10 SONGS: 7/3/2024 [THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!, Part 1] (2024)

10 Songsis a weekly list of ten songs that happen to be on my mind at the moment. The lists are usually dominated by songs played on the previous Sunday night's edition ofThis Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. The idea was inspired byDon Valentineof the essential blogI Don't Hear A Single.

This week's edition of10 Songswill really be 40 Songs, presented in four parts. The selectionsdraw from the playlist forThis Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio # 1240, presenting a few of the tracks featured in my new book THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (VOLUME 1).

We played 48 tracks on this week's show; for ten of those, I read on-air excerpts from the book's chapter about that track. This four-part collection of 10 Songscolumns will offer snippets on behalf of the other 38 tracks, with two bonus tracks at the end.

BADFINGER: Baby Blue

..."Baby Blue" is the embodiment of why I fell in love with the radioin the first place. It’s an enduring testimony to why I still love radio'spotential, in spite of all efforts to make me give up on that love.Radio gave me Badfinger. I can never repay that debt....

CHUCK BERRY: Promised Land

...Chuck Berry knew well the travails of the downtrodden. Dark skin,humble origin, and destined to transcend everything to become oneof the most significant performers in the history of rock 'n' roll. Hismind was quick, his fingers precise, wedding intricate, unforgettablewordplay to a guitar he played like a-ringin' a bell. He struggled.He pushed. He got noticed. He got pushed back. He kept pushingback in turn, smiling and duck-walking, while seething behind hisflamboyant mask. A nice man? Possibly not, but beside the point.An important man? If you've ever loved rock 'n' roll, you should beashamed to even ask that question...

...Into this tinderbox, Chuck Berry brought an electric match: Blackmusic that made white kids dance. He wrote in code—mostfamously, the irresistibly potent brown-skinned handsome man whobecame (wink) a brown-eyed handsome man—but he crafted andchronicled the American teen-age dream with greater eloquencethan anyone else, black or white....

DUSTY SPRINGFIELD: I Only Want To Be With You

...Writer Greg Shaw noted that Dusty Springfield's "IOnly Want to Be With You" explodes with as much pure pop noiseas any Dave Clark Five record. The horns propel, the strings soar,the girl-group spirit celebrates, the music leans forward. Miss DustySpringfield presides over all of it, dancing by herself at themicrophone, singing sweetly of her love, her happiness, hercontented fulfillment in the arms of her chosen one. Her only wish,only ambition, is to be with the object of her desire. We hope it canreally be as simple as that....

ELVIS PRESLEY: Heartbreak Hotel

The entire world was about to change in an instant. No one knewwhat was about to happen. If they say they did, they're lyin'.

Unless, maybe, "they" happened to be Sam Phillips....

BIG MAMA THORNTON: Hound Dog

...Where and when did rock 'n' roll start? There are a few key artifactsto consider in seeking to ID the first rock 'n' roll record. "Rocket ‘88’"by Jackie Brentson and his Delta Cats (1951, and really Ike Turnerand his Kings of Rhythm) is the closest we have to a consensuschoice. Some would point to "The Fat Man" by Fats Domino (1950).I would at least add Amos Milburn's "Down the Road Apiece"(1947) to the discussion, and no less an authority than Lenny andSquiggy (on TV's Laverne and Shirley) spoke on behalf of "Call thePolice," a 1941 single Nat King Cole made with the King Cole Trio.There are other progenitors and trailblazers from across the headymingling of jump blues, R & B, country, and swing that birthed thisbastard child we call rock 'n' roll. What was the daddy of them all?Not even a blood test is going to make that determination.

"Hound Dog" is not the first rock 'n' roll record. But its originalrelease does predate the Rock 'n' Roll Era. It was written by JerryLeiber and Mike Stoller specifically for rhythm and blues singer BigMama Thornton. Thornton's "Hound Dog" single topped the R &B chart in 1953. Fittingly, her performance of the song is as much agrowl as it is anything else, a snarling dismissal of a worthless cur whocan wag his tail, but she ain't gonna feed him no more...

PATTI SMITH: Gloria

Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine.

That may be the greatest opening line in rock 'n' roll's long andthumping history. It's iconoclastic. It's rebellious. It swaggers, itshrugs, and it seethes with the promise of desire, the pursuit ofquick-fix happiness. It's a precise moment of rules breaking beyondmeaningful repair. It's a confession. It's a sacrament. It's sacrilege.And it's all in service of a freakin' cover song.

Patti Smith's "Gloria" is a medley, grafting her own rant "In ExcelsisDeo" onto Van Morrison's surly juggernaut "Gloria." Morrison'sgroup Them recorded the original “Gloria” as a British B-side (to"Baby, Please Don't Go") in 1964. In the US, radio programmersobjected to the lines And she comes to my room/Yeah, she makes mefeel all right, deeming the song too salacious for airplay. A 1966 coverby the Shadows of Knight excised the offending line and hit the Top10. And American youth was safe.

One wonders what 1960s moralists would have said about PattiSmith's "Gloria" if they could have heard it a decade before it evenexisted.

Probably nothing. Hearing it would have struck them mute....

LITTLE RICHARD: The Girl Can't Help It

Stranded in this conformist world of the 1950s, Little Richard wasthe Georgia Peach, a wild and effeminate black man, flamboyant,a strange visitor from another planet with powers and abilities farbeyond those of mortal men. His performances were electrifying,pounding, an irresistible symphony of WOOOOO! A-wop-bopa-loo-bop-a-lop-bam-boom. In the late fifties, only Jerry Lee Lewiscould match the sheer fervor of Little Richard. Little Richard was asbright a star as this dull world had ever seen.

And he was certain that he was going to Hell....

NEIL DIAMOND: Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show

Faith is infectious. Its specifics can vary from believer to believer,even among those who share a covenant.

Among his vast résumé of well-known pop compositions, NeilDiamond wrote both "I'm A Believer" and "Brother Love's TravelingSalvation Show." The former is a love song that casually employselements of the celestial. The latter evokes Gospel without beingGospel, a not-quite-secular/not-quite-sacred first-person report of aman with a Bible in his hand, a sermon in his heart, and a tent full ofbelievers primed for salvation on a hot August night....

THE RAMONES: Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

Dangerous. Deplorable. Degenerate. The Ramones were supposed to be dirty, filthy punks, likely to slit your throat for spare change, or just for kicks. They were loud. They were sloppy. They were beneath contempt.

And they were one of the greatest pop bands in the world.

That seeming incongruity has never quite resolved itself. In certain circles, one risks immediate scorn for the sin of considering the Ramones a power pop band. But it was never a sin.

It was a revelation....

ARTHUR CONLEY: Sweet Soul Music

...Do you like good music? You've come to the right place. Oh yeah!

TOMORROW: PART 2!

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My new bookThe Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1)is now available for order; you can see detailshere. My 2023 bookGabba Gabba Hey! A Conversation With The Ramonesisalso still available, courtesy of the good folks atRare Bird Books.

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carlairs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse atSPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, streaming atSPARK streamand on theRadio Gardenapp asWESTCOTT RADIO. Recent shows arearchived atWestcott Radio. You can read about our historyhere.

I'm on Twitter@CafarelliCarl