Professor of Rock

Today we're going “Casey Kasem style,” counting down ten stone-cold classics from 1983. It’s our weekly Saturday Morning countdown where we feature songs from a throwback year that left a lasting mark on rock history… and shockingly never made the top 40, even though many of these are some of the biggest songs of the time. It's a musical mystery — how did these rock standards get passed over? As usual, we’ve got some great stories and guests, including how Billy Idol stole the master tapes for his new record and held them hostage to get the label to change the cover art on the album. He was about to bootleg them to the public if they didn’t cave. Or how about the song Blue Monday that New Order wrote because they were sick of coming back out on stage for encores. Their plan was to just have sequencers play it and have a robot sing it while they walked off. But it became their most famous song. And then there was the band that made up a word in their song as a joke, and it became a classic. And then there was the Journey classic Ask the Lonely that got pulled from an album at the last second and was banished to a crappy movie. Stick around for the latest episode of Professor of Rock.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Coming up next the story of one of the greatest, most epic rock songs in history: Layla. It has so many subplots, it’s a shock that it hasn’t been made into a biopic because you could never make this up. The song came from the writings of a 12th-century poet, and then hundreds of years later, that ancient story fell into the lap of legendary singer-guitarist Eric Clapton, who happened to be in the same situation as the man in the tragic story. Clapton was in love with his best friend’s wife, but that’s nothing. The song became shrouded in a cocktail of vices, from killing, adultery, drugs, and stealing… When I say stealing, the song was stolen from an iconic singer Rita Coolidge, who I have on the show to explain her side. The angled web of the greatest rock songs ever is finally revealed in all of its truth and drama next on Professor of Rock.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Next we’re sharing the greatest underdog stories in music history. In our countdown of the strangest feats in music. including athen the incredible the incredible artist who sold almost 90 million records without ever playing a live concert. As well as an instrumental song that had over 2000 overdubs that became the soundtrack for one of the scariest movies ever, the Exorcist & went on to sell 18 million copies. A s well as a group of monks that came out of nowhere and leapfrogged over Soundgarden, Mariah Carey, Pink Floyd, and Pearl Jam to sell 4 million copies in the middle of grunge. Find out what happened in these stories and more, as we count down the Top 10 Most Unconventional Musical Feats ever. NEXT on Professor of Rock.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Coming up next, the iconic singer of the #1 rock band in the world tapped his buddy Sebastian Bach and Skid Row to open for him on their world tour in 1989. Skid Row was a bunch of rookies whose debut album hadn’t even come out yet, but they had a secret weapon, Sebastian Bach, a young kid with a five octave range, and these rookies blew the #1 band in rock off the stage… They were the talk of the industry, and once they put out their album, they would scale the top of the charts with several massive hits, including the power ballad I Remember You that most of the band thought was too cheesy for the record… Until Sebastian unleashed an otherworldly note. He said he wanted to hit a note that no one would ever be able to top, and he more than delivered… It took I Remember You to the top of the charts, and I have Sebastian with me today to give the first-hand account next on Professor of Rock.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers broke through with their massive album Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and it made them one of the biggest rock bands of the time… but then their next album, One Hot Minute, flopped massively with a different guitarist. And they were in a tailspin.. So they fired their new guitarist and convinced their former guitar hero to come back to the band. They needed a comeback and felt they had a great song in the hopper... Californication. The only problem was the lyrics were incredible, but the music wouldn’t gel…In fact, this singer tried 10 different arrangements, but it got progressively worse. He got so frustrated that he threw the song away. But their guitarist saved them from the trash can and just when the record was about to be turned in he came to the rescue with the exact music the lyrics needed. He had actually just relearned to play the guitar after kicking drugs for good. But then the band handed in the record to the label, and their 3 best songs were shredded by the label. They called them second-rate, but they had the last laugh when all 3 songs hit #1, including the one that got saved from the trash bin.. Coming up next an amazing story of perseverance on POR.