Rob Sergi - Radio Presenter

26/01/2025

On this day in 1982, the Tommy Tutone single “8675309/Jenny” debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 at #88.

The classic 80s rock track sparked hundreds of thousands of phone calls to 8675309 numbers all around the USA with people asking for Jenny.

Most had to have the number disconnected, and many wanted to “find this Tommy Tutone and wring his neck” (as one person put it)…

In 1982, Southwest Junior High School who had the number received up to two hundred calls daily asking for Jenny.

And throughout the four decades since, this phenomenon has continued.
In 2013 for example, the number was still ringing up fifty crank calls per day for a Florida real estate business…

So who was “Jenny”?
And was her number on the wall?

Co-songwriter Alex Call explained his version of the song's real origins:

“Despite all the mythology to the contrary, I actually just came up with the 'Jenny,' and the telephone number and the music and all that just sitting in my backyard.

There was no Jenny.

I don't know where the number came from, I was just trying to write a 4-chord Rock song and it just kind of came out.

I had the guitar lick, I had the name and number, but I didn't know what the song was about.

This buddy of mine, Jim Keller, who's the co-writer, was the lead guitar player in Tommy Tutone.
He stopped by that afternoon and he said, 'Al, it's a girl's number on a bathroom wall,' and we had a good laugh.
I said, 'That's exactly right, that's exactly what it is.'

I had the thing recorded. I had the name and number, and they were in the same spots, 'Jenny... 867-5309.' I had all that going, but I had a blind spot in the creative process, I didn't realize it would be a girl's number on a bathroom wall!
When Jim showed up, we wrote the verses in 15 or 20 minutes, they were just obvious.

Tommy Tutone's been using the story for years that there was a Jenny…….and so forth. It makes a better story but it's not true.

It was just a fun thing, we never thought it would get cut.
In fact, even after Tommy Tutone made the record and '867-5309' got on the air, it really didn't have a lot of promotion to begin with, but it was one of those songs that got a lot of requests and stayed on the charts.
It was on the charts for 40 weeks.

I've met a few Jennys who've said, "Oh, you're the guy who ruined my high school years." But for the most part, Jennys are happy to have the song.”

23/01/2025

I'll start. Third Eye Blind - Semi Charmed Life

20/01/2025

On this day in 1978, Kate Bush released the single “Wuthering Heights."

Kate Bush’s big break was when Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour was given a demo tape by a mutual friend of the family, that Kate recorded while she was still attending a Catholic girls' school in Abbey Wood in southeast London.

Gilmour was moved to help the 16-year-old record a professional demo tape which secured her a deal with EMI, and her prodigious talent took over from there…

I’m not sure what’s more impressive, the fact that she wrote “Wuthering Heights” aged just 18, or that she recorded the vocal track in only one take....

“Wuthering Heights” was of course based on the famous Emily Brontë novel, and the single went all the way to #1 in the UK, and stayed at the top for a month.

With it, Kate Bush became the first female artist to have an entirely self-penned #1 hit in the UK.

"Wuthering Heights" also spent three weeks at #1 in Australia, five weeks at #1 in New Zealand, and also topped the charts in Ireland and Portugal.

Her debut single from her debut album “The Kick Inside” also reached the Top 10 in Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Switzerland, as well as the Top 20 in Austria and West Germany.

The guitar solo is played by the talented Ian Bairnson (Pilot, The Alan Parsons Project), who allegedly played the solo with a broken arm. The engineer, Jon Kelly, said he regretted not placing the iconic solo louder in the mix.

Fun fact: Kate Bush and Emily Brontë were both born on 30 July, Bush in 1958 and Brontë in 1818, 140 years apart.

A hauntingly beautiful and unique song....

One of the two clips for the song has inspired The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever, which is an annual event held at locations around the world where participants recreate the “red dress” music video for “Wuthering Heights".

08/01/2025

On this day in 1978, the Plastic Bertrand single “Ça Plane Pour Moi” peaked on the Australian charts at #2.

The song was released by Plastic Bertrand, in 1977, though its vocals were actually performed by Lou Deprijck, the record's producer and composer.

It’s been covered by many artists, though the Plastic Bertrand release was the most successful, eventually reaching #2 in Australia, #1 in France and Switzerland, #2 in the Netherlands, #4 in Ireland, #6 in Germany, #7 in New Zealand, and #8 in the UK.

Catchy tune!

05/01/2025

01/01/2025

Happy New Year!! 🥂🎊

31/12/2024

26/12/2024

Paradise By The Dashboard Light💡 by Meat Loaf
It took a baseball announcer, two Broadway performers, and a producer who thought the whole thing was a joke to create what many consider rock's greatest duet. "Paradise by the Dashboard Light," the epic 8-minute tale of teenage lust and lifelong regret, emerged from the theatrical mind of Jim Steinman and became one of classic rock's most enduring anthems.

The song's journey to existence reads like a rock and roll fairy tale. In the mid-1970s, composer Jim Steinman and singer Meat Loaf were struggling artists working on the National Lampoon Road Tour alongside a talented Broadway performer named Ellen Foley. Steinman had a vision: he wanted to write "the ultimate car/sex song in which everything goes horribly wrong in the end." What he created was a three-act rock opera in miniature that would become the centerpiece of one of the best-selling albums of all time.

Getting the song recorded wasn't easy. After numerous record labels rejected the project, producer Todd Rundgren took a chance on what he initially viewed as a spoof of 1950s culture. Recording at Bearsville Studios near Woodstock, New York, Rundgren assembled an all-star lineup that included Roy Bittan and Max Weinberg from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. The influence of Springsteen's "Born to Run" album, particularly songs like "Thunder Road" and "Jungleland," can be heard in the song's grandiose arrangements and themes of young love and escape.

