Professor of Rock

Coming up, a candidate for the most famous #2 hit of all-time and the song that was almost lost in the vaults: Start Me Up… It was written by the Rolling Stones in the 70s. In fact, the Stones did about 70 takes of Start Me Up and most of them were a very sad attempt at creating a reggae song. They crashed and burned, but on one of the takes, they did a straight-ahead rock version. Well, in the 80...

Coming up, we’re exploring one of the most polarizing yet powerful forces in rock history—the power ballad. Loved by fans, loathed by many artists, and even dismissed by record labels who feared it would drive listeners away. Yet, this so-called guilty pleasure became a defining sound of generations… one of these hit songs by the Scorpions was so powerful it started a baby boom in one part of...

The year we are traveling back to today was a year of seismic pop culture shifts—Jimmy Carter was in the Oval Office, Star Wars took over theaters, and Saturday Night Fever lit up the dance floor. New York City went dark in a massive blackout, but the music scene was burning bright. One of the biggest rock songs of the year by Ram Jam came from the 1800s. Another by Heart came when a sleazy r...

Today’s legend Warren Zevon was told by one of the founding fathers of rock, that he should write a novelty song and not just any novelty song. He reasoned it could be about an old horror movie he had just watched on TV the night before. So Warren followed his advice and wrote Werewolves of London… a silly song he called a piece of crap. And even though Warren would become a legend, this novelty s...

Today’s featured foursome The Monkees was cast as a fictional TV band, hired to sing and paid not to play. They were expected to follow the script, but their career would be anything but scripted. It’s the unlikely saga of four actors turned rock stars who then fought to control their musical destiny. Along the way, they scored some of the most iconic hits of the 1960s (outselling the Beatles on a...

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Back when the Grammys actually meant something in the 80s, no single artist had swept the big four awards… Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Best New Artists… Until Christopher Cross… The most unlikely star of that year, he was facing some fierce competition: Pink Floyd, Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel, Lionel Richie, and Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees. But his song Sailing was so...

Coming up, we’re counting down the Top 10 television theme songs from the 80s... Songs that were at the top of their game back in the day, and still hit you in the gut with a potent punch of nostalgia whenever you hear them. Some of these you’ll recognize from the radio like the theme from The Greatest American Hero (Believe It or Not) because they became major hit singles. Others like As Long As...

Today we go back to a strange year in music that was equal parts wild & unpredictable: 1989. A true transitional year that was stuck between the past and the future and it wasn’t really sure of its identity... where rock, pop, and R&B collided in the most unforgettable way. Where one metal band had such an epic drum sound that an elder statesman of 60s rock was a surprise fan…Wait till you...

Coming up next, an interview with one of rock’s greatest storytellers… Randy Bachman. Randy has accomplished the rare feat of having a number-one hit with two different bands: the Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive. In fact, he got very sick and needed to take some time off and his first band moved on without him. So he eventually formed another BTO and ended up outselling them... but today’s...

In this episode, we’re gonna turn up the heat and count down the Top 5 Carnal Songs of all time. These are tracks that pushed boundaries, raised eyebrows, made people blush, and sent the morality police into a frenzy. These songs weren’t just hits; they were bold, seductive, and unapologetically raw. A few were straight-up banned like the biggest hit ever from the golden gods of rock, Whole Lotta...

Coming up an interview with Steven Page a former member of Barenaked Ladies one of the most interesting bands of the last 35 years. He was a co-writer and co-vocalist on many of this iconic band's biggest this. Including a poignant song that he wrote about his hero, Brian Wilson a legendary figure of rock history… Then amazingly, years after he released the song Brian Wilson invited him to his con...

Coming up, John Mellencamp, a man who had to change his stage name so many times... to this day some are confused about what to call him and it all started with his label. We’ve talked about some really boneheaded decisions that the execs, and the suits have made in the history of rock... but this may be the winner. Even though he was a midwestern rocker with a chip on his shoulder, his label want...

