Episodes

  • FROM THE VAULT: The Story Behind Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams – Stevie Nicks’ Heartfelt Breakup Anthem
    Jun 3 2025

    FROM THE VAULT: When you listen to the modern day standard "Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac, you may not immediately hear the sadness. You may not recognize that it is song about a failing relationship.

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    16 mins
  • FROM THE VAULT: 5 Forgotten 90s Songs Featuring Tonic, LIT, Sponge, Garbage, and More
    Jun 2 2025

    FROM THE VAULT: Hey Music Junkies, the Professor of Rock, always here to celebrate the greatest artists and songs of all time; If you love music, you’ll want to subscribe below and hit the bell so you always get our daily content. You’ll also want to check us out on Patreon as we’ve added a bunch of exclusives and benefits there. Today we're discussing 5 forgotten songs from the 90s that will take you back to the good old days. Including exclusive commentary from the the artist. including Emerson Hart from Tonic, the Popoff brothers from the band LIT and Vinnie Dombroski from Sponge. As well as songs by Garbage and Ephraim Lewis.

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    20 mins
  • The ’70s Hit Randy Bachman Wrote as a Joke—That Hit #1 in 22 Countries
    Jun 2 2025

    Coming up next, we're firing up the time machine and heading to an iconic year in the 70s… Can you guess it? It was the year Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record and Muhammad Ali stunned George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle. And in music, it was a pummeling, too. One song came when a future rock star Donal Fagen, hit on the wife of one of his college professors when she was pregnant. Then there’s the all-time classic Piano Man everyone sings along to, but Billy Joel was embarrassed by it; he only made a couple of grand from it. Then there’s Randy Bachman, who wrote Ain't Seen Nothing Yet as a joke to make fun of his brother's speech impediment, and it hit #1 in 22 countries. And then there’s Steve Miller, who ripped off a lyric from an oldies song, but misheard it and has been singing the wrong word for 50-plus years... one that doesn’t exist in the English language. It was a fabulous year in music, and we're counting 'em down NEXT on Professor of Rock!

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    34 mins
  • Ranking the Greatest Classic Rock Songs of All Time: The Ultimate Showdown
    Jun 1 2025

    I really screwed up a few weeks ago. I was counting down the greatest songs of 1976 and left out More Than a Feeling, one of the greatest songs in classic rock history. I’ve never messed up like this, but here’s the thing: in any other year, it would easily be the #1 song. But in 1976, it would be competing with Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. So that got me thinking… What is the greatest song in classic rock history? So that set me on a quest for rock immortality. I dug into an elite group of songs that not only ruled radio and soundtracked our lives, but have become the definition of rock itself. For this episode, I’ve assembled the ultimate musical showdown. I’ve got a list of 11 of the most legendary classic rock standards to echo across the airwaves. But the question is, which one deserves to be #1? What song is the GOAT of classic rock? My 11 candidates are special. There’s More Than a Feeling, a song that saved rock from a complete disco takeover. There's Stairway to Heaven, a song that got so big it was banned from being played in guitar shops around the world… And the one that has the greatest note hit by a singer ever. Let’s get ready to rumble… NEXT on the Professor of Rock.

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    39 mins
  • How “The Power of Love” Became a #1 Hit—and a Soundtrack Tragedy
    May 31 2025

    Coming up, an interview with one of my favorite people, Huey Lewis, about one of the biggest #1 hits of the '80s, The Power of Love. It’s become legendary both because of the feel-good sing-along chorus and the iconic movies it supported. Huey was in the midst of a huge album THAT RULED the mid 80s with 4 big hits, when he was tapped to write the theme song for not 1 but 2 blockbuster films, so he had to choose. The one he said yes to (Back to the Future) was a challenge. He had no desire to write a dumb song with the movie title in it… Huey thought the title was too on the nose, so the director said, "Just send me the next thing you write…" Huey did just that, and Power of Love became a #1 smash… The only problem is that the filmmakers didn’t capitalize on it. And they missed a window to have a big soundtrack album… Up next is the story of how Huey Lewis gave 10% of the song’s royalties to an old friend for coming up with the title of the song. The only problem is the tile was the same as 2 other hits at the time. Very common, and there was the fact that this artist was banned from putting the song on his new album. It's all coming up next on Professor of Rock.

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    23 mins
  • How Two Teens and a Cheap Synth Launched OMD into Pop History
    May 30 2025

    Coming up, the legendary duo Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, or OMD for short, tells the story of their career in 5 key songs that helped invent the iconic sound of the 80s. So get this, they wrote their first big song “Electronic” when they were teenagers forming an underground synth duo, and it ended up selling 5 million copies of their single ENOLA GAY, which was written and recorded on a cheap synth they bought out of a mail order catalog… They got bigger with every release and but in the mid-80s, they were called in at a moment’s notice to write the theme for the 1986 film Pretty In Pink after a test screening went sideways. If You Leave was a last minute scramble that had them staying up all night to write and record the song and then when the song was too long at over 5 minutes they fudged the number on the tape saying it was 4 and half minutes so it would get played on the radio and it became a smash. The interview is next on Professor of Rock.

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    23 mins
  • Men at Work Ruled the ’80s—Then Vanished. Colin Hay Explains Why
    May 29 2025

    Coming up, an interview with a true 80s icon, Colin Hay, who people forget was on a Beatles-like trajectory... if only for a couple of years. But those years, he and his band Men at Work were as big as anyone. They actually pulled off something that not even the Beatles did… when their debut record Business as Usual, spent 15 weeks at #1 and contained two #1 hits that we still play today: Down Under and Who Can It Be Now? And two other huge hits for a total of four top tens. They won a Grammy for best new artist and were on the cover of Rolling Stone… But just a short time later, Men at Work completely disappeared, and they NEVER had another hit. Up next, we get the story behind these hits in an exclusive interview with Colin Hay to find out what the hell happened.

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    22 mins
  • Sex, Cheese, and Controversy: Ranking the 5 Most Ridiculous ’70s Songs
    May 28 2025

    Coming up, we’re gonna get into the dark underbelly of the 70s, where bad taste reigned supreme, controversy sold millions, and critical acclaim was strictly optional. We are going to take a ride through the songs that you hate to love or the songs that you love to hate, depending on your perspective. You’ll hear the tale of (You're) Having My Baby by Paul Anka, a song so far outside the norm, it managed to offend feminists and the religious right in one fell swoop… another hit that was written by a bona fide convict but crooned by one of rock’s most righteous voices…a song that even as a 3 year old made my ears bleed. And yes, even the song that dared to expose the carnal secrets of rodents: Muskrat Love… And finally, the worst song in the history of our planet by Rick Dees… One that single-handedly destroyed a disco in just 3 mins and 17 seconds… It’s going to be a lot of fun, packed with eyebrow-raising stories, guilty pleasures, tacky tunes, and head-shaking comedy as we count down the Top 5 Cheesiest Songs of the 70s…NEXT on Professor of Rock.

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    27 mins
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