Professor of Rock

Today we’re giving you a front-row seat for a behind-the-scenes look at Aerosmith, one of the most chaotic, bad-boy rock bands ever. This five-piece knew how to grab headlines for all the wrong reasons. I mean the evolution of this band’s career was a wild ride fueled by drug abuse, in-fighting, and even a toxic disdain for the lead guitarist Joe Perry’s girlfriend… In fact, one of today’s songs S...

Coming up, an interview with Carlos Santana, a musical genius, a guru of the highest order, and a saint. You have to see this interview. So try to follow this if you can. Santana's biggest song of the 70s, Balck Magic Woman, was a rock classic that many people have no clue is a cover from a band that started as a blues band... but would end as one of the biggest rock bands ever when it became a co...

You know, the best songs often come from a whirlwind of emotions—whether it's fiction, non-fiction, or somewhere in between. The heart and soul behind the lyrics are what makes them so compelling. In this episode, we're turning the spotlight on songs that were lit by frustration, anger, and even heartbreak. From Paul McCartney answering a critic who claimed a legend wrote silly songs to Carly Simo...

Coming up next, it's a story that you have to hear to believe. Today’s band The 5th Dimension was coming off a huge song that took ‘em to the top of the charts and won them multiple Grammies. But they needed a follow-up song to keep the momentum going. And they found it in the most peculiar place. The band’s singer left his wallet in the backseat of a taxi one night and he knew he’d never see it a...

Today’s bass line broke 70s radio! It was from the song was Green Eyed Lady by the rookie band Sugarloaf, and it flew out of the gates with mysterious lyrics about a mysterious woman that took them to the top of the charts. But then just as quickly the band fell apart…Then Sugarloaf lost their record deal, not once but two times… desperate to overcome the one-hit wonder label the band re-formed an...

Coming up…. Tom Jones, one of the greatest singers of all time, and the story of two of his classic songs that we all know by heart: It's Not Unusual and What's New Pussycat? The first one was recorded by him before anyone knew who he was… He sang it as a demo to show an icon of the time how the song should sound. When this icon heard the demo, she knew it would be a hit but his vocal was so perfe...

Billboard Magazine called 1984 as the ‘greatest year ever in pop music.’ I don’t often agree with the music press, but I have to say that I concur with that evaluation. Some of the best singles and albums were released in ’84, including many of my all-time favorites. To celebrate that glorious, impactful year in music, we’re counting down the Ten Best Songs of 1984. Including Night Ranger's Sister...

Today’s band AC/DC was blowing up radio and arena when their frontman Bon Scott passed away in a most horrible fashion. The band was devastated and had no idea what was next. Little did they know that in the form of a large bell, a supernatural visit from their dead singer, and a new singer who said he could write lyrics but then battled writer's block for months this band would create the biggest...

Coming up, back by popular demand: we’ve already done five. And now we’re doing five more. It’s another countdown of the most controversial songs from the Rock Era. Last time we covered taboo tracks by Heart, the Stones, and even the Beastie Boys. This time, we’ve got five more fiery offerings that rustled up cancel culture, provoked radio censors, and got blacklisted from the airwaves. For Franki...

Johnny Mathis, the 3rd Biggest Selling Solo Artist in History tells the story of both his Christmas album and his #1 hit Chances Are. Johnny Mathis tells how he recorded this all-time standard of the great american songbook in an exclusive interview with the Professor of Rock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and C...

Coming up, Wally Palmer and Mike Skill of the famous 80s rock band The Romantics set the record straight on a true mystery… First of all, they had two huge hits that everyone knows. Including one of the most recognizable riffs ever on What I Like About You. But surprisingly the song was never actually a hit! And it was a song where the drummer stepped in to sing instead of the lead singer. It got...

Coming up next, one of the greatest living guitarists Journey's Neal Schon tells the story of two of the 80s most famous solos: One he played the hell out of, but it was cut from the song, Who's Crying Now, when it was climbing the charts to the top 5. But angry fans called radio stations and complained so they put it back in. And another song Faithfully was so inspiring that one of the greatest g...

The complicated story of the best-selling 12-inch single of the 1980s. New Order’s Blue Monday from 1983 would become the stuff of legend. Up next former bassist and co-founder Peter Hook on Professor of Rock. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my...

It was a song unlike anything he’d done before—a complete departure from the rough edges and restless spirit that made him the voice of a generation. With his track Lay Lady Lay, Bob Dylan didn’t just change his sound; he flipped the script on what fans thought they knew about him. But here’s the kicker: If it were solely up to him, Lay Lady Lay wouldn’t have been released at all! Dylan begged the...

Today we’re talking lost songs, underrated classics, and B-sides that should have been A-sides… all coming from the rock’s mightiest band Led Zeppelin… It’s a mystery how some of these tracks weren’t bigger than they were. In the mix, we’re uncovering one of rock’s holy grail songs. An epic song that could have rivaled Zeppelin's most iconic tracks… But it didn’t made the cut for its album. So it...

Today’s classic band Kansas was coming off a massive rock hit Carry On Wayward Son and album Leftoveture and needed to keep the momentum going. And the answer came in one of the most unlikely hits of the 70s, Dust in the Wind. First of all the song was a simple fingerpicking exercise that the guitarist Kerry Livgren was working on to get more limber. As he was playing it, his wife commented on how...

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In the early 80s, this Survivor co-founder Jim Peterik came home for Lunch and checked his answering machine. He couldn’t believe his ears, Sylvester Stallone asked him to call him right back. He thought it was someone trying to prank him. but when he called back it was really him… Sly Stallone wanted unknown band Survivor to write the Anthem to a sequel to one of the greatest franchises ever, Roc...

Today I’m fortunate to have a true legend with us. Neil Sedaka, part of the brill building legends! He had 12 hits by the age of 21 including one of the most memorable #1 hits of all time in Breaking Up is Hard to Do but then the Beatles came on the scene and his music went out of style in a flash. He was considered square and for over a decade he was Shut out of the charts, not only that he had t...

Get ready for a lively blast from the past as we countdown the Top 10 One-Hit Wonders! These tracks skyrocketed to fame, only to see the artists who recorded them fade into the background of music history. From the band Kajagoogoo whose lead singer took them to #1 and then they canned him to Autograph who were a bunch of drinking buddies who jammed on weekends got a chance to open for the #1 band...

Up next we’re going to go go behind the top 10 songs of this VERY same week from the year 1986. 38 years ago. Once again we will re rank them based on their performance since and we have some Insightful artist interviews… In this chart we Have what may be the most unlikely #1 hit of the decade as well as the biggest hit of 1987 battling it out as well as a couple of great songs that didn’t even ma...

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It’s the age-old tale… Toto didn’t think much of their song Africa and it became a huge hit. But this one is totally nuts because it was written on a $16,000 instrument that only 3 people in the world could actually play. And it was written about a place the singer had never been. And it has become the ultimate pop culture punchline. Africa came from flipping through National Geographic and it alm...

I try to keep it positive here guys, but every now and then I have to look at songs and artists from a different perspective. And the truth is even the greatest artists can write a stinker. So today we venture into the age-old conundrum... When Bad Songs happen to great artists. And you’re going to have a heyday here. Including a Paul McCartney song that is so annoying that it causes angry convuls...

How would you like it if you wrote a masterpiece with some pretty deep lyrics and it failed? But then another band cut the song and made it a #1 smash, but then botched your lyrics so badly that it turned the words into a big joke that people are still laughing at today! The lyric in question was from Bruce Springsteen's Blinded by the Light, and it was about a bada$$ hot rod. But the words were s...