Church youth groups were a safe place for young people to hang out in the late 1960s. Or so the grown-ups thought. Joey Morrison and I regularly bolted from Methodist Youth Fellowship to visit Middle Earth, Ann Arbor’s premiere head shop. The black lights, incense and racy posters held our…

It’s the best movie about the men and women behind the hitmakers I’ve ever seen. It took a long time for Denny Tedesco to get his loving tribute to his father and the people who worked with him made. But it was well worth the wait. What we learned was…

We’ve been featuring some awesome cover bands recently. Leonid & Friends, Tim Akers & The Smoking Section and The Fendertones are three good examples. Leonid’s dead on recreation of Chicago’s hits captures even the most discerning purist. Check out “25 or 6 to 4”. Tim Akers band actually improves on…

55 years ago today, Detroit was digging out of an unexpected 4 inches of snow. Doesn’t seem like much for those of us who have endured northern winters these past few years, but the Motor City was blanketed just before the morning rush and the road crews couldn’t keep up.…

In the glory days of Top 40 Radio, New York’s WABC was the center of the universe. The ABC Owned and Operated 50,000 watt flame thrower was the dominant brand in the market. It attracted the best talent and was the top of the broadcasting ziggurat. While many famous names…

The holy grail for every artist is to create a musical “hook” that bores into the audience’s mind like an ear worm. Think about Paul Anka’s “Diana”, the opening bars of “Day Tripper” or the grating chorus of Rick Dee’s novelty record, “Disco Duck”. They stick with you like the…

Judy Collins once wrote that where music is concerned, there are no new ideas, just people who make them more compelling than the original. Last Thursday’s “Much More Music” section shared three examples of covers, two of which out performed the first version. In every endeavor, there are those who…

We’re initiating a new feature this week: Aircheck Wednesday, where we spotlight Top 40 Radio between 1963 and 1980. Part of a DJ’s resume back in the day was a five minute slice of his or her work on the air, with the music and commercials truncated so you could…

Up Front: The Value Proposition – A former coach at my alma mater shared some wisdom I’ve been thinking about lately. “You’re only valuable as long as you are adding value.” In athletics the bottom line is winning. In whatever game we play, the customer holds the scorecard. They come with the…

Earl “Madman” Muntz made the front page of the May 27th, 1967 edition of Billboard Magazine, which reported the grand opening of his Detroit tape cartridge retail store at 15268 Gratiot Avenue. The former Kaiser-Frazer used car salesman was a marketing visionary, creating innovative products and selling them with crazy costumes and…