Music for Lovers Only: Sherriff Bufford T. Justice Does Music

Jackie Gleason was a very versatile entertainer.  I first became acquainted with Jackie Gleason not through Ralph Kramden from The Honeymooners, but through Sherriff Buford T. Justice from the Cannonball Run movies.  It wasn't until I was a teenager when I first watched The Honeymooners and was blown away by the comic timing of the entire cast.  I remember thinking, "They sure don't make shows like this anymore."

Now, in my forties, I have become acquainted with another side of Jackie Gleason:  musical conductor and composer.

In the early 1950s, Jackie Gleason put together a popular series of instrumental albums that catered to mood.  The first was Music for Lovers Only, which was originally released in 1952.  A longer, stereo version came out in 1954.  I just happened to pick up a decent copy of that album at Half Price Books for fifty cents.

The cover features a close up of a table, two empty wine glasses in the background.  A purse, a pair of gloves and a key sit on the table as two cigarettes burn in an ashtray; one cigarette marked by pink lipstick.   The description of the album on the back is hysterical:

"A wisp of cigarette smoke in the soft lamplight, the tinkle of a glass, a hushed whisper…and music for lovers only. This is love’s entrancing setting. For music, in a thousand ways, describes each glowing facet of romance.  In this album Jackie Gleason has chosen a group of love's most appealing melodies...tender ballads that have special significance for all of us.  Here is tuneful, sentimental music for your most relaxed listening moments."

This album was very popular.  In fact, it remains one of the most popular albums of all time. Yes, you heard me right.  Music for Lovers Only still holds the record for number of weeks in the top ten on the Billboard Charts: 153 weeks.   Michael Jackson's Thriller was there for only 78 weeks.

Jackie Gleason followed up the success of Music for Lovers Only with a series of emotion-categorized music: Music to Make You Misty, Music to Remember Her, and Music to Change Her Mind, to name just a few.  In total, Jackie Gleason produced close to 60 albums throughout his career.

Jackie Gleason was not a musician, however.  In fact, he couldn't read a note of music.  How much music did he create himself?  That depends on who you talk to.  Some claim that Jackie Gleason hummed melodies to assistants and those assistants then put it to music.  Indeed, he is given writing and conducting credits for music on The Honeymooners. Others claim that the only thing Gleason did was cash checks.

He didn't use traditional music terms when explaining the music that he wanted played. Sometimes, he used descriptions such as "pissing off a high bridge into a teacup" in  order to get the sound he wanted from the musicians.

Nevertheless, Music for Lovers Only is a good album.  Nostalgic, really.  Not anything that you would hear today, but probably very common in the Fifties as the bins at Goodwill and other thrift shops are filled with such remnants.

Soon, you'll be able to hear tracks from Music for Lovers Only as we bring back the Vinyl Brunch on weekends here at Vinyl Voyage Radio.  The Vinyl Brunch will feature music not in regular rotation at the station: classical, instrumental, jazz and much, much more.

Stay tuned for more information.

Christmas is Coming, the Vinyl's Being Spun

Yep.  It's getting to be that time of year.  Terrestrial radio started playing Christmas music on November 13 here in Chicago.  Way too early, in my opinion.  Especially when they play the same 10 songs every hour.

Last year, Vinyl Voyage went all Christmas for a week in what we called "Christmas Music that Doesn't Suck."   Get ready, the "2nd Annual Christmas Music that Doesn't Suck" is just around the corner.

Over the last several weeks, I've been scouring the local thrift stores for Christmas vinyl goodies. This year, we are adding a few more to the rotation that now exceeds 450 songs.  That's a lot of Christmas music.  I read last year that the local terrestrial radio station that plays Christmas music has only 150 songs or so on their playlist.  And it is painfully apparent.

New this year:

I can't believe I didn't have this album:  The Carpenters:  A Christmas Portrait. This album came out in 1978 and features the oft-heard, "Merry Christmas Darling."  But it has some other great tunes as well, including several instrumentals.  Nothing beats the voice of Karen Carpenter, in my opinion.

John Denver and the Muppets:  A Christmas Together.  This is a fun album, with some silly renditions of Christmas favorites, plus some serious tunes as well.  I love the Muppet take on "Christmas is Coming."

Ray Conniff and the Ray Conniff Singers: We Wish You a Merry Christmas.  Nothing says early 60s like Ray Conniff.  This was one of the best selling albums of 1962.

