Professor of Rock

"Coming up the story of the groovy, “feel good” pop classic, Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison. Despite the song’s tremendous, enduring success, Van Morrison, who composed it & sang it, didn’t feel good about ANYTHING to do with the song. First of all, he made a terrible deal with a record label in which he received no royalties, and had to beg this unscrupulous label for a little money just to survive. And then there was the simple fact that Van, just flat-out hated the song, even though history has deemed it his signature tune,…one of the greatest classic songs ever and the rest of the human race LOVES it!! As they say in the music business…a hit is a hit is a hit, even if the artist who created it doesn’t want it to be. We cast some memories, and reveal the honest truth 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.

In this short interview, we pay tribute to the late great 70s icon Gary Wright, who passed away on September 5th 2023, six years after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's. Today we celebrate his #1 multi-platinum 70s classic Dream Weaver in an exclusive interview. . The songs "Dream Weaver" and "Love is Alive" were multi-platinum hits. Dream Weaver was released in 1975 but i peaked in 1976. Dream Weaver has outlasted its chart position as a pop culture touchstone with uses in everything from Wayne’s World, Toy Story 3 and the Full Monty, It also inspired Wes Craven in creating Nightmare on Elm Street’s music. The story is next. Wright would spend several weeks at #2 behind December 1963 (Oh What a Night) by the Four Seasons and Disco Lady by Johnnie Taylor, Gary would have to settle for the #2 spot on the billboard hot 100 but Dreamweaver did hit #1 on the Cashbox charts. Gary’s very next single Love is Alive would meet the same fate It would spend several weeks at #2. Dreamweaver has well outlasted it’s chart position as a pop culture touchstone with used in everything from Wayne’s World, Toy Story 3 and the Full Monty, It also inspired Wes Craven in creating Nightmare on Elm Street which Gary discusses on this segment. 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, an interview with a singer-songwriter that many gen-exers had a crush on. Lisa Loeb! She was in a duo and then they broke up… She actually played music for 10 years and sold indie cassettes of her music but never caught a break until she met an up-and-coming actor, Ethan Hawke… He lived near her. He caught a show and gave a cassette of one of her songs to a director for consideration for a movie they were making. That movie... the 1994 hit film Reality Bites...The song was used in the movie and almost overnight it went to #1 and she didn’t even have a record deal… making her the first ever to do that! Pretty good negotiating position. Up next in an interview, she tells us the story. 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.

While trying to finish their second album, today’s band Thompson Twins needed one more song. But they needed it quick. So their frontman Tom Bailey wrote a last-minute filler track overnight… just something to tack on the end of the record, But as it turned out, it was an accidental #1 hit. It was the 80s smash In the Name Of Love And it turned the band upside down: changing their musical direction throwing the guitars into the corner adding synthesizers and paving the way for an even bigger hit a short while later. A hit that also happens to be today’s featured song. Hold Me Now has become An essential 80s Masterpiece. Written shortly after a falling out and reconciliation between two bandmate-slash-lovers, Tom Bailey and Allanha Currie. It is a surefire punch to the gut in the best way possible. In this episode we’re giving you the fascinating story behind Thompson Twins the classic hit, Hold Me Now, and also an interview with the singer and writer Tom Bailey coming up… 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.

Coming up the story of a song released under a heavy dispute between a Glam Rock God, and the King of early 90s Soft Rock. It was Paul Stanley of Kiss vs. Michael Bolton. The Co-writing credits read that both wrote the power ballad Forever. It was also the first hit by Kiss in more than 12 years. During that dry spell, two members of the original lineup were gone Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, and so was the legendary look of the band. It was a bold and risky move to change their image… Unmask… take off their iconic makeup. But would that radical change pay off? Get a front-row seat to the dispute between the hard rocker and the soft rock balladeer and the crazy antics of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley and Kiss. Find out how everything turned out…..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.

When today’s legendary band came out, they were unlike anything anyone had ever heard back in… Black Sabbath! Their music was hardcore and at first, they almost called themselves a three-word title that started with Polka, thankfully they saw a horror movie around that time and took its much cooler title as their name.. Their first record was destroyed by the critics but out of nowhere fans bought a million copies of it and they readied their sophomore record. Needing only 3 more minutes of music to finish it, the band created a track that inadvertently affected the future of rock & roll. Paranoid would change everything. It was the unfolding of a heavy metal anthem was it inspired by dark mysticism or the highs and lows of drug indulgence….find out 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.

Use my code PROFESSOROFROCK to get $5 off your delicious, high protein Magic Spoon cereal by clicking this link: https://sponsr.is/magicspoon_professorofrock 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 interview with iconic guitar player George Thorogood who’s 1982 laid back full throttle riff of Bad to the Bone has dominated our society for decades and it wasn’t even a hit when it first came out. He wrote it when he got to open for his own rock and roll heroes the Rolling Stones… He tried to emulate Keith Richard’s typical, legendary, can’t get it out of your head riff style… and He NAILED it. Then he offered Bad to the Bone to an old rock legend, who’s management rudely and flat out rejected it. So he recorded it and swung for the fences vocally snarling one of rock’s baddest ass stutters ever with a song every guy claims as his theme and has been tens of millions of American’s phone ringtones… Let’s do this! 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.

Mick Hucknall of Simply Red was abandoned by his mother when he was only 2 years old... Later in high school his art teacher said something that inspired him to attempt writing songs. His first try was a song about Ice Cream but The second song was so far ahead his 17 years it was shocking. Holding Back the Years was and is a deeply methodical song about loss, regret and abandonment. He worked hard to get it heard but it failed to chart. until one to the 80s biggest singers’s praised the song on one of the biggest radio stations in America From there is started to get airplay and. It immediately rose to #1 and then out of nowhere absent mother reached out to him. The incredible story of one of the true classics of 1986 from the soulful Mick Hucknall and Simply Red 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.

In the 70s, Cheap Trick went on a crazy commercial rollercoaster through the music industry. Starting off slow with their first few records, they unexpectedly rose to the top of the tracks with a foreign import Live at Budokan. From there this band with the scorching duo of singer Robin Zander and Guitarist Rick Nielsen piled up platinum hits consistently and it seemed like they would coast right through the 80s. But then They HIT A WALL. Cheap Trick plummeted and their next five albums would all be… underwhelming…So in a last ditch effort to save this band’s career, their label hired a team of outside songwriters to basically write the album for them. 1988’s album Lap of Luxury. THIS didn’t go over well with the band. but from it came the band’s biggest chart hit EVER. The Flame. A smash power ballad that ruled the summer of 1988. Although loved by listeners, Cheap Track actually hated the song so much when they first heard it, their guitarist smashed the demo tape under the heel of his boot. This episode is a hell of a ride. Get ready next of 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.