Vinyl Voyage Radio

This month we have a great K-Tel album on the platter: High Energy from 1979. This album features hits from Blondie, the Pointer Sisters, Chic, Styx and Foreigner. Check out the commercial below: Episode 55 of Adventures in Vinyl Premieres at 12:30 pm (Central) on February 9.  Check it out throughout February at 12:30 pm Saturdays 4 pm Sundays 2 am Wednesdays

Martha Davis can sing.  Boy, can she sing. The first time I heard the Motels was probably the same for most people when their single, "Only the Lonely" was released in 1982. It had heavy radio and MTV air-play.  That song, though, appeared on their third album. Yes, the Motels had two albums before "Only the Lonely" was released. In fact, the band was formed int he early 70s.  And they produced some great stuff that is hard to classify, as it spans genres and styles.  Perhaps that is why they weren't necessarily promoted like they deserved. Most wanted to pigeon-hole them as a "New Wave" band. but they were much more than that. Their self-titled debut album came out in 1979 on Capitol Records and it was ahead of its time. The last song on the album is "Counting." To me, this is a song that fits in just as well today as it did back in '79.  It is the Vinyl Voyage Song of the week. Join us for the song on the week at 10 am and...

In my copy of ABBA's Greatest Hits Vol. 2 , I found this ad for ABBA merchandise. The ad also states that ABBA will be going on their first North American tour in 1979. Man, I can sure use one of those "disco visors."

This month on Adventures in Vinyl , we will be taking a trip back to 1979 for K-Tel Records'  Together . This collection of soft rock hits features Firefall, Ambrosia, Melissa Manchester, Heatwave and many more! Plus, as always, we'll go through the major events of the year and list the top 10 songs of 1979.  Movie clip Madness features a great movie from 1979 about a horse. Here is the commercial for the album which was played on television back in 1979: The new episode Adventures in Vinyl can be heard on at the following times (central): Saturday 1:00 pm Sunday 4:00 pm Wednesday 2:00 am Retro Repeat episodes can be heard at 1:30 pm on Tuesdays and 10:00 am on Thursdays. Don't forget, you can always listen to every episode on MixCloud .

The winner of the other important election of November is the 1979 K-Tel classic, Starflight . This will be the featured album on Adventures in Vinyl in December. So take a trip back to the last year of the 1970s---a time when Blondie was tearing up the airwaves with "Heart of Glass," Sigourney Weaver was battling a creature in space and a Chicago DJ was blowing up disco records in a ballpark.  Yep.  The 70s were just about over. Even K-Tel noticed that things were changing. Before 1979, the label they slapped on their discs looked like this: In 1979, it changed to this: I am not sure where I got Starflight . I think I may have picked it up in a Goodwill store. It's not in great shape.  I spent a lot of time cleaning it and it sounds pretty good.  A couple of scratches, though. That's okay---it makes it more authentic.  The album is over 30 years old, after all. Eclectic to it's core, Starflight offers up a variety of 70s hits.  It feat...

This month on Adventures in Vinyl we are taking a trip back to the year 1979 with the K-Tel compilation Spotlight . Actually, it is more accurate to say 1978, as all of the songs on this album were released in 1978 (except for the two that were released a year earlier).  This album is slightly different from other K-Tel albums released at the time and marks a change in the way K-Tel created their albums.  Of course, K-Tel is known for crunching as many songs as possible on an album---usually 20 songs per compilation ("20 Original Hits, Original Stars!").  This album has only 16, which means there is not as much crunching of music. In fact, in the 80s, K-Tel will release several more albums following this format. Spotlight is a solid album that, unlike other K-Tel albums released that year, was not advertised on TV. The album contains songs from Andy Gibb, Crystal Gayle, A Taste of Honey, the Commodores, Kenny Rogers....and many more! Join us on Adventures in Viny...