Hey everybody, it's your pal Jay Sweet here on
My Weekly Mixtape. This week, we're taking our
musical DeLorean back to 1955 and beyond. Welcome
to My Weekly Mixtape, a podcast that takes the
classic mixtape approach to building a modern
playlist. I'm your host, Brian Colburn. Joining
me once again as guest curator is my former TuneStyles
podcast co -host, Mr. Jay Sweet. Jay, welcome
back to the show, man. Hello, Brian. How you
doing today? And now not joining me is my former
TuneStyles. All right, all right. It's the Wolfman.
Well, Jay, I wanted to start with the fact that
I received some feedback in regards to your last
visit, which was episode 33, Songs You Didn't
Know Were Covers. Philip Bergman, a longtime
TuneStyles listener and now mixtaper, shared
his disappointment at the fact that you and I
went an entire episode together without mentioning
board shorts. And I wanted to send my deepest
and sincerest apologies to him. Good thing is,
though, what is old is new again. So, Jay, you
could wear those board shorts with pride again,
sir. And I am. You just can't see it on camera.
Well, tonight we're talking about a topic that's
actually very near and dear to my heart because
I grew up around classic cars and car shows because
my father rebuilt several when I was growing
up. And at these classic car shows, there were
nothing but live bands that played a lot of 50s
and 60s music, doo -wop golden oldies, so to
speak. And then also during these car shows,
they had swap meets with various vendors who
would be selling mixed CDs and cassettes. from
that era, and since I was always a music nerd,
I always found myself picking up cassettes of
oldies and doo -wop to jam out my car to in my
Walkman on the way home. So I'll just go out
on the record and say tonight my bank of songs
is pretty ridiculously large, and this mixtape
can go in many, many different directions. I'm
kind of curious about what this topic means to
you. Well, it's similar to your story. This is
probably my favorite genre of music because when
I was little, my dad had I've referenced my dad
on on several occasions, you and me talking.
It was a musician, much like we are, and had
a job, but did music as a hobby because he knew
he wasn't going to, quote unquote, make any money
at it. But what he did have in his collection
were there were a couple of things that I realized
were gold. And I use that word with full intention
of the golden oldies was what we could consider
the ultimate oldies mixtape, which is the American
graffiti soundtrack. Yes. 1973 starring around
Howard and Cynthia. No city Williams. And, uh,
Oh, good Lord. I just dropped a, uh, jaws guy,
Richard Dreyfuss. That's what I'm trying to say.
And Harrison Ford's in it as well. But that movie
was great. It had some great cars in it and some
fantastic music. And I think I'm drawn to that
because of those records were being hanging around
in my house. So the Grease soundtrack was the
other one, also in the 70s, 78, if I'm not mistaken,
from RSO Records, based on the musical of the
same name, which centers around a group of late
50s greaser kids and early 60s high school kids.
John Travolta in the movie with Olivia Newton
-John. And a host of bit actors and actresses
who went on to do bigger things as well. Stockard
Channing being one of them who was in an entire,
what, arc of the West Wing, if I'm not mistaken,
most recently. And she's done a whole lot of
other stuff like that. But point being, that
music is just, it resonates in my heart and soul.
And it is... probably with all of the invention
of the harmonies that came out of the late 40s,
early 50s, with the Four Aces, the Four Lads,
morphed into the rock and roll that we know from
1955 onward with greats like Bill Haley and his
Comets, Little Richard, and those artists who
took all heavily from those tight harmonies that
they were singing on the street corners in major
cities and minor cities all over America. I don't
think there's anything that represents American
rock and roll more than this era of music. And
a fun fact about Grease, the original Broadway
play was actually called Grasse, if you didn't
know that. I did not know that. I'm totally lying.
It didn't. Let's get down to business. Tonight,
as I mentioned at the top of the show, Jay and
I will be curating a golden oldies and doo -wop
mixtape, and we're going to use that old cassette
deck approach. Jay, as my special guest, will
begin side A with his first song choice, and
then I'll add a song that I feel best follows
of his choice. We'll then flip -flop choosing
songs until we've mapped out 10 songs for side
A. We'll then give our mixtape a proverbial flip
and we'll map outside B, only this time I'll
kick things off with Jay choosing second. Our
overall goal for this episode is to craft the
best golden oldies and doo -wop mixtape possible
through only 20 songs. And at the end of the
show, you can take our conversation to the next
level by visiting the episode page at myweeklymixtape
.com to give our final mixtape a listen via the
embedded playlist. And if you like what you're
hearing on the show, you can help me out by either
telling a friend, leaving the show a five -star
review wherever you're tuning in, or by becoming
a Patreon mixtaper at patreon .com forward slash
myweeklymixtape. And a few of the Patreon mixtapers
chimed in with what they would use to kick off
a Golden Oldies doo -wop mixtape, and I wanted
to shout a couple of those out. Jason Donchus
says he loves the mellow groove of Dusty Springfield's
Son of a Preacher Man, but he could also go with
Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum. And somewhere
on that tape, he needs to hear the letter by
the box tops. Cactus Pete chose the Dell Vikings'
Come Go With Me, with a second choice being the
Five Aces version of the exact same song. Mally
Hart chimed in with the Everly Brothers' Bird
Dog. And Sean Faust chimed in with Buddy Holly's
Every Day, which is one of his favorite songs
of all time. So Jay, with that musical food for
thought out in the atmosphere, I'm officially
pressing the record button on our mixtape and
the floor is yours. Why don't you dive into the
song you're choosing? to kick things off tonight.
