Professor of Rock

Was this 1983 hit record, recorded by the #1 band of the time actually a solo album in disguise? Synchronicity by the Police with Sting taking center stage: the #1 album was composed almost singlehandedly by this frontman, the 1983 record featured four hit songs, including the massive #1 hit Every Breath You Take. But as good as that one is, it may not be the album’s defining track. Rather, I’d say its commercial runner-up King Of Pain is even more representative of how Sting was feeling at the time. Suffering from a broken marriage. His band breaking up. It’s all in there…King of Pain also features one of the best opening lines you’ll hear in a hit song… There’s a Little Black Spot on the Sun Today...But when it was all said and done, did he take this track too far? Was it too much of a pity party? His future wife, Trudie Styler thought so and called him out on it which is where the Title came from in the first place… It’s such a great story 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.

Coming up...The story of two brothers who lost their father to the gun of a drifter when they were mere toddlers. Gregg and Duane Allman lost their father at an early. age. They learned how to make music and formed a band together as teenagers that would become the stuff of legends… the Allman Brothers Band. They would rule rock radio and help invent southern rock as know it. In the 70s the band was on the verge of a huge national breakout when the eldest brother, Duane Allman the guitarist was killed in a motorcycle accident. Younger brother Gregg & the other surviving bandmates including Dickie Betts overcame their deep despair- finding the inspiration to carry on WITHIN the music of their fallen leader...and channeling the ghost.. of a legend…in a song that would become their only pop hit … Ramblin’ Man...The tragedy & triumph surrounding a 70s rock classic 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, the story behind an absolute classic of Rock told by its iconic singer. Joy to the World by Three Dog Night became the #1 song of 1971. Chuck Negron who was one of their singers at the time sang those perfect opening lyrics….4 words that would change everything. Jeremiah was a bullfrog. and the rest is history. The song was actually a discarded song from a silly kid’s show that failed. In fact, the band wanted nothing to do with it and turned the song down several times before Chuck Negron finally got it. It’s probably the most familiar and beloved four words ever sung in a pop record This story is one you have to hear to believe, It was written by an actor who was in one of the 80s big movies. In fact, this actor’s mother also wrote a number one hit, the 1st #1 hit for Elvis Presley. the only mother-son to accomplish that in history. Both Danny Hutton the last remains original active member of Three Dog Night and Chuck Negron who sang the original recording share their takes in an exclusive interview. 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 1983 at the height of MTV #1 female rocker Pat Benatar took POP radio hostage with this explosive anthem…Love is a Battlefield. Today I sit down with the famous co-writer of this classic…Holly Knight... It started out when her legendary songwriting partner, Mike Champman blurted out a weird title and then the 2 songwriters sat across from each other with a swimming pool between them and shot a paper airplane across the pool with each writing a line each time and flying it across until they finished the song… Luckily it didn’t fall in the pool! In the end, Holly felt one of the key lyrics sounded like a car commercial… the song certainly lived up to that magnitude as it became Pat Benatar’s signature hit and the video ruled MTV. 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… In 1985 legendary band Genesis took some time off when their lead singer Phil Collins was working on his solo album No Jacket Required. So the band's other prolific songwriter and guitarist Mike Rutherford started his own band… He called it Mike and the Mechanics. They recruited two different singers Paul Young and Paul Carrack and out of nowhere they had a hit album that contained 3 big hits: All I Need is a Miracle, Taken In, and today’s song Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground) which went to #1. This massive hit was renamed when it was chosen to be in a 1986 movie called Choke Canyon… This song is so eerie and satisfyingly creepy it’s found new life time and again since the 80s. It’s such a freaking cool song. Years later it was banned from radio during the gulf war for truly dumb reasons. TODAY WE HAVE THE story from an interview I did with its Singer… One of the greatest singers ever and a man who’s had hits with many different bands including his own solo stuff. The Story of this Eerie Apocalyptic #1 rock hit from 1986 hit that predicted what’s happening right now 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… Another helping from Two of rock and roll’s greatest storytellers. Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman wrote the biggest 60s and 70s hits when they were part of the Guess Who...They had already had a couple of hits with These Eyes and Laughing when they released a monster record in the early 70s American Woman that included two #1 hits and a top 5. They were American Woman and No Sugar Tonight and No Time. Randy Bachman wrote a dear john letter to his girlfriend and decided that it might work as a song so he put one of the most recognizable guitar licks to it that he admits he lifted from another band of the time. The story of a 70s rock standard is told by two legends next as well as a run-in with a legend when he was a kid 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.

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Today’s aspiring songwriters and lovers were so dirt poor that at times they struggled to even feed themselves. Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were down and out before the joined Mick Fleetwood…Just between them, they couldn’t even afford a bed frame and slept on a mattress on the floor. as it turns out, that would be a key memory years later… after they had sold millions of records with one of the biggest bands of the 70s, Fleetwood Mac,. Penned by the enchanted songstress Stevie Nicks, today’s track is a bittersweet, nostalgic look back at the days before her meteoric rise to fame Gypsy barley missed the top 10 but epitomizes what Fleetwood Mac is all bout. The song begs the question was she better off as a struggling songwriter than a global superstar? It’s a rags to riches throwback track, that comes with some other unexpected tie ins as well… including the tragic death of a close friend and an ill-advised marriage to that friends husband that happened for all the wrong reasons. The story is 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, an interview with one of the 80s great hitmakers. The most successful duo of the rock era, Daryl Hall and John Oates Everything they touched turned to Gold and Platinum. Here, John Oates tells the story of a number-one hit from the mid-80s that came at the crossroads of Analog and digital… Out of Touch, it was their final #1 hit after ruling the neon decade with 11 hits, and this one was one of their biggest and they almost gave it away. To put it all in perspective this song was actually a huge accident. Also on this same 1984 record, they had another hit where they spelled the chorus and if you were anything like me you were a little thrown by this… 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…A story of scorned passion…revenge, and arson. It sounds like a film noir thriller, but it was actually an innocent 2-minute song called Norwegian Wood by a little band called the Beatles! The song was based on a cheating husband (John Lennon) whose finished masterpiece managed to offend one of the most influential artists of the Rock Era and change the landscape of popular music for generations to come. It was from the greatest band ever that some critics then and now called the first boy band bashing them over their first few hits like She Loves You Ya Ya Ya… Well, this was the song that turned them into popular music’s Michaelangelos! They set the course for music and decades later everyone is still trying to match them. There’s only one band that could create such a storm of melodrama. Including Paul McCartney taking some credit and George Harrison’s latter feud with Lennon over a writing credit. Find out all the details 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.