Professor of Rock

Coming up, we're telling the story of 11 songs that truly defined one of the most pivotal years in the Rock Era, starting with The Beatles, a band so big they controlled the top 5 spots on the charts, a record that no one has ever come close to. Plus, there was the songwriter Wayne Cochran who told an epic and sad story behind what inspired his massive hit Last Kiss that moved everyone who heard it. Then, decades later, everyone found it was a total lie. Then there was the Do Wah Diddy Diddy that the lead singer of Manfred Mann thought was downright silly... with made-up words, he refused to sing it until his manager forced him to, and even then he sang it as a total joke… It became one of the biggest songs ever, and the silly words became part of the pop vernacular. There was The Animals' House of the Rising Sun that has made tens of millions in royalties but remains unpaid because no one knows who the hell wrote the song. Plus, there’s Marvin Gaye who wrote Dancing in the Street, a song he knew was a smash, but he gave it to his secretary Martha Reeves, who made it an all-time smash. Our countdown of the Top 11 Songs of a special year is NEXT on Professor of Rock!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

COMING UP next, the Bee Gees were the biggest band of the 70s with 8 #1 hits in under 4 years… they were everywhere until they weren’t. What a difference a few months make. One month they were on top of the world, a few months later, they couldn’t get radio to play their music. They had to hide out… in fact, in the early 80s, the Bee Gees wrote for other people because their brand was extinct. They disappeared from the charts for 10 years. Then, at the end of the 80s, the Bee Gees made one of the biggest comebacks ever. They had a #1 in the UK a year earlier and then blew up the American charts again with a smash that put them back in the game, You Win Again... and they’ve never looked back. The band that beat astronomical odds to go from hero to zero to hero again. It's the greatest perseverance story in music up next on Professor of Rock.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In music, trends come and go, chart-toppers rise and fall—but every once in a while, an artist or a band does something that is completely untouchable. I’m talking about milestones that will never be shattered. For today’s episode, we’re tipping our hat to the Guinness Book of World Records and counting down the Top 10 greatest music records That Will Never Be Broken. From the Elton John that sold a record 33 million copies and was only performed one time… when it was recorded, and Elton it didn’t make a dime off it... to The Dark Side of the Moon that spent almost 20 years on the charts, to The Beatles who had 20 #1 hits in just 6 years, to Frank Sinatra, the only artist to have a hit song in 7 different decades. These are the most awesome feats ever. Get ready to have your mind blown… NEXT on the Professor of Rock. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There’s No Teaser Today…We have a very special episode of Professor of Rock today covering a legendary singer-songwriter who we lost. To me, it was one of the most devastating losses ever. And it got very little fanfare. There weren’t a bunch of tributes, it wasn’t front page news, it wasn’t covered in the media almost at all. But it should have been. To me, he not only wrote some of the most beloved songs of the 70s and 80s, but he wrote modern standards with the purest tenor voice of his time. Songs like Part of the Plan, Longer, Leader of the Band, Same Old Lang Syne, Run for the Roses, and great album tracks like There’s a Place in the World for a Gambler, and he influenced so many artists that came after. His songs have been like checkpoints of our personal histories; his songs have become our songs and have connected multiple generations, fathers, sons, mothers, and daughters. If you haven’t figured it out today, we are honoring Dan Fogelberg...See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The incredible story of What a Fool Believes. We have interviews with both Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald who both wrote it. It became a huge hit for the Doobie Brothers but divided fans when Michael McDonald took over for an ailing Tom Johnston and it changed the Doobies sound. We also have guitarist Skunk Baxter who brought Michael over from Steely Dan where he sang back up. a great story of a hit that stopped 34 straight weeks of a disco song going to #1.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

