Good Times - Eight Oldies!

Outside of a concert yesterday evening, I was chatting with an acquaintance that is a bit of a musical scholar. In response to something I said, he jokingly responded “good times…great oldies.” This is the slogan of KOOL, the local “oldies” radio station (come to think of it, it was also the slogan for the oldies station in Seattle – they probably use it everywhere because they’re all owned by Clear Channel or some other media conglomerate). I misheard what he said, and responded “good times, eight oldies?” This struck me as particularly funny, and we started rattling off this very limited play list. We came up with the first four, and I’ve taken the liberty of completing the list:

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction – The Rolling Stones
Twist and Shout – The Beatles
(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay – Otis Redding
Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison
Oh, Pretty Woman – Roy Orbison
My Girl – The Temptations
You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling – The Righteous Brothers
(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman – Aretha Franklin

If you tune into KOOL and listen for an hour, chances are you’re going to hear one or more of these songs. There are a few tunes on this list that I don’t feel the need to seek out (Beatles, Stones, Otis), but will likely continue to hear now and again listening to albums I still enjoy. The rest of the tunes I’ve grown to dislike over the years from hearing them too many times, with one being an overwrought piece of crap I’ve always hated (yeah, I’m talking about you, not-so-Righteous Brothers!). I’m sure anyone could come up with their own list of oldies that they think are overplayed, songs that they wish they never had to hear again for the rest of their lives.

I actually remember a time before oldies radio. When I was really young, I listened to AM hits radio, and once something was no longer a hit it was rarely heard. Eventually, there was a Sunday night oldies program in Houston that I listened to religiously – it was mostly 50’s music, with a bit of early 60’s mixed in. At the time it seemed incredibly novel. The first exclusively oldies station I ever heard was KRZN, an AM station in D-town. As I hated most of the popular music that was on the radio when I was in high school, KRZN seemed like a real godsend. They pretty much played anything that had been a hit, and it wasn’t the same old stuff over and over. Sure, there were heavy doses of the usual suspects – Beatles, Stones, Elvis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Motown… But I also remember hearing garage bands like the Music Machine and Standells, which I loved. Bubblegum was in pretty heavy rotation – the Archies, Monkees, 1910 Fruitgum Company, Ohio Express, and Crazy Elephant all come to mind. The timeline ran the gamut from the mid-50’s to early 70’s, and they tended to vary things a bit. They even played requests. Eventually the station really went downhill – I remember them making a “no more bubblegum” proclamation, at which point I decided it was time to stop listening. They were talking themselves too damn seriously.

KRZN is long gone, and the big FM oldies station in Denver for nearly 20 years has been KOOL. I’ll occasionally listen in the car or in the box office at work, but it’s a bit of a drag. As the years have gone by, their play list has gotten more and more restrictive. Nowadays, they only play 60’s and 70’s music – songs from the 50’s have been relegated to a few hours in the evenings. They never really seem to add any songs to the mixture; it’s just the same tunes over and over. It wouldn't surpise me to find out that they had been removing songs from their play list. Even worse, several times a day they feel the need to play an irritating patriotic tune while testifying about what a great country it is we live in. I even heard them play a recording of little kids reciting the pledge of allegiance a few days ago. I think they should just go to the “good times, eight oldies” format, with the occasional patriotic message to liven things up. Not that I’ll be tuned in – I’ll be too busy listening to my 1910 Fruitgum albums. Among other things...