I have the perfect song to open up any rock and
roll mixtape from this era, especially it's going
to be very poignant. And I think that Danny and
the Juniors rock and roll is here to stay. It's
a great way to kick this all off. It hits you
right in the chest and it gives you kind of good
idea of what you're in store for on this magical
ride. Absolutely love it, though I'm a little
upset with you right from the jump. Because you
already checked off a band now that I can't go
back and use. Because I had Danny and the Juniors
at the hop on my list. Because to me, that was,
again, you mentioned American Graffiti at the
beginning of the show. That was a prime song
on that soundtrack. And it's kind of an important
song in the history of rock and roll because
Dick Clark and the whole Radio Paola scandal
happened around that tune, which I thought was...
an important piece, but rock and roll is here
to stay is a fantastic song. Danny and the juniors
are one of those quintessential harmony driven
groups. And I'm so glad that we started off with
that. And I think I know exactly what I'm going
to follow it up with. And I'm going to bring
the pace down just a little bit, but I'm going
to get the heads bobbing for that second song.
I want to get something that's got a little bit
of a groove, bring in a little bit of that blues
feel. And a little bit of the angst of that era,
a song that you can listen to now and go back
and say, I see where modern rock and roll came
from. And I feel like this is a song that really
puts it on the map. And I'm going to go back
to 1961 off of his album, run around Sue. I'm
going to go with Dion and a song that shockingly
was not a number one hit, but is. Easily my favorite
Dion song of all time. I'm going with The Wanderer.
This song only reached number two, but it is
ranked on Rolling Stone's 500 greatest songs
of all time. So I feel like it got a mulligan
of not being a number one hit because to me,
The Wanderer is a classic oldie song. And I think
it's perfect coming out of kind of the upbeat
frenzy of rock and roll is here to stay. And
then it kind of gets people, brings it down just
a touch. but still has that blues and rock groove
to it to really keep this thing going. So following
you up, I'm going with Dion's The Wanderer. I
like that a lot, and I love The Wanderer. I had,
of course, Run Around Sue on my list as well.
That, again, was one of the first songs that
I was exposed to from my dad's band when he was
in high school and then after I was born. the
professors. And they did a great cover of that
and actually sat down. I remember sitting down
with my father at rehearsal. And picking up my
little solid gold plastic guitar with nylon strings,
right? And I, what was I, seven? I think six
or seven. You were 35. Come on. Yes, this was
45 years ago. No, but I was plucking out the
notes for Runaround Sue at that age while my
dad was playing that song. That said, The Wanderer
is a phenomenal song and a lot of controversy
surrounding Dion, you know, with the Belmonts.
having started out in New York City in the Bronx,
in the Belmont section of what is the Bronx.
And, yeah, he had, you know, they had some, if
you watch A Bronx Tale, a lot of that is based
on the music in that area that De Niro had kind
of spilled out into the fighting and the rock
and roll rebellion, right, that started with
the 50s and transposed right up into punk rock
and modern rock. By all means. And now you have
to follow up Danny and the Juniors and Dion.
Let's see. How about we go to a wonderful group
of singerettes, if you will. I loved the song
One Fine Day by the Chiffons with that great
piano intro banging out. And when they remixed
it to stereo. It really, really brought out that
ringy piano intro. So I want to put down there
for track three, we're going to go with the Chiffons
and One Fine Day. Great song written by the legendary
Carole King, who covered it herself. So love
the pick. Great to see the ladies brought into
this mix nice and early. I love it. Hmm. I'm
scrolling through my bank of songs here and trying
to think of how I could follow that up. All right,
I'm going to go with one that's going to be kind
of controversial, I think. The band won't be
for sure, but I think the song pick is going
to be. This song was a top 20 hit originally
recorded in 1961 by the Regents. However, in
1965, two years later, the Beach Boys took this
song to number two. And it is not. I know everyone's
going to think you're doing a golden oldies.
You got to go good vibrations. No, no, no. I
am going with Barbara Ann by the Beach Boys.
And a fun fact on this one. Dean Torrance of
Jan and Dean is actually the song's lead vocalist
alongside of Brian Wilson. So it kind of checks
off these two big bands of the era. And that
song just has this feeling. It's on the Beach
Boys party album. It literally feels like they're
all just sitting around on their various couches
and sofas in a living room, kind of just singing
that song together. And the harmonies are so
perfect and so wonderful. I know it's not. the
go -to Beach Boys song. But I feel like coming
out of One Fine Day, it actually works. I agree
with you. I think that is a fantastic pick. Beach
Boys, of course, had a ton of great hits. You
described it perfectly. If you think about them
sitting in a room, the way that that song was
recorded, that they're all clapping along and
snapping their fingers and having a... in their
living room, right? Recording these great harmonies
and this excellent, and again, you mentioned
the Regents, which is terrific because that's
the version you'll find on the American Graffiti
soundtrack. Yes, yes, by all means. But the Beach
Boys version, they took that song and it sounded
like they just had a lot of fun just singing
it in their living room one night. They were
all hanging out with Dean and those guys and
were like, hey, let's do this song. So it sounded
like they had a lot of fun re -recording that
and made it one of their own. You could go in
any number of directions with the Beach Boys.
