Professor of Rock

Up next legendary singer songwriter John Oates of Daryl Hall and John Oates (Hall and Oates) tells us the story of their first single. The 70s classic She’s Gone! A song from that was released 3 times over a few years before it finally charted at #6 and became an all time classic helping put the most successful duo on the map for good. And to think it all came from John getting stood up by a beaut...

Is it a hidden gem or a no brainer hit hiding in plain sight? Even though today’s song broke the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and claimed #1 on the Mainstream Rock chart, What it Takes By Aerosmith has faded into obscurity since its moment of glory. Which is a huge oversight, because its one of the best songs in its genre from one of the biggest bands in the world. It came from one of the best...

Coming up… an interview with legend Randy Bachman, a co-founding member of both Bachman Turner Overdrive (BTO) and The Guess Who on his classic rock standard Takin’ Care of Business TCB that sat unfinished for years, because The Guess Who thought it sounded too similar to the Beatles Paperback Writer... Then one day he got an idea from a random saying he heard on a radio show and the chorus was fi...

It’s one of the greatest comeback stories in music history. Neil Sedaka had 6 top ten hits as a rookie including one of the biggest #1s of the time with Breaking Up is Hard to Do. Then literally overnight he became a has been. When the Beatles came out and wiped his style from the musical hemisphere. His label wouldn’t release his music. He even moved to the other side of the world and played gigs...

Today’s track is like rollin’ thunder. And it comes at you just like a hurricane. It’s a powerful, heavy hitting anthem, and designed to blow you away. Hells Bells by AC/DC But in spite of that, it was actually written as a tribute to a fallen frontman, Bon Scott. Brian Johnson came into the band with some big shoes to feel as Angus Young and his brother Malcom young along with uber producer Mutt...

Coming up, a song that has received a lot of hate… Many don’t want to admit that they know every lyric… In fact, I would say if you’re a Gen-Xer and you claim not to know every word to this massive #1 hit you’re a big fat liar… I'm talking about Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice. I present to you an exclusive interview, with maybe the greatest Bottled Lightning story of them all. For about a year Robert...

COMING up a classic hit double A Side from one of the Depeche Mode In the 80s the band was starting to make it’s way up the charts and they haven’t stopped since. Today we break down the beautiful, sensitive Martin Gore Ballad Somebody along with it’s other side Blasphemous Rumors. Believe it or not the latter song caused an uproar in my small community of Blackfoot Idaho for it’s out right blasph...

Coming up, the harrowing details behind a near fatal car crash that put one of the great musical Genius Stevie Wonder in a coma for 4 days. He had just come off Talking Book the #1 album that gave him grammys and hits including You are the Sunshine of My Life and his cousin smacked into a flatbed truck in front of them and Stevie was stuck in the head and bleeding. He was rushed to a hospital and...

Coming up, it’s a #1 smash with the distinction of having one of the most innovative and unforgettable music videos ever made. Peter Gabriel’s super catchy #1 hit Sledgehammer. Made up of over 100 hours of filming…the song was written by the master artist who lived on the fringes of pop culture stardom for decades. But after releasing this song, it’s awesome video, and his extraordinary album So,...

Coming up the story of the monumental #1 hit the Age of Aquarius/Let the Sunshine one of the biggest #1 hit of 1969 by the 5th Dimension… It’s definitely a song that defined it’s time. today we have an exclusive interview from two important former members of the group, Billy Davis Jr and Marilyn McCoo. … It all happened because Billy accidentally left his wallet in a new york taxi cab…. He realize...

One of the coolest and lesser known stories in rock history. Drummer Keni Richards used to be David Lee Roth’s jogging buddy One day Diamond Dave asked him what he was up to and Keni showed him a demo of the band he was in. DLR wasn’t impressed. Keni then showed him a demo tape of a bunch of his drinking buddies who jammed together on the weekends.. They weren’t even a band.. Diamond Dave love the...

In 1986 Level 42 was coming off one of the best songs of the 80s in Something About You. which went to the top ten on both sides of the Atlantic and the double platinum album World Machine. The trick now was figuring out how to do it again. the struggle for every musician. Repeating success in the 80s wonderland of blissful and magnetic rock and pop spectacles was not an easy feat. Fortunately sin...

