Author: Dan Seeger

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Top 40 Smash Taps: “See the Lights”

Dan Seeger

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. I wonder if Simple Minds would have been chosen to record the song “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” for the soundtrack to The Breakfast Club if they had still been operating under the name Johnny & The Self-Abusers. Of course, that outfit was more of a distant relation than a direct ancestor of the Scottish band that favored the lush and the gently … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “See the Lights”

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College Countdown: The Trouser Press Top 10 Albums of 1981, 3 (tie)

Dan Seeger

  3. The Go-Go’s, Beauty and the Beat Trouser Press wrote: “Refreshing dose of pop insouciance. Also the new wave chart invaders of the year.” The previous subject of the College Countdown feature, 90FM’s Top 90 Albums of 1989, was presented on air on New Year’s Eve, with the process of getting to the top of the list intended to occupy the entire programming day. The way the countdown was structured, however, required a little something more to help fill out the time. Luckily, CMJ, the trade publication that served college radio, was celebrating its tenth anniversary and had sent … Continue reading College Countdown: The Trouser Press Top 10 Albums of 1981, 3 (tie)

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

One of the regular features at Spectrum Culture is called “Film Dunce,” in which a writer makes a point of viewing and considering a film they haven’t previously watched that they feel everyone else has seen. I’ve used my past entries to review significant works that I considered blind spots in my broader knowledge of hefty, important cinema. This time out, I was challenged to instead watch something more broadly popular that I hadn’t seen. The editor was pushing a particular comedy, but I have my limits. In general, I’m enough of a completist about these things that most widely … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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One for Friday: They Might Be Giants, “Santa’s Beard”

Dan Seeger

Much as I loved being on the radio back in college, I usually loved it just a little less in December. While 90FM certainly wasn’t one of those radio stations that completely ceded the playlist to yuletide cheer, somewhere around this time of year a modest stack of records (and, somewhat later in my tenure, CDs) were retrieved from their hidden corner of the music library and shoved in right by the new music in the main studio. In some respects, this was useful, given that there were practically no new releases after the late fall crush of horrid new … Continue reading One for Friday: They Might Be Giants, “Santa’s Beard”

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Top 40 Smash Taps: “Your Old Standby”

Dan Seeger

These posts are about the songs that can accurately claim to crossed the key line of chart success, becoming Top 40 hits on Billboard, but just barely. Every song featured in this series peaked at number 40. According to most accounts of Motown Records, Mary Wells was the label’s first big star, the one who set the benchmark for “The Sound of Young America.” A talent contest regular from the tender age of ten in her hometown of Detroit, Wells approached Berry Gordy, then the head of Tamla Records, a label that had a string of major successes. Wells wanted … Continue reading Top 40 Smash Taps: “Your Old Standby”