Potentially Shuffle-able

Groovy Kind Of Love - The Mindbenders
Bend Me, Shape Me - The American Breed
Happy Together - The Turtles

I believe that many of us have a love for something that's somewhat uncool, somewhat embarrassing, a little bit geeky but we love it anyway. A passion for Star Trek. Stuffed animal collections. A love for Danielle Steele novels. Cartoons. Brat Pack movies.

With me it's cheesy pop music of the 60s and 70s - and folks, it can't get cheesy enough for my tastes.

Downtown - Petula Clark
The Rain, The Park & Other Things - The Cowsills
Kicks - Paul Revere and The Raiders

As with many of my quirks, I blame my sister for getting me started. She's seven years older than me and by the time my musical world was ready to expand beyond Jesus Loves Me and whatever was being offered on Captain Kangaroo, she was in early puberty and plunged well into AM radio.

I'm Telling You Now - Freddie & The Dreamers
Five O'Clock World - The Vogues
Dizzy - Tommy Rowe

Some of my early memories surround the bedroom my sister and I shared and her record player. When I was very young she taught me how to put on a 45 or an LP and how to get the needle on the record without scratching it to pieces. While she was at school I was allowed to play her records as long as I didn't break them or get them disorganized. While she was in school learning algebra I was in our bedroom learning what music was immortal (The Beatles and the Stones) and what was more disposable (The Troggs and Tommy James and the Shondells) but loving it all.

Build Me Up, Buttercup - The Foundations
Easy Come, Easy Go - Bobby Sherman
Good Morning, Starshine - Oliver

When I was about eight years old and I had my own bedroom I inherited an old, white plastic tabletop radio from my sister. It was an AM only radio but back then FM hardly exsisted anyway. I remember turning it on and having to wait until the tubes inside warmed up before its scratchy, tinny speaker would give any sound and would be so anxious for it to start playing. For the rest of the day until early evening when the stations would sign off for the day I'd be tuned into the likes of WEAM and WEEL and, a few years later, WPGC in hopes that they'd be playing my current favorites.

Run, Joey, Run - David Geddes
The Night Chicago Died - Paper Lace
I'd Love You To Want Me - Lobo

Once I got to my teenage years my musical tastes had expanded. I loved The Who and The Allman Brothers Band and Led Zeppelin. The first album I ever bought for myself was David Bowie's Hunky Dory. Still I had an affection for cheesy pop. My friends and I would play our transistor radios and sing along and call the radio stations over and over requesting that they play the songs we loved. We bought and swapped 45s and religiously watched American Bandstand every Saturday. We thought of the cute boys we liked while listening to the very sappy song and flailed around to the up tempo ones.

Love Will Keep Us Together - The Captain & Tennille
Magnet and Steel - Walter Egan
Kiss You All Over - Exile

All of this is thirty years and more in the past and my affection for cheesy pop is as fresh as ever. Like loving junk food, it's a hard habit to break and like junk food, not all of it's completely awful. Clever turns of phrases, hook filled choruses and some excellent vocals makes cheesy pop just as enjoyable for me now as it was back then and it has the added advantage of bringing back memories - sometimes long forgotten ones if the song is one I haven't heard in many years. I still listen to Vicki Lawrence sing The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia or No Milk Today from Herman's Hermits and still love every note, every word. There's very little in the way of cheesy pop that I can't stand.

Except Terry Jacks' Seasons In The Sun. It's my cheesy pop Camembert - pop music that stinks like feet.