You could go with Surfer Girl, which is a nice
down -tempo number, but still keeps those great
harmonies. In My Room is another great Beach
Boys song, which I had on my list. And of course,
Surfing USA. I think a Teen Wolf when he's up
on top of the van. Yes, yes. Now, there's also
a really fun video from the Beach Boys that I'll
throw up onto the episode page at myweeklymixtape
.com. It's a joke video that got put out years
ago, and every time I watch it, It brings tears
to my eyes. Somebody overdubbed a Beach Boys
video and called it the Beach Boys Unplugged.
Right. And it's just people singing really bad
and out of key. Yeah. In terrible harmonies,
clapping to the wrong beat. And it is hysterically
funny. So I'll post it up on my weekly mixtape
just to give some people a laugh after you're
done listening to this episode. But I'm throwing
the proverbial musical gauntlet back to you for
the next pick. Well, you know, before I move
on, the Beach Boys also had a great way to keep
themselves relevant well into the 80s, having
hooked up with the Fat Boys for their cover of
Wipeout. And then Kokomo from the Cocktail soundtrack
was. Right. Yeah. 1988. I think so. And then
obviously the Fat Boys crushing that Wipeout
video. So great. When I first played that for
my parents, my dad's like, you know, this is
I said, I know the original. And he's like, I'm
not going to lie. He was not the biggest hip
hop guy. He did have a soft spot for Run DMC
and the Beastie Boys. But outside of that, he
wasn't the biggest hip hop guy. But when I played
him, the Beach Boys and the Fat Boys doing Wipeout,
he was 100 % on board with that. And then a song
maybe we'll talk about later. So I don't know
if I should say it, but the Fat Boys did The
Twist. That's right. With Chubby Checker. And
Louie Louie on that same Coming Back Hard Again
album. That's right. I had forgotten about Louie
Louie, actually. Louie Louie. I was listening
to the Chubby Checker hookup with The Twist.
Also featured vocals on that record, too, before
he passed on. Yeah. Let's go into some real soulful,
down -tempo blues from there. I want to bring
in some Fats Domino with Ain't That a Shame.
Ooh. I do love a whole lot of love for you. is
another great Fats Domino tune. He was a fantastic
blues pianist and had that really grovelly great
voice that really worked very well with this
era. Yeah, you definitely scooped me on the artist.
I had actually, I will say it's the theme song
because it was the theme song to the hysterically
funny Steve Martin movie, My Blue Heaven. That
was the song I had on my list because what is
arugula? It's a vegetable. Such a good movie
and such a great song. Yeah, it's an amazing
song, but I love Ain't That a Shame. So what
a great pick. And I think I know exactly what
I'm going to follow that up with. I'm going to
go up to 1964 for this one. This was a song written
by Kenny Young and Arthur Resnick, and it was
recorded by the Drifters. And to me, the Drifters
are one of those bands that are so iconic in
the doo -wop golden oldies scene because their
songs, when you think about Up on the Roof and
on Broadway, there's so much soul in those songs.
But I have to go with the one being a New Jersey
kid growing up. And growing up by the beach,
I'm going with a song that shockingly only reached
number four. But it has been forever embedded
in everyone's hearts because it also ranks on
Rolling Stone's list of 500 greatest songs of
all time. I'm going to go with Under the Boardwalk.
Because on a blanket with my baby is where I'll
be. I love that song. I love the bass. Under
the Boardwalk. Like, it's just such a wonderful...
peaceful song and coming out of ain't that a
shame i feel like there's a nice vibe going there
that that really kind of follows where we're
heading with this absolutely the drifters had
probably one of the best soulful low end in this
era i think of all of the groups that they really
were able to nail down that deep bassy blue summit
I think it kind of lent itself nicely back into
the Motown, kind of dipped a toe into that pool,
and also firm roots in rock and roll as well.
So, man, Drifters, again, there's another one
like you mentioned. You could go in any number
of different directions for tunes that the Drifters
did. Up on the Roof is a fantastic song. I think
from there, I can dovetail nicely into a little
musical. It was a music review, I believe, called
Smokey Joe's Cafe, and they did a nice cover
of... The title track to that song is Smokey
Joe's Cafe. But I'm going to go on to Dozer Holland
and Dozer, the triple threat of Motown, if you
will. And you can go in any number of directions
with this band as well. But I think you can't
get any better than Diana Ross and the Supremes.
