Best 80s Rock Ballads: Our Ultimate Mixtape

Hey y'all, welcome to another episode of Past Times at 80s High, the cast that takes you back. I got the boys with me as always. Kevin, how are you? Doing great, AJ. How are you doing today? Excellent, Mark. Excellent. I'm doing terrific. And Dungo. He's doing great. Awesome. And I am AJ. And what we are going to do today is another one of our mixed tape series. The last one we did was the headbanging one. Today we are going to go the exact opposite. And we are going to go to ballads. But before I do, Kevin, did you want to give a shout out?

Yeah, I just wanted to welcome some new listeners coming at us from oh, we got New York, New York. Crystal Lake, Illinois. Is that where Jason lives? Is that was that well, no, but yes.

It was Crystal Lake, but there's 17 in every state.

Exactly.

We have one here, don't we?

Right. There's one in Gilmington, right? Yeah.

There's many in Gilmington. There's so many in this state. Oh yeah.

There's like 10 Crystal Lakes just in New Hampshire. But anyway, right.

Exactly. Exactly. So uh some folks in Indianapolis, Indiana, Nashville, Tennessee. That's all I'm seeing right now. But just want to welcome you folks in and uh say thanks for tuning in.

Absolutely. Loving it. So anyway, I guess we'll just roll right into it today. And Donald, I do believe you have the on hairs.

Yes. And we're doing ballads. And you know, for me, like we said, we we weren't putting any specific category of ballads. No. Power ballads, which is 10 bazillion of them. Yeah. But for me, I had to narrow it down a little bit. And I did I kind of came up with like three things that make a ballad to me. What makes a ballad to me? One is it's either a beautiful song or two, it's either cheese, because you know I love the cheese. It's either so cheesy and sappy that it's almost kind of funny. And then the other one would be, you know, it has a personal meaning. Absolutely.

Or a story, if you will.

Some of them are stories. Right. Right. So that's kind of how I gauge what it what these are to me. Um, I also have to put a warning out there for the folks that this is a category that Mark and I just gonna have to sing, like we're gonna be singing all episodes. So put your earplugs in. Yeah. Alright, so I've rambled enough. My first one, and I I have to start with this one because it kind of sets the tone for all the other ones. And it's it's kind of symbolic, and it's kind of the life I've lived, and it's uh a duet with two gentlemen, Julio Glacius and Willie Nelson. Nice. And it's to all the girls I've loved before.

To all the girls I've loved before.

Who travel in the cable? I'm glad they came to the side.

Oh to all the girls that have you loved before.

Couple of dudes that you would never like in a million years say, like, yeah, that's a good combo. Let's put those two together.

It just wonder how that happened. They're like, hey, I get an idea, right?

It was a great, great song. Um, you know, so incredible. Yeah, yeah, it was great, and it's just has a little meaning to me because yeah, we've all been on this planet for a while and had had some people come in and out our doors. Absolutely.

Oh, the good old. It's it's funny though, because I've had a feel. All right, with with one exception that comes to mind that I won't mention because they could show up in this. There's not a lot of guy on guy duets that come to mind right away.

I don't think a lot of I mean I'd like to keep any kind of guy on guy action off this show, if you will.

Well, there's anything wrong with that, right, guys?

They may come up, but just air supply. They had some great songs until you realized are those guys singing to each other? What's happening here? Uh no, great, great tune.

Yeah, absolutely. All right, so that's two to you. Uh number one to you, Kev.

Number ten to me?

Number ten, yeah. I was going back. Number ten, one. There is no rhyme or reason.

Right. So I too found that that I needed something to differentiate the 10 billion songs that I would definitely put on this mixtape. Um, and and defining a ballad is is kind of difficult. More difficult than you would have thought it would have been. Hell yeah. Um, but but difficult just the same. And of course, you go on to some of the music streaming channels and they are terrible at it. Not even not even close.

Some of the songs I'm like I couldn't believe some either, yeah.

Who in their right mind would ever consider that a ballad? So, anyway, to narrow mine down, mine are kind of very specific as songs that somewhere about the seventh grade at a dance, I would have been standing nervously across the room pining for some check out.

That's the grade is that like you start going to dances. Right, exactly.

Again, speak for yourself. So all of these songs kind of bring me back to that moment of a dark, sweaty gymnasium trying to muster the Hootsman to walk over and ask a girl to dance. And of course, the first one would be from our friends in Survivor, and the search is over.

I was the big phone, the big photo.

You got it, man. Glad you like it. Made it to number four. Uh, guitarist for that band was Jim Peteric, who was also um with uh Ides of March, The Vehicle, one of the big big hits of the 60s, uh, 70s era. And uh it was just a great, great song and certainly fit into my criteria. Incredible song.

Awesome. I love how like at school dances they never sprung for like a lighting system. So it was either lights are full on or it was like pitch black with maybe a couple like lamps they moved in there.

Exactly. It was normally pitch black, which I like better than the cafeteria lights.

Yeah, right. I almost went to a dance, but it was in when I still lived in Littleton before we moved, and the only reason I was gonna go is it was because it was called the pizza dance. So obviously there would have been lots of pizza. Oh, you can eat pizza.

There would have been lots of what kind of pizza, brother.

What kind of pizza?

They wouldn't have been pizza burgers.

Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It was pizza. No, this was in the junior high school, not the uh the elementary. But no, I'm sorry. They weren't pizza burgers at that point. I don't think I didn't go. I was too afraid of girls at that point. I don't know. I I would have gone for the all-you-can-eat pizza, not giving a rat's ass about the girls. I'm sorry. And I I and I'm married to a girl. I a woman. I just back then I cared about my tummy, which was about 12 inches.

And you're and you're not afraid of them anymore?

I still am.

Well, I mean I was gonna say, how did that happen?

To give me some pointers. Uh well, you know, women are all right, brother.

Why don't we move to your song?

Okay, well, the uh yes, it's Skid Row, I remember you. And my criteria on my record, my mixtape, I have side one, one through five, and then side two, six through ten. I believe that every one of my songs are songs that I regularly pick up and listen to regularly. Okay, that's I'm about to give you a third regularly. But uh this song obviously is about a summer romance, you know. We spent the summer window top roll down. Yes, exactly. And uh and it reminded me of a couple summer romances that I had, and if I could do them all over again, would I do them? Nope.

No negative. Well, there's some that I would, some what I wouldn't, of course.

No, no, no, I would not. No, I mean I would have gone with different summer romances. How's that? Different ones. No, I would not have done either one of them again. Thank you.

Either one ended in flames and I'd do them again instantly. Yeah.

Well, not the one not the ones where I stayed in bed for three weeks after.

Yeah, no, no, I mean that the the only good part was that part as we're speaking. You know, I mean, getting the uh you know, having a little uh fun in the in the bedroom. But other than that, no, I wouldn't have done them again. The what the affected head on my life. I would have picked others. And no, I met my wife shortly later, and I've been with the same woman. So you know, that's all. That's all.

That's all. That's all. All right, to me. And I do I did lay aside some audibles for today. You guys gotta have the audible. Yeah, but this one is my favorite ballad of all time, which Kevin is already here's my first fucked me. Um that would be the search is over. Yeah, we'll have a few. I mean Survivor, it was off Vital Signs. Kevin already talked about it, but this is my all-time favorite ballad. I had to lead the album off with it. It was just it has so much meaning to me. It just always put me in a place and just I don't know, it's just friggin' amazing, right? So that's all I'll say about it, you ice holes.

Yeah, yeah.

