R&SRNR_ 177 – “THE LAST SHOW”* Welcome to the final edition of our little podcast series. Yes, it’s true. After nearly eight years of episodes downloaded by a loyal worldwide audience numbering hundreds of thousands – plus critical acclaim as one of the highest quality oldies and music history programs in cyberspace, we think now is the right time to take our creativity in new directions. More about that during this prrogram. Our bittersweet so-long will be light on our personal...

R&SRNR_176 – “THE TRADE SECRETS OF LENNON & MCCARTNEY” Although they only collaborated for about twelve years beginning in late 1957, John Lennon and Paul McCartney rank as one of the most successful songwriting duos of all time. Our best guestimate is that approximately one billion copies of their compositions have been sold as of the posting date of this podcast. This includes around 600 million or more of those waxed by the Beatles with the remainder recorded by countless other...

R&SRNR _175 – “CAROLE KING – UPDATED & REMASTERED” This episode spotlights the most successful female songwriter of the rock and roll era. She’s written or co-written more than 200 charted hits. There’s a hit stage musical about her life, and her live concerts continue to be huge draws worldwide. In addition to our playing snippets of all of her charted hit singles, Radio Dave and our resident rockologist, Ken Deutsch cover many of what are known as “demo” recordings that she did to...

R&SRNR_174 – “THEY PLAYED ON THE MOST HITS” There’s one group of recording artists that played on more hits than anybody else in the history of rock, pop, and country music. It’s the Wrecking Crew – an amorphous collection of studio musicians based in Los Angeles from the late 1950s through the early 1970s. They backed countless acts in a wide variety of genres, including rock, pop, folk, and jazz. You heard them supporting such stars as the Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, Frank Sinatra,...

R&SRNR_173 – “40 LOST INSTRUMENTAL HITS OF THE 1960s” Hundreds of instrumentals became hits during the 1960s, but only a handful are still heard these days. We’ve identified “40 Lost Instrumental Hits Of The 1960s.” These include melodies that were inspired by or used in Hollywood movies, television shows, and national advertising campaigns. Many of the acts we’re featuring in this episode were professionally connected with Elvis Presley, Otis Redding, and the Beatles.  One group...

 RARE & SCRATCHY ROCK ‘N ROLL_046A – “THE COMPLETE HIT SINGLES HISTORY OF THE FOUR TOPS” – “REMASTERED & EXPANDED” This episode spotlights the Four Tops – four high school friends from Detroit who performed together continuously for 43 years. They failed to achieve a hit song during their first decade together, but succeeded as a popular draw at leading night clubs. They turned down a contract with Motown Records because they thought the company was too small, but years later they...

R&SRNR_172 – “THE HIT SINGLES HISTORY OF RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER” This is our seventh annual Xmas episode. We’re celebrating the season with a one-of-a-kind salute to the most famous member of the reindeer team that pulls Santa Claus’ sleigh through the skies every Christmas Eve – Rudolph Red-Nosed Reindeer. We’ll trace Rudoph’s history – from his birth in an advertising campaign for a Chicago-based department store to the song that gave him superstar status as the best known and...

R&SRNR #_171 “COMPLETE HIT SINGLES HISTORY OF THE DAVE CLARK 5 (REMASTERED & ENHANCED)” As the Beatles led the British musical invasion in the mid-1960s, another English aggregation followed in their footsteps and for a time might have passed them in popularity around the world. This five-some bounced one of the Fab Four’s most famous #1 hits off the top position on the U.K. singles chart, performed concerts in the U.S. before any of their British rock band rivals did, and made more...

R&SRNR_170 – “THE COMPLETE HIT SINGLES HISTORY OF THE BEACH BOYS, PART 2” This is the second of two episodes spotlighting the most enduring rock and roll band in American History. –  the Beach Boys. No matter what the season, it’s always summer whenever and wherever their songs are playing. They’ve sold more than 100 million recordings around the world since 1961. We’ll focus on their U.S.-charted hit singles – all of them – in a two-episode salute. We began this chronicle on show #169...

R&SRNR_169 – “THE COMPLETE HIT SINGLES HISTORY OF THE BEACH BOYS, PART 1” This is the first of two episodes spotlighting the most enduring rock and roll band in American History. No matter what the season, it’s always summer whenever and wherever their songs are playing – the Beach Boys. They’ve sold more than 100 million recordings around the world since 1961. We’ll focus on their U.S.-charted hit singles – all of them – in a two-episode salute. It all begins with this one – show #169...

R&SRNR #_168 – “TOP 40 HALLOWEEN HITS COUNTDOWN” For our Halloween spooktacular, we’ve conjured up a countdown of the 40 greatest trick or treat tunes of all time. The Rare & Scratchy Rock ‘N Roll grooveyard ghouls have scared up monster hits by Bobby “Boris” Pickett, Michael Jackson, the Rolling Stones, the Ramones, Credence Clearwater Revival, Santana, the Eagles, the J. Geils Band, Warren Zevon, Guns ‘N Roses, Annie Lennox, and Donovan among many others. Some of these macabre...

R&SRNR_167 – “THE COMPLETE HIT SINGLES HISTORY OF CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL” a staple of radio, satellite, and Internet channels to this very day. Their southern swamp-rock sound belied their San Francisco-area origin. Their show business fantasies became a reality when they signed on with Fantasy – a jazz-focused independent label that didn’t rock. But that little company rocked out during this band’s peak years when this group’s records outsold their idols and contemporaries – the...

