Professor of Rock

Coming up, another great song mystery. It’s a famous song everyone knows: House of the Rising Sun. But Nobody really knows who wrote it or what it’s specifically about. Today we have a special guest to help us solve it, The Animals Eric Burdon. It was either about a hooker or a prisoner. It’s centuries old but became a #1 hit when the lead singer of today’s Hall of Fame band covered it and may hav...

You are never gonna believe this story! Today’s legend Joan Jett was rejected 23 times by labels. When she finally made it, Joan had a song she wanted to do that she knew would be a smash hit: I Love Rock n Roll. She saw it performed on TV in her hotel room when she was touring with her band... Joan was so blown away she made a vow that she would cover it… The thing is I Love Rock n Roll took 6 ye...

Coming up, it's the untamed story of the Southern rock anthem Midnight Rider which was born in a farmhouse outside of Macon, Georgia. The artist The Allman Brothers' Gregg Allman penned most of it in under an hour, but when he hit a wall with the crucial third verse, inspiration ceased. Refusing to let the moment slip away, Gregg did the unthinkable. In the dead of night, with nowhere open and his...

There is something about an opening lyric that can make or break a song. And as a lyricist, when you get it right, it launches your song into the stratosphere. For today’s show, we’re paying homage to some of the most gripping opening lines of the rock era… written by master wordsmiths. We’ll tell the stories of their songs and where their inspiration came from… including Jackson Browne who found...

Today’s band Boston REVITALIZED Rock in the Disco era when some thought Rock was dead and buried. Their first two albums lit up the charts and knocked disco down. But then it took 8 years for their 3rd album to come out because of a lawsuit with their label. Boston beat the big bad label in the lawsuits, but as we all know 8 years in the music industry is a lifetime. And by the time they put out t...

Coming up… it’s a countdown of the Top 5 hit resurrections of the Rock Era! These are the songs that made it into the upper reaches of the charts not once, but twice—on separate campaigns. Our list includes a Queen song about a homicidal cowboy that lingered in a legend's mind for years before being recorded, a Righteous Brothers track where the lead vocal was decided by a coin toss, a controversi...

You won't believe today's story. The story of the hit rock classic Kryptonite straight from the band, 3 Doors Down. When today’s lead singer Brad Arnold was 15 years old, he was in the middle of his high school math class bored as could be. And so he wrote a song called Kryptonite. That song would later be recorded by his band 3 Doors Down, made up of his school chums. And then they would beg the...

Coming up, interviews with two legends that we’ve lost over the last few years. One was one of the most successful songwriters in history: Lamont Dozier. Giving Lennon and McCartney all the competition they could handle at their peak. And another was Duke Fakir, the last remaining member of the hall-of-fame music group the Four Tops. Together they tell the story behind several of their biggest hit...

Coming up, a snapshot of international supergroup ABBA in 1976, with two massive hits on the horizon... Fernando and Dancing Queen. Yet they made a choice no one saw coming. Fernando was a reworking of a song originally written by ABBA's manager for one of their singer’s solo careers. The principal writers of ABBA wanted the band to record it but they didn’t care for his lyrics. So they rewrote it...

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Coming up next… REO Speedwagon's I Can't Fight This Feeling was a classic #1 that took 10 years to get together. It sat on the shelf for a decade because today’s legendary guest Kevin Cronin had no clue how to finish it. He had no idea what the song meant.. so one day, desperate for a hit and desperate to finish it, Kevin decided to bring in another iconic singer-songwriter to help him. But right...

Up next we’re going to Go Go behind the top 10 songs of this VERY same week from the year 1987. One of my favorite years in music. 37 years ago. We are going to re-rank them based on their performance since then and you’ll be shocked at what artists we have interviews with trickled in. Who do you think has the #1 song? George Michael, Guns N Roses, Sting, or Belinda Carlisle, Let’s find out… Well,...

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Today’s episode is a bottled lightning two-for-one. Singer Freddy Curci had Two chart-topping tracks though his bands vanished into thin air shortly after. One with the band Sheriff called When I’m With You went to #1 in 1989 and one with Alias called More Than Words Can Say that hit #2 the very next year in 1990. So two massive hits with the same singer but two completely different bands.. He als...

Coming up next iconic singer-songwriter Johnny Rzeznik shares the story of one of the biggest songs in history: Iris. He was going through one of the worst periods of his live. Johnny was in the middle of a heartbreaking divorce. He had a horrible case of writer’s block and he was so low he was on the verge of quitting his own band, the Goo Goo Dolls. He felt hopeless. So he left his home in New Y...

In ’66, the Beatles introduced the world to a character so mysterious, that her name alone sparked curiosity and speculation... Eleanor Rigby. Who was she? Where did she come from? And why did she captivate the imagination of millions? This haunting, string-laden track from a seminal album wasn't just a song—it was the beginning of a musical enigma. Did Paul McCartney make up the name or did he st...

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Coming up… Steve Miller's career was on the ropes before it even started… he had 7 consecutive albums that flopped… If his next one wasn’t a hit the label was gonna get rid of him and his career would likely be over. Miller was desperate for a hit. A short time later he would write a song that he thought was just ok… The Joker. But it was hilariously unique in its lingo… with words and phrases tha...

In the commercial world of music, not every great song gets the spotlight it deserves. Some tracks, though overshadowed by their chart-topping counterparts, stand the test of time just as powerfully… Songs that are ‘just as good,’ if not better, than the hits that stole the limelight… From underrated classics to fan favorites, today we are gonna uncover the magic behind these unsung songs from som...

Coming up next, one of the greatest singers of the rock era, Daryl Hall tells the stories behind some of his biggest hits. He was in one of the most famous twosomes in rock history, Daryl Hall and John Oates and he drops a bomb in the interview. Daryl Hall never really collaborated with his Duo partner John Oates. . Find out more in the interview also he tells the story of using a Boy Scout cantee...

Coming up… Eva Boyd wasn’t a singer, and had never earned a penny performing…She was a babysitter! And she hadn’t even been filling those duties for long. But when an emerging songwriting couple, Gerry Goffin and Carol King, handed her a song called Loco-motion that they’d written for somebody else and was rejected, she agreed to give it a try. What happened next was nothing short of remarkable. W...

Get ready for a journey back to the '80s, when artists weren't afraid to join forces in unexpected and unforgettable ways. On this edition of Professor of Rock, we’re counting down the Top 5 Most Interesting Duets of the neon decade—From surprising combinations to boundary-pushing sounds, in one strange duet a legend thought the demo of the eventual #1 song was dreadful and had no desire to record...

Imagine a smoky studio… late in the evening. One of the most celebrated bands of the Rock Era the Rolling Stones are restless, searching for a sound, an edge that will take them into the next phase of their career. And then, all of a sudden they heard a ruckus out the window. It was the mysterious figure of a guy jumping in and out of view. Was it a criminal? Was it a peeping tom… Nope, it was the...

Today’s song Bette Davis Eyes was recorded several times and didn’t go anywhere… in 1974 it was released and was a total flop. It was written about an old-time movie star that the newer generation didn’t really know. 5 years later it was re-recorded with a completely different arrangement… adding an undeniable 80s synth line with a voice so raspy everyone mistook the singer for Rod Stewart… only i...