So back to you, Donald. All right. So, like Mark said, my one through five is kind of the kind of they kind of work together. So, you know, all the girls I've loved before are in and out my door. When one does leave and there's a great line for a lyrics, it's like you look in the the you look at the toothbrush and the toothbush is missing, and oh she's gone all.

She's gone all back. She's gone hold of that.

She's gone from Hollow Notes. Um, little soul ballad, and those guys can could spin up some soul, and I just love that.

You know, she's gone. Oh, you know, love hollow notes.

The king of blue-eyed soul. Awesome. That's to you, Kev. All right, we're gonna go with Cheap Trick the Flame. I will be written by Nick Graham from Atomic Rooster popularity back in the day. Actually, written by Nick Graham, it was offered to an English singer named Elkie Brooks, who was given the choice of two Diane Warren songs, and she comes up again. And it was either Cheap Trick doing the flame or Look Away that was later a Chicago hit. Cheap Trick decided to do the flame, which is kind of weird if you think about those two songs and the different bands doing definitely weird. Hope that wasn't on somebody's list there, possibly Chicago, but um just interesting that that she wrote so many good songs that you might hear again later and recognize. But that was my point was that um cheap trick doing look away and Chicago doing the flame wouldn't have made worse.

Probably have been weird. And she just she's richer than most musicians out there. That woman wrote so many friggin' songs. Oh, she did all over the place. Incredible songwriter. Absolutely. Lots of kiss, I believe. But anyway, you know I have to always shoehorn it in.

But to you, my brother, the obligatory kiss reference.

I mean, uh going back, I'll make this brief, but she tricked the flame. I it came on the radio when I was mowing at the driving up to the cemetery, and I was thinking of my wife. Not you know, and it just really got me teared up because yeah, you will always be the whatever the lyrics are. But anyway, I'm going with Aerosmith Uncle Salty from Toys in the Attic.

Uncle Salty.

Uncle Salty, I I consider it a ballad. So yeah, this song is about a a girl, a young girl in a brothel, who absolutely just followed her mother's footsteps. You know, she has all these guys that are there to just have a great time, and then at night she's in bed crying. A sad song, but a great Aerosmith song. As you know, I love 1970s Aerosmith, gritty, friggin' absolutely edgy, and uh I mean, I didn't I didn't think this, I never thought of it as a rock ballad, but after hearing it, it definitely falls under that category.

I definitely need to hear it again, because I might be thinking of a different song, but I thought that was like a rock and roll song.

Uncle Salty told me, you know.

When then whatever it'll count now, right? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's I I I would not have put it in that category myself, but as you're talking about it and I'm thinking about it, I I agree, Mark.

It tells a story, right?

Oh god, it tells a story, yes.

Exactly.

Absolutely does.

Yeah, and and just looking briefly, there really isn't a lot of guardrails for what classifies as a ballot. It's usually just slow tempo, it can be uh poetic, um, follows certain uh songwriting techniques, you know, like A poetry type stuff.

Um it can have great guitars in it, too.

Yeah, of course they can. Absolutely. Most of the definitions that I found were so obtuse it was like that could be any song ever. Ever. It has to have poetic lyrics. Okay. Um creeping death. Yeah. I actually saw Metallica on one of the list of top ballads. I was like, no. Not any possibility.

Every one of my songs has a story to it, so I just looked.

So you're saying every picture tells a story?

As it does. Yes, a thousand words, yes.

All right, so that's two to me, correct?

Yeah, that's right.

All right. Well, speaking of shoehorning this band in, as you knew I would, this would be definitely considered a power ballad, I think. But I've talked about it so much over the, you know, especially the preachers episodes, but this is uh 1987 off Crazy Nights, and it's a reason to live. Just should have been massive. I've talked about it as Mark would say, ad nauseum. But if Def Leopard had done it or Motley Crue or Death, just it would have been effing huge, and it just really sucks how it only got up to like I think somewhere around 60 in the charts, but it should have been like a number one hit, in my opinion. Reason to live, yes, brother.

I I'll make it really quick. I don't think Motley Crue could have uh pulled that off because no, no, no. I'm just using band examples like or Bon Jovi Bon Jovi, like it just would have Steel was not a great singer, is my it would have been on the great voice, right?

Yeah, would have been number one on MTV for friggin' months.

But anyway, do you think that Gene will still be able to pay his mortgage without that being an He'll be okay, I guess.

I don't think so. No, I I mean live in a studio apartment.

We'll get I'll get into that at the end of the show because I would like to discuss that back to the beginning a bit. But yes, anyway, awesome. So do you, Don, for number three.

That was a pretty song, and it had a beautiful melody. And I can I could see like a Whitney Houston or someone like that doing that type of song, a female singer uh pulling that one off. Absolutely, yeah, freaking incredible. So, you know, I started this is my side one or whatever, you know, all the girls I love before, then she's gone, and then this is when the guy has to like introspect and say, Well, you know, what the hell am I doing wrong, and all that kind of stuff. So I picked this song, and it's from Neil Diamond, and it's he he was auditioning for a movie role as Lenny Bruce, and he didn't get the role, and he was having some other things go on in his life uh that were kind of weighing him down. So he wrote the song I Am I Said. I love this. Yeah, LA's fine, the sun shines most of the time, and the feeling is laid back. The palm trees grow and the rents are low, but you know, I keep finding my way back home. I'm New York City born and raised, you know, but I keep finding myself between two shores.

LA's fine, but it ain't home. New York's home, but it ain't mine no more. I love Neil. Neil!

He is such an amazing songwriter.

Incredible. Yeah.

And borders on comical, the way that he is funny. Expressive. You know what I mean? He's don't get me wrong, I love the guy, and some of his songs can bring you to tears, like I am, I said. Um, but yeah, definitely like over the top. Right, right. He lays.

But do they have to play Sweet Caroline every night when the Red Sox are losing 13 to 1? Give me a break, honey.

Well, there's people in the stands that are there just for that kind of thing. I know.

Well, you remember the the the the little the small bats of commemorative bat day? Oh, yeah. Yes, yes, I do. Terrible. We used to kill fish with them. Especially, especially in a friendly Fenway. But right about the time people start adding in the bum bum bum, I would probably turn around and smack somebody in the teeth with one of those. I said, Why do you have to ruin the song so that you can participate?

Yeah, I just brother David used to hate it so bad. And then I remember, God love him, when we went to that last Red Sox game that he sang Sweet Caroline because the girls and the kids were there. So he said, I gotta do it. So it was a be a thing of beauty, Bill. Yeah, but yeah, it was awesome. I am, I said.

Yes, perfect. To you, Kev. I am I cried. I'm sorry, we we wandered off. Where am I? Oh number eight on the countdown. Phil Collins. I don't know. I think I'm going by what I've got written.

You guys go each other's dedication.

Uh, one more night by Phil Collins.

One more nylon.

The second U.S. number one hit for Phil off No Jacket Required, certified Diamond album. And uh that song was released right between Susudio and Don't Lose My Number. I still don't know what a Susudio is, do you? Nor do I.

The song's title came from a nonsense word Collins blurted out while experimenting with a drum machine. Initially meant as a placeholder, Susudio stuck, giving the song its unique identity. The lyrics tell the story of a man infatuated with a girl he can't seem to approach, making it relatable for anyone who's ever had a crush. Despite its unconventional title, Susudio topped charts worldwide and solidified Colin's status as a solo star.

You don't even know my name. I love her just the same.

Okay, maybe you should be able to do that. Back to your song, Kev.

It was terrible. Different song, okay.

My fans want to hear me sing, AJ. My fans need to hear me sing.

Oh boy. And that was produced by Hugh Paddam, who is another big name in that era. Hugh Paddam.