Coming up renowned rock front Ed Roland of Collective Soul gives us the skinny on his band’s first number one hit Shine that came years before... He was visiting his parents and his kid brother Dean who was only 15 was messing around with a riff.. Ed loved it and finished the song on the spot…5 years later it would be the biggest rock song of the year in 1994… the brothers would later elaborate ca...

Coming up this 70s rock band ruled radio on their first release… Green Eyed Lady by the band Sugarloaf flew out of the gates as an irresistible ditty fronted by a sensational bass line and mysterious lyrics about a beautiful lady that took the band to the top of the charts quickly. But then the band fell apart. Then they lost their record deal.. Not once but TWICE! Desperate to overcome being labe...

Merry Christmas from Professor for Rock! Today we have a special gift for you from our friend the 3rd biggest selling male artist of the 20th century behind only Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra… He tells the story behind his classic Christmas record as well as the magical story behind his #1 hit Chances Are! The first time he heard it on the radio he almost wrecked his car he was son excited. Lear...

Coming up, it is one of the most tragic tales of the rock era. Band leader Syd Barrett fronted Pink Floyd for a time and then cracked under the pressure. Whether it was due to excessive drug abuse, a preexisting mental illness, or psychological strain its not entirely clear. However the band was forced to go without him. But his memory would haunt the band members Rogers Waters and David Gilmour e...

The in-depth story of one of the biggest selling singles of all time. The only 80s song to hit #1 four different times … Do They Know It’s Christmas by Band Aid was put tother by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to fight starvation in africa. Geldof saw the famine on television and knew he had to do something do ha assembled an A list team to record a song that he hoped could generate millions for relief....

Today it’s the origin story of one of rock’s best drummers and how a failed pilgrimage to England brought him face to face with destiny. Neil Peart struggled to make it for years. He even felt his audition for Rush was a disaster. Geddy Lee like him but Alex Lifeson originally didn’t think the mighty Neil was cool enough for the band. Neil went from being a high school dropout to one of rock’s fin...

It was their first massive hit in America. it kicked open the door and let people know that they were here to stay leading to them being one of the biggest bands of the last half of the 80s… INXS and their top 5 hit What You Need ruled MTV with it’s innovative music video that won many awards and get this they made it for just 200 bucks.. After Michael Hutchence and Andrew Farris wrote the song an...

COMING UP… one of the coolest stories you’ll ever hear about a #1 song… First of all the singer Brad Arnold wrote it when he was 15 in math class in about 10 minutes. Then he begged his local radio station to play it and then it was the most requested song on the station for months… then a few months later they were playing next to the giants of rocks… The story of Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down is so...

Coming up… an interview with an absolute legend … Randy Bachman who made up a big part of two bands in the 60s and 70s… The Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive or BTO... He’s written or co written some of the greatest classic rock standards ever as one of the only artists with a #1 hit with 2 different bands… The only other person to do that… Paul McCartney…Next He tells the story of recording...

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, Rock...

It’s one of the most notoriously misheard lyrics in rock history. A line that was supposed to be referring to a Hot Rod, has instead confused generations of listeners because it sounds like a reference to a feminine hygiene product. Revved Up Like Douche…was supposed to be Revved up like a deuce... Yeah, no joke. Manfred Mann’s Earth Band took legend Bruce Springteen’s first single and turned it i...

Up next an exclusive interview with a cofounding member of the classic 70s and 80s group Little River Band. Graeham Goble who wrote and arranged the most played song in American history by an Australian band or artist…Reminiscing. The song went to #3 in the billboard charts in 1978. Since then it’s been played almost 6 million times on radio. There’ve been a lot of great australian artists over th...

Legendary 70s singer guitarist Mark Farner formerly of Grand Funk Railroad or just Grand Funk as they came to be known, tells The wild story of the 70s classic rock staple We’re An American Band! A song that every fledgling bar band has covered on their way up. A staple of the Classic Rock Canon. First of all he recorded it with a broken nose… and he co wrote the song with the drummer but he says...