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today, we’re leaning into a two-word question that every rock fan has asked about their favorite bands… “What if?” What if The Beatles hadn’t broken up? Or The Police? What if we didn’t lose icons like Freddie Mercury, Bon Scott, or Keith Moon? Or if Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane hadn’t crashed? Or if David Lee Roth had stayed with Van Halen? What would have happened? Well, with modern technology blurring the lines between science fiction and reality, maybe we can find some answers. For this episode, I am putting AI to the test to see if it can answer some of these “what if” questions. I’ve got two of rock's most revered bands in mind: Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. And I want to know if Artificial Intelligence can tell me what would have happened to these bands if just one key moment had played out differently. And then I want you to tell me what you think about the results. Could this have happened in some alternate universe? Or is AI just full of crap? We’re going to try to get to the bottom of two unsolvable band mysteries next on Professor of Rock.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Coming up next… an incredible story from the POR vault with the two masterminds behind one of the most recognizable synth-pop songs of the '80sJack Hues and Nick Feldman of Wang Chung tell the wild story of how Michael Jackson wanted to record their song “Dance Hall Days” for Thriller—but only if he could change the lyrics.The band said no, and instead turned the track into their own breakout hit in 1984. It’s a wild, what-if tale straight from the mouths of the artists who lived it—only here on Professor of Rock.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Alright, we’re going all in on the shortest songs that have left the longest impressions. Tracks that you just can’t get out of your head and never will, because, well… they’re the catchiest damn things you ever heard. I’m talking about the mini-anthems that ate up the space between your favorite TV shows back in the day. That’s right, jingles. I said it. We did this once before, and you loved it. We did the 80s. This time, we’re doing the 70s and they're even better. Today, we’re featuring some unbelievable stories… including one about an iconic singer-songwriter who has sold nearly 100 million records and had 25 hits, but he admits his greatest hit is an insurance commercial song. Then there’s the jingle that is so annoying that the CIA has used it to interrogate prisoners. And don’t forget about the radio jingle that lit up phone lines because listeners had to hear more of it. It was a commercial! The song later became one of the most famous TV ads of all time and was released as a single by multiple bands. You’re not gonna want to miss the stories behind these 70s viral hooks… It’s all coming up next on Professor of Rock. Try Squarespace free for 14 days and receive 10% off your first purchase. Go to: https://www.squarespace.com/rockSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Coming up, a fabled rock and roll story that is hard to believe. Today’s band had the promise and grit to become one of the greatest bands ever, with a singer-guitarist brother combo that lit up the stage. Then tragedy struck when the band’s guitar virtuoso died in a serious accident. The band was stunned… how could they go on? Well, their secondary guitarist stepped up and wrote a song that would take them to the top of the charts. It had taken him years to write the music, and then it only took him mere minutes to write the lyrics. It became the band’s signature song, but get his it was held out of the #1 spot by the future wife of their singer. 2 years later the iconic female who denied them the #1 spot would marry their lead singer and then one year after they lost their guitarist, they lost their iconic bassist to the same accident on the same road. The story is next on Professor of Rock.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Coming up, we’re traveling down a hazardous road of rock history with the stories of some of the most controversial songs ever. it’s our latest edition of Taboo Songs.. including a hit song from Rumours, one of the biggest-selling albums ever, where Lindsey Buckingham S-L-U-T shamed his ex-girlfriend Stevie Nicks in the song, and she had to sing it with him for the next few decades, but when ME TOO hit, it got the silent treatment when that iconic female singer downed it. Then there’s Motley Crue's Girls, Girls, Girls that was written on a napkin & it name checked sleazy gentlemen clubs. It became so big it increased their business 10-fold. Plus the happy song Timothy that sounded like a tune from the Partridge Family, but hidden in the lyrics is a DARK SECRET and once DJ s figured it out it was BANNED across the board. And speaking of disturbing, we have the story of the most horrifying song ever, Frankie Teardrop. It's so frightening that many have warned others not to listen to the song at night. It’s become a FAMOUS CHALLENGE & those who have dared have become physically sick & bad things have happened. 1 famous critic called it the scariest song ever. We have some great stories & songs coming up on POR.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.