Remember the music? The clothes? The decade! New shows air every Friday at 6pm ET on WRML 107.9 FM!
Good afternoon everyone! Unfortunately due to an unforeseen circumstance, I will not be able to do tonight’s show as originally planned. I will however return next week to do the final episode of the year. I hope everyone has a great week, and I will hear you all next Friday!
Any fans of “Fallout” in Countdownland? Which version would you want to play when “The End of the World” comes? The original version by Skeeter Davis, or the updated version by the UK band Brilliant?
It’s always a good time for a Celebration! Who sang it better? Kool and the Gang or Kylie Minogue?
So I had recently got introduced to the most unique cover of “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” by Roger! So many covers of this classic were recorded. Who was better, Roger or Gladys?
One of the most epic live performances of 2023 was probably Dolly Parton at the halftime show! (But did she sing “Downtown” better than Petula Clark?)
Continuing with our comparisons from last week, who sang “We Didn’t Start the Fire” better? Billy Joel or Fall Out Boy?
On last nights “Who Sang it Better” special, one comparison was the classic song “Superstar”. Who sang it better? The Carpenters or Luther Vandross?
This weeks Spotify playlist has been updated! Thanks to everyone who was able to listen to the show this evening!
Hello everyone! Hope everyone had a great holiday last weekend. Tonight, a fresh episode of The Vinyl Countdown comes to WRML, and this week it’s the eighth edition of our “Who Sang It Better” special! Tonight we will be playing each song back to back twice, by two different artists or groups, and you can decide which version is better! We will be going back in time a ways at times, and also be looking at some songs that are currently on the charts. I haven’t done one of these specials since the summer of 2022 so I am looking forward to bringing a new episode to the airwaves! The fun starts at 6pm tonight on WRML 107.9 FM, or via TuneIn. Hope to hear you there!
Good morning everyone! Hope everyone had a great holiday yesterday. This is a reminder that there will be no episode of the program tonight because of the holiday weekend. I’ll be back on the air one week from tonight. If you are partaking in Black Friday shopping today, be careful and be civil! More fun 80s stuff to come!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Did you know that it was on this date in 1985, that the very first “Calvin and Hobbes” comic strip was published? C&H is my all time favorite strip. Got introduced to it in the late 80s in elementary school and have been a fan ever since. Let’s go exploring! For anyone going out to celebrate the holiday today, please be take care of yourself. Don’t go too crazy with the food, and don’t drink or smoke cannabis (where legal) and drive. Me and my fellow healthcare employees thank you in advance. Have a great holiday!
On our episode last week, the TV on the Radio segment featured selections from the eighties versions of “Pyramid”!
How about something lighter tonight! One of my new audio artifacts last week was this rarity from a group known as Twinset and the Pearl! Their song “While the Going’s Good” was only released in the UK and had zero impact here in the states.
(Videos in comments.) Typically around here, we try to focus a lot on positive 80s memories. But as much as we want to believe that the 80s was all about awesome music, excellent television, great video games and just all around tubular living, we can’t forget about the seriousness that was the Cold War. In the eighties, the threat of a nuclear exchange between the United States and the former Soviet Union was still very real and as scary as ever. It was 40 years ago tonight, on November 20, 1983, that ABC aired a television film called “The Day After”, which showcased what life would be like after a nuclear attack. The film was very intense and graphic for television at the time, so much so that ABC insisted that children don’t watch it unless they were mature enough to have a conversation about it afterwards. ABC also presented a panel show following the original broadcast, sharing various viewpoints on the topic. Some ABC affiliates even had special telephone hotlines installed in the event people had questions or expressions to make after the film was over. The presentation was a success with a 46 rating and a 62% share of the viewing audience during the initial broadcast. It also set a record at the time as the highest rated made for TV film in history. “The Day After” would also win 2 Emmy Awards for visual effects and sound editing. For those that have never seen it, it is just as important to give it a watch today as ever. If you have seen it and found it to be either unrealistic or unbelievable (which there are some people that have that feeling, I’m sure), I’d like to recommend the UK television film “Threads” which was made the following year. Did you watch this movie during its premiere broadcast?
Rosalynn Carter, wife of President Jimmy Carter, has passed away at age 96. She was the final surviving First Lady of the eighties, serving between 1977 and 1981.
Our most recently featured live performance was brand new to the show, with a live rendition of “Best That You Can Do (Arthur’s Theme)” on British Television. Not only featuring signer Christopher Cross, but Arthur himself, Dudley Moore, on piano!
The Billboard Hot 100 charts this week in 1981 marks the most successful song of the decade making an 11 notch leap into the top ten, when Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical” went to number 3. It would top the charts for 10 consecutive weeks beginning the following week.