And we're going to go with the fantastic Come
See About Me. Ooh, really nice pick. And I'll
just be honest. I didn't put a ton of Motown
in my list because I know there's a future Motown
only episode of my mixtape coming. So I use this
episode to kind of dive outside of Motown a little
bit. But I absolutely love that you're going
with the Queen Diana in this mix. And that makes
it a little tough for me because I have a lot
of different directions I can go. I still have
two picks on this side. So I think I'm going
to pick up the pace a little bit. Yes. Even from
Come See About Me by The Supremes. All right.
I want to go fast. And I want to follow up one
iconic music label with another. And Sun Records
is a great place to do that. Yes, it is. And
here's another song that didn't reach number
one on the Billboard Hot 100. It was a number
one Hot Country single. But when people hear
this song, they do not think country music. They
think that guy is ridiculous on piano. Some might
even call him the killer. One of the greatest
to ever tickle the ivories. Jerry Lee Lewis,
Great Balls of Fire. It was again ranked by Rolling
Stone magazine as one of the greatest songs of
all time. It really is a monster rock and roll
song. And the song became a hit again in 1989
because Jerry Lee Lewis re -recorded the song
for the movie Great Balls of Fire, which starred
Dennis Quaid and Winona Ryder. Yes, and that
song again came back into the limelight in the
80s. And a little fun fact, I talked about this
over on Playlist Wars once, but I want to bring
it into this episode because I do have a small
nostalgia for old school wrestling. Ric Flair
started using his iconic, woo, because of the
song Great Balls of Fire. Goodness gracious,
Great Balls of Fire. Woo! And that's where it
came from. That's fantastic. It's just such an
iconic, fun song. And it definitely sets the
bar to keep this pace going for the end of the
side here. I love it. I love it a lot. Jerry
Lewis, you nailed it. There are real... solid
performances on piano from this era Jerry Lee
Lewis being probably one of the most well known
and we'll get into another one later I'm sure
and I mentioned Fats Domino and there's just
a handful of really solid what we call rockabilly
that came out of country music mixed with rock
and roll, and I think Jerry Lee sums that up
nicely. Elvis Presley dipped into that a bit
as well, especially with some of his middler
stuff with the Jordanaires, and a little bit
of Patsy Cline as well, which is another fantastic
artist that I'm sure will get mentioned more
than just in passing on this side of the tape.
Well, what you gonna follow up Great Balls of
Fire with? Ooh, let's see. So we went Sun Records
with Jerry Lee. Ah, some great piano playing
there. Let's go with some really kick butt blues
rock. I like staying in the vein of this blues
groove riff thing that we have going on. And
I like a little bit of Eddie Cochran's Summertime
Blues. Ooh. That song, again, it held on well
into the 80s, I think. Was it not used in the
La Bamba soundtrack? Yes, but that version was
by Brian Setzer, right? Yes, and Brian's orchestra
covered that as well as he did solo. And that
song just endures, for sure. Unbelievable track.
Timeless track. So many people cover that song.
You have Joan Jett. You have Alan Jackson. I
mean, countless versions of this song exist.
I feel like that's kind of one of those quintessential
blues rock barroom stompers. Yep. It's just such
a wonderful song. It's timeless. It's absolutely
timeless. And I think to close out Side A, I'm
going to go with another timeless classic. But
first, I want you to wait a minute. And I mean...
Now wait a minute. Very nice. Isley Brothers,
1959. I am going to go with Shout to close out
the side because we have a party going right
now between... Great Balls of Fire and Summertime
Blues. And I want to keep that party going to
the end of the side. And we've talked about our
careers in radio over the years. This song, I
think, was played on every single Z -Morning
Zoo across the country as the Friday morning.
Yeah, the wake up song. It's almost the weekend
wake up song, right? It's synonymous with morning
radio. And I loved it growing up because of that
fact. It got you excited for the weekend. I remember
Scott Shannon on the New York Zee Morning Zoo.
They would all sing over this song and everybody
was in the studio. You could tell it was a party
happening. And then obviously in 1978, Lloyd
G. Williams, otherwise known as Mr. Otis Day
with the Knights, covered the song in National
Lampoon's Animal House during the iconic toga
party scene, which brought this song to another
level. of iconic because it is a film scene that
is iconic in all of film history and a song that's
iconic in all of music history so i think it's
the perfect way to close outside a that is an
excellent excellent pick and again you scooped
me on the song but i also uh the artist otis
day in the nights i loved shamalama ding dong
which is will otis sees us he loved us he still
goes out and tours as otis day in the night that's
awesome and i've really wanted him to come around
new jersey because i would totally go to that
absolutely so that was another one of the records
that my father had when i was growing up that
i listened to non -stop and that and the blues
brothers which was you know when i graduated
high school and went off to pre -med in college
which you Now, as a radio DJ, you know how that
worked out for me. But he made me a copy when
CDs started to be popular. He knew that I loved
to drive around and I would go back and forth
from Syracuse to New York City and made me a
copy of his vinyl on tape. And I could listen
to the Blues Brothers on the trip down from Syracuse
to New York. Very, very nice. It was very cool.
