Odd Fellows

[Yesterday's Gone]

I called this thread "Odd Fellows" because I was listening to XM Radio's 70's Decade station and the DJ or whomever it was placed two songs back to back that made no sense. I'm sure you all have been listening to the radio and had the same "WTF" moment. Where they go from a really slow song to a high energy, highly aggresive song or from one artist to the polar opposite of the first one.

In this case they played Vicky Lawrence's "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" and followed that up with Alice Cooper's "No More Mister Nice Guy". How do you possibly sit back and think that those two songs work together? ... or am I wrong in thinking that a DJ/Program Director should be able to have the music flow from one song to another?

I'd love to hear your thoughts and if you agree with me I'd love to hear of any of these moments that you've experienced or even your "fantasy" picks for the oddest follow-up songs.

[Pete70s]

Strangest "train wreck" I've ever heard was last summer on the "We Play Everything" station:

"Whiter Shade Of Pale" by Procol Harem followed by


(drumroll please...)

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

"Forever Your Girl" by Paula Abdul

WTF?

[Yesterday's Gone]

You know I think anything followed by Paula Abdul counts as a train wreck ... even Milli Vanilli's "Girl You Know It's True" followed by Paula Abdul's "Forever Your Girl" should be considered a crime against humanity! ;D LOL!

[Dawn]

The oldies station here has expanded their playlist to include songs from the early-to-mid '80s, and that sometimes leads to some strange follow-ups. A couple of months ago, an early '60s song (can't recall which one, but I think it may have been something by the Four Seasons) was immediately followed by After the Fire's Der Kommissar, and that was definitely odd! I'm still trying to get used to the fact that songs that were popular during my high school days are considered "oldies" now! ;D

[H2IZCOOL]

Great topic, Rob! You might do this as a regular series called "WTF" LOL!

Actually the two songs you mentioned hang together well. The killer in "...Lights..." was certainly not a nice guy.

I think Dawn hit the nail on the head here, when she mentioned the expanding "Oldies" phenomenon. I think "Oldies" means two different things. For some people/radio stations "Oldies" has always been defined as music of the '60s (or the '50s and '60s). These stations (and they're getting fewer and fewer) play exclusively music from that era. Other so-called "Oldies" stations play old songs, and they define old songs as anything over 20 years old, but not so old as you'd have to be dead to remember them. They cover maybe a 15-20 year period of music. -- so ... they play music from 20 to about 35 or 40 years ago. This worked for awhile. But now you're picking up the early-mid '80s, and you have to start dropping the '60s. They didn't mind dropping the early '60s; everyone (except me) says the music sucked then anyway. But now you have to start dropping Invasion stuff, early Classic Rock stuff ... and they don't want to do that. So you wind up with a larger play list - which is good - but also the opportunity for more, as you say, "oddfellows."

So .. a couple potential oddfellows:

"We Are The Champions" -Queen f/b (followed by) "I'm a Loser" - Beatles

"Rock and Roll all Night" - Kiss f/b "Friendly Persuasion" - Pat Boone

"You've Lost That Lovin Feeling" - Righteous Brothers f/b "Nee Nee Na Na Na Na Nu Nu" - Dicky Doo and the Dont's

"Little Children" - Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas - f/b anything by Michael Jackson

[smittykins--70s pop RULES!]

There's a tribute Web site to one of the radio stations I loved growing up as a kid in Syracuse, NY(www.wolf1490.net), and on one of the airchecks, broadcast the weekend before the station switched to a country format in July 1981, AC/DC's "Back In Black" was followed up by...

*drumroll*....

"Elvira" by the Oak Ridge Boys.

Now, that might have been because they were switching to a country format(the DJ's alluded to it from time to time that weekend), or simply because Top 40 stations of that era played whatever was popular then, and musical tastes just weren't as fragmented(is that a word?) as they are now. But I guarantee you're never gonna hear that duo back-to-back on radio nowadays!

P.S. WOLF is still around as a Radio Disney station.