Suzanne's Soundtrack Sunday

Fun and Games on the Radio

Nowadays, my morning drive involves listening to Morning Edition as I head into Tampa. One, because I finally found out that USF has the local NPR affiliate and two, because the best disc jockey in this radio purgatory got canned in April (Skip Mehaffie, I miss you!).

The other day, a conversation about a wedding of all things got me thinking about the games that the morning hosts would have that made us laugh and/or go nuts trying to be the contestant and win cool prizes.

On LI, I'd vary between the two big rock outlets, but my favorite was WNEW from NYC. Dave Herman and Marty Martinez had great banter, good music and the best part? Fun games. They would do Old, New, Borrowed and Blue, Name that Tune and Rock and Roll Jeopardy.

Over my tenure at the gas station, I actually won quite a few things from NEW, and I think a couple of those prizes are in a box in my garage-I know there are several CD's in the shelves behind me, thanks to fast fingers. I got a consolation prize because I hadn't recognized a half second snippet of "All Around the Watchtower", but in my defense, I am not well versed in Jimi Hendrix.

Old, New, Borrowed and Blue (ONB&B for short) was probably my favorite. Four songs and you had to decipher the common theme. Dead Canadians, singers from Nebraska, all on the same label, about flowers, played at Monterey or any other possibility you could imagine.

Some were easy and some were impossibly hard.One time, the common thread was "a member played in a group with Ginger Baker" and I think that Dave and Marty took twenty minutes trying to find a winner. As often as they played Cream on the station back then, it was a bit of a head scratcher.


On the weekends, Pete Fornatele wasn't as inspired. He'd just ask a simple trivia question, and I rocked that on quite a few weekends, but I never did get through on the ONB&Bs that I knew. Perhaps the fact that it was one of the few things I never got to do is why I remember it so fondly.

Today, I give you an example of the concept. Four songs and you tell me the common thread:

Old:
(This one is a probably a neon sign to prog heads!)
(Relatively )New:

Borrowed:

Blue, which is the hardest one of nearly all ONB&B's, because not many artists/producers/musicians have any recorded. We kind of cheat, because this one isn't as peppy as the others in the quartet:

Ed will get this one in about three seconds. If I'd gone with the original choice, no one else would have gotten it. Seriously, tell me that YOU would know Lol Creme from 10cc and a Lazlo Bane cover! At least Godley and Creme supplied a blue song for the concept.

Comments

I've got one.

the top 3 acts in 1975 had something in common. what was it?
you've got some great music but I haven't got a clue....have youfigured out mine yet?
Suzanne said…
I am drawing a blank. 75 was the Captain and Tennille and Elton John, so piano would play a part, but then the next few are one hit wonders. That's according to the Billboard info I'm looking through.
Elton John, John Denver and Olivia Newton-John.

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