I'm trying to think of like a joke for it. It's almost like see more butts. Yes, exactly. Okay, man.

But yeah, what a what a great song, and it certainly had that sweaty gymnasium pining for the girl.

Yes. Awesome. So such another great songwriter, man. To you, my brother Mike.

I'm going to kiss rock and roll over. It's Hard Luck Woman, written by Paul Stanley, sang by the great Peter Chris with his raspy voice.

Before I go, let me kiss you. And wipe the tears from your eyes. I don't wanna hurt you guys. You know I could never die. I keep telling you the hot dog. You'll be a hot dog woman. You'll be a hot dog woman, baby, until you find a man.

Um, this is obviously about a woman that was uh a sailor's daughter. You know, she can't find the love of her life and everything.

But it's just a fun A broad name Rags.

Yeah. I mean, I cannot talk about I mean I can't talk enough about how Peter's voice just was absolutely perfect for this song. Yeah. I mean it brings tears to my eyes listening to that song. I I watch it all the time. They had that 3D thing. Was it the Paul Lynde Show, AJ? It was. Yeah, you know, they did You Love Em Leave Em.

Was that the Halloween?

It wasn't that one. Okay. No. It wasn't. Actually, you know what? It might have been the Paul Lind Halloween special.

I'm not sure.

But it wasn't live like they normally did. They just showed like uh uh three videos of them lip syncing. It was lip sync, it was lip sync, but they did they went through all the the uh it wasn't lip synced, it was real footage, and they played the song to it, but incredible and Peter's voice. You I couldn't agree with you more, man. I could see it.

Yeah, he's got that little bit of rasp. Rod Stewart. It's got some character to it, yeah. Very Rod Stewart. Yeah.

The song was offered to Rod Stewart according to Paul Stanley.

But um Yeah, well, Peter was also an incredible drummer too back in the day, so it would have unfortunately I hate to say it, but if Rod Stewart had done it, it would have been a massive hit. Kind of like I said, with Reason to live, and that's sad to me. But anyway, and Kiss was huge at that point, too.

Well I was about to say I mean they were this was at their peak, AJ.

I just don't think respecting those types of songs.

They were like the rockers, like people, yeah, they're rock and roll, and then they come up with a ballad, and people are like, oh, that's kind of like a look at the room.

Well, they didn't until Beth, they didn't get a lot of radio play, did they? And there was none rock and roll night a lot, which is kind of what made the rock and roll that we grew up with kind of special because, like we've talked about before, you didn't hear those songs, you didn't hear priest or maiden or you didn't hear those songs on the radio. So you were kind of like in a club, right? You're like, okay, because we we got this and we like this is cool. We don't listen to that stuff they put on the radio, those are all pop sell outs and whatever else was the was the attitude in that era era. So I think that was kind of a double-edged sword for them. They had that, but I mean, you wouldn't have had the KISS army without them being excluded from AM and FM radio. Exactly.

That's actually that's that's what exactly what caused it. You are correct, Kev.

Yep, the pressure creates diamonds.

Yes, correct the mundo.

You remind me of something when you brought up uh Judas Priest. That I was having my coffee at 5 30 a.m. and they did a great version of uh um War Pigs by Black Sabbath. You guys gotta check it out. I did check it out. That's awesome. It was awesome.

It's too bad it wasn't there, you know, at the the big concert for Sabbath, but yeah, but it was awesome. But anyway. So we are number three to me, yes. I do have a few songs on this list that I know I'm gonna take hell from a few of you guys in said podcast here. But this one would be Mark, and this is my number three, and it's 1985's Heaven by Brian Adams.

Oh my god, that's a sappy song. But that's your pick. You can love the song.

Shut up for a minute, would ya? This is my pick. So, anyway, I've told the story in the past how my brother David bought this album for me for Christmas. He really bought it for him. So, this I mean, first of all, it's reckless, and it was an incredible album. You know, now I really appreciate it. Back then it was one of those things I almost had to hide. I mean, this song's a great song to me, and it has meaning to me. It's a great song, you know? Great song. Yeah, yeah. So that's all I'll say about it.

And I had to note that as Adams because there's like five other songs told heavens. Oh, yeah, oh yeah, I know.

I almost did a list of ten that had heaven in the name. But uh anyway, so yeah. So go to you, Donald, and then Kevin can rag on me for my number six pick when I get there. All right.

This one I um I get into the eighties a little bit and get into the eighties glam power ballads, and uh so going with my theme though, like all the girls I love before. I am, I said, a little little introspection kind of thing. But sometimes there's no introspection or intros, whatever the correct word is for that. I'm marky bunkering it. We'll figure it out. Uh sometimes you know, the reason why a relationship ends is because it it ended, like it needed to end, or you walk in, uh, you know, like I have walked in and I saw red. Oh, I know exactly where you're going with I saw red from Warrant. It was a true story for him. Like he had a an instance where he walked in with his his significant other with another man and you know just closed the door and you know that that relationship's that way. Yeah.

For me, that comes under justifiable homicide.

Yeah.

I don't care if you want to dump me. I've been dumped before. I don't care if you want to well, guys, that's fine. Just do it in the right order.

Exactly. And in the right here, I'm sorry. But that's a great pick, Donald.

It wasn't nobody's perfect, right?

And you really can't beat him up because he's a guy.

You're right. I always felt the same way. Like, it's not on him, man. He does he might not even know. You know, you just chick at a bar and blah blah blah.

I mean, if it's your best friend or something like that, then yeah. Oh, yeah. Then fuck them both. But anyway, we digress. Shall I shall I start off or are you gonna throw it to me, AJ?

Well, I just did. That is number four to you, my good man.

Oh, well, let's do it again. All right. So again, we are in the gymnasium. Actually, I think this one really I think kind of we we had a couple dances at the Elks Hall, and they were a little bit more advanced than the high school gymnasium/slash cafeteria. I think I recall a disco ball.

Wow.

At the Elks Club.

In cool flashlight pointed at it.

Pretty cool, yeah. Absolutely. Did you see my dad there? At the Elks, yeah. Oh my god.

He lived there. I'm trying to learn to break dancing. There's Salty over there sucking down a fini. Anyway, a molten golden almost paradise.

Oh, almost paradise. Almost paradise. Mike Reno and Ann Wilson, two powerhouses.

Yeah. Two powerhouses come together for that amazing, amazing duet right there. Oh, yeah. Actually written by Eric Carmen. Ah huge, huge. And uh obviously off the Footloose soundtrack, one of three huge hits off that soundtrack. Let's hear it for the boy, and of course, Footloose by the king of all movie soundtracks.

Right. Kenny Loggins.

Kenny Loggins, yes. You are correct, sir. You are correct.

Yes, I love that. Yeah.

And that's all I can say about that. Well, great pick, and I'm glad that's all.

How many more times is AJ gonna flip me off today? I'm starting to think about pulling out some stuff that I chose not to do.

Did you see how many times I get the flipped off during our uh sidecast? Yeah.

Too funny.

Alright, so number 40, Mark. Alright, this is such a great song. It's Molly Hatchet, the Rambler from Beating the Odds. Um, Jimmy Farrah is the singer. Unfortunately, everyone in this band is passed away. But what an incredible song. He's going down to the river, which is clearly the Aminousic River in Littleton. Down to the bridge, going up into the brook road there. Does he live in a vein? No, no, no, he doesn't live in a vein. I he he composed all across the country. You know, it's cold here in the city. Go on. And it just and you have the three guys, the three guitar players, they're playing off each other during the solo. All three of them get a part of the solo. Uh it is absolutely a rock ballad, and the part that gets me, I need your smiling face beside me. So Dallin, I'm coming home today. I mean, he never mentioned if she uh brought him home.