Narada: The Christmas Collection, from 1988.  This I just picked up the other day.  Narada, of course, was the New Age label founded in 1983.  The popularity of this album spawned other volumes of Christmas music in later years, all of which were released on CD.  This is the only Christmas album that was released on both vinyl and cd.  This is mostly synthesized music and the instrumentation is very 1980s.  In what was cutting edge at the time, one song boasts of being played on a "Macintosh computer with Mark of the Unicorn Performer 2.0 software." Another song is played on a Commodore 64.  Hey, I had one of those computers in the 80s, too!

Plus, I have many, many more.  Mostly compilation albums.  Back in the 60s and 70s, department stores sold Christmas albums.  Firestone was one of the first.  True Value was another.  I Found a Montgomery Ward Christmas album the other day.

More to come.  I am hoping to get that playlist over 500 songs. We will go all Christmas music for a week starting Friday, December 20, 2013.

Dick Biondi, WCFL and a "Found" Record

In 1963, Dick Biondi was the first DJ to play the Beatles.  The song was "Please Please Me" and the radio station was WLS-AM 890 in Chicago.  Fifty years later, Dick Biondi still spins records on WLS.  Although he has appeared on stations all over the country, Chicago has been his home for most of his career.  Now 81 years old, Dick Biondi is a Chicago tradition.  In fact, I have listened to Dick Biondi my entire life.

Avoiding the crazy "Black Friday" crowds, I decided to stop at my local thrift shop today in order to peruse the selection of vinyl.  And there, in a stack of discs, a young Dick Biondi smiled up at me.  He had thick hair back in 1968, large black-rimmed glasses and a suave smile.  Here was the "Wild I-Tralian," as he liked to call himself.

In 1968, Biondi was spinning records on WCFL AM 1000, the first true rival to WLS, where he had worked for several years.  The album I held in my hands was Big 10 Summer Gold, released by WCFL in 1968.  It was a promotional album, featuring a picture of Biondi and the other djs at the station. The album was billed as a sampling of the "WCFL Hall of Fame."

In the picture, all are wearing WCFL long-sleeved t-shirts, trying hard to look as cool as possible. Biondi was the only one actually pulling it off.

The album features some great music from the late 60s.  Tommy James and the Shondells, the Turtles, the Association, the Lovin' Spoonful, the Shirelles just to name a few.  The album is actually in really good shape, considering it is 45 years old and found in a storage bin at thrift store.  I forked over a dollar for it, brought it home and gave it a nice soapy bath.  As I write these words, "Five O'Clock World" by the Vogues plays on the turntable, an occasional pop and crackle a pleasant reminder of  the past.

A past that includes a Chicago icon.

Today, Biondi has the 11pm-2am shift on WLS-FM, 94.7.   Much too late for me, but I am feeling rather nostalgic for the voice that I can still hear in my head with his signature sign off: "Be good to your fellow human beings."

Thanks, Dick Biondi.

Vinyl Voyage Radio was created because of people like you.

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Dick Biondi was recently featured on NPR.  Click here to listen to the story.

New Additions to the Vinyl Voyage Library

As usual, put some new albums into the rotation recently.  Some classics here.

In 1977, K-Tel Gave Us "Stars"---next on AiV

I recently picked up this K-Tel album at our local library's book sale.  It was in great condition for an album that is 36 years old. This is a classic---K-Tel's Stars.

The album, as usual, features an eclectic mix of music.  From disco standards to pop ballads to rock and roll, this album cuts across genres and offers a great glimpse of the year that brought us Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Annie Hall.  Most of the songs made it to the Billboard Year End Chart for 1977.  A couple are on the 1976 chart.  And one is on the 1973 chart.

Here's the commercial:


This is the album featured on Adventures in Vinyl this month.  Join us for a music trip back to 1977 through the magic of K-Tel.  We'll play the album in its entirety and discuss the music, movies and news of the day.

Adventures in Vinyl can be heard to the following time (all Central):

Sunday, 4 pm
Tuesday, 1 pm
Wednesday, 2 am
Thursday, 10 am
Saturday, 12 pm

New on AiV: K-tel's "Love Is..." from 1982

This month on Adventures in Vinyl, we are taking a trip back to 1982 for the K-Tel compilation, Love Is...

This album has 13 songs and, if you know anything about music in the early 80s...yes, this has an Air Supply song. In fact, you can't have a collection of "love songs" from that year without including Air Supply.  They had 3 songs on the top of the chart in 1982.

