Favorite Songs: "I Couldn't Smile" by The Junk Monkeys

My friend Gerg is someone who, when talking to a new person about music, always asks to “borrow” some of their albums, unfortunately it’s usually asked in the heat of the moment and afterwards, the albums go un-listened to and unreturned! 

So one day I take Gerg along with me to visit one of my Alternative/Punk gurus James, and seeing his huge collection, Gerg asked James, ‘So what’s the hot thing you’re listening to nowadays?” to which James pulled out a CD and said “I’ve JUST been getting into these guys and they’re pretty terrific!” 

I already knew what was coming, and sure enough, Gerg said, “Wow man, can I borrow that?” I tried to step in and say that we could just record it some other time, but James was happy to nurture new fans and said “SURE! I think you’ll dig it!” 

A few weeks went by and James asked me, “Hey, how’s that Gerg guy liking the CD I let him borrow?”...But when I asked Gerg, he still “hadn’t had time to listen to it.” “No problem,” said James. 

Then a few MONTHS went by and once again James asked, “Did your friend Gerg get a chance to listen to that album yet?’ to which, once again, I was told by Gerg he still hadn’t yet. 

Finally 4 months had gone by and James called, asking, “Hey man, can I get that album back from your friend? I wanna use one of the songs in a mix tape I’m making.” I apologized and told him I’d get on it. 

I need not mention to you that the thing I hated most of this situation was that I was the guy in BETWEEN this predicament, a situation I’d tried to avoid by not letting him borrow anything in the first place! But I went to Gerg and said, “Yo, you listen to that album yet? James wants it back.” 

“Argghh, I still didn’t have time to check it out yet. I’ll get on it right away.” 

In the end, he just returned the CD to me without EVER listening to it once, but I was relieved enough to be able to return it back to James! Case closed! 

Fast forward a few months later and I’m cruising with my friends Kipp and Al, the latter of whom told me he had a new music mix tape James had made for him and we could listen to it while we cruised! I was game, and off we went…and as the mixtape began, I was BLOWN AWAY by the mix’s opening track, a BLISTERING, ROCKING song called “I Couldn’t Smile”, and I just HAD to have a copy of the mix for my own! 

Calling James up, I gushed to him about that awesome song I heard on Al’s mixtape and asked who it was. James laughed with bemusement as he said “The group is the Junk Monkeys, that was the CD I let your friend borrow for half a year!” But he loved how much I dug it and told me “I’ll make a copy of that mixtape for you!” 

MAN, this song was so damn good, (well the whole mix was good, but that opening track was just chef’s kiss!), and when I played it for another friend of mine named Cassie, SHE loved it too, asking it I could dub a copy of the mix for her, to which I enthusiastically did! 

NOW, fast forward to a month or so later and Me, Cassie, and my aforementioned friend Gerg are in my car, going to see a movie. On the way, I dig up James’ mix tape, and from that cracking opening notes of I Couldn’t Smile, me and Cassie were rocking out, singing at the top of our lungs, air guitaring and drumming, all throughout the song til its crashing end, and once it was done, Gerg said “WHOA! That song was awesome! Who WAS that?’, to which I laughed, “DUDE, that was the Junk Monkeys, the CD James let you borrow for half a year and you never listened to!” 

“Argh!"” he said. Then after thinking, he sheepishly asked, “So…you think it would be “dick” of me to ask James if I could borrow it again?” 

I laughed and said “There ain’t no WAY I’m asking him to let you borrow anything again!, LOL!” 

But so affected was Gerg by not only the song but the sheer enthusiasm me and Cassie had while blasting the song in my car, that he went out and bought the CD for himself! And eventually, even I wasn’t satisfied with only having the song on a cassette mix, and bought a copy of Soul Cakes for my very own as well!

To this day, “I Couldn’t Smile is STILL one of the greatest cassette-mix openings I’ve even experienced, a perfect starter to ANY party mood!!! 

I Got The Knack!

 As the seventies began to enter its final years, a new brand of lean, rockin' "Power Pop" groups began emerging, acts like Cheap Trick, The Cars, The Pretenders and of course The Knack!

I was still in middle school but I can still remember when their song "My Sharona" hit the airwaves and took the world by storm! I of course really loved it too, and when I had saved up enough money, (I think at the time 45's were still 75¢), made my way to the local record shop Harry's Music to buy it, only to come up to the Top 40 singles bin and see THIS Image on the cover of the My Sharona 45:

You have to understand, I was still a kid in intermediate school and I said to myself, "There ain't NO WAY I'm walking up to the counter with THAT record cover in my hands! Funny, how much I love my Beach Bunnies and Bikinis nowadays, back then that cover was just TOO MUCH!