It was extremely cool. Well, there you have it,
folks. Side A of our Golden Oldies and Doo -Wop
mixtape, which consists of Danny and the Juniors,
Rock and Roll is Here to Stay, Dion's The Wanderer,
The Chiffons' One Fine Day. Beach Boys, Barbara
Ann, Fats Domino, Ain't That a Shame, The Drifters,
Under the Boardwalk, Diana Ross and the Supremes,
Come See About Me, Jerry Lee Lewis, Great Balls
of Fire, Eddie Cochran, Summertime Blues, and
the Isley Brothers, Shout. Head over to myweeklymixtape
.com to hear all the songs we've discussed in
this mix through the playlist embedded on the
episode page. Now, Jay, I don't know if this
was around the country, but I grew up listening
with my father. to CBS 101 .1 in New York City.
And I almost feel like you and I should have
that extra reverb on our microphones. Do you
remember? Yeah, absolutely. The amount of reverb.
It sounded like they were talking into a toilet,
but it was so iconic because you knew what station
you were listening to. Every DJ had that. heavy
reverb on their voice and you knew it was the
classic oldies station that's right we had oldies
92 .1 in syracuse wscn which is now dinosaur
radio and they kind of they're a really hot ac
station they do a lot of everything from 60s
all the way up Really, really, really good station.
Some old friends of mine are DJs on that station
still, which is fantastic to see them still working.
But when it was the oldies 92 format, they had
the heavy, heavy reverb in there. Overly compressed
sound that your VU meters are pegging in the
red, but you're not hearing any of that. It's
just really squashed, heavy reverb sound. And
CBS 101, if memory serves, they had a... compilation
CD set, kind of like Time Life Music did for
a while. In fact, a lot of that morphed into
kind of radio and records promo type things,
right? When new music was breaking, that CBS
101 kind of pushed a lot of new artists on modern
radio. Yeah. And they also do the CBS 101 .1
has a Christmas series of the oldies for Christmas
songs that comes out. And I have I want to say
seven or eight volumes of it because I love holiday
music around the holidays. And what better than
get the classics from the 60s, 50s, 60s and 70s.
But this isn't the Christmas episode that's coming
in due time. Right now, we are talking about
golden oldies and doo -wop. So I'm going to try
to start by kicking off side B on the right foot.
And once again, I'm picking a song that did not
reach number one in the US, which I feel like
there's a theme going on here with the songs
I'm picking, but it just so happens to be true.
However, it was a number one hit over the pond
in the UK. So the UK got it right. And this one's
a little later. than any of the songs we've talked
about tonight. I'm actually going to go all the
way up to 1968, which is still a long time ago.
And it still falls under that category of golden
oldies. And this was by an American group. So
even more shocking that an American group gets
number one in the UK, but not here in the US.
And I'm going to go with Tommy James and the
Shondells with Money Money. Oh, fantastic. perfect
song to kick off side two obviously for us kids
who really grew up during the 80s billy idol's
version brought the song back into the spotlight
and then also brought to the forefront the crowd
provided call and response of hey say what get
laid get ass and that became a thing at every
wedding we've ever been to right and then even
more importantly in 1988 Weird Al parodied the
song as alimony for his album Even Worse. So
to me, this song was iconic in many levels in
many decades and definitely deserves a place
on this playlist tonight. Definitely. And Tommy
James and the Shondells was... One of the first
bands, I think, to really reinvent themselves
with the times. I know we talked about Aerosmith
doing it where they started off with that nice
hard rock edge and kind of morphed into a pop
rock sound, top 40 rock sound, and then jumped
out of that. And Steven Tyler dabbles in country
music and blues and they honking on Bobo and
some really, you know. reinvention stuff to keep
themselves relevant. I think Tommy James, the
Shondells did the same thing as you get on up
into the late 60s and the early 70s with the
psychedelic stuff, Crimson and Clover, just keeping
themselves relevant, even though that five guys
on the street corner singing, you know, snapping
their fingers kind of went away a little bit.
they maintained relevance in the mainstream for
quite some time. In fact, not too short time
ago, Tommy James and the Shondells are still
playing. They were, well, at least Tommy James's,
was at the Syracuse Great New York State Fair
this summer. And they were able to get on Dinosaur
Radio, which I gave a shout out to. Awesome.
Awesome. And the one thing I will say is Crimson
and Clover is one of those songs that I don't
know if I would include it on a Golden Oldies
mixtape. I feel like that would go more onto
a classic rock. Absolutely. Mixtape. So that
really does show the generations that they kind
of crossed. Money, Money definitely is a song
you would hear on an oldies radio station, but
maybe not so much butted up against a Led Zeppelin
or Pink Floyd, but Crimson and Clover, on the
other hand, definitely does work with those songs.
So you really, really hit the nail on the head
in the fact that they were able to reinvent themselves
musically and stay relevant. Yeah. All right.
So now it's my turn to follow that up. Let's
see. Money, Money, the little dance vibe that
we got going on here. How about Junior Walker
and the All Stars with Shotgun? Funny story about
that song. Every year, my parents are like, whatever
you do, don't buy us any more CDs. We've got
too many CDs, which I inherently disagree with
because there's no such thing as too many CDs.
