10 of My Favorite Songs (You May or May Not Have Heard Before!)

This song was on a tape that Sue bought for me Christmas one year. I remember the kids were young and we were living in a townhouse. She went upstairs for some reason and I put the tape in. When this song came on she came downstairs yelling, "I knew I shouldn't have bought you that tape" to which I replied, "They're saying FUNK!" LOL!

Don't remember when I got the album but I do remember Bell's Music Center in downtown Warren, Ohio getting the Mini Moog Synthesizer that had instruction on how to set the dials on it to create the Catherine of Aragon sound. I would drive my brother Gregg to his trombone lessons and do my best to recreate the sound Rick Wakeman got from the Moog. I think I duplicated it once after many tries.

You may have never heard of The Godz. They are most famous for the song Gotta Keep A Runnin'. But this was one of my favorite songs from The Godz as well as my high school friend Paul's. He used to sing it all the time! Oh the 70's!

Downtown Warren, Ohio had a Christian Book Store. Not a place you would think you would find a 18 year old boy hanging out. For some reason it always attracted me to it and when I picked up this Matthew Ward album I started hanging out there a lot more. This song really got my attention!

Something about John Waite's voice I really enjoy. This song used to run through my head a lot and the whole Head First album was great. Every song could have been a hit and I think the Babys could have been so much bigger with the right promoter.

I didn't know about Angel till around 1978 but The Tower is one of their best songs. With the awesome effects that Gregg Guiffria produced at the beginning and the ominous voice of Frank DiMino this was an iconic Angel song. Angel always shadowed KISS though and never quite got the attention they deserved. According to Punky Meadows Gene Simmons told Neil Bogart that "Angel would never open for KISS" because their show was too big and they didn't need the competition.

How does this ballad make the list? Well I remember getting the solo albums the day they hit RBG Music. Doc, the man that ran the music store on Palmyra Road on the west side of Warren, Ohio called me up as soon as he got them. I rushed right over and bought all 4. Paul's was the first one I put on and this song stuck with me. I always slow danced to Sue with it and I remember at the school dance in 1979 a local DJ, AC McCullough from WHOT was spinning records. I asked if he had Paul's solo album. He didn't. So I drove over to RBG and bought it and brought it back just so he would play it for me.

Oh the sounds of my brother David as he pumped iron every evening after he got home. He had an 8 track player and he borrowed a few 8 tracks from his friend. One of them was Queen's Sheer Heart Attack and I used to love to hear that one being played. The first track on this awesome album was Brighton Rock. I've been a Queen fan ever since!!

Out of all of the ELO albums I have owned through the years Eldorado is one that I never purchased. I don't know why, maybe the album cover brought back bad memories of flying monkeys. Regardless I still got to hear Boy Blue from some of the Greatest Hits albums and it's always been one of my favorites of ELO. Although if I were to list all of my ELO favorites the list would be 5 times as large as this one.

This wouldn't be a surprise to anyone that know me. Maynard has been gone almost 12 years at the time of this list being put together and I have still seen him live more than any other musician and I always loved when he opened with Give It One! While my wife cringes when she hears his squealing trumpet I sit in awe of his awesome chops!