KPOO etc week of 3/11/13

[RGMike]

without WDAS, I'm back to listening to 2NG more often. Just heard Dusty S's cover of "24 Hours From Tulsa". Woman could sing anything.

ETA: it's apparently "Twin-Spin Tuesday" at the top of each hour; we just got a double dose of Whinyface covering the BeeGees: "If I Can't Halve You" and the underappreciated "Love Me".

ETA: OMG, Albert Hammond's "Free Electric Band", one of my favorite shouldabeens of all time.

[RGMike]

Stumbled across this station in Florida: WAVV, which bills itself as "Modern Easy Favorites" and it's what used to be called "beautiful music"  or "dentists office muzak" -- mostly instrumentals (I tuned in to an instro version of DeBarge's "Who's Holding Donna Now"!) or old-fashioned choral arrangements a la Up With People/the Johnny Mann Singers. I didn't think anyone did this format on commercial radio, much less in a major market.  For people who think The Carpenters are too boisterous, I guess.

http://socialstreamingplayer.crystalmedianetworks.com/radio/wavv

Holy crap: James Last!  can Hagood Hardy be far behind?

Damn, there must be lots of 85-year-olds in South FLA.  "WAVV: we're not your father's radio station -- we're your great-grandfathers!"

Tom Jones doing "Over the Rainbow"? my gawd.

On further reflection, not as many instrumentals as I first thought. But we just got Matt Munro doing "The Nearness of You", so there's a bit of the old KABL standards-type stuff in the mix here.  Linda Ronstadt's Nelson Riddle period also representin'. I'm kinda diggin' it, as a change o' pace. They must know I'm listening: Eva Cassidy's version of "SF Bay Blues" (!).  But seriously, their demographics must be ancient.

[RGMike]

ooo!  2NG's retro countdown is March 1973. Cannot possibly suck.

Oddity of the day: Gladys/Pips covering "The Look of Love"

wow: Beach Boys "California Saga" is quite the flashback.

Dame Shirley Bassey's "Never Never Never" is a treat -- this actually made the US Top 50.

"Freedomland" by White Plains is NTM and a delightful pop ditty -- named after the amusement park in the Bronx?

holee crap: Wacky Sedaky, "That's When the Music Takes Me"

Hmmm... they're playing the orig '50s studio version of Chuck Berry's "Reelin' & Rockin'" rather than the live version that actually charted in '73.

NTM: the Godfather-inspired "Gonna Make You An Offer You Can't Refuse" by Jimmy Helms, doing a passable Stylistics imitation.

I generally love the New Seekers but they really didn't need to cover "Pinball Wizard".

OMG: the Partridges fine Gene Pitney cover "Looking Thru the Eyes of Love". Followed by Donny O's sweet "12th of Never"

easily the highlight: Focus with "Sylvia", their great instrumental follow-up to "Hocus Pocus" that is one of my all-time shouldabeens. Missed the US Top 40 but a big UK hit.

What-the-what? Dave Edmunds remakes "Baby I Love You". Dave, you're no Andy Kim, much less Ronnie Spector.

I'm always astounded that Thin Lizzy's "Whiskey in the jar-O" is from '73 (it was a UK #1) since they didn't get US play until 3 years later

Whoa: the J-5's fantabulous cover of "Doctor My Eyes"!

well, I just heard "Killing Me Softly" the other day on the Peak, but it really is a masterful production from start to finish.

wow, Alice Cooper's "Hello Hooray" made the UK Top 10.

Detroit Emeralds, "Feel the Need" -- damn this has been a delight today.

dude! Sweet! "Block Buster"! (#5)

Strawbs, "Part of the Union"!! (#4)

T-Rex, "20th Century Boy" (#3)

Rod/Faces, "Cindy Incidentally" (#2)

and your #1 single in the UK, March 9th 1973:  Slade's orig "Cum On Feel the Noize". Quiet Riot, eat yer hearts out.