But alas, I got the speech last year. And then
my father pulled me aside and goes, but. I have
been trying to find a junior Walker in the all
-stars greatest hits album for forever. So if
you happen to stumble across one of those, consider
it an asterisk to our no more CDs clause. And
sure enough, I was able to find it. And yeah,
that song is such a frigging classic. I absolutely
love it. Yeah. And that song for me too, was
when I was producing a morning radio on the talk
side of things. When I had jumped into news and
talk radio, Using that song is bump music, and
it was really popularized again on the jock rock
album. The first one that came out, ESPN's jock
rock was featured prominently on that track.
Eight, I think, if I'm not mistaken. Don't at
me because I don't know for sure. But that was
the, you know, the mid 90s at that point. And
again, we're talking about music now at that
point was about 30 years old. Yeah, by all means.
Well, I'm going to stay in and around that area,
and I'm going to go with what I think might be
a. deeper cut for this mix it's not a deeper
cut because it was a hit song but it's not one
that people normally think of with golden oldies
and this is another one that my father was a
huge fan of growing up and i heard endless times
and i feel like coming at a junior walker because
i told that story about them i feel like this
is the next logical step And in a throwback to
our songs you didn't know were covers episode,
here's a contender if we ever did a volume two
of that. This song was originally recorded in
1963 by Dick Holler and the Holidays and was
re -recorded and became a big hit in 1966 by
the Swinging Medallions. And I'm going with Double
Shot of My Baby's Love. Wow. Yes, apparently.
And I did confirm this one with my folks before
recording. This song was pretty controversial
at the time in 1966 and a ton of radio stations
banned it. And that's why people were desperate
to get their hands on it because of the line,
it was the worst hangover that I ever had, as
well as the line, she loved me so hard. Those
were considered ridiculously controversial. Man,
how times have changed. For sure. But I will
say in 2011, Better Than Ezra did a really fun
cover of this, which you can find on streaming
services. And this is one of those songs where
it kind of goes against the doo -wop sound because
there was not a lot of harmonies in this song.
It was just six guys singing the entire verse
and chorus together at once without harmonies.
They literally were all singing the same notes.
So it gave it this gang vocal approach to this
style of music. And I looked on YouTube. They're
still performing this song to this day with the
dances and everything else. And it's just such
a fun party song to me. Double Shot of My Baby's
Love is this side's Barbara Ann. Fair enough.
I like it a lot. That is a very deep cut. And
I think that I have the perfect way to follow
that up with, you know, following up controversy.
Let's go with Bobby Fuller and I Fought the Law.
Ooh. Push some envelopes. And this is the Eddie
Cochran of this side of the tape, I think, right?
You've got that really great. jangly blues riff
when you've got the edge of what would eventually
become, you know, punk music, punk rock music.
Oh my God. Pushing back against the establishment.
John Cougar Mellencamp did it with the authority
song in the eighties and it just keeps going.
You could lay down that track today and it would
still hold up as the song was written. By all
means. And then obviously you have to acknowledge
the clashes version of that song. You have to
acknowledge Mike Ness of Social Distortion's
version of that song. You have to acknowledge
Green Day's version in the 2000s version. So
right there, I just covered the 80s, 90s, and
2000s. Between The Clash, Mike Ness, and Green
Day all covered this song. And it was always
a big deal every time it happened because Bobby
Fuller's embraced that punk rock essence all
the way back when. Early influences, for sure.
By all means. And following that up, Jay, I feel
like our mixtape seems to have an absence of
a certain ornithological piece. What do you mean?
Maybe like a headline regarding a mass awareness
of a certain avian variety? I'm not sure what
you're talking about, Brian. Oh, have you not
heard? No. It was my understanding that everyone
had heard. Heard what? No brain, don't. I know
I brought up the Family Guy skit, but that is
probably my favorite Family Guy episode ever.
Definitely. I love Surf and Bird. As a kid, this
was one of those songs when I was really, really
young. This song got me excited about music because
it was so silly. It sounded like a kid's song.
So when my parents would play it, I always thought,
hey, they're playing children's music for me.
No, they're playing the Trashmen. And this song
is so much fun. And then again, we have to go
back to the 1980s for this one. Because in 1987,
in the Back to the Beach movie soundtrack, Paul
Reubens, who sadly just passed away. covered
the song as his Pee Wee Herman character for
that movie. I forgot. I had the 45 of it. That's
fantastic. It was amazing. So I simply had to
include Surf and Bird into this mix tonight.
100%. You got groups like the Trash Men and the
Rivingtons with Papa Uma Mal. Songs like that
show up on novelty records. The Dr. Demento Show,
which had put out compilations of wacky and demented
songs. one would consider novelty songs. My uncle
had a eight track of not necessarily Dr. Demento
stuff, but stuff with the trash men on it had
Ray Stevens, the streak and some really great
songs, nervous, nervous, and those kinds of wacky
songs. But they were still literally like written
songs that weren't necessarily written to be
novelty songs. It's just, they're cult classic.
By all means. Oh, my goodness. So where do we
go from the trash bin with the surfing bird?