Oh, it's cold here in the city.

If you want to see a great version of it, you go on to American Bandstand, Molly Hatchet. Just a kick-ass song that I could listen to. And again, all these songs are songs that I regularly listen to. I know.

I need to actually hear that one because I don't know that I'm gonna.

What a great song. You need all of you pencil neck geeks need to listen to this song. Just go on American Bandstand and just a great song. And you know, you gotta go down to the river to hear it. That would really put it into uh perspective. So that's my number four song on side one. Great pick.

All right. Uh Molly Hatchet reminds me of a funny story from my house band back in the day, were um recording their album out in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and just they had like, I don't know, like a week worth of of dates scheduled to record. And they showed up on a Tuesday and they were like, Oh, you're you're not you're not scheduled today. And they're like, Yeah, we are. We we had Monday through Friday at this time or whatever else, and they're like, No, and and so the the lead singer, lead guitarist who's left us now leans over and he sees the the the chart where everybody's written in, and their name was crossed out and Molly Hatchet was written in because Molly Hatchet was on tour and somebody had an idea for a song and they wanted to work on it, so they showed up. And you can't blame the studio because the studio is like, huh, some local act, or do we get to have actual like credits on an album when Molly Hatchet stops and records here? So but they just they didn't handle it very well. So but always makes me think of Molly Hatchet, and I'm surprised that it wasn't Dreams I'll Never See, Mark, because that's a fantastic song. The drums are amazing on that, but I don't know it, so I will have to check out The Rambler. Thank you.

Oh, it's such a great song, it's such an incredible song. You gotta there's other songs on my list that you have to listen to if you haven't heard them. So we'll I'll go on.

Well, Kevin is logging them, I believe, on one of his three screens right now.

Well, I only have two because Amazon didn't deliver my crap.

Awesome pick. All right, thank you. So I'm going to my number four, but I do I must butt in real quick about Molly Hatchet because when I think of Iron Maiden and their album cover designs, I wonder how much influence Molly Hatchet had on them. Because fuck did they have some incredible, incredible album covers. I I never listened to the band back in the day, but boy, when I went through the records mark at the house, I'd always pull those out and get a little scared by them.

Yeah, and ironically, they're all born-again Christians, or well, they were now awesome.

All right, so number four to me, and this is 1983 off of Can't Slow Down, and that's Lionel Richie's Hello, hello, is it me you're looking for?

Hello, is it me you looking for? I can see it in your eyes, I can see it in your smile. You're all I've ever wanted my arms are open wide. I should know just what to say, and you know just what to do, and I want to tell you so much.

I love you.

But this song to me, my hair just stood up. I swear to god, look if you guys can see it, but it really did. This song to me just takes me back to that time frame. It's beautiful. I mean, I don't know, it's an incredible song, it was a staple back then. You could not not hear it every day, no matter where you were. And oh, yeah, it was so yeah, so against like anything I would ever listen to, but yeah, I would find myself just getting intrigued and involved with it.

He's amazing, he's absolutely amazing.

Yeah, the answering machines, I use that.

Hello, yeah, look at believe it or not, George isn't at home.

That's uh greatest American hero. Yes, but that's believe it or not. I'm not home.

Believe it or not, George isn't at home. Please leave a message at the beep. I must be out when I pick up the phone.

George, are you there? Hate that stupid message. I know you're avoiding me. I'm at the office. Please call me. I've gotta talk to you.

When when Jerry goes into his apartment later in that episode. He's singing that. It's funny. You can't get it out of his head. Believe it or not. George isn't at home. All right, Dongo, number five to you to finish off side A.

All right. So this is kind of a soundtrack of our childhood, the 80s, those 80s school dances, and it was used in movies for a school dance, Sixteen Candles. It was also used in The Wedding Singer, and the song is true by Spandau Ballet.

Yeah, nice and I predict me and her interface.

I bought it so quintessential eighties.

Now I've come back again.

In the place. Love it. Awesome song. Yeah. All right.

That's number five to you, Kev. All right. Well, here we see Diane Warren again with Bad English, When I See You Smile.

Yes.

What a great tune. I don't think Bad English did much more after that. Did Tom Waite John Waite, not Tom Waite, whole different guy. John Waite. Did he leave after that or before that to go solo? I don't recall. But that was a huge hit and definitely was at the high school dance.

Nice. And I actually have a well, I'll get there later. I shall not say it now to not ruin any future picks. But good one. All right. To you, Mark. I'm standing next to you. Silent Lucidity.

Silent Lucidity.

Great song. Yeah.

You know, every time I heard the song up to a point, I mean the music sounds like you're in a mental institution. I've never been in one of those. Thank you very much. And but that's what it reminded me of. But it's actually singing about dreams. And I am one of those people. My wife, Valerie, just cannot remember a dream. She'll tell me, she'll get excited that she remembers a dream. I I will go to bed, I'll fall asleep, and I'll have a dream. Wake up and go right back into the dream. That's kind of cool. Oh, I love that.

And you know how many times I used to try to go back into it, especially was when when it was one of those special kinds. Yeah, I have to do it. Those I usually can't go back into it.

Yeah, exactly. I had one last done.

What's the point? Well, that's what I mean. I woke up before I was done.

It was like two two women. And I'm like, wow, you know what? I think I can get away with it now because I think I'm sleeping. And then I I feel the arm going around my shoulder, and she woke me up. Oh my god.

Even when you're sleeping, they know. They know.

How do they know? This is a soundtrack of the late 80s with my first pick, uh, I remember you, and there's others that I didn't pick, but you know, just a great song, and Queen's Reich is one of the greatest bands of all time, as far as I'm concerned. I mean, they are great. They couldn't continue on.

Jeff Kate still torn.

Oh, I know. Do you think they were a casualty of the the grunge era?

Or they kind of they kind of exceeded that.

They were not the hair metal type. Exactly.

They were never hair metal.

Yeah.

No, they were such a great band. I mean, they were they had those two or three records that they just I mean, Operation Mind Crime. What a great album, you know. Incredible album.

Yeah.

All right.

So number five to me to finish off the halfway point. And this I talked about, I think it was just a week or uh, you know, a few casts ago. But this would be Stripers Honestly. You know, didn't put a huge damper on them because they friggin' made it. You know what I mean? And one thing that I'll say about this before I move on is the fact that I just talked about it, but they had uh three songs in the top ten um MTV countdown, two of them at the same time, and I believe that was honestly and free. And then they also had a song called Calling On You or Calling to You, but but this song was absolutely massive. I think it was number one on MTV for friggin' weeks and weeks. I'm just saying, in the general public, I think a lot of people may have shot them down for that reason, you know. Oh, I know, especially metalheads, but incredible band. I mean, you have Michael Sweet on lead vocals, who has one of the greatest voices of all time. You know, we used to sing in the choir in church, like when he was a little kid. Just he can fucking belt it out. Yes, I'm a cursing Christian. But and then um but just he's also an amazing lead guitar player. Him and Oz Fox would like share the leads. But I think feel like his guitar playing goes, you know, unnoticed because of that. But you know, when a lead singer plays leads, I feel like they can take the back seat sometimes, you know, on guitar. Not obviously they're the front man, but you get my print. But just an amazing, amazing song. All right, well, I guess that technically we're moving a side two with song number six, and that would go to you, dongo.

