RockPopandRoll

Ep. 10: The Knack - Re-Examined

Their debut album was “Get the Knack”.  It had one monster song, a lesser follow-up single and then the band rode the wave of success as best they could, before breaking up, reforming, and never duplicating the initial explosion.  But how could they, right? The rest of their albums?  Nothing as good.  Or even close.  But they kept the idea alive that you could be a band that takes the tropes of 60s rock and roll and 70s power pop, blend them, and make a sound that was their own. 
 
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Ep. 9: The Great 80s Best Albums: Reckless from Bryan Adams

You ask me what is the greatest rock/pop guitar album of the 1980s and I say Reckless from Bryan Adams.  Lyrically, it's mostly sophomoric.  No deep thoughts.  But that was never the strength of Bryan Adams.  His reason for being was that he made straight-ahead rock and roll music that never ventured into pop-metal – though his 1991 album Can't Stop This Thing We Started – produced by Mutt Lange – did make him sound like Def Leppard.  Bryan Adams was radio rock for the 80s. Other than "Heaven", it was guitar and drums, shouts and rasps, stops and starts. Hooky rock and roll.  It was a rock/pop candy bar.  That sugar rush felt good, even after multiple listens It had just enough curveballs   - like a still underrated Tina Turner duet – that made it last.  And it sounded really good loud.  And that’s worth points in my rock pop and roll book.
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Ep. 8. The Great 8os Best Albums: Sports from Huey Lewis and The News

Sports isn't fancy. It's rock music played tightly and with enthusiasm by the band, recorded cleanly. The songs are first-listen friendly and held up after the set became a monster hit, spending more than a year all over Top 40 and rock radio.  It ultimately ranks as one of the great pop-rock band albums of the 80s. Huey Lewis and The News earned themselves lots of hits singles, with a couple really good album tracks.  It is bar band rock and roll with a shine, as they made a radio-ready album with really great harmonies, and big, fat sugar smack hooks in the songs that are easy to like really quickly. And people did. But here is the hard truth: His two greatest radio songs were not on this record.  One came right before and one right after.  We discuss.
Released in September 1983, Sports made a slow climb up the charts throughout late 1983 and early 1984. This is a record that predated the explosion of Purple Rain-era Prince, and Bruce Springsteen's Born in The USA, and John Mellencamp's Scarecrow album.  It was before Bryan Adams and Reckless.  It was an influential part of the hit radio transition from the Cars-y new wave of the early part of the decade, to the heartland rock that had an impact on music and radio in the mid-80s. We talk about the sound, the unassuming innovation that pushed other artists, and the videos that were really a key part of the band's success.
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Ep. 7: Friday 45 - Tommy Conwell and The Young Rumblers

This episode is "Friday 45" and features Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers. The band released Rumble in 1988, followed by Guitar Trouble in 1990. Conwell ended up in Philadelphia and The Hooters’ producer Rick Chertoff got Conwell and the Rumblers signed to Columbia and he produced “Rumble” After the band released their first album on their own “Walkin’ on the Water” in 1986, which was produced by Conwell and The Hooters’ bassist Andy King.
They had two radio hits in addition to the featured 45, with "If We Never Meet Again", and "I'm Seventeen". In 2019, Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers finally released a new studio album, their first in nearly 30 years, called Showboats and Grandstanders
Today's song was a #1 US mainstream rock radio hit in 1988 and peaked at 74 on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart. It is a greasy, raw enough to love, cowbell-infused, crunchy guitar rocker called "I'm Not Your Man".  It was the best thing anyone would hear from the band.  Not enough to make them big stars, but big enough to be remembered.  We do.
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If you like the show and want to help us out, it’s really easy to do that: just tell someone.  Share it with a fan of 80s pop and rock and roll. Leave a review wherever you listen – that helps us know what you like about the show.
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Ep.6: Five Overlooked Minor Hits For Five Big 80s Bands