The album also features "Cool Night," by Paul Davis, "You Can Do Magic," by America and a song that was played all the time in my house back when I was in junior high, "Key Largo," by Bertie Higgins.  Plus Charlene, Quincy Jones, Mike Post, Dottie West and the Alan Parsons Project.

Adventures in Vinyl can be heard at the following times on Vinyl Voyage Radio:

Saturday, 12 pm (Central)  
Sunday, 4 pm (Central)
Tuesday, 1 pm (Central)
Wednesday, 2 am (Central)
Thursday, 10 am (Central)

OtR's "Meet Me at the Edge of the World"

Meet Me at the Edge of the World, Over the Rhine’s new release, finally arrived.  Although I’ve been listening to it for a couple of months now, nothing beats hearing it on vinyl.

This album is strikingly different from the band’s 2010 release, The Long Surrender.  That album was darker and harder hitting, with such songs as “The Laugh of Recognition, “Rave On” and “Undamned.”  Save for the blues-infused “Gonna Let My Soul Catch My Body” and “Baby if this is Nowhere,” the bulk of these songs are more contemplative.  This is pure Americana.

At the core of Over the Rhine is Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler, a couple who have been making music together for over 20 years.  This album is inspired by their pre-Civil War farmhouse they lovingly call “Nowhere Farm.”  The farm is located about an hour outside of Cincinnati, in Highland County.  In fact, one of the best songs on the album is a love song entitled “Highland County.”

How did you find me

I can’t remember anymore

Along the Ohio

My wreckage washed upon your shore

Ohio figures prominently in these songs, even more than in their 2003 double-album release, Ohio. Most of the songs reference the state in one way or another.  The song “All Over Ohio,” the first true duet by Bergquist and Detweiler, is the highlight of the album.

I still get shivers when I hear

You singin’ down the hall

I’m gonna kiss you all over Ohio

That song features lovingly penned allusions to Ohio and snippets of the couple’s biography.  Detweiler sings about his father:

And the halleujah chorus

Used to make my Daddy cry

I still wonder ‘bout the ruckus

Angels make up there on high

In the meanwhile there are measures

We can take to get us by

Lay me down next to you in Ohio

And gives a rare, pointed commentary on current politics:

I have seen the slow corruption

Of the best ideas of Christ

In the pulpits of our nation

Gospel turned into white lies

If you preach a subtle hatred -

The bible as your alibi

Goddam you right here in Ohio

With music and lyrics steeped in imagery and emotion, these songs act like paint on a canvas.  This may be the most poignant and mature album they have ever made.   Never ones to underestimate their fans, Meet Me at the Edge of the World continues OtR’s tradition of making music that not only tells stories but feel as if they are late night conversations among friends.

“Sacred Ground,” the third song on the album, tells the story of the veins of coal that stretched through southern Ohio and the many hands that have toiled bringing the coal to the surface.  It is hauntingly sung by Bergquist and Detweiler with beautiful harmony.

Love me like a memory held too long

Like the need to feel some forgotten song

Kiss me to chills like there’s only me

Like it’s hard to kill the last cottonwood tree

Love me later when the stars fall down

A burning light for a wedding gown

They stole the blood right out of this ground

They’d still kick a flower when it’s down

Help me trace the scars on mountains

The sun that sets in a bloody fountain

Take me home and lay me down

On the hungry earth (Love me, love me)

On the sacred ground

Although it’s nice to hear Linford taking his turn singing on some of the tracks, Karin Bergquist has never sounded better.  She has a voice infused with soul; an ability to pull emotion and hit one in the gut with a turn of phrase.  In “All of It Was Music,” she hints at the couple’s tumultuous past and admits that it was music that held them together, especially in their early days living in the Over the Rhine neighborhood in Cincinnati:

The night was bending in a grin

As streetlight shadows tattooed skin

Whatever we were tangled in

All of it was music

The bed sheets were our whitest flag

The war became a game of tag

We surrendered all we had

And all we had was music

The humming of the window unit

The street noise often sang right through it

A drunken song somehow we knew that

Even it was music

The newness of uncovered skin

Your messy hair your goofy grin

Your shattered places deep within

All of it was music

In the opening track, “Meet Me at the Edge of the World,” Karin Berquist invites us into their world, reminding us later in "Called Home" to "leave the edges wild."  The album careens around themes of home, love and loss and offers up a couple of Linford’s instrumentals.  It then ends with the beautiful “Favorite Time of Light,” that moment when the sun is just about to dip beyond the horizon, casting the sky in a radiant warm hue.   It is those moments that are most important, when we stop and gaze upon the beauty of the world, holding our loved ones close and forgetting, for a moment, our worries and fears.

