1/25/09 Playlist: The Guys' Turn

I'd always believed that the more sleep you get, the better off and more with it you are. Couldn't prove that by me this morning. I crashed and burned early last night and slept most of the night, but I just couldn't spit out the words or get it right at times for the life of me today. Maybe I'm better off staying up and out and turning in later on Saturday nights.

Segment 1: The Guys' Turn
Last week we had the "Ladies Choice" theme here on the show and so this week it's only fair to give the fellows an equal shot. I'm going to start with a group that's made some of the greatest records of the baby boomer era and had some of the finest singers, and we hear one in this set (Ben E. King).

Drifters – Save the Last Dance For Me
Ben E. King – Spanish Harlem
Bobby Vee – The Night Has A Thousand Eyes
Rick Nelson – Young World
Paul Revere and the Raiders – Kicks

Here's a story for you: when I was around 11 or so I had a huge crush on Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Now some of the boys in school got wind of that and thought they were going to be smart alecks and start making up rumors, such as Mark Lindsay had died, or Paul Revere had died, or something like that. Ah but you see, I always knew better, because I read 16 Magazine and Tiger Beat. Back then, those magazines were 35 cents, which at that time was a challenge to an 11 year old's budget. Yet, I managed to save to buy at least five of those a month. Now I think they're something like $3.99. I looked through one of those the other day. They don't make them like they used to.

Segment 2: Picking Through the Record Box
Grass Roots – Where Were You When I Needed You
Gene Pitney – Love My Life Away
Charlie Rich - Mohair Sam
Beatles – Yes It Is
Johnny Horton - North To Alaska

I tested out my new show promo during this set. One of my fellow DJs was kind enough to ask if I even had one he could use to plug my show, so I gave it a shot and came up with something. (Thanks, Billy!)

Segment 3: Soul Stew
Brook Benton – It's Just A Matter of Time
Jackie Wilson – Doggin Around
Tyrone Davis – Can I Change My Mind
Sam Cooke – Nothing Can Change This Love
Marvin Gaye - Stubborn Kind of Fellow

One of the things I was trying to spit out today was about Sam Cooke's lasting influence and legacy which continues today. For example, track down a song in the Southern Gospel genre done recently by the Gaither Vocal Band called "I'll Tell It Whereever I Go". You'd think tenor Wes Hampton was about to sing "You Send Me" somewhere in that song!

Segment 4: Non-oldie/Current/New
I played a song that was "a hit that should have been". Sometimes the music industry just misses it completely. One of my favorite male voices belongs to Tommy Shaw of Styx. He struck out on his on for a little bit in the mid-80s and he put out an excellent solo album called "Girls With Guns". This song was released as a single and it had all the elements of a hit. A lot of us fans called and bugged the radio stations to play it, but it didn't quite catch on.

Tommy Shaw – Lonely School
Michael McDonald – Love TKO

Encouragement:
Encouragement can be found in the most unusual and unexpected places.

Like, believe it or not, foods. I sometimes buy small boxes of raisins. I've noticed the inside flaps of one brand of these raisin boxes contained inspirational thoughts or sayings. I've torn off a lot of those flaps and stuck them around my computer monitor where I can see them each day. "Healthy foods, healthy thoughts" is how I look at that one.

Once I bought a 4 bar package of soap. To my surprise, I found that the individual wrappers had inspiring sayings on them—written in English and French! Cleansing thoughts on cleansing bars...makes rather clever sense as well.

Encouragement and inspiration can be found in many places...in the expected as well as those places from out in left field. The challenge is to keep ourselves open to finding them and applying them to our lives.

Closer – Soul Serenade – King Curtis

Next week I'm going to do a show centering on 1964, taking a look back at that year in noting the 45th anniversary of the Beatles coming to our shores and in large part changing popular culture. I'll have some good stuff lined up for you so I hope you'll stop in next week for that show.