As an adult I was to learn that the sexy model gracing the cover of that bawdy 45 was in fact THE Sharona that song was written for, a Ms. Sharona Alperin, which was very cool! But it made no difference for the young me, and in the end, I had to wait until I could make a trip to Woolworth's where they (thankfully) had the My Sharona single available in the regular PLAIN black sleeve, HAHAHA!

A lot of people regard The Nack as a "One Hit Wonder" outfit, however, anyone who was a fan of pop music back then can probably tell you they had quite a few more hits, including the cymbal pinging classic "Good Girls Don't"...

.. and the cool, bluesy "Can't Put A Price On Love", ALL singles we bought and cherished!

BTW, if I thought that picture sleeve for My Sharona was racy,  imagine my surprise when I heard the ALBUM version of "Good Girls Don't" for the first time: On the single/radio version of the song, there's a line that goes:

"An in-between age madness that you know you can't erase- when she puts you in your place"

BUT, on the ALBUM version, it goes:

An in-between age madness that you know you can't erase- til she's sitting on your face!"

WHAAAA! I remember staring at the stereo with my jaw dropped- these dirty-minded guys did it again! Of course as we got older those songs just became cooler and cooler, and I remember being in a band with my friend Larry who also loved the Knack, and we did our OWN cover version of "Good Girls Don't"...complete with naughty lyrics! LOL

Christmas Favorites: Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town

Fred Astaire as Narrator SD Kluger

Like most kids growing up in the seventies, I have a HUGE sentimental attachment to those Christmas Specials that aired every Holiday Season back then, and back in the days before VCRs, DVDs  and Tivo, the only way you could see these gems is waiting patiently all year for the shows to be aired once more! Around late November, you’d already be scanning the TV schedules in the newspaper praying to see your specials listed, and believe you me, when they DID, it was a heralded EVENT you planned your entire EVENING around! Shows like How The Grinch Stole Christmas and the awesome A Charlie Brown Christmas were all MUST SEE Christmas traditions, and the ones our family loved the most were the specials put out by the mighty Rankin/Bass Studios!

Probably the first Christmas Shows I saw were the Rankin/Bass’ Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer and Frosty The Snowman specials, but soon enough, I was watching them all, and the one that I loved more than any other Christmas Special was the wonderfully told “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town”, the story of just how the Jolly Man in Red came to be! Somehow, even as a child, this story seemed more…epic than the others!

Kris and his Penguin sidekick Topper

As a kid, I delighted in the adventures of Kris Kringle and his zany pet penguin friend Topper as they trekked across the north to give out toys and do battle with the evil Winter Warlock, and the songs I loved were the poppy and peppy “Put One Foot In Front Of The Other” and “First Toymaker To The King”…these were such great songs, I’d sometimes find myself humming them throughout the year, just DYING til they showed it again so I could hear it!

"First Toymakers To The King"

As I got older, I mostly outgrew the other Christmas specials like Frosty and Rudolph, and though I still loved them, I found I watched them for nostalgia more than anything else; “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town”, on the other hand (as well as the equally somber “A Charlie Brown Christmas”) were specials that seemed to just get BETTER with each yearly view!

Kris meets Miss Jessica

One thing I noticed watching it as a grown-up was how WELL the story was written! They took all the traditions and beliefs surrounding Santa and managed to turn it into a great tale that gave “reasons” for certain things like “Why does Santa come down the Chimney?” “Why does he make toys?” “Why does he live at the North Pole?” and the ever popular “Why do we call him Santa Claus if his name is Kris Kringle?” Watching the young Kris Kringle grow up into a boy, young man and ultimately the portly Santa Claus we know and love was just the most interesting and absorbing story to watch! And ya just GOTTA love Mickey Rooney’s animated voice- he just BECOMES Kris!

A Young Kris being taught by the Kringles.

And MAN, one OTHER thing I began noticing watching the show as an adult was that Miss Jessica was just about the prettiest little lady (marionette?) you’d ever laid eyes on! O Yeah! Funny, as a little kid, I really didn’t care for the scenes Jessica was in and I REALLY had a hard time sitting through her song, but watching the special as an adult, it tickles me to see just how stylishly “sixties” looking she was, with lush false eyelashes, a prim but groovy dress, and a hairdo that just channeled a Jeannie Shrimpton or Bobbie Gentry look! I remember watching it when I was older, and thinking, “Whoa, Miss Jessica is HOT! How come I never noticed THAT before?”