Let's bring it back into the surf. We'll keep
the surf theme going and we'll bring it back
to beach rock. And we'll talk about a band that
you mentioned a little earlier when we were talking
about the Regents and the Beach Boys. And we'll
talk about Jan and Dean's Dead Man's Curve. The
drums on that song with the harmonies on the
high. Those are so great. And just the rock and
drum fills that he's doing in between the loops
of the chorus are so good. I usually get chills
when I hear that song because the song Subject
Matters is pretty cool. Talking about drag racing.
And I grew up in upstate New York. In Syracuse,
there's a place called the 13 Curbs. And there's
a legend that a young bride was killed at 13
Curbs. And she stalks that road. Dead Man's Curve
always brings to mind that legend to me. Awesome
song. You scooped me on the band because I had,
going back to, again, the cars that my father
rebuilt. One of the ones he built was a 66 GTO.
So I had My Mighty GTO by Jan and Dean on my
list, of course. So you scooped me on that one.
But Dead Man's Curve is such a great song. So
I'm okay with it. I'm going to let it slide.
I'm going to let it slide. All right, now it's
your turn. Scoop me. Yeah, I think I'm going
to slow it down a little bit here because we've
been doing a lot of fun stuff, a lot of upbeat
stuff. And I don't think I could get through
a Golden Oldies mixtape without one of my favorite
ballads of all time in any decade. And I am going
to go back to the American Graffiti soundtrack
because that's the album I discovered this version
on. And the song was originally recorded in 1934
for the movie Dames. But the version I'm going
with is the Flamingo's 1959 massive hit, I Only
Have Eyes For You. It only reached again, not
even a top 10 hit, only reached number 11. But
this song is absolutely iconic and it ranked
on Rolling Stone's 500 greatest songs of all
time for this very reason. It is an absolutely
beautiful, stunning. gorgeous song. It puts a
smile on my face. It relaxes me when I hear that
opening. The vocals are just so warm and welcome.
It's such a beautiful, romantic song, but it's
also just so well produced. The harmonies on
it, really, you listen to the layered harmonies.
There's no auto -tune in this song, folks. These
are guys standing around a single microphone
making that magic happen. And this song is just...
the perfect snapshot of what a beautiful love
song should be. So I'm going with the flamingos.
I only have eyes for you. That's a fantastic
pick used. I mean, there's another one of those
songs that stands up to all generations that
was most recently used in a commercial for Alexa,
if I'm not mistaken, right? amazon music i'm
sure amazon owns everything right so yeah right
at this point but it was also covered by carly
simon and i mean just so many covers of that
song as well that real slow piano in the background
it's great in the four -part harmonies i love
that song very very much can't argue with that
at all all right let's see let's ramp it back
up a little bit And I think I'm going to go with
a group that is my all time favorite band out
of this era group. And I'm going to tie it into
your New Jersey roots and the Jersey boys. We'll
talk a little bit about Frankie Valley and the
Four Seasons. And I love the song Dawn. That's
another one of those great harmonies with rock
and drum track. And we picked it back up a little
bit. I know, as I said, we'll ramp back into
this. So we're going to run right back into the
high tempo and just those screaming four -part
harmonies. I wish I had a hangnail's worth of
Frankie Valli's vocal talents. My voice goes
pretty high, as you know. Yes. But I, just short
of Steelheart. territory in frankie valley territory
i mean we could try i could line up and kick
you as hard as i possibly can to see if that
gives you that little something extra but yeah
i i mean and again frankie valley is one of the
most enduring artists of that time You could
go a hundred different ways. You actually scooped
me on the band, obviously. I had Big Girls Don't
Cry. I also had Sherry. Depending on where the
playlist was going, if I had room, I wanted to
go with either or. Clint Eastwood did such an
amazing job on that movie. That movie was so
well done. Look, I did not know that era. So
I'm basing it off of what others who lived in
that era said. this movie is worth the watch.
And he really did a fantastic job with it. Absolutely.
And the casting was fantastic. If you hadn't
had a chance to see the musical when it was on
Broadway, it's touring America right now. But
man, the kid that they had playing Frankie Valli
was so good. You could just close your eyes and
you're seeing a young Frankie Valli without question,
vocally. And then in the story behind that, sure,
is there a little artistic license in there?
Absolutely. But it's something that I think I
referenced at the top of the show with the Bronx
tale. And it kind of talks a little bit about
the angst and the violence that kind of came
along with this genre of music. By all means.
And now you went with an iconic artist here.
I mean, Frankie Valli is an icon of music. And
I feel like I can't take a step down from that.
And I have so many iconic artists still left
over on my list that the guilt is creeping in
because I'm going to pick one and I'm leaving
off at least two or three that I think is a crime
that we haven't gotten to tonight. So I feel
like a volume two of this episode is an absolute
must. Because there are so many artists that
we are going to leave off of the table that deserve
to be talked about. So I am booking you mid -show
for a sequel to this one because there is just
way too many songs left. But I think trying to
stick with the level of iconic that Frankie Valli
brings to this, there's only one place I can
go, and that's to 1957. And I have not talked
about Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller yet. Two
of the people most responsible for, I don't know,
pretty much every massive hit of that era. Obviously
not all of them because we've talked about a
bunch. But the fact that I haven't mentioned
them tonight yet is just a crime. It's criminal.