Thanks to everyone that tuned into the program tonight! Our Spotify playlist has been updated, so check it out!
Don’t forget! A new episode of the program airs in just about 2 hours! Hope to hear you there!
One of the genuine instrumentals that I played on last weeks show was the opening and closing themes to the film Mr. Mom. This was one of those movies that holds a special place in my heart and features many one liners that my family constantly used when teasing each other. Do you have a movie like that?
One of our audio artifact rewinds of the week comes to us from the amazing Laura Branigan! On her Hold Me record, her song Sanctuary had no Billboard impact, but the song had a big impact on me! The lyrical version is excellent, and the instrumental version with the amazing key changes are just a pleasure to listen to. (If you’re not following Laura’s official legacy account, check it out for excellent content!)
Another instrumental that I shared last week on our all instrumental edition was “Mr. Roboto” by Styx, which had such a great sounding background that I had to share it!
One of our new audio artifacts this week was this interesting futuristic sounding track by British composer Keith Mansfield. Best known in the states for his tunes “Our Next Attraction” in “Kill Bill” and “Death Proof”, he is well known in the UK for television indents and jingles. “Cyclotron”, released in 1981, is best known in the US for being used during the countdown sequences of the short lived “Tele1st” channel in Chicago. This song played while descrambling signals were sent to a converter box before each program to make sure the person wanting to watch the programming was an actual subscriber. The channel only lasted a few months in 1984, only had a few thousand subscribers at its peak, and if it wasn’t for the Oddity Archive channel, the song may have been lost to time. (Second video in the comments shows the song in use during the said Tele1st countdown, alongside of examples of scrambled and descrambled broadcasts.)
Another instrumental version that was featured on our most recent program was the Cyndi Lauper classic “She Bop”. The instrumental was typically found on the B-Side of the 12” single this time, but was also on the top side of the 45 internationally.
Thanks to everyone that was able to check out the all instrumental episode last night! This week on social media I’ll be highlighting some of the great music that you sometimes can’t appreciate! We start with “I’m Free (Heaven Helps The Man)” by Kenny Loggins from the soundtrack of “Footloose”.
Good evening everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed tonight’s “all instrumentals” program. A little later than typical, but tonight’s Spotify playlist has been updated! Take a listen (to the traditional versions, anyway)!
Good morning everybody! A reminder that a brand new episode of the program airs tonight, and this evening is a special! Tonight, I will be offering to the (turn)table a variety of instrumentals! All of this evenings songs are either instrumental by default, or are instrumental versions of some of your favorite 80s songs! They come from a variety of sources and methods (no karaoke renditions for obvious reasons), and is a way of enjoying the actual music of the songs for a change of pace! The program starts at 6pm on WRML, and I hope you can all give it a listen!
The three songs that topped the Billboard Hot 100 charts 35 years ago today came from Phil Collins, The Escape Club and The Beach Boys! Which of these three is your favorite?
Just a reminder than for people that live in an area where Daylight Saving Time is acknowledged, that the clocks go BACKWARD one hour tonight before going to bed, as Standard Time will start tomorrow.
Thanks so much to everyone that tuned in tonight! The weekly Spotify playlist has been updated, and only two songs are missing this time! Check it out…
Good afternoon everyone! Major apologies for the lack of updates this past week. I hope everyone is doing well, and wanted to remind everyone that a new episode of the show airs tonight at its normal time! Hope you’ll be able to tune in.
Good morning everyone! Thanks to everyone out there that checked out Halloween Havoc: Part VII last night! It was a fun show even if modern technology wanted to play games. (Perfect for a Halloween show wasn’t it?) Even though the episode was longer, there’s a LOT of songs that aren’t on the Spotify playlist this week. (That’s what happens when you play lots of unique tracks in a single show!) The playlist has been updated, so give it a listen!
The Vinyl Countdown is sad to report the death of actor Richard Moll, who has passed away at age 80. In the eighties, he was best known for his role as Bull Shannon on the original “Night Court” series. He also voiced Harvey Dent/Two-Face in “Batman: The Animated Series” and “The New Batman Adventures”. Next weeks episode of the show will replay the “Night Court” television segment in his memory.
Good morning everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates this week, been dealing with some things behind the scenes, including prepping for tonight’s EXTENDED episode of the show! Tonight is our yearly Halloween Havoc program, and tonight, it’s a FOUR hour affair starting an hour EARLY! Tonight’s episode starts at 5pm and will last straight up until 9pm as normal. What’s planned? Well, for about the first 90 minutes, we have typical 80s Halloween favorites, plus “traditional” song types that come from horror soundtracks. After that, a television on the radio segment, and for more than the final two hours, we have some great horror movie instrumentals, everything from movie themes to your favorite stinger music when your villains of choice did what they did best. (Not to mention, TWELVE brand new tracks to play this time around, plus 80s Halloween PSAs, some new to the show memories, and of course, announcements of this years Trick or Treat times for the area!) The fun starts AN HOUR EARLY, beginning at 5pm, so please stay tuned! (Notice: Tonight’s episode is planned for mature audiences.)
For a full week in 1987, the now late Suzanne Somers hosted The Late Show on Fox. She sang frequently to begin the show, and on this occasion she sang a cover of The Pointer Sisters classic “I’m So Excited”.
40 years ago this week, the two songs that were at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, Total Eclipse of the Heart and Making Love Out of Nothing at All, were both written by Jim Steinman. The number 3 song, Islands In the Stream, was written by The Brothers Gibb, and is in the way to taking over the top spot.
Remember watching Back to the Future II when it first came out, and thinking how awesome it would be to witness what 2015 would be like? Time flies when you’re having fun, doesn’t it? I know there’s a lot of theaters playing BTTF on the big screen today. Are you going??
I hope every has been enjoying the show! Tonight’s Spotify playlist has been updated, and there’s a few missing, sadly. Check it out!
It’s Friday! At least for this season, that means tonight marks a fresh episode of The Vinyl Countdown on WRML! This week we are going traditional, with a standard non-special edition of the show. Tonight, our top 3 classic countdown will highlight 1983. We will have two brand new audio artifacts this week, with one deep cut and one unreleased demo, and while we do have a rerun TV on the radio segment this week (for valid reasons), we have a fresh live performance scheduled for the end of the show. One of these features will honor Suzanne Somers, can you guess which one? You might be right, you might be wrong! The show starts tonight at 6pm on WRML 107.9 FM, or online via the free TuneIn radio app.
So here’s an artifact you’ve never heard! Yeah, Eddie Murphy had a hit with Party All the Time. But how about his cover of the Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer classic Enough is Enough? (Done in his SNL personas, no less!)
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One of the genuine instrumentals that I played on last weeks show was the opening and closing themes to the film Mr. Mom. This was one of those movies that holds a special place in my heart and features many one liners that my family constantly used when teasing each other. Do you have a movie like that?
One of our audio artifact rewinds of the week comes to us from the amazing Laura Branigan! On her Hold Me record, her song Sanctuary had no Billboard impact, but the song had a big impact on me! The lyrical version is excellent, and the instrumental version with the amazing key changes are just a pleasure to listen to. (If you’re not following Laura’s official legacy account, check it out for excellent content!)
Another instrumental that I shared last week on our all instrumental edition was “Mr. Roboto” by Styx, which had such a great sounding background that I had to share it!
One of our new audio artifacts this week was this interesting futuristic sounding track by British composer Keith Mansfield. Best known in the states for his tunes “Our Next Attraction” in “Kill Bill” and “Death Proof”, he is well known in the UK for television indents and jingles. “Cyclotron”, released in 1981, is best known in the US for being used during the countdown sequences of the short lived “Tele1st” channel in Chicago. This song played while descrambling signals were sent to a converter box before each program to make sure the person wanting to watch the programming was an actual subscriber. The channel only lasted a few months in 1984, only had a few thousand subscribers at its peak, and if it wasn’t for the Oddity Archive channel, the song may have been lost to time. (Second video in the comments shows the song in use during the said Tele1st countdown, alongside of examples of scrambled and descrambled broadcasts.)
Another instrumental version that was featured on our most recent program was the Cyndi Lauper classic “She Bop”. The instrumental was typically found on the B-Side of the 12” single this time, but was also on the top side of the 45 internationally.
Thanks to everyone that was able to check out the all instrumental episode last night! This week on social media I’ll be highlighting some of the great music that you sometimes can’t appreciate! We start with “I’m Free (Heaven Helps The Man)” by Kenny Loggins from the soundtrack of “Footloose”.
Good morning everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates this week, been dealing with some things behind the scenes, including prepping for tonight’s EXTENDED episode of the show! Tonight is our yearly Halloween Havoc program, and tonight, it’s a FOUR hour affair starting an hour EARLY! Tonight’s episode starts at 5pm and will last straight up until 9pm as normal. What’s planned? Well, for about the first 90 minutes, we have typical 80s Halloween favorites, plus “traditional” song types that come from horror soundtracks. After that, a television on the radio segment, and for more than the final two hours, we have some great horror movie instrumentals, everything from movie themes to your favorite stinger music when your villains of choice did what they did best. (Not to mention, TWELVE brand new tracks to play this time around, plus 80s Halloween PSAs, some new to the show memories, and of course, announcements of this years Trick or Treat times for the area!) The fun starts AN HOUR EARLY, beginning at 5pm, so please stay tuned! (Notice: Tonight’s episode is planned for mature audiences.)
Another artifact that I highlighted last Friday night was Irene Cara’s cover of The Four Tops classic “Reach Out I’ll Be There”!
Sometimes you have to play something on the air that’s a little off the rails. Like how about this banger from Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem? This came to us from The Muppets Take Manhattan!
Most people associate “From a Distance” with Bette Midler. But many people forget that it was originally recorded by Nanci Griffith! This comes to us from a performance from a David Letterman offering.
Another one of my rarities that I played last Friday was from Bon Jovi’s epic “Slippery When Wet” record called “Raise Your Hands”. The song was also featured in the Mel Brooks classic movie “Spaceballs”, and I often wonder why this wasn’t a hit.
This week we featured the short lived TV sitcom “The Royal Family”, starring three late legends: Redd Foxx, Della Reese and Naya Rivera.
Who out there remembers the Matchbox Car Wash? This as even had Seth Green and Kevin Connolly in it! Looking back, these cars were made of metal back then. Water, metal and kids shouldn’t mix like that. LOL
So I missed doing my Christmas show this year, again. 😭😭 That means I didn’t get to play my Griswold rant bumper this year either. Enjoy!
You gotta take lots of pictures during the holidays! In 1982 Kodak developed a new film style called the Disc, which used a round cartridge instead of a spool of film. While the format was unsuccessful and discontinued in the late 80s, the film was still produced until Y2K!
When it comes to bikes and trains and video games, there were Toys R Us kids, and those whose frowns got turned upside down at Lionel Kiddie City! I remember this commercial fondly, as it aired a lot locally during cartoons on Saturdays. How many of the video game sounds can you identify? (And how did that woman do that last part with a straight face? That had to take a few takes… LOL)
Tonight’s the night! We are back on the air this evening starting at 6pm on WRML!
Here’s a weird one! Remember “TV PI###”? (I know it sounds erotic…) But this was an interactive video game show for kids that aired during the cartoon breaks on Channel 11! It used a Channel F console from the 70s. Apparently this was a national show and each local area could customize it?
Are you a fan of “Press Your Luck”? (I know I’ve been enjoying the recent reboot!) On this episode of the original classic series, the game was down to the wire, literally, with there only being a $3 difference between the winner and second place! The looks on the contestants faces totally fits the situation!
On my last program a few weeks ago, one of the songs I featured was “I Wish I Was Eighteen Again” by actor George Burns. The song hit number 49 in 1980, and having been born in 1896, Burns was one of the oldest singers on the Hot 100, being 84 years old at the time! The song could not be shared on Spotify, so I present to you this snippet.
Good morning fellow 80s fanatics! Just a reminder that due to the holiday, I am unable to bring a new show to the air tonight. Please feel free to listen to the playlist from the last show in the meantime. I will be back one week from tonight with a fresh program. Have a great week everyone!
This week, our television on the radio segment showcased the short lived “Amanda’s”, which aired in 1983. The show, an American adaptation of “Fawlty Towers”, starred Beatrice Arthur in a role between “Maude” and “The Golden Girls”.
This time around, our fresh TV on the Radio segment showcased Mr. Wizard’s World, which aired on Nickelodeon between 1983-1990, with reruns lasting until 2000!
One of our audio artifacts this week was this gem from of all places, Apple Computer! In 1984, the company had sales presentations to resellers to get them hyped for the (then) new Macintosh platform. To get everyone pumped up they offered a parody of Irene Cara’s “Flashdance (What A Feeling)” called “We Are Apple (Leading The Way). It was sung by internal Apple employee Lorraine Wilke.
We are sad to report the death of actor and comedian Gilbert Gottfried, who has passed away at age 67. Here we share a commercial he did for Oh Henry candy bars back in 1987.
Since we talked about a video game company making computers yesterday, let’s talk about video games today! In the modern era we have services like PlayStation Network, Xbox Live and Nintendo eShop to purchase games online. But downloadable games are nothing new! In the early 1980s a service called PlayCable allowed you to download and play Intellivision games with a special cartridge, and service from your local cable company. Introduced in 1980 and discontinued in 1984, the service was offered to 650,000 subscribers, in which only 3% (about 19,500 people) took advantage of it. Here, we see one of the commercials for the service featuring baseball legend Mickey Mantle.
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