"Custom" Songs

[daniel]

In the 70's and 80's it seemed to be a trend for artists to make "custom" versions of hit songs for certain radio stations, where they would sing the call letters as part of the lyrics. Has anyone ever heard this on a local station? A few that I have heard:

Pointer Sisters "Fire" was changed from:

"I'm ridin in your car, you turn on the radio"
to:
"I'm ridin in your car, you turn on KFRC" for KFRC, San Francisco

Reunion's "Life is a Rock" was changed from:

"Life is a rock, and the radio rolled me"
to:
"Life is a rock, and CFL rolled me" for WCFL, Chicago

Ronnie Milsap's "Turn The Radio On was changed from:

"Somebody turn that radio on I can't stand it"
to:
"Somebody turn that radio on I wanna hear FM 98 KNAX" for KNAX/Fresno

Starship's "We Built This City" is an interesting one because the B side of the promo 45 had an instrumental portion where Les Garland gives the traffic report for San Francisco and RCA encouraged stations to put their own DJ's in this space. (Of course, as Les was working at KFRC at the time their version said "610 KFRC... Looking out over the Golden Gate Bridge I'm seeing that bumper to bumper traffic.")

Has anyone else heard any other examples of songs being customized for local stations?

[Railyn]

Not sure it's the same thing, but I've heard at least 3 different versions of "Pump Up The Volume" by M/A/R/R/S.

The difference is always in the beginning where the "DJ" talks.

One is a woman that says something like "Yo, all you homeboys out in the Bronx; this one's for you".

The others were men saying something. One reminded me of Wolfman Jack (but I don't think it was him). The version I had was on the Bright Lights, Big City soundtrack (with the woman) so when I heard the others, it was a bit freaky.

We live in the sticks, so we didn't get that kind of customization around here. And the "We Built This City" we got around here had the "bumper to bumper" bit on it.

[Pete70s]

"Rock You" by Helix had a special intro for WAAF in Boston.

[daniel]

Pete: That's one I didn't know about.

Railyn: Ah, I guess your stations there just played the "A" side of ther Starship 45. I keep looking for a promo version of that one but no luck so far. That one seems to be the most widespread "custom" song as the stations did it themselves rather than the record label being involved. I have one version of it where the station used it as a "farewell" song before they changed to Country. They looped the instrumental portion and each DJ did a farewell message over the song. It was a nice way to say goodbye, I thought.

[smittykins--70s pop RULES!]

I heard a version of Huey Lewis's "Heart of Rock 'N' Roll" which had Syracuse as one of the cities sung toward the end. I also remember George Thorogood's "Willie And The Hand Jive" having the line "He was doing the hand jive on TV" switched with "He was doing the hand jive on KFM"(for Syracuse station WKFM).

[Railyn]

Feb 28, 2009 20:40:59 GMT -5 smittykins--70s pop RULES! said:

I heard a version of Huey Lewis's "Heart of Rock 'N' Roll" which had Syracuse as one of the cities sung toward the end.

Could have been a live version. I've seen Huey a few times live, and he opens with that song every time, and he changes the cities around.

[SAT-I need more room!!]

Yes I know of two!

In the part of We Built This City, where you hear the DJ talking in the middle "the city by the Bay, the city that rocks, the city that never stops!" had a DJ from the local B96 talking in there.

Also, Lake Shore Drive, which not many people outside of Chicago are familiar with. On WCKG, instead of saying "on LSD..." it was "on CKG".

Cool topic.