Since I’ve already admitted to having a 45 with Michael McDonald on it, I might as well bring up that Firefall record.

You know the one.

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Yeah.

Well, how many hit songs have a flute solo that doesn’t involve Ian Anderson?

I don’t have much else to say about it. It’s sort of up there with Little River Band - catchy tune, but pretty lightweight. It’s ( Read more... )

I’ve been neglecting this series, I know - not because I’m out of 45s (we still have quite a ways to go in that regard), but because it was a pretty busy Q4 for me.

Also, we’ve got to that point where I have to bring up Michael McDonald.

The Doobie Brothers were, of course, bothering the charts and radio playlists when I was in my 45 phase. I didn’ ( Read more... )

As I’ve mentioned before, I bought most of my 45s between the ages of ten and 17, at a time when most of my musical knowledge was informed by whatever was on Top 40 radio at the time.

Consequently, there’s more than a few 45s that I listen to now and wonder just what I was thinking at the time.

Which brings us to Little River Band.

They were from ( Read more... )

Speaking of one-hit wonders, here’s another one: “Hot Summer Nights” by Night.

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There’s not much to add to that, apart from some interesting trivia here - namely, that it’s basically Chris Thompson of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, backing singer Stevie Mann and some session musicians (including Nicky Hopkins and future Pretender Robbie McIntosh).

Also ( Read more... )

If you’ve followed the “dEFROG On 45” series from the beginning, you know there are a lot of one-hit wonders in my collection. There’s also a lot of disco.

Here’s one of both.

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This one comes with an amusing anecdote: When this came out, I was reasonably convinced that Amii Stewart was Rod Stewart’s sister.

Why? Because they had the same last name. ( Read more... )

I’ve been neglecting this series. Well, you get what you pay for.

Maybe it’s because I realized that sooner or later, I was going to have to post about Billy Joel.

On the other hand, is there really any shame in that?

Arguably not - after all, Joel was pretty ubiquitous on the radio during my 45-buying days. Like The Eagles, Steve Miller Band, Elton ( Read more... )

When yr a kid in the 70s buying 45s, yr inevitably going to wind up with songs from the reliable hit machines of the era. I’ve covered quite a few already - ABBA, The Eagles, ELO, Steve Miller, Barry Manilow, etc ( Read more... )

As you may have guessed, there are some novelty records in my 45 collection.

But only one of them is a slice of Tennessee history.

In the late 70s, Governor Ray Blanton was caught signing pardons for convicts - some of them multiple murderers - who had bribed state officials, including two from his office. Blanton was never charged with anything ( Read more... )

As I’ve mentioned before, a decent chunk of my 45 collection is courtesy of mom and dad.

This one is from dad’s side of the record cabinet: a rockabilly take on Tarzan.

Complete with Tarzan yell.

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It’s an obscure enough record that I’ve been waiting for years for someone to post it on YouTube so I could share it with you all.

FUN FACT: For ( Read more... )

As I’ve mentioned before, my 45 collection is the result of a variety of sources. Some of them I bought. Some of them belonged to Mom and Dad. Some belonged to someone else’s Mom and Dad.

For example, one time I was at Mr Cat Taylor’s house, and for some reason we started digging through his dad’s record collection to see if he had anything useful ( Read more... )