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Richard Challen
Apr 22, 20206 min read
Tom Johnston – “Savannah Nights”
When Johnston finally came back, it wasn’t with the Doobies. It was with a 1979 solo single that sounded a whole lot like his previous band.
776 views5 comments
Richard Challen
Apr 13, 20205 min read
Rita Coolidge – “I’d Rather Leave While I’m In Love”
By this point, Coolidge was a battle-scarred veteran of rock 'n roll’s misogyny; intended or not, that history seeps into the margins.
500 views7 comments
Richard Challen
Apr 10, 20203 min read
Blackfoot – “Train, Train”
“Train, Train” is folklore and Appalachian tradition colliding with Marshall-stack ferocity on the floor of a ruffneck bar.
889 views4 comments
Richard Challen
Apr 8, 202015 min read
Sugarhill Gang – “Rapper’s Delight”
“Rapper’s Delight” changed music. “Rapper’s Delight” changed culture. “Rapper’s Delight” got everything wrong and still made history.
2,079 views4 comments
Richard Challen
Apr 6, 20208 min read
Herb Alpert – “Rotation”
As one of the earliest "chillout" tunes, you could expand this track to a full half-hour and lose none of its hypnotic pull.
1,042 views3 comments
Richard Challen
Mar 30, 202010 min read
ABBA – “Chiquitita”
Here in the States, “Chiquitita” barely cracked the Top 30, yet another victim of America’s ABBA apathy.
1,924 views9 comments
Richard Challen
Mar 25, 20203 min read
Foghat – “Third Time Lucky (First Time I Was A Fool)”
Foghat made their bones playing unrepentant Neanderthal blues for stoned teenagers, but their second-biggest single was pure country.
945 views5 comments
Richard Challen
Mar 23, 20205 min read
The Alan Parsons Project – “Damned If I Do”
At some point, probably when an entire orchestra crashes in on top of the synthesized trumpets, it all becomes a bit too much.
855 views4 comments
Richard Challen
Mar 16, 20207 min read
Daryl Hall & John Oates – “Wait For Me”
Long before the public got back on board, Hall and Oates had already figured out the direction that would reshape the rest of their career.
1,481 views10 comments
Richard Challen
Mar 11, 20204 min read
Pablo Cruise – “I Want You Tonight”
“I Want You Tonight” sounds like Pablo Cruise decided to glom onto every trend that was happening in late ’79. At the exact same time.
520 views2 comments
Richard Challen
Mar 6, 202012 min read
The Buggles – “Video Killed The Radio Star”
A deeply sad song delivered like an advertising jingle, a triumph of technological wizardry bemoaning our obsession with technology.
1,590 views17 comments
Richard Challen
Mar 4, 20206 min read
Prince – “I Wanna Be Your Lover”
“I Wanna Be Your Lover” is a sex song like most Prince songs are sex songs, but far too bright and fizzy to be confused with his later work.
1,000 views4 comments
Richard Challen
Mar 2, 20205 min read
Jefferson Starship – “Jane”
“Jane” is gloriously stupid trailer-park rock’n’roll at its finest, no apologies necessary.
1,517 views12 comments
Richard Challen
Feb 28, 20204 min read
Dr. Hook – “Better Love Next Time”
Every element of "Better Love Next Time" amounts to pure fluff, studio-engineered soft-rock dressed up in a polyester leisure suit.
636 views5 comments
Richard Challen
Feb 26, 20204 min read
Foreigner – “Head Games”
"Head Games" is sneakily subversive, and that weirdness never once gets in the way of its elemental arena rock stomp.
645 views4 comments
Richard Challen
Feb 19, 20203 min read
Little River Band – “Cool Change”
"Cool Change"is a piece of pleasant and competent soft-rock that goes down easy and dissipates immediately upon fadeout.
1,731 views8 comments
Richard Challen
Feb 17, 20205 min read
Cliff Richard – “We Don’t Talk Anymore”
For one brief, twenty-four month stretch, Richard took a chintzy, harmless pop ditty and parlayed it into some modicum of Stateside success.
625 views8 comments
Richard Challen
Feb 14, 20204 min read
Kool & The Gang – “Ladies’ Night”
“Ladies’ Night” is the sound of a veteran group recalibrating their entire aesthetic in an unabashedly craven bid for commercial acceptance.
601 views4 comments
Richard Challen
Feb 12, 20206 min read
Kenny Rogers – “Coward Of The County”
"Coward Of The County" presents gang rape, cold-blooded murder, and triple homicide as a redemption arc. And that’s all kinds of messed up.
870 views6 comments
Richard Challen
Feb 7, 20204 min read
Stevie Wonder – “Send One Your Love”
A gorgeous wisp of a song also functions as a disarming, straightforward entry into the most head-scratchingly odd release of his career.
564 views9 comments
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