– It’s New Year’s Eve y’all !
– At 6 AM here on the U.S. East Coast New Zealanders were ushering in 2010.
– As I type this ‘Mini Thought’ at 4 PM Saudi Arabians are celebrating 2010.
– I arrived in Saudi Arabia 19 years ago this week for the first Gulf War.
– I was over there for 9 weeks through the conclusion of Desert Storm.
– That was my most memorable New Year’s Eve / Day.
– 2009 was a success story for me both personally and professionally.
– Every year since 2006 has been an overwhelming success story for me.
– That’s because I have been reborn.
– I totally expect 2010 to be the brightest year yet for me.
– I’ve decided that I will always pronounce the new year as ‘twenty ten’.
– It just sounds so right to say ‘twenty ten’.
– Last Feb. 28TH I thought that I had seen the last of the Jacksonville area.
– That’s when I drove from there for the very last time (as I thought).
– I had just finished moving my parents over to the Dallas Texas area.
– I no longer have any family members living up there.
– Next weekend I’m driving back up there to my parent’s old neighbourhood.
– I’ll be up there for one full day and two nights.
– I now own their former home.
– It’s all mine – debt and all !
– I’ll be talking face to face with the management company that’s renting it out.
– I’ll be getting a lot of answers for a lot of questions.
– The answers will assist me in making decisions and taking actions.
– Get ready for a cold month of January South Floridians.
– It’s the extended period of colder weather I’ve been shouting about.
– It all starts on New Year’s Day when temperatures drop like a rock.
– We’ll go from heat indices in the lower-80s to wind chills in the mid-40s !
– We’ll be stuck in the 60s for daytime highs for at least 5 days in a row.
– We’ll have nighttime wind chills in the 30s for at least 4 nights in a row.
– This extended cold snap is the first of several during the month of January.
– Our chances of experiencing a hard freeze later in January are quite high.
– If you dig cold weather then you’ll dig January here in America’s Riviera.
– After three weeks of Christmas music on the ‘Retro’ we’re goin’ back to basics.
– We’re gonna spin up the ‘Wheel Of Cheese’ this Saturday night.
– It’s a cheesy gold-certified # 1 smash from over 35 years ago.
– It comes complete with an antique music video you’ve gotta see to believe.
– But before that it’s another Disco smash tomorrow night on the ‘Disco Party’.
– And the hits don’t stop ’til we reach the top !
– Have a safe and festive New Year my friends !
– Peace be with you.
– And also with you.
Category: History
It’s time for the final ‘Saturday Night Retro’ of 2009, and it’s the classic Christmas tune heard on the radio during every Christmas season of the entire 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. After four decades it’s clearly become the most-played Christmas song on the radio of the entire rock era. It’s legendary Puerto Rican singer, songwriter, and guitarrist José Montserrate Feliciano García – or simply José Feliciano. Here’s a special LIVE performance of “Feliz Navidad”:
It was my 19TH Christmas on Earth back in 1985 – and my first away from home and away from my family. I was newly stationed in the USAF in the United Kingdom by 6½ weeks, so there was no chance at all that I could take leave and return back home stateside for the holidays.
While I have vivid memories of my two years spent living, working, and playing in the U.K. I don’t remember much from that Christmas of 1985 away from my loved ones. I don’t remember if I was invited out to a coworker’s home, or if I stayed at the dorm and walked to the chow hall for a very special dinner. It was obviously a cold and forgettable holiday season in my life back then.
Here’s a song that I actually do remember from that Christmas, for it was the coveted Christmas # 1 smash on the radio all across the British Isles. It’s from one of the biggest-selling male artists in British music history. He’s Shakin’ (‘Shaky’) Stevens, and THIS is “Merry Christmas Everyone” !

Last week at the ‘Disco Party’ I featured Tavares with their Bicentennial (Summer Of 1976) hit from up above – “Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel”. It’s 1 of about 20 TOP 40 hits since the rock era began (in the 1950s) that start with that very special word “Heaven”. You may also remember “Heaven” from Bryan Adams (and also DJ Sammy, Los Lonely Boys, and Warrant) – or how about Belinda Carlisle‘s # 1 smash from 1987 – “Heaven Is A Place On Earth”. There’s also Donna Summer‘s TOP 5 Disco smash “Heaven Knows”.
But this week I’ve got a Pointer Sister who branched out on her own during the late-1970s. She’s Bonnie Pointer, and she scored an incredible feat late in 1979. You see Disco allegedly died on a hot July night in 1979 at a Chicago White Sox baseball game. But a few leftover Disco songs on the charts never got the memo – including this one. Here’s Bonnie Pointer with “Heaven Must Have Sent You” – a TOP 15 Disco smash from the Autumn Of 1979 – several months after Disco allegedly died at Comiskey Park.