The Standardized-test Smackdown

Remember taking SAT’s and ACT’s? Your kids may be taking them this month. These test are big business and both parties are looking for more market share. Caught in the middle: the test takers. Check out this FORTUNE MAGAZINE article on the business of high school testing. One new thing for this fall: If you do poorly you can hide results from universities!

El DeBarge had massive success throughout the 80’s with the group DeBarge. But then he took the advice of the group’s record label and left DeBarge to go solo.

That might have been a mistake as he only managed to make it to the top 10 on the mainstream charts one last time with this song from the movie Short Circuit.

From 1986, it’s Who’s Johnny…

You can buy this song on iTunes or as an amazon.com mp3 download.

Limahl left Kajagoogoo after only one album. But the group continued on, eventually morphing into Kaja.

Their second big hit after Too Shy was Turn Your Back On Me, which reached #2 on the US dance charts.

But Kajagoogoo / Kaja and Limahl both probably would have done better had they stayed together. Either that or they would have all strangled each other since it was tensions within the group that caused the breakup.

We’ll never know now…

You can buy this song on iTunes or as an amazon.com mp3 download (on both sites, the group is listed as Kajagoogoo for this song).

I just got back from Dollywood, so I’ve got to put a Dolly Parton song on here today.

In 1983, Dolly Parton should have had another pop hit with this song. But things didn’t work out that way. It did well on country stations and got quite a bit of dance club play thanks to a 12″ remix (a rarity for Dolly), but no luck with the regular charts.

It’s a good song though. Here’s Potential New Boyfriend…

You can buy this song on iTunes or as an amazon.com mp3 download.

It’s Toni Basil’s biggest US hit…..after Mickey of course.

You’re probably not doing this kind of shopping first thing today, but it seems to be the perfect video for today. From the same album as Mickey, here’s Shopping From A To Z…

You can find this song on Toni Basil’s album Word Of Mouth. The single isn’t available on either iTunes or as an amazon.com mp3 download.

In honor of the awesome banana cream pie I’ll be eating today, here’s something from Bananrama.

It came out right after I Heard A Rumour and was one of their biggest hits overseas (topping even Cruel Summer). That wasn’t the case in the US though. It did well on the dance charts, but never made it to the top 40 mainstream chart (it did get into the top 50 – barely).

It’s such a fun song and should have been a bigger hit here. It’s Love In The First Degree. Have a great Thanksgiving!

You can buy this song on iTunes or as an amazon.com mp3 download.

Get ready to be on the road for the holiday weekend.

And there’s no better on the road song than this one. Although it didn’t really do that well on the music charts, only making it to #82.

But thanks to the National Lampoon Vacation movies, everyone knows it. Here’s Lindsey Buckingham and Holiday Road…

Only a live version of this song is available on iTunes or as an amazon.com mp3 download.

This was the very beginning for Go West on the music charts.

It never made it into the top 40 – which makes no sense to me, since this is just about as perfect of a song as you can get.

The group (Peter Cox & Richard Drummie) is still together and released the CD futurenow a little over a year ago.

It’s Go West with We Close Our Eyes…

You can buy this song on iTunes or as an amazon.com mp3 download.

From 1973 – 1987, Kool & The Gang had over twenty top 40 hits!

But the only one that had a video with a comet that brought out strange animal behavior in people was their 1984 hit Tonight…

You can buy this song on iTunes or as an amazon.com mp3 download.

An Irene Cara classic today. No, not Flashdance. And not Breakdance (as much as I love that one, I couldn’t find the official video for it).

So this time it’s The Dream (Hold On To Your Dream) from the 1983 movie D.C. Cab (which starred Mr. T, Gary Busey, and Irene Cara too)…

You can buy this song on iTunes.

Something that was a top 10 hit in the 80’s can’t really be called obscure. But I’ve gotten so many requests for this over the past few months that I had to include it.

Remember Pseudo Echo? Chances are, you can only think of one of their hits. That’s really all they had in North America. Later in the season, I’ll post my personal favorite from them. But first, what’s most likely yours.

It’s a remake of a #1 1980 Lipps, Inc hit. Pseudo Echo couldn’t quite make it all the way to #1 with it, but #6 is still impressive. I prefer this version to the original. Let’s go to Funkytown!

You can buy this song on iTunes.

It’s New Order at it’s absolute best here.

The song has been remade a bunch of times, most recently by alternative rock band Anberlin. While I love the recent remake, the original remains my favorite.

From 1987, it’s New Order and True Faith…

You can buy this song on iTunes or as an amazon.com mp3 download.

