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.
"Are you okay?" I heard as I sat staring out the window of the Kinball-bound CTA Brown Line train.
"Um, are you okay?" I heard again.
I looked up and saw two strangers staring at me from across the aisle.
"Who, me?" I gingerly replied.
"Yeah. You look so down. Are you okay?" she asked again.
"Oh. Yeah. No, I'm fine. Just lost in thought I guess."
"Oh, okay," she said and went back to her conversation with her friend.
This happened three days after 9/11 and the genuine concern that stranger showed remains with me today.
In the pre-Uber and Lyft days, you entrusted something called taxicabs to take you places. Taxis (or "cabs") are yellow-colored clunkers that usually smelled of Drakar Noir cologne thanks, in part, to the drivers (known as "cabbies"). On at least three occasions, I gleefully rode in a cab while the drivers started to fall asleep at the wheel. When I questioned the cabbies, they would usually laugh and say that they're fine and not falling asleep. This usually ended with the cabbie falling asleep yet again. The most recent occasion happened after a concert a few years ago. Fed up, I contacted the city of Chicago who sent me paperwork to detail my experience. I filled out every requested document and then received a letter from the city that said (and I'm paraphrasing): "Thank you for calling this to our attention. We will put this complaint in the driver's permanent record."
"Drops of Jupiter" gets Charlie Sheen arrested. Sounds like a tabloid headline, but no--it actually happened. The unlikely scene unfolded at the Sheen house on Christmas morning in 2009. According to Sheen, he purchased two telescopes for him and his daughter so they could "look at the same point in the universe at the same time as a way of staying connected" and also because they both enjoyed the Train ballad "Drops of Jupiter." This, according to Sheen, enraged his then-wife Brooke Muller who was jealous Sheen and their daughter shared a song, but she and Sheen did not. Sounds like a common fight that plays out at most folks homes on Christmas morning, right? Muller's version was quite different: Sheen was drunk, threatened to have her killed, snapped her designer eyeglasses, and slapped her hands. Sheen later pled guilty and went to rehab following the incident. To no one's surprise, the couple later divorced. Happy Holidays, from the Sheens!
While most high school students spent their free time breaking into their parent's liquor cabinet my friend John and I hopped trains. Yep. We would climb aboard boxcars of the local freight train on the rickety old tracks near our houses and ride it nearly three-miles to the next town. The train didn't move fast (10 MPH at most) and didn't do much other than drop off a string of cars at a Ford plant and then return with the previous day's cars that were now empty. The short line railroad proved to be a big part of my youth as I spent many nights on those tracks during some trying times.
One particular winter night in 1994, John and I climbed aboard the train and traveled the three-mile stretch before jumping off the train just before it entered the Ford warehouse. The warehouse sat among a busy street, but with little else except industrial buildings nearby. The list of places for John and I to go while waiting for the train to make its return trip was short. This night, we decided to walk to the nearby gas station and came across a girl standing in the phone booth talking to her friend (remember, it was 1994). She seemed nervous as we approached, opened the door and asked if we needed to use the phone. John and I politely declined. Then the girl struck up a conversation. Somehow we got on the topic that we were train hopping and killing time until the train headed back to our town. Then she immediately passed the phone over to us. Her friend on the phone begged us not to train hop, but we assured her that we were pros at this and there was nothing to worry about. "Fine," she said, "But promise me that you'll call me when you guys get home." John and I looked at each other, agreed to check-in and got her phone number. About an hour later, we placed the phone call and relayed that we safely made it home. From there, the three of us formed a friendship via the telephone and spent many nights on three-way phone calls with them.
Neither John nor I ever knew what she looked like and the same held true for her -- we only knew each other from our voices. She was a couple years younger and went to a different school. Despite this, we used to talk late into the night to her on the phone--sometimes her friend whose nickname was "Birdy" also joined the conversation. I don't know what ever happened to her or Birdy as John and I eventually moved out of our parent's respective houses and went to college. Despite both John and I having a steel trap for a memory, we both can't remember her name. However, I do recall that she was a big fan of the song "Always" from Bon Jovi. Everything else is a blur.
Hot Adult Contemporary radio stations made Train a core artist during the 2000s thanks to a long list of hits including "Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)", "Calling All Angels" and "When I Look to the Sky". Like most hits from Train, "When I Look to the Sky" featured the soaring vocals of lead singer Pat Monahan.
When you think about rock bands, does Train ever come to mind? Well, someone apparently thought of the San Franciso band. "Calling All Angels" managed to re-define the word "rock" and helped garner two Grammy nominations for Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group in 2003. Train lost both awards to Bruce Springsteen and The White Stripes, respectively.
Considered a rock band by 1999 standards, Train's "Meet Virginia" was the group's first big hit. I'd really like to meet the woman described in the lyrics: "She wears high heels when she exercises...".
At the start of the 21st Century, Adult Contemporary radio evolved with a "brighter" sound as longtime artists like Lionel Richie being replaced by the likes of Matchbox 20 and Train. But Lionel Richie would have none of it. The guy known for "Dancing on the Ceiling" released "Angel", and added some funky-synthesizer-drum beat to the song to make it more appealing to the very Adult Contemporary radio stations who were dropping him.