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Sunday, November 02, 2014

FM (NOT THE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK)



In 1978, a movie called "FM" was released.

It was a really good movie, although running on the cliché (yet true and sadly timeless) theme of a wildly successful radio station that gets interference from bean counting management, utterly clueless and indifferent to the people that made the station successful who expect their input to make the station even more successful. Which more often than not ends up trashing the station.

I'm not going to spoil it beyond that, but I would put this movie in my Netflix queue if I were you. FM was also the inspiration behind the legendary WKRP In Cincinnati.

FM also had one of the best soundtracks of any movie of the 1970s. It was a compilation loaded with original hits from the original artists on a two LP album set. In their full length album versions, not edited single versions (which besides FM radio's sound quality, the full versions of songs were also what made FM radio great in the 1970s.) And certainly not like a K-tel and Ronco record. The soundtrack was mastered by Gary Katz, the golden ears behind Steely Dan's classic '70s albums. It was truly one of the very best sounding soundtrack albums I have ever heard and MCA Records spared no expense in getting this right. 



On the flipside, budget record label Pickwick Records tried to cash in on the popularity of FM's soundtrack with their typically crummy knockoff record of incredibly LOUSY cover versions of the FM soundtrack's hit songs.



....and I do mean lousy. 

Listen to this hysterically bad cover of The Eagle's "Life In The Fast Lane"


Saturday, November 01, 2014

"The Evil Dope" Phil Phillips (1968)


Phil Phillips is best known for the 1959 ballad "Sea of Love", which got a revival in 1984 when it was covered by The Honeydrippers, a supergroup featuring Robert Plant and Jimmy Page (of Led Zeppelin), Nile Rodgers (of Chic) and Brian Setzer (of The Stray Cats.) But he had largely faded by 1968 when this anti-drug single came out.

In spite of all intentions, it became an underground radio comedy classic.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

The Paul Lynde Halloween Special (1976)



One of the BEST Halloween variety TV specials of the '70s. Starring Margaret Hamilton (reprising her role as The Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz), Betty White, Tim Conway, Roz Kelly, Billie Hayes, Billy Barty, Florence Henderson, an uncredited appearance from Donny & Marie Osmond and musical guest Kiss.