The thing – one of the things – I can't stand about classic rock radio stations, and why they have become unlistenable,  is the playlist that has stagnated. It's not that the bands are at fault. Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Foreigner, Def Leppard, Van Halen, Bob Seger, Journey, Pink Floyd – they all rock, right?  But when the typical classic rock and roll station in the US plays the same 3 or 4 songs from each band and has played those same songs since 1990, how can you stop me from hating what the stations sound like?
My point of contention is the deep catalog all these bands – plus Springsteen, Petty, Bryan Adams, Rolling Stones, and Pat Benatar and other big rockers, and even the less mass popular bands too, like Traffic or The Pretenders – have great catalog songs that don’t get played.
So we dig a little deeper, well past where the radio stations stop, and find some songs that, for whatever reason, were just minor hits for Big 80’s bands.  How come it wasn’t a big radio song?  We try to figure that out on Rock Pop and Roll. with Five Overlooked Minor Hits For Five Big 80s Bands.
Subscribe to Rock Pop and Roll on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Look for new full-length episode dropping each Wednesday
If you like the show and want to help us out, it’s really easy to do: tell someone.  Share the show with a fan of 80s pop and rock and roll.
You can leave a review wherever you listen – that helps us know what you like about the show.
Find us on twitter at @80srockpoproll
Email us – rockpoprollpodcast@gmail.com.
Have an idea for a show?  Let us know.  And thanks.

Ep. 5: Five Hair Metal Songs and Bands That Matter

Did Hair Metal change the world?  Well, some of the songs and the bands were part of the continuum that is rock music.  It was really a flash - a bomb of hairspray rock and roll that hung around for about five years. We always like to offer a bit of an explanation.  A Definition.  A clarification of what we are searching for. What is Hair Metal? Pop Metal? Glam Metal? How is it different than hard rock?  What makes it what it is? Sugary background vocals. That 80s era snare drum - the gated reverb- that keeps the 4/4 beat. Guitars that sounded like a good time. It was the glam rock movement of the 1970s combined with heavy metal or hard rock to create a template. The Los Angeles Sunset Strip music scene with Motley Crue, Ratt, Quiet Riot, and Dokken. Def Leppard played a part. Bon Jovi, Twisted Sister, Poison, Skid Row, Cinderella, and Warrant too. Lots of others.  We take a dive into figuring out some of the big moments and some of the bands that kicked the door down for hair metal to rule radio.

Ep. 4: What is a Momentum Radio Hit? The Story of Four 80s Bands

This episode is a look at four bands that had a big hit and then tried to capitalize on it with something called a "momentum hit" in the 80s. Or at least most had the followup hit.
What's that even mean? Here's how we define it: Sometimes a band would have a hit single, getting significant radio play on rock or top 40 stations, and then follow it up with a song was usually not as good, but was still a hit, because the fans of that big hit single wanted more of that same sound. 
Superstars have benefitted from this practice too, but it's the new bands that are most interesting.
Episode 4 of Rock Pop and Roll discusses whether a big hit for a new band means a second hit.  We have four artists that we’ll hear and see some different outcomes.
It's not science, but it is kinda cool. We call the game "A Hit Plus One". 
Hear whether the hit songs from David + David, Michael Stanley Band, Randy Meisner, and Charlie Sexton produced a good followup hit.  Or not. 
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Subscribe to RockPopandRoll on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Look for a new full-length episode dropping each Wednesday.
If you like the show and want to help us out, it’s really easy to do. Leave a review wherever you listen – that helps us know what you like about the show.
Tweet us your questions, comments, suggest a topic, or tell us about a band what you think really rocks and pops - find us on twitter @80srockpoproll
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Hear all the episodes and read the blog on the website rockpopandroll.com

Ep. 3: Friday 45: Tom Cochrane and Red Rider - "Big League"

