"What IS This?": Recent Episodes
"What IS This?"
Commentary from a Canadian context on a variety of music found in my personal collection of 45 rpm records.
In this episode it's all about the music as we feature instrumental hits from the 50's-80's. No lyrics, no singers, just the band.
Please Note: This is the LAST episode of this podcast to be produced.
The "What IS This?" podcast was created as a personal project for me during a time of career transition coupled with the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and was never intended to become an ongoing, perpetual project. As I upload this final episode I wanted to make a point of saying "thank you" to those who subscribed and listened faithfully, you've made this a fun, therapeutic way to weather the last number of months.
Blessings and thanks, Deane (with an "e").
In this episode we open a musical time capsule from a changing era in the world that began in earnest in roughly 1965. These records are just a few among the soundtrack of cultural change, political dissent and the desire above all for peace as one decade ended and another dawned.
What makes a teen idol? Looks? Talent? Great marketing? On this episode of the "What Is This?" podcast we’re looking at a handful of teen idols from the 50's-70's found in my own record collection.
In this episode we'll hear some 45's from artists who recorded these records as tributes or shout-outs to other artists and THEIR records.
(It's a very "meta" episode of the "What IS This?" podcast!)
Canada has contributed more than our share of incredible musical talent with the world (see episode #8)and in celebration of Canada's 153rd birthday on July 1st, this episode is dedicated exclusively to "CanCon" (Canadian Content) from my personal record collection.
This is potentially the first podcast episode where EVERY song included could be a stand-alone "What IS This?" installment of its own. The one thing these songs all have in common is their release and success(?) in the 1970's.
In this episode we turn the tables on Episode 2 which examined actors turned singers. Today we're looking into my re cord collection for singers who became actors (with some mixed results!)
They say that success is less about what you know than it is about WHO you know.
In this episode we explore some artists who musically benefited from songs that John Lennon and Paul McCartney opted not to record with The Beatles but that still became hits for some of their friends and acquaintances.
With hits that included "Tutti Frutti", "Ready Teddy" and "Good Golly Miss Molly", Richard Wayne Penniman blazed a path for rock and roll music and left a legacy of music that inspired generations of musicians. In this episode we remember Little Richard.
When I first looked at this single I thought “written and produced by George Harrison, released on the Apple Records label and sung by one of the most powerful and distinctive female rock and roll voices ever...this is going to be great”.
And then I played it...
It's said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It was also the entire business model of a record label from Nashville in the 1960's. In this episode we hear several of HIT Records .39 imitations side-by-side with the hits they imitated.
Songs by groups like "T.& T.", "A.C. Ducey" and "U.B.'s Group" were typical of what Warner Brothers Records was releasing in 1962. Why? What was going on and what were they hoping to accomplish? In this episode we take a quick look at WB and some interesting and not-so-interesting releases between 1957-1967.
Unlike those countdowns that are based on sales or airplay, the countdown that comprises this episode is based on the numbers 10 to 1 that are found in either an artist OR song name.
A would-be televangelist and a couple of bands that may not have even existed are part of this episode featuring what some might call "one hit wonders".
Arkansas native and rockabilly legend Ronnie Hawkins placed his stamp on much of the music scene in Southwestern Ontario Canada. This episode explores a few examples.
Cheesy? Sure. Funny? Sometimes. Musical? Kind of. Truly the legacy of "break-in" songs depends on what you expect of them. In this episode I suggest we see them as cultural time capsules.
One very strange record of a tv show theme led to me digging through my collection for others.
In this episode we look at the phenomenon of "answer songs" in the music industry and how chart history shows the results to be mixed.
Can you name the first act signed to Apple Records AFTER it was established by the Beatles?? Find out in today's episode.
In this episode I look at the sad way that African-American R&B artists were treated by the big record companies of the 1950's and beyond.
In this episode we check out some examples of successful television and movie actors whom someone, somewhere felt should also have a recording career.
On this first podcast we look at an odd record from my collection called "Jennifer Tomkins" by an artist named "Street People".