R&SRNR 007 – “THE COMPLETE JAMES BOND ROCKS Nobody does it better than James Bond. He’s the world’s most famous super-spy. He’s also a rock and pop music star thanks to the unforgettable music in his more than two dozen memorable feature films. We’ve gone under cover to uncover to the top secret stories behind those songs. And our dossier of ditties also includes classified files on tunes that were submitted to the James Bond film producers, but rejected. That’s even though a few of...

R&SRNR_166 – “ANSWER SONGS – THE SAGAS OF 21 HIT 45s WITH THE REST OF THE STORY” Answer songs – tunes that respond to or expand upon the tales told in earlier recordings – have been around since the birth of popular music on wax cylinders, 78s, 33s, 45s, cassettes, CDs, and digital downloads. We believe that our world-renowned Rare & Scratchy Rock ‘N Roll” “Groove Yard has the largest collection of answer songs on this planet – literally thousands and thousands of them. Our...

R&SRNR #165 – “THE COMPLETE HIT SINGLES HISTORY OF JAN & DEAN” (Remastered) This is a remastered version of our prior episode _031, It celebrates the complete hit singles history of an act whose trademark tunes are indelibly associated with songs about surfing and fast cars. But there’s much more to their musical achievements. They were innovative composers, singers, and producers. Long before their songs about riding the waves and racing dragsters, their early hits were mostly...

R&SRNR_164 – “THE COMPLETE HIT SINGLES HISTORY OF THE ANIMALS” This episode salutes one of the great British invasion bands of the 1960s that we feel deserves more attention than it’s gotten, probably because their hits were only on the rock charts in the U.S. and the U.K. from 1964 to 1969. These performers actually comprised two different groups – a founding lineup from 1962 to 1966. And then a brand-new act fronted by their original lead singer. We know you know that we’re talking...

R&SRNR_163 – “THE REAL STORY OF THE MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET” (Show_011 Remastered & Reimagined) Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash – their unplanned get together at the Sun recording studios in December 1956 became known as the Million Dollar Quartet. More than 50 years later it inspired a hit Broadway musical of the same name that made millions for its creators, and it’s still playing at various venues around the country.  But the truth is that the story...

R&SRNR_162 – “19 HIT SONGS THE BEATLES GAVE AWAY” Although they were only active for a little over a decade – from 1960 to 1970, the Beatles are still arguably the most influential band in rock and roll history. We previously explored this group’s original recordings that were later remade into hit singles by other artists on episodes #132 and #133 of our little podcast series. But in this program, we’re going to focus on the songs written by the Beatles in the 1960s and then simply...

R&SRNR_161 – THE FIRST ROCK & ROLL RECORD (Show _001 Remastered & Reimagined) There are lots of candidates and lots of opinions about which tune deserves that title. We’ve scoured our world-renowned Groove Yard, also known as our music library, for several dozen songs that qualify. These include some truly pre-historic rock songs dating back to the 1920s, 30s, and 40s that pre-date the so-called rock and roll era that began in the 1950s. We get to play portions of these platters,...

RARE & SCRATCHY ROCK 'N ROLL_160 – "THE BIRTH OF TOP 40 RADIO" We’ve mentioned a format called “Top 40 Radio” on each and every one of the 160 episodes of our little podcast series that precede this one. But we’ve never really defined what it is or how it got started. That is – until now. This episode spotlights Todd Storz, a pioneering radio station owner, who many broadcasting historians credit as the “Father Of Top 40 Radio.” How did 40 became the magic number instead of let’s say,...

R&SRNR_159 – “TOP 40 LOST HITS OF 1975” This episode celebrates the “Top 40 Lost Hits Of 1975.” It was a year for more questionable content more often on your favorite rock station. There were charted tunes about incest and gratuitous sex that left little to the imagination. Plus, a vengeful father with murder on his mind and a call to political action with a naughty word that radio stations had to bleep out. And two smokin’ hits that made fun of marijuana. The same AM and FM outlets...

R&SRNR_158 – “THE COMPLETE HIT SINGLES HISTORY OF THE CARPENTERS, PART 2” This is the second of two episodes spotlighting one of the most innovative and successful brother and sister acts in popular music history – Richard and Karen – the Carpenters. Our prior episode – show #157, covered the Carpenters music from the mid-1960s to 1974. Now, on this edition – show #158 – it’s the remainder of their career. All their hit singles from 1975 to 1984 along with the original versions of those...

R&SRNR_157 – “THE COMPLETE HIT SINGLES HISTORY OF THE CARPENTERS, PART 1” This is the first of two episodes spotlighting one of the most innovative and successful brother and sister acts in popular music history – Richard and Karen – the Carpenters. We thought we could fit their story into just one show, and we promoted that on the prior edition of our little podcast series – show #156. But, as we went deeper into their inventory of hit singles, we happily discovered that two episodes...

RARE & SCRATCHY ROCK 'N ROLL_156 – “30 HIT SINGLES FROM THE GOLDEN ERA OF GARAGE BANDS” The episode spotlights “30 Hit Singles From The Golden Era Of Garage Bands” – a time period we’ve defined for the purposes of this episode as the mid-1960s to 1970. Garage bands were usually young amateurs with some rudimentary music training who practiced or just played for the fun of it in a garage attached to one of their member’s homes. Their gigs and 45 RPM releases, if any, were primarily heard...