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Saturday Night Retro

Whenever the first two weeks of November roll around I think of cooler and drier weather, the upcoming holiday season, and The United Kingdom.

Cold fronts from the northwest are sweeping through America’s Riviera for the first time since last Spring dropping temperatures down below 72°F on a nearly nightly basis.

Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day are all within the next 8 weeks. Season’s Greetings Everyone !

These first two weeks of November also remind me of my two-year stint living in The United Kingdom serving as a young airman in the USAF. It was 24-years-ago this weekend that I departed stateside and arrived on British soil on my own to begin duty at my first permanent duty station. I served my country for two years in the U.K., and I took in all of the mid-1980s British and European culture at the time. It was a fun fun time for me and my friends that I spent it with. Good Times Forever.

22-years-ago next weekend I left the U.K. behind en route to my follow-on duty station at the original Homestead Air Force Base. Some time later on in my Life I plan to return to the U.K. to check up on the land across the sea I left behind.

Back in June of 1987 English novelty act The Firm scored one of the most unusual songs to ever hit # 1 on a major national hit music chart. It was a # 1 radio smash for 2 weeks all across The British Isles, and its unprecedented mainstream success reached deep into the European continent eastward into Asia and southward into Australia.

Here’s the original-length music video of that multi-continental # 1 smash, and it’s all about the legendary “Star Trek” television series from 20 years earlier:

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History Music People Radio

The Major’s Friday Night Disco Party

Disco Ball

31 years ago towards the end of 1978 Disco singer-songwriter Alicia Bridges was the star of one of the hottest hits on the radio and in the roller discos. She co-wrote this long-running gold-certified TOP 5 Disco smash that spent more than 7 months on the Billboard Hot 100.

Here now are the spiritual lyrics to “I Love The Nightlife (Disco ‘Round)”:

And here’s Alicia Bridges performing it via an early-form music video:

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History Holidays News People Politics Radio

Saturday Night Retro

Exactly 47 years ago on Halloween of 1962 the U.S. was engulfed in the Cuban Missile Crisis with the U.S.S.R. Luckily it was drawing to a close as the Soviets began dismantling and removing their missiles in Cuba as a result of a deal struck just a few days earlier by President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev.

Meanwhile on the radio Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers had the hottest smash on the airwaves, as their “Monster Mash” was riding high atop the Billboard Hot 100. Every year since then it’s been an annual tradition on the radio to signal the arrival of Halloween.

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History Holidays Life Music Radio

Saturday Night Retro

We’re kicking off Halloween here on the big blue blog as ‘Retro’ brings back two treats over the next two Saturday nights.

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Halloween was a fun event back in the day. I remember a bunch of them all around my Lanham Maryland neighbourhood from 1975 to 1980. Trick-or-treating in our favourite costumes was the in thing to do back then, as we cruised from door-to-door and from street-to-street up and down Red Wing Lane, Wren Lane, Wood Thrush Drive, and Nightingale Drive. I probably dressed up as Batman more than any other costume. Into the early-1980s I outgrew the whole dressing-up part of Halloween, but my little brother was just getting into it as a grade school student. I walked him all around our McLean Virginia neighbourhood and also into the adjoining Madison Of McLean and King’s Manor neighbourhoods in search of globs and globs of candy. 

Back in 1986 while I was living in the U.K. Bronx New York rapper (and former disco deejay) Kevin Smith – better known as his stage name – Lovebug Starski – scored an ENORMOUS radio and club chart smash with this amazing hard-hitting track. It’s “Amittyville (The House On The Hill)” y’all !