it actually happened. Was I morning or reminiscing? I didn't know. Thoughts that zig-zagged through my brain now did loopty-loops. All of a sudden, my family was...a family again. Within ten minutes, my dad stood up just before church serviced started and walked over. He whispered to us that he was leaving. He said he had another mass to attend later that night. Looking back 48 hours later, it was probably the right decision.
What happens when your girlfriend stands you up on New Year's Eve? You arrive at the lyrics to "She's Gone". It happened to John Oates, and the New Year's Eve-that-never-was turned heartache into one of the duo's favorite songs. Originally released in 1973, the ballad received next to no attention outside the duo's hometown of Philadelphia. Upon re-release in 1976 (after the success of "Sara Smile"), the song went to #7 on the Hot 100 and #6 on the Adult Contemporary Charts.
In a song originally intended for Dusty Springfield, Elton John teamed up with Kiki Dee in "Don't Go Breaking My Heart". While Dee never was known for much in the United States other than this duet, her musical career flourished in the UK (where she was born). Dee put out 12 albums--including one as late as 2013.
Despite earlier versions by Leon Russell and The Carpenters, it was George Benson who made "This Masquerade" into a hit song. In fact, the song launched Benson's career in 1976. In 1977, Benson and "This Masquerade" won a Grammy Award for Song of the Year.
I celebrated my 39th birthday in 2016 and, among other things, stopped into Carol's Pub in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood. Carol's stood at the corner of Clark and Leland for four decades even as the neighborhood around it underwent numerous transformations. Throughout it all, Carol's remained true to its neighborhood dive bar status and lived up to its claim of the "last of honky tonks in Chicago". People young and old frequented the 4 a.m. bar. In fact, the majority of the clientele that April evening were grey haired folks who came for their weekly night of dancing. That night, I requested the 1976 country pop song "Let Your Love Flow" from The Bellamy Brothers, but the house band didn't know it. Sadly, I won't get a chance to request another song. By September 2016, Carol's Pub closed its doors with the ominous word that their liquor license had been revoked by the state. By the end of 2016, the building was for sale and Carol's Pub will likely be another Chicago institution to disappear.
Can you name Fleetwood Mac's first big hit? It wasn't "Don't Stop", but rather the soft breakup tune "Over My Head" first charted for Fleetwood Mac in 1976. The song peaked at #20 Billboard's Hot 100.
Eric Carmen took the haunting tear-jerker "All By Myself" all the way to #6 on the Adult Contemporary Chart in 1976, but it was Celine Dion who buoyed the song to the #1 spot during the winter of 1997. After the loss of her husband Rene Angelil in 2016, Celine returned to the stage in Las Vegas and performed "All By Myself". There wasn't a dry eye in the house.
"Love So Right" climbed up to #3 on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1976 just before The Bee Gee's popularity was on the verge of exploding. Saturday Night Fever propelled the band to worldwide stardom the following year.
My neighbors used to refer to me as "Radio Todd" because I worked in radio and my name is Todd (genius!). I would imagine that if any of my neighbors dated a British guy named Dan that they would have called him "England Dan".