The song's most memorable section – the baseball play-by-play that serves as a metaphor for sexual conquest – features New York Yankees announcer Phil Rizzuto calling the action. While Rizzuto later claimed he didn't know his innocent baseball calls would be used as sexual metaphors, Meat Loaf maintained that the Hall of Fame shortstop was fully aware of the double entendre. The baseball sequence perfectly captures the tension of the moment, with Rizzuto's excited "Holy cow!" punctuating the action.

Ellen Foley's powerful vocals provided the perfect counterpoint to Meat Loaf's theatrical delivery. Their chemistry was no accident – they had developed their rapport during their National Lampoon days, performing irreverent sketches together that included Meat Loaf pretending to be Foley's dog in one particularly memorable scene. However, when it came time to film the music video, Foley was committed to a Broadway production of "Hair." Karla DeVito stepped in for the video, leading to years of confusion about who actually sang on the record.

The song's distribution was as creative as its content. Meat Loaf convinced his label to give him $30,000 (about $160,000 in today's money) to produce performance films of three songs from "Bat Out of Hell." These films were distributed to theaters showing "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" – another project featuring Meat Loaf – as pre-show entertainment. When MTV launched in 1981, the video became a staple of their early programming, partly because its unusual length made it perfect for filling time slots between shorter videos.

Despite its unconventional length and structure, "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" became a massive hit, particularly in Europe. In the Netherlands, it reached number one and remains one of Meat Loaf's biggest hits. In Belgium, it was kept from the top spot only by the Village People's "Y.M.C.A." Even the musicians who recorded it were surprised by its success. Bassist Kasim Sulton admitted thinking it was "the biggest joke" during recording, never believing it would be heard.

The song's legacy extends beyond its chart success. It became a staple of wedding receptions, with DJs often splitting the room into male and female sides for dueling performances. It influenced future rock opera-style productions and was eventually included in Steinman's 2017 musical "Bat Out of Hell: The Musical." The song has been covered countless times, including memorable performances on shows like "Glee" and "The Sing-Off."

Perhaps most importantly, "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" demonstrated that rock music could be both theatrical and authentic, funny and serious, elaborate and relatable. Its story of youthful passion and its consequences continues to resonate with new generations of listeners, proving that sometimes the best songs are the ones that break all the rules.

24/12/2024

Merry Christmas. Happy Hannukah. Happy Festivus. Feliz Navidad. Happy Holidays. Seasons Greetings. Etc... From me to you. Enjoy!

19/12/2024

This would certainly be interesting! 🤓

17/12/2024

This one's an absolute banger!! ... On this day in 1984, the Dynamic Hepnotics single “Soul Kind Of Feeling” peaked on the Australian charts at #5.

The Dynamic Hepnotics were an Australian soul, blues and funk band who formed in Sydney in 1979 and disbanded in 1986, and this was their highest charting hit.

Written by lead singer Robert Susz, it peaked at #3 in New Zealand, and #5 in Australia.

In 1986, "Soul Kind of Feeling" won the APRA Music Award for 'Most Performed Australasian Popular Work'.

24/11/2024

This week in 1988, Pink Floyd released the LP “Delicate Sound of Thunder” - undeniably one of the best albums ever made.

The live double album was recorded over five nights at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, New York, in August 1988 and mixed at Abbey Road Studios in September 1988.

It went Top 10 in Australia, Germany, Hungary, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, and Switzerland, and peaked just outside the Top 10 in the US and the UK ( #11)

A classic live LP, it includes many works from “A Momentary Lapse of Reason” as well as tracks from older Pink Floyd albums.

17/11/2024

On this day in 1981, Tommy Tutone released the single “8675309/Jenny.”

The classic 80s rock track sparked hundreds of thousands of phone calls to 8675309 numbers all around the USA with people asking for Jenny.

Most had to have the number disconnected, and many wanted to “find this Tommy Tutone and wring his neck” (as one person put it)…

In 1982, Southwest Junior High School who had the number received up to two hundred calls daily asking for Jenny.

And throughout the four decades since, this phenomenon has continued.
In 2013 for example, the number was still ringing up fifty crank calls per day for a Florida real estate business…

So who was “Jenny”?
And was her number on the wall?

Co-songwriter Alex Call explained his version of the song's real origins:

“Despite all the mythology to the contrary, I actually just came up with the 'Jenny,' and the telephone number and the music and all that just sitting in my backyard.

There was no Jenny.

I don't know where the number came from, I was just trying to write a 4-chord Rock song and it just kind of came out.

I had the guitar lick, I had the name and number, but I didn't know what the song was about.

This buddy of mine, Jim Keller, who's the co-writer, was the lead guitar player in Tommy Tutone.
He stopped by that afternoon and he said, 'Al, it's a girl's number on a bathroom wall,' and we had a good laugh.
I said, 'That's exactly right, that's exactly what it is.'

I had the thing recorded. I had the name and number, and they were in the same spots, 'Jenny... 867-5309.' I had all that going, but I had a blind spot in the creative process, I didn't realize it would be a girl's number on a bathroom wall!
When Jim showed up, we wrote the verses in 15 or 20 minutes, they were just obvious.

Tommy Tutone's been using the story for years that there was a Jenny…….and so forth. It makes a better story but it's not true.

It was just a fun thing, we never thought it would get cut.
In fact, even after Tommy Tutone made the record and '867-5309' got on the air, it really didn't have a lot of promotion to begin with, but it was one of those songs that got a lot of requests and stayed on the charts.
It was on the charts for 40 weeks.

I've met a few Jennys who've said, "Oh, you're the guy who ruined my high school years." But for the most part, Jennys are happy to have the song.”