Thanks for stopping by! The Retro Attic is your 24/7 listener-supported internet radio guide to the 50's through the 70's. We play lost and classic top 40 hits, but we also place a heavy emphasis on the minor charters and non-charters...or as we call them, bottom 45's. Special Mixcloud shows will be announced as time permits. If you have a general suggestion, then please use our chat widget in the lower right corner or the below contact form. If you have a song request, then please use the below Song Request Form; your request will be automatically queued for play in 90 minutes if it is already in the station's inventory or else I will receive an e-mail copy of your request. Please note that those who contribute to the "tip jar" get prompt acknowledgment of their requests, even though I try my best to fulfill all requests that are excellent fits to the rotation.

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Thursday, January 19, 2012

THE AMERICAN DREAM - Power Pop Memories From '70

Welcome to 2012 and thanks for checking out my musical time machine known as The Retro Attic - 50s To 80s Rare Oldies! I have relaunched the station this week with a clearer vision of how I'd like to do things after experimenting with a couple of formats last year; hopefully you will like what you hear and will keep coming back for a ton of surprises.

One of the genres you will hear me play frequently is Power Pop. Most music fans associate the term with the skinny tie bands of the late 70's such as The Knack("My Sharona") and The Records("Starry Eyes"). Some will argue that the genre got its start with The British Invasion of the mid 60's, and I'm cool with that. But my most favorite era for the genre was approximately 1970-1973, when American and British bands such as Feather, Redeye, Wadsworth Mansion, Raspberries, Christie, Badfinger, Big Star, and Circus were trying to fill the void left by The Beatles' breakup.

There was a band from Philadelphia that released one album on Ampex in 1970 that I particularly liked. They were The American Dream, which featured future Foghat producer and member Nick Jameson and a couple of other members who guested on Todd Rundgren's first Runt project("Birthday Carol" I believe was the song they played on). Speaking of Todd, I'm pretty sure that this band was his first producer credit after leaving The Nazz. They didn't have any charting singles, but their self-titled album did briefly chart in late February. Not all of the album's tracks were traditional power pop; a couple were a bit quirky(but still good!) and a couple were laid-back, introspective numbers. Those that were power pop come highly recommended by me(power with a capital P!).




Keep your ears open for a couple of the album's tracks here on The Retro Attic! I bought the album back in the early 80's when it was normally going for 20-30 bucks on the collector's market; I believe a copy can be found in the 10-15 range these days.

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