It's criminal. And I want to apologize for that.
But I'm going to go with a song that was a number
one smash hit. in the U S haven't done it yet
tonight, which is ridiculous. And I want to remedy
that from the 1957 soundtrack of the same name.
I'm going to go with Elvis Presley's jailhouse
rock also included on the Rolling Stone list
of the 500 greatest songs of all time. And the
rock and roll hall of fame named this song as
one of the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll.
Absolutely spot on with that. It really did.
You think of that opening. Like that is iconic.
So following up Frankie Valli, I think this works.
And it's, again, the end of the side. You want
to get the party going. And as an 80s guy growing
up, 1987, Girls, Girls, Girls, Motley Crue, closing
song. their live version of Jailhouse Rock. So
even in my 80s metal phase growing up, when that's
all I listened to, I was still getting doses
of the 50s and 60s through bands like Motley
Crue that were revisiting these songs. So I am
following up Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons
Dawn with Elvis Presley, Jailhouse Rock. We had
to talk about Elvis. Yeah, absolutely. That's
a fantastic pick. Elvis is another one. probably
mentioning that his responsibility, his part
in the rock and roll movement cannot be denied
if he's not the original step. The first step,
primary step in the rock and roll history. He
certainly is high up on that list. And again,
another being another artist who completely reinvented
himself as the decades rolled through. He had
his gospel years. He had some rockabilly. He
had country. He had rock and roll. And then he
went into disco a little bit with Huckaburn and
Love. Even Viva Las Vegas had a little bit of
that. Yeah, it had a little less conversation.
Yep, yep. And he had a little bit of the crooner
in him, too, with the big anthems like Suspicious
Minds. Those songs are just unbelievably iconic
in their own right, for sure. He's in a class
all by himself. There's no question about that.
Yeah, I had two songs from Elvis in my list.
I also had another one that might have come earlier
in the night, but I feel like it wasn't as massive
of a hit. But Return to Sender was another one
of my absolute favorites by him. But coming out
of Frankie Valli, I had to go with the massive
crowd pleaser to kind of close out my part of
Side B. So Jailhouse Rock edged out Return to
Sender ever so slightly, but love both songs.
Fantastic. All right. So we've got a little iconic
history going on here. We've mentioned some big
names. We've mentioned Dozer Hall and Dozer early
on. You just mentioned Lieber and Stoller. And
I'm going to bring in somebody that we haven't
mentioned yet. It'll be criminal if we don't
mention on this mixtape as well. And that is
one Mr. Phil Spector. And the wall of sound that
he created is probably one of the best known
effects in recording history, music recording,
to the point where Phil Collins actually capitalized
on that wall of sound in his creating his drum
sound for the 80s, post -Genesis and beyond.
And I want to go with Ronnie Spector and Be My
Baby. Ooh, huge hit. Love it. Starts off the
Dirty Dancing soundtrack. Another iconic scene
where they're all the black and white dancing.
And then it morphs into the color as the movie
goes on. And again, 1963, it was a big year in
American history. And it was a big year in global
history. It was the year that JFK got assassinated.
It was, you know, the world was on a precipice
of change. And I think that the music kind of
reflected a lot of that. 100%. And obviously,
look, Phil Spector has had a tumultuous history
towards the end, but not going down the TMZ route
of things and just looking at his contribution
to music. Yeah. Nothing else. You have to give
respect to it because it really did change the
face of music forever moving forward. And man,
that guilt has officially set in big time because
there's so many groups we haven't talked about.
So I want to apologize to every mixtaper listening
because I know you're sitting there going, how
the hell did you guys not bring up blank? So
why don't you follow up with me by reaching out
on social media or hitting me up at myweeklymixtape
at gmail .com and letting me know some songs
you think should be included on this mix. And
then Jay and I will maybe include them on volume
two because. There will be a volume two for this
one, for sure. At least. At least, by all means.
I mean, look, WCBS FM, I have eight Christmas
oldie CDs by them. We've got volumes and volumes
of this topic that we can go down. Sure. But
for tonight, side B, we kicked off with Tommy
James and the Shondells, Moany Moany, Junior
Walker and the All -Star Shotgun, Swingin' Medallions,
Double Shot of My Baby's Love, Bobby Fuller's
I Fought the Law, Head over to MyWeeklyMixtape
.com to hear all of the songs we've discussed
tonight through the playlist embedded on the
episode page. And Jay, once again, always a pleasure,
my friend. Looking forward. to a volume two on
this one in the very near future. Oh, absolutely.
My friend, I appreciate you having me on again.
And, uh, as the Wolfman would say, and I'll go
with Rick flares. Woo. There you have it. Amen
to that. And I want to thank all the mixtapers
for tuning into my weekly mixtape tonight. Remember
you can find my weekly mixtape on all the social
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That's all for this week. Thanks again for listening,
and until next time, enjoy the tunes.