Captain 20

Speaking of local television, I'm psyched to see this movie. DVD soon, I hope?



When we were planning what turned out to be the lone Georgie James video, the original script called for three actors to play television executives who were going to basically be tinkering with and ultimately destroying our Georgie James variety show. I contacted Captain 20 (aka Dick Dyszel) to see if he'd be in it and he was interested, but ultimately our budget plummeted and we had to re-script the entire video. Would've been great. Actually, now that I think of it, when we were recording the GJ album, the idea came up that there was going to be this minute-long faux interview in the middle of the record that would gradually devolve into total nonsense and would essentially be a laundry list of D.C. references (i.e. Jim Vance, Ollie's Trolley, Captain 20, Jhoon Rhee, The Sports Machine etc.). I guess I can see how that might not have sat well with the otherwise polished vibe of that record, though, so I can't blame us for cutting the idea.

Cherry People

I had seen that a modern band (The School) had scooped me on my plan to do a cover of The Left Banke's "And Suddenly," a great, overlooked song from their fairly small body of work. Although the Left Banke's version wasn't a hit, the Cherry People came back a year later and were able to find a minor hit with it. While the Left Banke's version is a bit more blue eyed soul in the Spiral Starecase vein, Cherry People's take on it leans more towards the style of Curt Boettcher's productions (i.e. The Association) ... and besides, Cherry People were from D.C., so I'm partial. Anyway, I recently found a clip of Cherry People's "And Suddenly" being played on a teen dance show from Ohio and it was as if I had special ordered it. Great song, local programming, awkward dancing ... all of my favorites!

The Beat: Rock N Roll Girl

In my top 5 for all songs of any type ever, period. Sure, they're lip-synching here, but c'mon it's the Bandstand! I met Paul Collins when I was 5 years old at a radio dinner that my Dad took me and my brother, too (my Dad was in radio). So, there's a photo of me, my dad, my bro, a couple of radio dudes and Paul Collins chilling at a table circa '81 and it's pretty sweet. In the meantime, here's the Bandstand clip:

Modernettes

A classic! And with the Streisand spelling!