So many so-called one-hit wonders have a quirky, unexpected charm—sometimes playful, sometimes totally bizarre, but always endearing. They’re like musical mysteries or fun trivia sparks, making us wonder what could’ve been if the artists had kept it going. We call these songs bottled lightning… Artists that had that one blazing firework that took over the world and we count down the 5 craziest listening in a bottle classics including the rock band Wild Cherry who hated disco but when a fan yelled out a catchy song title, Play that Funky Music in concert they wrote a disco song as a joke and it became a smash… but it became their one and only it when they vanished faster than disco. Then there was the guy M (Robin Scott) who wrote a Pop Muzik to mock a genre and it became a bigger hit than any the songs he was ripping on, plus the band Shocking Blue who sang the wrong lyric in Venus because of a typo on one verse. And then because the singer didn’t speak english accidentally sang a profanity in the next verse... and it became a #1 hit TWICE. But that’s nothing because Tony Burrows was a one-hit wonder with 5 different bands! A great one is next on the Professor of Rock.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

ON THIS DAY in 1967, The Beatles began a 15-week reign at #1 on the US album chart with their iconic album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.FROM THE VAULT: In 1967, a brilliant concept album was recorded that shattered the boundaries of song arrangement, and forever changed the art of recorded music. The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Maybe Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr created a concept record about an imaginary band. They were in a race with the Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys to create the greatest record ever.. The last cut on their ground-breaking record A Day in the Life was a mind-altering composition inspired by the death of a notorious socialite, and psychedelia. We raise the curtain on this fantastic voyage across the perils of stone cold realism.. and the fantasy of lysergic imagination….NEXT on Professor of Rock."See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today, we are taking the time machine back to a shocking hit from the 70s: School's Out. It was from Alice Cooper, a rock star who defined the words SHOCK and AWE, and caused some real trouble with teachers across America. There are some insane stories behind this one…from CREEPY urban legends like the band getting their name from the ghost of a 16th-century witch, to schools getting shut down for playing this song. Plus, School's Out was so dangerous that the physical record came with a switchblade, a slingshot, and was wrapped in actual underwear! Find out why they banned it and why it became an all-time anthem…Next, on Professor of Rock.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You requested it, so here it is. It was the dawn of a new decade with some of the most intriguing music of the rock era, and some of the most interesting stories... including Nothing Compares 2 U, an incredible song that hit #1, and Sinead O'Connor was livid when it did. She was so pissed, she made a blatant decision right then and there to do everything in her power to be a one hit wonder even though she could’ve had dozens of hits. Plus a Song by Depeche Mode that MTV forced a band to edit because it showed a horse's butt during a controversial sound Then there was the Motley Crue icon who died of an overdose and then came back to life and immediately wrote the band’s best song: Kickstart My Heart. Plus, the heart-wrenching song that came when a Supermodel broke up with Billy Joel, an average-looking rocker. But then he wooed another Supermodel right after. Plus, Fly to the Angels, which was written when Mark Slaughter came home from a tour and tried to call his girlfriend and got devastating news… It became a haunting epic. So many classics on our top countdown of a special year next on POR.Head to https://www.acorns.com/early/por or download the Acorns Early app to help your kids grow their money skills today. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Coming up—we’re counting down the songs we’re not supposed to like… Some call them guilty pleasures, others call them bad. Some call them cheese. But when nobody’s looking, most of us sing every word when they come on. I’m gonna get REBUKED FOR THIS but here it goes…One track, To Be With You, is a ballad from a band of shredders that sounds like a camp counselor campfire song that somehow hit #1. Then, there’s the song I Want It That Way, written by a Swedish songwriter who didn’t know English. And it was so confusing that even the band, the Backstreet Boys, didn’t know what it meant. And honestly, neither do WE. Then there’s one of the PMRC’s most wanted, Sugar Walls, an infamous Filthy Fifteen track that gave the phrase “guilty pleasure” a whole new meaning. Plus, there’s a literal boy band Hanson who wrote MMMBop, a song with a chorus so catchy it’s still stuck in our heads 28 years later, and it’s been mocked mercilessly even though it’s 1 of the most emotionally mature songs of the time. They’re all songs we secretly love, but won't admit it… But when no one else is around, all bets are off. It’s the latest edition of our Guilty Pleasures countdown, NEXT on the Professor of Rock.Head to https://www.acorns.com/early/por or download the Acorns Early app to help your kids grow their money skills today. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.