Leave the dishes in the sink don’t overthink it

Close up the brokenhearted piano

Join me on the porch if you can swing it

Let’s dream an ocean in Ohio

You’ve been working so hard I can feel it -

The clean and honest sweat upon your skin

I wanna see the rosy light on your face

Is this evening free or did it cost us everything

It’s our favorite time of light

Just before the day kisses the night

You see the redwing blackbirds fly

The sun’s a big ol’ lazy eye

And when the day is bending low

And rolling fields begin to glow

Feels like we traveled all this way

Just so I could hear you say

It’s our favorite

Our favorite time of light

This is an album that deserves to be absorbed and needs several listens to truly appreciate the nuances it offers.  I suggest a glass of wine and a cozy fire.  You will not be disappointed.

I wanna see you smiling

On Sunday afternoon

I want your soul to sing you

An everlasting tune
("Earthbound Love Song")

Meet Me at the Edge of the World Track Listing:

Side A
1. Meet Me At The Edge Of The World
2. Called Home
3. Sacred Ground
4. I'd Want You
5. Gonna Let My Soul Catch My Body

Side B
6. All Of It Was Music
7. Don’t Let The Bastards Get You Down
8. Highland County
9. Wait

Side C
1. All Over Ohio
2. Earthbound Love Song
3. Against The Grain
4. It Makes No Difference

Side D
5. Blue Jean Sky
6. Cuyahoga
7. Baby If This Is Nowhere
8. Wildflower Bouquet
9. The Birds Of Nowhere Farm
10. Favorite Time Of Light

Next on AiV: K-Tel's 20 Dynamic Hits from 1972

After an extended summer hiatus, Adventures in Vinyl is back with a very special K-Tel album from 1972.  First of all, this album is brand new--never opened.  You'll be hearing it first played on AiV.

Secondly, this album was a K-Tel album, but also a "Top Star Festival" album, which was the record label of the United Nations. Yeah, that United Nations.  They had released several albums in the 60s and early 70s with all proceeds going to refugee aid.  As far as I know, this is the only one released by K-Tel.

The album came out in 1972 and was advertised like any other K-Tel album on television.  It contains hits from James Taylor, Elton John, the Osmonds, Rod Stewart and many, many more--another great sampling of music from the time.

And, as a special treat, it also has a very rare recording of Aretha Franklin covering Frank Sinatra's "My Way."  This was never released until 2008.  How K-Tel got a hold of that recording, I do not know.


Not only that, the album begins with a song that actually began as a television commercial jingle. Remember "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke"?  That song proved so popular it was worked into a hit song and was covered by two bands in 1972:  the New Seekers and the Hillside Singers.  The version performed by the Hillside Singers starts off the album.  If there is a better song to bring you back to that time, I have yet to hear it.
Adventures in Vinyl can be heard at the following times (central):
Tuesday 1 pm  Wednesday 2 am Thursday 10 am Saturday 12 pm Sunday 4 pm
Adventures in Vinyl:  the only radio show dedicated to the lost art of the K-Tel record compilation.  

New Editions to the Vinyl Voyage Library

This week, I digitized some more vinyl.  Here are the latest editions to the Vinyl Voyage library:

Elton John Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (1975)	Barbara Streisand Memories (1981)
Billy Joel Turnstiles (1976)	Crosby, Stills and Nash Crosby, Stills and Nash (1969)
Sting The Dream of the Blue Turtles (1985)	Heart Dreamboat Annie (1976)

Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy

When I was a kid, I used to check out record albums from the public library.  I was perusing the LP bins one day and came across Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.  At the time I was perhaps 10 years old and knew nothing about Elton John, other than the crazy outfits and sunglasses he wore.  I think my first introduction to Elton was via the sitcom, One Day at a Time (I had a slight crush on Valerie Bertinelli).  In one particular episode, the two Romano sisters, played by Bertinelli and Mackenzie Phillips, do a routine in a variety show dressed as Elton John and Kiki Dee singing "Don't Go Breaking My Heart."  That song I knew, as it was played ad nauseum on the radio at the time.

Anyway, I checked out Captain Fantastic not because it was Elton John, but because the cover was so awesome.   Although I hadn't yet been exposed to Hieronymus Bosch, the cover must have been influenced by the paintings of the 15th century artist.  When I studied art in college I remember looking at The Garden of Earthy Delights and immediately thinking of Captain Fantastic.