It's our Friday series that takes a look at, and a listen to, one great single of the 80s that deserves another spin. 
There once was a band called Red Rider.
The lead singer, Tom Cochrane, joined that Canadian rock band in 1978 and served as their lead singer and main songwriter for more than ten years. He recorded six studio albums with Red Rider. By 1986, the band was billed as "Tom Cochrane & Red Rider".
It's a band never had a song in the Top 40 in the United States, although you might remember a rock and roll oddity – an atmospheric rocker called "Lunatic Fringe".
FRIDAY 45: "Big League" reached as high as #4 in Canada and #9 in the American Rock Radio Tracks chart.
The song is fictional – about the death of a hockey player - but the story goes that it was inspired by a custodian who approached Cochrane before a show at an arena and requested Cochrane play his son's favorite song, called "Boy Inside the Man". As they talked, Cochrane understood that the father's son had died, and Cochrane would go on to write the song based on what he took away from that conversation.
The song was produced by Don Gehman, best known for the four Mellencamp albums (American Fool, Uh Huh, Scarecrow, and Lonesome Jubilee) he produced in the 80s.
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Subscribe to RockPopandRoll on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Look for new full-length episodes dropping each Wednesday.
If you like the show and want to help us out, it’s really easy to do that. You can leave a review wherever you listen – that helps us know what you like about the show. Tweet us your questions, comments, suggest a topic, or tell us about a band that you think really rocks and pops. Twitter:@80srockpoproll
If you want to show your love for RockPopandRoll, just tell people about the show.
Hear all the episodes and read the blog on the website at rockpopandroll.com

Ep. 2: Little Richard: Making Rock and Roll

In this special presentation of RockPopand Roll, host Rob Nichols remembers the songs and what made Little Richard a legend – and architect – in the making of rock and roll. 
Little Richard passed away at age 87 on May 9, 2020.  Of all the patriarchs of rock and roll music, Little Richard may have been the most outrageous, had the most hits in the shortest period of time, and could arguably be ahead of Elvis in his early takeover of the rock and roll libido of millions rock and roll fans.
He was a screaming, inspired, piano playing black man versed in gospel music.  And church.  And sex.  With reckless stage antics with a mouth that wouldn’t stop, he had the hits.  Little Richard was both the rocking and the rolling ignitor of the explosion of rock and roll music in the 1950s.
Little Richard recorded his first hits for a small label, Specialty Records, for just two years, from September 1955 to October 1957, but those recording sessions may rank as the most influential in the history of rock and roll music. His musicality, charisma, and wild stage show created a rock & roll blueprint followed by everyone from James Brown to the Beatles, From Jimi Hendrix to CCR, to Bruce Springsteen and Prince. 
Hear the music again. Remember why Little Richard really matters – more than you may have thought - in rock and roll history.

Ep.1: Five Forgotten Great Rock/Pop Songs of The 80's

While there are many great songs and music from the 1980s, there are lots of tunes that have gotten lost. Music that was a hit, yet still somehow slipped away from classic hits and classic rock radio stations. Some of the songs were big hits, and it is tough to fathom how they are not remembered better or talked about more, and some songs had a flash of notoriety and slipped away.  In this episode, we revisit five of these songs, in our episode 1 podcast of FORGOTTEN GREATNESS- 5 SONGS OF THE 80’S on RockPopandRoll.
Host Rob Nichols finds some pop-rock gems, from a hit song that sat atop the Top 40 and AC charts while also making a big splash in AOR, to a one-hit neo-rockabilly artist that cracked the top 10 – just like his dad did 20 years earlier. 
We also discover some little-known facts about a great, slightly forgotten, Detroit musician who had band hits, solo hits, and also played guitar for Stevie Wonder when Wonder opened for the Rolling Stones during their 1972 tour. 
And we find a rock band’s lead singer who went the solo album route after his longtime band decided synthesizers and ballads were the path to a hit, instead of their longtime rock and roll sound.
Hear the music again. Discover the stories.  Have some fun.  It’s a visit to the great 1980’s world or RockPopandRoll.