Back in the day if your song wasn’t under 4 minutes, it wouldn’t get played. In fact, if it was over 3 and half minutes it was a gamble. coming up next we are telling the stories of 5 songs that defied the odds and at over 7 minutes long made it to the Top 40. in fact a few of them became the biggest hits of the year they were released in. One by the Moody Blues may have invented prog rock and it...

Coming up, we travel back to 1979, a year packed with iconic moments in music! From a Disco song that Blondie wrote as a joke that pissed off their fans when it went to #1, to a song by Journey that Steve Perry wrote right after he watched his girlfriend cheating right in front of him, to the Knack, a rookie rock band that Killed Disco Dead when the biggest hit of the year but fell flat on their f...

Coming up next. An insane 80s rock story about everything but the kitchen sink. It is the story of Here I Go Again, a song that today’s sensational rock singer Devid Coverdale felt would be a hit when his band put it out in 1982. Instead, it became the spark that started a chain of events that nearly killed his career and that of his band. The song failed, but David went back to the drawing board...

Some songs were always destined to make millions, usually through chart dominance and endless airplay. But sometimes, the biggest paydays come from the most unexpected places. Some songs have made their creators absolute fortunes in ways no one saw coming or could ever predict, including the artists themselves. Today we’re counting down five songs no one expected to win the lottery… including the...

Up next, the hippie band Jefferson Airplane revolutionized 60s rock with a rebellious psychedelic spirit, but after a split, they changed when the decade ended. Transforming into a classic rock 70s outfit named Jefferson Starship with a more accessible sound starting with the hit song JANE. sung by newcomer Mickey Thomas. who share this insight along with band member David Frieberg who co-wrote th...

Coming up next, an interview with an all-time legend who had 36 hits with his group and his solo career but only one of those songs hit #1 and it’s insane how it happened. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles with the Tears of a Clown! The eventual #1 hit was originally a forgotten album on an album. Nobody thought it was anything special… In fac,t Smoke Robinson and the Miracles released 7 albums ove...

Standing at the crossroads of her career, Stevie Nicks decided to walk away from one of the biggest bands on the planet which had just had 2 massive albums... to go solo. But it turned out to be an uphill battle. First of all, two tragedies would shake her to her very core. Stevie would try and ease into her solo career by releasing two duets with legendary rockers Tom Petty and Don Henley. But th...

A cautionary tale is more than just a story—it’s a warning wrapped in a lesson. Today's songs spotlight the consequences of risky choices, showing exactly what can go wrong when someone ignores the red flags, turning life’s hard lessons into unforgettable lyrics and melodies that serve as a brutal wake-up call. Up next, Harry Chapin's Cats in the Cradle, a song that is the measuring stick for ever...

I gotta say this is one for the record books… One of the greatest collections of songs we’ve ever had on this show. Coming up I’m counting down the top 10 songs of 1969, a year so full of classics I could’ve done 5 different top 10s… Including a song that has become such a cultural singalong that we the fans have created our own lyrics to the chorus! Then another one that was the #1 song of the ye...

Coming up next it’s one of the biggest songs in rock history: Hit Me With You Best Shot. Everybody knows it. It’s played at stadiums and arenas the world over…from pro sports to colleges to high schools… And it would become Pat Benatar's signature song… but recently the song has been banned… banned by the rocker that made it famous. She has said she’ll never play it again. What? Well, this story w...

Coming up, we’re counting down the five best debut albums of the 70s. These are records that reshaped the sound of that glorious decade. Each one is a game-changer and an instant classic. One turned Lynyrd Skynyrd, a group of barroom brawlers into the kings of Southern swagger. Another by Black Sabbath introduced the world to a terrifying new sound, laying the foundation for the genre that million...

I’m going to do something a little different today. No teaser, no regular intro just a brief explanation of a very special episode of Professor of Rock… Do you remember back in the 80s they invented that term…. A very Special episode… It was kind of an advertising term that was used in promos that referred to an episode of a sitcom or drama series that deals with a difficult or controversial issue...