Like Bosch, the cover to Captain Fantastic is filled with other-worldly creatures: birdmen, naked bodies, giant fish, men carrying large timepieces, creatures pooping gold.  The only thing missing from the Elton cover is a man playing a flute out of his ass.

Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy came out in an era when album art mattered and bands spent a great deal of time and energy making the album art part of the entire experience. The packaging was almost as important as the contents. First, the introduction of compact discs diminished album art importance and the evolution to digital completely killed this time-honored tradition. The art of Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy could never be shrunk to a small lcd screen.  Indeed, an album like Captain Fantastic would not even be produced today.

I listened to the album when I brought it home and stared at those images while the music played on the turntable. I was entranced. The album is amazing.  This is not an album of hits; Captain Fantastic only produced one single:  "Someone Saved My Life Tonight."  That song is, by far, my favorite Elton John song---perhaps because of that moment back in the 70s when I truly began listening to music.

It was Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy that opened my eyes--and ears--to music beyond the trope that was being played on the radio.  Captain Fantastic taught me that albums matter.  Songs  played in order mean something.  There is a reason why "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" finishes side one.  You have to stop and turn the album over, the last lines and bars of the music still echoing in your head:

I never realized the passing hours of evening showers
A slip noose hanging in my darkest dreams
I'm strangled by your haunted social scene
Just a pawn out-played by a dominating queen
It's four o'clock in the morning
Dammit listen to me good
I'm sleeping with myself tonight
Saved in time, thank God my music's still alive

I haven't heard Captain Fantastic in its entirety in years.  A couple of weeks ago, I was in a used record store and came across a nice copy of the album and I was instantly transported to that time back in the 70s when I fished the album out of the bin at the library for the first time.  I bought it and soon the black disc was spinning on my turntable.  It was like I was a kid again, feeling the same emotions I felt when I first heard the album in another time, another age.

Although the album is a concept album chronicling the early musical lives of Elton John (Captain Fantastic) and Bernie Taupin (Brown Dirt Cowboy), it spoke to me like nothing had spoken to me before.  It's lyrics are still powerful, thirty-five years later.

The first song, "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy" has a great melody and sets up the album nicely, but it was the second song that stopped me cold.  Infused with religious imagery that I did not understand as a 10 year old kid, "Tower of Babel" is a powerful rumination on life and meaning---perhaps more so now that I am closing in on my 45th birthday:

Snow, cement and ivory young towers
Someone called us Babylon
Those hungry hunters
Tracking down the hours
But where were all your shoulders when we cried
Were the darlings on the sideline
Dreaming up such cherished lies
To whisper in your ear before you die

Wow.  I can't remember the last time I heard that song.  I am sure the lyrics didn't mean then what they mean to me now.  That's the wonder of life and art---interpreting meaning through different lenses and experiences and eras.  As one who didn't necessarily feel like I fit in at the time, there was plenty in Captain Fantastic to give my adolescent feelings legitimacy.  Now, as a grown man those feelings are somewhat nostalgic, yet the lyrics now seem more mature...more wise.

There are songs on this album about suicide ("Someone Saved My Life Tonight"), love ("We All Fall in Love Sometimes"), the record business ("Tower of Babel," "Bitter Fingers"), and success and failure ("Writing," "(Gotta Get) A Meal Ticket," "Better Off Dead").

The album ends with the hauntingly beautiful "Curtains," which is about death and the mark one has made on the world:

Cultivate the freshest flower
This garden ever grew
Beneath these branches
I once wrote such childish words for you
But that's okay
There's treasure children always seek to find
And just like us
You must have had
A once upon a time

When I started buying compact discs, I never revisited Captain Fantastic. The copy I taped from the library long gone, Captain Fantastic was a mere fragment of a memory until I found it once again. The copy that I bought from the used record store even had an original poster from the album.  I want to frame it and place it on the wall behind my bed.

I hope my wife doesn't mind.

Footloose, this month on Cine/Spin

Join us this month on Cine/Spin for the motion picture soundtrack to Footloose.  This is a great album, released in 1984 and features some very 80s music.  Of course, the title by Kenny Loggins starts off the album.  Included is the classic ballad, "Almost Paradise."  Deniece Williams had a number one hit with "Let's Hear it For the Boy."

This is the album that knocked Michael Jackson's Thriller out of the top spot, where it held on for a record 10 weeks.  Footloose remained there for just three weeks, but it would become the 7th highest grossing film of the year and launched Kevin Bacon into stardom.


