Monday’s Music Moves Me: Lite Rawk!

Monday's Music Moves Me 3 Minutes
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I had no idea what today’s theme was until today. Dolly’s website said this was a “freebie” week, but since last week was a freebie week, I was under the impression that this wasn’t. But I guess the person who came up with the theme forgot to tell Dolly, so this is also a freebie week.

First, an apology: This is kind of a long playlist. It was the beginning of a Thursday Ten that I never finished, until this afternoon. I’ll list the songs so you can skip the ones you don’t like, or you can play the whole thing while you’re doing something else.

These are songs from my early adult days, from roughly 1976 through 1986 (in John years, 20 to 30), that, for some inexplicable reason, I like. I’ve titled the list “LITE RAWK”; these songs came from the era of “lite favorites from the 1970’s to today” radio stations. The ad for one such station in Chicago featured an early-’80’s guy with blowdried hair and a porn ‘stache who obviously listened to the station because “the ladies did” uttering the line “lite rock,” but it came out “lite rawk.”

Here’s the track listing.

  1. Baby Come Back – Player: released in 1977, this went all the way to #1 on the Hot 100 (and #10 on the Soul charts) the following year (the year Mary and I got married).
  2. I Go Crazy – Paul Davis: The first single from his 1977 album Singer of Songs: Teller of Tales, this reached #7 in 1978.
  3. How Long (Has This Been Going On)? – Ace: From their 1974 album (a little before the time, but hey) Five-A-Side, got to #3.
  4. How Much I Feel – Ambrosia: From their 1978 album Life Beyond L.A. Reached #3 that summer.
  5. Key Largo – Bertie Higgins: Reached #8 in Spring 1982.
  6. The Captain of Her Heart – Double: From their 1985 album Blue, it reached #16 on the Hot 100, the first single by a Swiss band to make the chart. I was having my teeth cleaned many years ago, and Libby, the hygienist, confessed this was her favorite song. This is for her.
  7. Moonlight Feels Right – Starbuck: This video was recorded live at Chastain Park right here in Atlanta a couple of years ago. Mary and I have been to Chastain Park exactly once (to see Robert Cray in 1988) and swore the only way they could get us back into the place would be for a reunion of The Beatles, including John and George. Starbuck, incidentally, is a band from Atlanta, started by singer/keyboardist Bob Blackman and Bo Wagner, who has the oh-so-cool marimba solo in the middle of the song. The song reached #3 on the Hot 100 in 1976.
  8. Reminiscing – Little River Band: Their most popular song in the US, reaching #3 on the Hot 100 and #10 on the Easy Listening chart in 1978. It received the BMI Five Million-Air award for having been played over 5 million times on the radio. It was still popular in early 1979, when I was working nights, and I wouldn’t go to bed until I heard it.
  9. Sailing – Christopher Cross: Recorded in 1980 and considered the dividing line between ’70’s and ’80’s music, it was released in mid-1980 and reached #1 for one week in late August. It won Grammys for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Arrangement of the Year. MTV ruined Cross’s career when it debuted; guess the viewers didn’t want to see a portly guy singing “lite rawk.” He’s had the last laugh, though: he still plays music, and MTV doesn’t…
  10. I Just Wanna Stop – Gino Vannelli: Also released in 1980, it reached #4 on the Hot 100 and #1 in Gino’s native Canada. I had a friend who did a hilarious impression of Gino singing this song.

That’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for the last Monday in September 2015. Enjoy!

Published by John Holton

Internet disc jockey, lover of old TV (especially the commercials), inveterate wise guy.

Published

19 thoughts on “Monday’s Music Moves Me: Lite Rawk!”

  1. Pingback: The (Rainy And Overcast) Week That Was | The Sound of One Hand Typing

  4. I had a crush on a guy named Sal(vatore) who played in the Toby Franklin Band. He dressed like a pirate a long time before Johnny Depp did, and he had long curly dark hair and big brown eyes. He played bass, and at some point during the night Sal would step into the spotlight and sing “Sailin'” . He was wonderful and that song ALWAYS makes me think of him. Sigh…

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  5. You are really the master chef of music that I can see for sure! Luvin’ the choice you have Posted, and your list of tunes are definitely inviting! Thank you for joining us. YOU’VE ROCKED THE HOUSE! Thanks for the dance!!! Woo Hoo

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  7. AWESOME Lite “rawk” list!! Hey, how do you get your videos to automatically go to the next video? I’d love to know how to string videos together. Is it easy??? I’m kinda dumb when it comes to technology…
    You can email me privately if you want or have time: michele@angelsbark.com Thanks!
    I love Little River Band and Moonlight Feels Right just brought back a rush of memories. Thanks for that! All these songs are great picks.

    Michele at Angels Bark

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      2. Hey John, I figured it out! I’m building a playlist for my entire A-Z Musical Tour of My Life. That’s going to be a very long playlist! But I just figured out how to embed it. I wasn’t seeing the Embed option because I had the playlist marked as Private so it wasn’t showing up. But I’m all set now. I’ve made it as far as Letter F. Will take me quite awhile to build that playlist. But it will be one great playlist once it’s done! Thanks for your help!!

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          1. Oh shoot, that’s a good idea! Too late…I’m already up to M. My goal was to be able to have all the music strung together so someone can just click on the playlist and have it play all through their workday. I wish I would’ve thought to do it by letter though… Oh well.
            Also too bad you can’t have the videos play randomly instead of how it is now with each artist’s songs playing together before moving onto the next artist.

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              1. Wow, how cool! Amazing really. Thanks so much John. I’m up to T! Will have it finished tomorrow. So far there are 745 videos. That’ll be some decent airplay…

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