Cool, yeah. My side two, I went a different route. Uh, my side one was more like personal and and cheesy, and this side I kind of went with the beautiful songs, the songs that I just think are beautiful ballads. So my first one is by Sir Elton John, and it's your song, and you can tell everybody this is your song, and maybe quite simple, but now that it's done.

I hope you don't mind, I hope you don't mind that I put down the works I wonder for life while you're in the world.

Nice just a classic song, classy as well. Um, you know, it's just a beautiful song. I also like they redid it for it was a movie, it's Moulin Rouge. They did they did a cover of that song in Moulin Rouge, and it was Obi-Wan Canoe who sang it. Um Ewan McGregor. Yeah, yeah. He had a quite lovely voice.

Isn't he our only hope at this point?

I mean Yeah. No, that would be Sir Al Guinness and not Sir Elton John. Right, the true, the true Obi-Wan.

Yeah.

What an amazing duo, though, of Toppin and and Elton.

I mean, yeah, yeah.

Bernie's lyrics were just could go right through, they'd cut you like a knife, and then Elton performed them in such a way that that it just accentuated what he was Bernie was writing, and just a duo. Hundreds, hundreds of songs that they did that were just yeah, above and beyond what other people have ever accomplished.

And what was pretty neat was when he had that song out, he was opening for Three Dog Night, and they actually were the first people that released that song. But they they held back because they were like, This is a great song, you're opening for us, this should be yours. Wow. Hindsight's 20. But he he originally had written it for them, or right had or well, he didn't write it, but like you said, the the Bernie Toppin was the lyricist, but he wrote the music. Um interesting.

I think I've heard similar stories from other artists about Three Dog Night.

Yeah.

So they were pretty selfless as far as and that's great when you hear about bands that like didn't shit on. Like, who is it? Was it was it Steven Tyler? Somebody talked about touring with him, and he'd like unplugged their shit while they were on stage opening up, you know, unplugged their amps. Don't don't hold me to that. It could be somebody else. But those bands that are like, no, that's your song, you should do that, and not just like smash and grab and be like, well, talk to my lawyer. You already gave it to us, so fuck you.

And maybe that was Kiss when Aerosmith and uh Kiss's road crew went at each other with knives.

All right, so that's number six to you, Kev. Ah, that's where we are. All right. Peter Sotera and Amy Grant. The next time I fall.

Next time I fall.

She was doing a lot of Christian music at the time. Yeah, my parents loved her. Yeah, did not have a big rock and roll career at that time. And Satara actually at one point wanted somebody even less known than her. He didn't want to, you know, whether that was a spotlight thing, or is he trying to discover somebody? No idea, but what a what a great duet ballad. I love duets. I love ballad duets. Absolutely, absolutely. The Caldwell and Gordon were the guys that wrote that one, and they wrote it for Sotera when he was still in Chicago, and then got it in front of him when he went solo. And so it was it was still him. So they kind of like wrote that song with Peter Sotera in mind and didn't care if he was with or without Chicago. So and it wasn't written as a ballad, I mean as a duet, it was written as a solo singer type song, but they decided that they'd tune it up and make a make a duet out of it.

Nice. Alright, number six to you, Mark. I'm going with Guns N' Roses, Patience. Um, just a great song. You got the whistling at the beginning. I wrote a song about Valerie, one of those lost songs that I do a little whistling in as well. But this song reminds me of, you know, when they say I'm sitting on the steps. I cause I'd rather be alone.

Sitting on the steps, because I'd rather be alone. I can have you right now away sometimes, I can so can't spot a kiss be a single.

I'm not gonna sing it, okay? But anyway, and I used to do that when my future wife would come over on Wednesday nights. We always had a fun night, if you know what I'm saying, and uh I'd be sitting on the steps and she would come park her Dodge Colt up on the road, and she'd come down and she'd have this big smile on her face. So this this song means a lot to me. And um it is a great ballad. I mean, Axel Rose was a great songwriter.

I mean the whistle is an underappreciated musical uh musical instrument.

Yeah, absolutely. And you are the master when used properly.

Exactly. I mean, a lot of people love this song, as we know. And just this this song, by the way, wasn't this on like a half album or something? How many songs are on that record?

Isn't that an EP? It's yeah, it's an E.

E. P. What is an EP?

No, what the hell is an EP?

It's a shorter album. Extended play singles. Wouldn't it be longer if it's extended?

I know. It's a bad name, Donald.

It's a bad name. Yeah, exactly.

Yes.

But didn't it add like one in a million and then it had like a bunch of like stuff that they played in the clubs recording?

The dog buried in my backyard song. I used to love her.

I used to love her, but I had to kill her.

But I had to kill her.

Mr. Brownstone's off uh that's a lot.

That's that's off of Appetite. That's one of the greatest dumb songs.

Their album, in my opinion.

Their album. I agree with you, Kevin, 100%.

I could never stand anything that aside from a little bit of that, like halfway through that G and R Lies EP, I lost them. And then the abuse your contusion or whatever the hell it was.

You didn't like any stuff on that? Lose your illusion.

No, and the November Rain thing is like, get over yourself, dude, relax.

And but they just are the one band that got so huge off of almost no catalog, right? So Appetite carried them and is still carrying them.

I do love a lot of stuff on uh the illusion albums, but that's just me.

Right. Hey, everyone's entitled, right? Exactly. All right, great pick. And now number six to me, and this is the one where Kevin is gonna give me hell. All right. And that would be 1987's Angel off of permanent vacation. This song to me just brings me to a certain spot, like I always say, and I can explain this spot, and it was during a miserable, miserable breakup for me. I don't know. I love Tyler's voice in this. I'm not a big 80s Aerosmith guy. I love the 70s way more, but this song spoke to me. So fuck you all. Go ahead.

It was a great song, and yes, it was like the video for that song where he's like singing in the cold, whatever. Oh, yes, you can see the vapor. I've spoken about this before, but it shows like how this little guy has this huge voice, and he can project that voice. Absolutely. It was a good singing, and I can't because you couldn't fake the breath back then.

Yeah, they can do it now to some degree. But back then that was one of the few things they couldn't they couldn't fake. But that absolutely, AJ. I'm I mean, I'm tempted to to shit on you for that, but the fact of the matter is it was a great song. It's the fact more now that they replicated it 90 flipping times after that. And you know, it's like, what's the I don't know, it might keep coming up, but the one from Amageddon, it's like just stop.

Yeah, don't want to miss it. Fucking love the song, so shut up and let's go back to you, Donald, for number seven.

All right. So I've used this one before in a previous cast for singer, but I'm gonna say I don't care who sings the song because a lot of women and whoever sings it, good on them, and it's on my own from Les Meseral. It's a beautiful song. To me, that that song is the perfect song. Um, and whoever sings it is just it's a it's an amazing song. So leave it at that. Nice. Yeah.

Is that the same one that Patty Labelle and Michael McDonald did, or am I thinking of a different song altogether? Oh, I don't know. I don't know. Are you thinking of a different song?

Yes.

A different song.

So many promises never should be spoken.

Awesome.

So do you keep okay. Howard Jones, no one is to blame. Just a great, great song. Um, the original off the album Dream Into Action did nothing. And then Phil Collins and Hugh Paddam did a remix of Seamore Butts. Phil Collins and his producing partner, Seymour Butts, uh did did a uh a re-release of it and did it as a single, and it got huge. It was it was number four at one point, and uh it was just one of those songs that as a young man there was a certain young lady that came in and out of my life, and it was kind of it's it's it kind of fit that situation. You can you can sit by the pool, but you can't take a swim. Uh you can look at the menu, it's all of that like you're the fastest runner, but you're not allowed to win. No one's ever to blame. It's like it was just star-crossed lover kind of fate just isn't gonna let this work out, and that song really kind of embodied that uh for me at that time, and it was just I still love that song.

