Professor of Rock

Coming up, legendary singer-songwriter Jackson Browne was asked to write a song for the 80s teen movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High. It was a Huge Departure for him and it took a few famous friends to convince him to do it. When he finished the song known as Somebody’s Baby, everyone KNEW it was a smash and told him to put it on his new album. He REFUSED the song saying it was a meaningless pop tune. It ended up being his biggest hit and an 80s classic and by not putting it on his new album it probably cost him platinum status and the #1 spot… He ragged on the song for years until his therapist of all people told him he was DEAD WRONG and that the song was about the most fundamental thing in life. Find out what song it is… Why this legend at first despised it and how he learned to love it next on Professor of Rock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

After hitchhiking across America and stowing away on a plane and bumming around Europe as a youth, Huey Lewis toiled in band after band trying to make it in music for almost a decade. He actually dropped out of Cornell University to chase his music dreams and formed the bar band Huey Lewis and the News. They broke into the Billboard Top 10 with a brilliant hit written by Mutt Lange called We Both Believe in Love which Huey turned into Do You Believe in Love that became his first top 10 hit. Up next Huey tells the story in an exclusive interview where he admits that the music video for Do You Believe in Love was excruciatingly awful and the pain of watching it for the first time with label execs. Next on Professor of Rock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Coming up….Jim Croce was an emerging superstar whose promising career started to enter its peak when he made a decision to quit the business altogether to spend time with his wife and newborn son. But a fatal moment would tragically change it all. At that point, after years of futility, he became a hit parade, marching off 5 consecutive Top 40 singles, including I Got A Name, Don’t Mess Around with Jim, Bad Bad Leroy Brown and today's classic song: Time in A Bottle. this was a song he buried on his new album that shot to the top of the charts after it was used in an ABC movie of the week.. the 70s pop classic would prove to be a beautiful and endearing omen. The story of a timeless song and career is next on Professor of Rock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Throughout the late 70s and early 80s THIS BAND WAS ON fire. Between the US and the UK, The Police had 14 Top 20 hits and for a while they were easily the biggest band in the world. Today we’re checking out one of their highest charting hits. Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic. And it almost never happened. The song was ignored by two out of the three band members for years. So the lead singer Sting finally recorded it in secret. He steamrolled them to get it on the new album Ghost in the Machine…but in the process it alienated the others namely Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers and even though it became a monster hit, the song ultimately caused a rift that ended the band. Its a compelling story about a song that the singer believed in so much he searched for the Perfect rhyme for a word in the chorus for years and the song was definitely magic … the story is NEXT on the Professor of Rock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bob Seger had been a regional sensation for over a decade but when it was all said and done he had only had one hit in 15 years and by 1976 it had been 8 years since that hit. He couldn’t seem to break through. Well, one night after seeing a popular film of the time he started to have a vision for a song. the 70s rock classic NIGHT MOVES was a very emotional and private experience from his adolescence and sometime later he wrote it at an A&W Drive-in after ordering a burger.. rumor is he wrote it on his tab… He wrote it about a teenage tryst. She ended up marrying somebody else and broke his heart but he turned it into a breakthrough smash single, transforming him into one of American Rock’s greatest rock storytellers. and to think due to a mix-up at his label it almost ended up being a b side… The story is next on Professor of rock Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Coming up, an all-time rock hit is put under the microscope by the entire band and this one has so many layers to it. Time of the Season by the Zombies was released in 1969 going into the 1970s and it was the perfect song as the psychedelic 60 bled into the excessive 70s and it has so many backstories. First of all, It didn’t become a hit until a year after the band had actually broken up. Its unique handclaps and audible breathing made it one of the most unique million-selling hits ever and it contained a phrase that would become part of our everyday vernacular.… Who’s Your Daddy... then the label was ready to give up on the legendary album the song came from Odessey and Oracle… it was saved at the last minute but even then the record’s title was misspelled and it still hasn’t been corrected. Then to add insult to injury when the song hit the top of the charts, with the band broken up a promoter put out a fake version of the band and began to tell people the lead singer had died… The lead singer Colin Bluntstone found out about his own death when reading the paper. the story is next on Professor of Rock… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It was the blockbuster record that put rock back on the front burner in the middle of disco…and it came out of nowhere… Tom Scholz and his upstart band Boston saved rock and roll with it’s power chords thought 70s classics like More Than a Feeling, Peace of Mind, Foreplay/Long Time and Rock & Roll Band to name a few of the powerful song that ignited radio. It sent shockwaves through the industry when it sold out virtually everywhere. Yet it’d been rejected by every major label in the industry. one even wrote a rude letter saying it offered nothing new. Tom Scholz the genius behind it had been tinkering in his basement for nearly 6 years perfecting it’s sound… He was rejected, laughed at and on the verge of financial ruin… It helped that had had one of the greatest singers ever in Brad Delp...Up next an original band member who was there during that stint tells rock and roll’s Cinderella story of the record that saved rock and roll. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Coming up next, a rare interview with rock singer-songwriter Dave Pirner of 80s and 90s Minneapolis scene group Soul Asylum on the 1993 classic hit Runaway Train. The song started out as one thing and ended up making a seismic change worldwide. Dave Pirner actually wrote the song about depression but it took years to finish. The lyrics were too similar to another #1 song from long before but after going through some dark times, one day a metaphor hit him right between the eyes and he wrote the song we know in a few minutes then the song’s video would have even more impact helping solve crimes and saving lives. Get the story next on Professor of Rock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Up next.. the story of an all time classic rock song from both the singer Lou Gramm and guitarist Mick Jones who wrote it.. All-time 80s anthem JukeBox Hero by Foreigner! They each had a great song and pretty much combined it into one with dual experiences… legendary guitarist and producer Mick Jones said it came from letting a fan come backstage after he’d waited 5 hours in the rain to get tickets to their sold out show. The Iconic vocalist Lou Gramm said his inspiration came from standing outside a sold out concert hall not able to see Hendrix perform. It maybe the most challenging song for a rock singer to perform in history… Most can’t hit the notes but boy did this guy do it even if he had to fight a legendary producer tooth and nail to get it just right. The song became a #1 rock song an sold a million copes twice! From 1981 hit album Foreigner 4. The story is next! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Coming up, it’s one of the most instantly recognizable and impossible to resist songs of the rock era. Take on Me by A-ha. It's music video ain’t chopped liver either… maybe the definitive video of 80s MTV . Take On Me is a song that rises high above its genre and era. But it would be a long and rocky road for this band to get there. Morten Harkett and his band A-ha would rise to global fame but it started clear back in the late 70s when their keyboardist came up with one of the catchiest hooks of all time. Only the band thought it was too catchy nicknaming it the Juicy Fruit song because it was so over the top catchy. For a while wanted nothing to do with it… then in the 80s they put it out and it Failed. How could the catchiest song ever not be a hit. It’s inching up to 2 billion plays on Youtube alone. Find out how they turned it around next on Professor of Rock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.