Reunited With A Long-Lost Song!

Have you ever had a few words from a chorus stuck in your head for over 20 years, but you couldn't quite figure out what the song was? I got reunited with one of those songs today for the first time since hearing it on adult contemporary radio back in 1980. Nationally, it peaked out at #69, but in my old stomping grounds, you would have sworn it was a top 10 hit! The chorus went something like this: "You're taking all I've got and now you're leaving, ooohhhhh, baby don't go, I thought love was something to believe in, oooohhhhh, baby don't go..." Listen for it later on today on The Retro Attic! Thanks for the catchy tune, Karla!

Singer/Songwriter Karla Bonoff

Musical reunions with long-lost chart entries...you will soon realize that this is one of the main themes when you listen to The Retro Attic!

THE AMERICAN DREAM - Power Pop Memories From '70

Welcome to 2012 and thanks for checking out my musical time machine known as The Retro Attic - 50s To 80s Rare Oldies! I have relaunched the station this week with a clearer vision of how I'd like to do things after experimenting with a couple of formats last year; hopefully you will like what you hear and will keep coming back for a ton of surprises.

One of the genres you will hear me play frequently is Power Pop. Most music fans associate the term with the skinny tie bands of the late 70's such as The Knack("My Sharona") and The Records("Starry Eyes"). Some will argue that the genre got its start with The British Invasion of the mid 60's, and I'm cool with that. But my most favorite era for the genre was approximately 1970-1973, when American and British bands such as Feather, Redeye, Wadsworth Mansion, Raspberries, Christie, Badfinger, Big Star, and Circus were trying to fill the void left by The Beatles' breakup.

There was a band from Philadelphia that released one album on Ampex in 1970 that I particularly liked. They were The American Dream, which featured future Foghat producer and member Nick Jameson and a couple of other members who guested on Todd Rundgren's first Runt project("Birthday Carol" I believe was the song they played on). Speaking of Todd, I'm pretty sure that this band was his first producer credit after leaving The Nazz. They didn't have any charting singles, but their self-titled album did briefly chart in late February. Not all of the album's tracks were traditional power pop; a couple were a bit quirky(but still good!) and a couple were laid-back, introspective numbers. Those that were power pop come highly recommended by me(power with a capital P!).

Keep your ears open for a couple of the album's tracks here on The Retro Attic! I bought the album back in the early 80's when it was normally going for 20-30 bucks on the collector's market; I believe a copy can be found in the 10-15 range these days.