Nice. That's nice. Another one that I need to look up because I'm honest, maybe I know it if I hear it. I think you would.

I I saw the I saw the hook on your face when I said that.

No, no, that's when I get intrigued.

Like, yeah, same look I gave when when Mark was talking about the Molly Hatchett setting.

I know, I know, exactly. Awesome. All right, brother, that's to you.

Yeah, well, one thing I want to say before I get to my number seven pick is what a div diverse amount of songs, or not amount, uh diverse catalogs or lists. Yes, it's incredible. I'm going with Allison Chains Don't Follow. And uh but don't follow is basically, you know, just don't follow me. I mean, obviously. And uh the guitar. The pagio at the beginning, you know, you have to use your thumb to play it. It's two and a half step down. It just always goes right straight to my heart, and I just love the songs. There's so many Alice and Chain songs. I was gonna go with I Stay Awake, but I changed it to this one. I listen to them all the time. I love the band, and I'm not a big uh Seattle guy.

They're probably my favorite of the Seattle bunch, Alice and Chains. I probably agree with that too.

It's not even close to me. I mean, even SoundGarden can't write with them.

And that's so important that it takes you back to that place. Like that's I feel like what this podcast is all about. Like when a song brings anything brings to a certain place, back to a time and place.

Exactly. And you can put it, you can put yourself I have this capability. I mean, this sounds really strange. I don't know if I'm gonna do it. Probably not, but I when I try to take a nap, I can take myself back to any period of time, any moment, and feel the exact emotion and even just feel it's it's great. Yeah, that's it. You know, but none it is, but sometimes it isn't because it's right, it can be hard. It's a bad emotion. I I'll feel the emotion uh of being in that time when I was super happy, but then it breaks my heart that it's gone. Yeah.

I get what you're saying, but you should think of that like that was a happy last forever.

But you can at least revisit it, which is nice. Right.

I always do. My heart sinks every time I think of it. And great, but you know, we can still have happy times. That's all. F right.

So my number seven is gonna be very cliche. I'm gonna get picked on from people outside of the cat this cast, probably, but this is Close My Eyes Forever by Ozzie and Lita. I mean great actually by Lita, really, because it's on her album Lita.

Sometimes it's got to hold on, it's not too hold on to my first time.

But he's done some fucking amazing ones. Yeah, one performed this past weekend.

So that was on her album? Yes. Not his any of his. It was off uh her album called.

Did she finally get laid, by the way?

I didn't get a lay.

I got in a fight. It ain't no big thing.

No, she got in a fight. She got in a fight, actually. But anyway, yeah.

I just I just saw Carrie Underwood cover one of his ballads, Aussie's ballads. Yeah, it was good. Yeah, Mama Coming Home. Yeah. Big Aussie.

Well, I shouldn't say Aussie, I should say big Sabbath weekend that Sharon turned into an Aussie weekend. On a lighter note, let's move to number eight, Donald.

I will make it light, and this is one of those cheesy, beautiful songs um that is just a classic, and it's Journey Faithfully. I love that song. Yeah, just a beautiful song. Kick ass drums. I love that song. I love Journey. There's multiple songs from Journey.

I'm shocked it took this long for someone. Yeah, right? Yeah.

Hopefully I didn't grab it from anybody, but it had to be up there. It's it's a classic.

It's your turn.

It's a class.

It's your friggin' turn. You can't steal it from me. Steal away the night.

It's yours.

Steal it. Yeah, there you go. And here we go to Kevin's number eight or three, whatever it is on his list.

My next pick, give it a name. Uh When I'm with you by is it Sheriff or Sharif?

I'm with you.

You will appreciate this mark, because it was written by the keyboardist Arnold Lonnie, immediately after he met his soon-to-be wife, Valerie. He went home, he set his coffee down on the piano and wrote the song. And then they got married. And on top of that, this is 1983, kind of the and the wheels were turning at MTV. This song this song had no video. Which, if you think about that era, is pretty amazing that it was as big a hit as it was without a promotional video. I just thought that was kind of cool. That was pretty cool.

So 1800.

My uh eighth song on side two. Um, by the way, mine my list is far superior as far as my opinion can is concerned. It is very true to myself, and I'm going with Poison's something to believe in. It's not my favorite band, and not I'm not a huge fan of Poison, but this song just speaks to me so much. My favorite line at the end is and still it makes me wonder how so many lose and so few win. Goes to work, gets up at five in the morning, goes out, and works in the humidity, gets chomped on by deer flies all day. Come home, the mosquitoes are eating your head off, and you know, you're you're you're coming to poison Ivy. So yeah, it just speaks to me.

Great, great pick, too. I'm so glad you picked that because that was a scratch of mine, because I also find that song very deep and meaningful. All right, so that's number eight to me, and that's gonna be 1989 off of Repeat Offender by Richard Marks, and that is right here waiting.

Wherever you go, whatever you do, I will be right here waiting for you. Whatever it takes or how about break, I will wait for you. I'll take a day.

This song to me, what we were just talking about, I don't change the channel. I love this song, puts me in a mood, it's heartfelt. I have seen this gentleman's podcast recently because Paul Stanley was on it. He did seem a little bit like a kiss ass to me, and that kind of bothered me. And I think it's because him and Paul are friends, didn't carry me the podcast. However, this is a great fucking ballad back from the day I really like whatever it takes. I'm not gonna sing on the worst.

Yes, I will be right here waiting for you.

Yeah, he he is Dick Marks is undeniable. I mean, the songs were great, but it's funny that you say that too, because somebody else had mentioned to me that he and he's married to Daisy Fuentes, I believe.

Daisy Fuentes.

Daisy Fuentes, yeah, exactly. And I guess they've got some guy, I don't know if it's a clothing thing on QVC or maybe a house rehab show or something like that. And this friend of mine told me how how obnoxious they were. I don't know.

So maybe I'm a good judge of character. Could be, could be. I can't think it happened. All right, let's roll it to number nine, Dungo. Number nine, number nine.

Number nine, gotta do it. Number nine? Always have to do it. Number nine? Yes, we do. All right, so this is a song I have to pick. Um is a beautiful song. Like, it's just it's beautiful, beautiful, and it's from rumors, fleetwood Mac and it's Songbird.

The sun will be shallow.

It's a rise.

You know, there's not a pin drop you can't hear, other than the performer doing the song. Um when they recorded it, it was at Berkeley, not Berkeley, Boston Music School, Berkeley, California. They were in an auditorium, they rented it out, they put some flowers on the piano, and they did it in one take. You know, it's just a it's just a classic. Yeah, yeah.

Nice. How much glow did they do? I'm just kidding. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That that I mean the studio story recently revisiting a lot of Fleetwood Mac and what a mountain of talent in that yeah incarnation of the band. The McV's and and Mick, yeah, and and Stevie and and Lindsay. I mean, never mind, you go back to that. Well considering Green and those guys were amazing, but the recordings were just and the talent is unbelievable, undeniable.

It is on a boy to boot. All right, Kev. Let's go number nine to you. Number one.

This was the one that jumped out in my brain first when we when we first started discussing this. And it was uh Just Once by James Ingram.

Just once can we figure out what we keep doing wrong why we never last for very long What are we doing wrong? Just once can we find a way to finally make it right to make the magic last for more than just one night. We could just continue. No we could break through it.