Today, my wife looked at me and said “I wish we were still in Napa.” I have been so busy since we got back that I waited to let the whole experience sink in before I wrote about it. But now is the time.

We had never been to California, before. The whole idea of a trip out west had always seemed so far away; something on our to-do list, certainly, but always with a “someday…” attached. Then the radio station became involved in the Live In The Vineyard contest, and we were given the opportunity to actually go to Napa ourselves.

Right up until we left, I still thought it couldn’t really happen for us; but then things started to fall into place: my parents were available to come down and watch the kids, a room opened up at the resort where the event was being held, the company actually approved our travel, and then, suddenly, we were going! We left Buffalo on a cold Friday morning, arrived in San Francisco and promptly got lost trying to find the Golden Gate Bridge. But when we crossed over into California wine country, our trip of a lifetime began.

Napa is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It was an explosion of color driving in; all the beautiful colors you’d expect to see in Fall, only double because the leaves on the grape vines were changing too. We had to keep pulling over to take pictures.

Our first day we toured the historic Trefethen Vineyard, where we had some amazing wine (2005 Trefethen Cabernet), and were treated to an intimate acoustic performance by David Gray. Since my Charlottesville days I had always liked his hit Babylon, but I had never heard him live before. We saw a lot of great performers during our trip, but David was my favorite. I stood there, to the left of the stage, completely blown away by his talent, lost in the music. He also appreciated the setting, mentioning the falling leaves, the dappled sunlight, and quoting Yeats. It was magic.

From there we enjoyed a brief tour of historic downtown Napa where we were treated to a wine and cooking demonstration by Greg Cole of the world famous Cole’s Chop House, a wine pairing from Spring Mountain Vineyard, and an opening night cocktail party featuring an amazing assortment of Napa’s best wineries.

But music was center stage both weekend evenings, with two great nights of performances featuring Green River Ordinance, Diane Birch, Uncle Kracker (left), American Idol Kris Allen, our friends from Parachute, and culminating with a fantastic concert by Collective Soul, who rocked the house and reminded us just how many hits they have had since the early 90s.

Wow.

What is truly unique about this event is the ability to get up close and personal with all these artists. Everyone is in a good mood (you can’t not be in a good mood in Napa!) There is so much great food and drink, and between sets you could very well be talking to the next artist on stage, as they mingle with the crowd. It’s very relaxed, and extremely well organized, thanks to Claire and Bobbii, who put the event together, and their LITV team.

But probably my favorite day overall was our final day in Napa. Heather and I were able to drive around a bit and explore. We got up and had breakfast at a great corner deli, drove up a winding mountain road to take in more scenery, explored the town a little more before lunch, and then headed to a private cave tour at Miner Family Vineyard.

A wine cave is the absolute perfect place to store wine as they age in oak barrels. It’s underground, so the temperature is naturally constant, without the need for excessive heating or cooling. It’s a great use of space, since you can plant vines above ground, and store the wine underground on the same plot of land. (And really, is there anything more pleasant than the smell of wine barrels? I think not.)

As we toured the cave, we sampled fresh wine from the barrel, compared different vintages, and enjoyed another intimate concert featuring John Ondrasik (above) of Five For Fighting, truly one of the nicest and most down-to-earth guys you will ever meet.

On our way back to the Silverado, we stopped at Cliff Lede Vineyards where we were lucky enough to try one of the most amazing bottles of wine ever. Ideally during a tasting, you start with something decent, and work your way up in quality. At this particular tasting, it started off great, and got successively greater until we reached the pinnacle of wine-making, the 2006 Moon Sympathy (left). This huge cabernet is one of the top 3 I have ever tasted in my life. It’s truly a stunning wine.

And finally, a group of us were guests at the house of Kat and Rob McDonald, proprietors of Girls In The Vineyard winery. There we met up again with their partner, winemaker Matt Stone, who hosted a wine blending competition. Sorry to say we did not win, but it was fun to pick out the different characteristics of the wines available, and blend them to our taste. Lisa Stalvey of NBC’s Cutting Block whipped up some delicious quesadillas for us all, and we headed back to the hotel, tired, but happy.

A lot has been said in the press about how America “doesn’t make anything anymore.” After spending just a few days in Napa – far too little time, I might add – I could not disagree more. The winemakers here are experts in their field, and make world class wines that meet or exceed anything the world has to offer. It was fascinating to talk to the different winemakers and see how different their approaches were; so many different techniques, hundreds of new ideas and unique applications of technology. It is a world class brain trust all concentrated in one relatively small area.

If you love wine, Napa will blow you away.

And I can’t wait to go back.

–Brian