Chu-Bops

Chu-Bops were awesome.

Chu-Bops came out in 1980. Their first series consisted of eight different then-current album covers by then contemporary artists including Foghat, The Knack, Pat Benatar, Rush, The Spinners and others.

Each Chu-Bops album sleeve had song lyrics and band bios printed on the back of each cover. They also had an order form on the detachable flap for offers (such a protective case to store your Chu-Bops collection) and fan club memberships.

Photo: Stuff We Collect.com

They came in shrink wrap. The gum was your typical pink hard gum seen in most baseball card packs, but in disc shape. Like a tiny vinyl LP (there was no music stamped into them and you couldn't play them on a record player). On the shelf, they looked like tiny vinyl LPs

Later series included an all Beatles set, and Elvis set and several others until the Chu-Bops line was discontinued in 1983.

Tab Flavors of the 1970s

It wasn't ONLY just cola. In the 1970s, Tab had a line of diet soda flavors. (Photos: USA Soda)

The Starscroll Horoscope Vending Machine

If you were in any department store or local bar in the late 1970s and early '80s, you definitely remember these.

They were vending machines that for 25¢ (50¢ later), gave you a monthly horoscope. Just twist the middle knob to your sign, plunk in your money and out came this neat little scroll. (Make sure you twisted the middle knob to your sign's scrolls, and make sure your sign's scrolls were still in stock BEFORE you plunked your money in.)

And out came this neat little scroll.

They disappeared by the early '80s.

"Sure The Boy Was Green" Horslips (1977)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!,

Today, I thought I'd dig up something from an Irish rock band just about most rock fans in the US have never heard of. But in the pantheon of '70s Irish rock, if Thin Lizzy was on top, then Horslips were in a sound second place.

Horslips (yeah, weird name I know. According to Wikipedia, the name originated from a spoonerism on The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse which became "The Four Poxmen of The Horslypse"), while huge in Ireland, were criminally overlooked in America. They only had one LP released in the US in 1977 called Aliens. 

Aliens came right on the heels of Thin Lizzy's 1976 album Jailbreak album, which went multi-platinum (I'm sensing somebody thought with the Thin Lizzy craze that Irish rock was The Next Big Thing) and while Aliens was Horslips most accessible album commercially, it was largely unheard of in the US. "Sure The Boy Was Green" was the only single from it.

Horslips disbanded in 1980.

"A Message To Khomeini" Roger Hallmark & The Thrasher Brothers (1979)

In the diplomatic faux pas of the last week, I was reminded of this little gem from the days of the Iranian Hostage Crisis.

You'd swear it was the same people who signed off on this letter who came up with this tune.