Filed under: Twisted Tales Gems, Redferns The sun goes on shining, the birds go on singing. Don't they know it's 'The End of the World'? Harold Camping, the 89-year-old mogul of the Family Radio network, and his followers have been touting this weekend as the Biblically ordained date of Armageddon. If that's true, there's only one soundtrack for the festivities -- Skeeter Davis ' rapturous 1963 pop classic 'The End of the World.' Songwriter Sylvia [...]

Some years ago, the brains at Rolling Stone grappled to identify the first ever rock & roll record. In the final face-off, they picked Elvis Presley's debut single That's All Right, a cover of R&B singer Arthur Crudup's song, over Bill Haley's Rock Around The Clock (itself a cover, though the song was actually written for the former western swing singer). It is, of course, a fruitless mission to identify a "first" rock & roll song, because the genre is a jumble of diverse influences that convened, not always simultaneously, in an untidy evolution. One might [...]
This is one of those random songs in my file, an orphan of sorts with no information, and I couldn't find any. I'm thinking it is The Davis Sisters as in Betty Jack Davis and Mary Frances Penick (who changed her name to Skeeter Davis), but that's only a guess. MP3 File yousendit

Some people like to get their holiday shopping done early. I decided to get my holiday blogging done early. So this year I'm posting a bunch of holiday songs all at once--call it a compilation if you like, or think of it as me stopping by to D.J. your Christmas party without having to deal with me drinking up all your eggnog, insulting your guests and throwing up on your sectional. Individual tracks are available for download by right clicking on the links, or you can just download a zip file of the whole thing. 1. [...]

It's the first day of the WFMU Marathon: Our once-a-year orgy of prizes, stunts, and top-shelf radio that aims to keep WFMU alive and kickin' for the next twelve months! Check the blog every morning from now until March 18th for MP3s from the DJ premiums that will be available that day. With enough pledges, we'll be able to bring you yet another year of Freeform Radio done up in the flavor you so desperately crave, so please make a pledge after sampling some of today's wares. Here are sample MP3s [...]