When I was 11 years old and living in rural Grafton, Ohio, there weren’t too many other kids my age in our neighborhood, especially any with my twin obsessions, Micronauts action figures and music. So when I met Ricky, one grade behind me, and discovered that not only did he have both the Baron Karza AND Force Commander figures (those were the expensive ones!), he also had quite the record collection for a 10-year old, I knew I’d found a friend.

Since Ricky’s family was a bit more well-to-do than mine, they also had the first VCR I’d ever seen. You mean you can record “Solid Gold,” then watch it over and over again, whenever you want? So jealous! And you can buy video tapes with music videos already on them like Olivia Newton-John’s Totally Hot video LP? Another video LP Ricky had that we watched again and again was Blondie’s Eat To The Beat, which featured videos for each of the album’s tracks. My favorite song from this was one I never heard on the radio, a mid-tempo tune called “Union City Blue.”

After “Dreaming” hit the charts, “Union City Blue” (download) was released as the second single from Eat To The Beat in the UK, while the US got “The Hardest Part,” a move I could never understand. While “The Hardest Part” is a great album cut, it’s not exactly Top 40 friendly like “Union City Blue” instantly is. As it was, “The Hardest Part” choked at #84 - competing with another Blondie single released at the same time didn’t help … a little ditty titled “Call Me.” But while the US was denied, “Union City Blue” climbed the charts overseas.

The single ended up peaking at #13 in the UK, and it was an obvious favorite for many fans, including Radiohead, who do an interestingly serviceable cover: (more…)

How many of you remember your first music purchase? I have a terrible memory, so I’m not sure if it really was my first purchase ever, but I absolutely remember buying my first CD with my own money. I was eight, the year was 1984, and the unfortunate CD was Culture Club’s Colour by Numbers. (I don’t know what CDs cost back then, but I must have done a lot of chores to be able to afford one at that age.) I say “unfortunate” not because the album was bad — I still enjoy it even today — but because it just becomes the laughingstock of the first-purchase conversation. I could absolutely tell people that it was Def Leppard, Billy Joel, David Bowie — hell, even Ride the Lightning if I wanted to be cool — but I know that at some point I’d tell someone the wrong thing and get called on it and then not only will people laugh at my purchase but they’ll think I’m an asshole for lying about it too. It’s really a no-win situation, so I just stick with the truth. Besides, people are just as horrified when I cradle my self-titled Frank Stallone record like it’s my child, so at that point “Karma Chameleon” is like 100 times better.

I’m an absolute junkie for the “My first record was …” story, so I’d love to hear what yours is after you take a listen to the 19 below as we continue this week with the letter “B.”

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Although released in late 1977, the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack would be impossible to ignore for much of 1978, with the Bee Gees’ “Night Fever” and “Stayin’ Alive,” as well as Yvonne Elliman’s “If I Can’t Have You,” all reaching #1. At several points during the first half of ‘78, the soundtrack album was selling over 1 million units a week.

Bee Gees - Stayin’ Alive
Bee Gees - Night Fever (w/ More Than a Woman) (more…)

The Beginning

Mike Zelenko (drummer): “I met Jim through an advertisement in the Illinois Entertainer (a local monthly music magazine) right out of high school.

He called me a couple days after the ad started running and told me to come out to Addison, IL (where he lived) right now. With him still on the phone, I’m asking my mom if I can I borrow a car. ‘I thought you were gonna mow the lawn,’ she says. In my other ear, I hear Jim saying, ‘Tell her that if you can’t borrow the car tonight, you’ll never mow another lawn.’

What impressed me the most about Jim was the fact that he was always thinking about the band in the future, planning 3 steps ahead. Forward progress was always being made.

We had a very D.I.Y. ethic, were getting college play, and were willing to work harder than other bands. We made sure to hit New York at least once a month.”

Ted Ansani (bassist): “Jim and I were friends at Columbia College and one day he asked me to start a band with him.. In turn, I asked, ‘Do you have enough music?’ He just smirked and said ‘Of course I do, man.’”

Jim was such a prolific songwriter, every day he’d write a song that was better than the song he’d written the day before.

In the beginning, we literally ran the record company out of Jim’s bedroom. We would glue the covers together, insert the vinyl, and send them out to every college radio station in the country.” (more…)