The Facebook post hit me like a punch in the kidney. I’m reposting it here verbatim. From the Sharon O’Neill Facebook fan page. “Kia ora everyone, Yesterday morning I lost the love of my life, Alan. His daughter Lauren and I were with him and he passed comfortably and peacefully. Alan battled for three years…
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Sly and the Family Stone … in French?!?
You can fall down the YouTube rabbit hole in an instant, and once you’re there … hoo boy you can find some amazing things. Such as this classic 1968 jam by Sly and the Family Stone. You know it, you love it, here it is. Well, when the record company demanded a follow-up to this…
Read MoreThou shalt not plagiarize Blotto.
The world of pop music has been littered with potholes of plagiarism. A hundred years ago, the song “Yes! We Have No Bananas” took the melody of G.F. Handel’s “Hallelujah” chorus for a Tin Pan Alley refrain. George Harrison’s song “My Sweet Lord” was found to be too close in melody and structure to the…
Read More“Weird Al” Yankovic: Polkas, Parodies, and the Power of Satire
NOTE: This was originally published in Goldmine magazine in 2000. Article written by Chuck Miller. Al Yankovic strapped on his accordion, ready to perform. All he had to do was impress some talent directors, and he would be on The Gong Show, on stage with Chuck Barris and the Unknown Comic and Jaye P. Morgan…
Read MoreBeyoncé’s “Jolene” challenged by Roy Orbison’s version of “Jolene”
In an unexpected twist that nobody saw coming, the country music world is stunned by a current “cover war” over the recording of Dolly Parton’s classic song “Jolene.” Over the weekend, Beyoncé’s reinterpretation of the song “Jolene” slammed into the #1 spot on Spotify’s charts, as well as the #1 spot on Billboard magazine’s country…
Read MoreJoe and Paul – the bilingual song that was too risque for radio!
Several years ago, I discovered this incredible CD called The Yiddish Radio Project. The CD featured extremely rare transcription discs from the Jewish radio stations that populated New York City in the 1940’s. The discs contained commercials, radio dramas, talk programs and musical numbers – but mostly commercials. Lots and lots of commercials. Heck, I…
Read MoreHappy Convoy Day to all who celebrate!
Today is October the 4th, and on this day we celebrate one of the greatest songs of the 1970’s. That, of course, would be this little track. Yep. C.W. McCall’s classic “talking blues” record about truck drivers and citizens band radio lingo, “Convoy.” 10-4, good buddy … Get it? October 4? 10-4? Listen, if you’re…
Read MoreIt’s not Lou Reed … and it’s not Jefferson Airplane, either.
So last week, I penned a K-Chuck Radio blog post about artists and bands who use a similar name or nickname as other more famous artists or bands. You know, this blog post. Well, apparently … I missed one. And it’s a doozy. See, there was an Australian garage band in the 1960’s who took…
Read More“Shake the hand of a brand new fool.”
Over and over. Those eight words kept rumbling in my brain last night. Over and over. Every time I thought I could fall asleep … those eight words pulled me out of Slumberland Highway and parked me on a park bench. Background. Earlier in the day, while listening to one of my streaming audio channels…
Read More40 years later … Solid Rock and an autographed treasure.
The year was 1982. As a college student with a fresh radio spot on Hamilton College’s radio station WHCL, I penned an editorial that was later picked up by Billboard magazine. The article was read by a mobile DJ in Melbourne, Australia, who sent me a cassette tape of various Oz Rock artists that hadn’t…
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Chuck The Writer 
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