How Good It Is

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Kansas was literally on the last day of rehearsing for their fifth album when their producer asked them if they had anything else. Guitarist and songwriter Kerry Livgren reluctantly broke out an acoustic song that he was convinced the rest of the band would hate, because it was practically the opposite of everything Kansas had done until then. But it turned out to be exactly the opposite: they loved it, and they fine-tuned the song to give some of the other band members something to do (extra guitar, violin part, and a smidge of percussion), and it turned into the album's second single and the biggest hit of their career.

Dustiness here, dustiness there...no wonder Caroline is in a pond. She's gotta wash off all that dust.

And that's about it, there's not much mysterious about this song. It's been either used or referenced in countless pop culture arenas, and it's been successfully covered a few times, curiously enough by Country singers most of the time. Many people know about Sarah Brightman's cover of the song, but I'm going to encourage you to check out last year's recording by Caroline Jones. (No, I don't know why she's singing in a pond, unless she wanted to do the exact opposite of Kansas' video.)

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Kansas was hard-pressed to come up with a follow-up hit to "Carry On Wayward Son". Kerry Livgren reluctantly played this song for the band, and they liked it much more than he thought they would.

The Osmond Brothers got their real start in show business when they couldn't get an audition for one television show, and they wound up on another.

Check out the audience reaction to them at first. It cracks me up every time.

This clip, incidentally, is from the show Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, which most people seem to remember as The Wonderful World of Disney. Shoot, I was watching the show as a small kid (right after Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom), and remember it under the second title, which wasn't a thing until 1969. This episode was called "Disneyland After Dark", and the conceit behind it was that Walt Disney himself would start to introduce the different performers on the show, but he'd never see the acts himself because tourists kept interrupting him. The show, as it originally aired on NBC, was available on DVD for awhile, but appears not to be available now.

This would be later in the group's career with Andy Williams, since Donny is part of the group now.

The Disney gig led them to another show (The Andy Williams Show), and another. And finally, when they wanted to break out of their Variety TV Group image, they convinced their dad to let them record as a rock and roll band. So off they went to Alabama, as you do, and they put together an album that clearly had a Motown/R&B influence on it.

It wasn't their first album; in fact it was their SEVENTH. But it's the one that broke big for them.

The addition of Donny Osmond to the act, and the use of him in exactly the way Motown was using Michael Jackson at the same time, allowed the Osmonds to release their first hit single, and their first Number One record.

What's the secret to the song's success? There's a theory, and it involves fast food.

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"One Bad Apple" was the Osmonds' first hit, and their first Number One, and it turns out there may have been a McSecret behind the record's success.

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Hi! Didja miss me?

Apologies for the big gap in shows; life was getting in the way, plus I got sick somewhere in between and, while my voice would have been pure comedy on your end, it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun on mine. No excuse though; I should have posted SOMEthing in the interim. I'll do better next time.

Ray Sawyer, 1937-2018

Six episodes ago we took a peek at the work of poet/playwright/singer/songwriter/Renaissance Man Shel Silverstein, and I guess the most notable thing related to that show that's happened since then, is that Ray Sawyer, the singer/guitarist for Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, died on New Year's Eve at the age of 81 after a short illness. Sawyer was the main singer on "Sylvia's Mother" and "Cover of Rolling Stone", among others.

So this week we're looking at some more of his work, including what's perhaps his most-covered song (and, oddly, a song that despite all the covers doesn't seem to do anything on the charts; I think it's just a song that people like to sing), and a quick look at his theater work.

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This week we return to take another look at a performer who had a bigger influence on the music of the 1960s and 70s than most people suspect.

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It's the holiday season, and that means that radio stations have moved a bunch of traditional songs into their rotations. Some of them have even gone All-Christmas-All-The-Time. But it seems as though some of these songs don't stand up to closer scrutiny as Christmas songs. They're set in the winter time, but they don't appear to mention Christmas at all, or they happen to take place during the season but that's about it.

And while I'm complaining about Christmas songs that don't stand up to scrutiny, have you really listened to Andy Williams' "Happy Holiday (The Holiday Season)"? Sometimes I think poor Andy had a stroke in the middle of recording that one. It's little more than a bunch of clichés strung together, and then he loses his mind and starts spouting nonsense lyrics, and failing miserably to make them rhyme. I'm going to blame Kay Thompson for this mess, because there's no way Irving Berlin is responsible.

And don't get me started (again) on "My Favorite Things."

During the show I mentioned a short cartoon version of "Frosty the Snowman" that's aired every Christmas season since 1955 on WGN-TV in Chicago. Here's that clip for your listening pleasure:

And while I'm providing extra goodies, here, also as promised, is the audio of Wally Schirra reporting a "UFO" in December of 1965.

When I was in the third grade I sent a letter to NASA, and they sent me a packet of stuff, including photos of astronauts on the moon, a photo of Earth taken from space, and a flyer with frequently-asked questions about outer space. I remember distinctly that one of the questions was about whether the astronauts had ever seen a UFO, and the answer was that Wally Schirra had reported a UFO that turned out to be Santa Claus. I presume they were referring to this event.

At any rate, the episode has been available for a little while now, but if you're the DIY sort you may want to download or listen here:

I'm likely to be out of town next weekend, so it's possible that I'll be taking a week off from the show. Next time around we finish Shel Silverstein for sure, and then I have a listener-suggested episode.

Have a great holiday! Thanks so much for your support!

There are a bunch of songs in the canon of Christmas songs, whose lyrics don't stand up to close examination. This week we look at several "Christmas" songs that don't really appear to be about Christmas.

John D Loudermilk wrote a song that's nearly devoid of actual facts. When it became a hit, a couple of interviews he did about that song turned out also to be mostly devoid of facts.

Neil Sedaka spent a bunch of time in the Top Ten, but this was his first trip to the Number One slot. And he took the song to the Top Ten again several years later with a vastly different arrangement.