And it’s funny to think about how much I didn’t like her song back then. Now, “My World Is Starting Today” (sung by the awesome Robie Lester) is just about my FAVORITE Christmas Special song, bar none! The wonderful Petula Clark-ish 60’s flavor instantly takes me back to the sounds of my childhood, and it’s sweet lyrics as Jessica realizes she loves Kris just gives me goosebumps, and I now recognize it as one of the show’s peak points!

Jessica: "My World Is Beginning Today"

Another song that I admittedly dozed off on as a kid was the “Wedding Song” sung by Fred Astaire to commemorate Kris and Jessica’s union…back then it seemed like such a looooong song to a hyperactive kid like me! Watching the show NOW, I think that climactic scene has so much meaning, and when Fred Astaire begins singing, it really moves me, it’s so beautiful!

“What better way to tell you

How much you mean to me

Than a token of affection

Placed beneath a Christmas Tree

The custom started long ago

When first the wise men three

Gave gifts of love

To a newborn baby”

Wedding Song

Like I said, I hold these Christmas Specials near and dear to my heart, and make a point to watch all of them each year, even the later ones like “The Year without Santa Claus” and “Rudolph’s Shiny New Year”, but Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town is one that I still make special time to watch, preferably right on Christmas Eve, to take me right back to the wonderful Christmases of my youth!

PS: If you’re a hardcore Rankin Bass fan like I am, you NEED to own this awesome book called “The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass”! Written by Rick Goldschmidt, (possibly the foremost authority on all things RB) this book is just chock full of the most interesting facts, fun and trivia on Rudolph and the gang you’d ever want to hear! Check out the Rankin/Bass Website here.

Addendum: Around 2004 or so, they finally got around to properly re-releasing all the classic Rankin/Bass specials on DVD, and to commemorate the event, they released these wonderful collectible FIGURINES to tie in with the Shows! As I recall, they had figures for the Rudolph show and others, but the ones you know I was dying to get were Kris and Jessica from “Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town”! Lovely attention to details- Note little things like the squirrels with their gift walnuts, Topper's real scarf and Jessica's toy china doll! Not in the picture are Santa's Bag of Toys, Jessica's glasses and Winter's Watchdog Trees, which were also included. Awesome!

Santa Claus in Comin' To Town Figurines: Kris, Jessica and Topper

Checking Titles Off The Stephen King List!

My Stephen King Collection

SOMEBODY up on facebook posted something intersting that I’m surprised I never thought to create myself: A CHECKLIST for all of writer STEPHEN KING’S fiction* books!

Had quite a fun time going down the list and checking off the ones that I had read, and found myself surprised, not only by how many I’d read, but how many I THOUGHT I read but realized I didn’t/never completed! Collections like Just After Sunset, Full Dark, No Stars and even novels like Under the Dome and Revival are all books I own and thought I finished, only to discover I had bookmarks in them where I’d gotten distracted and moved on to other books! Looks like I’m going to have to do some finishing up!! 

My Checklist of What I've Read so far:

Funny, Stephen King ’s novels have been such a part of my life since being introduced to his work in High School that just looking through the list of titles, it takes me on a journey through my life!

*PS: I omitted non-fiction works (like DANSE MACABRE and ON WRITING) and other miscellaneous releases (like the CREEPSHOW graphic novel with Bernie Wrightson or the graphic art short-fiction book MY PRETTY PONY and the like) Still quite a list to tackle!

The Beatles' First US Visit: Beatles '64

Caught the new Beatles documentary “Beatles ’64” , covering the Beatles first trip to America as seen through the cameras of Albert and David Maysles and filled with interviews of both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr as well as various celebrities and fans who share remembrances of the Beatles and the societal times in general!

Highlights Beatles appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and at the Washington Coliseum and the few times they were out on the streets and not locked up in their hotel rooms!

I think this Disney Special is a nice companion piece for new fans that have discovered The Beatles through the “Get Back” miniseries they aired  a few years back. In that one of course they detailed the END of the Beatles career together, and it’s great to have a special that shows new fans just how HUGE , impactful and HAPPY they were at the beginning of their rise to stardom, laughing, joking, making music and playing with a pure joy that’s hard to top!