Q, Quincy Jones, yeah, produced it. You had uh Steve Lukather, obviously from Toto, playing guitar, um Ian Underwood from Frank Zappa's band, uh Chuck Findley, who was with the Tonight Show band for many years playing on it, got the Grammy that year for best uh male pop performance. I did my best, but I guess my best wasn't good enough. Because here we are back where we were before. I mean, it's like again, it's that quintessential person that you keep coming back to and you kick it just isn't meant to be, but you can't be here. We are but do you think just once we could get it right? No, no, we can't. And you won't, so don't bother.

No can do. You can put everything you have into something and it's still not working, then see uh yeah, exactly.

Exactly. By two exactly. Oh, you met her.

Okay, Mark. To you. Okay, this is my favorite song on the record. Uh I mean my my mix tape. Uh, my number nine is Ted Nugent Together. I mean uh obviously Meatloaf, an incredible song that shows, and I've brought this up, I'm not gonna talk a lot about this song. It shows my Uncle Ted's versatility as a guitar player.

Talk about underrated guitar players.

Exactly. Underrated only because he doesn't get the credit he deserves.

That's what underrated means.

Exactly. But uh I'm going, I want to talk about something that I saw on Breitbart today. Ira Dean wrote a song called What Would Charlie Daniels do? And Uncle he called Uncle Ted. He says, I just want to know I've been using your uh your name in the song, and Uncle Ted says, You gotta cut it. In other words, cut it, write it, and I'm coming down to do a guitar solo. And he says, That's what I wanted you to do. And yeah, check it out. So you know what a dynamic duo this would have been if they would have kept going. And we know Meat Loaf had a pretty decent career, if I recall. So it's just a great song. And if you guys heard it, have you guys heard? I've been telling you people to listen to the song. AJ, have you heard it yet? Yes. Kevin, have you heard it? Be honest.

I know I listened to it because I was you guys introduced me to the fact that Meat and and uh Ted played together. I was not aware of that. On free for all, big trying to early, early on in the podcast, I listened to it, but it it um it escapes me at the moment, but I definitely did go back because I I think that's an amazing combination, really.

It is incredible. And Donald, have you heard it yet?

I have not. I'm going to revisit this or visit it for the first time.

I saw I also have not and was blatantly lying. That's a blatant lie, Adrian. I'm coming up. I was just trying to make you feel good. Sorry.

Well, Kevin, Kevin, you're okay. You're I I I was honest.

I know that I did listen to it. I I just it's not coming to mind right now. What was the song, Eric? Repeat the name.

And obviously, he did writing on the wall.

That's the one that's the song I was thinking of. So I wasn't incredible. Incredible song.

My my last song on my tape is gonna be incredible too. If you don't like it. You will love the I mean I I know everyone.

Pick a song that you hated.

I wanted to do the worst album I possibly could, Kevin. Well I just couldn't.

That will be an episode down the line.

Oh boy, that is a good idea, but I don't know if that would be a fun one. All right, let's see how we go.

So my number nine, another one that I couldn't scratch. Thank you very much, Kevin, for taking two of them. But I've talked about it in previous episodes. I think it was a high school one we did or something about the dances, but it's Mike Reno and Ann Wilson, almost paradise off the footloose soundtrack.

Yeah. Great song.

Sometimes I take the audibles. It's 1984. I couldn't. I couldn't. You know, I mean, this is what's in my heart, and I have to run with it. But this song to me just has, I mean, so much meaning from the movie itself. You were 12. Yes, I was. Whatever I said. The school dances and this song and this movie, this whole soundtrack to me, just I mean, I would listen to it from start to finish. You brought up um let's hear it for the boy. Just fucking every pop song on this album was so incredible and still is to this day. And the way this stuff carries over and just doesn't get outdated to me, I find so Phenomenal, you know? And I I could not not take this. It was literally, I think, the favorite ballad I picked during a you know a mishmash or something like that. How could I leave it out? It's a great song.

If you were a if you were at a middle school dance or a high school dance in the 80s, I mean that was it. Did it hit pizza? It was happening. Roller rink. Right up there with the you know, the Footloos soundtrack is right up there with the the Vision Quest. Yeah. The Vision Quest soundtrack, which I think or treaty sounds one of the best. Or trick-or-treat, not quite as many uh it might be, yeah.

They probably didn't have as many sales on the trick-or-treat album, but awesome. All right, so we're gonna wrap it up with song 10 here. Starting with you, Dongo.

Cool. I had to flip a coin, like I was gonna go with a total beautiful song or like a cheese beautiful song. They're both beautiful, but I I went with the cheese song. So you're gonna have to give me a little. I gotta I need a little setup here, so I gotta do a little setup because this is kind of something that goes on in my brain like daily. So I'm gonna set up like a music video for people out there, like get you. Close your eyes, like listen. So I'm at work, people are bitching at me, you know, work sucks. Um, you know, it's like crazy. Then I drive home, I get home, and there's a kid running around screaming, and it's just stressful. The wife is like, hey, you know, you need to do this.

This kind of sounds like yesterday, doesn't it?

Well, so I open up the door to the fridge and I grab an IPA or whatever's in there, and I look at it.

I need you now.

At the end of the day, when the world sucks and you open up that door and you see it, and it's like I need you now. Pure beauty. The song is more than words can say. It's from Alias, their Canadian rock band. It was 1990. It got the number two on the charts in the United States, um, number one in Canada for four weeks. It's just the cheesy love ballad, rock ballad that is right there for me. You know, good for you, man. It hits you right in the heart because it should.

Right. Awesome, Dongo. That was a great lead up. That's number 10 to you now, Kev.

My number one or number 10. I don't know which way we're doing this at all, but song on the record, man.

It'd be your last song.

Okay. So my way you slice it.

You know you can't deny it.

You get what I'm saying.

My last pick. So I'm gonna close it out with careless whisper.

I'm never gonna dance again. Guilty feet of God Lord. But what did it do for them? I'm going to turn the day.

From Wham or George Michael, however you want to do it, because it's just so perfect. Classic. It's again, and uh I'm talking about the dance. That's where I started. We're in the sweaty gymnasium, and that was just the song. And the amazing part of that is that the hook to get you right at the beginning is that saxophone part. Oh, so nine saxophone players. Nine different saxophone players. It was originally written, George Michael wrote it on a bus when he was a kid, and he had a kid from down the street play the saxophone part. So when they were recording it as a single for the album, I'm sorry, as a single, he had Jerry Wexler, he had all these famous people. They actually run in Tom Scott that played with the Blues Brothers, one of the best players, and he couldn't get it. And they kept going and kept going and kept going until finally um the guy that actually got it, um, Gregory, I think his name was, had an old saxophone, didn't go up as high as it needed to be played. So he talked to the engineer and they ended up doing it a semi-tone down and then speeding it up. And George Michael walked in, he went, huh. That's it. That's what we're looking for. And he looked at the saxophone player and went, You're number nine. And the rest, as they say, is history.

George Michael, too. That's like a big spread from our stuff. I love it.

I I honestly, I was, you know, we talked about being hanging out with metal heads and whatever back in the day. I have always been a fan of George Michael's music. Um, his Listen Without Prejudice album that he recorded on his own. I mean, I think he plays every instrument on it, or at least wrote everything. He's an amazing songwriter. I think even back in the day, Axel Rose made many comments about what a what a phenomenal songwriter he was, which is talking about contrast.

Father Figure was an incredible song. Father Figure was an incredible song.

Father Figure was a great song. There's so many great songs that he did. I mean, his persona was a little off-putting to me at the time. You can't stop thinking about the choose life shirts and the fingerless day glow gloves and all of that. The wake me up before you go go. But again, it's like you that was wham.

It was selling at that time. I mean, that was exactly so.

