So pull up a beanbag chair, turn on your lava lamp and take a trip back to a groovier time!
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June 2016 June 8: Today's "Way Back Play Back" continues a series featuring randomly chosen hits from yesteryear; peaking at #56 on U.S. Billboard's Hot 100 chart here is American new wave band The B-52s with "Rock Lobster" (1978)
Johnny K's Fun Facts: Written by band members Fred Schneider and the late Ricky Wilson (1953 - 1885), "Rock Lobster" was the band's first single to appear on the Billboard Hot 100. The song became one of their signature tunes and it helped launch the band's mainstream success. The song's lyrics include nonsensical lines about a beach party and excited rants about real or imagined marine animals, accompanied by absurd, fictional noises attributed to them; the chorus consists of the words "Rock Lobster!" repeated over and over on top of a keyboard line. In spring 1980, John Lennon, whose post-Beatles music career had been on hiatus for nearly 5 years while he helped raise his son Sean, was prompted to record again after hearing "Rock Lobster"
June 7: Today's "Way Back Play Back" continues with a series called "Totally Tubular Tuesdays" with the grooviest hits of that decade known as the 1980s; peaking at #4 on U.S. Billboard's Hot 100 chart here is British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac with "Hold Me" (1982)
June 6: Today's "Way Back Play Back" continues a series featuring randomly chosen hits from yesteryear; reaching #1 on U.S. Billboard's Hot 100 chart here is American singer, activist and politician C. W. McCall with "Convoy" (1975)
Johnny K's Fun Facts: Written by McCall and Chip Davis, the song consists of three types of interspersed dialog: a simulated CB conversation with CB slang, the narration of the story, and the chorus. It is about a fictitious trucker rebellion that drives from the west to the east coast of the United States without stopping. What they are protesting against (other than the 55 mph speed limit, then recently introduced in response to the 1973 oil crisis) is shown by lines such as "we tore up all of our swindle sheets" (CB slang for log sheets used to record driving hours; the term referenced the practice of falsifying entries to show that drivers were getting proper sleep when, in reality, the drivers were driving more than the prescribed number of hours before mandatory rest in order to shorten trip time) and "left 'em settin' on the scales" (CB slang for Department of Transportation weigh stations on Interstates and highways to verify the weight of the truck and the drivers' hours of working through log books). The song also refers to toll roads: "We just ain't a-gonna pay no toll." Also the "hammer" is the accelerator pedal; putting it down fed more diesel fuel to the engine, therefore breaking the speed limit.
June 5: Today's "Way Back Play Back" continues a series featuring randomly chosen hits from yesteryear; peaking at #16 on U.S. Billboard's Hot 100 chart here is American Muppet character and television personality Ernie, voiced by the late Jim Henson (1936 - 1990) with "Rubber Duckie" (1970)
Johnny K's Fun Facts: Named after Ernie's toy, a rubber duck affectionately named Rubber Duckie, the song became a surprise mainstream hit in September 1970. Ernie debuted what is considered his his signature song on episode #0078 (originally aired February 25, 1970) on Sesame Street (1969 - present), the long-running American children's television series on which he continues to appear as part of the ensemble cast that includes his on-screen/off-screen partner and pigeon aficionado, Bert. "Rubber Duckie" was even nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Recording for Children (1970), but it lost to The Sesame Street Book & Record, which, ironically, also contains the song.
June 4: Today's "Way Back Play Back" continues a series featuring randomly chosen hits from yesteryear; peaking at #4 on U.S. Billboard's Hot 100 chart here is American family music group The Osmonds with "Down by the Lazy River" (1972)
June 3: Today's "Way Back Play Back" continues with a series called "Fast-Forward Fridays" with the grooviest hits of that decade known as the 1990s; peaking at #16 on U.S. Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart (#10 on Canadian Singles chart) here is Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip with "Courage (for Hugh MacLennan)" (1993)
Johnny K's Fun Facts: The song's bracketed title references the late author Hugh MacLennan (1907 - 1990), particularly his 1959 novel The Watch That Ends the Night, whose title refers to a line in Isaac Watts' interpretation of Psalm 90, which is paraphrased in the song's lyrics.
Johnny K's Fun Facts: Although widely interpreted as being about adultery, the song was in fact composed by Ace lead singer Paul Carrack upon discovering that bassist Terry Comer had been secretly working with the British group Sutherland Brothers and Quiver. Comer returned to Ace in time to play on the song.
June 1: Today's "Way Back Play Back" continues a series featuring randomly chosen hits from yesteryear; peaking at #8 on U.S. Billboard's Hot 100 chart here is Scottish-born singer-songwriter and folk-rock musician Al Stewart with "Year of the Cat" (1976)
Johnny K's Fun Facts: Co-written by Stewart and English musician the late Peter Wood (1950 - 1993), "Year of the Cat" is a narrative song written in the second person whose protagonist, a tourist, is visiting an exotic market when a mysterious silk-clad woman appears and takes him away for a gauzy romantic adventure. On wakening the next day beside her, the tourist realizes, with equanimity, that his tour bus has left without him and he has lost his ticket. The Cat is one of the twelve signs of the Vietnamese zodiac; it corresponds to that of the Rabbit in the Chinese zodiac. At the time of the song's release, the most recent Year of the Rabbit had been February 11, 1975 to January 30, 1976 and thus, the song was recorded in the Vietnamese Year of the Cat.
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