Cine/Spin can be heard on Vinyl Voyage Radio at the following times (central):

Saturday, 8 pm
Sunday, 1 pm
Monday, 10 pm
Wednesday, 10 am
Friday, 7 pm

AiV this Month: K-Tel's "After Hours" from 1982

On this month's edition of Adventures in Vinyl, we are taking a time trip back to 1982 for K-Tel's .  This album featured Rick Springfield, Lindsey Buckingham, ABBA, George Benson, Air Supply...and many, many more.

Perhaps not one of K-Tel's best, After Hours still has plenty going for it.  Over half of the songs appeared on the Billboard Year End Chart for 1982.  And, like all their albums in the 1980s, K-Tel went with quality over quantity.  This album has only 15 songs and very little editing.  These are mostly full versions, unlike those found on their compilations in the 70s when they tried to fit as many songs as possible on an LP.




Adventures in Vinyl can be heard at the following times (central)

Saturday, 12 pm
Sunday, 4 pm
Tuesday, 1 pm
Wednesday, 2 am
Thursday, 10 am

"Mind Bender" Another Great K-Tel Compilation This Month on AiV

In 1976, K-Tel Records released Mind Bender, a compilation album featuring "22 Original Hits, Original Stars."  You know the drill.

This album features War, Elton John, Jigsaw, Hot Chocolate, KISS and many, many more.

Mind Bender is the featured K-Tel album this month on Adventures in Vinyl.



Adventures in Vinyl can be heard at the following times (central): Saturday, 12 pm
Sunday, 4 pm
Tuesday, 1 pm
Wednesday, 2 am
Thursday, 10 am

This Month on Cine/Spin: "Weird Science"

This month on Cine/Spin, we are featuring the original motion picture soundtrack to Weird Science.

Starring Anthony Michael Hall, Ilan Mitchell-Smith and Kelly LeBrock, the film tells the story about two geeks who decide to make a woman.  And, borrowing from other sci-fi films, they do just that...and hilarity ensues.  Well, maybe not hilarity.  The film is rather stupid and is the weakest of John Hughes' teen-based pictures.  However, there are some good performances and some good laughs, especially at the expense of Bill Paxton, who plays the older brother of one of the characters.  This film also featured Robert Downey, Jr. in a supporting role.


Weird Science was released in 1985 to mixed reviews.  Currently, it hold only a 58% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The soundtrack features two very influential 80s tunes:  "Weird Science" by Oingo Boingo and "Eighties" by The Killing Joke.  Like all of Hughes' films during this time, music is an important part of the narrative.  He took the soundtrack album to a different level.  On this episode, we will play the soundtrack in its entirety.

Cine/Spin can be heard (all times central):

Saturday, 8 pm
Sunday, 1 pm
Monday, 10 pm
Wednesday, 10 am
Friday, 7 pm

What is your GUILTY PLEASURE song? This week on Friday Night Live

Everybody has at least one.

You know what I am talking about: a song that you are embarrassed to admit you like. Maybe you have several.  I do.

I can tell you this: doing the dishes becomes more enjoyable when Katy Perry's "Firework" comes on the iPod.  Yes, you read right.  I have Katy Perry on my iPod.

Trust me, that is the only Katy Perry song I own. But, I have to admit, I love that song.

And that is what a guilty pleasure song is---a song you love and you might not understand why. But it is something that you would more likely deny than admit to friends.

I happen to have several "guilty pleasure" songs.

Such as "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves." Yep.  Love that song too.

"Guilty Pleasure Songs" will be the feature on Friday Night Live. We'll talk about those songs that we hate to love, but love them anyway.

So, I need your suggestions.  What songs do you love but are afraid to admit?  Which are your "Guilty Pleasure Songs?"  Let me know. Write those songs in the comments below or hop on over to Facebook and answer our question.  Tell me why. Your songs and stories may be featured on Friday Night Live.

I need to start building a playlist and telling your stories.  Don't be shy.  You will not be judged.  I promise.

After all, I just admitted that I like a Katy Perry song. It can't get worse than that.

Friday Night Live begins at 9 pm (central) every Friday night on Vinyl Voyage Radio.

New Vinyl Rips This Week

This past week, I was able to put into the compter several vinyl albums.  That's the thing, we are always adding to our library here at Vinyl Voyage.  Here are the albums that you will be hearing soon on the radio.  And these albums give testament to our central theme:  eclectic.