Category: Radio

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Saturday Night Retro

37 years ago at the end of 1972 I was a 5-year-old Kindergarten student at Magnolia Elementary School in Lanham Maryland.

Magnolia Elementary School, Lanham Maryland

The school was located about a mile away from my grandparents’ house. On most school half-days my Granddad would drop me off at school just after 12 noon and then pick me back up again 3 hours later. That was back in the days when you could attend any school that you wanted to no matter where you lived. I actually lived about 20 to 30 minutes away in Bowie Maryland. Later in the afternoon after getting off of work in NW Washington D.C. my Dad would pick me up from his parents’ house in this car:

Late in the afternoon as we drove southeastward from Lanham to Bowie along U.S. Route 50 (John Hanson Highway) we’d listen to WWDC AM-1260 as the TOP 40 hits were cranked out one after another. This was one of the top hits at the time at the end of 1972. It’s legendary British singer-songwriter Albert Hammond. He’s currently celebrating his 50TH anniversary in music, but back then he was enjoying a successful career as an International performance artist. Here’s “It Never Rains In Southern California” – his biggest hit as a singer ever – and one of the greatest pop radio tunes of my early childhood !

That’s ‘Saturday Night Retro’ for this week, and we’ll go back in time again – from the late-1990s – next Saturday night.

This concludes an awesome week of blogging. I’m taking Sundays and Mondays off from now on, so be sure to check back here on Tuesday night as we kick-off an all-new week of all of your favourite blog series. See ya then !

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History Music People Radio

The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

What can I say about one of the most prolific disco acts of the era – K.C. & The Sunshine Band. Led by Miami born and bred Harry Wayne ‘K.C.’ Casey he and his ‘Sunshine Band’ cranked out numerous Disco hits over a 4-year time-span starting in 1975. If you’re my age or older then you probably remember dancing to “Get Down Tonight”, “That’s The Way”, “Shake Your Booty”, “I’m Your Boogie Man”, “Keep It Comin’ Love”, and “Boogie Shoes”. They are bonafide certified Disco smash hits that surely defined the era that was.

In honor of his 59TH birthday this Sunday here’s K.C. and his Florida Sunshine Band with one of their # 1 Disco smash hits:

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History Music Radio

Saturday Night Retro

New for 2010 I’ll be looking back at the first decade of the new millennium every 4 weeks here on the ‘Retro’. The same applies for the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s – every 4 weeks I’ll look back at each of those unique decades.

In 2003 I was heavily into the dance club scene – on the radio – and in the clubs. European trance, techno, and house music was the soundtrack of my life at the time, and all I wanted to do was to follow the beat and go faster with it. The music was all based on ‘BPM’ – beats per minute – and once it got above 150 BPM it was all good !

Here’s a European trance track that was a hot dance club smash from January to May of 2003. It was definitely a cool song to dance to with glowsticks moving about in unison to the fast beat. It’s Noémi with “In My Dreams”:

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History Music People Radio Shopping Television

The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

Disco Ball

One of the hottest hits on the radio, in the record stores, and out in the clubs during the last quarter of 1986 while I was living, working, and playing in the United Kingdom was “Don’t Leave Me This Way” by The Communards (Jimmy Somerville and Richard Coles). It became the # 1 best-selling single of the entire year all across the British Isles. It was a spirited HI-NRG remake of Thelma Houston‘s 1977 # 1 Disco smash – which in turn was a remake of a 1975 Disco smash from Harold Melvin And The Blue Notes featuring the late great Teddy Pendergrass on lead vocals. (Teddy died 9 days ago. He was 59.)

Here’s Thelma Houston’s version as performed on “The Midnight Special”: