Professor of Rock

Let's run it back with this classic! Legendary producer Narada Michael Walden tells us two stories that will make you laugh with joy! One of the most successful producers ever tells us how he was in the middle of working with Aretha Franklin when a 19 year old rookie name Whitney Houston walked in with a powerhouse confidence he’d never seen and recorded the #1 80s smash How Will I Know in 1 take...

Okay, okay. I’ve been meaning to do this episode for years. And well, I just can’t put it off any longer. Today, I’m counting down my Top 10 picks for the dumbest and cheesiest celebrity music projects that no one asked for… Songs and albums spearheaded by actors and famous personalities who just had to have their cake and eat it too. The good news is that most of these celebrities had a day job t...

A great cover song takes a track you thought you knew, turns it inside out, and makes you forget it ever belonged to anyone else. Today we're counting down the Top 10 greatest covers ever recorded and telling the jaw-dropping stories behind them… including one about Joe Cocker, who walked out onto the biggest stage in rock history, launched into a version of a borrowed Beatles song so primal and t...

Go to https://buyraycon.com/professorofrockBC to get 30% off. Thanks to Raycon for sponsoring! We need this show right now. I have always believed that music is the universal language, it is the thread that weaves our entire civilization together. Songs serve as hallmarks of our history and as the checkpoints of our lives. Think about it. Songs are like time machines that transport us back to the...

Go to https://www.kachava.com/ and use code POR for 15% off your first order. Coming up… It’s time to rewrite history and give the greatest songs of 1973 their real due. These Top 10 hits missed the #1 spot on the charts, but as you’ll see, they were all actually better than the songs that did hit #1. Let’s put it right. So many classics here. Including the song that a legendary singer wrote as a...

Watch at your own peril….this one is spooky and creepy…Rock has always flirted with the dark side — but some stories go too far beyond the music. Today we're pulling back the curtain on the most harrowing true crime stories the rock world has ever produced. It’s our latest countdown of Rock True Crime Stories… “Halloween Edition.” We’ve got the twisted story of rising star Bobby Fuller on the verg...

It’s been a horrible year in terms of losing legends in music, and sadly we just lost another one. The compelling singer who gifted us with several 80s classics from our youth. Pete Byrne, the singer from the new wave band Naked Eyes. Pete passed away from a stroke brought on by a brief illness. Pete was a fantastic guy who ruled the charts with the one-two punch of Always Something There to Remin...

Let's take it back! Two of most cerebral rockers and known perfectionists Donald Fagen and Walter Becker AKA Steely Dan, just knew they had a song for their debut album with Hit potential. It was called Reeling in the Years and was a bitter retort against Donald’s girlfriend who had ripped his heart out so he wrote a “get even” song that was missing one little thing... it lacked vibrancy and passi...

Coming up… In 1986, these songs didn’t crack the Top 10; some may have thought they were also rans, but over time, they became bigger than songs that did, and some even bigger than the songs that made it to #1, including David Lee Roth, one of the most dynamic frontmen of the Rock Era, released a song about an American symbol of liberty, but there is a bizarre connection with a book that is titled...

I KNOW YOU’RE GOING TO LOVE THIS EPISODE. If you don’t, I’ll eat my Hat live on camera. So everyone has that “one” playlist. You know the one with all the cheesy songs you’re embarrassed to admit you love. The ones you sing to the top of your lungs when no one is looking. Well, today, we’re counting down my picks for the Top 8 feel-good songs that are deemed uncool… but that we secretly love and p...

The 1950s gave us the birth of rock and roll — and with it a collection of song stories so bizarre and completely unhinged that they sound made up. Behind the poodle skirts and the sock hops was a decade of scandals, accidents, and twists that will shock you. Today we're counting down the Weirdest and Wickedest songs the 50s ever produced. First… the sweet, childlike duet Tonight You Belong to Me...

Sadly, we lost a great artist recently. Duncan Sheik, the singer-songwriter who wrote one of the best songs of the late 90s and, statistically, the biggest one-hit wonder ever. Barely Breathing spent an all-time record 55 consecutive weeks on the Hot 100, and nobody has come close since. The song was written about a manipulative girlfriend, and Duncan captured his pain perfectly. It’s really one o...

Coming up, a grand year in music where once again a bunch of legendary Top 10 hits that missed the #1 spot on the charts were actually better than the songs that did. Today we’re rewriting history by putting them where they belong… at #1. We’ll spotlight a classic from an Elton John who got so upset about the cadence a song was written in that he recorded it with an EXAGGERATED AMERICAN ACCENT, an...

Some of the best songs ever recorded were never released as singles. But today, they have become bigger than a lot of these legendary bands’ biggest hits. Today we're counting down the most beloved album cuts that became the band’s signature tracks, and for starters, we have an acoustic track that’s become the most-streamed song in the Beatles catalog… despite being purposely passed over back in t...

You won’t believe this epsidoes. A Rock concert that was so loud and unruly it caused an earthquake from the Foo Fighters? An unfinished 80s instrumental song that sold half a billion copies from an imaginary band who scammed half the world, and a an icon that had a hit song for 7 straight decades Coming up, it’s a countdown that centers on Guinness World Records but for music. And for this episod...

Let's take it back with this classic! The Grateful Dead may have the most passionate & loyal following of the Rock Era. The Dead were jamming their way to the highest echelons of live music when In 1986, this legendary band’s front man Jerry Garcia nearly died, and the future of the group was in serious jeopardy. Jerry recovered, and the Grateful Dead made a miraculous comeback with their firs...

You’re gonna love today's episode. Today We’re taking a trip back to the 80s for more of the best that television has to offer. It’s our latest edition of 80s TV Theme Songs. On previous shows have covered primetime juggernauts like Cheers, Family Ties, Knight Rider, The A-Team, and a bunch of others. That episode had some great stories, like how The A-Team ripped off Cream’s epic rock classic Sun...

Coming up, we’ve got a brand new show, and I’m pumped for it. We’re telling the tale of songs that, in their time, were considered also-rans... they didn’t crack the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, but, over time, became bigger than songs that did, and even bigger than the songs that made it to #1. We’ll share how Eddie Money, one of the most recognizable vocalists of the Rock Era, was threatened...

I’ve got a great one today. We’re counting down the Catchiest songs of a legendary decade. These songs were all hits, but they are the kinds of hits that you’re pumped when they get stuck in your head… they’re that good. The 60s produced some of the most irresistible, perfectly constructed rock songs ever recorded, and they have even better stories. One of these classics went to the top of the cha...

Let's run it back to 2022! How Led Zeppelin created their biggest hit song, their only top 10, the provocative 70s smash Whole Lotta Love through rough waters including conservative radio programmers and later a lawsuit. Jimmy Page’s Riff has been called the best ever, Robert Plant’s evocative vocal and the incredible rhythm section of John Paul Jones and John Bonham, this song is a bonafide rock...

Today we’re going back to the strange year that separated two decades… where music really had no identity… Hair Metal was waning, and Grunge was still undiscovered, but today we entering an alternate universe where music history has been changed. As we count down the 10 songs that made the top ten but missed #1 but today they get their due… including Depeche Mode's Enjoy the Silence that a band me...

Coming up, we haven't done one of these in a long time, but it's a special edition of our popular show Taboo Songs. But this time we're gonna give you the 15 songs from the 80s that shook the world with their sheer explicitness. In 1985, Tipper Gore, wife of Al Gore, and several other politicians' wives had a little too much time not here hands and decided to create a committee to save us from off...

Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/POR and use code POR and get $150 if you win your first $5 lineup! You’ve heard the Doublecross stories of rock and roll in the past, like the evil manager who stole everything from the band Badfinger, leaving them penniless, and led to two of the members taking their own lives, and how David Bowie fired his whole band mid-concert. Well, I’ve got 5 more bac...

In 1991, Metallica changed the world forever as they went global with the Black Album including their menacing song: Enter Sandman, the song should’ve been a #1 hit, it’s certainly outlasted the songs form the week it peaked on the charts. up next We celebrate the genius of Enter Sandman and the Black album. The song was written by Metallica’s big three. James Hetfield, Kirk Hammet and Lars Ulrich...

It’s time to jump in the Time Machine and change Music History with the songs that deserved to be #1 in an amazing year from the 80s. Today we have some great songs, including the shy, unknown singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman, who was asked to sub in for a legend who was having technical difficulties… The only problem was it was at a sold-out Wembley Stadium with tens of millions watching via satel...