Again, just like we were talking about cherry pie. I mean, do you want to live in obscurity or do you want to put out something that the radio is going to play and it's going to make the producer happy and have the record people give you tons of money?

Yeah. But that song, I wouldn't I use that song. Like I teach EMTs, right? You know, there are times when you're in emergency medicine where shit is like high stress, panic, like your heart rate's going a million miles a minute. I'm like, just start playing this song in the background. Try to try to like we we need to slow things down, people.

Relax.

Ground yourself. You know? I know we're in a high stress situation. Listen to this. But let's bring it back.

Oh yeah, I wish I could do that too, Donald. I fail very miserably.

What are the what are the other two? Staying alive, and what's the other one you're supposed to use?

Well, staying alive is for cardiac arrest for you. Um another one bites the dust. Yes. Yeah, that's very, and there's a lot of songs that are within that range. You know, staying alive is 100 beats per minute. Um, you want to be at 110 people out there. The perfect rate is 110 beats per minute, and there's a lot of songs out there that you can find. Uh, it's like uh some shark song that's the kids are into now. Don't say it. Is it Slayer?

Don't say it.

Oh, yeah. I mean, I a lot of my songs are between, I mean, most of my songs are between 100 and 135. Yeah. High heart.

But they did they did advertise that at one at one point.

He wasn't talking about heart rate. He was talking about beats. Were you talking about heart rate? 110. Beats per minute.

Right. So if you're doing chest compressions, CPR on some of the music. Between 100 and 120 beats per minute or chest compressions per minute. So it's the same thing. It's like a metronome. Put a metronome on. You want to be at 110 is the ideal chest compression rate. And you don't have to take a CPR class, people. Just 110 beats per minute, pound on someone's chest, and you want to be pounding on it, right?

Like you want to be almost breaking their ribs.

You unfortunately, in the process, you probably will break a few ribs. Yeah.

Because most people feel like just go over and they're so like pussy-ish. Yeah. Because they don't want to hurt the person that they're not actually doing that. And now there's no more breathing.

You gotta do at least two inches of depth, which is you know that's deep significant amount. Yeah, you're wailing at them.

Am I thinking am I thinking of um mouth to mouth, or do you need to turn the head side out?

So that a lot of people refrain from that. Well, that's what I was asking. No more breath, right? Right. Well, they they would rather people just do the chest compressions, do that, versus some people would not do it because they didn't want to do the mouth to mouth. So now they're like, just do the chest compressions at least. That will help. Ah, so you should do the mouth to mouth. They're just afraid.

Right.

So it's air I would never put my lips on a stranger either. You know, I wouldn't do it. I'd do it on my kid or a loved one, but I ain't doing it on a stranger.

This is a fire chief slash or lieutenant here.

Parametic, yeah.

But Donald, don't you uh in that scenario, don't you still have to turn the head to the side so that they to avoid aspiration, or is that not a concern?

Oh, yeah. I mean, we could get into the nuance of that. But yeah, if you're if you're ventilating somebody and you do it too aggressively, you're gonna fill their belly with air, and eventually that's gonna bring up stomach content. So yeah. You're best off to not do ventilations. Right.

This is a public service announcement from Mass High City's high.

But that was a PSA. That's what I was originally talking about. There was a PSA that was like, you can think of staying alive, or you can think of another one bites of dust. And if you're gonna do me, if I'm having a heart attack, please stay in alive.

Stay in the back, stay in the light, would be my choice.

Donnie, you don't go run around singing another one bit a time.

Think 100 beats per minute, people. Yeah.

All right, that was great fun, boys. All right, number 10 to you, brother. I'm going with Queen's Reich, another rainy night.

I love this song more than uh uh Jeff Tate's lyrics, although they're incredible. His singing is incredible. I love the guitars, I love the octaves, and it is considered a rock ballad because it goes into that clean section and everything. This is probably my second favorite song on my mixtape. Just a kick-ass song. A kick-ass ballad, if you can have those two in the same sentence. It's the guitars, it's all about the guitars.

And this is your second Queen's Reich, too.

Yeah, so you're rolling heavy with them. No, I love Queen's Reich. I absolutely adore them. And when it comes to rock ballads, they they are the uh leader in my mind. So that's what I got for my last song on my tape. I'm gonna go listen to it. I'm gonna rock it out, and that's a boy.

All right. So I guess I'll finish it up, and I am scratching my number 10 in hopes, and you guys can be honest with me to tell me if I'm putting this song in the right category, because maybe not. But my number 10 burn my number 10 was a repeat, and I I don't want to do that. Because it wasn't, you know, it's right there. Damn it. But anyway, I guess where I'm going is I want to take heart. All I want to do is make love to you.

Please, please understand.

I guess you it could be a power ballad, but this was on my scratch list at first, and I couldn't leave it off because that video, that song, everything about it always brought so much emotion out in me. Like, especially watching that video, man, it's just fucking so cool. I really love the song. I scratched I'll remember you by Skid Rowe because I just found it so cliche for me after someone has someone already picked it. So would you guys consider that a ballad? That heart song. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or at least a power ballad. Yeah, yeah. And she makes a note in that Wow! Oh, it's that's one of the like that song. I when I bring the video up, I'll watch it like ten times in a row because it brings out emotion in me, and that's I find it so important. And her voice brings out emotion in the entire song, and it's just and she's like literally, please, please understand. I'm not singing here, I'm talking. But just when she's saying that, please, please understand. I'm in love with another man, you know, but the one thing he couldn't give me is the one thing you can.

So she just went out and used some dude instead of spending money on IVS. I need your sperm.

Yeah, it makes no sense to me either.

Which I learned today from a movie that there's more sperm in our left nut. Didn't anyone else know that? Just the left one, huh? Yeah, I learned it from Letter Kenny, actually. So what happened?

Oh my god. Are they doing any more episodes?

Hold on, let's keep going on my song and then we'll go to that. Fuck you, choices.

I just wanted to say, AJ, that that you know, you bring that song up and you're just talking about you know what it was about and how she just wants to the one thing that the guy she loves couldn't give her, right? Perfect relationship. That's the relationship that I exactly, right? Oh, odd oddly, it'll probably be about, I don't know, two or three years before I could tell her that you know I I had my tube snapped and I'll just give it. Oh, you wanted to get pregnant? That's so weird since I had a vasectomy. You watched it.

I I it can be undone. Yes, I know, which is what I have done.

My wife had her tubes.

Undone, redone it and dead it again, and yeah.

She talked to me for like 20 minutes, and I think she had to get her tubes tied because I know this is the right guy, and if that man ever reproduces, this planet is in trouble. So I think that's what she had. That's why she had the tubes tied. But I'm sorry, but that's fine.

That's why we've nominated Val for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The wife of the week. Awesome. So let's wrap it up, boys. That was an awesome show. Yes. As always, of course, I want to get you know a few things out there. Please check us out at pastimes at 80shigh.com. That is 80s for 80s. Pastimes at 80shigh.com. And as always, email us at pta80h at gmail.com one more time. PTA80H at gmail.com. Uh dongo, thank you so much. Hey, thank you. Mindeed and Kevin. Thank you, Sam. Yes, uh, and Brother Mark.

Yes, well, I mean, I obviously love my list more than yours, but thank you, AJ.

Of course. All right, and everyone out there, thank you so much for all the five-star reviews, the downloads. Uh, please know on Spotify, you can now uh do a review there and even comment. So that would be of great appreciation as it really helps the cast out and move in in moving us up. And on Apple Podcasts, those five-star reviews are a huge help. And we can't thank you enough, and we are out.