IF I DIDN’T LOVE YOU (6.10.20)

After working on two songs from the Sixties (‘My Back Pages’ and ‘Smile A Little Smile For Me’), Bob Sole and I were talking last weekend about what to do next. We decided to jump forward a couple of decades and do this Squeeze hit from...

CRAZY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE (6.1.20)

This Queen track features members of my band Way Back When – Bobby D’Andrea on lead vocals and Gary Hyatt on bass, with Mike McKeon from the band Stagecoach on drums. We added it to our song list just before everything got locked down, so when we started...

I’M AN ADULT NOW (5.30.20)

This song has been rolling around in my head for a couple of weeks, since I was cleaning out my office and found a promo button for the single. This is the best-known song by a Canadian band called The Pursuit of Happiness, from their 1988 album Love Junk. It was the...

HEAD OVER HEELS (5.28.20)

Doom Davis and I racked our brains for the better part of an hour deciding what to follow up ‘Golden Years’ with, and after calling out 20 or 30 songs we settled on this Tears For Fears track suggested by my wife. This one was actually a few weeks in the...

NEVER MY LOVE (5.27.20)

I continue to be amazed at the song choices people are making for this project – songs that I’d never think of doing, but when I hear them I think ‘excellent choice.’ The choice of this 1967 hit by The Association was the idea of my old friend,...

RED HOT (5.22.20)

I got the big idea to do something Rockabilly, so I reached out to my bud Joe Rock (Joe Rock & The All Stars) and he was kind enough to oblige. After batting a few songs back and forth, the final result is this Robert Gordon tune from 1977. We got real gone,...

SMILE A LITTLE SMILE FOR ME (5.21.20)

Once we finished the track for ‘My Back Pages,’ I asked Robert Sole if he wanted to do another song, and we started throwing around ideas. We settled on something from the 60s, kinda left field, maybe a one-hit wonder – and this song checked all the...

VANILLA RADIO (5.14.20)

After yesterday’s dive into Seventies mellowness, I figured we better roar back with a rocker. One of the most criminally overlooked bands in the world (at least here in the States, in Europe they are gods) is a band called The Wildhearts. They’ve been...

WICHITA LINEMAN (5.12.20)

While I was waiting to get more tracks back for a few other songs, I thought I’d take a swing at Glen Campbell’s ‘Wichita Lineman.’ I wanted to stay close to the original, so I plugged in the keyboard and did some horn and string parts. The...

NO MATTER WHAT (5.10.20)

After Danny Calvagna and I finished ‘Do You Believe In Magic,’ I asked him if he wanted to do another one. He immediately said ‘No Matter What’ by Badfinger. This track came together quickly and I was able to get a mix back to him in a day. He...

GOLDEN YEARS (5.7.20)

John ‘Doom’ Davis plays bass and sings for 70s Rock Parade, a band known for their spot-on recreations of 70s rock hits. When I asked him what song he wanted to do, it didn’t take him long to pick this Bowie tune from the Station to Station album....

IT’S NO GOOD (5.7.20)

This is the song that started the whole COVID A Go Go ball rolling in my head. Around late March, I had one of those random memories – I thought back to a rehearsal for Snakebite, the Whitesnake tribute band I was playing in with Mike Tirelli (Holy Mother,...

BAKER STREET (5.6.20)

This Gerry Rafferty classic was on my short list of songs to cover, and to get it done I enlisted two friends I’ve worked with extensively in the Neil Diamond tribute One Hot Night. The song would not work without the atmospheric keyboards, provided here by Rich...

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC (5.6.20)

When I contacted Danny Calvagna (45 RPM) about doing a song, I had a darker tune in mind to kind of play against his band’s happy-go-lucky image. But in keeping with 45 RPM’s motto of ‘Come On, Get Happy!’, he said ‘How about something...

MY BACK PAGES (5.6.20)

When I approached my friend John Genua (The Rustlers) about doing a song, he illustrated perfectly why it’s a good idea to let the guests pick the songs – he’s been doing a live stream every week and had just added ‘My Back Pages’ to his...

MAMA WEER ALL CRAZEE NOW (5.6.20)

The choice of a Slade tune came about because my wife and I always noticed that the only Slade tunes getting played on the radio are the ones that Quiet Riot covered. Those are fine, but Slade recorded a bunch of other really good tunes, this one among them. This...

EIGHT DAYS A WEEK (5.6.20)

You knew there’d be a Beatles song in here (and there will probably be more before we’re done!). This track features my friend Bobby D’Andrea on lead vocals. I play with Bobby in a band called Way Back When. Like me, Bobby is a hard core Beatles fan,...

MEMO FROM TURNER (5.6.20)

This Jagger/Richards tune from the movie ‘Performance’ has been on my ‘songs to cover’ list for years, so when I started talking to slide specialist Joey Masters (Grimm Jack) about doing a song, this one naturally came up. The lyrics are...
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